Second Sail of 2010

I trundled my Classic Moth off to Severn Sailing Assoc for a sail this past Sunday. I'm with Tillerman on how much fun you can have just day sailing your dinghy. Sunday was a nice 8-10 knots out of the South with warm temps for April. Hiking out upwind, main fully powered up but not ragging, some small surfs downwind. Absolutely delightful.

In 2009, some of my best days on the water were day sails out of SSA. The Classic Moth is not a recognized class at SSA so I have to pick the off weekends which are usually major holidays (Memorial Day, July 4). I had a great time on July 4 of 2009 going up and back between two government marks with three Lasers in a shifty 10-15 Northwesterly.

This past Sunday, I did capsize once when I was running too hard by the lee and gybed accidentally. I actually got clocked by the boom on my eyebrow (have a little shiner there, not really noticeable). Luckily, pieces (i.e boom) of a Classic Moth are light. Yes, water was still a little chilly while I was swimming around the hull, but I was moving as fast as I could to get her upright. I've got to remember that the wind shifts off Back Creek in a Southerly.

Sailing just to be sailing...............

L'Hydroptere and the Crazy Frenchmen

Let's face it; in the realm of big, super fast, crazy assed yachts the French rule supreme. From the large tris and cats to the Open 60 monohulls, there is no other country pushing the wind/water boundaries as much as the French.

As is well known, the French have set a worlds speed record with the very large foiler, L'Hydroptere..

Frankly, you couldn't pay me enough to sail on this rocket. I would be paralyzed just thinking, "What if we crash? What if we crash?". Thats a lot of big pieces going over 50 miles/hr. .

A really great video short on the story thus far, including some footage of their spectacular crashes. I gather a new one is to be on the water this summer..

2012 - l'Hydroptère - The epic in 9 minutes - toute l'aventure en 9 minutes chrono ! from l'Hydroptère (officiel) on Vimeo.

Music for Fridays; KT Tunstall "Hold On"

I like the energy in this song.

KT Tunstall - Hold On from Artists Den on Vimeo.

Classic Mothist at Heart

From Sailgroove, a video of Ken Legler, head coach of Tufts University, and his nonconformist approach to intercollegiate sailing. None of the standard Flying Junior's or Collegiate 420's for Ken and the Tufts Sailing Team. Seems that Ken is wired like a Classic Mothist. Welcome to the club Ken!

Visit sailgroove.org for more Videos

Music for Fridays; Fredde La Grande; "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit

I've been reading that Detroit is considering razing about 1/4 of the city and returning it back to semi-rural vegetable gardens and such. Problem is the city services can't be stretched out to the abandoned areas of the city. Neat idea if they can pull it off.

This song is about Detroit but the video has nothing.... nada about Detroit. However, it is an interesting mash up of old burlesque clips. Maybe a commentary on faded glory?

Put Your Hands Up For Detroit from SmacKaySmith on Vimeo.

Oopsy Daisy

It's been some time since I've had an Oops! sailing video. This one is particularly well done. From New Zealand, it features the two NZ only junior classes, the P class and the Starling, and also the NZ skiff, the R-class. The Laser and the Sunburst class also make cameo appearances.

Another Tweaked Classic Moth Sail

Scott Sandell, who has been concocting different sail plans for his fleet of Europe dinghy's on Long Island Sound, has been working on the next generation Europe dinghy power plant over the winter. He sends along a picture of the first test sail. (Click on picture for higher resolution.)



Scott writes that initial on the water testing shows the new rig needs to be sheeted further out than the second generation mylar sail.

I asked Scott for some more pictures of the construction but Scott says his immediate priority is to disassemble the temporary structure he erected to construct the rig. The mayor of Sag Harbor says the structure must be off Main Street by mid April. Merchants on Main St are complaining of losing customers because of the lack of parking and soon, summer tourists will be swarming Sag Harbor.