Messing About In Sailboats

Perfect Labor Day Sail

Alice and I went out for a perfect sail today. Early on winds out of the East at about 15kts with 20kt gusts. Temperature in the 70s and partly cloudy. Enough people on the bay to make it fun but not too many to get in the way.

We sailed off the mooring with main and jib reefed and sailed like that for an hour. As the day progressed the wind dropped below 10 kts and we shook off the reef in the jib and then the main. We sailed for a 4 hours, rocking along with no particular place to go, taking terms helming and napping on the leeward side. We then sailed back onto the mooring, nailing a perfect landing.

September is my favorite month for sailing. It's still warm but there is wind, unlike August and we have been sailing long enough into the season to feel confident and proficient.

In case you are wondering the top flag is our club burgee, which in my case is appropriately the St George's Cross. The lower flag is an old British ensign we have had for over 20 years. I am sure that the way we have rigged these says something like RYC rules the USA and Great Britain has surrendered to the USA. Look forward to being corrected!

Doh!

Thanks to Peter McGrath for spotting this:

Sail training vessel Excelsior shows how to run the bowsprit in and bring a topmast smartly on deck.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8242147.stm?ls

Watch it and weep.

Caption Competition

IMG_0564, originally uploaded by chrisgandy2001.

Messing About T-Shirt to the winner

McKenzie River Dory

I took this shot of a McKenzie River Dory yesterday evening. Alice and I got chatting to the owners who were coming back from a 3-day trip on the Colorado River on her. They had taken her through Class III rapids. Just imagine that! Taking what is effectively a 12 foot, flat-bottomed rowboat through some tough rapids. Yikes!

The owners had built her themselves, taking 60 hours over 6 months to build.

Vote for Geoff Holt in the Great Britons Award

Calling all fellow limeys, I received this today from Geoff Holt's organization:

As you probably know, in December 2009, Geoff plans to sail a specially adapted, 60ft wheelchair accessible catamaran across the Atlantic to Tortola in the BVI, the place where he had his accident 25 years ago.  Full details of the project at www.personalatlantic.com

Last week Geoff was shortlisted by British Airways for a Great Britons Award. If he wins, BA will provide flights for his wife Elaine and son Timothy so they can be there when he arrives in the Caribbean which will be fantastic.  As of today, he is in 2^nd place but there are only 5 days of voting left. Could you please spare a few moments to vote for Geoff.  Just go to http://www.greatbritons.ba.com/users/5525 

Anyone wanting to sign up to follow his Atlantic progress can do so by clicking http://www.personalatlantic.com/user/register to register.

Some good news

A few weeks ago guest author, Tim Fletcher blogged about a very important program in NJ for the disabled, Sail Habilitation. Sail Habilitation was founded by Dr, Stephanie Argyris in the mid-1990's, as a way to help with  rehabilitation in certain physical therapies.

Stephanie had sailed Sneakboxes growing up on Barnegat Bay, and got the idea that the very tactile nature of sailing could help people in recovery.  From that, grew a program of holding community sailing events open to all people of special needs.

One of their biggest events of the year is the Community Sail on August 1st. They were facing a major issue, in that they needed to raise $4,000 to cover liability insurance for this event and others throughout the year.  With weeks to go the whole program was in major jeopardy.

I saw Tim yesterday at the club and he told me they have raised $8,000 so the program lives on.

Congratulations and have a great day out!

Sailing mentors - Who's yours?

One of my favorite bloggers and twitterers is Mark Hendy. He lives in the UK and shares a common passion for sailing. One of his recent posts was  about how he got into sailing thanks to his sailing mentor, Tony. One outing on a boat with Tony and he was hooked:

Once we got the main sail up and switched off the engine I could feel the boat moving through the water under natures own power;  the sound of the water along the side of the hull was magical and I was in a place I liked being.  It became obvious within the next few hours that I loved sailing and I knew I needed to own my own boat.  Not a shared boat, my own.

This got me thinking about my own sailing mentors. I have been sailing for over 20 years and there have been four. The first two were both called Tom and could have not been more different.

Our first sailing instructor was a retired engineer called Captain Tom, who was retraining to be a Lutheran minister. At weekends he taught sailing on his Morgan 42. What a lovely guy! A great teacher who took us under his wing, taught us how to sail and then helped us find our first boat a Cape Dory Typhoon. Coincidentally we bought it from one his former mentees. Without his help and advice we would not have become addicted to this great way of life.

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, originally uploaded by Bruce Kerridge.

Great photo by Bruce Kerridge and story behind the photo. Although I think he may be wrong about the origin. I always understood that the brass monkey was a pile of cannon balls. When it was cold the brass cannon balls contracted and the pyramid of cannon balls fell apart. Hence the balls fell off if you get my meaning.

Adam

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I’ve had a few emails from people who've seen some of my sailing shots, asking for a shot taken on-board during long ocean yacht races when I've been stupid enough to do those races.

This one sure ain’t ‘photographic art’, but you asked for it....... So what you see is what you get

It’s taken midway through the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race – one of the classic ocean races of the world, and taken at a location about 80 miles offshore in the Bass Strait, between mainland Australia and Tasmania.

Sail Habilitation by Guest Author Tim Fletcher

I became involved with this organization a few years ago.  Both my parents were stroke victims, and both were paralyzed as a result.  Frankly, until that time, the disabled were relatively "invisible" to me.  But, when your daily routine is suddenly changed -- a whole new world opens up.  I knew that I would have to do more in my life to help 'people with special needs' -- and I loved sailing.  So, I got this great idea -- how about doing something with handicapped sailing.  Fortunately for me, many people with far more experience were already pioneering this venue -- and by amazing coincidence, a program exists right here in New Jersey -- and not far away at all.  So I got involved in 2006 as a volunteer.  Now, I'm hoping to do more to assist this fine organization.

Sail Habilitation was founded by Dr, Stephanie Argyris in the mid-1990's, as a way to help with rehabilitation in certain phyiscal therapies.  Stephanie had sailed Sneakboxes growing up on Barnegat Bay, and got the idea that the very tactile nature of sailing could help people in recovery.  From that, grew a program of holding community sailing events open to all people of special needs.  These events are currently hosted once or twice a year at the Lavallette Yacht Club on the Tom's River in New Jersey.  They are open to anyone with a special need, including the extreme elderly, and their caregivers.  The event generally lasts about half of a day.  Clients with special needs and their caregivers arrive early in the morning and are fed breakfast.  Volunteers, under the direction of professional Physical Therapists, assist in outfitting the clients with safety gear and transferring them into sail and power boats, donated by members of the club and other local sailors.  Clients enjoy some time on the water, then return for lunch before ldeparting.

This is great program that needs to continue and grow.  At this time, we are urgently seeking donations to fund this year's community sail, scheduled at Lavellette for Saturday, August 1st.  Essentially, Sail Habilitation needs to raise $4000, in order to cover the premium for the liability insurance required to conduct the events (this premium would also cover any additional events for the year).  Sail Habilitation is strictly a volunteer non-profit (503-C) organization.  Every $1 that is donated  goes directly to the special-needs clients -- all other items, foods, docks, boats, management, etc, are donated.  Very few charitable organizations can make this claim.

You can read more about Sail Habitation here and by Charles Zusman from the Star and Ledger here.

Here are members of SailHabilitation "Team Odyssey" who raced the Sonar class for the USA in the Paralypics last year in China.  This is a high profile organization, and much more can be realized for these folks.  More is found on their website.

How to Help

The nonprofit Sail-Habilitation must raise $4,000 for insurance to continue holding free Community Sailing Days for people with physical disabilities or special needs. Although the next community sail is planned for Aug. 1 at the Lavallette Yacht Club, it cannot be held unless the group can pay for insurance.  Those who would like to contribute may send a check made out to Sail-Habilitation to P.O. Box 228, Island Heights, NJ 08732.

For more information, e-mail sailhabilitation@aol.com, and the organization's acting president, Antoinette Gobar, will respond.

PS: I just mailed a check - Adam

Time Lapse of Cruise Ship Transiting The Panama Canal

Almost hypnotic.