That’s “I’m away on vacation” in Italian.

I left late Saturday for the Fornicalia coast with my beautimous wife. We stopped in Williams, Fornicalia, for a ton of garlic.

This is our view, now, out the patio door:

We’ll be here for about ten days. During that time I’ll be blogging as well, because the internet connection in the room is decent. I won’t be thinking about work at all. I decided (though I am conflicted) not to answer work e-mails off-duty any more. Nada. Finito. Done. Zip. Zero. The Null Set.

In the meantime, as I was driving about whilst my beautimous wife tanned and got even darker, I chanced upon a new boat in the latter phase of construction adjacent Noyo Harbor; see the photographs at the very bottom of this post (click to make them much larger).

This area is home to the Van Peer Boatworks (which, sadly, has no official website). Chris Van Peer has been building and registering boats since 1978 (see the chart).

Van Peer Boatworks, Fort Bragg CA

Most recent update: September 12, 2011.

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Van Peer Boatworks is one of the leaders on the West Coast in fishing vessel construction. The shipyard does not have a web site. You can see it from the air on Google here, although it’s a bit fuzzy.

Hull #	Original Name	Original Owner	Type	GT	Built	Disposition
1
2
3
4	Jersey Girl	Ingman, M.	Fishing Vessel	39	1978	Active
5
6
7
	Capella	Caldwell Enterprises	Fishing Vessel	49	1979	Active
8	Blackhawk	Ponts, C.J.	Fishing Vessel	52	1980	Active
9	Lady Launa		Fishing Vessel	109	1981	Now “Star of the Sea”
10	Reality	Curry, John H., Jr.	Fishing Vessel	71	1982	Active
11	Island Pride	Haltiner, D.R.	Fishing Vessel	68	1982	Active
12	Sleep Robber	Escolar, W.N., Jr.	Fishing Vessel	17	1983	Active
13	Silver Express	Akers, F.J.	Fishing Vessel	17	1983	Active
14	Southeast	Evens, R.N.	Fishing Vessel	107	1986	Active
15	Rose Lee	Eide, M.L.	Fishing Vessel	59	1988	Active
16	Jeanine Kathleen	Ingman, R.L.	Fishing Vessel	85	1990	Active
17
18
19
20
21	Chasina Bay	Haynes, H.C.	Fishing Vessel	118	1994	Active
22	Infinity	Melling, D.L.	Fishing Vessel	111	1995	Active
23
24	Anna Lee	Giannini, J.	Fishing Vessel	93	1996	Now “Spectre”
25	Stella	Stella	Fishing Vessel	116	1998	Active
26
27	Jes An	Estes Fisheries	Fishing Vessel	123	2005	Active
28	Fierce Leader	Fierce Leader, Inc.	Fishing Vessel	124	2007	Active
29	Chasina Bay	Harold C. Haynes	Fishing Vessel	97	2010	Active
30	Brooke Michelle	Brooke Michelle LLC	Fishing Vessel	109	2011	Active

I wrote about his most recent boat, the Chasina Bay, in February of 2010:

I went to the indicated website, Chasina Bay Charters, and discovered that this boat is set to launch in May of this year (2010), and is the featured vessel in the Chasina Bay Charters company.

According to the website, the vessel is a 75-foot expedition yacht that will ply the waters in and around Ketchikan, Alaska. One planned itinerary includes 8 days of crabbing, whale watching, kayaking, fishing, nature viewing, beach combing and hiking.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? With one small caveat: click on the tab that indicates “rates & reservations.” Booking the boat, which can berth 8 persons, is $22,000 for the first four days, and $4,800 each additional day thereafter.

Let’s see: for that 8-day trip I mentioned above, your tab would be $41,200.

Nice work if you can get it — and nice cash, if you can afford it in this economy.

The Chasina Bay did in fact launch from Noyo Harbor in Ft Bragg, as documented on video here:

That said, there’s a new boat in town.

I don’t know its name, I don’t know its potential buyer, but I know that it’s being built by the Van Peer Boatworks much closer to Noyo Harbor than before (as opposed to half a mile farther away on Highway 20). As in: let’s not have to travel so far to launch and float this boat.

Fishing vessels, and other boats, are frequently like icebergs: much of their bulk lies hidden beneath the water line. As you can see above, the draft of this boat (the measurement of how far the boat’s hull will extend underwater) appears to be huge — at least to the untrained non-boat-builder’s eye like mine. An excellent article on determining a boat’s draft can be found here.

In this view, you can see the vessel under construction directly adjacent South Harbor Drive off of Highway 20, on the south side of Noyo Harbor itself. Here one can access the Harbormaster and the Coast Guard. Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and notice the size of the boat as compared to the red pickup truck on the left.

It’s my understanding that the bulbous nose at the bow of boats and ships helps to reduce drag, increase speed and stability, which also helps with fuel economy. Technically, it is called a “bulbous bow.” The fishing vessel Time Bandit on Deadliest Catch, for example, acquired a bulbous bow refit in 2008. Captain Andy Hillstrand said that the new nose also adds roughly 20,000 pounds of lift to the bow.

Here is a satellite view of Noyo Harbor and its area.

The weather should be quite nice during our stay, with some clouds and fog but, according to the weather, no rain. And with that, I bid thee adieu.

“Fair skies and favoring winds” to you.

BZ

P.S.
I just visited the Chasina Bay Charters website, where one can rent that 75-foot custom-built yacht as it plies Alaskan waters and noticed — at the very bottom of the site — that the Chasina Bay (admittedly, a beautifully-appointed boat) is for sale after only a little over one year in service. At $41,000 for an eight-person, eight-day trip, I can understand why.