Messing About In Sailboats

Blur Sailing - Why I wish I could speak Swedish

I wish I spoke Swedish. Why? Well then I would understand the Blur Sailing Blog. It's a great blog, full of great videos and sailing photos. Only problem is that I don't speak a damn word of Swedish so I haven't a clue what they are blogging about. Here is what I can figure out:

• The blog (I think) is run by a guy called Peter who races a J109 in Sweden. And from what I can tell he knows what he is doing
• The crew look like Vikings and have some damn cool sailing gear.
• Sweden is a gorgeous place to sail.
• The have a very good sailing blog. Really nice design and full of great stuff. Much more carefully thought out than my blog. Just check out the sailing photos. Bee-oo-tee-full
• For the more technical folks, he has specs and polars for a bunch of boats. I used to think that was nerdy but after a couple of seasons racing I am impressed. So I guess, I am now nerdy!
• They also have a Youtube Channel which has some very cool sailing videos. Like the one below which is their season wrap-up. Well-worth sitting back and enjoying with a cold one in hand.

Hey Peter from Blur Sailing, please tell us more about you.

Sailing Photo of The Day - Regatta in Sibenik, Croatia

  Sent to me by my father-in-law Ward, who is an avid photographer. You can see the rest here.

Turkeybowl 2009 at Raritan Yacht Club

An annual tradition at Raritan Yacht Club: Dinghy Racing the weekend of Thanksgiving. Where's Gary Jobson when you need him? Video by yours truly. I won't be giving up the day job.

Sailing Photo Of The Day - Dubai RC44 Golod Cup 2009

Dubai RC44 Golod Cup 2009, originally uploaded by Nico Martinez Photo.

A sailing lesson

Sunday, was Raritan Yacht Club's annual Turkeybowl, a Frostbite series in JY15s. There were 7 crews racing and I was paired up with Eric Leitner, a very accomplished J24 sailor and bloody excellent dinghy sailor. I think, Kelly Robinson, the race organizer figured after my previous week's performance it would better to pair me up with the most experienced sailor. Less likely to go swimming that way.

Each crew did 9 races over a fairly short windward-leeward course. For late December, the weather was beautiful, clear blue skies, not too cold. After the gales of Saturday, the winds were a little on the light side.

We won the day, with Eric helming five races and me four. We won despite my best efforts to scupper us. I managed to hit boats multiple times, twice in one race. Doing penalty 360s put us back in the fleet each time. In addition to this my tiller/mains sheet-handling was less than fluid. Yet with Eric's coaching and trimming we managed to sneak back into second most times.

Last week, I watched as Eric raced ahead in every race. We just couldn't get how he could get the boat moving so much faster. It was humbling. Racing with Eric gave me a glimpse at how to do it. It's a steep hill to climb.

I originally learned to sail the wrong way round. I started on a 40 foot yacht and only came to small boat sailing in the last ten years or so and then not really competitively - More pleasure boating at resorts. Sailing with Eric was like going back to school. Over the course of 4 hours I learned to roll-tack, how to keep the boat flat, correct trim, how to lie in the boat when handling the sheets, how to sail a small boat downwind effectively, mark rounding and above all to get my ass up on the rail when helming. I will of course forget all of this by the next time I get in a boat. Except the ass on the rail bit.

After more than 20 years sailing it's scary how little I know. You get fat and happy in cruising boats.  I know I will never hear the end of it from the Tillerman but you don't really know how to sail until you can race a dinghy well.

Sailing Photo Of The Day - Regatte de St Tropez

57, originally uploaded by stephanelhote.

Rich Wilson and the Vendee Globe - "An insane thing done sanely"

Last week, I was lucky enough to hear Rich Wilson speak about his sailing of the non-stop single-handed round the world race, the 2008 Vendee Globe. Rich was the only American and the oldest sailor.  He also was the only sailor racing a fiberglass boat against 29 carbon fiber boats. A Corinthian among a better-funded and experienced elite.

In introducing Rich's speech, his friend Rich DuMoulin, himself a highly accomplished short-handed sailor, talked about why Rich was one of the few people capable of pulling it off. In short Rich was was the kind of man capable of “doing an insane thing sanely”.

The more I learn about single-handed racing, especially the Vendee, the more I am in awe of the accomplishment. According to Rich, 1,400 people have climbed Everest, 500 have been into space but only 50 have sailed around the world non-stop single-handed. (Note: I can’t substantiate these figures exactly but the relative order of magnitude makes the point – 10 times more people have been into space than have completed a non-stop circumnavigation).

Poll Results: Most people think that the America's Cup has been surpassed

According to readers of this blog, nearly half feel that the America's Cup has lost its premiere position to other events (e.g. VOR, LV Cup, etc). A few feel that it was always over-rated. A third feel that it will either reclaim its past glory or still is and always will be the pinnacle of the sport.

Big caveat! This is based on less than 50 responses so its more of a straw poll than a statistically robust survey. That said the results as they stand have remained pretty much unchanged since the poll started.

I would love to hear comments on this. Polls are pretty good at reflecting the sentiment of a moment. They don't tell you much about why people responded the way they did. My assumption is that the interminable squabble between Larry and Ernie has done the damage. It may also be that people have felt this for a long time and that the recent fiasco just exacerbates the sentiment.

If they ever get on the water, I will re-run the poll and see if the sentiment has changed.

I personally hope that they have an exciting DOG race. Frankly AC or no AC seeing the monster tri vs the giganticat match-racing will be incredible to watch (hopefully). I then hope that they put this nonsense behind them and the winner can go on to hold an AC like Valencia which in my view was outstanding.

Thoughts anyone?

Photos from Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice - Azzura

Photos c/o of Carlo Borlenghi and Stefano Gattini/AZZURRA

 

St Barths Bucket Race

35 stunning superyachts including Maltese Falcon racing round St Barths.