The largest thing I ever sailed on was a 40-ft ketch, and that was about 35 or so years ago. I tried several times to get the ET1 billet on EAGLE, but each time my boss shot down the request saying that I was "too valuable at [my] current command". BS. He was just an incompetent lieutenant moron and needed me to carry him along. (Seriously, he was, and when I was transferred to a different division without sufficient break-in time for my replacement the LT fell flat on his face. He eventually got passed over for promotion twice and was booted out.) I've had several friends get that billet on EAGLE, but not me. And as I've mentioned, since my back injury I haven't done any nautical living history in some years now, so it's that old "use it or lose it" thing. (My terminology is getting rusty, which is why I love discussions like this; people like you help refresh my memory.)
As for my buoy tender, it was an actual boom. No spars lifted it. On the old A-Class Madrona (the last of the A-Class) it was lifted and moved by four electric motors using cables to work its pullies: one to raise and lower the boom, one to raise and lower the hook, one to pull the boom left, and one to pull it right. When we cross-decked to the refurbed C-Class Cowslip there were only three hydraulically operated pullies: two to raise the boom and also move it right or left, and one for the hook. But it was called a boom, and when we were done working buoys the Deck Chief always reported the boom was "secured in its cradle". (As a side note, when Madrona came out of refurb, she was then a C-Class as well; all of the vintage 1940s 180-ft tenders were C-Classes then.)
Dino.
—–Original Message—–
From: R <advcour@btinternet.com>
To: shiponedingroup <shiponedingroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, May 17, 2013 4:25 pm
Subject: Re: [shiponedingroup] questions about sailing
Well if it was a spar for hoisting things like a crane then it wasn't a boom but a derek.
You did once say to me that you had never actually sailed a large sailing vessel didn't you?
— On Fri, 17/5/13, LambuLambu@aol.com <LambuLambu@aol.com> wrote:
From: LambuLambu@aol.com <LambuLambu@aol.com>
Subject: Re: [shiponedingroup] questions about sailing
To: shiponedingroup@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, 17 May, 2013, 21:15Ah, I stand corrected. The crew aboard USCGC Eagle always referred to the boom gallows as the boom cradle. And actually, that's how we referred to the boom gallows on my buoy tender: the cradle. (And the boom was for hoisting buoys, not sails.)
Dino.
—–Original Message—–
From: R <advcour@btinternet.com>
To: shiponedingroup <shiponedingroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, May 17, 2013 3:51 pm
Subject: Re: [shiponedingroup] questions about sailingYes, I'm steering!
It's called a boom gallows…
The boom would never be that low anyway to need to duck…
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