Classic Moths at Brigantine 2011

This blog is anything but topical, so I write this report about a month after I raced my Classic Moth at Brigantine New Jersey, only my second regatta of the year. We had good breeze this year, seabreeze direction, around ten with some gusts higher on some races. My mongrelized Maser was lacking some speed in the Gen1 division when matched against the two thoroughbred Olympic Europes sailed by Walt Collins and George Albaugh. I didn't help matters much with two premature starts in the last two races, though this is typical for me when I haven't been racing much. For some strange reason, the Europe Dinghies seem to have picked up speed when using regular Classic Moth sails instead of the cut down Europe Dinghy sails.

For the overall trophy, John Z eked out Joe Bousquet at the finish of the last race after a stirring tacking duel up the last beat. For more complete reports, link over to George's blog or over to Joe's blog .

Two pics from the regatta that I lifted from George Albaugh (I think taken by his daughter Ingrid).

Here I am chasing the fleet after one of my Over-Early Starts...........



Winner John Z kicking Y2K up on a plane................



Agan, many thanks to Joe and Judy Courter for the always superb prerace shindig at their waterfront home.

Music Whenever: Loose Marbles, Meshiya Lake, "When I Get Low, I Get High"

This video captures the essence of a New Orleans street band........

Zen of Daysailing; Kicking around on a Snipe Dinghy

My "Zen of Daysailing" series of posts is just that; no racing, just video clips of people out for the enjoyment of a daysail.

My previous posts in the Zen series can be viewed here .

Snipe sailing..... looks like Florida to me.

Untitled from Kelly Rae Ardis on Vimeo.

Before someone else points it out; the music by Wiz Khalifa, with it's unabashed hedonism and drug consumerism (I hear the word misogynistic tossed around all the time when these type of lyrics are discussed), is as far as you can get from Zen. Also, the lifestyle is very foreign to an old married fart like me but the music does have a good toetapping rhythm.

Exclusive to Earwigoagin; The New Laser Sail

Laser forums have been abuzz recently about the "new Laser sail design", one that will be much more durable than the current model.

In a exclusive to Earwigoagin, we have obtained secret footage of the new Laser sail undergoing on-the-water tests. Sorry, I can't divulge the location, the skipper, or who was filming this.

Junk Rigged Laser from Ryan Barber on Vimeo.

Keeler from Russell Coutts

Despite this blog being mostly about dinghy sailing (and weird music videos), I normally sprinkle keelboat posts here and there just to maintain some diversity.

Back in 2007, Russell Coutts developed a mini IACC type keelboat class called the RC44 (RC=Russell Coutts..... makes sense). I guess the original idea of this class was to be the stepping stone, the triple AAA league if you will (American baseball terminology) for pro sailors progressing to the larger America's Cup arena. Well, the switch to multihulls squelched that idea but, from the following video, it looks like the class is doing just fine in Europe.

I like the action in this video of RC44 racing. Not an over produced promo film, this short features simple editing of onboard camera footage as we race around the course in a fleet race.

Music Whenever: Black Crowes "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"

This past April marked the beginning of the sesquicentennial (150 years) of the American Civil War.

The Black Crowes do a superb cover on The Band's mournful ballad about the end of the Rebel South.

Boat Watching from the Highway

I'm always on the lookout for boats going down the highway.... sort of like bird watchers or those who sit by airports watching the planes landing and taking off; its a secret test to see if I can correctly ID that boat that is quickly disappearing in my rear view mirror. I was floored about two weeks ago with an extremely rare sighting. I was bombing westbound over the Rt. 50 Severn River Bridge about 4:30 pm. The eastbound lanes were slowed to a crawl as they came up on the bridge, as is typical at that time of day. And then I saw a strange boat being cartopped on what looked to be a Volvo station wagon. In that one or two seconds I had available to glance over....bingo.....paydirt! For I knew immediately that there were probably only 20 or so people in the U.S who had a chance at ID'ing this craft and I was one of them.

The sliding seat strapped next to the hull gave it away. It was an International Canoe, but not just any International Canoe, the low chine indicated the latest generation International Canoe and not the old Nethercott hull. The long mean bow with the rig set aft looked like the latest Chris Maas design, probably the fastest IC going at this time.

Well, the Maas International Canoe is known to primarily reside on the West Coast; it was indeed a rare event to see one on the East Coast. I needed a confirmation since it's been close to eighteen years since I was active in the class. I called up good friend Bill Beaver and, "Yessiree Bob", I mean Bill, who said it must have been Chris Maas driving up to Rhode Island to catch a container to Germany for this year's World Championship.

Well, this sighting of a cartopped International Canoe brought back memories of an eccentric fellow from Annapolis who cartopped an International Canoe on a rusty Karmann Ghia during the 1980's. Never too far mind you, maybe 30 miles max. Believe it or not, the IC never fell off.

All my International Canoe Posts can be seen here .