Transatlantic's in a light weight 24fter

[Frank]

Just found this site.

http://travelswitheos.com

There will be additions later about doing the French canals and the return crossing.

FYI: the Shark 24 is a light-2100lbs, fast-capable of surfing into the teens, fin keel sailboat designed back in 1959 and built in Ontario Canada.

He certainly would qualify for "small boat-long distance" and KISS

[CharlieJ]

Great story. Was fascinated to read this

"When sailing under almost any condition my Sea-Swing gimballed stove, with kerosene pressure stove hung beneath, attached to the main cabin starboard bulkhead, worked well. "

Sounded quite familiar :)

[maxiSwede]

Cool!   ;D

[Frank]

I just have to post this link!!!

It's a recent (2016) post on YouTube of a younger guy having a blast sailing his shark. This actual boat is 55yrs old!

It will give you some idea of how narrow and light a Shark would be crossing the pond....and fast at times.

There is probably nothing as much fun as a nimble, fast and responsive boat!
If this video doesn't make Ya smile.....your not a sailor 😄😜

You'll notice how much faster it is during the last 20 seconds or so when he cracks it off a bit... A real fun video

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cuHFqLz7fTc

[Norman]

Well equipped for racing, all the tweaks for maximizing performance!

5 lines led aft  to cam cleats and a winch on port side from mast, not including the furler!  3 on the starboard side to lever locks and a winch.

Outhaul, and two line jiffy reef, boom vang, boom downhaul on port.  Main, jib, and spinnaker on starboard.

Leather holders for spin pole and whisker pole on the sides of the boom, and adjustable bracket on the mast for most efficient height, cleats presumably on the mast to lock.

Really powerful backstay tensioner, main sheet tackle, and traveler control.

They sailed with easy confidence, they know their boat well.

An excellent link to an outstanding Shark video.  I watched the Scandinavian and Australian ones too.  All very impressive boat  handling and performance, The Canadians can be proud of the Shark boats.

Thanks for the link, Frank!

[Frank]

Grog to you Norman.
Most would not pick up on all the sail controls!!
They will plane downwing in right wind-wave conditions.
A pretty fast boat considering it was a 1959 design.
Hull underbody is similar to trekka

[Norman]

The one sailed across the Atlantic was much different than the one that I commented on.

The influence of his automotive engineering background is evident in some of his gear for the trans Atlantic voyage.

The complicated, Rube Goldberg devices necessary for properly linking wind vanes with the rudder on conventional gear was replaced with hydraulic pistons and flexible plastic lines, without any complication!  Probably just one master and one slave did the job!

Direct rudder trim tab is the simplest, but the conventional linkage is a mess.  assuming that he had waterproof boots on the push rods, trouble free operation should be assured for a long time.  His failure was the result in a huge boarding wave, or the rollover, but in either case, conventional equipment would likely failed too.

The lack of a skeg is a very great hindrance to stability when trying to self steer by simply setting the sail trim carefully.  Sailing a full keel boat, I found such sailing quite easy, but my Macgregor 22 swing keel is near impossible on most wind angles, and any shift in weight for and aft ruins the balance.  As he commented, racing requires a quick tacking boat, but on ocean crossings, agile is a problem.  Wind angles are held for days at a time, stability is paramount.  This is true for both hand steering and wind vane steering, as the vane would work less with a skeg.

I was surprised that he used his safety harness as little as he did, but he did have it when needed.

The manufactured at sea rudder brackets are impressive, but I would also liked to see the remains of the anchor that was cut up for the parts he made!

His jury rig after the mast was broken sure put "All Is Lost" in proper perspective.  He  would not have lost that boat!

[CharlieJ]

Seems like the kind of dude you want aboard when TSHTF!!

and on the stability

my 21 footer has a reverse transom, and heavy rudder. Let it get just a hair off and the boat will hand you your head. On the other hand, Tehani has the full keel, and will finger tip steer even rail down

Makes a HUGE difference when cruising- we were not heeled like that in this pic, but you get the idea

[Frank]

2 totally different boats CJ....you know that...

Yours a moderate+ displacement, full keel boat ...

The shark a light weight BMW fin keeler

Each capable of different things...

The fact that he took it across the pond twice is a testimony to how capable a light boat can be. (And essentially what this thread is about)
In fact back in the 70's another dude sailed his to Australia and back. By failing memory, he complained to the factory that after a few ocean crossings his gongeons and prindles were worn......which they happily replaced 😄

I've always been fascinated by this boat simply for its potential to deliver the pure joy of sailing. Dingy like qualities in a keel boat!

[Frank]

I certainly do NOT want to debate design merits of various hull shapes...wrong thread...
This is about the capability of this light sport boat.... And the crazy people that crossed oceans in them.
Just thought I would give a bit more "Shark" history...

"When George Hinterhoeller designed the Shark in 1959, he was looking for a boat that would "go like heck when the wind blew."  Growing up sailing in Austria's Salzkammergut region, Hinterhoeller was used to light displacement finkeelers; fast, responsive and exciting.

The few sailboats he found on Lake Ontario when he immigrated to Canada in 1952 had heavy displacement hulls.  They were ponderous and had a bad habit of hoppy-horsing in the rough Lake Ontario chop.

The young boat builder/designer was bored by their performance.
Announcing that he could build a boat that would sail circles around the
rest, he retired to the shed behind his Niagara-on-the-Lake home and
built Teeter Totter, a hard-chined 22-foot sloop made of plywood.  It was
the forunner of the Shark.  And when the wind blew, it did go like heck.
Its designer loved it and so did his friends."

"The Shark's prompt success was due in no small part to its early racing
record.  In 1960, Hinterhoeller crewed for George Steffan, later President
of Mirage Yachts, in the Freeman Cup.  They cleaned up with three 1sts
using brisk 18-knot winds to put a leg between them and their nearest competitor in the race.  In the 1963 Freeman Cup the Shark did it again.  For small boats, the course was from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Rochester NY, 80 nautical miles along the south shore of Lake Ontario.  There were no spinnakers and no genoas on Sharks in those days and the race was
sailed with main and working jib only.
​
"We thought our biggest competition would be the "Thunderbirds,"
Hinterhoeller said "but after the first surf, we knew that there would be no
contest.  We barreled down the course in seven hours and 44 minutes."

In 1963, using a spinnaker on a close reach across Lake Ontario, Sid
Dakin, one of the first to own a Shark, sailed the Blockhouse Bay race from Toronto to Olcott, NY, with an adrenaline pumping average speed of 10.2 knots, beating the 56-footer Innisfree on a boat-for-boat basis. That sort of speed boggled the minds of sailors unaccustomed to
semi-displacement hulls.
​
Racing boats come and racing boats go, but the Shark remains.  With its
flexible rig and planing abilities, it is as up to date as anything on the
market today.  And, with its low-aspect, 7/8ths rig and heavy keel, it has
a sea-kindliness and seaworthiness to match its speed."

And..... just for you Norman:
"
The Shark is a forgiving boat which makes it appealing to novices, but
with 14 separate lines to tweak, it is as technical as any sailor could wish for"

Copied from an earlier Canadian Yachting review

[Norman]

Randal Peart is an excellent engineer, having put together a custom car from parts he selected, describing it as "home made".  He was good enough that Ford sent him from England to Dearborn to design cars here.  At 38,he left that career, after saving a serious amount of wages, and started on his adventure.

Yes, the Shark is a fast, tough boat, of outstanding design and construction.  But the real thing we are seeing here is a man of outstanding skill and courage, picking a suitable factory built, mass produced boat, doing minimal modifications to it, and taking on the ocean.  Alone.  At modest cost.  With minimal outside help.  With minimal tools and spare parts.  Fixed everything that broke that he needed.  In a small boat.  Apparently slept in a quarter berth, as every where else is full of "stuff".  Ate well on ordinary food, including eggs, unrefrigerated, all the way.  Hand steered through violent storms.  Hand steered for more than one day, non stop.


He did not make her unsinkable, he just made her very resistant to sinking.  He did not buy an expensive self steering gear, he made a much simpler one that worked as well as the best out there.  He bought a sextant, learned to use it, and navigated with time from a small radio time signals.  The relatively inexpensive radio worked so well because he put two insulators in the backstay and a tuner to use the stay for an antenna, like high dollar boats do, but he did the work himself.  Once he left home in Michigan, he had minimal outside help, beyond a free pier, and some free groceries.  Engineering design changes such as the balanced rudder worked as expected, and would have been altered again if there was a problem.

If you want to be impressed by his hydraulic self steering, Google "hydraulic sailboat vane self steering". Nothing comes up except that vane self steering will not work well with boats with hydraulic wheel steering.  Randal may not be a rocket scientist, but he is cutting edge technology.


Move over, Captain Slocum, Peart will beat you around the world!  I am not really serious about that comparison, as with a fiberglass boat and more modern rig, plus weather from the radio to keep you in port for the really bad storms, it is not a fair comparison.  But he did fit out his second hand boat to his needs, sea trialed her, and went.  A much smaller, less comfortable boat than most of us would accept.  Even Slocum would have passed on the EOS for trans ocean voyages, he demande much more comfort that Randal had!

He has gone there and back, and most of us have just gone nearby, maybe to the Caribbean or Baha, a few all the way to Panama or Central America.  Just one that I am aware of Is hanging out in the Pacific!

I cannot brag or point to the rest of you as superior in this respect, as I have only cruised 200 miles from my starting point, and never sailed more than a mile off shore.  Like Charlie Jones, I do not enjoy sailing alone for any long period, and have no friends willing to go for weeks at a time in a sailboat.  At 82, the physical issues are now dominant in the decision to limit my cruising even more, so I will never go as Randal did!

I do have something that Randal is unlikely to have, though, two sons and daughter in laws of whom I am very proud!  Four grand children who show great promise.  And a wife who may not sail, she gets sea sick as soon as the boat starts rolling, but we have nearly 54 outstanding years together, better than any boat! 

I do envy Randal, though!  And thanks again, Frank, for the link!

[Frank]

Had to ad this link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EYGzRnEz7Jo

Close reaching at 7.5+ knots......no weather helm.....looks too easy!!