Put the board down! No! Sideways! No! Way Forward!

On my Classic Moth, I put the daggerboard down when going upwind, pull it up offwind. I might pull it up slightly going upwind in a breeze, but that's not very precise, just a yank before I go upwind. Sometimes in my dotage, I've completely blanked and forgotten to pull the board up until I'm half-way down the leeward leg.

Contrast that with the professional sailors, technologists, and builders on Team Groupama C-class catamaran (who just won the 2015 Little Cup, the Cup formerly known as the Little America's Cup). Groupama have so finely honed their foiling on their 2015 model C-class catamaran, competitors figure they now have a two year technology edge on the competition.

A very basic primer on how to control the foils on Groupama. There will be a quiz at the end of class. There will be bonus points if you can explain the function of the wooden wedge in the operation of these foils.


Daggerboard kant and rake systems on Groupama from Turtle Danger Productions on Vimeo.

Daggerboard Hum (Loud!)

Sometimes when dinghies go fast they sing to you, as is the case in this video of a 14' Javelin class at speed on a long spinnaker reach. Originally designed by John Spencer of New Zealand as a follow-on to his 12' Cherub, the Javelin is a development skiff design, single trapeze with a moderate rig. The Javelin remains an Antipodean class, raced in Australia and New Zealand.

Yee-Ha!

Directors Cut: CRAB - Delivery Skipper - Freedom 21

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Click here for information about CRAB (Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating).

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It somewhat pains me to admit this, but I've done more keelboat sailing over this past summer than dinghy sailing. I've been volunteering at CRAB (Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating - my long time sailing friend, Dick White, is sailing director there) and I've been kicking around the Bay with various groups in CRAB's keelboats, the Freedom 21's, which were designed specifically for handicap sailing.

The blogmeister had to make a singlehanded delivery of a Freedom 21 from the home-port of Sandy Point State Park down to Annapolis (the Freedom 21's were sailing in Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta off Annapolis that Saturday). I took my trusty pocket waterproof camera and shot a very short video of the 6-7 mile jaunt (including selfie).





I was delivering the Freedom 21 down to Annapolis for the annual Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta, where, as it turns out, US Sailing had decided to feature this years regatta, and CRAB, in this well done video.




The local Chesapeake Bay sailing rag, Spinsheet Magazine, captured the elusive blogmeister crewing at a previous Wounded Warriors Regatta.

Photo courtesy of Spinsheet Magazine

Music Whenever: Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan - "Crossing Muddy Waters"

Three talented musicians + three great voices = a truly haunting bluegrass rendition of the John Hiatt tune "Crossing Muddy Waters".

Header Photo: Classic International 14

The previous header photo was of a classic International 14, circa late 1960's. (One clue is the crew isn't using a trapeze which didn't get voted in until 1969.)  This is a Canadian 14 as it has the Canadian registration numbers on the bow. Design? I'm guessing Proctor V or VII given the bow rocker profile. (Yes, you could say I'm somewhat of a International 14 history geek, though, to be honest, I grew up with these boats.)

More classic International 14 material can be found on my companion blog.

2015 Fall Season: A List of Free-for-all's

Over the years this blog has featured some of the oddball regattas/sailing races where you take your oddball small sailboat and compete against a bunch of other oddball small sailboats. During the fall season there is enough of these events you could, if so inclined, hop-scotch up and down the East Coast of the United States.

They are (in roughly chronological order):

Sebago Cup - mid-September at the Sebago Canoe Club, Brooklyn N.Y.

A one race jaunt around Jamaica Bay. I'm sure they would be delighted to see some out-of-town visitors and been told, even though this is Brooklyn, there is plenty of parking around the club. See comments for more info from SCC members.

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SEBAGO CUP ----- September 19, 2015
Our annual cruising race!
This is an open class cruising race open to non-members. Fleets will be created upon the participation of at least two boats of the same class. Contact sailing@sebagocanoeclub.org for more information.
Skippers meeting - 11:30 am
Starting gun - 12:30 pm
Notice of Race
Sailing Instructions 

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NSHOF Classic Wooden Sailboat Rendezvous- mid-September, Annapolis Maryland.

A one-or-two lap race around the Annapolis Harbor. The majority of entrants are classic cruising keelboats but there is always a smattering of small boats. This year John Z is entering his Classic Moth.

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CLASSIC WOODEN SAILBOAT RACE, Sunday ---- September 27, 2015
NOR

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MASCF (Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival) - First weekend in October, St. Michaels Maryland.

This is more of an event than sailing race but there is, on Saturday, a one-lap sailing race in the river starting around noon that is quite a hoot. I have done it twice in my Classic Moth Tweezer where I was racing in a division featuring a motley assortment of larger craft including Thistles, Core Sound 17's, Blue Jays, Celebritys, log canoes.

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MASCF ---- October, 2, 3, 4, 2015

Registration

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Tweezer trying to stay ahead of a log canoe - MASCF sailing race

Polly's Folly - mid-October, Megunticook Lake, Camden, Maine.

Hosted by John and Polly Hanson. This is a small affair, hosted out of their lake-front cabin around the time of Maine's fall foilage.

Archipelago Rally - early-November - Somewhere in the state of Rhode Island.

In a twist on normal advanced scheduling, the organizers wait until about two weeks before the event before announcing the location. A one lap race, usually going around something.

Paralympic Women Team Video

The Internet bombards us daily with the inspiring, the feel-good pluck of the underdog, the gritty - so much so that we sometimes become inured to it all. Despite the overload, this particular video of the U.S. Womens Skud 18 paralympic team manages to resonate the naked courage it takes to move forward in the wake of a disastrous, paralyzing injury or sickness. This is one part of a well-done series of sailing videos sponsored by Sunbrella - the manufacturer of cover materials.



SKUD-18: Adaptive Sailing Dreams from Sunbrella on Vimeo.