Thanks to the Charleston Post and Courier for this quote from Paul Cayard, skipper of the Volvo Ocean Race entry Pirates of the Caribbean, after the tragic death at sea of competitor Hans Horrevoets...
"Life is like sailing - prepare for the lulls, enjoy the puffs."
Happy New Year. Enjoy the puffs in 2007.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Everything's Coming Up Roses
I set myself a goal: finish in the top half of my age-group fleet in the Laser Masters Worlds in Cascais, Portugal in July next year (2007). Then the class association threw a spanner in the works by announcing in October that they had been unable to agree with the proposed hosts to hold the Masters Worlds in Cascais. During the last few weeks three other potential sites in Europe have been evaluated and yesterday it was announced that the regatta will be in Roses, Spain at the end of September.
According to the official tourist website for Roses...
Apparently we can expect an interesting variety of wind conditions with nothing too strenuous for us old geezers.
50% thermal wind SE (6 to 15 knots)
40% thermal+gradient wind ENE (6 to 15 knots)
10% gradient wind N (12 to 25 knots)
Sounds good to me. Not too far from where I was sailing in Menorca in 2006 at exactly the same time of year. Hmmm -- maybe I could go early and tune up for a week or two at Minorca Sailing? We haven't visited that corner of mainland Spain before and Tillerwoman is already talking about art galleries in Barcelona. Sounds like we might be in Spain for several weeks. Hey, it's a tough job but somebody has got to do it.
Roses, here we come.
According to the official tourist website for Roses...
Roses is an essentially Mediterranean town with a notable tourist and seafaring tradition. It is situated in a unique natural setting, at the north of the Costa Brava, less than 30 kilometres from the frontier with France, 65 kilometres from Girona and 160 kilometres from Barcelona.
Apparently we can expect an interesting variety of wind conditions with nothing too strenuous for us old geezers.
50% thermal wind SE (6 to 15 knots)
40% thermal+gradient wind ENE (6 to 15 knots)
10% gradient wind N (12 to 25 knots)
Sounds good to me. Not too far from where I was sailing in Menorca in 2006 at exactly the same time of year. Hmmm -- maybe I could go early and tune up for a week or two at Minorca Sailing? We haven't visited that corner of mainland Spain before and Tillerwoman is already talking about art galleries in Barcelona. Sounds like we might be in Spain for several weeks. Hey, it's a tough job but somebody has got to do it.
Roses, here we come.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Senior Moments
Why do I run? Why do I sail? Why do I blog?
Well, part of the answer is related to the inherent rewards in each of these activities. But another part is that I am also hoping, vainly perhaps, that these pursuits will hold off the threat of a decline in mental and physical powers as I age.
After I retired a few years ago it dawned on me that I could, within reason, do anything I liked with my time. Travel the world. Vegetate in front of a TV. Hug a tree. Save the planet. Play the stock market. Spend my kids' inheritance. Sit on a beach. Go to law school. Be the backgammon champion of Yahoo! Learn how to play steel drums. Watch the Yankees win the World Series every year. (Hey - this was the year 2000 - anything seemed possible.)
What to do? After a while (and a few false starts -- geeze there are some seriously good backgammon players on Yahoo!) I developed the notion that I should participate in a range of activities that would challenge both mind and body, in the hope of staving off the aging process for as long as possible. A kind of Use It Or Lose It philosophy.
As the years go by the occasional "senior moment" is a check on how well this strategy is succeeding -- or not. That phrase is usually used to describe the lapses in memory experienced by older folk, of the kind celebrated in these jokes from Dull Men's Club. But, as you will see, I use the phrase in a broader sense: those moments, good and bad, that give me a checkpoint on how the Use It Or Lose It plan is working. Here are five of my senior moments from the last couple of weeks.
1. Going to the ATM and forgetting my PIN number. What a shocker! I go and get cash from the bank every couple of weeks or so. And I've had the same PIN number for at least a decade. But last time I went to the cash machine and it asked me for my number... Ummm. Well, I know some of the digits. What are the other two? One-zero? Let's see. No, it doesn't like that. Zero-zero? Wrong again. Hmmm. Wonder how many tries I get before this thing eats my card? So I went home cashless. Next day I tried again and the number came straight back to me. Weird. Have I lost it? Will someone half my age please leave a comment and say this thing has happened to them too? Please?
2. Running a fast 5k. The marathon training has been going well. Ten weeks (out of twenty six) under my belt now and I haven't missed a single workout. Every two or three weeks the program calls for me to run a fast 5k. The time achieved is used to estimate my target time for the marathon based on a table in Jeff Galloway's book. I ran a 5k early last week and was surprised to discover that it was the fastest time I had run this distance for five years. OK -- nothing like as fast as my personal best that I ran in the distant days of my comparative youth in my early forties. But even so it's good to know that in at least one aspect of my life I'm not declining into early senility.
3. Better Tacks. Later in the week I broke the ice on the edge of my local lake and went for a sail in my Laser. It was one of those rare days when the wind was in the perfect direction from the south, down the long axis of the lake, meaning that the usual huge shifts and wind holes and slam dunk gusts weren't quite as bad as they are every other day. A solid 10-12 knots. Gorgeous sunny day with blue sky. I worked on gybes and tacks and windward mark roundings and leeward mark roundings. Especially with my tacks I felt I was really making progress, applying some of the tips I picked up from my instructor in Menorca, tacking better in these conditions than I ever had before. I can still improve.
4. Not getting lost. This week my marathon program included a nine mile run. Relatively easy after the sixteen mile run last week. Afterwards I looked back in my 2005 running diary as I couldn't remember where I had done the same week's long run last year. Ahah. That was the infamous senior moment when I got myself lost in the woods that I wrote about in Sense of Direction. Oh well, be thankful for small mercies. Some times just not getting lost is a sign of progress.
5.....................? I'm sure there was another senior moment I was planning to tell you about, but for the life of me I can't remember it. Perhaps it will come back to me tomorrow? Does this make six?
Well, part of the answer is related to the inherent rewards in each of these activities. But another part is that I am also hoping, vainly perhaps, that these pursuits will hold off the threat of a decline in mental and physical powers as I age.
After I retired a few years ago it dawned on me that I could, within reason, do anything I liked with my time. Travel the world. Vegetate in front of a TV. Hug a tree. Save the planet. Play the stock market. Spend my kids' inheritance. Sit on a beach. Go to law school. Be the backgammon champion of Yahoo! Learn how to play steel drums. Watch the Yankees win the World Series every year. (Hey - this was the year 2000 - anything seemed possible.)
What to do? After a while (and a few false starts -- geeze there are some seriously good backgammon players on Yahoo!) I developed the notion that I should participate in a range of activities that would challenge both mind and body, in the hope of staving off the aging process for as long as possible. A kind of Use It Or Lose It philosophy.
As the years go by the occasional "senior moment" is a check on how well this strategy is succeeding -- or not. That phrase is usually used to describe the lapses in memory experienced by older folk, of the kind celebrated in these jokes from Dull Men's Club. But, as you will see, I use the phrase in a broader sense: those moments, good and bad, that give me a checkpoint on how the Use It Or Lose It plan is working. Here are five of my senior moments from the last couple of weeks.
1. Going to the ATM and forgetting my PIN number. What a shocker! I go and get cash from the bank every couple of weeks or so. And I've had the same PIN number for at least a decade. But last time I went to the cash machine and it asked me for my number... Ummm. Well, I know some of the digits. What are the other two? One-zero? Let's see. No, it doesn't like that. Zero-zero? Wrong again. Hmmm. Wonder how many tries I get before this thing eats my card? So I went home cashless. Next day I tried again and the number came straight back to me. Weird. Have I lost it? Will someone half my age please leave a comment and say this thing has happened to them too? Please?
2. Running a fast 5k. The marathon training has been going well. Ten weeks (out of twenty six) under my belt now and I haven't missed a single workout. Every two or three weeks the program calls for me to run a fast 5k. The time achieved is used to estimate my target time for the marathon based on a table in Jeff Galloway's book. I ran a 5k early last week and was surprised to discover that it was the fastest time I had run this distance for five years. OK -- nothing like as fast as my personal best that I ran in the distant days of my comparative youth in my early forties. But even so it's good to know that in at least one aspect of my life I'm not declining into early senility.
3. Better Tacks. Later in the week I broke the ice on the edge of my local lake and went for a sail in my Laser. It was one of those rare days when the wind was in the perfect direction from the south, down the long axis of the lake, meaning that the usual huge shifts and wind holes and slam dunk gusts weren't quite as bad as they are every other day. A solid 10-12 knots. Gorgeous sunny day with blue sky. I worked on gybes and tacks and windward mark roundings and leeward mark roundings. Especially with my tacks I felt I was really making progress, applying some of the tips I picked up from my instructor in Menorca, tacking better in these conditions than I ever had before. I can still improve.
4. Not getting lost. This week my marathon program included a nine mile run. Relatively easy after the sixteen mile run last week. Afterwards I looked back in my 2005 running diary as I couldn't remember where I had done the same week's long run last year. Ahah. That was the infamous senior moment when I got myself lost in the woods that I wrote about in Sense of Direction. Oh well, be thankful for small mercies. Some times just not getting lost is a sign of progress.
5.....................? I'm sure there was another senior moment I was planning to tell you about, but for the life of me I can't remember it. Perhaps it will come back to me tomorrow? Does this make six?
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Tacticat Revisited
The last couple of days I've been trying out Tacticat. My reaction as a beginner in the Laser races is very similar to that of Tim Coleman. I still haven't mastered the crowded starts and mark roundings but it is kind of addictive.
Fellow blogging Laser sailor (and Tillerman sprog) Litoralis spent most of Christmas sitting in my favorite chair playing the game obsessively and thereby kindly allowing Tillerwoman and myself uninterrupted time to play with his daughter, Cutest Granddaughter in the World. Tacticat can't compete with her as a source of amusement (at least not for me) but it's OK now she's gone home.
I see Litoralis is now ranked 4th out of 518 competitors and is the British National Tacticat Champion. Tim is doing pretty well too and is ranked in the Top 100.
I'm still not sure if Tacticat provides the kind of practice that will improve actual racing performance in the real world. It certainly gives you the opportunity to try out different approaches in various tactical situations, but to the extent that it can never be a perfect simulation of real sailing I wonder if it might teach some incorrect techniques too. We will see.
But who cares? Tacticat are offering a Velocitek S-10 GPS Speedometer to the winner of their Christmas Regatta. Now that beats any prize I have ever won at real sailing. So perhaps the better question is whether real sailing talent translates to success in the virtual world?
Fellow blogging Laser sailor (and Tillerman sprog) Litoralis spent most of Christmas sitting in my favorite chair playing the game obsessively and thereby kindly allowing Tillerwoman and myself uninterrupted time to play with his daughter, Cutest Granddaughter in the World. Tacticat can't compete with her as a source of amusement (at least not for me) but it's OK now she's gone home.
I see Litoralis is now ranked 4th out of 518 competitors and is the British National Tacticat Champion. Tim is doing pretty well too and is ranked in the Top 100.
I'm still not sure if Tacticat provides the kind of practice that will improve actual racing performance in the real world. It certainly gives you the opportunity to try out different approaches in various tactical situations, but to the extent that it can never be a perfect simulation of real sailing I wonder if it might teach some incorrect techniques too. We will see.
But who cares? Tacticat are offering a Velocitek S-10 GPS Speedometer to the winner of their Christmas Regatta. Now that beats any prize I have ever won at real sailing. So perhaps the better question is whether real sailing talent translates to success in the virtual world?
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Terrific Kids
My kids are terrific!
One son bought me the new Laser clew sleeve and hook for Xmas and the other one gave me a new yellow Lotus Lola PFD (and it was even the right size). It was just what I wanted. How did they know? They must be telepathic.
Can't wait to get out on the water and try both my new toys.
One son bought me the new Laser clew sleeve and hook for Xmas and the other one gave me a new yellow Lotus Lola PFD (and it was even the right size). It was just what I wanted. How did they know? They must be telepathic.
Can't wait to get out on the water and try both my new toys.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Not The Critic Who Counts
A few days I go I posted an email from Mark Hammett explaining the background to the infamous Ham-It-Up video of his crew on a Capri 25 making a few mistakes and learning from them. Comments here and elsewhere to his email have been largely favorable; folk seem to appreciate his integrity and courage in making this training video and letting the world see it, however embarrassing it might be and however mean-spirited some of the criticism was.
I especially liked seeing this quote on the SailNet Forum...
I especially liked seeing this quote on the SailNet Forum...
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."Theodore Roosevelt - 1910
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Who's Your Daddy?
So who is the Daddy of sailing blogs? Who started the first sailing blog? Who wrote the first blog post about sailing?
It's hard to know for sure. Weblogs have been around since 1998. Some blogs may have been abandoned or been deleted. Some bloggers may have deleted their earlier archives or changed platforms and not transferred archives. And the only way I can think of to research this question is to look back in the archives of currently active blogs.
So with those reservations what can we discover? Some of the sailing blogs that were around in the early days when I were blogging such as EVK4 Bloglet and Zephyr have sailing stories in their archives dating back to early 2005. Are there any earlier sailing blogs?
Ahah. Sherry Fowler's Stay of Execution, though by no means a blog purely about sailing, has sailing stories dating back to September 2003. Ah, but Ant Clay at Soulsailor goes back even further with a post from May 2003 about boat names which told the world that the Enterprise owned by his crew was named Sofa King Lazy. (Say it quickly -- unless there are kids about in which case don't say it at all.) So is Ant the Grand Daddy of all sailing bloggers?
Not so fast. There's someone who has been blogging about sailing for even longer than Ant. Yeah, Rohan Veal has been blogging about sailing since January 2003. The oldest entry in his archives is a link to an account of how he won the 51st Australian Moth Championships. It dates from 13 January 2003. And Rohan is still blogging about Moth sailing and promoting sales of the Bladerider for KA Sail around the world.
So can anyone beat that? Or is Rohan the Daddy of All Sailing Bloggers?
It's hard to know for sure. Weblogs have been around since 1998. Some blogs may have been abandoned or been deleted. Some bloggers may have deleted their earlier archives or changed platforms and not transferred archives. And the only way I can think of to research this question is to look back in the archives of currently active blogs.
So with those reservations what can we discover? Some of the sailing blogs that were around in the early days when I were blogging such as EVK4 Bloglet and Zephyr have sailing stories in their archives dating back to early 2005. Are there any earlier sailing blogs?
Ahah. Sherry Fowler's Stay of Execution, though by no means a blog purely about sailing, has sailing stories dating back to September 2003. Ah, but Ant Clay at Soulsailor goes back even further with a post from May 2003 about boat names which told the world that the Enterprise owned by his crew was named Sofa King Lazy. (Say it quickly -- unless there are kids about in which case don't say it at all.) So is Ant the Grand Daddy of all sailing bloggers?
Not so fast. There's someone who has been blogging about sailing for even longer than Ant. Yeah, Rohan Veal has been blogging about sailing since January 2003. The oldest entry in his archives is a link to an account of how he won the 51st Australian Moth Championships. It dates from 13 January 2003. And Rohan is still blogging about Moth sailing and promoting sales of the Bladerider for KA Sail around the world.
So can anyone beat that? Or is Rohan the Daddy of All Sailing Bloggers?
Friday, December 22, 2006
Welcome To My World
So here I am writing a mediocre little blog about my pathetic attempts to race a Laser in a frostbite series...
Now I see that one of the big guns of sailing writing is copying my act. Esteemed old-media dead-tree glossy magazine Sailing World has started a blog and SW editor Dave Reed has written the first post in that blog about... what else but his pathetic attempts to race a Laser in a frostbite series. Of course he writes a lot better than I do but, if his post is to be believed, he sails just as badly as me.
Dave, welcome to my world. What took you so long?
Now I see that one of the big guns of sailing writing is copying my act. Esteemed old-media dead-tree glossy magazine Sailing World has started a blog and SW editor Dave Reed has written the first post in that blog about... what else but his pathetic attempts to race a Laser in a frostbite series. Of course he writes a lot better than I do but, if his post is to be believed, he sails just as badly as me.
Dave, welcome to my world. What took you so long?
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Souvenirs From My Trip Around The Sun
Another year almost over and more memories in the bank, souvenirs from the journey. Memories of watching my granddaughter grow and change month by month from a tiny baby into a fascinating little person. And along the way also a few memories of sailing...
Winter was almost over when the Laser frostbite sailing at the club in Connecticut started in March and I went racing my Laser one day in Rain, and on another day in 25 knots that required some Changes in Attitudes. Spring arrived in April and my Laser racing continued with a photogenic start shown at 5-4-3-2-1-GO!!!, another day when I really needed some excuses, and an awesome day of sailing in the rain, (again).
In May the Wednesday night Sunfish racing started at my local reservoir club in New Jersey and I found myself waxing poetic about the reasons I sail in Memories of a Moment. At the end of the month I had the pleasure of sailing a Laser regatta with my son again, the first time we had done this together for many years, when he beat me in the Second Annual Collander Cup. The light winds of summer lake sailing had me musing about Learning to Love Light Air and then on Father's Day I took revenge on my son by beating him in Laser Sailing at Lake Whippersnapper.
I only sailed one major regatta in 2006 and that was the Newport Regatta in July. The experience inspired me to write Top Ten Random Memories and even to compose a song, The Ballad of Tillerman - Oh No!
In August I watched my son sailing with Sunfish Fleet 17 and got frustrated at my own incompetence at Sunfish sailing in Wednesday Night Racing, so badly in fact that I went out and Sold my Sunfish.
After a couple of weeks with no sailing in September I rediscovered how much I enjoy Laser sailing in Relapse and then at the end of the month Tillerwoman and I headed off for a vacation at Minorca Sailing. It was a long time since our previous visit but we discovered that very little had changed at Minorca Sailing - 25 Years Later. I sailed Lasers, learned how to sail a single-hander with a spinnaker, tried my hand at windsurfing, and wrote all about it in More on Minorca Sailing. Those two weeks were definitely the most enjoyable sailing experience of the year.
When we returned to the US, the Laser frostbite season had already started. I did my race committee duty and learned a lot by Watching Boats. I rediscovered why I love racing Laser so much even when I do badly in The Pessimist and the Optimist, and made something of a breakthrough in Snap!
Another year of sailing is almost over but the journey continues, and so here I go again, enjoying the ride on my trip around the sun...
This post has been submitted to the ProBlogger Group Writing Project - Reviews and Predictions.
Winter was almost over when the Laser frostbite sailing at the club in Connecticut started in March and I went racing my Laser one day in Rain, and on another day in 25 knots that required some Changes in Attitudes. Spring arrived in April and my Laser racing continued with a photogenic start shown at 5-4-3-2-1-GO!!!, another day when I really needed some excuses, and an awesome day of sailing in the rain, (again).
In May the Wednesday night Sunfish racing started at my local reservoir club in New Jersey and I found myself waxing poetic about the reasons I sail in Memories of a Moment. At the end of the month I had the pleasure of sailing a Laser regatta with my son again, the first time we had done this together for many years, when he beat me in the Second Annual Collander Cup. The light winds of summer lake sailing had me musing about Learning to Love Light Air and then on Father's Day I took revenge on my son by beating him in Laser Sailing at Lake Whippersnapper.
I only sailed one major regatta in 2006 and that was the Newport Regatta in July. The experience inspired me to write Top Ten Random Memories and even to compose a song, The Ballad of Tillerman - Oh No!
In August I watched my son sailing with Sunfish Fleet 17 and got frustrated at my own incompetence at Sunfish sailing in Wednesday Night Racing, so badly in fact that I went out and Sold my Sunfish.
After a couple of weeks with no sailing in September I rediscovered how much I enjoy Laser sailing in Relapse and then at the end of the month Tillerwoman and I headed off for a vacation at Minorca Sailing. It was a long time since our previous visit but we discovered that very little had changed at Minorca Sailing - 25 Years Later. I sailed Lasers, learned how to sail a single-hander with a spinnaker, tried my hand at windsurfing, and wrote all about it in More on Minorca Sailing. Those two weeks were definitely the most enjoyable sailing experience of the year.
When we returned to the US, the Laser frostbite season had already started. I did my race committee duty and learned a lot by Watching Boats. I rediscovered why I love racing Laser so much even when I do badly in The Pessimist and the Optimist, and made something of a breakthrough in Snap!
Another year of sailing is almost over but the journey continues, and so here I go again, enjoying the ride on my trip around the sun...
This post has been submitted to the ProBlogger Group Writing Project - Reviews and Predictions.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Top Sailing Blogs - Nominations Requested
Zephyr, one of the best sailing bloggers around, wrote earlier this week...
But "Granddaddy" accepts the challenge, on the condition that you help me this year. I would like some major input from other sailing bloggers and sailing blog readers as to which blogs are worthy of consideration and which ones should make the final cut.
First it seems to me that to be considered for the list of Top Ten Sailing Blogs of 2006, a blog must meet the following conditions:
A good place to start the list of potential candidates for the top ten would be the three top ten lists I have already published. So please check out Top Ten Sailing Blogs of 2005, Boating Blog Roundup and More Sailing Blogs. Browse through my blogroll of Boating Blogs on the right. Are there any other sailing blogs you enjoy that are not on these lists? Then please leave me a comment telling me which sailing blogs you think should make the 2006 Top Ten List.
Look forward to hearing from you.
"Granddaddy" Tillerman.
He goes on to point out that there are a lot more sailing blogs now than there were a year ago when I published my first Top Ten Sailing Blogs list. How right he is. A year ago the Top Ten was very easy to pick; there were only around ten or so top quality, interesting, entertaining blogs about sailing that were being regularly updated. Now we will actually have to make some hard choices to narrow the list down to the top ten.
The end of the year is nigh and possibly Proper Course - the literal "Granddaddy" of sailing bloggers - is readying his list of the 2006 top ten sailing blogs.
But "Granddaddy" accepts the challenge, on the condition that you help me this year. I would like some major input from other sailing bloggers and sailing blog readers as to which blogs are worthy of consideration and which ones should make the final cut.
First it seems to me that to be considered for the list of Top Ten Sailing Blogs of 2006, a blog must meet the following conditions:
- It is mainly about sailing.
- It has been in existence for most of 2006.
- It is updated regularly - say at least once a week for most of the year.
- It is actually worth reading... it's interesting, entertaining, educational, funny, spectacular, whatever... something grabs you about it.
A good place to start the list of potential candidates for the top ten would be the three top ten lists I have already published. So please check out Top Ten Sailing Blogs of 2005, Boating Blog Roundup and More Sailing Blogs. Browse through my blogroll of Boating Blogs on the right. Are there any other sailing blogs you enjoy that are not on these lists? Then please leave me a comment telling me which sailing blogs you think should make the 2006 Top Ten List.
Look forward to hearing from you.
"Granddaddy" Tillerman.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)