Test Your Savvy with the Great Pumpkin Quiz
After a glorious day of racing on Saturday in brisk westerlies, gale warnings shut out the Great Pumpkin Regatta on Sunday. A northerly gale howled in overnight. Folks packing their boats away on Sunday struggled to remove sails in the powerful gusts. Fortunately, the power stayed on at Richmond Yacht Club, and scores of sailors there for the weekend gathered that morning to enjoy breakfast and a Nautical Trivia Quiz.
We’ll have detailed coverage of the Great Pumpkin Regatta in the December issue of Latitude 38. For today, we invite you to match wits with the best minds at RYC and see if you can achieve a perfect score on the Trivia Quiz. No fair consulting the internet or even your bookshelves! That would be cheating.
“Our Nautical Quiz is intended to entertain, inform, educate and amuse,” reads the introduction. “It has been 230 years since the “Mutiny on the Bounty”, 75 years since D-Day, and 25 years since Bill Koch announced an all womens’ America’s Cup team and this was the fifth year of the R2AK. We hope you will enjoy the thinking process. All the answers are available on the internet but what is the fun in finding the answers that way.” (Spelling, typos and punctuation are sic.)
The 10-Question Quiz
The “New Zealand National Institute of Weather and Atmospheric Research” scientist Petra Pierce is now studying old square rigged sailing ships “log books” to harvest information from the 1600’s, 1700’s and any sailing navigator observations from all over the world. These may be the oldest reliable weather data and observations of the worlds oceans recorded. New Zealand is studying old weather data because?
A. New Zealand has the America’s Cup
B. ‘Games of Thrones’ filming starts in New Zealand
C. Wine industry and Agriculture industry info
D. Climate Change Modeling
Many of Tracy Edwards’ Maiden’s all women’s crew from the 1989-90 campaign went on to various sailing adventures in history. Tracy’s team may not have been the most experienced beginning the race but where at the finish line. They won two of the legs. Three women went on to crew on attempts to set sailing course records around the world. Two went on to participate in many other big races and one woman went on to sail another Whitbread and two America’s Cup campaigns, winning one of them. Who was this amazing women sailor?
A. Melissa Purdy-Tiburon
B. Dawn Riley-Detroit
C. Amanda Swan-New Zealand
D. Nancy Hill-New York
This man sailed on HMS “Endeavour” with Captain Cook in 1768, as a botanist and naturalist. We was very wealthy man. Charles Darwin learned from him. He discovered and named the “Bougainvillea”, was president of the Royal Society and recommended to the British Admiralty to commission Captain Bligh to sail HMS “Bounty” to Tahiti in an effort to collect and transport breadfruit to the Caribbean Islands. His name is on a Caribbean Blended Rum. Who was this first naturalist?
A. Joseph Banks
B. Captain Morgan
C. John Jamison
D. Norman Collins
We know where the “King”, “Devil” and “Garboard” planks are located on a wood built boat. We know why they call a particular plank the “Shutter Plank”. What is the “Whiskey Plank”?
A. The wood under the whisky bottle.
B. The bed under a drunken sailor.
C. The last plank secured to the boat.
E. Transoms top plank.
Tim Crockett, a Special Forces veteran, and three of his friends, while drinking in a bar in England, conceived of a fund raising way to support organizations to help returning veterans from the Middle-East wars with mental health issues and suicide. After his three friends backed-out he rowed solo in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Rowing Challenge. His boat was named “Tame the Kraken”. He finished the 3200 miles in 63 days and generated $200,000 for supporting USA and British organizations. Where does the name “Kraken” come from?
A. Name of the Bar in England
B. Name of the Black Spiced Rum they were drinking
C. ‘Norse Sea Monster’ that sinks ships
D. The Knarr that won the 2018-2019 Golden Gate Winter Series
This 1634 invention was used on almost all sailing ships and to this day is still in use as one of the tools used by any good mariner. But it was not until 1947, after the second world war that it was used by racing sailboat navigators to pick the best course to sail between Los Angeles and Hawaii during the Trans Pacific Yacht Race. What was this invention?
A. Slide rule
B. Barometer
C. Sextant
D. Stopwatch
During the naval battles of the “Eighty Years War” between Catholic Spain and Prodestant Netherlands this 1608 invention played a key role in the diplomatic truce of 1609 called the “Twelve Years Truce”. The Spanish navy commander did not want to continue fighting when word got out about Hans Lipperhey’s idea. The patent office turned down this idea and it quickly became a novelty item for sale on the streets of Paris. Galileo started using this in his work. What was this 1608 invention originally discovered by accident in a clothing store?
A. Barometer
B. Water screw-propeller
C. Telescope
D. Military cartridge
In 1822 this man stepped off the British Whaling Ship ‘Orion’ onto foreign soil to find supplies for the ships’ crew but he was immediately detained by the Commandante of the Presidio. He was noticed and adored by Maria Antonia, daughter of the Commandante. He converted to Catholicism became a Mexican citizen and after he married Maria he taught carpentry, ship building, navigation, skippered schooners carrying lumber from the North Bay to the new town of Yerba Buena and was the first harbor master for the port of San Francisco. In 1835 he received a 19,500 acre Mexican land grant. To this day part of San Francisco Bay is named for him. Who was he?
A. Ygnacio Martinez
B. Bill Richardson
C. Corte Madera
D. General San Pablo
In the 2019 R2AK race from Port Townsend Washington to Ketchikan Ak, First Federal Teams Sail Like a Girl competed in a Melges 32. From the moment they started on their all human powered adventure the second time around they were predicted to be one of the front runners.
A. They won it in 2018
B. They were the only boat to sail through Seymour narrows on one tide change.
C. They had both paddle and pedal power on board.
D. Both A and C
In the 2017 Trans Pacific Yacht Race the “First to Finish” Barn Door Trophy was presented to the second boat to finish, the 100′ RIO. In 2019 this trophy was presented to 100′ Comanche, the real first to finish boat finishing both races. Why was Rio and Comanche switched for this recognition?
A. Comanche’s new Australian owner was bribed to enter
B. Rio’s owner had the boat “For Sale”
C. Rio did not use a swinging mechanical keel in 2017
D. Comanche did not used mechanical winches in 2019
We’ll post the answers in ‘Lectronic Latitude on Friday. The prize for the winner was a DVD copy of the Marlon Brando version of Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).