Messing About In Sailboats

A perfect evening sail

Yesterday eve, the boat I have been crewing on, Knot Again, was on Committee Boat duty. I ended up hitching a ride on another boat, Bellefaster, a J30.

The thing I am loving about Raritan Yacht Club is how laid back the place is. All I had to do was walk down the dock and utter the words "Anyone need crew?" and Teri, who owns  Bellefaster with her husband Mike, said "Sure".  No asking about experience, sniffing you out to see if they like the cut of your jib, just "hop on".

We had a lovely sail. It was perfect evening - clear skies, warm, balmy 8kt breeze and a ton of boats out racing.  We didn't win but we didn't come last. The company was excellent as were the post-sail beers.

I could get used to this Wednesday night thing!

Great Post on the Round the IOW

c/o o the BBC. Nice report of what it's like to race a TP-52 with an Olympian and a football manager.

Try to right this one!

Great video on BBC site of Alinghi's catamaran turning turtle in the iShares Cup Regatta.  You'd need a hell of righting line to flip this puppy back-up.

If I could be somewhere today...

...It would be in the Solent taking part in the Round the Island Race. I did it once, in 2001 and it was one of the best ever experiences, although I had a bastard of a hangover. I crewed on a Clipper 38 and I think we came 175th. That's out of 1500+ boats so not too shabby.

The winds were a little light and the swell made it feel oliy at times. Came close but didn't chuck.

Coming round the Needles was amazing. 100s of boats squeezing through the Race between the Western end of the IOW and Hurst Castle then making the turn.

We cut inside and hugged the southern coast of the island. This was the right call as the favorable current carried us round. For seven hours, you race with spitting distance of dozens of boats including some real beauties.

Here's a rather groovy promo video for this year's race.

The Renegades from Raritan

A proud moment for my new-found home, Raritan Yacht Club, Sinn Fein (pronounced Sin Fin) won their class and were overall winner in the Newport-Bermuda Race. It's the second year in a row they won the lot and fourth year in a row they won their class. This year was a lot closer. After over 100 hours of racing they beat Sylkie by about 20 minutes. Sinn Fein will be a lot heavier coming back as it will be laden with trophies!

Not bad for a bunch guys from New Jersey!

They were toasted loudly at the post-Wednesday evening race celebrations. Dark and Stormies all round! Cong

More on this here

Nice acount of what it's like to crew in the Newport-Bermuda Race

c/o of BYM

Interview with the only female crew member, Molly Baxter of Rima II

“There were 14 crew and I was the tiniest, so I ended up in the coffin bunk.  All sorts of gear got thrown up there. You’d strip out of your gear and get in your bunk.  It was all wet and damp when you went back up on watch. The head was disgusting.  It probably would have happened with women on board too, but some guys wouldn’t flush or they’d miss.  There was a running flow.  The whole place was a mess.  I didn’t go in without my boots on.”

“[Sailing] was beautiful.  If someone tells you it’s boring, it’s because they are not looking around.  We saw turtles and dolphins.  Incredible stars. We had a full moon every night and the Gulf Stream with the low clouds was just haunting.”

Molly is on the left in this photo

 

Masters at Work

Great photos from the Laser World Masters at Terrigal. Can't figure out if any or the Tillerman. You have to admire their technique. There are more in the spot continuation.

Laser World Master Championships

The Tillerman is out there somewhere. More pics  here . 

Why Mike Slade is beefing up the crew on Leopard for the Sydney Hobart

I am back in London for the holidays. One of the many nice things about "Limeyland" is that the newspapers here write about sailing on a reasonably frequent basis. For instance, in today's Daily Telegraph, there was a great piece about Mike Slade's Leopard's entry in the Sydney-Hobart.

Leopard normally races with a crew of 22 but for this race, she will be sailing with 26. Why?

"So we are down in Australia, some of my very favourite people in the world, but we are intent on flying the flag. We could sail Leopard with a race crew of 22 but I have my own reasons for going with 26.

"The sailing rationale is that you can get some extreme weather on the Sydney-Hobart and you need a full complement all the time on Leopard when she is flat-out. She is incredibly high performance but a hard sail into the wind. I'm normally the first to succumb to sea-sickness, which at least makes everybody else feel better.

"But the most important reason I need 26, of course, is my cricket match on Dec 29 after we get to Hobart. I have hired a ground and a few tents and things. It will basically be England against the Rest. So that's 22 bodies accounted for. Then we will need two umpires and a scorer. That makes 25. And then clearly there has to be somebody to regularly dispense Pimms or ice-cold lager. It can be a very hot business. So 26 it is. There is usually method in my madness."

The guy has more money than God but, boy does he put it to good use. For this attitude alone I hope he wins and blasts the record books!

AC - Putting the Cat Among the Pigeons (No pun intended)

I have been trying to wrap my head around the latest twist and turns in the America's Cup saga and where it goes from here. Here is my take and I caveat that I am extremely un-expert in this area and I look forward to being corrected on every point.

Bertarelli's open letter yesterday puts the cat among the proverbials . Today's NY Times summed it up nicely:

Bertarelli said he would consider giving up some of the traditional privileges of the defender, including an automatic spot in the America’s Cup match and the right to choose the site of the race, if the competition could be restructured into an Olympic-style event with a permanent governing body that would select the sites well in advance.

“This idea that the winner takes all is very romantic and very attractive, but, on the other hand, it prevents a number of things from happening,” Bertarelli said in a telephone interview. “It prevents certainty that teams can survive from one cycle to the other. It prevents planning and negotiating venues ahead of time and therefore prevents the cycle from being a faster cycle than a four-year cycle or even more in some cases.”

So now what happens? Firstly, Bertarelli and Ellison duke it out under the supervision of the New York Yacht Club. If they agree to move these ideas forward, the New York Attorney General gets involved. This will take yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs to conclude.  In the meantime, BMW and Alinghi will be forced to race a court-ordered regatta in 2008.  I am sure that will be a huge success.

Rule 69's point of view is that it's all about money. (Great post BTW). In my view that's only part of the story.

It would be naive to assume that Bertarelli has been suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of extreme altruism. Rule 69's analogy to Bernie Ecclestone the Emperor of F1 is interesting. Bertarelli is no dummy. Two things are clear.

Firstly, he cannot retain the Auld Mug - and therefore control over AC - forever. Changing  the structure so that it's more ...er democratic benefits Bertarelli for the day when he inevitably becomes a challenger.

It's actually a canny judo move on Ellison if you think about it. I am sure Ellison would like nothing more than to be in Bertarelli's current shoes of running the show. He is basically saying to Ellison, "If I can't have it all my own way, you won't either if you win the Cup."

Secondly, losing the ruling in November on who would be the official challenger was a clear signal that Bertarelli is no going to have it all his own way. I have to raise my hat to Bertarelli's smarts in attempting to regain the initiative.

So my question is this - Is all this a bad thing?

In the short-term, Absolutely - Yes. AC32 was a great success on many dimensions and not just commercial ones. It was very good for the sport of sailing. The tragedy of all this, is that the sport will lose momentum as AC33 could be as big a fiasco as the last time there was a court-ordered regatta (1988). Although, I have to say 50ft foilers will make bloody good TV.

In the long-term, it could be a very good thing for sailing. The changes to the AC in the last few years have been  positive in opening it up. More competitors; new countries participating, much more racing, fleet racing, better media coverage, a fantastic location that made it possible for six million people to participate. This all great for sailing in raising its popularity.

Sorry Magnus, I think you are being too one-sided. Yes it's a lot about money and yes it will suck for a few years, but it may not be all doom and gloom in the long-term.

What do you think?