"Tin Can" circumnavigation

[Lucky Dawg]

David Vann and his $25,000 homemade trimaran. Follow this 4 month (...so planned) adventure at http://www.esquire.com/the-side/blog/tincan#
Plans to shove off in 2 weeks-ish.
 
Here's the backstory - http://www.esquire.com/features/sailing1207?click=main_sr
 
His route:

[ebb]

At first it's totally hairbrained!
The boat is gaunt and emaciated.  And looks so amateur - as if every effort was made to avoid a curve because bending was too difficult.  And there's Vann saying he's using cheap Home Depot tools.
Yeah, well, Rigid tools are pretty solid and a good buy!  Now if he said Harbor Freight....

But here's the minimalist kick in the pants:  
The trimaran's designer is one of the most respected, talented yacht designers of our age.  He's designed every kind, has a great rep for happily designing specifically for individuals.  And Vann is a young experienced ocean sailor.  Hence the TinCan.  Vann.  Tanton.

Still it looks like a couple of jury-rigged stringers and a keel that lost the rest of the ship.  There's an absolute minimum of surface area, volume and buoyancy.  If you think of a skateboard as transportation, then TinCan is a yacht.
"Built for battle, not built for comfort."
WHY?  It's already a hard ship.

Man, this greyhound going to be noisy inside, or what!!!
And moldy.

Looks like it'll be a bear to steer in troubled water,  wonder if it'll lie ahulls with a sea-anchor.

[Lucky Dawg]

He titles the article "I do not have a death wish" but you have to wonder. Gotta give it to him though - lots of people dream and far fewer do... It'll be a hell of a story if he pulls it off.
If I measured right, that's about 8800 miles at the 56th - that is a lot of enormous-seas ocean in a literal tin can. Yikes.

[commanderpete]

I think it's great for people to pursue their dream. But, a few things about this guy bother me.

First, his last adventure resulted in the boat sinking, leaving a trail of bilked investors.

He did write a bestselling book about it, without bothering to pay his debts.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1560257105/qid=1113296689/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1?v=glance

Now he apparantly only has $25,000 left, and needs to write another book. A dramatic rescue would be the best thing to happen to him (hence 2 EPIRBS).

Disaster is pretty much guaranteed, with an unproven design, no shake-down cruise--not even a test sail.

This is really nothing more than a publicity stunt.

Seems to be quite a few people blogging about their plans for a grand adventure with a quirky twist, seeking attention and donations. I'd rather read about it after they've got a few thousand miles into the trip. Better yet, maybe they could write about it after they get home and have actually accomplished something.

[CapnK]

Interesting points, C'pete.

And the Esquire connection... First time I've heard of a sailor using *Esquire* as a blog/media outlet. lol

[Lucky Dawg]

...leaving a trail of bilked investors. He did write a bestselling book about it, without bothering to pay his debts.

You know more about him than I do. How do you?? I didn't read his book, but did he detail his bilking? That is pretty ballsey (a-hole-ish) if so. Maybe it is common sailing-community knowledge - to which I am not privvy.
 
Does one receive a bill for being rescued on the high seas? Costs you a pretty penny to have US Tow (or whatever they're called) bail you out and tow in a disabled boat... I know there is accepted high seas etiquette for an SOS, but it seems a premeditated "tragedy" at sea deserves a pricetag. ...a beatdown... or...?

[Lucky Dawg]

now Shackleford's story... ride those seas in a life or death voyage in makeshift canoe!!! I presume that passes non-publicity-stunt muster!
 
...even though Esquire had him blogging the whole way.

[commanderpete]

This book review sums it up pretty well:

http://sailingmagazine.net/fullby0905.html



Vann may not come across as very likable in the book, but he must be irresistible in person, with charm and charisma to burn. He persuades friends, mainly folks who took his educational charters, to loan him hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance his folly. He confides that his story "became a kind of spiel as I learned that these people—sometimes without my even asking—were willing to loan me money." One couple gives him $250,000. His mother pitches in with $60,000, In all, he raises $600,000 in private loans. Most of his lenders are stiffed when he declares bankruptcy. "Bankruptcy law is very generous to the debtor," he notes.
This is one of the few books that actually generates sympathy for credit card companies. Vann treats credit cards as gift cards, the idea of paying for the purchases for which they're used apparently a foreign concept. He maxes out four American Express cards to the tune of almost six figures, then seems surprised to have to report, "They wanted everything paid in full." As the book ends, he notes he "racked up more than $60,000 on my wife's credit cards, which would probably force her into bankruptcy."

[Lucky Dawg]

WOW... Presuming that is an accurate characterization... What a hump. ...says the sensitive social worker...
 
I would never wish anyone a watery grave, but a hefty journey long - however short - lice infestation might be in order. At some point hopefully what comes around goes around...
 
I'll be surprised if Esquire isn't to be bilked as well.
 
To his benefactors - present and future - I would have to say "caveat emptor." You know the old story... Scorpion asks the frog for a lift across the river. Frog declines saying "You'll only sting me and send me to my death." Scorpion assures him that he'd never do such a thing. Convinced, the Frog is shocked halfway across the river when the Scorpion plunges his venom into the frog. "Why would you do that??" "I can't help it," says the Scorpion, "it's my nature."
 
In my professional work, I certainly find that most people stay in character - predictably demonstrating their nature across time and situation. That is, people stay in character unless they make a concerted effort to get out of character. My work is exciting in that I get the opportunity to work with people who set their minds to getting into preferable character.

[ebb]

Even in Bill Shanahan's negative commentary about Vann,  ALL the news or 'facts' comes by way of Vann himself.  Vann is the one who is writing about himself as a world class jerk.  Might ask what is fact and what is fiction and what is Falstaffian bilge water.

Remember Vann admits to being a writer.

[Bill]

Here's an update from lectric latitude:

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2008-02-08&dayid=70#Story4

[Wildcat]

les brers over at SailingAnarchy.com are having a donnybrook fair over this Vann chap's follies.  a consensus seems to be gathering around the notion that he has a death wish

[mbd]

From the Sailing Anarchy web page, dated 02.20.08.

Tin Can getting a tow in to Santa Cruz harbor shortly after sailing out of San Francisco...

[ebb]

I didn't think the Coasties rendered any assist unless life was threatened and  vessel sinking?

Have to assume he passed his 'courtesy' inspection
that there was no dope onboard.

What this guy is doing IS a stunt.  
It could be becoming a parody.

Every conceivable and inconceivable kind of vessel has been built to cross the wide ocean.  Record breakers are way down at the bottom of my list.  But I'm happy when they succeed.  I'm happy that eccentrics have a place in this world and less crazy people can buff their humanity by helping them.

Do have a problem, these days, with persons on suicide missions.
Suicide missions which require an audience.


You can't have eccentric aluminum welding, it has to be just so.  Riveting would have been best.  If this was a hurry-up welding job he might not have backed up  butt-joints with a backup strip - current acceptable practice.
Why is it called TIN Can, anyway???

If I understand, he also foamed the outer hulls.
Hope he's carrying a couple underwater cure epoxy kits.
He would be better served with airbags
and a foot pump.
Urethane foam will get waterlogged, and those stringbean hull forms will dive even worse than they are doing now.
Aside from its workmanship, as a concept this trimaran is really screwy, there is no reserve buoyancy in the hull forms.
 
Three large redwood tree trunks would get him around the world more comfortably - and with much more style.

Not only that,  his voyage would have a purpose....
he might have proved that prehistoric Heyerdahlians populated Antarctica using log trimarafts.

[Lucky Dawg]

Why is it called TIN Can, anyway???

"I plan to name my boat the Tin Can, which will be an accurate visual description and also what the Norwegian fishermen of the Alaskan fleet, in their wooden hulls, called my father's aluminum fishing boat"
 
Rescue from the git-go. Dude sound true to form so far.