Re: Bilge Beer (was Cal keels - Ballast) Wilkie

David Wilkie Owen added to the Cal vernacular with: "You are referring to the "Guinness Sump," a hollow place indeed, where ALL Cal 29 skippers will agree is the best place to store Guinness. Guinness drinks best at whatever water temperature level you experience in your Guinness Drinking and Cruising grounds. A little film of diesel oil on the can is also a plus. I am sure that this is one of the reasons that Bill Lapworth used encapsulated keels." Don't attempt this with lesser brews, or soda cans. The packaging manufacturers have figured out how to create what is apparently a mono-molecular thickness for aluminum cans. I remember keeping the early Canada Dry Ginger Ale cans in the bilges of my dad's boat when I was a kid; these were solid steel, and shaped like a bottle complete with a crimped bottle cap. So when we had some beer and soda left over when we first got Pentaquod some seven years ago, I left them sitting on the keel rather than haul them home and back again. On our return to the boat, the belowdecks ambiance was a tad ripe. The moisture (there were a few portlight leaks then) around the cans had etched pinholes, which sprayed the contents around the bilges, which then had a chance to ripen fully in the mid-summer mid-Atlantic heat. After a lengthy clean-up, I vowed not to repeat the mistake. Also, keep in mind that from July through much of September, the Chesapeake water temperatures hover somewhere around scalding, which is quite different than the perpetually frigid Pacific waters you Left Coasters inhabit. I'm an open-minded guy when it comes to beverages, but I'm far enough removed from my British heritage to enjoy hot beer. So I content that there are times when artificial means are called for to moderate the temperature of your MGD (Mostly Grain Drink). Alfred Poor 1969 Cal 29 #132, "Pentaquod"

--- In Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com, "Alfred Poor" <apoor@...> wrote: > > David Wilkie Owen added to the Cal vernacular with: > > > > "You are referring to the "Guinness Sump," a hollow place indeed, where ALL > > Cal 29 skippers will agree is the best place to store Guinness. Guinness > > drinks best at whatever water temperature level you experience in your > > Guinness Drinking and Cruising grounds. A little film of diesel oil on the > > can is also a plus. I am sure that this is one of the reasons that Bill > > Lapworth used encapsulated keels." > > snipped I once got a tour of the Cal 43 Thalia IV from the owner whose name I forget. He was a San Diego YC sailor and bon vivant. He told us he raced with a salad chef and a dinner chef. The Cal 43 has a marvelous galley and he had cut small square access ports in the teak cabin sole. He showed us how to lift each square port and below was a long nylon sock containing bottles of various beverages. One, I recall, was the "gin bin." He kept his wine cellar beneath the cabin sole. He won a lot of races, too. In one instance he told us about, they were the lead boat going to the weather mark. The mark, unfortunately, was a spar and flag that had to be set by the race committee. The committee boat in those days was a Grand Banks 32 (like the LAYC RC boat) and was only marginally faster than Thalia beating to weather. It was a windy day and he said the RC was agonizingly slowly pulling past Thalia. Finally, they got about two boat-lengths ahead and tossed the mark overboard and yelled MARK! Mike Kennedy Conquest Cal 40 # 96 > > > Alfred Poor > > 1969 Cal 29 #132, "Pentaquod" >