Norwegian Steam: Noon Report -- Kauai

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 16

We are on the home stretch now! Today we crossed 45 degrees north, which appears to me to be the northern extent of the high, most of the time. Now we are headed directly toward Cape Flattery. Today was also a special day in that we had the longest day's run so far in this passage and now we have less than 1000 miles to go. The weather was cold and miserable, however, with the exception of a couple of hours in the middle of the afternoon.

Early in the afternoon we sailed wing-on-wing, then the wind veered more to the north and we switched to close reaching on the port tack, single-reefed main and light yankee.

At UTC 2200, July 28, 2012, we are at 45 25.986 N, 148 12.793 W. Our day's run was 121 miles. We are 985 miles from Neah Bay.

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Norwegian Steam, the vessel

Norwegian Steam is the name of our 35' sailboat. She was designed by Ted Brewer. About 40 hulls were constructed by Miller Marine on Bainbridge Island, Washington between 1976 and the early 1980s. It is rumored that additional hulls were constructed in eastern Canada. Because many of these boats were completed by owners, there is a very great diversity in the fleet. To learn more about the basic design, you can find information about Ted's Jason design on his web site.

NS was completed by Alan with the help of friends, some of them professionals, over many years. She has been sailing since 2001. She differs from most (perhaps all) other instances of the Jason design in that her mast is 6 feet taller and she is rigged as a racing cutter, with large overlapping staysail. This rig design was inspired by the work of John Illingworth, the great English yacht designer and sailboat racer.

Norwegian Steam, the name

The phrase, Norwegian steam, may originally have been somewhat pejorative. When a vessel was powered by sails or by oars instead of by a steam or diesel engine, it was said to be powered by "Norwegian steam", the implication being that the Norwegians were so poor they could not afford engines for their boats. As time passed, the Norwegians themselves adopted the phrase to indicate a "can-do" attitude or doing whatever it takes to get the job done, even with limited resources or under adverse circumstances.

During the great era of America's Cup racing in J-Class yachts, the term took on a slightly different meaning. Many of the American defender boats had Norwegian crews and thus were said to be powered by Norwegian steam. A website has been dedicated to this bit of history.