[C38] Distance From Waterline(DWL) To Masthead 56.0

[Les]

Simple Trig will do the job.... but even simpler is a gadget from the
Eqyptians.  Measure a point from your mast to someplace on a dock about
100' away.  Get 3 sticks (chopsticks will do, or three bits of 1x1/2
about 20" long) and put a nail or pin through the end of two of them.
6" from that pin the third stick to one of the others (but only 1 at
this time).  Lets call A the one with the third stick pinned to it (C).
and B the one that is pinned to the end of A.  Looking along A at the
top of the mast, C will drop vertically toward the ground.  This will
make it parallel to the mast.  Keeping A aligned at the mast tip, now
raise B to align at the waterliine of your boat.  Then hold and mark C
where it crosses B.  This is a parallel triangle to the mast height.
Multiply the length of C by the distance you measured to the boats mast
in inches, divided by where C crossed B.  This is the height in inches.
Now divide by 12.  This is a neat little trick that I used to use with
my dad when he was in construction to measure the height of lines over
the road for moving construction vehicles.

	Check the method on something you know the height first to get the
sense of how it works.  We know our boats, but this will help you on any
future boat... And besides, a real check is always valuable.  Especially
since our boats are not all identical, and you may have stuff above the
mast stick itself that you would like to stay up there.

	PS, by my estimation JACIE is pretty close to 56' give or take, which
matches the website exactly.

Regards,
Les H

On Fri, 2008-04-25 at 07:45 -0700, D. R. Strong wrote:
> Patrick: From our website. You should make it on a new moon high tide,
> onshore winds, and in heavy rain.
> Not in the really big northern California floods, however. Don
> 
> Patrick Harpole wrote: 
> > We are sailing from Berkeley to Napa and need to pass under a fixed
> > bridge which is 60 feet high…………will we make it?
> > 
> > In other words do any of you know the distance from the waterline to
> > the top of the mast on a Catalina 38?
> > 
> > Patrick
> > 
> > Aka “Blue eyes” 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ____________________________________________________________________
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> >   
> 
> -- 
> Donald R. Strong
> Professor
> Section of Evolution and Ecology
> University of California Davis
> 95616
> 530 752 7886
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