Thread: 200 miles up the texas coast in a Goat Island Skiff - John & Mark GoodmanTexas200

From John in the Morning

GIR crew left this morning shortly after 8:05 am. It had rained lightly during the night. Fortunately it had already stopped by morning. They are off to the next stop - Paul's Mott where Long Reef runs into St. Joseph's Island in Aransas Bay. Let's hope they'll have some cell reception and good weather!

In the Afternoon

Day 3 was another day of sailing upwind.

The winds are coming from the East so there was a lot of tacking upwind. Both sails were in use today with no reefing. There were not head bumps today but some pretty scary moments were had. While crossing the ship channel the wind died at the most unnerving times. All the boats felt stressed crossing it. It was a relief that no one got run over. David says they were in danger 3 times!

After the channel crossing they went around Shamrock Island (which was the long route) then headed for Blind Pass. They missed the channel for Blind Pass and hit bottom, but the second time around they found the way in by staying close to the grass (10 feet off shore). They are camping tonight at Paul's Mott on the beach there.

They'll be off early again tomorrow. Tonight's menu was Chicken Fajitas for David and Spaghetti and Meat Sauce for John. MMMMMM

Tomorrow's destination is Army Hole. David says they are pretty fast and will beat almost everyone.
Goodnight until tomorrow.

I will look for more pics and text.

From John

First half of the day had light winds and it was very hot . It was a good opportunity to put up the bimini which helped a lot! After leaving Paul's Mott we took the inter coastal waterway to marker 31, then we sailed to Panther Reef Cut.

Going through there we saw a big school of redfish about 36 inches big that were probably spawning (they were stirring up the bottom). Then we headed for South Pass to Army Hole.

We outpaced a Core Sound 17 and a Sea Pearl 21 . We were the 2nd boat to sail in (we don't have a motor) after a Hobby 16. We docked at about 5ish in a beautiful slip in Army Hole and enjoyed the rest of the day.

Tomorrow will be a short day and we might just wait till the wind picks up before we set out.
We should be arriving around noon.

GIR out.

And a pic from the launch day a couple of weeks ago.



To beat a core sound is quite an accomplishment ... they are quick. Could be extra sail area from the bimini! Glad that they only used it in the light wind.

The Core Sound designer is also from Australia.

MIK

John Says ...

The first GIS Yawl has finished it's first 200 mile shake down cruise up the Texas coast. We are very happy with how the boat performed. We had no wind up to about 15knot gusts during the 5 day event.

We just rolled in and I am ready for a shower. Will post more details later.

What a great sailing boat!

From John

GIR Day 5 Report

At end of day 4 we had had a great sail to Army Hole and quickly set up camp. David crawled into the tent and took a 4 hour nap. I broke out some of our comfort food and a group of sailors enjoyed it with some great conversations. Comfort food was crackers, hard salami and cheese-n-a-can. Nothing any of us would eat while at home, but it sure tasted good after a very long day.

My right hand and shoulder were very tired, sore and swollen from sailing on starboard tack all day. The moon rise was beautiful, the evening cool and a slow stream of people brought their boats into Army Hole as the sun set. The arrival of the Puddle Ducks (smallest boat in the fleet) brought everyone out to cheer them into the harbor. Those guys are tough.

We slept in and cleaned up the boat and were the last ones to leave. With a light wind and a adverse current we spent some time sailing along with some of the other boats talking about boats and other things. With a light wind hard on the nose, the channel was not fun with lots of power boaters and barges making the water feel like a washing machine.

After we turned the corner at the end of the jetties a slow downwind sail to Magnolia Beach began. We put up our umbrellas, extra sail area and shade, and drifted. The waves were building, but the wind didn't. Balancing the boat was getting to be a challenge for David who had been at the helm since we left Army Hole. After we switched the wind increased and made it a lot funnier to surf the boat down the waves. (very small waves)

We pulled up onto the beach and were greeted by my wife Rosa and my parents. We did it!

Goodman family and the Goat packed ready to go home ...

Yeehaa Yole! (one of the older spellings, but I've also seen yoel)

Well done. It sounds like you've had a great time under the viscious Texas sun.

I've just bought a couple of very unflattering Kalahari hats for next summer, because it'll be around soon enough.
Kalahari Hat | uveto

Some great pics, and well done!

Quite a few of the links to pictures don't work for me, when I click on any of the ones that start with

The Texas 200

they don't go anywhere.

Would love to see more pictures, a link to more of the story.

Ian

They are links to emoticons in the original text, so there are no pictures behind them.

Texas 200 • View forum - Updates

This is the forum with the GIR updates, John's are by day.

Try this and look in the 2010 pics section.

Texas 200 • View forum - Welcome

For long distance cruising this picture shows a few items we considered very important.
1. personal umbrellas-to keep the sun off our legs.
2. pressure pump for evening showers and cooling down during the day.
3. large duffel bag tied to the boat. The bag contained a lot of gear and is located directly behind the middle seat to keep the weigh centralized. We put a section of 1inch foam inside the bottom of the bag. This keep the stuff inside from getting water and would help float the bag if it broke loose during a capsize.
4. good charts & gps
5. well covered for sun protection and good sun glasses.
6. bailing bucket
7. lots of water stored under the middle seat.
8. mesh bags tied to the gunnels. These held small items.

Looked through the December '10 issue of WoodenBoat Magazine #217 and the Goodman family and GIR are pictured in the Texas 200 article.

Kudos

Originally Posted by paulwjax

Looked through the December '10 issue of WoodenBoat Magazine #217 and the Goodman family and GIR are pictured in the Texas 200 article.

Kudos

Might explain why there are 115 guests on the forum a while ago.

Howdy - it has been between 115 and 89 most of the day.

Wish I knew why. There is a bit of a lift on my website numbers today, but nothing special and they are not coming from a particular place, and you would expect that would be the first place it would happen.

Very strange. Sometimes I see the numbers suddenly jump high and suddenly reduce. I always think that it might be the Google spiders checking out the site. But it's been up all day.

Cool - I guess

MIK

MIK

For those of you that have read the Wooden Boat Magazine, Number 217 article about the Texas 200, I would like to add a few comments to fill between the lines.
“roly-poly squirreliness” Wow, did I really say that? My sailing background has been in multihulls since 1974 and a brief co-owner of a C&C36 monohull. The multihulls could be driven very hard and deep downwind and thru most waves, or until you pitch-poled. The C&C36 would roll window to window in big waves and high winds then round-up into a messy broach. So my reference point is from 2 very different boat types. Now does a GIS have “roly-poly squirreliness”? I think “sometimes” is the answer.
We have only experienced 2 challenging downwind conditions in GIR. Our last day of the Texas 200 and a day sail with my wife. For the Texas 200 we set GIR up as a Yawl. For day sailing my wife and I used just the single lug rig.
The last day of the TX 200 sail was dead downwind and very light air. The afternoon breeze tried to fill in but it kicked up the waves first, 6-12” waves dead astern and not enough breeze to keep up with the waves. Larger powerboat waves or the occasional tanker wake would drive the hull in odd directions and get the boat rolling from side to side. Quick changes in body positions would dampen the rolling. It was really just hard work and we washed the end of the boom a few times. David was helming thru this sloppiness and I balanced the boat. The wind did fill in and the boat stabilized. We tried the mizzen both wing-on-wing and with both booms on one side. When the wind did increase I was uncomfortable continuing with our wing-on-wing setup. I was concerned that an accidental gybe of the mizzen would drive the boat up into a broach.
My wife’s sailing trip with me was a great downwind run with big, 2-3’, waves and lots of wind to drive down the face of each wave, catch up and blast thru the next. No time to bail! The boat was very stable, planed well and was never out of control. It did handle like a small dingy. Did this ride have some “roly-poly squirreliness”, my wife says YES. Would the mizzen have helped dampen the rolling? I think it would of but not to a large degree. Over sheeting the mizzen in strong downwind conditions would get you into more trouble than an accidental mizzen gybe.
“it was no contest” Wow, yes I did say that. (I think the real contest was to see if I would capsize the boat during the trip.) On this particular long day we pasted and got pasted by a Core Sound, Sea Pearl and a few Lagunas many times. It just depended on the wind speed, direction, waves and if we were reefed or not. The Sea Pearl can point much higher than my GIS and outpaced us up a tight channel with the wind dead on our nose. We needed 6 tacks and I think the Sea Pearl only needed 2. There is a lighter wind speed that makes the Lagunas go like rockets, so we drifted ahead, then behind many times, but as the wind picked up to about 15mph on a close reach we were able to slowly sail away. We crossed tacks with the Core Sound while lining up to run a cut in one of the oyster reefs. We crossed slightly ahead of them at the cut and turned on the horsepower, with my 200lbs hiked out on the rail. I really think I was racing at that point while they were enjoying the day cruising. It sure was fun sailing fast no matter who was around.
“slopping epoxy” Yes, I blamed my kids for spilling the epoxy, but the care and pride they took in building GIR was just amazing. No slopping on the boat, just the floor, each other, me a few times and our cat.
Best wishes, JDG

John
Marvellous yawl.
Are your gunnel fenders to deal with the rough and tumble of the Texan 200?..
or nice high buoyancy to aid capsize recovery, have you tested them? They certainly seem like they should be helpful particularly if your "ballast" remains near the bottom of the boat.
Wayne