Norwegian Steam: Noon Report -- Kauai

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 23

During the night the wind continued to build until it is now twenty to twenty-five knots from the north-northwest. We are reaching on the port tack, with storm jib and double reefed main. With ten foot waves on the beam, this is rather uncomfortable, but at least we are moving towards our destination at a quick pace.

I cannot praise the performance of my crew, Jon and Jean, enough. In the afternoon, we did a flawless sail change from yankee down to staysail and at daybreak we changed from staysail down to storm jib. Jean is the foredeck hand, Jon works at the mast and I am, quite fittingly, the afterguard. This is not easy, with the wind blowing twenty-five knots and short steep beam seas.

Yesterday was cold and gray, but today we have clear, sunny skies. We haven't had a day like this for awhile, and it is very welcome. On his early watch, Jon was visited by dolphins.

At UTC 2200, August 4, 2012, we are at 48 24.646 N, 129 14.179 W. Our day's run was 129 miles and we are now 188 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.