# San Diego Maritime Museum Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's San Salvador replica launched



## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-san-salvador-ship-20140915-story.html

http://tinyurl.com/pug6ql5

Yesterday July 29, 2015 the San Diego Maritime Museum launched their replica of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's lead ship San Salvador. The link above is for a September 14, 2014 Los Angeles Times article. I chose it over others I perused this afternoon because it has some nice construction pictures and it is the only one I could find that listed the twin 280HP diesel engines. I could plainly see on TV video the pair of twin screws -- which to me seem to be set further outboard than usual?

The vessel has been building for 4-1/2 years by 500 mostly volunteers but also some professionals. When the project began they expected to launch in two years. I see various printed cost between $6 and $7 Million dollars. Like the engines I have had a problem nailing down her dimensions. I see length quoted as 90 feet and as 100 feet and several in between, all articles I reviewed today agree on a 24-foot beam. 

The vessel was built in what had been a paved parking lot at a park named Spanish Landing. The launch took longer than expected. The plan was to pick up the 150 estimated ton ship with a donated crane and place it on a donated many wheel yacht transport trailer. Drive that trailer onto a donated flat top barge. A donated tug towed the barge to a Chula Vista Marina. Where the Marina Travalift picked it up and after a bottle was broke on the forward keel lowered into the water.

The first donated mobile crane could not pick it up. So they brought in a second donated mobile crane. Theoretically the two cranes should have been able to pick it up. But no one on site including the crane operators had any experience operating two cranes in tandem. So a few weeks passed until a large enough mobile crane was located I believe in Arizona? The weight scale on this crane and the Marina Travelift said the vessel weighs 230 tons.

The vessel will now be completed at the Chula Vista Marina and the plan is a public christening ceremony Labor Day Weekend. Then the vessel is scheduled to sail up the California coast to Oregon duplicating Cabrillo's 1542 voyage. It has been pointed out on TV news that this occurred a long time before the Mayflower arrived. 

When she returns to San Diego she will be moored among the other San Diego Maritime Museum ships. One day I may have to drive down and check it out, I have explored all their other ships.

Attached screen captures

San_Salvador.jpg (68.2 KB) 
SanSalvador.jpg (63.1 KB)

Greg Hayden


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## Day Sailor (Nov 9, 2014)

I am glad they were prudent, two crane lifts can go horribly wrong as we saw in the news from Holland last week when a bridge span was dropped onto some houses. Fortunately no one was seriously injured.


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