April 2014 Archives

The Baba Story         Part two

 

 

Once again: If my memory fails I'll make something up that sounds right and makes me look good.

When we left the story Bob Berg had quit the TV station and was working full time as a broker. I think the brokerage was called Flying Dutchman, started by my old buddy Will Eickholt.  They were selling Tayana 37's with good regularity.

 

One day Bob came in the office and said he had an idea for a new boat. He wanted a 30' version of the Tayana 37. It should be a heavy little boat with the emphasis on the interior layout. Bob already had the interior laid out in his mind down to the last detail. My work on this layout was simply to draft of Bob's ideas. So while I would love to take credit for the interior of the Baba 30 I can't. It's all Bob Berg. The office joke was, when you open a drawer on the Baba 30 inside it you'll find another little drawer. Bob didn't let a cubic inch go unused. I was skeptical.

 

But I'm not going to design a hull without doing my very best to make it a good performing boat. That's a challenge with 12,000 lbs. on 30'LOA. I essentially used similar shapes to those in the Tayana 37. The Baba 30 would be a chunky monkey but curvaceous. I'm sitting here now, at my computer, staring up at the Baba 30 half model on my wall. I'm trying to figure out what In did that was "special". Can't see it myself. But we'll get into the performance of the 30 later. On my wall the half model of the Tayana 37 is right above the half model of the Baba 30. There are more similarities than differences. One thing I notice as I stare at the photos and the model is that the leading edge of the "full keel" is farther aft on the Baba 30 than it is on the Tayana 37. This may account for the better helm balance on the Baba.

 

 

We tore into the design of the 30 and before long the boat was being built in Taiwan at a new yard, one I had never heard of, Ta Shing , Mandarin for "Big New". I have always translated Ta Shing as "Big Star" "Shing" meaning "star". But I was recently corrected. I hate looking stupid. With the build well underway Bob thought I should make a trip to the yard to check on the progress. I met Bob in Taiwan and he was accompanied by his inspector, Tim Ellis. Tim, an Englishman about my age lived in Taiwan and really knew the ropes.  We met early in the morning at the hotel in Taipei and off we drove almost the length of Taiwan to the new yard in Tainan.

 

Ta Shing was located down a narrow lane in a series of co-joined brown brick buildings that looked less than impressive. The approaching lane was narrow and I had to move chickens out of my way to get to the front door of the yard. The actual Boatbuilding area of the yard was small and dark. There was the Baba 30 to one side and a quarter tonner being built for a Japanese client on the other side. I just stared at the 30. It looked to be perfect in every way. I was blown away by the quality and level of finish. It was a handsome little hooker all dressed up with teak everywhere. But that was Bob's style. i.e. put teak on everything. Keep in mind that this build was at a time when labor was cheap in Taiwan. I would question a client on a labor intensive detail and get the reply, "Forget labor cost. It's nothing." So, here were the first two Ta Shing boats I ever saw. Two boats that could not be more different, an IOR quarter tonner and a very heavy little double ender. Both built beautifully.

 

Everybody was happy. The yard wanted to take Me, Bob and Tim to dinner. The problem was that we had made other dinner plans back in Taipei. This was a problem. The solution was lunch with the guys from the yard. Off we went for a "modest" lunch. The Taiwanese are not good at doing modest meals. I was the guest of honor and along with about six men from the yard we sat down to an extravagant feast in a private room at a nice restaurant. These plush, private rooms were common in better restaurants in Taiwan. The room layout was simple, a series of big armchairs lining the four walls and a big circular dining table in the middle.

 

The Taiwanese don't drink during a meal the way we do. If my observations are correct the Taiwanese only take a drink after they have toasted the guest. They employ an unfair tactic here. They gang up on the guest. I was the guest of honor so I was the toasting target. I had six guys toasting me in quick rotation. Each toast was "gumbei" or bottoms up. We were probably drinking Taiwan beer which is most excellent beer. I don't know. I passed out. I woke up in one of the overstuffed chairs with a wet towel over my face. As I came to and removed the towel I looked to my right and there was a Taiwanese guy, Jackson, passed out with a towel over his face in the next chair. Leaving the restaurant I said to Tim, "I must have lost face passing out like that." Tim said, "No, Jackson passed out first." You're fine.

 

Tim, Bob and I were not in too good a shape for the drive back to Taipei. But off we went in Tim's little car, cruising down the brand new end to end of Taiwan highway. The highway was not finished but this did not deter the Taiwanese drivers. They sped down the divided highway totally oblivious of which side of the highway they should be on. There were abrupt 4" high changes in the highway level at frequent intervals. Small Taiwanese cars that had never been driven over 40-mph were lined up, broken on both sides of the highway. Tim always prided himself on his ability to take advantage of the free form style of Taiwan driving rules so to keep us awake he would do very strange things on the highway. It was exciting.

 

We pulled up to my hotel THE SANTOS to find our dinner party waiting for us in the lobby. Great. I asked for time to clean up before dinner. One of the dinner party went up to my room with me. I don't remember his name but he was about my age, maybe even younger. He was extremely curious about all the things I traveled with. I travel heavy. He literally went through my bag asking what each item was for and how much I paid for it. I thought it was funny and I truly admired his curiosity and keen effort to learn. I have no recollection of dinner at all. It was a very long day.

Aside:

I just called Bob Berg. I wanted to know what a Baba 30 cost when they were introduced. Bob is going to get back to me on that. But in conversation about my blog I askd Bob if he remembered the time I passed out at lunch. His reply was, "Well, that happened several times." Some friend he is.

 

It would take me some time to realize that it was socially OK  to say ,"Ee pan" meaning "one half". Avoiding the bottoms up trap. Also in time I got to the point where just couldn't take the "let's drink the big nose under the table tactic any longer. I devised my own plan. When asked to dinner by a hospitable builder I would decline explaining that I had a previous dinner engagement. This worked well. But in time it back fired and dinner invites became few and scarce. I was left to fend for myself at dinner time and Taiwanese food is not best enjoyed alone. But eating alone in a crowded Sichuan restaurant did at times lead to some interesting situations. My favorite place to eat by myself was Y. Y's Steak House on Chung San be loo. They knew me there and I never had to order. They would just bring me the exact same thing I had eaten the previous time at the very same table: Fried salami appetizer, a gin and tonic, corn chowder, salad, a fabulous New York steak and a bottle of Torres Sangre de Toro Spanish wine. I never had the heart to change my order. I thoight it would have dissapointed the, The head waitress was Jessica. I felt at home there in that strange steak house with an ambiance of a mixture of Scottish hunting lodge and African safari bungalow. One night I returned from Kaohsiung late and went straight to Y. Y's. I had called and made a reservation. When I got there the help was sleeping on the bench seats in the deserted dining area but they got up and sprang into action when I walked in. Y.Y. had his four year old son there. I ate my dinner while Y'Y's son stood at my table singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over and over and over. Y'Y's is probably my most favorite restaurant in the world.

 

An aside:

You have probably noticed that I don't call the people of Taiwan "Chinese". This is a very thorny issue and I am not smart enough to explain it in accurate detail. But the way I see it is this: If you came to Taiwan before Chang Kai Shek you consider yourself Taiwanese. You probably speak Taiwanese when you get together with your friends. If you came to Taiwan with Shang Kai Shek  or after Mao took power in China, you probably consider yourself Chinese and you would speak Mandarin first and Taiwanese as a second dialect. However, today, my young 30 something Taiwanese friends are fiercely independent and I get a very strong feeling that they want to be Taiwanese and totally separate from China. This is causing some problems.  Attending Wayne Chen's mother's 80^th birthday party everyone was speaking Taiwanese. I asked why they were not speaking Mandarin and I got an earful. Dui bu xi ( I'm sorry). Thanks to my Taiwanese friend Wayne Shen for going over these details with me and correcting me.

Xie xie loaoshi. ( Thank you teacher)

 

When the first Baba 30 came to Seattle I was pleasantly surprised at how well the snug interior worked. Bob was right and I should not have been skeptical. But how did the little "brick" sail? It sailed very well thank you. It is very light on the helm and well balanced. It is surprisingly quick in light air. One weekend of the Perry Rendezvous we had an informal race to the harbor. Due my son's soccer game I got a late start and began motoring the Valiant 40 down the Sound. Up ahead was the Rendezvous fleet with a Baba 30 in last place. It was flying a big, colorful cruising chute in the light Northerly. Well hell, I couldn't just motor over or under the Baba 30. That would be really bad form. So I did the only thing I could do, I put up the sails on the Valiant 40 and started sailing. About what seemed like an hour later I pulled ahead of the Baba 30. Mind you I did not have a big cruising chute but still. I thought the Baba 30 was moving very well and I gained more respect for the boat that day.

 

There was a brick layer from Baltimore who did a solo circumnavigation in his Baba. He sent me post cards along the way. I have friends that love their Baba's. There are a handful of my designs that surprised me in that they turned out better boats than I had anticipated. I'd count the Baba 30 in that lot.

 

In time Ta Shing would go on to become the biggest and most prestigious yacht builder in Taiwan. Their new yard is amazing.  The Baba 30 would lead to the Baba 35 aka Flying Dutchman 35 and from there to one of my all time favorite designs of mine the Baba 40. I had the honor of racing a Baba 35, pilot house version a year ago and we did amazingly well and surprised a lot of people. The boat can go despite its ultra traditional look. In the next chapter I will go into more detail on the 35, 40 and the change over to the Tashiba brand.

 

 

 

The Baba story

Part one

Disclaimer: This is history as I remember it. I could get some facts wrong but I'm damn close.

Also, the blog program likes to correct my spelling. That's fine but it often screws up Ta Chiao. it should be C H I A O!

 

Back in the 70's there was still this idea that double enders make the best offshore boats. I never really went along with that idea although I always liked double enders. My attraction to double enders was an aesthetic one. I just plain liked the way they looked. I had been drawn to the double ended shape since the time I was 15 years old. I was probably 15 when I first saw Bill Garden's OCEANUS and that was it for me. While I have serious reservations about the hull shape of OCEANUS there can be no denying that the stern was spectacular and it has remained one of the most enduring boat shapes  in my mind.

 

Then there came along the Valiant and at the same time the commission for what would be the Hans Christian 34. Ironically when I was just beginning both of these new design each client, independently, sent me the very same photo  of HOLGER DANSK, the magnificent K. Aage Nielsen double ender. Here was a boat with a stern that had power and grace. I saw the advantages immediately. My two clients, my buddy Nathan Rothman and the evil John Edwards sent me the very same note, "Make the stern like this." No problem.

 

I gave this stern type the name "tumblehome canoe stern". Tumblehome refers to the fact that the stern profile rolls back towards the sheer with the aft end of LOA aft of the sheer at the stern. It's a strong look and in fact a strong shape. It's very egg-like and structurally still. The idea is that by filling out the stern like this I can flatten the buttocks for a cleaner, flatter run aft to help extend sailing length. I did my best to try to pull as much volume aft as possible. Many of the canoe sterns you see are to my eye "anemic" aft with pointy fannies with very little volume where they need it. The pointy canoe sterns are just along for the ride. You have to have the stern displacing water in order for it to do any work, i.e. extend the sailing length. I'm not going to name names but there have been some very successful canoe sterns boats with what I feel are poorly designed sterns. You hear the term "reserve buoyancy aft". Well, if that's your goal you had better go with a transom because a transom has far more volume aft that a pointy canoe stern.

 

There are other disadvantages with double enders. With the volume you lose aft you lose the ability to have a nice, squarish back end to the cockpit. This makes fitting seats and lockers problematic in most double enders.

 

(Oh, while I'm on it I should explain that I consider any boat with a point on the stern a "double ender". But I don't consider all double enders to have "canoe sterns". Look at the classic Westsail 32. To me that is a true double ender.  The stern post  marks the end of the hull. The overhang aft is minimal at best. With a canoe stern the profile of the stern is extended resulting in considerable overhang aft. Not really a lot but compared to the Westsail type, considerable.  All canoe sterned boats are double enders. All double enders do not have canoe sterns. Got it?)

So we have this roundish stern making seat aft awkward and locker lids hard to fit. If you were after a really comfortable cockpit you had better stick with a transom boat. In addition, these day people find aft swim steps, boarding platforms very attractive. I know I do. They make getting to and from the dink far easier than climbing over the rail. You can't do this with a double ender. Not easily. I do have a drawing for a double ender where a section of the stern drops down to form a boarding ladder. I'm sure it will work but I haven't built one yet. With these issues in mind it's kind of hard to come up with pragmatic reasons for a double ender.

 

I think back in the Colin Archer days his boats were designed as sailing lifeboats and they had to have the ability to heave to in heavy seas. Having a boat with two bows was probably a good thing. I hear all sorts of what I call "Moses theories" how double enders part the following seas but I'm skeptical. They may part the following sea but a transom stern boat with the additional volume aft may rise to that following sea. I think that if you want to justify having a double ender the best way to do it is to say, "Boy, I sure like the looks of double enders."

 

The Hans Christian project got underway but something was wrong. Through the grapevine I kept hearing about a "Bob Perry designed 36'er at HC". What the hell, my design was 34' LOA. I checked into it with a phone call to evil Edwards in Taiwan. I don't remember the conversation verbatim but it was something along these lines:

Me, "John, what's this I heard about a 36'er?"

John, "Oh we took your lines and blew them up and we are building the 36'er before we build the 34'er."

Me, "Great. I look forward to receiving royalties on both boats."

John, "Oh, you're not getting any royalties on the 36'er."

Me, "Really,,,,,,,,,,,,,well then I withdraw all design support for the 34'er."

 

In fact I never finished the design of the HC 34. It is a rare model but reported to sail well. The 36'er went on to become the father of a whole skad of 36' double enders, all carrying my name despite the fact that I had nothing to do with the actual design. These boats include the Mariner Polaris 36, Union 36, Mao Ta 36, Univeral 36 and God knows how many others. My name is still stuck to them. You would be very surprised at how many owners of these boats are convinced they are my design. I met a couple on the dock. They had one.  They went on and on about how much they loved the boat. Then  I said, "But, it's not my design." The woman started to cry. I felt bad.

I was pissed. I was poor. In was trying really hard to get my design business going and I was not making much money. Now I had two fallings out with Edwards. The first being the CT54 fiasco with Ta Chiao. It was clear that I would get no more business from evil Edwards. I wanted revenge. I wanted to fly to Taiwan and punch him in the nose. But Edwards was about 5'5" tall and looked a lot like Wally Cox so a physical confrontation was out.

 

Then along came my friend Will Eickholt, the "Flying Dutchman". Will was starting to do business in Taiwan and was importing 41' ketches from Ta Chiao. Will said he wanted to do a boat, a double ender, the popular style of the day. The yard would be a new yard, Ta Yang, but they were connected to Ta Chaio so the boat would be called a Ta Chiao something. Will suggested a boat like the HC 36 and I jumped at it. Here was my chance to get my revenge by targeting the HC 36 with a much better design. I produced the lines for the "Ta Chiao 37". Will was not really my client. The yard was but Will was my "go between". My arrangement with the yard, in order to keep design costs low, was to produce basic drawings but no structural drawings. Fine, I needed work of any kind. The Ta Chiao 37 went into production and was selling very well. I was excited at this new river of royalties.

 

I began seeing Ta Chiao 37's roll past my office window on their way to the yard for commissioning. I called Will and asked, "When do I start getting my royalties?" "What royalties ?" Will said. "There is nothing about royalties in your contract with the yard." ????????????WTF! I checked the contract and he was right. How the hell did I do that? Stupidity is the only possible answer. Will said he would see what he could do. He came back to me with a proposition. The yard would like full structural drawings for the boat and in exchange they will pay royalties. I agreed. Shortly after that Will showed up at my office with Y. P Chen, the manager of Ta Yang. The boat was now being called the Ta Yang 37 and they had built 40 of them. Y.P. produced a check for 40 royalties. I was amazed. I had assumed the royalties would start with hull number 41. I thanked Y.P for his generosity and said that this was more than I expected. I wrote Y.P a check for half the royalty amount. I's split it with him. He was very happy with that deal. As you probably know they went on to build more than 600 "Tayana 37's", George Day of BLUE WATER CRUISING once wrote that there are more Tayana 37's cruising the world than any other single design. This pleases me.

 

The first Ta Yang 37 to come to Seattle was owned by a TV lighting technical director, named Bob Berg. Bob's TY37 was a ketch version and it sailed fabulously. In fact I always preferred the ketch version of the TY 37 to the cutter version. The ketch just balanced better.

 

There you have chapter one in the Baba story. Bob Berg would soon leave his work at the TV station and go on to become a dealer fo4 Ta Yang. He made frequent trips to Taiwan where the workers found it difficult to pronounce "Bob Berg". They started calling Bob "Baba" Mandarin for "Dad". Pretty soon almost everyone who knew Bob was calling him Baba. Bob is a kind and soft spoken, patient man. The Taiwanese liked Bob.

Your Dad loves you more than ever and I don't care if the world knows.

The visit count to my blog has shot up the last few days. I guess it helps if actually blog once and a while. I'll try to keep it up. I hope my Taiwanese friends are enjoying the posts.
I think I might blog the Baba's next. I'm thinking about doing it on WORD then pasting it here. There are some odd idiosyncrasies to this blog program  that are annoying. I'll see what I can do.

But for now I feel the need to get this photo of FRANCIS LEE published. The photo was taken by Jan of Jan's Marine Photography last Saturday when she was out photographing the regatta. She came on over and snapped a few shots of FRANCIS. This photo is my favorite.

I'll tell you what I really don't like about sailing FRANCIS. That's when I have to let someone else steer. I sat there so patiently on Saturday while Kim, the owner drove the boat. Damn owners. He thinks he owns the boat! I finally couldn't stand it any longer, "Let me drive, let me drive, let me drive!" Kim said, "I was wondering how long you would let me steer." Then of course there was Derek, Kim's son. He had to drive. And Becca, and Allison and John. Man, can;t they just shut up and be content to sit there and enjoy the ride. Noooooooo. They have to steer. I sit with my arms folded, trying to look like I like just riding along. But I'm faking it. " Let me drive, damn it!"

Fact is I love watching people's faces light up when they steer Francis. FRANCIS really conveys the joy of moving along efficiently under sail with minimal effort. Allison had never sailed a boat before Saturday. My pal Dr. John's sailing experience was limited to two cruises on a Catalina 22. How you gonna keep him down on the farm now?

I have been thinking about a post like this for a while. Regular readers will know that I don't always have something to say. I know that the blog is supposed to be about boats but my family is a huge part of my life and the short of it is I like sharing that joy. But today I will pick a selection of boats pics from my large library and post them here. I will add some comments to each photo and maybe give you some insights into thoughts I have about the boat that you would not normally see published. We'll see how it goes.

My two beautiful boys.


"Ye ye"is mandarin for grandpa and yes I am obviously a very proud grandpa. I'm "Grampy".
This weekend I got even more proud with the arrival of my first grandson, Drake Shaw Perry, 8lbs. 5 oz, a strapping young fellow. Looks just like me. Basically.

I never knew a grandpa. My maternal grandfather, Angelo Dante Guiseppi Nanelli died  at 42 well before I was born. My father's dad, Howard Elmer Perry, I didn't meet until we moved here from Australia. I was 12 years old and "Grampy" was a handsome old vegetable in a chair. I'm pretty sure he never said two words to me. So I am going to have to make the whole grandpa thing up as I go along. I think I am doing fine with Violet so I should be fine with Drake.

I'll keep you posted whether you like it or not.

Perry's only yawl design - A 48-footer that was never built

The 48' motorsailer ketch CAPAZ

Happy birthday to my darling granddaughter Violet. Grampy loves you even with a dirty face. I love this photo.
Of course the joy of having Violet is complicated because of the loss of Spike. Some people say I am "lucky". I have given this a lot of thought and I agree. I am lucky. How can I look at Violet and not consider myself lucky? But not far behind the joy of Violet is the grief of Spike.

I often think how much I am amazed at my ability to deal with what life has thrown at me. But I have become resigned to the situation and I intend to make the most out of the rest of my life as Spike would insist.
But the important thing today is Violet's birthday so I am going to keep that in the front of my thoughts today and look forward to seeing her tonight for her party.
I love this photo. It's Valentine's Day and to me it looks like Violet is looking in the heart shaped box and thinking " What the fuck! I thought there was supposed to be candy in here."

Happy birthday Violet !!!!!!!

I had a very weird dream last night that all my photos of Frankie were dissapearing from my computer and only visible on my iphone. So I thought I had better post this view of Frankie before it sails away into my iphone forever.

Kim motyored Frankie over to Shilshole Marina this morning. It was choppy and blowing 15 to 20. He hit a big tugboat wake and a freighter wake. He was very impressed at the boats's lack of reaction to the waves. He said it was "rock steady". I questioned him about slamming going into the steep head sea chop we get so often around here. He said there was no pounding or slamming at all. Interesting. Maybe it has to do with such a small frontal area to the boat. I would have thought that with our extremely flat rocker the boat would have slammed a time or two into a head chop. Glad I was wrong. I love it when my client is happy.

 

Yoni is a custom 50' cutter with all headsails carried on roller furling. That's a lot of windage forward when you need to dock the boat in a blow.

Amati is a modern fractional sloop with a large mainsail and small fore triangle. This is a very easy boat to sail.

Free Range Chicken is a modern frac rigged sloop for long distance cruising

The Baba 30 is a typical bowsprit cutter. She was always well balanced.

White Eagle (now Wild Horses) is another modern version of the cutter rig

These wonderful; photos of FRANKIE were taken by our pal Boomer Dep. He and his lovely daughter spent the day on a chase boat covering every angle of FRANKIE. Thanks Boomer. Thanks Boomer's daughter.

Here are some photos of FRANCIS LEE on her first sail. It was a wonderful day, with no rain and just a light breeze. Maybe we saw 8 knots of wind at one time. There was a race starting so we sort of tagged along without getting on anyone's air. Frankie is very fast, well balanced and very close winded. As far as I can tell in less than 8 knots of wind anyway.