Raft-ups are one of the most popular ways to celebrate Summer Sailstice. Tying a bunch of often-dissimilar boats together in rows – or the ever-popular circle - takes a bit of finesse, but the social and photographic aspects are worth it, even if a bit of gelcoat gets chipped here and there. If you celebrate that way this summer, use lots of fenders and please send photos.
Socializing between sailing vessels goes way back. In the old days, the iron men on wooden ships looked forward to a gam (pronounced with a hard 'g'). Most often associated with whaling ships, a gam was when two ships hove-to close to one another and the sailors rowed back and forth for some socializing, news of home and sometimes even mail exchanges. The word comes from a 'gam of whales', which meant a social encounter between different types of whales. (Whales of a single type or family gather in 'pods' or 'schools'.)
And you think raft-ups are difficult to get right – these were seagoing ships that stopped in the middle of oceans for a few hours of camaraderie. Imagine the backing, filling and other gyrations they went through! Why mostly whalers? Well, at one time there were a lot of them out there sailing largely the same waters. And when leviathan was nowhere to be seen – hey, what else was there to do?
Modern gams still occur occasionally. Here on the west coast, we're most familiar with the version that takes place in mid-Pacific between boats being delivered back to California after Hawaii races. It usually only happens in very calm or windless conditions – which are common when motorsailing the rhumbline through the middle of the Pacific High. We recall the story of one such encounter between boats which shall remain nameless. One was a big ultralight sled, whose crew came upon a smaller boat early one morning. Both were motoring, so both turned their engines off and the crew from the larger boat – the, ahem, entire crew - dinghied over to the smaller one and . . . well, let's just say cold ones were consumed and fun was had.
The way we heard the story, there were fuel jugs or something stacked against the cabin windows of the smaller boat, so you couldn't see much from inside. Anyway, after awhile, someone poked their head out the companionway for a look around and noticed two things: 1) a bit of breeze had come up, and 2) the big boat was gone.
Holy shhhh...
Now everyone is out in the cockpit scanning the horizon. And there, waaaaayyyyy up there, you could just make out the mainsail of the big boat – which had been left up and strapped tight to steady the rolling.
On goes the engine and to-the-metal goes the throttle. The smaller boat is at flank speed, and slowly, slowly, slowly, the big boat grows larger as they start to catch up. Fingers are crossed. Prayers for the wind to die – or at least not strengthen - are invoked. The horror of admitting what happened to the owner if they don't catch up is imagined.
Just before dark, they finally catch up to the big boat, sailing serenely along under main and autopilot. As the big boat guys cast off their Zodiac and zoom into the night, a final voice observes. “Sure glad we didn't have a jib up!”
Happy sailing, happy rafting-up and happy gamming in 2015! And if you do manage a gam, let us know, take photos – and PLEASE: leave at least one person aboard the 'other' boat!
What's better than 'social media?' Socializing! The Seven Seas Cruising Association has adopted the 'gam' as a gathering of cruisers.
