Project on Hold for Summer

We received an email from David Palmer wondering what happened with our projects. Well, summer came along really fast after April 1st. The boats are sitting and waiting for us to pick up our tools again in September when sailboat racing, swimming, golfing, beekeeping, child-rearing, gardening, and goofing-off have slowed somewhat. Although, that child-rearing thing never lets up...

Until then we will continue to sail optis in our dreams.

Optimist News:

From the series Here Come the Optis, by Curt Crain as shown in Nicholas Hayes web page "Saving Sailing"

 Nicholas Hayes book Saving Sailing was a very good read. He also has a web page devoted to the subject. In one of his articles titled, "Opti Haters" he mentions the merits of the Optimists, and he drew some comments, both positive and negative that are interesting to read.

"I am admittedly hard-pressed to say that there are flaws with prams. In fact, I have a hard time criticizing anything that uses foils to make motion from wind. And they’re classically cute" - Nick Hayes

"Why do we have kids learning on a 50 year old platform? Just imagine if you decided to have your kids learn downhill skiing on a pair of 1960 vintage skis." - Reply from Captn Ron

Excerpt from "Opti Haters"
Nicholas Hayes, July 12, 2012
In: http://savingsailing.com/

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Larry Huntington his 1895 scow Question and the first Seawanhaka Cup competition

Ive bracketed the 1890s in several posts tracing the history of the development of the racing scow. In 1890, at the beginning of the decade, Thomas Clapham introduced the first racing scow, Bouncer. At the end of the 1890s, Thomas Day and The Rudder magazine introduced the scow to the workingman sailor, with the publication of easy-build scow plans; first the 16 Lark cat-rigged scow designed by C.G. Davis in 1898 and, shortly after, the Swallow, a 24 main and jib scow designed by C.M. Mower and Larry Huntington. In 1895, in the middle of this decade, the first International Seawanhaka Cup commenced competition and over the next ten years, in this yearly pressure cooker of constant design development to win the cup, this odd-ball type, this "barn door" of a boat, dominated the racing and forever carved out a niche in the yachting scene that flourishes up to the present day.

In 1895, Larry Huntington, a twenty eight year old boatbuilder out of New Rochelle, New York, would enter his simple, crude-looking scow Question, in the trials for the U.S. contender to race Britain in the first competition for the Seawanhaka Cup . Although Huntington didnt win (W.P. Stephens in his conventional centerboard design Ethelwynn would win the trials and then successfully defeat Englishman William Brand racing another heavier, conventional centerboarder, Spruce IV to secure the first Cup win for the U.S.), Huntington demonstrated, during the 1895 season and during the Seawanhaka trials, that the scow was dominant in any breeze. Huntington re-emphasized what Thomas Clapham had proved five years earlier with his Bouncer, the scow was an ingenious rule-beater racing under a Seawanhaka Rule that penalized waterline length.

In a controversial move, Larry Huntington, with his brother Lev steering, shadow raced Question against Ethelwynn and Spruce IV in race four of the Seawanhaka Cup. There was a good breeze and Question handily out-distanced both of the actual competitors in the cup. W.P Stephens, with some justification, later complained about this stunt in Forest and Stream but the die had been cast. Observers at the Seawanhaka Cup, including the Royal St. Lawrence Y.C., took note and the next year all the top contenders had scow types including U.S designer Clinton Crane and the  Canadian design, engineering, and sailing genius, Herrick Duggan. Herrick Duggan, representing the Montreal club, Royal St. Lawrence Y.C., would come to dominate the cup competition in his scow designs over the next six years.

Larry Huntington would continue to design a series of well regarded scows for the Seawanahaka Cup competition both for him and his brother, and for other customers, though none of his designs were able to win the trials to represent the U.S. in the Cup competition.

Not surprisingly, in todays yachting history, Larry Huntington is best known, not for his scows, but for designing and building the offshore keelboat, Tamerlane, to win the first Bermuda race in 1906 (he designed and built two out of the three original competitors in 1906, the other Huntington design being Gauntlet).

A photo of Larry Huntington from Yachting magazine.

The half-rater Question as sketched by C.G. Davis. By 1905 Question had been converted to a motorboat with a boxy cabin-top (top right of sketch).

Larry Huntington estimated his cost for getting the simple chined Question built and in the water at $245 (he charged his labor at normal shipwright wages). The Rudder magazine figured this was 1/6 the cost of the other Cup racers.

Paprika was Larry Huntingtons refined scow design as a follow-on from Question. Built for the 1896 Seawanhaka Cup trials, the hull was round-bilged

Below are the lines to the mysterious American scow, Maika Maili, that was imported into New Zealand in the mid 1890s and formed the basis for the New Zealand famous Patiki class. There is a very strong resemblance to Huntingtons Paprika design but, at the present time, I can find no confirmation that Huntington exported one of his scows to New Zealand

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