Unfortunately Port Townsend Rigging was closed so I was not able to see Dan and Lisa, but that's OK because I got to see plenty of them at Sue's house.
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I then wandered into the Maritime Center to see Simeon and his progress in building his SCAMP boat. He was not in when I arrived but while I was looking at the next stage of the building process with the hull now up he walked in and I got to spend close to an hour with him. He explained the steps in this phase of the construction and showed me components of the boat scattered all over the large facility. I learned more about boat modern boat building techniques and admired the superb high quality equipment in the facility. It is a boat builder's heaven for the expertise available as well as the space and equipment.
Simeon showed me on his Samsung Android Tablet the track of a sail that he and a friend had done on a SCAMP the previous day. In a 14-15 kt wind they made good about 5.5 kt on one leg and averaged about 3.5 kt for the entire sail. The SCAMP is an amazing little boat. (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=scamp+boat&hl=en&newwindow=1&tbo=u&noj=1&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=xnKWUNWLLeGvyQHZp4CADg&ved=0CEYQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=620)
Simeon's Samsung table impressed me greatly. He had been able to use the tablet as a GPS then later impose the track onto a Google map. In nautical GPS mode it has the look and feel of the real thing, including direction, boat speed, and track. A lot has changed since I left Australia 4.5 years ago, and it appears to me that commodity electronics today is a fast moving target and the longer we wait the better it gets.
I am looking forward to Simeon's invitation to sail in his boat on my next visit to Port Townsend.
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