HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: stefan@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stefan Michalowski)
Subject: Re: Wind - the movie
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 18:14:06 GMT

In article <2670126@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM> bsmith@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Brian Smith) writes:
>Someone said (Iforget who, and in which notes group) that the film
>also featured a gratuitous Puccini aria.  Anybody know which one?
>Might be worth going just for that!
>

As someone has already pointed out, it's Cio Cio San's Death
Scene from Madama [sic] Butterfly. The stupid and hateful
movie is not worth seeing just to hear this beautiful music 
- get a good recording instead, for example, with Renata
Tebaldi or Mirella Freni.

The shameless morons who wrote "Wind" stole one of the main characters
(the mysterious boat designer) from the movie "Diva". I guess they
figured that, as long as they were at it, they might as well swipe an
opera aria too.

I was down at the San Francisco Marina the other day, trying to
bum a ride on a Santa Cruz 70. Having failed, I walked over to
City Yachts to drool over an International 11 Meter. The nice
man knew right away that I wasn't there to drop the odd $40,000
so we chatted about the movie. Turns out that a friend of his,
sailing reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, was involved
in the final effort to save the script. The movie was to have been
released in time for the Cup (in fact, the Japanese investors 
insisted on it in some complicated legal way) but the thing was so 
hopeless that they struggled with it for several more months. They
needn't have bothered.

Stefan
From: thatchh@hplsla.hp.com (Thatch Harvey)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Houseboating on Lake Powell
Date: 24 Sep 92 18:47:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: hplsla.6140073
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA




    I agree with everything Dave Miller said. I have been there twice for a
week at a time. It was wonderful. I went in June one year and Sept. another.
I have a friend who went in mid-summer one year and got cooked! The temp.
was over 100 every day. Some people can tolerate that better than others.
We rented two tagalong runabouts for 10 adults and were very glad we did.
Make sure at least one person is fairly competent at driving a boat, and
a little navigating skill can come in handy as well. It is a pretty remote
area, so a little safety preparation ahead of time is a good idea. (I must
be getting old!)

                          Thatch Harvey
From: ercn72@festival.ed.ac.uk (R.J.Hare)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Cold-Molded hulls
Date: 29 Sep 92 07:52:50 GMT

Strong, if laid up properly (ie: several layers with grain going in different
directions).
Beautiful to look at!
Expensive!

Roger Hare.
From: kaufmanj@ucs.orst.edu (John Kaufman)
Subject: deciphering time codes
Organization: University Computing Services - OSU
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 13:58:30 GMT

 Next month I will be doing some cruising in the Sea of Cortez. I am a novice
at celestial navigation, and plan to practice, practice, practice during my
time there. Obviously I need to synchronize my watch to precise GMT. Months
ago someone on the net posted a telephone number for time, as kept by the
Naval Observatory. I have called this number, and have gotten a series of
tonal beeps which I cannot decipher to set my watch. Can someone explain to
me how to decrypt these tones?

Is there another source available to obtain accurate time? Is the local time
supplied over the telephone accurate enough for this purpose? The Naval
sciences department on campus here can't seem to answer my questions.

Thanks!

John Kaufman

                                    I am what I am and thats all that I am
                                                -Popeye the Sailor


Newsgroups: rec.boats
From: rrusk@ssd.csd.harris.com (Bob Rusk)
Subject: Re: how common is overhea
Reply-To: rrusk@ssd.csd.harris.com
Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division
Distribution: rec
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 16:13:12 GMT
	<RRUSK.92Oct6110448@rcx1.ssd.csd.harris.com>

On Tue, 6 Oct 1992 16:04:48 GMT, I wrote:

>While it is well known among mechanics and boatbuilders that engine alarms
>are a GOOD THING (tm), it is (or was, c.a. 1987) indeed unusual to find
>one on a boat, and I would doubt that one could make much of a case
>against the boat builder for not having provided one.

I should have mentioned again in this paragraph that I am referring here
to small-to-medium-sized, gasoline inboard powered boats.  An alarm is
much more frequently found on larger boats, and on diesel-powered boats.
And, as I mentioned earlier in the post, many larger, late-model outboards
come with a trouble-prone overheat sensor connected to an alarm.

--
--
 Bob Rusk
 rrusk@ssd.csd.harris.com
 My thoughts, probably not Harris'.
From: tarkkone@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lauri Tarkkonen)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Loud Boats (Was: Re: Novice boaters)
Keywords: Sails, mufflers, wetsuits, whipped cream, fire trucks...
Date: 28 Sep 92 20:07:54 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In <1992Sep28.171103.11801@cs.brown.edu> jfh@cs.brown.edu (John F. Hughes) writes:

>   Actually, this raises an intersting question: we have one story of a
>sailboat under power damaging someone at a marina. Has anyone got any stories 
>of sailboats under sail damaging them at marinas or moorings? Of course, there
>are likely to be fewer of these, because so few people sail around moorings
>these days, but I'm interested to see if there are *any*. If not, then
>there's some (not very conclusive) evidence that it's not such a risky
>business after all.

>-John

I know of several incidences (minor and moderate), where a sailboat has
hit another boat while entering a marina berth under motor. This can
af course be atributed to the fact that today more boats have engines and
the sailors use them more often, but very often these incidences are due
to failure in engine, transmission or fouling the propeller. But the rest
of the accidents are due bad manouvers and miscalculations. 

I believe that people who have the habit of manouvering under sail calculate
their manouver and plan them more throughoutly than people who have engines.
When you are under sail, you know that you have only one chance to make
your manouver. You do not have any brakes. When you drop your sails you
do not have anything than the momentum of your speed to get into the berth
and if you have too much of it you are again in trouble. 

The boat I sail is the second one to have an engine. When I got the first
boat with the engine, it took me more than two seasons to gain trust in 
the thing and practice the manouvers so that I had the same confidence
in mounvering with the engine as I had in manouvering under sail. I still
have the habit to plan my manouvers so that I could do them without engine.
Often I actually manouver without the engine, although I have the engine
running, loading batteries, but I have it to give a little bush or brake
if the need arises.  To be able to handle the boat under sail in tight
corners is very important.  Actually only once have it happened that
the transmission failed and I had dropped the sail while coming in in
moderate hard wind. I hoisted the main quickly and made a nearly perfect
entry with the sail. If I had not had enough practice with it, I might 
have caused some damage to some other boats and my own.

If you keep your rig in first class conditions, it is very reliable and
if you know how to use it, it might keep you out of trouble. If there would
be any driving licences for sailing wessels, I would consider as one essen-
tial skill required for the licence, ability to manouver the boat under
sail alone.

- Lauri Tarkkonen
Newsgroups: rec.boats
From: jfh@cs.brown.edu (John F. Hughes)
Subject: Re: Sailing into a slip
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 13:06:10 GMT

In article <SAMSON.92Oct6081315@ptd475a.erim.org> samson@ptd475a.erim.org (Joseph Samson) writes:
>
>
>	|	|    |
>	|	|    v Wind
>	| DOCK  |
>	|	|
>	________
>
>	      ^
>	      |
>	      \_____________ Path of boat	
>

<Description of slightly-too-fast approach to the dock deleted>

In a Tornado, you cannot ease out the main to the point where it is
perpendicular to the mast. The boom hits the shrouds (which are swept back).
This means that a Tornado, secured on one side to the end of a dock like 
the one above, has wind in its main, and is trying to MOVE. That makes a 
"slide up alongside, easing the sails" approach pretty worthless. The usual
tactic is to follow the "path of boat" described above. The problem is that
when you get to the dock, you are sitting about 18 feet from your bows, and you
need to get onto the dock to secrure things. The maneuver goes like this: sail
along on a beam reach, sails eased right out, on a line parallel to the end of
the dock, about 40 feet off. Turn sharply to windward, and head straight for
the dock. Wiggle tillers as appropriate to slow down. When you're about 6 feet
from the dock, drop the tiller and run forward, grabbing your painter (a piece
of 1/8" nylon line, secured to one of the forward chainplates, led aft, and
tucked under something on the main beam for safekeeping) as you go, and dance
out onto the narrow tip of the hull, stepping ashore with just enough force to
push the bows back and prevent them from ramming the dock. 
   Of course, this is a little easier if you have two people aboard. Important
trick: don't send the crew forward before you make the turn! It makes the bows
dig in and refuse to turn easily, and the attempted turn may dislodge the crew.

   Why not drop sails on the way in? Because the Tornado has an amazing main
halyard: basically the halyard leads to a ring which has a shackle beneath it
that attaches to the sail. You hoist as might be expected, and the ring hooks
over a little prong that sticks out aft at the masthead. You release the
tension on the halyard, and your sail stays up. How do you get it down? Pull
really hard on the halyard, lifting up the ring, and then rotate the mast about
80 degrees (Tornado masts rotate on a ball at their step). This sometimes moves
the prong out of the ring, allowing you to drop the sail. Sometimes it doesn't,
and you get to try again. And again... Not something you'd like to count on in
a critical moment. You *can* drop the main far away, in open water, and then
sail in under jib alone. But you can't drop the jib easily, either. Did I
mention the zipper luff on the jib? It's not a roller, it's not hanked
on---it's *zipped* around the forestay. What a loony design! But it *does* 
give a smooth entry for the sail. 

-John
From: donr@hpcvcdo.cv.hp.com (Don Reid)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Sailing into a slip
Date: 5 Oct 92 16:56:10 GMT
Article-I.D.: hpcvca.1992Oct5.165610.15194
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA

This summer I watched a member of our club teaching his adult daughter how
to bring their thistle (a 19' 500Lb boat) into the dock.  The winds were
15 kn with gusts to 20.  We were downwind of a large hill so the shifts 
were significant.

He had to come into the dock area on a reach which meant planing pretty fast.
He would turn the boat sharply upwind and backwind the main by pushing the
boom out.  He repeatedly brought the boat to a compleat stop within 6 inches
of the dock.  After an hour or so, the daughter could do almost as well.

I have seen many boaters with engines who could not control their boats
anywhere near this closely.
From: karina@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Karina Haavik)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: wooden boat finishes (a big can of worms)
Date: 1 Oct 92 00:57:23 GMT
Organization: Society of Hedonistic Otters

Hello all.  I have a couple of questions that will probably let everyone
air some of their favorite prejudices.
 
Question One:
-------------
I have a 16' foot cedar boat which was fibreglassed by the previous owner.
Now it has a leak and I'm removing all that fibreglass to get at it.  Sanding 
the f.g. off takes FOREVER.  The f.g. is loose in places and could be pulled 
with a paintscraper, but it's still bonded in many areas and then the pulling 
takes part of the wood and puts a ding in the hull.  Someone suggested trying 
a heat gun to loosen the f.g., but I'm not sure that would be very good for 
the wood.  If anyone has any advice on how to speed this up, I would LOVE 
to hear it.  I've got it 1/4 stripped and it's almost winter.

Question Two:
-------------
What is the best hull treatment?  In terms of bottom paint, I'm looking at the
least toxic because it lives on a trailer and sails in northern waters.  But
I am confused about the amount of protection from rot that the paint gives 
the wood.  Does it help keep the water out of the wood?  Or is the wood's
only protection it's natural oils?  Several of the scoffers at the club have
said I should epoxy the whole hull before painting it.  If someone can prove
that this is important, I'll do it.  I don't want my boat to rot next year. 
But wooden boats have been around for centuries without epoxy, and I try to
limit the number of chemicals I introduce into the marine environment.  This
is a boat about 35 years old, with wood in good condition.  I want what's
best for her and the environment both, preferably with little enough work 
that I can sail next season.  :-)

Comments, anyone?

Karina
From: barney@ut-emx.uucp (Barney C. McCartney)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Launch Ramp Funnies
Keywords: snake shotgun
Date: 28 Sep 92 21:36:45 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

On Lake Travis near Austin, Texas, a guy is ready to launch his powerboat.
He's unstrapping it from the trailer when he discovers a large snake in a
compartment near the transom.  He yells and jumps back and others gather
round to see and discuss the problem.

Soon a deputy sheriff offers to help:  he goes to his car and returns with ...

       a 12-gauge pump shortgun

He climbs on the trailer, ready to blast that snake the hell outta there.

Much yelling and scrambling.  Boat was saved from a severe shotgun wound
by an amateur herpetologist who stopped the deputy in time and calmly
extracted a large bullsnake.

Barney McCartney
barney@emx.cc.utexas.edu
From: siegrist@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Frank Siegrist)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Tristan Jones at Annapolis Boat Show?
Date: 2 Oct 92 10:57:02 GMT
Reply-To: siegrist@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Frank Siegrist)
Distribution: na
Organization: Carderock Division, NSWC, Bethesda, MD

I saw in an article in the latest Coastal Cruising that Tristan Jones
is traveling up the ICW right now with plans to arrive in Annapolis
by October 8th, which happens to be the start day for the Annapolis
Sail Boat Show.  Does anyone know if he plans to be there?  According
to the article his trip is related to his foundation for handicaped
kids.

				   Frank
From: roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Step/Unstep mast?
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:16:45 GMT
Organization: New York University, School of Medicine

tomb@serum.kodak.com writes:
> It seems to me that a 24' boat with a ~30' mast outta be managable.

	Here's what we do on a J/24 (I've personally done it a couple
of times).  Some guy in our fleet has a broken J/24 mast we use for a
gin pole; it's broken off at the hounds, so it's maybe 6 feet shorter
than a full mast.  Since it's lacking all of the normal hardware on a
mast (no spreaders, no shrouds, no internal halyards, etc), it's quite
light; a single person can stand it up on end without much trouble.

	We attach to the top of it a block on a bail and pass a line
through it to be a halyard (external).  Then we attach 3 other lines,
one to act as a forestay, two to act as shrouds.  Then we stand it up
on end on the deck, just in front of the partners (for those of you
familiar with J/24 decklayouts, there is a wooden base on the gin pole
with a cutout in it which fits over the spin pole downhaul turning
block to keep the base from sliding around on the deck).  WIth
somebody holding the gin pole vertical, somebody else attaches the gin
pole forestay to the bow cleat and the gin pole shrouds to some handy
fixing point.  Actually, what you really want to do is run the shrouds
through some turning blocks (shackled onto the aft stanchion base,
perhaps) and then to the primary winches, so you can crank lots of
tension into them (and, by propogation, into the forestay).

	You now tie a loop of line around your mast underneath the
spreaders, tie the gin pole halyard to the loop, and tie another line
to the loop so you can pull it back down later.  You then just crank
up on the halyard pulling the mast up.  You should be able to get the
spreaders (which are supporting the weight of the mast) up high enough
to drop the mast butt into the partners.  While you're still holding
tension on the halyard, you then get some of the mast's standing
rigging attached (the two uppers and the forestay should be enough)
and tensioned sufficiently to hold the mast up and then you can take
the gin pole down.  You need to attach the uppers first, since if you
attach the lowers, you won't be able to get the loop of line going
around the mast down, since it's outside the lowers and inside the
uppers.

	This probably doesn't really make any sense until you see it
done, but once you do, it should become obvious what's going on and
you should be able to modify the procedure for your own boat.  The
bottom line, however, is that for a 24 foot boat with a 30 foot mast
(especially a deck-stepped mast, if that's what you have), you should
be able to step and unstep your mast without help from the yard.
From: dwl@watson.ibm.com (David W. Levine)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Sailing into a slip
Date: 5 Oct 92 18:51:24 GMT
Reply-To: dwl@watson.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM

Lighter boats are eaiser to stop, but even big boats come to a pretty good
stop if you backwind properly. We routinely pick up moorings under sail
on Recursion, a NY-36, and try to judge the approach so that we're just a
touch fast and backwind if we have to. Works like a charm. It's my prefered
approach, if I've got someone how I trust to do the backwind. On my parent's
P-34, the drill was to take the main halyard in one hand and stand by
the boom to
back, then drop the main. Worked like a charm. Backwinding is also fairly 
forgiving. Down in the BVI I picked up a mooring that way the second day out,
on a 43 footer, with no trouble at all. Just shoot head to wind, lined up
properly on the pickup pennant and back hard on the main, if you're slowing
to fast, let the main luff for a second, then back again.

Engine on, in neutural, in all cases. No sense in not having the engine ready
if you need it,

David W. Levine --  dwl@watson.ibm.com  -- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
                   -- My Opinions, IBM's hardware. -- 
"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your
aim" - George Santayana
From: tarkkone@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lauri Tarkkonen)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Sailing into a slip
Keywords: Sails
Date: 28 Sep 92 21:40:51 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In <1992Sep28.193911.23016@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> kellerd@ilex.lle.rochester.edu (David E. Keller) writes:


>Yes, engines fail.  I try not to depend on mine by creeping into slips rather
>than relying on a last second hard reverse tactic.  But I have seen extremely
>shifty winds among the pilings a hundred more times than I have heard of
>engines failing while maneuvering around a harbor.

I do not believe that the engine failure is the most common reason for
accidents in docking. Most accidents are due to the human miscalculation.
Here I must say that I have seem more miscalculations on unpreparednes
while docking under motor than under sail. Most people coming to a marina
unders sail know for sure, that it must be done properly that they have only
one chance, while people coming under engine believe that the engine will
baill them out if something unexpected happens.

>The best place to practice is around a practice buoy you set rather than around
>other people's property.

I fully agree, the more practice the better.

>I do not know what is "proper" but I do know what is practical.

Practical is something you know how to do. :-). When I bought my first
sailboat with an engine, I had more skills and more confidence in manouvering
under sail. It took me more than two seasons to learn to use the engine so
that I had full confidence in it.

>These comments were not intended to fan the flames already rampant.  I just
>do not want to see a lot of people trying to prove themselves good sailors by
>docking under sail in conjested harbors.

As I said I have seen more accidents with sailboats docking under motor than 
sail. 

>Dave

- Lauri Tarkkonen
Newsgroups: rec.boats
From: legacy@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (wayne.m.simpson)
Subject: Re: What about someone like Julia? (was: "Maiden Voyage")
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 18:51:37 GMT
Summary: She doesn't make good copy

In article <1992Oct1.024753.16457@news.clarkson.edu> billp@voyager.chm.clarkson.edu (Bill Plunkett) writes:
>
>Yes, I was rooting for Tanya as I read the installments in Cruising
>World, but I agree with the Wayne's opening statement too:  She set
>off largely unprepared, taking an "I'll worry about it later" attitude
>toward a number of important things.  So how come she's a heroine when
>someone like Julia Hazel goes largely unnoticed?  Julia is an
>Australian woman who built her own sloop (Jeshan) and has been sailing

   Don't forget that part of the deal Tania's father made with her was
that he would provide the boat, but she would have to earn the money
to sail it around. She would do this by writing articles for magazines,
appearing a a guest on the Today Show, etc. It stands to reason then that
Tania and her Dad spent a certain amount of time promoting the voyage
so that she would have a market for the articles.
   Besides, Julia Hazel just isn't sensational copy for the press. What
would the headlines say? "Young, Highly Qualified Woman Sails Around the
World in Custom Steel Sloop She Built Herself"? Wher's the titillation in
that? They billed Tania as "Schoolgirl Sets Off on Dangerous Round the
World Voyage". Much better copy for the press.
   I'm sure a lot has to do with the fact that Tania is from the NY
Area, where there is a lot of media looking for stories. For all we
know, Julia Hazel may be a household word in Australia, and we just
don't know about it.

   As I mentioned before, there is a kid (actually, he must be 20 now)
named Dan Jelsema who left in early 1989 as a 16 year old. There were
a couple of articles in Cruising World in November and December of 1991.
At last word, he had gotten as far as New Zealand in a 30' Seawind Ketch.
But you hear very little about him because it was never his intent to be
an author or to promote his voyage.

Wayne Simpson (no fancy .sig this time)
Newsgroups: rec.boats