RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

[Kimo]

Died at age 88

[Leo Lakio]

Re: RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=18207

The brothers can kick back & reflect now.

[LikaNui]

Re: RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

A friend and I helped teach James how to sail way back in the day. He bought a 59' catamaran and sailed it extensively in SoCal, then brought it here and finally sold it. The boat is still doing charters on the Kona coast. It was, of course, named "Sea Smoke."
RIP, skipper James.

[Amati]

Re: RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

A friend and I helped teach James how to sail way back in the day. He bought a 59' catamaran and sailed it extensively in SoCal, then brought it here and finally sold it. The boat is still doing charters on the Kona coast. It was, of course, named "Sea Smoke."
RIP, skipper James.

The Sea Smoke also does whale watching tours. It must have been something back in the day when it was rigged for racing!

The historic Seasmoke is a 58′ sailing catamaran originally commissioned by James Arness in 1967, built to be the fastest catamaran in the world!

Sea Smoke - Winning numerous trophies, including three transpacific victories, Sea Smoke is the most celebrated commercially operated catamaran in Hawaii.

[LikaNui]

Re: RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

The Sea Smoke also does whale watching tours. It must have been something back in the day when it was rigged for racing!

If you dig deeper for info on the boat, you'll see who designed and built it and also who raced with him. Only the best. And I don't mean me. I helped teach him when he first started on monohulls but I didn't race the catamaran with him.
Funny thing is that his competitors always dared him to race without the experts, knowing they'd whip him.
And yes, racing catamarans are really fast, but as soon as you start adding any weight at all (like a fancy cruising interior, etc.) it has an immediate slowing effect.
By the way, the catamaran is actually Sea Smoke III. He had two monohulls (Kettenburgs) before the cat. Last time I sailed it over on the Big Island it still had the SS III name, so I imagine it still does. Too much history there to change it.

[Amati]

Re: RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

I think they changed it. http://www.hawaiioceansports.com/wp-...ts_Sailing.jpg
Anyway, thanks for sharing your story. And I can see how the crew is it the "make it or break it" feature", like the jockey in a horse race.

[LikaNui]

Re: RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

I think they changed it. http://www.hawaiioceansports.com/wp-...ts_Sailing.jpg

Nope, they didn't change it. Hooray! Put your mouse on the photo and click it to enlarge the photo. Both boats have the company name on the back ends of the hulls and the boat names on the front ends. The boat on the left is Alala and the boat on the right clearly says Sea Smoke (with a very small III under that).
Interesting that Alala has a reef tucked into both her sails and SS III doesn't.
Thanks for finding and posting the photo! Great memories.

[Amati]

Re: RIP James Arness (Gunsmoke)

My "enlarging" only does one increment, so it didn't show. Thanks for checking it to answer the question.