2009 October | Chinook 34 Sailboat - Cinnamon

Archive for October, 2009

A Visit to Sister Ship Shadow

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

We had a fun cruise down river to St. Helens last weekend to visit Matt and Laura Richard and to see their Chinook 34 sailboat, Shadow.

We got out of Hayden Bay on the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon about 10:30 AM Saturday morining. There were two other sailboats heading down river as we cast off so we hurried to catch up to them as we approached the Vancouver railroad bridge. Luck was with us and the bridge was opening for a boat already waiting and the operator held the bridge open for us.

The trip down river was smooth as glass. We made a steady 7 knots SOG on the GPS motoring, so it only took a little over two hours to get to St Helens. As we passed Warrior Rock I gave Matt a call to let him know we were entering the Multnomah Channel and would be there soon. Matt and Laura made final preparations to cast off and came out in Shadow to meet us and we raised our sails and headed down river.

The East wind was kicking in at about 10 knots just as we cleared Sand Island. Since the river is running pretty much South to North at this point we took off down river on a fast close to beam reach. It soon became apparent that Shadow, with her tall fractional rig and centerboard was much faster in these wind conditions and point of sail and she pulled away quickly. Matt and Laura were kind enough to turn around and come back to sail side for a while, but it wasn’t long before she was leaving us again. The only time we could hold our own was when the gusts would pick up to around 15 knots and start to bring Cinnamon, with her low aspect rig and full fixed keel, up on heel, to bring the waterline up. At that point Shadow was on her ear and dumping air from that huge mainsail and we could pick up a little ground, but as soon as the gust past and she came back up she would take off again. We had a great sleigh ride down river about 5 miles to Martin Slough and back to up river St. Helens with a single tack both ways.

Matt had arranged a slip for the night for us in their marina, Yachts Landing in St Helens. We had an enjoyable evening visiting with Matt and Laura, seeing Shadow and going out to dinner at the Plantation House restaurant in St. Helens historic waterfront district. It was fascinating to hear the story of Laura’s father building Shadow from scratch, including helping to lay up the hull and spending four years from 1963 to 1967 finishing the boat in their backyard. The care and planning he put into it are still evident and even though the boat went through an extensive restoration in 2001 most of the beautiful woodworking in the boat remains as original.

It was a long day, but we got a good nights sleep. Sunday morning we had coffee and said goodbye to Matt and Laura. We caught the incoming tide and the river current was almost negligeable as we headed back up river. We were making a good 6 knots motoring against it. Again there was very little wind until we rounded the corner at Kelly Point, where the Willamette River joins the Columbia River, for the home stretch and then we could see a dark line in the water where the East wind was breaking through the Columbia River Gorge. We quickly put on our coats and pulled the hood up. The last two miles or so back up to the Vancouver railway bridge we were beating into 15 to 20 knots right on our nose. Once again, luck was with us. As we approached the bridge two boats were waiting for a train that was crossing. Just as we got close the train finished crossing and we got straight through without slowing down. Perfect timing! We motored into Hayden Bay and thanks to the dike at the end of the marina blocking the wind the water in our slip was smooth and we slid right in, glad to be home.