Trump Trump Trump and the America's Cup

This children's song (first recorded in 1956) was often played on the radio in England when I was a boy.

It has absolutely nothing to do with sailing, except that a sailor friend drew my attention to it. Nellie the Elephant is suddenly topical again because of its chorus line, "Trump, Trump, Trump."

That's all that seems to be on the news these days.

Trump, Trump, Trump.

"Klu Klux Klan plans parade for Trump."

"Trump may force all Muslims in the USA to be registered."

"Trump settles fraud case for $25 million."

Trump, Trump, Trump.

Can't we get back to the important stuff we used to talk about before the election like whether Caitlyn Jenner regrets not being Bruce Jenner any more, and why Tom Brady likes his balls soft?

On second thoughts... maybe not. I am really not all that interested in Tom Brady's balls.



The only bright spot in the news is that British sailor Ben Ainslie has led his team to victory over the Australian sailor Jimmy Spithill in the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series Superbowl Cup Final (or whatever it is called) which has been held in various locations around the world over the last decade or so. (Well at least it seems like it.)

Some sailors, a couple of cars and a pontoon boat.

Sadly this does NOT mean that the America's Cup will be returning to its rightful home in England. But apparently it does mean that Sir Ben and his team will have a two point advantage in the double secret round robin Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers and Challenger Playoffs Elimination Round (or whatever it is called) which will be sailed over about 40 weeks next summer.

After Sir Ben has won the LVACQACPER (or whatever it is called) he will finally be allowed to give Jimmy Spithill and his Australian team another good drubbing in the actual America's Cup. And THEN the America's Cup will go back to England.

I think I got that right.

Too bad there isn't an American team in the America's Cup any more.

A waste of some perfectly good champagne

So before you go back to the real news and the steady diet of Trump, Trump, Trump here is a quiz for you.

Without googling it, what does Nellie the Elephant have to do with this song?

 

This news just in. Rumor has it that President Trump is considering adopting Nellie the Elephant as the theme song of his Inauguration.

Trump, Trump, Trump.

Shelter From The Storm

Shelter From The Storm from Vimeo.


A classic from the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature.

May all my sailing friends find shelter from the storm when they need it.

Sono andato a vela sul lago di Garda

Today I went sailing on Lake Garda.

It was the one day clinic before the RS Aerocup.

Winds started at around 12 knots and built up to 18 knots during the afternoon.

Lots of sailors capsized. I didn't capsize.

Lots of sailors were faster than me. A few sailors weren't.



At first I felt very clumsy and out of touch with how to sail in waves in medium-strong winds.

Then for a while I found my groove.



I learned something new at the clinic.

Bump bump.



Quiz question: What does the Rolling Stones song Back to Zero have to do with RS Aero sailing?

911 - Won't Back Down

Yesterday was the fifteenth anniversary of September 11, 2001.

I suspect none of us will ever forget that day.

I have blogged before about my connections to some of the people who were lost on 911, and of what I actually did myself that day.



Some of the popular music of the 911 era seemed to speak directly to the events of that terrible day or of the response of the American people to the attacks.

Bruce Springsteen's My City of Ruins sounds as if it must have been written about 911 although it was actually penned a year earlier.

Many of the songs performed at the Concert for New York City in October 2001, such as the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again summed up the American people's feelings about 911.

And Tom Petty's 1989 hit single I Won't Back Down became popular again for obvious reasons.



What music communicates best your feelings about 911 or reminds you of 911?

When Will My Ship Come In?

When the Ship Comes In from Birdwatchr on Vimeo.

Wheels on the Bus

RS Aero racing on Lake Massapoag

Not last Sunday

On Sunday I went to scenic Lake Massapaog to do a spot of RS Aero racing.

Before the racing I met a new member of the club who owns a Laser Pico.

She explained to me that she was looking for something a bit more exciting than the Pico, and that someone had recommended she should check out the RS Aero.

Thank you "someone" whoever you are.

We had a good discussion about the RS Aero and the three rigs and the differences between the Pico and the Aero. Look forward to giving her a demo in the Aero one day soon.



Then I went off to race my RS Aero with my two fellow founders of the Boston Aero fleet.

I have to say they have become annoyingly fast over the summer. But that's OK. It's good to have training partners who are a bit faster than you, they say. Whoever "they" are.

In two races, first one "friend" and then the other "friend" basically took me out of the race on the start line. But that's OK. I need to learn to be more aggressive on the start line.

In the other race, my cunningham came out of its slot and I had to stop to do emergency repairs. But that's OK. I need to learn to remember to tuck the tail of my cunningham under that little bit of shockcord whose sole purpose is to keep the cunningham from coming out of it slot. Duh!

I sorta kinda had a chance some times to go as fast as my friends upwind, but downwind they were much faster than me. But they are skinny, scrawny kids who are respectively at least 20 and 40 lbs lighter than me, not to mention a couple of years younger. So it's just physics. I should sail my 9 rig next time and show them what a fat old dude can do.

So I mellowed out and sang a few verses of Wheels on the Bus while I was sailing and enjoyed sailing on one of the prettiest lakes in New England in the coolest boat on the planet.

Life is good.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Beware of Darkness

Me and my Aero

The Southern Cross and Country Roads

Something strange and unexpected seems to happen every time I go back to sailing the Laser after exclusively sailing the RS Aero for a while.

I was originally expecting that the Laser would feel clunky and boring after the RS Aero.

I was told that the Laser would feel like a truck after sailing the RS Aero.

To the contrary, when I jump back into a Laser I feel a surge of pleasure almost as intense as what I felt the first time I jumped into a Laser, here in Minorca 35 years ago.

How can that be?



After five days of RS Aero sailing last week, I decided to do some Laser sailing on Thursday. It was the starting practice class in the morning and the weekly regatta in the afternoon and I thought it would be more fun to race with a bunch of Lasers than cruise around the race course on my own in an RS Aero.

The starting practice was intense. It was clear that there was one very good Laser sailor in the class who would be the man to beat. The start line was biased to the boat end for most of the drills and the right side of the course had stronger wind so it was all about winning the boat end of the line. I didn't always do that very well, but on one memorable occasion I did "close the door" on the "man to beat" who was trying to barge at the starboard end of the line. Poor guy he didn't know what hit him. It felt very mean but I checked with the instructor afterwards and he did concur that what I did was entirely legal. I don't recall ever doing this in real racing before, so now I have a new weapon for racing back home. Watch out people!

The "man to beat" and I had some good close racing in the afternoon. We split the first two races, one of them in a photo finish that I took by inches. My concentration was wavering in the third race so he took his revenge for my start line aggressiveness in the morning, and he won the regatta by one point.

What a day! I came off the water with a big smile on the face and was babbling to anyone who would listen about what an awesome day I had had.



So how come I love the Laser so much, even though the RS Aero is a much better boat?

Is there an analogy that can explain it?

I did think of emulating Steve Cockerill and using a comparison to activities with the fairer sex, but I couldn't think of a way to do it (wife and mistress? sister wives?) that wouldn't get me into trouble with Tillerwoman.



So here's another analogy.

I love to travel, to see new places. Most people do. It's exciting, sometimes challenging, inspiring, mind broadening.

But I still love to come home to my beautiful home with its view of the bay and my own big comfy bed.









The RS Aero is my Southern Cross -
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time 
You understand now why you came this way

The Laser is my Country Roads -
Take me home to the place I belong.

Or something like that.



Does that make sense?

Do you still feel a special affection for the first boat you owned?

RS Aeros at the Massapoag YC Regatta

In 2005, a friend and I started a Laser fleet at Hunterdon SC on Spruce Run Reservoir in New Jersey.

This is a Laser

Not me sailing it

Not at Hunterdon SC

My friend suggested we should hold a Laser regatta at the club to help get the word out about the new Laser fleet. I recall spending time early in 2005 contacting people I thought I could persuade to come to our regatta. I felt that if we got 10 Lasers at that first regatta I would count it as a success.

In the end we did achieve our target of 10 boats although I wasn't sure we would until the day of the event.

I wrote about it at The Regatta Cast and The Regatta.

11 years on I find myself the fleet captain of a small RS Aero fleet at Massapoag YC in Massachusetts.

This is an RS Aero
Not me sailing it
Not at Massapaog YC

We are having a regatta on June 18 and I have been contacting every RS Aero owner within traveling distance that I know of and other sailors whom I think would sail in the regatta if they could borrow or charter an RS Aero.

There were 21 boats sailing at the RS Aero North Americans in the Columbia River Gorge last year and there have been a few other regattas in North America with around 10 -12 RS Aeros. So once again I have been shooting for 10 boats at our event as a respectable number to aim for. Although it would be great to have a lot more than that.

Of course it's a bit harder trying to round up 10 RS Aero sailors than 10 Laser sailors, simply because there are a lot more Lasers around.

But thanks to some provision of charter boats at favorable rates by both our local dealer, Zim Sailing, and the RS Aero manufacturer, RS Sailing, and some active promotion of our regatta by the RS Aero USA Class Manager, Marc Jacobi - not to mention the modern wonder of online regatta registration - yesterday the 10th sailor signed up for our regatta. And there are still 6 more weeks to go.

Woo hoo!



If you build it they will come.

And my fellow fleet members have some specific ideas on how to put some more "butts in boats" before the regatta.

Who knows how many boats we will have in the end?

I am sure I will be able to concoct some record that we have broken.



So tell me more about this regatta Tillerman, I hear you say.

Well I could put all the details in this post but it is already way too long so please email me tillermeister at gmail dot com if you want all the info.

Or you could just go to the event page.




BREAKING NEWS: Proper Course analysts are now confidently predicting that the 9th Annual Massapoag YC Small Boat Regatta will be the largest RS Aero regatta ever held in North America east of the Rockies and north of the Mason Dixon line on a freshwater lake in a state whose governor is a big fan of the Dropkick Murphys.

Why I Changed My Name This Weekend

I have been called lots of things in my 67 years on this planet.

My parents gave me a first name which I have never liked very much.

I do have a middle name but I like that even else.

At the school I attended from ages 10 to 17 - what was known as a grammar school in England - I was called by my last name. That was the way in boys' schools in England in those days. That was OK. I have a nice simple English last name which only Americans manage to spell wrongly.



My wife has called me all sorts of things but we don't need to go into that.

I have been called all sorts of things when racing my Laser too.

And here in the blogosphere I go by Tillerman, of course.



Ten years ago, I became Granddad and I thought that was the coolest name ever.

Until this weekend.

We have been in Connecticut celebrating the 2nd birthday of my youngest grandchild, Juliet. That's her on the right in the photo with her big sister Isabel.

Juliet is talking up a storm these days, learning new words and expressions almost every day it seems. Perhaps it was the kids' TV program we watched together about circles and squares and rectangles, and concepts like small, medium and big, but whatever the reason she suddenly decided to call me Big Granddad!!!

It is true that I am a few inches taller than her other grandfather, and Juliet is a very observant child.



I do like my new name.

I am Big Granddad.

Who are you?

Sad News About Tillerwoman

Ride a White Swan

Marc Bolan, of T.Rex, had a big hit in the UK with Ride a White Swan.

45 years ago today, December 18 1970, T.Rex released their eponymous album T.Rex which included Ride a White Swan in its US version, but not the UK one.



I don't begin to understand what Marc was thinking about when he wrote this song. But, for me, the image of "riding a white swan" does have some relationship to sailing.

Ride it on out like a bird in the sky ways 

Ride it on out like you were a bird 

Fly it all out like an eagle in a sunbeam 

Ride it on out like you were a bird

Marc Bolan was killed in a car crash in London in 1977, two weeks before his 30th birthday.

Only the good die young.

A Carol for Christmas

If I Had A Boat

If I had a boat 

I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony

I'd ride him on my boat 

And we could all together 

Go out on the ocean 

Me upon my pony on my boat

What?

Ride a pony on a boat?

A little boat like a a Laser or an RS Aero?

What a ridiculous idea!

What on earth is Lyle Lovett singing about?

Well it may mean different things to different people. But it seems to me that this is some kind of escapist fantasy. As a boy I always dreamed of owning a boat and going out on the ocean in it. And my granddaughters have been known to say they want ponies for their birthdays. (Not that any of then have had that wish fulfilled. At least not yet!) Is the central theme of this song a combination of those two childhood wishes?

Not that escaping on a boat is merely a childhood dream. For me, and I suspect for many people, the appeal of sailing is that it takes us away from the everyday life of working and living in little boxes and driving in little boxes on roads, and shopping in big boxes (ugh - I hate supermarkets) and bills to pay and the Internet and computers and phones and blogging...

Stop! I need to finish this blog post.

For some of us, sailboat racing provides relief from the pressures and tedium of everyday life. For others, just taking a small boat like a Laser or an RS Aero out to play on the ocean in big waves is their escape route.

But what is Mr. Lovett trying to escape from?

Maybe the first verse will give us a clue?

If I were Roy Rogers 

I'd sure enough be single 

I couldn't bring myself to marrying old Dale 

It'd just be me and Trigger 

We'd go riding through them movies 

Then we'd buy a boat and on the sea we'd sail

Ahah!

He doesn't want to marry "old Dale." He is pulling back from a relationship with a woman...

Roy and Dale

 ... and going back to a childhood fantasy of a man and his horse. 

Roy and Trigger

Maybe the song is about the bitterness of a man who was hurt in a romantic relationship that went wrong?

But wait. What is in the second verse?

The mystery masked man was smart 

He got himself a Tonto 

'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free 

But Tonto he was smarter 

And one day said kemo sabe 

Kiss my ass I bought a boat 
I'm going out to sea

Lone Ranger and Tonto

The Lone Ranger.  A man and his horse. But now the singer identifies with the lone ranger's Indian companion who "did all the dirty work for free." And it is Tonto who says "kiss my ass" to the boss and goes off on his boat to escape. Or is there an undertone of a sexual relationship here too? Whatever the nature of the relationship it's clear that the image of going out on the ocean on a boat (with or without a pony) is a release from a human bond which the singer wishes to escape.


But things get even more confused in the third verse.

And if I were like lightning 

I wouldn't need no sneakers 

I'd come and go wherever I would please 

And I'd scare 'em by the shade tree 

And I'd scare 'em by the light pole 

But I would not scare my pony 

On my boat out on the sea

Lightning? Sneakers? What does that have to do with the other verses? Well I guess it's all about escape and freedom again so he can "come and go wherever I would please." But there's a touch of anger and maybe even revenge too.  "I'd scare 'em by the shade tree and I'd scare 'em by the light pole." Who does he want to scare? The mysterious woman? Her new partner? The boss man? All of the above? Whatever the source of his rage it is in contrast to his liberation with his pony on his boat out on the sea.

Hmmm!

I guess I really am no good at analyzing song lyrics.

All of the above is probably utter nonsense.

You are probably laughing at me because I am too naive to understand the true meanings of "pony" and "ride" and "lightning."  They are likely references to drugs or sex or both, subjects of which I know so little.

So how do YOU explain this weird little song?



This post was inspired by today's post on Damian's excellent blog, The Final Beat,  which is about a different song called If I Had A Boat sung by a musician friend of Damian's.

If I Had A Boat - the Lyle Lovett song not the one by Damian's friend - was one of the the Top 10 Sailing Songs in a vote held by Adam in 2007 on his excellent blog Messing About in Sailboats.

Throwback Thursday - Dylan Goes Electric - July 1965

I have just finished reading Elijah Wald's excellent book Dylan Goes Electric. Hard to believe that it's 50 years since Bob Dylan shocked the folk music purists by playing a few songs at the Newport Folk Festival using a band with electric guitars. Oh the humanity!

But it was a big deal at the time. "The Night that Split the Sixties."

The book is a fascinating read. As the blurb on amazon. com tells it....

(The book) explores the cultural, political and historical context of this seminal event that embodies the transformative decade that was the sixties. Wald delves deep into the folk revival, the rise of rock, and the tensions between traditional and groundbreaking music to provide new insights into Dylan’s artistic evolution, his special affinity to blues, his complex relationship to the folk establishment and his sometime mentor Pete Seeger, and the ways he reshaped popular music forever.

As always, there's a lot more to the story than the simple myth that Bob Dylan picked up an electric guitar one July night in Newport in 1965 and changed popular music for ever.



Little did we know at the time, that the same weekend Dylan was in Newport, US President Lyndon Johnson was huddling with his military advisors in Washington, and a few days later he announced his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000, and to more than double the number of men drafted per month - from 17,000 to 35,000.

And of course nobody (apart from the immediate family) took any notice at all that on the last day of July 1965, a couple of newly-weds in England, an aircraft engineer and a science technician, welcomed a baby girl into the world. They called her Joanne but she goes by the name of J.K. Rowling these days.

What does all this have to do with sailing?

Not a lot.

I don't think LBJ and JK were sailors.

But Bob Dylan is (or was.) Check out Snowy Day Laser Sailor Blues which has a photo of Bob Dylan sailing a boat that's not a Laser and some lyrics about Newport.

And for your listening enjoyment - or you can boo if you want to like a lot of yahoos in Newport did - here is the first song in the performance that caused all the brouhaha on July 25 1965.

Well, I try my best 

To be just like I am 

But everybody wants you 

To be just like them

Don't Rock My Boat

Bob Marley would have been 70 today.

He died, way too young, in 1981, aged only 36.

The Jamaican Prime Minister's eulogy at his funeral included these words…

His voice was an omnipresent cry in our electronic world. His sharp features, majestic looks, and prancing style a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds. Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter. Such a man cannot be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective consciousness of the nation.

Have a Goode Friday

Top 7 Reasons Why Larry Ellison Will Hold the 35th America's Cup in Hawaii

There has been a lot of buzz in the last few days that Larry Ellison plans to hold the next America's Cup in Hawaii. See, for example, Larry Ellison eyeing Honolulu for '17 America's Cup.

And it's true. I have it straight from the mouth of a usually reliable source, who cannot be named at this time, that Larry has made the decision and that these are the seven main reasons why he has made this choice...


1. Hawaii is the only American state not in the Americas.  Larry feels that the America's Cup has been held in the Americas way too much. It's time for a change.

2. There some disagreement on how to spell the name of the place. Is it Hawaii or Hawaiʻi?  If the America's Cup itself doesn't generate enough controversy we can always have a good argument about diacritics and glottal stops. And Larry loves a good argument.

3. The state motto is "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono." Need I say more?

4. Hawaiian music. The Hawaiian language has no word that translates precisely as "music", but don't let that fool you. There's a wide variety of traditional and popular styles of music unique to Hawaii. Take slack key guitar for example. Larry loves slack key guitar.

  


5. Volcanoes! What a brilliant idea to hold the America's Cup near volcanoes. A spectacular volcanic eruption could liven things up if the racing gets too boring.  Larry is a genius.

6. Spam! Spam is very popular in Hawaii. Fried spam with rice, fried eggs and spam, spam stir-fried with cabbage, spam mashed with tofu, spam and cold sōmen, spam and baked macaroni and cheese, spam sandwiches and spam musubi, to name just a few delicious spam dishes you can enjoy in Hawaii. Spam - the official mystery meat of the 35th America's Cup!!! Larry loves spam. And sponsors.

7. Okolehao. Need I say more?