Hoist

It's all relative.

I use a Seitech dolly to launch my Laser.

Folks with bigger boats use a trailer or a hoist.

Alinghi uses a helicopter.

It's all relative.

Review of 50 Summers

Thanks to Tobias for sending me this review via email. What a great account of how to live the sailing good life.





We are at the halfway point of Sally’s and my 50th Summer on the planet. The review is definitely good.



My bride loves to sail! Racing, cruising, delivering boats home from Bermuda or Halifax, schlepping kids to regattas. And she can tow, launch and retrieve the mommy boat. Thank goodness she’s more interested in the “fun” part of the kids’ regattas (assuming the kids were safe) than how they did. If you got to drive them there, you’d might as well enjoy a day on the water. Our mommy boat, NEW-PRIORITIES, is the swim platform, the lunch boat, the place to have fun between races, for both kids and parents.



Our five kids are passionate about boats and sailing, even if two don’t race anymore. One of those teaches in the Town Sailing Program and spends every moment not on the lacrosse field on some boat or another. And there are always sailors or coaches in town for some regatta or another staying in the house. For years we had a procession of Kiwis sailing instructors live with us. All good people with whom we share a passion.



My claim to fame? We own more boats than cars. We have 3 trailers, 3 dollies, 3 Lasers, 1 Club 420, a 20 center console and the 53 year old lobster boat FIREWOOD, which is perfect for running laser races, a little fishing and hosting up to 16 people for very slow harbor tours with big coolers and the grill going while laughing all around us are envious people on “bristol” yachts or expansive water front homes. On regatta days we can stack 6 Optis on FIREWOOD’s deck and tow seven 420s for 20 miles up wind with the kids on every available flat surface. Sometimes the ride home can be the highlight of the great day on the water.



The cars have 100,000+ miles. They start, they get us to the water, the hockey rinks, the lacrosse fields and to work. I park at the swanky yacht club next to a new fancy car. The owner is divorced and his kids hate to sail. I am blessed.




I sailed a friend’s J-120 (40 feet, asym spinnaker) from Marblehead to Maine last night. Ten hours with kite up in 15 knots, effortless gybing by one person, full moon, porpoises playing in the phosphorescence all around the boat. Awesome night. Even better as my 13 year daughter was really into it. Wants to bring her friends next time.



I am spending more time doing race committee than racing. The races are good, the sailors thankful for the passion I put into their passion. I am giving back to the sport we all love. I am lucky to be able to help out.



I get to read sailing blogs, sometime at work. Business isn’t great because the economy is in a recession. But who cares. My life is full, my family loves boats, and we live in a sailing town. This review is definitely good.

Yet More Reviews

Three more reviews today for our July group writing project, Write a Review.

Captain JP continues his series of reviews of harbors in the Aegean with Koukounaries - "best bit: the peace and quiet in the evening after the day trippers have gone."

The rather Greek sounding Mr. Andkris has a book review We the Navigators - The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific - "the book does an excellent job... of detailing how the indigenous sailors of the Pacific use only the things they can see to determine where to find land."

Winner of the prize for most terrifying review submitted so far goes to Yarg for Whitewater Rafting – The Out-of-Raft Experience - "I suggest to the guide that perhaps 360s should be limited to a horizontal plane."

And now it's your turn to Write a Review. Do it now. Do it for fun. Do it as a service for your readers. Do it to make yourself famous. Do it before midnight on Monday, the absolute drop-dead deadline. Just do it.

Real Laser Sailor

After three Fridays with pictures of two tennis stars and a naked swimmer, here is one of a female athlete who in my opinion outranks them all, a real Laser sailor.

Can you guess the year?

Clue: you may be able to see dinosaurs hiding behind the trees on the shore.

Bonus points if you can guess the sailor. I've already given you a clue to that.

Books and Bull

Thanks to everyone who has participated so far in this month's group writing project Write a Review. What a creative bunch you are! The reviews already submitted cover such diverse subjects as...

• an imaginary book - "written very clearly, in plain English, so people like me, who aren't smart enough to write our own blogs, can understand every word."
  
  
• a high performance windsurfing board - "its light air performance was phenomenal! But...yes there's always a but."
  
  
• and a relatively little known pirate movie set in the White Sands Missile Range - "the action is frenetic, matched with a punk-rock adaptation of the sea chantey Here's to the Grog."

A couple more entries came in yesterday...

Captain JP is on a roll. He's writing a whole series of reviews of the places he visited on his recent Aegean bareboat cruise, complete with charts off his iPhone for each port. First up is Orei, "best bit: the marble bull so if that doesn't float your boat go elsewhere."

And Adam of Messing About in Sailboats has compiled a link list to a whole bunch of book reviews he has written to help you select some Summer Reading about sailing.

So what are you waiting for? Write a Review. Do it now. Do it for fun. Do it as a service for your readers. Do it to make yourself famous. Just do it.

Sailing World Review

Aidan: What's this Grandad?

Tillerman: It's a magazine called Sailing World, Aidan.

What's it about?

Sailing... sort of.

You mean racing dinghies such as Lasers. Like you and Daddy do?

Not really Aidan. There's not much of that kind of sailing in Sailing World these days.

What do you mean Grandad?

Look at all the pictures. What do you see?

Lots of big boats.

Exactly. Sailing World seems to be mainly about big boats these days. Giant multihulls in the America's Cup, Volvo 70s, a Gunboat 66, Farr 40s. Articles about big boat stuff like electric winches, building a well-rounded sail inventory... Yawn.

Are you tired Grandad?

No Aidan. Just bored with all this big boat stuff in Sailing World. They don't seem to care about dinghy sailors any more.

What about this article by Andy Horton on How to Win the End Game?

It's OK. But a lot of his advice is only relevant for boats that take a long time to build up speed, such as the Etchells. Some of it applies to Laser sailing but not much.

How about this Dick Rose article on the Racing Rules? Don't dinghies have to follow the same rules as big boats?

Yes Aidan. But almost every article I have read about the new Rules this year can be summarized as "a lot of the words in the Rules have changed but the game hasn't."

What about this article on wind and strategy by Stuart Walker? Surely that is interesting to dinghy sailors?

Have you read it, Aidan?

Grandad, you know I'm not quite one year old yet. Even Goodnight Moon's plot is a bit too complicated for me. And Dr. Walker's article has a lot of really long words.

It sure does, Aidan. Frankly I don't understand most of it myself. Dr. Walker is a great sailor and he knows a lot about wind, but he's a terrible writer. Even your Daddy who's awfully smart and very clever with words agrees with me on that one.

But doesn't Sailing World have people who know how to write clearly? Couldn't they help poor Dr.Walker to write in a way so that ordinary sailors could understand him?

Apparently not, Aidan. Apparently not.

So why do you buy this magazine Grandad if it doesn't have much stuff about the kind of sailing you like?

Good question Aidan. I'm certainly not going to renew my subscription this year. But it used to be better. Look at all these old copies I saved from the early 90's. Full of articles about dinghy sailing technique and new small boats and what to wear for dinghy sailing and reports of dinghy regattas. It was a good magazine back then.

Thanks for explaining all that Grandad. When I'm older will you teach me how to sail a Laser?

Sure Aidan. It will be a pleasure.

Can I go and play in my pool now Grandad?

Sure Aidan. Have fun.

Blog Commenting For Dummies

Thanks to O'Docker, master blog comment writer and the currently reigning Sailing Blog Reader of the Year, for submitting this review for the July group writing project...


I read a lot of sailing blogs and leave a lot of comments. Without a blog of my own, I have more time to do that than many bloggers.

Most people who read my comments naturally assume I write the first thing that pops into my head - without thinking at all. But, there's really a lot more to it than that. I'd be absolutely lost without Blog Commenting For Dummies. Between the covers of this thin volume is everything you need to write intelligent-sounding comments - even if you're a complete idiot.

I've been wanting to tell people about this book for a while, but the 'Write A Review' writing project is the perfect opportunity. I never could have become Tillerman's 'Blog Reader of the Year' without it. It's just loaded with great advice.

Take the chapter on relevance - wow what an eye-opener! For months I'd been leaving comments on people's blogs without really understanding what they were talking about. I couldn't figure out why bloggers pretty much ignored those comments.

But the book explains - and this is just brilliant - that if you try to understand the point a blogger is making and then respond to that point, the comment makes a lot more sense to everyone.

Blog Commenting For Dummies is written very clearly, in plain English, so people like me, who aren't smart enough to write our own blogs, can understand every word.

A new concept for me was irony (chapter six). Apparently, this is very popular on many blogs today. The idea is that you say something just the opposite of what you really mean, but, somehow, it comes out sounding like what you were trying to say in the first place. That's supposed to make it funny. Only the best bloggers can pull this off, and, honestly, I still don't know how they do it.

A real time saver is the included CD of pre-written comments. I don't know how many times I've used that over the past year. Just copy a comment from the CD and paste it into the comments page of your favorite blog. What could be easier? There are comments on every subject you can imagine. And they check all the grammar and spelling and sentence structure for you, so everything sounds pretty slick. I mean, who has the time to do all of that today?

I actually haven't finished the book yet. There are some chapters at the end about keeping your comments short so you don't bore people to death and about how blog readers usually read a blog for the blogger's opinions - not for the goofy thoughts of other commenters. I can't wait to get to those chapters.

Three More Reviews

Three more entries for our July group writing project, Write a Review.

Smilicus of Sailing Catch 22, my blogging friend from South Africa, has written News Review, his take on three of his favorite websites for finding news about sailing.

Steve Bodner, the top ranked US sailor on the Formula Windsurfing World Tour, asks himself the Z question in a review of the latest version of the Formula board from F2, and agonizes over whether he should use the Z in the upcoming World Championships.

Tim Coleman has submitted a second entry (hey that's OK - the more the merrier) in which he encourages you to Start racing and reviews some sources of information for that endeavor.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed reviews. If you haven't yet done so please have a shot. Closing date is next Monday July 13. Full details at Write a Review.

Review: Jay Livingston's Laser Warm Up Routine

Jay Livingston of Laser Sailing Notes recently wrote a post titled Getting Warmed Up, which is all about the routine he follows on the water to prepare himself for the first race of a day or for some boat handling drills.

It's quite an impressive program. He begins with a whole series of roll tacks starting off with a relaxed style and then getting more physical. Then he heads downwind and executes various kinds of gybe. After some reaching practice he launches straight in to some mark rounding drills and then practices his starting skills: holding position and accelerations. He then warms up his hiking muscles with some upwind work while simultaneously working on his awareness of shifts and puffs.

After all that, he says he's ready to race.

Wow. I'm impressed. I thought he was describing the whole of a day's practice session at first, but this routine is what he does before boat-handling drills or racing. I should be more like Jay. My typical pre-race routine is to to sail out to the course, grab a drink and an energy bar, and then to relax and conserve energy before the real action begins. If there are any Mommy Boats in the start area I either scowl at their drivers, or hang out close to them so I can overhear the secret tips they are giving to their little darlings.

Jay doesn't mention anything about checking the favored end of the start line or developing a strategy for the first beat, but he seems such a well-organized guy that I'm sure that he has another whole routine for all that race prep stuff.

"Two thumbs up" for Jay's warm-up routine. (By the way I have no idea what "two thumbs up" means but I know movie reviewers write it all the time and I think it's a good thing. I hope it's not rude?)

More Reviews

Captain JP has an excellent review of Sailing with Navionics iPhone Charts. "There was something on the paper charts which might have been a reef or it might have been a smudge due to a retsina spill, but which was it? Out with the iPhone, couple of drags and zooms, and yup it's a smudge!"

Bonnie of frogma has a Review of a New Sailing Blog! It's always good to hear of a new sailing blog and I hadn't come across this one before. Thanks Bonnie.

There's still plenty of time for you to write a review. Full details of how to participate in this, our July group writing project, at Write a Review.