For December 31, we have a northerly gale howling. The Severn River below the Route 50 bridge is a mass of white horses. Temperatures tonight will dive to 20F (-6 C). Ah .... but in the Southern Hemisphere, it is summer.
A real short video of Europe dinghy sailing (11 seconds) taken in Napier, New Zealand, on the West of the North Island. Sparkling waves, puffy clouds, 15 knots of wind. To the sailing of 2008 and to the sailing to come in 2009.
As I said before, if you magically dropped me on an Open 60 in the Southern latitudes, I would be desperately making a beeline to the nearest spot of dry land before I went bonkers. In these two videos, you get a good feel for life down below on these racing machines as they reach along toward Cape Horn. The banging, the crashing, the shaking..... how can anyone get any sleep?
In the first video, our eternally upbeat Sam Davies, is celebrating Christmas with, what looks like a brewski, and some jam and toast. Not too easy to get down the hatch as the boat lurches about;
Was it a bird? .... No....In the second video, friends of Dee Caffari have chartered a light plane and rendezvoused overhead to take pictures while she passes south of New Zealand. Dee's happiness is palpable at even this minor brush with civilization. What she doesn't mention is that she has a mainsail that needs an on-boom repair, that is when the conditions moderate so she can safely hang out there! And the slamming, bashing noise and the shocks reverberating through ones bones goes on and on and on...........
Again, thanks to Yachtpals for putting these videos up on YouTube.
Meanwhile Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux continues to pour it on at the front, seemingly impervious to the breakdowns that have frustrated his pursuers.
I've had an IPOD for close to three years but never used it because all I had for listening was the stupid little earpiece. This Christmas I got an IPOD dock as well as an under cabinet radio with an audio input that I can plug the IPOD into. WOW! Put it into Shuffle mode and who knows what song will pop up next. Forget about Playlists .... I like surprises.
I found one other benefit. Tired of picking up after your grown up kids when they're home for Christmas? Put your IPOD on Shuffle mode, turn the volume up and watch your kids melt away. Must be something about bluegrass, followed by opera, followed by zydeco, followed by early period instrument waltzes, followed by "Arthur Loves Plastic".............
The International Moth originally had a Circle M class insignia. In the late 1960's, when the International Moth class merged with the Australian Moth, the class adopted; the tall fully battened rig , 7' beam and the Australian Moth class insignia, affectionately known in Classic Moth circles as the "Squashed Bug" symbol. The Classic Moth, when it was resurrected in the early 1990's retained the Circle M insignia but there was another class that had been using the Circle M since it's inception in the 1930's. This is the British Moth.
The British Moth's ancestor is the American Moth, which was popular across America in the 1930's, almost 1500 moths were registered with the American Moth Boat Association. Based on this, Sydney Cheverton designed a boat more suited to British waters.
The length of 11 ft. was retained, with the scow bow and hard chine construction. The mast was increased to 20 ft. carrying a sail of much higher aspect ratio but smaller overall area (75 sq ft. to 63.5). The small cockpit with wide side decks was retained to permit "dry" capsizing.
The British Moth, as the name indicates, is solely a British class. It remains the most popular Circle M Moth with consistent 30's attendance at their national championships.
Here is a Youtube on the British Moth which popped up recently. You have to overlook the sound track which seems to have been stolen from some kiddies TV show, but the sailing looks good.
Woodenboat magazine puts out a Small Boat issue every year. It is a smorgasbord of small boat disciplines; kayak, open decked dayboats, sailing canoes, skiffs, wherry's, dory's, catboat's, mini hydroplanes ...... and etc. etc. For a boat nut, it's a must read.
John Summers has put together a stitch and glue 16X30 sailing canoe. I've seen the plans and they are comprehensive. The 16X30 Gilbert sailing canoe is not for everybody, but if you want a challenge of sailing a sliding seat canoe (not as athletic as the International Canoe) this is the one to build.
I sailed against Ben Fuller in International Canoe's in the 1980's, and in the 2009 magazine; he has his "Rai Tan" lug sailed open camp cruiser featured. An Antonia Dias design, it looks to be very competent either under oar or sail.
My kid's and my niece, who were home for the holidays, said the feature they most liked about the blog was the "Music for Fridays" (They are not sailors). For Chris, Robyn, Lauren, and Miss Marlee, here is my favorite modern troubadour, Randy Newman. with a warm weather classic "I Love LA"
"We're going to ride it until we just can't ride it no more"
Steve Clark asked me to go through some of my archival material on the Suicide Class. The Suicide Class is one of two development dinghy classes to originate in the U.S (the other is the Moth class). The Suicide was a sail area class; limit of 125 sq. ft. The Suicide originated in New England in the 1920's with some big names (Herreshoff) designing to the rule but the hotbed transferred to Florida after WWII. It is not surprising that Moth sailors and Suicide sailors overlapped. Harry Cates, noted builder of Moths was also a Suicide builder. Both the Moth and the Suicide classes died out in the U.S. in the 1960's. The Suicide tried a comeback in the 1980's but it was just old timer nostalgia. The Moth class has resurrected itself in the U.S in two versions; the International foiler and the more sedate hiking Classic Moth.
The last rules of the Suicide class had the LOA between 18.5 and 22.5 feet, hull weight around 200 lbs., beam was 5 feet. The fleet sported wishbone booms. The crew was on a trapeze.
I find this class very interesting. Unfortunately Anne Henry was writing a class history in the 80's but I never heard any more about it.
From the annual class review of the American magazine, One-Design and Offshore Yachtsman:
Below is a picture from one of the Suicide promotional brochures. This one looks to have the high sheer chines of a Florida Moth. January 2020; Doug Halsey sends along this update on the photo:
"I've found that photo in a Miami Herold report on the 1946 Miami Orange Bowl Regatta. The boat is identified as Moray, sailed by Ralph Knowles. Unfortunately, there's no information on the designer or builder. However elsewhere, Harry Cates is listed as having built Joker (shown in one of your later photos) in 1948. That's a much different design though.
Double click on the image to get a larger version.
Addendum April 2019.
Profile drawing of the hard chine Banshee design including sailplan.
The rescue of Yann Elies is old news. It had a happy ending. But what if he had broken his leg at the outer reaches of this Southern leg, where help is thousands of miles away rather than the 40 hours it took the Australian frigate to arrive. The news might not be so rosy. These are highly competent professional offshore sailors with huge shore teams. They know the risks. But Rachel Maddow, the liberal political commentator on MSNBC, is surely echoing some of the thoughts of John Q Public in her short piece on the Vendee Globe.
We are now in the midst of the holiday season and with it .... the partys. In ancient times, Christmas was conveniently rescheduled to coincide with the year end pagan bacchanalia. Wikipedia has this to say on how Christmas came to be celebrated on Yuletide
The music video for Beirut's "Elephant Gun" depicts a drunken orgy; so decadent, it becomes in our imagination, one of those fantastical Hollywood parties. On the reverse side, my New Years Eve celebration over the last several years has been one of polite conversation, good wine and a delicious dinner with friends .... which sensible decorum dictates at my age!
I was trying to avoid skin this time; but I couldn't resist.
This video is one of the more popular sailing videos on YouTube with over 24 thousand hits as I write this. This E-Scow is jib reaching in breeze with spray everywhere. What a hoot!
I sailed on an E-Scow once, even got to steer. Very powerful and deceptively quick from inside the boat. You needed to look aft at the stern wake to fully appreciate how fast you were going.
I remember back in the 1970's standing on the shore at Mantoloking YC on Barnegat Bay and watching off in a distance, a 505 at full stride under spinnaker. I watched in awe for about a minute; the 505 blasting along, and then realized there was another boat a couple of hundred yards behind under spinnaker that was just eating this 505 up. It was an E-Scow that looked to be going twice the speed of the 505. Very impressive
Yann Eliès suffered a severe fracture of the femur while changing sails on his Open 60 "Generali" and is awaiting rescue by the Australian Navy. Fellow competitor, Marc Guillemot, has rendezvoused with Generali and is keeping station until the Aussies show up on Saturday
No one knows more intimately the extreme risks that are inherent in this race than the 30 competitors who started the Vendee Globe. These sailors are made of very stern stuff.
That said, my thoughts go out to Yann and his family.
I assume the few readers of this blog are male so I abandon any pretense keeping "Music for Fridays" forever highbrow (well maybe none of my "Music for Fridays" would be considered highbrow....)
This is a twofer.
First "Angel City" with a dance tune "Touch Me".
And for you needing to salve any Catholic guilt after viewing this; the following is a story of a seductive murderess being pursued by a mysterious man driving an American car, and, in the middle of the video, African women singing a refrain. Very weird. I suppose the lesson for the men is to keep your guard up if some young, nubile, half clad women takes a fancy to you! But I like the techno beat.
Most of the time, video posts from the Vendee Globe competitors have a relatively sunny flavor to them, even when all hell is breaking loose. In this post, we see the raw emotion breaking out from Dee Caffari when she learns that Mike Golding, sailing an identical boat and rig to her, has dismasted. For her, it's just another niggling, distracting thought that hopefully you can put to the back of the brain as you continue attacking the Southern Ocean.
The shore crew for Sam Davies "Roxy" has come up with the best video angle for shooting these boats as they careen down waves in the Southern Ocean. They have a camera with a fish eye lens, strung up off the aft port quarter which captures most of the Open 60. What amazes me in this video is how well this Open 60 handles waves at speed and I mean SPEED!. Part of it must be the trimming of the ballast tanks, part of it must be hull design, but you never see walls of water washing over the boat as you see on the VOR 70's.
Dubai, I've been told, is the Switzerland of the Mideast. I've never been, but from what I read, it's over the top, a little bit like our Las Vegas; swanky communities on man made islands, the worlds largest indoor snow skiing facility, skyscrapers with every imaginable type of avant-garde exteriors....
But they do race a traditional sailing craft, the dhow. This video shows the largest class, 60 footers, and they must be the fastest lateen rigged boats in the world. This particular one is cooking, the bow wave is coming off the hull about half way back and the wind looks to be only around 8-10. Or, as the video documents, they were cooking. At about 1.43 into the video either the trimmer screwed up .... or there was a breakdown, the main was suddenly dumped, the dhow lurched to weather and most of the crew ended up in the water.
But like high performance sailors anywhere; if you've had a good ride before disaster struck, it's still a good laugh. Good spirits all around as the crew is scooped up by the support boat.
More information on the Dubai Dhow racing can be found here
I really should be writing Christmas cards but in true Internet armchair warrior fashion, I am sipping one of my favorite stouts, Brooklyn Brewing's Chocolate Stout, and watching true sailing warriors battle the Southern Ocean.
Sam Davies changing out headsails on Roxy and then on the back half of the video, Sam, after enduring an hellacious night (not a good night for sleeping, she says!), shows a childlike amazement at a beautiful, crisp, sunny day on the Southern Ocean.
And then Dee Caffari on the psychological pressures of enduring a gale in the Southern Ocean. Even in dinghies, carbon hulls are much louder than other hulls. I've read that the U.S Army has used constant blasting of rock music as torture. Can the slamming, banging, groaning, loud swishing of water passing at 20 knots underneath ..... can this be far behind?
If I was magically transported to one of these Open 60's, it wouldn't take long before I was curled up in my bunk, hands over my ears, yelling "Please make it stop..... Please!"
Here in the seaboard states of the Mid Atlantic of the U.S, we generally don't see winter until after the New Year and even then, extended cold spells below freezing rarely last longer than a week. This video looks to be shot in Norway, above the Arctic circle, where blizzards and frozen lakes are normal before Christmas. The video starts out with a blizzard and then features a home brew sled/sail contraption. The video is beautifully shot. You feel the desolation of the Far North winters .... and nothing beats the fun that a simply constructed sailing sled can bring on a short winter day (real short in Norway!).
I'm guessing this film takes place in the 1950's. Young English sailors are building and sailing 12' Fireflys, an Uffa Fox design. The Firefly is still raced today in England and is the team racing dinghy for English Universities. I enjoy watching old film and this has the typical "jolly good... hip hip hooray" narration of English shorts of this period.
My good friend, Bob Blomquist, raced in a small fleet of Fireflys in and around Boston Massachusetts during the1950's.
Anybody reading this blog will figure out that I've been following the Vendee Globe Round the World Singlehanded Race pretty closely. With regular video updates and yacht tracker positions, this years race has an immediacy for the Internet sailor second to none.
Loick Peyron, one of the leaders, dismasted on Wednesday in the Southern Ocean. He made a quick video of the damage (look at the daggerboard poking up out of the mainsail) before getting to work cleaning up. Cutting away a dismasted rig is hard work for a full crew, let alone a singlehanded sailor. The end of video shows Loick with his jury rig using the boom. Yacht tracker shows him pointed for the West Coast of Australia.
Yachtpals has been hard at work converting Vendee Globe video over to YouTube.
Music for Fridays has again jumped the gun to Thursday. As I write this, a hard December rain is making for a very raw night outside. This Folgers coffee commercial always brings a smile to my face. It's lighthearted goofiness is a perfect antidote to the weather outside. This commercial features a weird boppy dance troupe (if you want to call it that, maybe the better term is crazy yellow sea people sun-rays), a minimalist story line, and a catchy tune. For those a bit thick, the story features dancing rays from the rising morning sun filtering in from the ocean. These yellow dancing rays with scooters, loud mouth organs and an irascible cheerfulness are bent on waking up a set of characters who are definitely NOT morning people. The Folgers pitch comes in at the end.
Unlike most classes, the Classic Moth's come back to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, every year for their national championships. Elizabeth City is where the U.S Mothists claim the Moth class originated (the Australians have an equally valid claim for developing the first Moth). In 1929, a professional captain Joel Van Sant designed his 11' "Jumping Juniper during his annual maintenance layover at Elizabeth City before taking his yacht on to Florida. My fourth YouTube video is a slideshow of the 2006 Elizabeth City Classic Moth Nationals,
As you watch the video, here are the time stamps and annotations of the Mothboats and their sailors;
0.21 - Deck layout of a Florida Mousetrap design, most likely Ken Wilius's. 0.23- Maser (modified Laser) built by Al Whitener and owned by Joe Courter. Duflos transom in background. 0.29 - Craig Saunders rigging his Mistral. 0.36 - Lewis Hayes's McCutcheon built Shelly 3 design. 0.40 - Jeff Linton's Mousetrap (modified Mistral) stern view. 1.32 - George Albaugh's vintage Dorr Willey design. 1.48 - Greg Duncan in his vintage Connecticut (Skip Etchells) desgin. 2.05 - Craig Saunders and Jeff Linton at the finish. 2.19 - Derek Dudinsky in his Mousetrap. 2.24 - Rod Koch in his modified Europe. 2.30 - Erik Albaugh in a Shelly 2. 2.35 - Rutledge Young in a Gen 1 Mint design. 2.45 - Ken Wilius in a Mousetrap. 2.53 - John Zseleczky in a Mistral. 3.00 - Joe Bousquet in a Mistral.
Photos taken by Elizabeth Albaugh. Music is "Chinkapin Hunting" by the Chicken Chokers.
For more on the history of the Moth class, visit the Wikipedia entry for Moth Class History .
Team Delta Lloyd has been racing at the back of the VOR 70 fleet. The usual lack of preparation and training is the culprit, but I give high marks to this snappy YouTube video compilation of Delta Lloyd's first two legs.
At about the 1:08 mark, we see them broach a'la Team Russia, but, alas, we don't see the extended consequences.
The Vendee Globe fleet is in the Southern Ocean now, racing at the bottom of the world, in large wind and waves, aiming toward Australia, New Zealand and then onward to Cape Horn. Samantha Davies is one of two women racing the Vendee Globe (we have posted some of Dee Caffari's (the other woman competitor) informative videos on this blog). Samantha is very telegenic, a bubbly personality on video that masks how tough she needs to be to race these 60 foot behemoths singlehanded.
I've always had a soft spot for scows. If you've read my profile, you will note that I sailed the 18' Y-flyer scow as a teenager. As an adult I sailed an Australian scow Moth in the now defunct U.S. Modern Moth division for several years. The following is a YouTube of A-scows, the Big Daddy of U.S scow classes at 38' length. I've sailed on MC scows and E-scows but never had a chance to ride on a A. The YouTube video is an excerpt from a longer professionally made film and gives a good idea on the speed of these beasts. If you listen, you can hear the unique thump, thump of a scow shape as it goes through waves.
Bob Turner, born of South Carolina, sailor of Y-flyers, made a go of getting an E-scow fleet on the Chesapeake. I thought he was crazy since the Bay is notorious for a short chop but then I realized that most regattas take place in the rivers feeding the Bay. These were perfect Scow locales but for whatever reason the E-scow didn't achieve permanence here on the Chesapeake Bay. There is still a strong fleet in Barnegat Bay, NJ, about a 4 hour drive North of Annapolis.
George Albaugh, Classic Moth sailor who races a Europe dinghy, liked the first Europe YouTube so I now post a companion video from the same YouTuber as the first one.
I'll be busy this Friday; this being the Christmas season .... so "Music for Fridays" gets bumped ahead one day.
Todays featured artist is one of my favorite reggae singers who, believe it or not, is a German who goes by the stage name of "Gentleman". (Note: This video went away) What's unusual about this video is the backdrop; it features the area in Bangladesh where large ships, at the end of their life, are driven ashore and then broken up .... dirty, dangerous, labor intensive work taken over by a third world country,
I have no idea why "Gentleman" decided to do a reggae music video with ships being destroyed in the background, but it is fascinating to watch.
For a more in depth story, there is the CBS "60 minutes" segment (again, link only);
The USA Classic Moth rule uses the International Moth rule as it was up to the early 1970's before the class merged with the Australian Association and allowed wings and a higher aspect sailplan. The Europe dinghy, or, as it was originally known, the Europa, was a Roland Moth design from the 1960's. It was always thought of as the baby Finn. Europe's certainly qualify for Classic Moth racing (other than the Europe one-design sail which has grown too much roach for the Classic Moth rule) and in the U.S several Europes have been absorbed into the Classic Moth class. In Europe, the one-design Europe class remains very strong despite (or because of) the elimination of the class from women's Olympic competition.
A very good video of Europe's playing in some big waves;
The Volvo Ocean Race fleet is in port now, having completed the second leg to Cochin India. Ericcson 4 repeated their win on the first leg and look to be the ones to beat this year. Puma Racing recorded this encounter with an albatross while racing this leg. We marvel at our technology at getting these sailboats around the world but for pure wonderment, nature seems to trump us every time.
For my third YouTube video, I again did a slideshow, but this time I heisted all the pictures from the Internet. I suppose this could be seen as a copyright infringment. I was willing to take the YouTube down if someone complained. That hasn't happened yet.
This is a slideshow of the Australian Historical 10 foot skiffs. Most every sailor is aware of the modern Australian 18 skiffs with three men on a trapeze ... on wide racks ... going blistering fast ... on the edge of control and beyond. There is also a modern 12 foot skiff and 16 foot skiff with two men on trapeze.
In the early 1900's there were a myriad of skiff classes in Australia; a 6 footer, a 8 footer, a 10 footer, a 12 footer, a 14 footer, a 16 footer, a 18 footer class and some behemoths over 20' long. These were round bilged, open dinghies with acres of sail and as much crew as they could fit in the boat to keep these boats mast side up. These skiffs were very similar in concept to the American sandbaggers popular in the late 1800's.
Over the last 20 years, there has been a resurgence in the Historial Skiffs, particularly in the Historical 18's and the Historical 10. All of these skiffs have been built as reproductions.
The Historical 10 footer is a ride I want to experience when I get to Australia. 10 foot long .... three crew .... flying spinnakers from the number 2 rig of the Australian Historical 18's. I think this slideshow gives a feeling on how crazy these 10 foot skiffs are.
Elizabeth Albaugh sent over some pictures she took at the 2008 Classic Moth nationals, held as always in Elizabeth City, NC in mid Sept. For higher resolution pictures, click on the thumbnail.
Jeff Linton won the regatta in his Mousetrap design (a modified Mistral).
Joe Bousquet finished second in his modified Shelly3 design
John Zseleczky was third in a Y2K design (another modified Mistral).
A new Mothboat, a Tippy design, by Jim Young won the Gen 1 division (older designs and/or slower designs).
And, Walt Collins won the Vintage division in Ara II. Vintage division is restored Mothboats built before 1950. They are required to use wooden masts.
I've put up 23 YouTube videos. At times I look at the anemic view counts and wonder why it's hard to get my videographer genius recognized. This news post from the Onion News Network puts it all in perspective.
All of us who sail have, at one time or another, experienced foils that, at speed, hum or sing. I never had a singing foil that affected my day out pleasure boating. But VOR leaders Ericsson 4 have a rudder that day in, day out, 24/7, just shrieked.
Would this be equivalent of hearing nails on a blackboard 24/7?
Stig is suffering from a severe eye infection triggered by the constant high-pressure water stream being forced up along the side of the hull and into his face. “In the old days the hose of water resembled sticking your head into a toilet bowl and flushing it,” Stig eludes in his blog today. “But this time I think it best resembles going down to the local fire station, borrowing their biggest, meanest high-pressure hose and turning it up to its max and sticking your head into the beam.”
Stig Westergaard is a watch leader on Team Russia.
Vendee Globe, the singlehanded around the world race, is now underway. The leaders are approaching the bottom of Africa. The Vendee Globe doesn't get much play in the United States; I guess mainly because it is mostly a French affair (out of 30 starters, eight were English, 1 was American, sounds like one of them may be Polish .... the rest French). A pity it doesn't get more press over on this side of the Atlantic. The Vendee Globe must be the most grueling of any of the endurance sports and I include the Tour de France here. The leaders are expected to take 90 days to get around and most of them seem to be on 2-3 hour sleep cycles as they constantly drive their boats. The Open 60 designs are beasts; 60 footers with clouds of sail though at least they pay some heed to shielding the crew from the worst with large steering cuddies (unlike the VOR 70's).
Unfortunately most of the interviews are in French, a language I found beautifully melodic but incomprehensible.
Reminds me of the tired joke.
1. What do you call a person that speaks more than two languages ..... multilingual.
2. What do you call a person that speaks two languages .... bilingual.
3. What do you call a person that speaks one language ..... American.
Cowes TV did an English interview with French sailor Seb Josse sailing for BT. You get a good feel for these Open 60's. Of note is the central channel which leads all the lines aft to the steering pod for easier and protected handling of sails.
I'm a sucker for homebuilt wooden sailing dinghies. This video popped up this weekend and shows some Swedish only wooden classics, mostly single chine plywood designs. Some classes I recognize, such as the junior A kanot (canoe stern, first boat shown in the video) and the B kanot (canoe stern, the one with the mini hiking wings). I have no idea what class of boat sports the balanced jib boom or the class sporting the single trapeze.
The Google translation from Swedish says this is a sailing camp. I assume it is somewhere in the Stockholm archipeligo. All these junior sailors and not one fiberglass Opti to be seen!
YouTube is the new MTV. So every Friday I will attempt to feature my eclectic musical tastes. Canadian singer Feist's song 1234 is a poppy, bouncy, tune with a good looking female singer and some very weird dance moves.
Sorry, the original version went away. All we have is the Sesame Street version (words modified).
Reference my comment .... one day, one wave train you will get it wrong.
The video is a little bit discombobulated, but viewing it with some offshore sailors, here is how they dissect it.
- Boat piles up on a wave, slows and then broaches.
- Involuntary gybe and now the canting keel is on the wrong side.
- Boat can't right itself, so it stops in the vertical position until they can get the canting keel pumped around.
- Afterguard climbs to weather using whatever handholds they can find.
- Keel gets wound around and boat slowly rights itself. Offwatch scrambles on deck. We have video from the inside of the boat as the poor offwatch also have to contend with a now vertical floor.
- Adrenaline quotient 90/100 (at least they weren't sinking)
From the .... I'm glad I'm on this end looking in.
Certainly over my years sailboat racing, I have, on occasion, been very good at working my way to the back of the fleet. Now with the proliferation of onboard cameras, we have the luxury of watching others also making big tactical booboos and putting it online for all to see. From the onboard camera aboard an Ultimate 20 during one of their races at the East Coast Championships at Lake Norman, North Carolina.
Certainly our Ultimate 20 team looks to have a good start near the weather end but at the 2.33 mark, when going right, the skipper inexplicably tacks into the wind shadow of a starboard tacker. Another quick clearing tack and then they dig themselves out to the right side all by their very lonesome.
Part of the problem is they are only two crew when it looks like most of the other U20's have at least three. So they may be overpowered but the crew only hikes off the start line and then perches inboard for most of the rest of the first beat.
They certainly seem to be enjoying the race and the crew is certainly adept at getting all the jobs done, even though they are shorthanded. Gotta have fun and these two definitely seem to be doing that.
From the Puma Team. Underneath all the bravado talk, you get a sense of the stress of racing these boats. I think Jerry Kirby was another oldster that took a break from racing the Cochin India leg.
Also another view at what a great swimming pool these Volvo 70 yachts are;
A slideshow about the 2007 Classic Moth Midwinters was my second YouTube video. I've gotten better at using Adobe Elements and figured out how to add music. Music was by a local Baltimore/Washington ska band "The Players". I twice saw them perform live. Great band. Pictures were taken by Amy Linton.
The 2007 Midwinters was the first one to be held at Gulfport YC, St. Petersburg FL. and featured good breezes on Saturday (around 20 knots) and much lighter on Sunday (around 5 knots).
For those who wonder why all the hulls look different it's because the class is a development class where you design within a box rule (11' LOA, 5' Beam, 75 lbs. hull weight and a max 1" hollows restriction on hull shape aft of the Daggerboard trunk to prevent wings or catamarans).
For those who like names attached to sail numbers;
64 - Joe Bousquet
71 - Walt Collins
79 - Mike Parsons
92 - Tweezerman
93 - Rod Koch
102 - Jeff Linton
107 - Greg Duncan
2000 - John Zseleczky
There are also close up shots of brothers, Mark and Craig Saunders as well as Derek Dudinsky.
I've put 23 YouTube videos out there and I've thought that one way to utilize this blog is to provide commentary on some my YouTube videos, just like the Directors Cut in the DVD's you rent.
The first YouTube video I did was in December 2007; a slide show of photos from the 2007 Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival in St. Michaels. I used Adobe Photo Elements Slideshow Creator to string together some digital photos. I didn't know enough to add music, so this is a silent video.
One interesting craft was an Adirondack Guideboat built out of paper shown at 32 seconds in. Building small craft out of glued up paper was a popular way of building small canoes in the early 1900's. I talked to the builder and he admitted it was very time consuming way to build and used a fair bit of resin.
My Classic Moth is featured going out to the sailing race on Saturday. They usually get around 60 boats of all types and sizes, with very few having any knowledge of racing rules, the starts are usually one of avoidance and trying to dig yourself out to one side of the course.
The end of the video shows three people showing geat interest (puzzlement) in some rigging on my Classic Moth.
I've been watching the videos of this race both on YouTube and from their website www.volvooceanrace.org/multimedia/video-gallery/ and I get the feeling of watching a car wreck slowly unfolding.
These boats are brutal. I mean brutal!!! At speed (over 20 knots) on deck, the boat is underwater. On watch means constant firehose spray .... there is nowhere to hide.
Imagine steering a boat doing mid 20's in the pitch black. Insane!! and these guys do it day in and day out. The law of averages says there will be one day ... one wave train where you get it wrong.
The wind gets up to 40 knots and the boats look to be under control 95% of the time but the other 5% is utter mayhem. Puma reports that at one hour they pitchpole so violently that they break the prodder and shred the foresail. The next hour they launch off a wave and crack the center frame up at the bow. And this is one of the best prepared campaigns of the bunch.
One telling video interview had Jonathon McKee working the grinder and saying that after three days of putting the pedal down going to Capetown he was looking for a respite. At Capetown he was cycled off the boat for the next leg. His 50 year old body needed some R&R. I have the utmost respect for Jonathon's sailing abilities but these boats chew up sailors and spit them out.
I really wonder how many of these teams will be able to complete that monster leg between Quindao, China and Rio De Janeiro Brazil?
John Keegan, the military historian, wrote a book "The Face of War" where he speculated on how a full military confrontation between the East and West on the border of Germany would play out (obviously written before the downfall of the Eastern Bloc). His conclusion; after three days of all out tank battles, ground battles; for those on the front line, the human body would shut down.
I really wonder if, with these latest Volvo 70's, they have upped the game so much, that we will have human zombies trying to finish this thing out.
I've created this blog mainly as a response to another writing assignment from blogger Tillerman. www.propercourse.blogspot.comThere may be other uses for this blog but for right now lets dig into Tillerman's assignment .... who would you invite to a very special dinner/party? For this party you can get to mix the living and the dead, the friends and the strangers.
Tillerman's a dinghy sailor, I am also a dinghy sailor. Where Tillerman immerses himself in the one-design Laser class, I am usually found in some class where people design or build their own equipment, whether it's hulls, sails, blades, etc.
So my dinner party would definitely have an abundance of what the English call "boffins", in this case those who like to experiment with sailboats, preferably small racing dinghies.
Large parties work best and hopefully all guests are voluble, completely free with their opinions and willing to listen. Wives/ girlfriends are always welcome and indeed are essential. Unfortunately, I don't know any female sailing boffins so my guest list is definitely sexist.
You must start with your COF - Circle of Friends, boffins which in this case would be Bill Beaver, John Z, George Saunders, Steve Clark, John Kells, Bob Ames, Bob Blomquist, Paul Miller with some left coast COF boffins such as Erich Chase, Del Olsen, Fran DeFaymoreau (4 Naval Architects in this group and everyone has built, in most cases, multiple racing dinghies). I would also add local acquaintance, Aussie Tony Arends. I'd also invite boffin Bill Boyle but he doesn't seem to do parties very well.
Now onto to the special guests;
Austin Farrar - UK deceased - Austin was the premier designer in the International 14 class in the 1950's, was the first one to put a wing mast on the C-class catamaran "Lady Helmsman" founded the sailmaking firm Seahorse sails and was involved in a myriad of experiments. To use that overused phrase; Austin was always an "out of the box" thinker.
Ben Lexcen - i.e. Bob Miller - Australia deceased - Top designer/sailor in the Australian 18 skiffs. Designed the Contender which won the IYRU singlehanded trials in the early 1960's. Designed the wing keeled Australia II that wrested the America's Cup from the Americans. From everything I read, Ben Lexcen was a larger than life character and you need some of those at a party. Here is a video of Ben Lexcen's 18-footer design, Taipan.
Ian Howlett - UK - designed America's Cup 12 meters, IOR tonners, premier yacht designer. House designer for most of the Topper companies dinghy designs. Final kicker in my book is he races an 11' British Moth. What other big name designer gets his jollies from racing an 11' dinghy?
Bruce Kirby - CAN/US - Top designer in the International 14 in the 1960's and 70's. Designer of the Laser. Designer of the Canadian entry into the America's Cup. Designer of the successful Noank Sharpies shoal draft cruisers. I met him in the early 1980's and came away with the impression of a personable, self effacing fellow with loads of stories to tell.
Tom Shnackenberg - NZ - The boffin in charge of New Zealand's America's Cup dominance. Not sure how forthcoming he would be at a party like this but, if he opened up, the stories he could tell...
Eric Arens - US - Eric is actually in my COF but I rarely get to see him. I crewed for Eric in Int. 14's in the 1970's. Eric still sails Int 14's today as crew - age mid 60's! Eric has been commodore of both Severn Sailing Assoc and Richmond YC, is a senior US sailing judge and loves the give and take with interesting people at a party. He's retired now but was a PHD physicist at NASA Goodard Space Center.
Jeff Linton - US - Jeff is a pro, has won several World Championships, has won US Sailing's sailor of the year award, but also designed, built, and races a Classic Moth. Jeff and his wife, Amy, have a wealth of stories to tell. Jeff is very approachable which is not always a characteristic you find in professional sailors.
Chris Thompson - AUS - Chris has written an unpublished history of dinghy sailing, a superb tome of research and writing. Chris races the original Windsurfer and Lasers. I would need someone to keep Tillerman occupied!
Mystery guest - It's got to be one or two of the Frenchmen involved with the design or building of the Vendee Globe 60 footers. Not sure who? as I don't know the players. Someone with good English as this is a Anglo-centric party. Someone who can bring the wine maybe?? What glorious machines those Vendee Globe 60 footers are and the French need to be recognized for driving these designs to the pinnacle they represent in ocean racing.
Other's on the invite list (but I 'll spare the details);
Bald but my eyebrows are growing at a prolific rate. Sailed Windmills and Y-Flyers in the 1960's. Founded Miami University (OH) sailing team. Sailed International 14's and Lasers in the 1970's. Sailed International Canoes in the 1980's to mid 1990's. Sailed Classic Moths since 2002. Enjoy boatbuilding though I'm very, very slow at it (the Internet doesn't help matters). Name in real life: Rod Mincher
After choosing this username (Tweezer is the name of my Classic Moth), further research on the Internet turned up that Tweezerman is a corporate name for a line of pedicure products. Let me emphasize that I do not work for, nor endorse these products.
