Life is Interesting in the Boatyard

Doña de Mallorca and crew — Craig Powell of the Seattle-based Tartan 41 Dulcinea, which is currently in La Cruz; John Grippo of the San Diego-based Gemini 31 Po Poki, also currently in La Cruz; and Patrick Ralph of Mountain View, who was doing his fourth Bash on Profligate — finally arrived in San Diego after an 8.5-day delivery from Puerto Vallarta. It was non-stop except for two nights at Punta Pequeña to wait out bad weather. The worst area was actually the 150 miles or so north of Turtle Bay, where it had been blowing in the same spot for about 10 days — and looks like it might be blowing for another 10 days. Although it wasn’t the most horrible Bash in the world, Doña says it was both the longest and roughest of the last 10 she’s done. How was your Bash?

Anyway, there’s lots of sun and blue skies here in San Diego, where Profligate is at Driscoll’s Boatyard on Shelter Island. Boy, do things change quickly when you’re gone. Driscoll’s is going great guns on new berthing and other facilities, and is expecting to have some slips available prior to the start of the Ha-Ha. Pt. Loma Seafood’s new home, now two stories, has also been completed. And another hangout, Starbucks, moved a few streets down to the old Jack in the Box location. The drive-thru is really convenient — it only took us about 20 minutes to get our beverages. With that kind of wait they ought to put a little brandy in the drinks.

Chuck Driscoll tells us he’s hauling out a lot of catamarans. Something like six in the last week. One of the most interesting was the 55-ft or so aluminum research catamaran Alguita. You can tell she’s a research cat because she has a big crane on the back.

Alguita is a design of innovative Aussie multihull designer Lock Crowther. Consequently, she has a couple of unusual features, at least for the time when she was built. One is having the halyards lead all the way down through the bottom of the bridgedeck, then aft, then back up to the winches. She also has a bulb bow such as are found on big ships.

Being berthed in a boatyard dock isn’t the cleanest or most quiet option, but we love it because it sure is interesting.