Vintage Prototype Windsurfer

Tom Price sent this image along. The period swimsuit suggests maybe a 1920's time frame. He said he got it from a French website but can't remember where.

Medicare Part A

Today I went and registered for Medicare Part A, which, if you are a knowledgeable American, would precisely date my age. To celebrate, given my temperment, and to what I can look forward to in my coming advancing years, I present a somewhat Anglo-centric but very prescient video. (Let me also state that I work approximately five miles from the longest escalator on the East Coast of the U.S - and I have yet to take a ride on it... bucket list!)



Born to be Mild from Aeon Video on Vimeo.

Segeln - in the Bathtub!

I've had this video bookmarked for years. Time to put it up on Earwigoagin.

An arresting (definitely arresting), ultimately humorous ad for the German Interboot boat show. Sailors will be sailors!



Segeln from WORKFLOW FILMS on Vimeo.

Geezer Racing: The Gentleman's Way

The formula:

1. Get a small two-man dinghy with, and this is important, NO SPINNAKER!
2. Make sure the wind is light so NO HIKING! (Well, maybe some leaning out is OK.)
3. Assign one geezer as PORT helmsman and the other as STARBOARD helmsman which eliminates any one person actually crossing the entire boat on tacks
4. Enjoy whatever the competition brings!

Down to the Sea in Ships We Go!

Nuff said!



we'll meet again from Diedrik on Vimeo.

Hobie Trimaran Sailing, Fishing, and Weird Accents

Two guys go fishing. Video complete with these two mugging to the camera with mashed up Country Western/Urban Homeboy accents. The Hobie Trimaran, loaded to the gills with coolers and gear, comes off as a relatively safe and simple craft for these intrepid two negotiating a lumpy, breezy day.

I know this is goofy, but, bear with me; this is my kind of goofy.


Asian Cowboys Sailing Kayak from Rex Del Rey on Vimeo.

Music is "Save a Horse" by Big n' Rich.

Feet in hiking straps?

The photo of the Irish lady leading the Olympic Laser Radials, hiking flat out and spray everywhere, has been closely scrutinized by some of our sailing bloggers to determine if both of her feet were in the hiking straps.

Well I've dug out another photo of an Olympic class where, after zooming in for more detail, and panning around, I've determined that this skipper definitely didn't have his feet in the hiking straps.

(I've stretched the definition of Olympic class just a bit; this is a photo from 2012 British Nationals of the 12 Square Meter Sharpie, the two-man class in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.)

Run Up to the Weymouth Olympics; Wind or No Wind?

Certainly we can expect breeze for the Weymouth Olympic Regatta, or can we? According to WaPo (local acronym for the Washington Post newspaper), England has been experiencing a monsoon like summer (unlike the U.S.A Mid-Atlantic where we have been very dry) and also a good amount of breeze. But big regattas are notorious for not going to form. So the English, being English, are leaving nothing to chance and the "wind gatherers" are calling on the wind gods as has been documented in this video.

"It's like nothing I expected at all!"

Battle for the Winds - a preview from Cirque Bijou on Vimeo.

Hopefully we'll get to see some racing in the Weymouth Olympics in the same breeze that this Finnish Finn sailor is training in (these elite athletes make it seem so easy - I remember when yachting journalists back in the 1970's described jibing a Finn in this much breeze was one of the most feared maneuvers in small boat racing. Click on this link to see my other Finn jibing video).

Cowboys and Winter Sailing

Here's one strange sailing video. Two bull riders (boy, that's got to rank as the toughest sport going!) show up at the Baltimore Downtown Sailing Center to do a little winter sailing. And as the cowboys said, good thing they had a Ford F-150 with heated seats because cowboys don't need wetsuits, or drysuits, just a good hat and a trusty tanned leather jacket.

Honey, Did you enjoy your cruise across the lake?

In one of the strangest political, cultural and human psychology missteps, the United States banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of liquor from 1920 to 1933. What resulted was probably the largest civilian disobedience of a national law in recorded history. Moonshine, brewing beer at home, underground bars - the speakeasy, bootlegging; Americans were going to get their hooch one way or the other.

I've written about the American Canoe Association encampment on Sugar Island, an encampment that achieved great popularity during the Prohibition, not so much for the canoe competitions as for the fact the Island sits about 1/2 mile inside the Canadian border on the St. Lawrence. During the two week encampment, canoeists from up and down the Eastern Seaboard could drink, and drink, and drink. It got so bad, the governing body of Sugar Island set aside a peninsula  on the Island for drinking and all the gambols that are inextricably linked to booziness, the gambling, the running around nude, the decibels, the peeing in the bushes, the fights. They named the peninsula "Buck Point".

And as the following video shows, even the cruising sailboat crowd got into the action.

Let's imagine the skipper's conversation with his wife after he got back from his "cruise" across Lake Michigan;

Wife: "Honey, did you enjoy your cruise across the Lake with Tom, Dick, and Harry?
Skipper: "Yes it was very nice."
Wife: "Well you look very exhausted. Was the weather rough?"
Skipper: (wink, wink) "Oh yes, there were some very rough days"
Skipper: "Listen Dear, how about you and I go look at a new car tomorrow. I've got some extra cash burning in my pocket"

Some Prohibition Footage from Steve Unkles on Vimeo.

Weird European Regatta Party Traditions

The Europeans seem to have, let me say, somewhat different apres-sailboat racing traditions.

Here we have the Dutch jump up and down, wave around their hands, in a marginally choreographed dance, done to a trumpet piece. Video taken sometime during the Dutch weeklong "Sneekweek", which is a drinking festival with brief intervals of sailboat racing.

Buyer Beware

An amusing video snippet, taken from an old French movie, where the con artist is both a sailmaker and a yacht broker (an odd combination today but maybe not so odd when this movie was made).

England wins Gold in an Olympic Sailing Class yet to be announced

I've noticed that expat Tillerman's blog continues to dwell on, and about, the continued complete domination of the English sailing team in International competition (as if this is anything new..... is this two Olympiad cycles - or three? where we've seen the Union Jack flying high in almost every sailing discipline..... this obsession reminds me of a certain Man-U fan in Florida.... or a certain Fulham fan in London).

Britannia rules the waves! I give you this stirring video............

An apology to Tillerman from the blogmeister.........I admit my attempt at tongue in cheek humor may have been a bit over the top. Here are Tillerman's comments taking me to task for perhaps being a bit heavy handed..........

"Oh come on. I'm not that chauvinistic.

I've also done posts recently about the success of Kiwi and French sailors in major Olympic class regattas; my post about the attitudes of American Laser sailors was a repost of a comment - not my views; and my latest post about British Girls was just a blatant attempt to find an excuse to write about Pippa Middleton's bottom."

You too can make your YouTube videos exciting!

I've noticed a YouTube trend of late where those legions of amateur video directors now turn their boring, boring videos into movie trailers.

Take the following sailing video; ten seconds of very bland, light air sailing footage jazzed up as a movie trailer!

I wonder if there is going to be a sequel? Anyone care to give a name to the sequel of "Larry and the Tide of Destiny"?

Hiking Inversion

This amusing video, taken during an intercollegiate regatta, appeared not quite a year ago over at Sailgroove.org . It shows the crew hiking inverted; his torso in the boat, feet hanging over the side, while he frantically bails out his 420.

Watch more video of Groovy Move of the Week on sailgroove.org

Music for Fridays; Jimmy Fallon, "Pants on the Ground"

I skipped last weeks "Music for Fridays"; my head was in the clouds as Tillerman just discovered that I was a Google #1 hit . I was still basking in all that unexpected Internet notoriety.

Well, it's taken a week. After getting congrats from my kids and a resigned shake of a head from my wife, life has just about returned to normal.

Continuing the "iconic parody" theme from the last post, here is a heretofore unknown Neil Young song performed for the very first time.

Music for Fridays; The Cornhole Song

This week, instead of being perennially late with "Music for Fridays", I'm early. What's up with that?

Tomorrow, I'm off to the Classic Moth Midwinters. The fact that I put the Classic Moth away after the Nationals in September, only to uncover her for this regatta, will mean much flailing around and gnashing of teeth on Boca Ciega Bay. But, not too worry. At the Classic Moth Regattas, there is much more than sailboat racing and that means playing the official Classic Moth apres-racing land sport....... Cornhole.

Cornhole is like portable horseshoes. Played with bean bags, the object is to sink them in a hole cut in a plywood base. Mothboat teams form up, dissemble, and reconmbine as the games keep rolling along till dinner. No one keeps track because most of us can get hot for a game and then stink it up the next.

So today, saluting the Classic Moth land sport, we feature Rhett and Link "The Cornhole Song".

Latest Celebrity selling cereal

Picked up from Boingboing.net , another celebrity endorsement of Raisin Bran Crunch.

Music for Friday: Binary Finary

I've got to descend into low brow every once in a while;

A techno beat about sperm fighting over egg? There is one on YouTube! Sperm in Water Polo hats and dress suits........ classy.... and the face and ass that launched 80 million sperm...Wowee!

Hey wait.... why didn't the blond hair, left handed sperm win out... Oh right, he didn't have the flippers!


And with that video, I just can't pass up the most hilarious Woody Allen segment on SEX ever!

>

Mission Control, we have Sydney the Stud, but lets give a ton of recognition to those hard working guys in the hard hats, knee deep in water!

Oh No Mr Bill!... (the Gummi Bear version)

Warning, not a sailing post! Further warning, silly guy thing! In my early teens, our neighborhood "gang" had all sort of destructive fun with M80 and Ladyfinger fireworks. Back then, construction crews would routinely burn wood scrap which, after hours we would stoke into large bonfires and keep burning well into the night.... and yes my next door neighbor friend was a pyromaniac. It was a different age and may explain why I find this following video so fascinating (No, I haven't touched a firework in years, not even on July 4).

At 49 seconds in, see those guys step forward with grins on their faces....... that was my neighborhood "gang".