Tillerman (we seem to be joined at the hip recently) posted last year about a Downwind Laser Race in the Columbia Gorge . The Laser Gorge Blowout; eighteen miles downwind in 'NOO-kyuh-luhr' conditions. Drop me in this race and I might be good for two miles and then I'd be upside down, crying uncle.
A YouTube video surfaced this week of top Northwest Laser Grand Master Mark Halman doing the 2010 Gorge Blowout and a helluva downwind sailing lesson this old fart demonstrated for the cameras. Finished fourth as well.
Any singlehander can tell you that things seem manageable up until you capsize; if you keep capsizing and keep capsizing, strength, concentration, and the will to continue blasting out of control...... all these athletic responses rapidly depart. To keep it together for 18 miles, in these conditions, in a roly-poly Laser, is a remarkable feat.... for anyone, at any age.
There were two more Dylan Winter videos of the 2010 Three Rivers Race that caught my eye; both of them featuring two local Broads dinghy classes.
The Norfolk Punt sailing class developed from gunning punts, but now the sailing Punt is so tricked out as a racing dinghy (double trapeze, assymetric, full battened sails) that the only traditional characteristic that remains is the canoe stern (very similar to the International Canoe!). Punt Number 19 seems to be a traditional model with a low rig, long boom, gunter rig. Number 69 and 96 are Wyche and Coppock hard chine designs (designed in the 1950's if memory serves); the most popular sailing Punt model going. The Norfolk Punt is a restricted development class with hull lengths approaching 22 feet. Some of the higher number hulls have probably had the hand of one of the modern English dinghy boffins, like Morrison or Howlett, in drawing up their lines.
And the Norfolk One Design. Designed and built by Herbert Woods, the first in 1931 and the last was built in 1968; 86 in all. The Norfolk One Design's very much look like an Uffa Fox International 14, though they are lapstrake, not smooth bottomed. They seem very comfortable short tacking up the river. A very pretty traditional design!
Watching the video of the Norfolk One Design, it occurred to me that one could take a Jet 14 hull, knock the deck off it, put in some seat tanks, add some wooden spars and gunter rig and get very close to the same boat. Oh no, not another mashup!
Tip of the hat to Dylan, my favorite sailing videographer, for this series.
I skipped last weeks "Music for Fridays"; my head was in the clouds as Tillerman just discovered that I was a Google #1 hit . I was still basking in all that unexpected Internet notoriety.
Well, it's taken a week. After getting congrats from my kids and a resigned shake of a head from my wife, life has just about returned to normal.
Continuing the "iconic parody" theme from the last post, here is a heretofore unknown Neil Young song performed for the very first time.
Bald but my eyebrows are growing at a prolific rate. Sailed Windmills and Y-Flyers in the 1960's. Founded Miami University (OH) sailing team. Sailed International 14's and Lasers in the 1970's. Sailed International Canoes in the 1980's to mid 1990's. Sailed Classic Moths since 2002. Enjoy boatbuilding though I'm very, very slow at it (the Internet doesn't help matters).
After choosing this username (Tweezer is the name of my Classic Moth), further research on the Internet turned up that Tweezerman is a corporate name for a line of pedicure products. Let me emphasize that I do not work for, nor endorse these products.
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