Nail 'n' Sail puts boat-building skills to the test during Harbor Day race

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Sunday, September 18, 2005 8:26 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- The Hula Boys were out to shock the world. If not with their boat-building skills and navigational expertise, than at least with their grass skirts and coconut bras.

The boys ---- Jim Valley, Ryan Snyder and Joshua Smith ---- comprised one of 16 teams competing Sunday in the annual Nail 'n' Sail competition, held Sunday as part of Harbor Days in Oceanside.

"We keep telling everybody we're in it to win it," Smith said. Despite their comical outfits, the team indeed took the contest seriously and had even built a prototype of their boat, Mayday, which they launched in Valley's pool for practice.

"It took on water pretty quick," Valley said.

More than 100 people gathered on the west side of the harbor to watch the boat race back and forth across the channel. Nail 'n' Sail contestants paid a $90 entry fee and had two hours to build a boat using just the materials provided that morning: wood, caulk and nails. Builders were not allowed to use power tools.

Keith Brentlinger, co-chair of the event, said the secret to success in the 17-year-old competition is having a plan, knowing how to build and having navigation skills.

The El Camino Rotary Club had all those things last year when they won the race. This year, when building began at 9 a.m., the three-man team became serious and focused, with vices, sawhorses, hammers and templates all in place.

The John Wayne Glass team, winners of the race in 1995, 1998 and 2003, also were a team to beat, and their proven design quickly took shape.

And then there was the Coast Guard team of Chuck Ashmore, Dylan Manning and Joe Mackey. With just an hour left, they had given up on using a collapsed sawhorse and were trying to cut a sheet of plywood with one man holding it straight up while another sawed at it from the other side. It was not something for the squeamish to watch.

"This is who?" a spectator asked them. "The Coast Guard? These are the guys I want to save me?"

When a horn blew at the end of the two-hour building period, the Coast Guard team's boat still had a gaping hole at the bow. Resigned to their fate, the team used caulk to scrawl the name of their boat on its side: Titanic.

Most of the other entries resembled boats, more or less, and the next hour was spent painting and decorating. In the spirit of its club, El Camino Rotary named their boat the S.S. Katrina and painted it with reminders to help the hurricane relief effort. Rob Taylor of the Rotary Club said the team had practiced building the boat four times, and twice had taken prototypes on the bay.

John Wayne Brewer, who painted his boat like the Texas state flag, said after 11 years of trial and error he still was tweaking his design, and this year made the stern two inches deeper.

An entry from the Flying Bridge had a mast, yard arm and square sail while another team's boat was painted like a Viking ship. Three teenage teams entered boats representing North Coast Christian Family Schools and the School of Business and Technology.

El Camino Rotary's Katrina easily won the first heat, and the once-reserved team finally let loose.

"It was beautiful," said Shawn Grover, high-fiving teammate Son Horton, who shared paddle duty on board the Katrina.

The next heat saw the Coast Guard team launching Titanic, which didn't take on water and sink as expected. Instead, the boat immediately tipped over as the team stepped aboard.

"We didn't use enough caulk," Mackey offered as an explanation.

A boat entered by Hooters also sank, leaving the Hula Boys alone at the finish line and with high hopes of a championship.

The next heat saw an upset, with the crew of John Wayne Glass losing their balance and tipping over.

"The Duke is down!" Hula Boy team member Valley said at seeing a top threat eliminated. The heat was won by the team in the boat Silver Bullet.

The team from North Coast Christian School ---- Josh Bultemeier, Katelyn Brewer and Ian Moyer ---- won the teenage heat, despite a leak in their boat. They agreed to compete in the final competition with the winners from the adult race.

At the final race of the day, the Hula Boys indeed did seem posed to shock the world. The first-time entrants took an early lead, but soon were overtaken by the Silver Bullet and ended up finishing last.

The leak in North Coast Christian School's boat was as bad as the team feared, and the blue hull slipped below the surface just after rounding the mark.

The Viking ship trailed behind the Silver Bullet and Katrina, which were bow-to-bow as they approached the dock. The Silver Bullet veered to the left and fell behind, but the Katrina crew had no idea they had an good lead and poured on the speed.

"Ramming speed!" crew member Horton later said about his thoughts moments before winning the championship race. "All I heard was they were right behind us, and I kept thinking, 'ramming speed.'"

Katrina hit the dock with a crack, exploding the bow cover but not sinking the boat. Three hours earlier she had been just a pile of wood, yet her short life was long enough to bring a second Nail 'n' Sail victory to El Camino Rotary and capture the 2005 trophy: a crudely made wooden boat on a pedestal of caulk tubes.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at gwarth@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5410.

Son Horton, front, and Shawn Grover paddle ahead to win the preliminary race Sunday in their El Camino Rotary Club boat named "Katrina" during the Nail 'n' Sail race at Oceanside Harbor. The race was part of Oceanside's Harbor Days.//Photo by J. Kat Woronowicz/For the North County Times

Ian Moyer, 15, and Katelyn Brewer, 14, react to their boat sinking Sunday during the final Nail 'n' Sail race at Oceanside Harbor. The team was from North Coast Christian School.//Photo by J. Kat Woronowicz/For the North County Times