Last Minute Xmas Gift for Dinghy Sailor

Still not sure what to buy the favorite dinghy sailor in your life for Xmas? Have you looked at his or her PFD lately? Is it showing signs of fading and wear? Is the zipper broken?

If so, show you care by buying your dinghy sailor the gift that might save his or her life some day, a new PFD. Personally I prefer the type with a side zip and a front pocket. Two PFDs that seem to get good reviews and are extremely popular on the dinghy racing scene are the Lola by Lotus (yellow one on the left below) and the Retroglide Avenger by Extrasport (blue on the right).














If your dinghy sailor happens to be 6'2" tall and around 182 lbs then the Large size should be a good fit for him (or her).

Who Inspired Us?

A few days ago I asked readers to post stories on their blogs about who inspired them to take up sailing...

Frankie from Threefold Twenty kicks off the tales about who inspired us to take up sailing with a post entitled Sailing Lust in which she ponders where she picked up the lust to be out on the ocean, and concludes that the original inspiration came from two books she read when she was 16 or 17, Jules Verne's 'Les enfants du capitaine Grant' and Bernard Moitessier's 'Vagabond des mers du sud'.

Edward from EVK4 Bloglet tells us in Inspiration that sailing with his father was his introduction to the sport. Trips with Dad including sailing a 72 foot yawl in the Caribbean, and an Atlantic crossing which Edward says "still ranks simultaneously as the most boring and most exhilarating sailing experience of my life".

Og from LiveSailDie fancifully traces the start of her love for sailing back to her mother's womb and her prenatal crewing experiences on a Hobie 16, but realistically gives more credit to what her parents did to introduce her to the sport after she was born and the influence of Andrew Landenberger, a former Moth World champion and Olympic silver medalist, and his father.

Pat from Desert Sea has three stories for us describing his early encounters with boats. First boats with heavy cross starts with young Pat at 9 years old sitting on his regular stool in the Tradewinds Bar and ends with him as a 13 year old altar boy on the heaving deck of a cutter wearing red robes and swinging a heavy brass cross around. (It's not clear to me whether it was the Tradewinds Bar or the Episcopal Church that was his major inspiration.) Not Quite the Making of a Sailor tells us of Pat's adventures as not quite a sailor at the Rice University Sailing Club including a scary sailing adventure with a kindly old gentleman who was "literally shorthanded". The final act in this trilogy about how Pat becomes a sailor in spite of his earlier setbacks, How we got our boat, reveals how he was inspired to buy a boat in the desert when a salesperson was trying to sell him a condo timeshare. Must win the prize for the most unlikely source of inspiration!

Zen from Zensekai tells us that his Inspiration to take up sailing came from Wild Rose, Captn Ron, and a boat that used to belong to Jayne Mansfield.

Thanks to Zen for giving me the first opportunity to post a photo on Proper Course of a former Playmate of the Month. Geeze, did women really have curves like that back in the 1950's?

Where was I? Oh yes. Inspiration.

I wrote yesterday in Men from Mars about two sailors that influenced me to take up the sport. Pretty mundane tale really compared to some of the above.

So there we have it. Parents. Famous sailors. Famous authors. An in-the-womb experience. The Episcopal Church. A guy short of hands. Captn Ron. A Playmate of the Month. Wild Rose. A timeshare salesperson. All people that inspired us to take up sailing.

Thanks to all of the writers who responded to my request for stories on their sources of inspiration. You guys are the best.

Update 20 Dec 2006: Manfred from Germany has also written of his source of inspiration in How it all began.

Update 22 Dec 2006: Ant Clay from England tells us how caravans were the reason his father and he started sailing.

Horizon True Video Camera Mount

Pat, in a comment on yesterday's post about the famous Ham-it-Up video, wondered how Mark Hammett managed to get such excellent footage of his crew in action. According to the note with the video on YouTube, the answer is the Horizon True Video Camera Mount.

Looks pretty cool. Would make a great Xmas present for a skipper from his crew, methinks. Just a suggestion. Shame it wouldn't fit on a Laser!

Email from Mark Hammett

A few weeks ago I discussed in Worth Doing Badly a video in which the crew of a Capri 25 got themselves in all sorts of difficulties. Among other observations I speculated on the motivations of Mark Hammett, the skipper of the Capri 25, in allowing the world to see this somewhat embarrassing video of his crew in action. I hope I wasn't too hard on him and his crew; they certainly endured a lot worse treatment from other writers on a certain sailing forum and elsewhere.

I was surprised today to receive this email from Mr. Hammett...

I want to thank you for the kind words your blog expresses on the desire to sail even if it is done badly. You must appreciate that I have had a long career sailing as the foredeck on many boats ranging from 20-70 feet in length and in several venues in the North American continent for thirty+ years. This is includes being a mast-man on the winning Tatiana crew on the 1989 J-35 National Championships in Long Beach, Ca. I love to sail every moment I can, whether racing, practicing, cruising, and always with the belief and attitude that everyday is race-day!



I purchased my Capri-25 four years ago, my first time as an owner. I have worked my boat with one mission – training the future sailors and skippers who will replace the current guard in my beloved sport. I have reached the age of 50 years now and know that my limits will only allow me the occasional long distance race and I am resigned to the fact that club racing will be center of the rest of my sailing career. So here is where I know I will do the most good for my sport. The young boy that was on my boat that day was his first real ride on a racing boat under these extreme conditions. He has since spent the summer in sailing camps and at 12 will return to my boat to race everyday he can… Goal accomplished!



Since I posted the video on YouTube in November, I have endured all the negative comments from the armchair snipers who probably lack the experience or the courage to lead a young or lesser experienced group of sailors into any event, let also a National Championship; willing to take what God and the elements hand us at any given minute. They likely would stand on shore pouting they could not find a group of rock-stars, while I go out with my journeymen crew and take on the Goliaths on the race course. Like a pilot before flying, I daily and regularly ask the crew if the conditions feel to be beyond their experience or willingness to compete. On this day, one race finished, and in the second race, the thirty minutes before the broach, we had already completed four legs in building conditions including a downwind leg in which a hand held GPS indicated a sustained boat speeds of over 10 knots for almost 3 minutes (not quite the planning speed – but very close). And the video from that leg showed everything (crew and boat) in perfect working order.



Those who rip the boat on its performance, lack the skills to really take a large-small boat that acts like a dingy but sleeps four comfortably, and yes, it is not a J-22, or J-24, or Melges, or Scow, or anything fancy, or expensive to sail out of the box, and the snooty crews and skippers that sail them. It is a family racer/cruiser, it’s cheap to race, it’s easy sail, and very forgiving, period. That is why my daughter has been its helmsmen for the last four years (who has helmed in three national championships from age 14 and this year at 16).


I would challenge all of those who bad mouth this boat, the fleet, or my sailing skills to come to Lake Minnetonka and race against me single-handing a Capri-25 with spinnakers and then brag to me and world how great they are at sailing. This year as school and other commitments took my crew from me for four different races, I sailed single-handed and never finished DFL. In fact in some of the series finishes, I did better than with my crew on board.



The edited video was shared first with my own home yacht club’s annual awards banquet in celebration of the courage (and yes sometimes a fool-heartiness) of my crew and myself as the skipper of the Capri-25 and the foibles of my competitors. But also to remind everyone there, we are always learning and experiencing the ways to handle a machine that is totally dependent on all the energies of nature and efforts of the operators and its moving parts to all work together; and that any one or the other these gets out of balance, that events will lead to the disaster that whole world has now witnessed. At this annual event we celebrate all the best that sailing is and isn’t, because we all know the difference from first to last is the number of mistakes you don’t make.



The notion that this is a self-deprecating video meant to make fun of myself or my crew is farthest from the intention. It a learning video prepared with some style. Just look at the time stamp. The only cut in the action was after we got under control and the final collection of our crewmen that went overboard.

· Is it humorous; absolutely.

· Were we lucky that no one was injured in the boom-cross; definitely.

· Was the MOB in danger of hyperthermia – No … Lake Minnetonka is a shallow lake and in June is like a lukewarm bath at 70°; you’d have to be in the water two-three hours before you start getting stiff and cold.

· Did we make mistakes – That’s the reason I video every race and practice; so that we can review everything – both the good and the bad and that means learning from bad on what not to do and model the good. I can take a raw novice crew in one to two months of practice on weekends now with the video to review and work through most of the issues of bad techniques that start and head them off early from bad habits. Show me an NFL team that doesn’t review their game play video and I’ll show you a team with a losing record.

· Is it a good example of what-not-to-do? You bet… I’ve looked for video training tapes for years on keel boats having a knock-down as bad as this one, so that I can prepare and train my crew for them. Not even the famous J-24 training videos even deal with showing how to deal with such events because the producers fear law suits, broken equipment, etc in the making of such raw events…Never have they used extreme condition to video crew work and the forces of nature. Well, now I have one. If someone wants a copy of the original unedited version for a training video I would consider selling a copy with proceeds for the crew on my boat and for our sailing program.

On training days, you can’t manufacture winds or conditions like this to practice these high risk maneuvers. Many owners resist putting their equipment in peril just to practice a round-down or extreme-round-up. Too many things can break. I do take my team out to practice the round-ups and they handle them very well. Round-downs are rare. But in this incident you have to look at the start of the event being the halyard not being topped causing the masthead to gyrate back and forth. The mistake that led to the round-down was not using a winch to top it out and as the halyard eased out, the more out of balance the boat became making it difficult for Corry to predict the stall of the rudder which occurred moments later.

· Do have pride in my crew – Beyond all; it’s more than pride, its respect! Through the whole event not a single word of abuse or foul language was uttered or spoken aloud by anyone at anyone else on board. And there was no panic. Instead, following directions and communicating, the recovery began and finished without breakage, serious injury, and only wet clothes and an experience the crew will always remember.



When training my crew, that’s the first rule; watch thy tongue. In an emergency the messages do not translate when mixed in foul language. The blame is never leveled at the crew, the equipment, or another boat or competitor, it is the skipper who takes all responsibility for the actions of the boat. I remove those from my midst that abuse others though thoughtless words and uncontrolled emotions. In that my crew has my respect and I know they respect me and all of them will sail with me anywhere at anytime.



Now I have shared some of my thoughts with you on the why and how what happened and what lead me to share this humbling experience with the world. It was never vanity or fame I sought in sharing, just the love of the sport I live everyday and strive to do better in every practice, cruise, or race. And to help improve those I don’t come in contact with. I’ve already heard from friends on both coasts, that they are using this video as a training aid, and it has only been out for a month. What will happen in a year… who knows… I just hope and pray it will save lives and boats in the future.



Add this to your blog if you wish – I’ll act as Shakespeare’s Shylock, and wither the slings and arrows of the armchair skippers out there.



Thanks,



Mark Hammett

Owner – Capri 25 #370

Men from Mars

I asked readers to write posts in their blogs about the people who inspired them to take up sailing. Speaking for myself, I grew up in a place and a time -- a working class neighborhood in England in the 1950s -- where sailing was just not one of those things that you even imagined you could do. It would have been less bizarre to express an ambition to move to Mars than to say I had a yen to take up some supposedly elitist sport like sailing. But I always had this strange idea that messing about in boats would be fun.

Then when I was in my twenties I was lucky enough to work (at the IT department of a major multi-national) with two young men who were, at the time, among the best small boat sailors in the British Isles: Philip Crebbin and David Wilkins. They both had Olympic ambitions and I used to enjoy hearing their tales of weekends spent at various sailing competitions. I think the HR manager who handled university recruiting in the year Phil and Dave were hired must have been a sailor himself and was working on the theory that the ability to waggle a tiller and steer a boat round the buoys fast had some correlation with the skills necessary to be a future captain of industry. Who knows? He may have been right. Makes more sense than some of the tests used by recruiters these days.

Phil was dominant on the British dinghy scene at that time and twice won the Endeavour Trophy, the British Champion of Champions event. He also won the 470 World Cup in 1976. Phil and Dave both sailed in the 1976 Olympics, Dave in the Tempest for Ireland and Phil in the 470 for Great Britain, but neither came home with a medal.

Phil left the company in the late 1970's to focus on his sailing career full-time and was successful in being selected to sail the Soling on the British team in the 1980 Olympics. Of course Margaret Thatcher had different ideas and somehow got the weird notion that stopping British sailors from competing in Estonia would somehow persuade the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Much to her surprise, Leonard Brezhnev was not impressed with the Iron Lady's gesture. The Irish government, perhaps having a more realistic view of its ability to influence the old man in the Kremlin, allowed their Olympic athletes to attend the 1980 Games and my friend David Wilkins won the silver medal in the Flying Dutchman class.

Phil Crebbin went on to play a leading role in some of the America's Cup challenges by Great Britain in the 1980's, as skipper in 1983 and technical director in 1987. He won the Admiral's Cup, and the 8 Metre World Championship six times. He is now one of the principals in Race1, a Grand Prix Racing charter company.

Dave went on to sail in other Olympic Games and also played an active role in the development of the club at which we both sailed in the 1980's, Rutland Sailing Club. I came to know him better after I moved to Rutland around 1985 as, at that time, he was the driving force behind the club's junior program. Both my sons learned to sail in that program and Dave sold us our first Optimist. We lost touch after I moved to America in 1988 but I met him again purely by chance at the Laser Masters Worlds in Cadiz in 2003 where he was doing some coaching. I see he is still sailing a Laser himself, winning the Rutland Sailing Club Laser Championship a few weeks ago.

Looking back, I think it was working with these young men and seeing their enthusiasm and commitment to racing that gave me the urge to learn to sail, buy a boat, and get into the racing scene myself a few years later.

But it was the members of the Laser fleet at my first sailing club who really inspired in me a life-long passion for the sport. They passed on to me their sense of fun and enthusiasm for the Laser; they taught me tactics by pulling moves on me on the racecourse and then explaining to me afterwards how I should have countered them; they taught me respect for the rules by winning protests against me but always treating me in a friendly and sportsmanlike manner; they encouraged me to travel and to compete with them at other local clubs; they showed me that ice and snow are no reasons to stop sailing in the winter. And every other place I have sailed since then I have found Laser sailors just as welcoming, just as helpful... and just as competitive. Thanks to all of you.

Olympics Sailing 2008

OK OK. I know it's a long time to the Olympics. But just for fun, let's check out which nations and which sailors are currently at the top of the rankings published by the International Sailing Federation.

No surprise to see who continues to be the #1 nation at Olympic sailing. Great Britain leads the pack with seven teams in a top three position; and of the eleven Olympic sailing disciplines, Great Britain leads the rankings in three of them: Paul Goodison (Laser), Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark (Women's 470), and Nick Dempsey (Men's RS:X).

Only one American is top of the rankings in an Olympic class. Can you guess who? Answer at the bottom of the page after entirely merited patriotic song in support of Great Britain's Olympic sailors.

When Britain first at Heav'n's command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never shall be slaves.


The nations not so blest as thee,
Shall in their turns to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never shall be slaves.


Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never shall be slaves.


Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame,
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never shall be slaves.


To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never shall be slaves.


The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coast repair;
O blest Isle! With matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guide the fair.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never shall be slaves.

Answer to quiz: Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) is ranked #1 in the Laser Radial Women's One Person Dinghy. But she was born in England.

Web Marketing

How many companies in the sailing industry really understand how to use the web to promote their brands, market their products, and grow their businesses?

Oh yeah. They all have websites. Gee - how twentieth century. But do they excite the unwashed masses who are their potential customers? Do they exploit the power of existing social networks on the Internet? Do they take advantage of the existing resources in forums, blogs, news sites, etc. to get out the word about their products? Has any company in the sailing industry successfully used viral marketing to start a wildfire of demand for their boats, sails, services, gadgets or whatever?

Bath Night

Something special is happening in New England...

You think this crazy kid will like the water?

Something Special Happening in New England

Something special is happening in New England...

Eric Robbins was the first to point it out on in a post on the Laser Forum noting that

On recent Sundays, there have been over 120 people RACING LASERS at either Cedar Point in Westport, CT (one hour from NYC) or Newport.

The CPYC and Newport programs keep leapfrogging each other for turnout, but both programs show the health and GROWTH of Laser racing at the local level.

How right he is, but the phenomenon of growth in single-handed frostbite racing is happening in other classes as well as Lasers and is to be found all over New England.

For example the other CPYC, Cottage Park Yacht Club, in Winthrop Massachusetts also has a thriving Laser frostbite fleet. Maybe not yet quite as large as their sister fleets in Rhode Island and Connecticut but around 25 boats. Here's a photo of the action there...

Photo credit: Rich Honan

And according to the New England (District 7) Laser Class website these frostbite fleets are just the tip of the iceberg (pun intended) with cold season Laser activity also in Marion Massachusetts and Essex Connecticut.

Then in Barrington Rhode Island we have the Barrington Yacht Club Sunfish Frostbite Fleet who seem to have 15 to 20 boats out most weekends.

And even further north, popular sailing blogger Eliboat reports that the Cape Cod Frosty fleet in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is going from strength to strength with 24 Frosties racing last weekend. Here is a photo from Eliboat's site of the Frosties in action...


Hmm, let's see, that's Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I'm not aware of any frostbite racing in the other two New England states Maine and Vermont. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough or maybe those guys are enjoying the great skiing in their states?

So what's responsible for this craze for spending several hours every Sunday afternoon racing a small boat in icy conditions? Is it just the opportunity to extend the sailing season, even in one of the coldest regions of the country, to 9, 10 or even 12 months of the year? Is it the simplicity of single-handed sailing -- no need to line up crew, just show up and sail? Is it the wish of racing sailors, many from other classes, to keep their racing skills sharp in the winter?

Probably all of the above. Plus the enthusiasm and passion of some key individuals responsible for the growth of these fleets, coupled with their creative, not to say persistent, use of emails, forums, sailing club websites, yes and even blogs, to publicize their activities. One idea that some of these fleets use to encourage fleet members and to raise standards all round is to publish Words of Wisdom each week, usually written by the week's winner, to explain to the rest of the fleet how he or she pulled it off and to pass on tips to less experienced sailors.

But that will be the subject of a whole other post ...

In the meantime, enjoy this video of Laser Fleet 413 in action in Newport last weekend.

Konnichiwa

Konnichiwa to all the Japanese readers of Proper Course. For reasons I haven't really figured out, this blog has suddenly become popular in Japan. Indeed in the last 24 hours or so there have been more hits from Japan than from any other country.


It looks to me as if a link to Proper Course has been circulating by email in Japan. I wonder who these Japanese sailing blog readers are. Please leave a comment and say hi if you are one of them and tell me how you heard about Proper Course.