Volvo Ocean Race; Torture Boats, Comment 6

I haven't been posting too much on the Volvo Ocean Race but in the current leg to Quindao China, the fleet has been struggling upwind while buffeted by monster storm. Ericsson 3, Delta Lloyd and Telefonica Black have suffered significant damage and have dropped out along the course. Video from Green Dragon as posted on the Volvo Ocean Race Video Youtube channel .

Music for Fridays; Bev Stanton and Lisa Moscatiello

I'm off to the Classic Moth Midwinters so "Music for Fridays" is early this week. This week we feature two local artists; electronica maestro Bev Stanton and vocalist and folkie, Lisa Moscatiello . I've followed Lisa Moscatiello for many years and what a voice! For the song, "I Can Dream", they have mated a home movie of what looks like the Mardi Gras parade. With the video set in slow motion, it gives a dreamy psychedelic quality to the music.

Classic Moth for Sale; "Tippy"

Jim Young has put "Tippy" up for sale. "Tippy" really does illustrate the diversity in Classic Moth designs. Jim built it to a French design from (I'm guessing the time frame here) the 1950's by a fellow named Proust. It is a V chine hull, and at first glance it has some similarity to a Penguin (though the Penquin has a flat bottom). The name "Tippy" is very much of a misnomer as the design is definitely a widebody, a very buoyant design. Jim got Justin to drive the "Tippy" Moth to a win in the Gen 1 division (slower designs) at this years nationals. It is the one Classic Moth design where you could fit two people, say a Dad and kid, or two small teenagers and have a great time kicking around the lake.

Here is a picture of "Tippy" on land. Click on the pictures to get a larger image.



And another one sailing;



Jim built "Tippy" out of foam glass with a wood foredeck (the design could easily be adapted to plywood) and is asking $3500.

Contact Jim ...........jmsyoun1915....(with our friends at) aol.com.

Vendee Globe; Sailmaking on the ocean

We've been following closely, Dee Caffari's travails with her disintegrating mainsail . It still seems to be shedding large bits of mylar so Dee, just before she reaches the doldrums, has performed another operation. Hopefully this repair will get her to the finish. Dee is currently in seventh with our other women skipper, Sam Davies, currently in fourth.

Daylong Relay Races

Back in the 70's, Bob Dull and I organized a 24 hour Laser Marathon during the October Annapolis Sailboat Show. We ran it out of SSA, taped flashlights to the bow eye (colored red and green for the appropriate side). We had a lot of fun. Teams were anywhere from super organized 6-8 sailors to teams that were trying to recruit people off the dock at 3 am. We did it for two years and then wrapped it up. We couldn't do it now as the show is too popular and the harbor too crowded for it to be safe.

I found a video of Dutch juniors doing a 6 hour relay race in Lasers. A fair bit of breeze and the skipper changeover, in it's various permutations, is hilarious.

The barge carrying the cement truck crossing the race course is a nice touch.

laser sailing for 6 hours from Floris Wijnbergh on Vimeo.

And the grandaddy of all 24 hour dinghy races is the Southport race hosted by the West Lancashire YC in England. Teams race in doublehanded Enterprises (blue sails), GP 14's or Lark dinghies. The action around the gybe mark gets very hairy.


The Vanguard 15 class should look into doing something similar in the U.S.

Stuart Walker; Unified Theory on Fleet Dynamics

I attended a lecture by Stuart Walker over at the Annapolis Maritime Museum on Thursday. The latest issue to attract this icon of sailboat racing analysis is not a new wrinkle in racing tactics, or how to suss out the wind, or how to factor in current on a race course but the psychology of group dynamics in sailboat racing fleets. Stuart Walker has developed an unified theory on the rise and fall of sailboat classes at club level. At the foundation of his theory, Stuart has categorized sailboat racers into three categories;

• Top competitors - In a local fleet, the one or two competitors where winning is the most important thing. They hate to lose ! and they usually don't.
  
• Semi competitors - They are competent racers but are out there more for fun. However semi competitors are very cognizant of where they should finish within a fleet. If they usually finish fourth and beat Ray ..... they are comfortable with this result. If Ray beats them and they finish sixth, it is not a good day. A semi competitor is out there to enjoy the competition but finishing where they assume they should finish is also very important. Pecking order matters. A semi competitor also needs to gauge his finish against a top competitor.
  
• Non competitors - Tailenders. They like to belong to the group. They just enjoy being out there and they can be very regular attendees.
  

Stuart's unified theory maintains that a thriving fleet needs all three competitor types to be successful. An ideal fleet size is 12-20 because if a fleet gets too big, a greater degree of randomness upsets the pecking order. If a fleet gets too small, say around five, .... finishing position becomes too rigid. Stuart maintains one of the attractions of competition is the romance, the unknown when one competes. As someone in the audience pointed out, part of what brings racers back is what he termed, intermittent reinforcement .......... or to put it in a real world scenario, if today it is blowing under 5 knots and I am very good in light airs, then maybe today I can beat Ray.

Certainly I can apply Stuart's theories to my own sailing. When I realized the International Canoe class had moved beyond where I could compete physically or wanted to compete technologically (both in cost and time)........ when I realized I was not going to get results at my previous level, I moved on.

What Stuart's unified theory doesn't explain is how someone picks a fleet and why fleet loyalty is so important. If at Severn Sailing Association I want to race a doublehander class, I can pick either a Snipe, Comet, Jet 14, Daysailor, Vanguard 15 or Johnson 18. Usually once a sailor chooses his class, there is little crossover. When the Comet fleet declined relative to the Snipe fleet, there was not one Comet sailor that switched classes.

Music for Fridays Part 2: Katie Chambers

Another twofer this week. With age comes the watching of those generations coming up. One who I watched grow from toddler to adulthood, has now morphed into an accomplished musician. I know this blog has lacked some highbrow culture. I hope this makes up for it. Tip of the hat to you Katie!