Re: [Cal_Boats] DYK_CAL History(Randy)

--- On Fri, 3/6/09, Randy Alcorn <sa… [at] yahoo.com> wrote: I always talk to a gent in our yacht club, by the name of Walter. Did you know he was the first person to buy a CAL? Apparently Jack Jensen and Ernie Fink (?(Wink)) was going to build a CAL 24 in the Santa Monica airport, Walter told them he would buy one. After his purchase, him and his wife took off for the Caribean and they lived on it for a while. The boat had a swing keel and it weighed 400 lbs. After they got back to SOCAL, Walters wife wanted a bigger boat. Soooooo, Ernie wanted out and Jack gave him the boat. Then he hooked up with Bill Lapworth. Bill built the CAL 40 and the rest is history. Randy, not exactullee. The Cal 24 was originally called the "California 24" and it was a 1958 design by Bill Lapworth. I think....Jensen built the molds and the top and bottom halves, and sold them as a do it yourself kit. I know, 'cause I have one of them there do it yourself boats. We have a...yahoo...bigger V berth than the later production factory versions. And the keel? Nope. She's got 800 pounds of lead in poured in the keel which runs 2/3rds the length of the boat. Behind it is a pie shaped centerboard that is 3/4" boiler plate steel, that rotates down from a horse shoe type notch, pivoting on a 3/4" a phenol pin (I took mine in, repaired it at Anacappa Marine, and put it back in...but that's another long story). The boat weighs 3000 lbs. While Shpritz was at Anacappa Marine Boatyard I met a former DC-3 Hump driver who told me that built a Cal 24 kit boat of his own...didn't think he could do it but he put it together. He currently (then, at age 84) had his 42' Ketch that he's sailed down from the Sacramento Delta for boatyard work at Channel Islands...thought he'd get a better deal there, but didn't..At the time ,1997,copper bottoms were banned in many parts of CA but not in Ventura County. Interestingly, from the waterline up, in most respects, my Cal 24 looks like a toy version of the Cal 40! So Bill knew the Cal 40 was going to surf like crazy..like a surfboard.... on a beam reach with a good stiff breeze even before he did the lay-up. I should know. "And dat's dah truth!" Jerry