“Q&A: DAVID HULBERT MAKES THE CASE FOR A PROACTIVE LIFEBOAT

YACHTING: What inspired you to develop the Portland Pudgy?

David Hulbert: While sailing around the waters of Maine with my 3-year-old daughter and my wife in water that doesn’t seem to melt ice cubes, even  in the summer, I realized that our little fiberglass dinghy would be useless as a lifeboat. It could easily swamp and be impossible to bail, exposing us to the danger of hypothermia. I set out to design a tender-lifeboat.”

The article goes on to detail the design process that led to the Portland Pudgy.

The author, Peter Swanson, comments:
“The Portland Pudgy is a tender, sailing dinghy and lifeboat combined. Notice
the choice of words: lifeboat not life raft. The Portland Pudgy is not a passive survival platform but a vessel that makes self-rescue possible.”

Pick up the May issue of Yachting and see the whole article.

We just learned about something we hope turns into a nautical tradition: Summer Sailstice. This year it’s June 23, 2012.

Summer Sailstice is a global holiday celebrating sailing held annually on the weekend closest to the summer solstice, the longest sailing days of the year. It can take place anywhere and it’s a great way to build a sailing community and meet other sailors, and a great excuse for a party!

You can organize your own get together, or join one. How about a Portland Pudgy raft-up for Summer Sailstice!?

From the Summer Sailstice website:

Our online community at SummerSailstice.com allows you to quickly find others to join your crew for a raft up at a favorite sailing destination or create a sailboat party out on the water to celebrate the beginning of the summer sailing season ahead. No rules, no fees, no start time and no excuses not to go out and have fun! If you like to relax in the sailing lifestyle, compete in the sport of sailing or cruise the seven seas , Summer Sailstice applauds your desire to be out on the water under sail!

- 17,000 sailors have signed up and participate annually

- over 40 countries

- all 50 US states

- 12th Annual

All connected in a global celebration of sailing.

Its easy.  Sign up, sail, celebrate and win.

Summer Sailstice participants simply register, go sailing and automatically become eligible to win one of over 400 prizes from our supporters, from a yacht charter with Footloose Sailing Charters to sailing gear from  your favorite marine suppliers.

Just sign up here to join the thousands of sailors around the world planning to sail on the weekend of June 23rd, 2012!

Our online community at SummerSailstice.com allows you to quickly find others to join your crew for a raft up at a favorite sailing destination or create a sailboat party out on the water to celebrate the beginning of the summer sailing season ahead. No rules, no fees, no start time and no excuses not to go out and have fun! If you like to relax in the sailing lifestyle, compete in the sport of sailing or cruise the seven seas , Summer Sailstice applauds your desire to be out on the water under sail!

Portland Pudgy owner, Ed H., braved some high seas in the Gulf of Mexico, while towing the Portland Pudgy. The following is his account of his adventure:

My trip was to take me from Galveston, TX to Isla Mujeres Mexico.  Then through Belize and Honduras, up to Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Bahamas, Bermuda and finally home to Canada…

My boat is a 28ft LOA Columbia.  The foredeck was too small to stow Pudge, and the davits, with the solar panels attached above, were not strong enough to hang it when under sail.   So my only option was to tow it...I knew it could get nasty along the way, especially out in the Gulf of Mexico.  But the boat had been bought and delivered, no turning back now.

I ran a piece of 7mm Dynex Dux through the hole in the gunwale as a back up line.  I like Dyneema because it is extremely strong, easily splicable and floats.   I also attached another bridle to the forward inboard lifting eyes and attached a painter to it.  So now I had 3 points of attachment.

When I set off from Galveston I was beating into a South Easterly wind.  Not the ideal conditions to leave, but I was impatient.  Pudge was being towed 10 feet behind the boat.  Under this point of sail, the painter line usually stays taut, so shock loading is kept to a minimum.  Shock loading gets worse the more the wind comes around behind you.  One way of dealing with that is to put a shock absorber somewhere in your primary towing line.  I found that 4 tarp tie down bungee’s work well, but in big seas can’t be relied upon.

So all was going well, Pudge was towing like a champ.  After about a week I hadn’t made great time, but this was about to change.  A northerly, with 35knot winds and 16 to 18 foot seas, was on the way.  This was going to be the test.  I did nothing to prepare the boat further and as the seas built I became increasingly worried.  It was dark when the seas picked up to 12 feet and Pudge was starting to be thrown from one side of the boat to the other.  At one point I looked back and Pudge was gone, I stared for what felt like an hour and then finally my little red boat came swinging back into view! I let out a yell “WAY TO GO PUDGE”!!

This boat was definitely a fighter, but I knew that I had to drastically shorten the painter line.  If I was caught going down a wave and Pudge was hit by a wave coming at a different direction, that might be the end of it.  So I brought the main towing line in as tight as possible.  Not good. There was still too much distance and a following sea was going to pick Pudge up and smash him into the transom of my boat.  So I took the thimble of the primary towing bridle  and pulled it up and over the forward point of the aft deck cleat.  This might work.  At this distance Pudge’s bow was right up against the transom, essentially an extension to my boat, attached like a trailer to a car.  I also attached the second bridle line to a central aft deck cleat.  The front half of Pudge was being lifted partially out of the water.  The only problem was that I had a sharp point on the aft end of my starboard tow rail which was starting to rip into Pudge’s bow fender.  What else to do but break out my angle grinder.  Far from the safest thing to do, angle grinding off the back of a sailboat in 25 knot winds and 12ft seas.  But 30 minutes later, with the sharp edge removed, fingers intact and fenders hanging over the stern, I had Pudge as secure as possible.

The seas built up to about 16ft, but with the boat towed in this arrangement, it was a non-issue.  At one point a wave broke right on top of Pudge and this little guy shook it off like George Chevalier shaking off a Muhammad Ali right cross.  It didn’t even phase him for a second.

The high seas were short lived.  By the end of the day they were down to 8-10ft and then smaller still the following morning.  I decided to leave Pudge in this arrangement for the rest of the trip.

12 days after I left I dropped anchor in Isla Mujeres.  My Portland Pudgy was intact except for a chafed line which I didn’t properly protect.   It worked out perfectly.  I have no concerns at all with towing Pudge in this arrangement the rest of the way.  Plus I have a lifeboat ready to go should it be necessary.

Happy Portland Pudgy owner,

Ed

We discovered an interesting website about small boats and small boat design. Steve K., a visitor to our shop from Belfast, ME,  told us about Small Craft Advisor magazine’s website: www.smallcraftadvisor.com. One thing on the website is the

• Resistance to capsize
• Foam flotation
• Self-draining cockpit
• Simplicity (i.e. of the sailing rig)
• Ability to reef the sail
• Compass on board
• Ability to keep the crew safe in all conditions.

Obviously these are all things that interest us at Portland Pudgy. Seaworthiness, fun, and safety in a small craft are what we’re all about.

Small Craft Advisor Magazine is really concerned with stand-alone boats (as opposed to tenders).  We’ve always loved the immediacy of sailing a small boat and have fond childhood memories of tearing along in our little sailboats. Although the Pudgy was designed as a yacht tender and proactive lifeboat, it’s also turned out to be a seaworthy and fun sailboat in its own right.

The challenges of designing the perfect small sailboat are lots of fun to think about. We’d love to hear from SCAMP enthusiasts, and we hope that Pudgy owners visit the site and compare notes.

By the way, speaking of small: one thing that can be overlooked about the Portland Pudgy is that although it’s only 7’8” long (to make it feasible to carry on deck), it’s actually got the carrying capacity and cockpit area of a ten-foot dinghy with an RIB ring. If you followed the curves of the pram-shaped bow and extended the bow to a point, it would be just under 10 feet long (with most of that space in the bow, too narrow to use). It’s ten feet of boat in a 7’ 8” package.

Vieques is a small island in the Spanish West Indies, off the coast of the Puerto Rican mainland. It’s part of Puerto Rico, as is nearby Culebra. We were there in 2006. That’s where we got our little sato (Puerto Rican slang for “mutt”), named Lenny. Here’s a picture of her.

(There are lots of dogs there that need homes…check out Save a Sato).

Vieques isn’t a glamorous place, but for us, that was its charm. There were no glitzy resorts, and the people who live there turn off their lights at night, so you can see every star in the sky. You can see the amazing glow of the Bioluminescent Bay, the brightest in the world. There are herds of wild horses that wander the island. And troops of little satos, most of them small terrier size, like Lenny.

Vieques earned its unique charm the hard way. In 1943, more than half of the island was turned into a naval base and the east end of the island was made a bombing range. The base was finally closed in 2004. Ironically, it was because of the naval base and the bombing range that Vieques remained undeveloped.

We just read that the Navy is planning to auction off thousands of acres of the old base (not sure about the bombing range). There are plans for big resorts and a cruise ship dock. I imagine the Viequenses are less than pleased, because Vieques has become an ecotourism destination.  Since it looks like change is on the way, if you cruise the Caribbean and haven’t been to Vieques yet, you might want to visit sooner rather than later.

“When Baykeeper Dave Thompson wished to extend his environmental reach in a tangible way on the bay by adding an outboard motor to the Fundy Baykeeper’s rowboat, the Portland Pudgy, he turned to Small Change Fund, a micro-philanthropy fundraising organization, which uses a grassroots-giving funding model to match donors with environmental projects.

Supporting projects that address environmental concerns with grants up to $5000, Small Change Fund was able to quickly Fundy Baykeeper Project for the motor, which assists Fundy Baykeepers in their ability to do their work more effectively and efficiently, ‘It makes it easy for us to reach the edges of the territory we are trying to protect. If we want to do work that’s some ways away from where we keep our main boat, we can easily put the Pudgy on a truck and take it there.’”

To read the article, go to Orato: Grassroots Giving Protects Our Waters. There’s an interview with Matt Abbott and David Thompson, where they talk about using their Portland Pudgy at Fundy Baykeeper Project.

We asked Portland Pudgy owners for sailing photos and got some great ones! Also lots of other pix.

Check out our new galleries here:  Portland Pudgy Photo Galleries.

This is our second post about boating gift ideas for your skipper or first mate. When your boat is shrink-wrapped and you’re holed up waiting for spring to come again, books about boating keep hope alive.

We already talked about boating love stories and kid’s books about boats. Now we’re going to share some nautical gift ideas about Boating How-To and Reference Books, Maritime History, Tales of Survival at Sea, and beautiful Boating Coffee Table Books.  We considered an additional category…Boating Books for Dreamers…but then realized that any good book about boating not only provides practical knowledge, it’s also the stuff of dreams (even if it’s just about installing a new head). Here are a few suggestions in these categories. We hope you share some of the boating books you love.

Boating How-To Books and Boating Reference Books:

• Living Aboard a Boat, Mark Nichols. This will help you turn your dreams to reality…from buying the right boat, choosing the right marina, and setting yourself up for life aboard.
• Essential Sailing Destinations, Adrian Morgan. Adrian Morgan, editor. How to make your cruising dream a reality. This books gives you essential information about a host of incredible destinations, from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, to the US East Coast, to Australasia. It tells you about family friendliness, chartering, best cruising months, local language, and currency, and more.
• Twenty Affordable Sailboats to Take You Anywhere, by Gregg Nestor. Twenty affordable, comfortable, and seaworthy sailboats. These boats range in size from 30–38 feet, an ideal size for the cruising couple. These boats are still readily available in the used boat market.
• Spanish for Cruisers, second edition, Katy Parsons.  A unique yachtsman’s phrasebook, nautical dictionary, and conversation guide all in one. It was written for cruising the  Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Europe (sigh). It’s divided into 28 topics specifically geared to the boaters’ life and the charter yacht crew needs. Spanish phrases you’ll need to communicate with port captains, officials, marina and boatyard staff, mechanics, technicians, dayworkers, fishermen and divers.
• A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Richard M. Sherwood. A field guide much like Roger Tory Peterson’s birding books. A fun and informative pastime when you’re out on the water.
• The Lo-Tech Navigator, Tony Crowley. This classic teaches you the rudiments of celestial navigation, measuring speed with a drogue, making your own sextant, and much more. A serious book for adults, but it also would be a fantastic science book for teenagers living aboard.
• The 12-Volt Bible, Miner Brotherton, rev. by Ed Sherman. All about your boat’s electrical system.

Maritime History Books:

• Before the Wind. The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833. Charles Tyng. Viking. My absolute favorite in this genre. Captain Tyng is a wonderful character. You meet him when he’s a schoolboy right before his parents pack him off as a cabin boy, and you travel with him all over the world. A wonderful book and a great way to learn history.
• 1421. The Year China Discovered America. Gavin Menzies. Menzies posits that the Chinese admiral Xeng He discovered America before Columbus. OK, a lot of it may be a bit farfetched, but if any of it is true, Wow! An engrossing book that raises a lot of questions (and perhaps tries to answer more than it should).
• The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier, Colin Woodard. Penguin. Required reading for Maine-o-philes.
• A Viking Voyage: In Which an Unlikely Crew of Adventurers Attempts an Epic Journey to the New World, Hodding Carter.  A fascinating, informative, and entertaining book about Hodding Carter’s inspired reenactment of a Viking Voyage of discovery. “A celebration of the people and places Carter visits and a treasure-trove of fascinating Viking lore, here is an unforgettable story of friendship and teamwork–and the thrill of accomplishing a goal that once seemed impossible,” (from Amazon.com).

Coffee Table Books about Boats.

• Herreshof of Bristol, Maynard Bray and Carlton Pineiro. Gorgeously illustrated history of America’s reknowned yacht builder.
  
• A Century Under Sail, Stanley Rosenfeld. A beautiful collection of over 200 photographs by nautical photographers Morris and Stanley Rosenfeld.
• Welcome Aboard. Inside the World’s Classic Yachts. Matthew Walker. Publisher: First Glance Books. Gorgeous interiors of twenty-nine world class yachts. A pleasure to look at and a great source of ideas (even if you’re just fixing up a 24 foot catboat).
• Historic Sail. The Glory of the Sailing Ship from the 13th to the 19th Century. Howarth and Wheatley. Greenhill Historic Series. Astounding drawings filled with detail. Absolutely beautiful and chock full of information.

Tales of Survival at Sea (and other hair-raising stories):

• Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea. Steve Callahan.  Mariner Books (October 17, 2002). Riveting, terrifying, and inspiring story of Steve Callahan’s ordeal. Inspiring because of his ingenuity and will to live and his spiritual journey.
• Lifeboat: A History of Courage, Cravenness, and Survival at Sea. John R. Stilgoe. U. of Virginia Press. Lots of scary stories.
• The Proving Ground. G. Bruce Knecht. Warner Books. Tragic, “pulse-pounding” story of the tragic 1998 Sydney-Hobart Race.
• South: The Endurance Expedition. Ernest Shackleton. Signet. Incredible story of courage and inspired leadership.

Our first boating-related gift idea is boating-related BOOKS (in future posts, we’ll talk about other good boating stuff).

Books. If you live where there is an off-season (like here in Maine for example), what better way to keep hope alive while your boat is on the hard, than to immerse yourself in maritime lore? Amuse yourself and get smart by learning all about maritime history. Make your hair stand on end reading tales of survival at sea. Why not sit by the fire and teach yourself new knots, or learn celestial navigation?

We’ll list six categories of nautical boats that interest us:

• Kid’s Books about Boats and Boating
• Boating Love Stories (people in love with their boats)
• Maritime History Books
• Boating How-To Books
• Tales of Survival at Sea
• Coffee Table Books about Boats.

This post will list a few books in the first two categories. We’ll continue with more in the next post.This is just a few, to get started. If we think of more, we’ll add them. We hope you share some of the boating books you love.

Kid’s Books about Boats and Boating-Related Stuff (including pirates). For ages 3 to 16.

• Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy. A series by L.A. Meyer (PORTLAND PUDGY OWNER!). Publisher: Graphia. The whole series is wonderful. It’s the beginning of the 19^th century. An orphan girl, turned street urchin, disguises herself as a boy and signs on as cabin-boy (soon to become a pirate). Our daughter read every one of these books (she finally outgrew them by the end of 8^th grade). They ranked right up there with Harry Potter for her and her friends (boys, too). Read all about this wonderful series on the Internet: (Google search page for L.A. Meyer).
  
• Kidnapped and Treasure Island.  Robert Louis Stevenson. Scribner’s. We’re lucky enough to have old copies with N.C. Wyeth illustrations. But even without the old illustrations, they’re great stories that we tested on our kid (who loved them).
• The Seawolf. Jack London. Macmillan 1904. An engrossing story.
• Lighthouses of North America!: Exploring Their History, Lore & Science. Lisa Trumbauer. Ideals Publishing Corporation. Interesting book for kids who spend a lot of time on boats.
• One Morning in Maine and Time of Wonder. Two books by Robert McCloskey that convey the magic of coastal Maine.
• The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. A wonderful story about the power of a little light house. Probably from the 1950’s. I remember it from my childhood.

Boating Love Stories (people in love with their boats)

• A Unit of Water, a Unit of Tim: Joel White’s Last Boat. Douglass Whynott. Publisher: Doubleday. About boat designer Joel White, of Brooklin, Maine. A beautiful book. A “poignant tale of both a genius at work and the people devoted to his art. Evoking E.B. White’s New England and its salty residents, A Unit of Water, a Unit of Time is a classic portrait of dignity, charm, and humble magnificence-and of a maritime community that keeps a vanishing world alive” (from Amazon).
• The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float. Farley Mowatt. Publisher: Bantam Books. Very funny, kind of silly (and true) story about a man in love with his old jalopy of a boat.
• Gipsy Moth Circles the World. Sir Francis Chichester. Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press. Encouraging for us boomers: “When 65-year-old Francis Chichester set sail on his solitary eastward journey around the world in 1966, many believed he wouldn’t return alive. But when the old man returned nine months later, he had made history’s fastest circumnavigation” from Amazon.com.

To be continued…

We keep two ditch bags stowed inside our Portland Pudgy. Before assembling them, we researched ditch bags carefully and found the Equipped to Survive website an extremely useful source: http://www.equipped.com/abndnship.htm.

A USCG helicopter rescue pilot volunteered to us that in his opinion the single most important piece of survival equipment is a signal mirror.

Thankfully, we haven’t had to use our emergency equipment, so we don’t know what we’d wish we’d brought. For the sake of sanity, along with everything else, we’ve packed a deck of cards, a waterproof log and pencils, and some inspirational reading. None of it takes up much space and could save us from going bonkers.

We’d love to know what you consider most indispensable.