The Red Rover is a 26 foot (~8 meter) sailboat. Designed primarily for inland water ways, it proved to be an excellent boat for me to learn to sail in. It was also big enough so I could take some friends sailing with me; there is a double berth in the bow and 2 (wide, but very low ceiling) single berths down under the (cockpit) seats in the aft end of the boat. The most people who ever stayed on the boat was the entire Brown family (Jamie, Natasha, Katie, Helen, Matt, Melony [the kids] and Heidi and Michael). It was pretty crowded, but they managed ok (good thing the kids were small!). The boat has a small galley (stove, sink, 'fridge that never worked) and a marine head. Across from the galley is the table, storage and benches.
Although it had an inboard motor at one time, I put a 20 hp outboard motor on it to get around with. This worked very well, although the motor tended to cavitate rather severely if there was any swell running.
I did as much sailing with it as I could, but there frequently wasn't enough wind. So I ended up motoring to many of the places I wanted to visit.
All of my preliminary explorations in Prince William Sound were
done
with this boat. I went to Sawmill Bay, Jack Cove, Landlocked Bay,
Cordova, Bay of Isles, Copper Bay, etc. The only time I made it
out of
the protected waters was when I sailed around Hinchenbrook
Island…I was
somewhat disappointed; the fearsome North Pacific was flat and
placid
and I had to motor all the way around.
Probably the wildest ride I had with the Red Rover was when I was
going to sail around Montegue Island; I got to the very southern
tip
(with Debi-Lee along for the ride) when a storm started to blow
up. A coast guard cutter came alongside and warned me that
the
forecast was pretty nasty, so we retreated to Knight Island, where
we
sheltered in a cove supposedly protected from the strong east
winds. Unfortunately strong gusts were blowing down from the
mountain above us, and it caused us to drag anchor in all
different
directions. As soon as the anchor picked up enough weeds it
would
start dragging in earnest so I had to stay up all night to keep an
eye
on things. As soon as it was light we moved to a cove that
looked
like it should be well protected (500 foot vertical walls most of
the
way around it...but the wind was blowing so hard it was picking
water
from the tops of the 3" waves, making the surface of the water
look
white. We sought shelter in another notch, which was back in
the
end of a bay and so narrow I managed to tie the Red Rover between
the
sides. This was a very secure spot, and it allowed me to get
caught up on my sleep.
Other trips, in brief:
I retired the Red Rover in 1992, when I bought the Acrux. I had hoped to sell it and left it
in dry dock in Valdez for a
couple of years, but when it didn't sell I moved it to
Fairbanks.
Eventually, after it had sat for many more years, I sold it (in
2009).
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However if you want to use portions of it feel free to do so, though I would appreciate it if you would acknowledge my authorship.
Messed with spring 1999, Updated spring 2010.