SV Ulladh (ul-la): July 2010

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

July 2010

Thursday July 8, 2010

The first day in the low 90's F for a week time for a sail. The air temperature has been over 100 deg F and clear enough to fry my brain, but this morning started in the mid 80's when I left the dock and was mid 90's when I returned.

Left the dock at high slack on a broad reach to the Eddystone red/green "TS" bouy then on to green can "E1" making 3.5 to 4.5 knots SOG.

Come about at "E1" and get good speed on the opposite tack until the ebb tide builds and the breeze fails. Tack shipping channel to shore, but no forward progress.

Roll up the headsail, sheet-in the main and motor sail against the ebb tide. Docking is at more speed than I would like due to the building ebb tide but the boat kisses the dock and dock lines secured.

Saturday July 3, 2010
Afternoon sail on an ebb tide.
Aldo furler and new 135% headsail installed.

5 to 10 knot breeze out of the southwest provides enough power to close reach at a speed over ground (SOG) of 4.5 knot down river against the tide. The new headsail allows the boat to point close to 25 deg off the breeze, but comfortably sustain 45 deg off the wind.

The tidal current flow increases as the breeze dies, come about and have a controled drift with the tide and less than a 5 knot breeze.

The wind shift to out of the north as I pass behind Little Tinicum and get a tidal current assisted broad reach at 5 knot SOG to the airport runway lights. Come about and a slow return with the ebb to the marina and a gentle dock.

Ulladh

Ulladh pronounced "ul-la" (null lad).

Uladh the gaelic spelling for the territory of the U-Nail chieftains in the ancient Irish province of Ulster (English/Norse), originally the counties of Down and Antrim, but now including Derry, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, also referred to as Ulidia (Greek/Roman),.

Uladh was the home of a pre-celtic, cruithne (crew-en-ya) pictish tribe, who may have been descendants of prehistoric tribes indigenous to the British Isles since the retreat of the last ice age.

Evidence from cut marks on deer bones from more than 30,000 years ago found in the karst formations of the Burren probably from hunters suggest a homonid precence. Archeological finds date first inhabitants (DNA evidence suggests dark or black skin and blue eyes) to about 6,000 BC and trade goods from Rathlin Island, County Antrim off the northeast coast of Ireland made from porcellanite stone appearing in Egypt and Crete by 2,500 BC.

The early tribes of Ireland where displaced by later waves of migrants from mainland Europe; about 1700 BC by bronze age tribes, celtic tribes about 500 BC, and in the past two millenia; Roman trading posts, Viking settlements, English plantations... and in the 21st century a welcome increasing diversity from the European Union and the world.

SV Ulladh (for vhf clarity I use "sailing vessel ul-la") is named for the territory of the first peoples to settle in Ireland after the retreat of the last ice age.

Fisksatra

Since 1949 Fisksatra Varv in the coastal town of Fisksatra Sweden, built fiberglass boats from dinghies to a 300 ton minesweeper for the Swedish Navy.

The Havsfidra 20's were built between 1968 and the late 1970's to Swedish Navy and Lloyd's certification standards.

The Havsfidra 20 and a larger version the Storfidra 26 where sold in the United States by Continental Yachts and Trawler Agency of Atlantic City NJ.

Havsfidra; sea-feather?
(fidra; to touch or tickle with a feather -Icelandic-English Dictionary, Clarendon Press 1874)