The kids and I went to Bigfork for a visit with Grandma Celestia and Grandpa Jasper, last weekend. We never go with any sort of schedule or plan except to visit lots, eat great food, sleep late and often, play with the kids next door. This summer was a little different, though, because the boys bought boats.
I mean....the boys bought boats!!!
(Yes, very exciting and SHOULD have multiple exclamation points!)
They wanted to share the boats and this was the weekend to do it. It reminded me a little of Thanksgiving, except with nice weather and a more laid-back menu. Think beef shish kabobs instead of turkey and swimming suits instead of wool sweaters.
Now,
the boats are just as different as can be, just like the brothers.
Frank on the left, Ivan on the right
They were laughing because I sort of yelled at them and they think it's funny.
(It's NOT funny.)
First, Frank would look over his shoulder....
Then, Ivan would look over HIS shoulder....
I finally lost patience and told them that it would make a much better picture if they'd BOTH turn around at the same time!
Now then.
Frank bought a sail boat.
This is Part I.
She's a Thistle, a very fast little boat that's used for racing, mostly. I was looking up the specs on the Thistle class boat and found this:
Thistle hulls are relatively light for their size; they have no decking or spray protection, which saves weight. The sail plan is large for a boat of this size, consisting of a marconi rigwith a main, jib, and symmetrical spinnaker. The sail plan is larger for the boat’s weight than in many other dinghies, which makes Thistles perform extremely well in light wind. Their hulls have wide, rounded bottoms, allowing the boats to plane in winds as low as 10 knots. It is not uncommon to see thistles efficiently making their way, while other dinghys of similar design are becalmed.
Thistles are generally raced with a three person crew: a skipper, a middle, and a forward person. The optimal total crew weight is generally 450 lb to 480 lb (US) depending on wind. The crew weight, however, is generally not the deciding factor in determining the outcome of the races. In fact, class rules do not limit crew weight. In all but the strongest winds, an experienced two person crew can manage the boat.
You'll note that they do well in extremely light wind and an experienced two person crew can manage the boat.
You can imagine, then, what she would do in a pretty good wind with a two person crew that was made up of an experienced sailor and a sea-dumb prairie girl who'd never been sailing in her life.
Very exciting! And not necessarily in a good way...
But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Here she is!
Meet "Whisper Go!"...
Well, here she is on the trailer...it's not her best angle.
Did you notice her name?
I named her! My first colt was named Whisper Go and I've always wanted to use it again. When Frank was trying to find a name, he was thinking something Scottish because of her heritage but names like Nairna and Adaire just didn't seem to work. I sent him the name, it stuck, and it's perfect...with only a whisper of wind, she'll really go.
Frank is raising the mast.
I wasn't helping; as you can tell, I was doing a photo documentary on the project.
It didn't really look all that stable to me...and it seemed to lean, which was alarming until we realized the boat was not level on the trailer.
I also was happy to see the cables staying in place.
Frank told me all the proper names for the cables, lines, and parts of the boat, but I'm afraid I was not very good at remembering. Mostly because I was scared to death on the first outing...
I DID learn the terms "tack" and "jib". I was bad with the tacking, but better at it when we were just using the jib.
(I know...it's like Norwegian or something, isn't it?)
I like the word "spinnaker" but if we had used it, I would've been using the word, "capsize" or more likely, "#$&^%".
And here we are...sailing on the Flathead! Oh, my goodness, it's a beautiful way to cross a lake!
We had good wind. A little TOO good.
Whisper Go! sizzled across the water, taking the waves almost casually. I was scared to death. Turns out, Frank was nervous, too, especially when we tried to "tack" and nearly tipped over. (Mostly because I was no help at all.)
Sails are just like wings...
It got rougher, after this.
Frank took Whisper Go! and her shaky crew to the dock, took off the boom and mainsail, then we went out again with just the jib sail.
Perfect.
I went from being terrified to being enchanted...
Sailing is very active; always moving, shifting, adjusting, watching. On those waves, it felt very similar to riding a horse, which sounds strange, but it had that same sort of balance and rhythm going. When I mentioned this to Frank, he said that he'd always felt the boat was almost alive. I know I felt very alive while we were out on the water and love that little boat for behaving so that I could enjoy the ride on the last time out that morning.
In the article above, you'll see that the Thistles have no spray protection.
I can vouch for that.
I was sitting at the front and was soaked by the time we came in!
We were home by lunch time, safe and sound, ready for
Part II
(Coming soon!)
