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Does anyone know what this is? While it's probably a one-off and probably home-built, maybe someone knows about it. Evidently this picture was taken in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island B.C...
I kinda like the look of those black-painted rails...and black sails. And black tire. It actually reminds me of the boat "Jester" that Blondie Hasler built, with a Folkboat hull with a cabin of his own design and a junk (as in Chinese, not yard) rig:
That is quite the boat. I would love to see the interior of that thing and find out about its adventures. Sailboats make interesting canvases for some interesting people.
Sailboats make interesting canvases for some interesting people.
My sentiments exactly, and like you, I'd love to find out the story of this craft. Obviously someone had one hell of a dream but more than that, they made it happen. This isn't everyone's boat, sure, but not all of us need the ubiquitous "sailboat with white hull and white sails" that the USCG always seems to be looking for.
I found another reference and picture on the web. The page says this craft, the "Nootka Rose", is a 29 footer:
It all started maybe a year or so ago, in a little Canadian fishing town near Vancouver. The America's Cup races had been conducted some time before, and videotape technology had finally reached their home port, so a number of noted powers in the community assembled in a local refreshatorium to watch some videos on the town's only (black and white) TV set, and scrutinize the state of sailboat racing and race boats. Homer (nickname Bud) and his wife Rose, of Rosebud's Dry Cleaning and Typewriter Repair, enthusiastically presented their view that Canada had been underrepresented in recent America's Cup racing. Some others chimed in that the effort to develop new hull and sail technologies was just too expensive for most Canadian corporations; and when the discussion ended, Bud and Rose had agreed to finance an effort their own selves.
They first needed a yacht club to champion the effort, and thus was born the Chowder & Sailing Club of Western Canada. Things had to be done kind of inexpensively, so they got a local carpenter to draw up some designs on the back of a few napkins. Inadvertently, in the excitement of the moment, the inevitable spillage of good beer, and the shuffle of paperwork, two of the napkins got stuck together, with one design upside down and on top of the other; and the result sort of seemed to work, or close enough. Somebody pinched Roxanne, the cocktail waitress, as she passed by, and she spilled a few drops of beer on the creation, and the carpenter quickly drew portholes in where they hit, and claimed they were his idea. All agreed the boat would be named after Rose, so Bud would have to pay for the next round of beer.
The matter of sails posed a challenge. While most thought a good flannel oughta do, a few were convinced that more novel approaches were needed, so everyone went home to scout around the cabin and garage to see what ideas they could come up with. Horace, the sign painter, had recently graced his house with indoor plumbing, including a shower, which you wouldn't know by being around him. But that's why it was Horace who came up with the winningest idea of sails made of shower curtain panels in festive decorator colors.
What you're looking at in those photos is our good friend Canada's stealth entry into the next America's Cup. And I hope they win, eh.
