Messing About In Sailboats

Gary Jobson at Raritan Yacht Club

Gary Jobson is currently doing a limited speaking tour sponsored by Mount Gay. He made a stop at RYC on Sunday March 22nd. What a joy! The guy is an awesome speaker. He shared some great stories and then presented videos of his life, Americas Cup, Acura, Newport Bermuda and best of all Qingdao. Throughout he provided a running commentary. It was a real privilege. Here is evidence of me with Gary Jobson. Thanks to Ann Myers for sharing this. His stories are legendary. If you don't think local knowledge matter,s this story will change your mind. It was a rematch of the 1983 Americas Cup between a US Boat, on which Jobson was crew against the same Australian boat that taken the Auld Mug from Newport. As you can imagine the race was hard fought. The race was in New York Harbor a windward Leeward course from the Southern... Read more →

Pitchpoled by guest writer Peter McGrath

A friend rings. He's chief mate on a tug, working to bring the cash in to get his boat tarted up ready for his circumnavigation. Stormbound. Bored. Missin' his woman. Ring McGrath. He yarns about last years transat and some of the characters he met, and mentions that he's upgrading his standing rigging to 10mm stainless. His is a 40-foot steel meanie, a tough boat but 10mm? That's gonzo rigging. He tells of meeting a boat that had been in the wars, a 45 footer, steel and with a curiously kinked mast. They were, he said eccentric in their habits: it had a center cockpit (center cockpits are higher than aft cockpits) which they thought a perfect place to stow a 60 gallon fuel container. (Only do the stability sums on this if on the heads.) And it was a mess - lots of loose stuff lying around within. None... Read more →

Something for the boat with everything

In one of those email conversations one has, Adam asks me why I think a yacht is naked without a heavy machine gun. Here we go… Somewhere in the Baltic. I am second mate on a big steel ketch delivering it to the Tall Ships Races. We’re barely three months into the commission and already the skipper and first mate loathe each other. Still, it’s light winds so we’ve got the asymmetrics up: cruising chute, full main and mizzen staysail. My mate Mike is on the helm. At the time, he doesn’t have much sailing experience, but has hangliding, windsurfing and dinghy time. He’s wind aware, knows his collision regulations, is calm and, well, he’s a good helm. We’re on starboard tack, the downwind boat and we’ve got hard to tack sails up. The black-hulled schooner is on a converging course and a steady bearing. We’re stand on, by every... Read more →

Ignorance is Bliss

I know this guy. Lets call him Steve to protect the innocent. Steve is one of the most interesting guys I know. He was brought up in Ireland and came of age in the late 60s. He built a successful career in the music business among other things working with Jimi Hendrix as a tour manager and then founding a very successful independent label in the 70s which he sold to a big international label. Steve is never one to do anything you might call orthodox. That would be boring. Sometime in the late 90s, he was visiting a friend in Amsterdam who had been a drummer for the British ska band Madness. This drummer lived on a canal boat. Steve took a shine to the boat and became enamored with the idea of living on a canal boat in London. He could picture long weekends pootling up to Henley,... Read more →

Too drunk to find my dinghy

Anyone who has sailed the BVIs will know of the Willie T in the Bight at Norman Island. It's an institution. The Wiliam Thormton aka Willie T is a 98' schooner converted into a two deck floating bar. As I was sitting on the train coming home yesterday a smile slipped across my face as I recalled one of the funnest evenings of my life about 10 years ago spent at the Willie T. My wife (not her in the pic. This is a random pic to protect the innocent) and I were in the Caribbean for the first time and at the end of a Learn-to-bareboat course with Steve Colgate's Offshore Sailing School (Offcourse as my wife calls it). It was an excellent week under the supervision of central casting charter skipper, Capt Tom. Tom was a gruff divorcee from Florida who looked a bit like a pint-sized Magnum... Read more →