The Launch of Wildflower

March 25, 2012

A crowd of about 50 people gathered in the rain at the Santa Cruz YC hoist on Saturday to celebrate the christening and launching of a brand-new, home-built FrogCat 22 catamaran. "Some of the people here haven't seen each other in 50 years," said the new boat's owner and builder, Skip Allan.

Skip's girfriend Anne Kennedy treated the bright-eyed Wildflower to a taste of bubbly. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

"Howard Spruit and I serendipitously connected after the 2010 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival," said Skip. "On my return, I ran into Howard at our local Kind Grind coffee bar and I showed him photos of an 18-ft trailerable catamaran I'd seen. Howard smiled and said, 'We can build that.' Howard already had drawings for a similar boat, and had built his own 18-ft Mokualana. We put our heads together over the next few weeks and refined his drawings for a new cat that was max-driveway length and width; 22'x8.5', which also was the highway legal dimensions and trailerable behind my mini-van.

Left to right: Wildflower, Howard, Skip and Anne. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

"Over 3,000 man hours Wildflower was built in our Capitola driveway, and completed after 18 months."

Howard told Jeremy Leonard of Sail Revolution, "We were aware of each other for decades; I had raced against him on multiple occasions over the years, but we had never sailed together before. When he started talking about buying or building another boat, I as a boat builder jumped into the fray, and told him that to get the boat he wanted it would be best to build it himself. I offered to work with him on the design and construction of the project. He then made me a very acceptable offer and we went to work in his driveway. This project has been very enjoyable for me, and I have mixed emotions about its completion.” The FrogCat 22 was born.

Before splashing the boat, Skip thanked the many contributors to this low-budget, high-quality project. Among them, "Morgan Larson donated two spinnakers from his Moore 24, Bruzer," said Skip. "They'll drag in the water unless there's 20 knots of wind, so we'll move the spinnaker hoist higher up the mast."

Jeremy Leonard, a cat dealer, donated a Hobie main. "I know Hobie sails don't come with reef points," said Skip, "but this one has two."

Skip, a Star Boat champion in his youth, had a Star jib on the roller furler. His brother Scott, who has a sail loft in Annapolis, thought, "We can do better than that." He had a locker full of Etchells jibs. Wildflower now has an Etchells jib.

Adrian Olson did the graphics. They were still in his computer from Skip's original Wildflower, so he just printed them out again.

About Howard Spruit, Skip said, "I can't say enough about his patience and skill. I thought the boat would weigh about 1,300 to 1,400 pounds. I didn't really know. Howard knew. He said it weighed 800 pounds." Howard had added up the weight of the lumber, glue, etc. They weighed the boat. "Of course it weighs 800 pounds," said Howard.

Skip took everyone who wanted to go for a spin around Santa Cruz Harbor. The bar was breaking, and the little boat rode the ocean swell that rocked the harbor. Everyone had a delightful afternoon, and no one seemed to really mind the rain, least of all Wildflower. Skip and Anne are planning to cruise the boat in British Columbia this summer, from May 1 to September 1.

Skip took friends for a spin. Pictured here, left to right: Tom Condy, Skip, Synthia Petroka, Sylvia Seaberg. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

For a complete history, you can read the thread on the SSS forum. Also see our story from New Year's Day about the build in progress.