That’s what Chesapeake Bay log canoe racing has become. It used to be all working class it middle class owners racing their own boats but now very few are still owned by people like that and the rest of the fleet is well funded yachties.
I have crewed on them. The crew might be poor, but no poor or middle class person can fund racing one now. Maintaining a century old wooden racing boat is not a task for the people that have to ask “how much”.
Among other things, you have to have a pretty substantial chase boat for these things.For those who have no idea why a canoe is expensive, here are some shots I took playing photo boat:
It feels like this thread has been downgraded from “Epic Small Boat Voyages” to yachty stories that seemed epic when retold at the club bar later.
3 Likes
If you spend a ton of money to win a log canoe race what have you actually accomplished? Besides proving you have more money than you have productive ways to spend it or more ego than brains you also show an embarrassing lack of class.
That’s not true, there are still a few regular Joe owners.
It must be a group funded operation then, just running the chase boat is a $$$ operation and you HAVE to have a substantial boat, the old Whaler isn’t even close to being able to do the job.
Your wish is my command:
Web Chiles sailed around the world in these:
It took two, the first boat was confiscated.
After becoming damaged in the Red Sea the boat was seized by the [Saudi Arabian]government and Chiles was arrested on suspicion of being a spy. After being released Chiles had a new Lugger, Chiddiock II , shipped to him in Egypt and he restarted the voyage.
A family member owns one and as far as I’m aware it’s not a group funded operation. He does most of the work himself and some of his regular crew volunteers to help.
Try reading “Experiment in Survival” by George Sigler. He “sails” a life raft from California to Hawaii with no water, in sixty days, as a test for his survival kit and indirectly for the US Navy.
1 Like
The anthology “Rough Water” has a lot of amazing stories. Mostly non-fiction.
76 days adrift, don’t recall author/ one of those asian guys who was out there a long time was maybe classed as a fraud.
Many of the true survival stories have taken place in the arctic, most are not recorded.
Not on water but ““we die alone”” is epic.
After seeing this I got the book, enjoyed it very much. Spent some time in the Philippines and know the area he sailed thru including now Indonesia. That was one determined man. While others were just accepting their fate he made a run for it. That he made it past the Moros and the Japanese is amazing. Got to wonder what happened to his Moro crew later.
1 Like
76 days adrift … verified true story not to be confused with my latter remark.
tengineer1, “the sea was kind” is the name of Alberts’ book. Steven Callahan is the guy who washed up in i think florida after 76 days … his description of the tuna who swam to him and turned belly up so he could stab it was memorable as he was so weak he could hardly hold his arm up.
Since we kind of got onto WW II stories, one of my favorites is a flying boat story. A China Clipper in the Pacific when WW II broke out just kept going west maintaining radio silence the entire way around the planet to New York and no one knew they were still alive until they called LaGuardia for landing instructions. I would love to find a detailed account of where and how they got gas and provisions. What a trip that must have been!
2 Likes
Great you mentioned Webb Chiles.
For me an epic small boat journey necessarily means it wasn’t willingly entered into. Lifeboat and life raft journeys count. Yacht voyages don’t . But I make an exception for Webb Chiles.
Sure, his Drascomble Lugger was technically a yacht, but it was only a 18’ open boat. No radios, GPS, no emails. No motor, no deck, no cabin. Think of it: no dry place to sleep for months. Navigation by sextant and chart.
Several times in bad weather his boat capsized and he was tossed into the sea. He would just climb back in and keep going. And mind you, there was no pay or prize for any of this.
Few people would have his endurance for plain, old-fashioned physical and mental suffering. And no EPIRB, hence no hope of rescue.
He hopped from San Diego to Hawaii, then through the South Pacific. He did fly back to the States from an island to recuperate, but then resumed the voyage. From there he sailed through the Indian Ocean
His downfall was our “ally” Saudi Arabia. He damaged his rudder and was forced to land on SA soil and was scooped up by border guards. Even though he had his passport, he was locked up for 10 days in SA jails, suspected of being a spy. He was treated poorly. Afterwards he was forced to fly back to the U.S. without his boat which he never saw again.
A small note: he did not quite sail all way around the world. From Wikipedia:
…Chiles had a new Lugger, Chiddiock II , shipped to him in Egypt. This he sailed south to cross his previous track and then through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea out into the Atlantic to La Palma in the Canary Islands. Leaving the boat briefly to visit Tenerife, he returned to find that she had capsized at her mooring in a storm. Finding that he had lost a lot of gear, Chiles decided to end his attempt at circumnavigating in an open boat.
(END)
Ragnar Thorseth sailed around the world in an open boat, the Saga Siglar. A replica of a viking trading boat (Knarr):
I always love these replica voyages. I did notice the article said the boat sailed across the Atlantic, not around the world.
There could be a separate thread, Famous Replica Voyages. KonTiki, etc. But my purest view of “epic" means there should be no safety net involved.
Survival suits, life rafts, radios GPS and EPIRBs, are an invisible umbilical cord. The crew is never really alone, because the outside world stands-by, ready to help. Hence, there is no “epic”, IMO.