Tom Price Illustration; Windrustler

Good friend Tom Price, knowing my interest in all things to do with Classic International 14's, sent along one of his charcoal illustrations of Tom sailing his International 14 over in England, circa probably early 1980's. Although Tom doesn't make a living as a professional artist, his work has illustrated Stuart Walker's books and one of his drawings hangs in my living room.

Tom currently is a top competitor in the Star and 210 fleets as well as a crack helmsman on several larger keelboats on the Chesapeake Bay.

From Tom's email;

"Windrustler" winning "Old Boats Prize" at POW, Hastings, sailed by Tom Price, Louis Phillips from Annapolis, Md. Super Casson III design, McCutcheon built originally for Jeremy Pudney,

Music for Friday; Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen

Late again.

Another rocking live performance.

Hope you have a foot tapping, body swaying Sat. nite party for this summer day.

Laser ACC Radials; Culture Clash?

The companion event to the Laser ACC Full Rig event, the Laser Radial Atlantic Coast Championship, was held by SSA this past weekend. Another light air event with about half the sailors comprised of juniors. The juniors walked away with the top five placings. In talking to a couple of oldsters competing (oldster here being over 30) I got universal negatives about the number of coach boats employed by the juniors. Comments ranged from "annoying" on the RIB's buzzing about the race course to the snide "I would have done better but I didn't bring my coach with me". Certainly if we conservatively estimate that a coach for the weekend probably cost around $880 to $1000 for their services, I don't think this Opti mentality was appreciated by the weekday working stiff/ Laser weekend warrior.

And then in today's Annapolis evening rag, The Capital , we have this comment by Mike Schmidt, top Master at the Laser Radial ACC,

Schmidt said he has noticed one drawback of competing against younger sailors and that involves a complete disregard for the rules. The Pasadena resident said he has come to accept the fact that fouls will occur constantly and that no one is going to perform penalty circles.

Whew! that is one damning quote, particularly since even regular Laser racing can be like the Wild West.

Restored Aussie scow

Brit Len Parker, knowing my weakness for all things scow related, sent along pictures of an Aussie scow Moth, vintage late 60's, that his buddy Ray restored over the winter.

From Len;

Thought you might like this. I've just spent 10 days on the Isle of Wight. While I was there , my sailing mate Ray & I got the wingless Imperium design scow Moth "Billabong" in the water. The first time she had been sailed in over 30 years !

Pictures.........

Phil Bolger and the Alternate Universe

Phil Bolger, the prolific boat designer, died last week. Phil didn't design racing sailboats; you won't find a fleet of "Martha Jane" designs doing a NOOD regatta, nor will you find a fleet of Windsprint's sitting wrapped in top and bottom covers in a dinghy park. As far as I know, Phil had only one production fiberglass design, the Dovekie. Phil did over 700 designs. Some of them were weird concepts.... in the realm of lets throw this against the wall and see what sticks.

A racing sailor, if he recognizes Phil Bolger's name at all, knows him as a eccentric designer of boxy, high sided, plywood craft sporting classic rigs; lug, gaff, sprit .... the "Instant Boats". That was also my opinion of him when I was in my twenties. But with age, comes wisdom, and an understanding of the creative genius of Phil Bolger.

What Phil did was create an alternative yachting universe; just like Hobie Alter did with the beach cats and Hoyle Schweitzer did with the Windsurfer. Phil's plywood boxes were easily homebuilt and today, with other designers working in the same medium (Jim Michalak), there is an entire boatbuilding/sailng/cruising culture that shows up to myriad Messabout gatherings such as Cedar Key (80 boats) and Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival (close to 200 craft). Phil was the original American homebuilding beatnik that presaged by 30 years today's boat building boom in kayaks, and canoes, a boom fueled by "make your own boat kit" companies as Chesapeake Light Craft and Pygmy.

Phil wasn't just box boats, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of North American maritiime history and he could draw a curvaceous schooner, a dory, a rum runner speed boat, a traditional cat boat..... with the best of them.

Phil, like many successful designers was a good promoter, writing monthly design brief columns in "Small Boat Journal" and "Messing About In Boats". His books published detailed plans of many of his boats, so much so that you could build his boats out of the books and avoid the royalty fees, as I assume many cheapskate sailors have done.

I will have more on Phil Bolger boats down the road. If you tire of reading one of your several books on Laser racing, I recommend you pick up Phil's book "Boats with an Open Mind" to get a flavor of his multifaceted genius.

Tuesday Night Racing Commences

I raced my first Tuesday night for 2009. It was my varnished Classic Moth again, in and amongst the Lasers at SSA's TESOD (acronym definition - Tuesday Evening Sailing One Design). I did this a fair amount last year as well though most Laser sailors think I'm some kind of nutter. The Classic Moth is slower than the Laser (with one or two exceptions) so I've tried to come up with a slow boat game plan. It's tough when you can't hold your lane after a start, or sail deeper offwind angles like the Lasers with their unstayed rigs. Avoiding bad air, you usually end up early to the laylines upwind, which in short course racing, can be either all right or all wrong. Offwind, my higher angles usually put me also out on the edges. I count it as a good race if I manage to finish mid fleet.

One of the attractions of racing Lasers is getting the Classic Moth closer to Laser speed. Part of the fun is tweaking the Classic Moth in ways completely foreign to the Laser fraternity; new sail designs, different masts, even different hull designs!. I've made progress but since I rank myself somewhere between number 6-8 nationally, there are other Classic Moth sailors that would keep it closer with Lasers.

Well this Tuesday was a good day against the Lasers. Very light air is one condition where my Classic woodie can hang with the Lasers and that is what we had. I had one of those days on the start line where the holes suddenly appear at 10 seconds and I managed to get to the weather mark in 2nd place twice. Offwind usually 5-6 Lasers would go by to get me finishes upper mid fleet.

Not bad, not bad at all.

A video of dinghy launching from one of last year's Tuesday racing.

Music for Friday; "Ten Years After" from Woodstock

Featuring Alvin Lee;