Land N Sea Houseboat Information Compilation

 

Here's a snippet from one of the owners of LNS....

Wanted to live on a boat, found the LnS showing their prototype. Became 34th order and as the factory they were preparing was between my home and the college I visited often. They were producing one boat every six weeks and my order 34 looked a long ways off. Great factory assembly line, worker madhouse, I made my opinion of the mess frequent and loudly. Finally the prime owner Sandy Kaye asked if I was all mouth or could I help. Since I had 21 yrs leading men it seemed easy so I accepted the challenge for a promised 6 months. We got the production up to 8 boats a month and then hired a production manager from Southern Cal boat industry who got the production to 11 a month.  I got my boat custom built and moved aboard in Oyster Point, South San Francisco. Started dating a young secretary whose boss was my present wife Becky. Boat company hit a wall in the '73 energy crunch. We had just started the molds for a upgraded model with a small business Gov't guaranteed loan. Our boats were so popular that we were selling with commissions only to our boat owners. We had 16 back orders in Nov 73 and the Jan-Feb boat show orders would usually amount to 60+. All 16 cancelled and the boat shows did not yield, Small Business Administration came under Congressional scrutiny and called our loan and so we folded after building 251 and just beginning to show a profit. 

Here's some pics sent by that same owner - in no particular order.

This is the fellow who sent me the memorabilia - he's over 90 y/o now.

This video was used at boat shows to show how easy the LnS is to tow and launch.

 

This video is just fun on the water. Notice how well the hull takes the wakes.

Here's another example of how stable the LnS hull is. 

Short factory video
 
Land N Sea Get-together

Sous Vide

I read about Sous Vide on a boating forum. My interest was peaked when they suggested one needed  precise temperature control for cooking. I have been messing with temperature controllers for years and thought this might be another application, so I did a little research.

Sous Vide is putting stuff in a vacuum pouch in a container of water, then cooking it at a precise temperature. Commercial units can be over $400 - no way was I gong to spend that kind of money -  I'd use my crock pot and my temperature controller.


I don't know much about meat - every time I cooked a steak it was disappointing. Even putting a roast in the crock pot was far from satisfying so the only meat I've been buying for the last several years is cheap hamburger. I was skeptical of ruining an expensive cut in my Sous Vide experiment so I bought what appeared to be some midrange hunks of beef.

I put it all 3 pieces in a zip lock bag.

You're supposed to vacuum bag the stuff, so I zipped up the bag leaving about an inch, inserted a straw, pinched the area around the straw lightly and sucked.

It seemed to get the job done. So I plunked the bag into a crock pot full of the hottest water I could get out of the tap.

The bag floated so I reinserted the straw, did the gentle pinching, sucked and zipped...the bag now would now submerge in the water.

I plugged the temperature controller into the wall, then plugged the crock pot into the controller. I set the controller to 136° as recommended by recipes on the internet. Then I stuck the controller probe into the vent hole on top of the crock pot, making sure it was well into the water.

I set the timer on my phone for 1 1/2 hrs, a little longer than recommended by the recipe because the temp in the crock pot was somewhat below the suggested 136°.

The temperature of the water soon rose to 136°. After an hour and a half, I removed the bag from the crock pot.

The meat had changed to a pastier color and was heavy with juices. I put the meat in a pan for the final operation.

The final operation is to brown the surface. Some like to use a red hot frying pan, but I thought I'd try the blow torch method. This way one can get small 'burnt' areas like on the outside grill.

First one side, then the next - the amount of flavor you want to 'brown in' is easily accomplished.

So, how did it eventually turn out?

I've never had a better plate of meat (in any restaurant or anywhere else) no matter what the cost...it was tender, juicy and oh so flavorful. No more burgers for me!