Hmmm. Multihulls?

Why is it that the recent decision by ISAF to drop multihulls as a sailing event in the 2012 Olympic Games has produced an outcry of complaints that a bunch of idiots are ruining the Games, that it will reduce the spectator interest in the Games, and that it will be bad for the sport of sailing...

While at the same time the likelihood that the next America's Cup may well be a match between two multihulls has produced an outcry of complaints that a couple of idiots are ruining the Cup, that it will reduce spectator interest in the Cup, and that it will be bad for the sport of sailing?

Doesn't anyone else see a contradiction here?

Ten Reasons Why Sunfish Are Better Than Lasers

Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm something of a Laser nut. I am so emotional about the Laser that, at the slightest provocation, I can be triggered into a rant on why the Laser is the best boat in the world and into heaping scorn on any other kind of sailboats be they keel boats (leadmines), multihulls (why do you need training wheels?), or Force 5's (Laser wannabees for old farts).

In my more rational moments I am sometimes prepared to admit that all kinds of sailboats can be fun in the right circumstances, that we are all different and have a right to make different choices in the boats we sail, and that we should respect each others' choices of sailcraft. (And stand united in our common hatred of jetskiers, of course.)

I used to sail a Sunfish for reasons I have discussed here before. I sold my Sunfish over a year ago and don't miss it (much). I still feel that for me, given my height, weight, location, interests, ambitions, fitness etc. etc., the Laser is the best boat. For me.

But the Sunfish is an excellent little boat too. So, for all the times I went on what SoulSailor calls one of my "big up the Laser rants", as a kind of penance, here is my list of the top ten reasons why the Sunfish is better than the Laser.

1. It's cheaper. A new race-rigged Laser will set you back around $5345 right now; but the equivalent Sunfish is "only" $3995.
   
   
2. It's faster to rig. For the Sunfish all you need to do is step the mast, hoist up the upper spar with the halyard, cleat it off and you're about done. (If you have controls for outhaul and downhaul they stay rigged on the spars when you pack the sails and spars away.) On a Laser you have to put both halves of the mast together, put the sail on the mast, put the battens in the sail, step the mast in the boat, and then depending on how you derigged you will have some more work to do to set up your outhaul, clew tie-down or strap, cunningham and vang.
   
   
3. It's easier to rig. Stepping the Laser rig in the boat can be a challenge for smaller, less strong people especially in a blow. And catching the clew of the Laser sail and attaching it to the boom isn't exactly easy either in a strong wind until you get the knack.
   
   
4. In some places, like northern New Jersey where I used to live, the Sunfish is the dominant single-handed class in that area. In my book, that makes it the best boat to sail there. Better be racing against forty other boats in a competitive fleet of Sunfish than be tooling around in a Laser on your own.
   
   
5. The Sunfish depowers better in gusty winds. The thin upper spar of the Sunfish bends and spills winds more readily than a Laser rig does. For the puffy conditions we used to have sailing on small lakes in New Jersey, the Sunfish was a much easier beast to handle than the Laser in one of those unstable north-westerlies with gusts coming over the hills.
   
   
6. The Sunfish rig can easily be depowered even more for lighter sailors in a strong wind using a Jens rig, which basically just involves tying the upper spar to the mast in a different way. Skilled sailors can even switch to a Jens rig while out on the water. In the Laser if you want a less powerful rig you basically have to buy a different bottom mast section and sail.
   
   
7. Sunfish sailors are more diverse and it is more of a family friendly class.
   
   Because the Sunfish has an inherently less efficient sail than the Laser (even though it is roughly the same area) and because of the last two points, the Sunfish can be sailed by lighter sailors over a wider body-weight range than the Laser; and it is not as physically challenging.
   
   As a result the Sunfish appeals to a much more diverse group of folk than the Laser. Younger, lighter, smaller people as well as biggish guys like me. That means more kids and more women find the Sunfish a boat that suits them. Yes, a lot of fit young women are now sailing the Laser Radial but the sight of a woman over 40 at a Laser regatta is a real rarity. Not so at Sunfish regattas.
   
   The attractiveness of the Sunfish to such a broad range of ages, weights, fitness levels and both genders gives Sunfish events more of a family atmosphere than Laser regattas. You do find the occasional father-son combination at Laser events. But family combinations sailing in the same races are much more common in the Sunfish world.
   
   
8. The Sunfish has a neat little cubby-hole at the back of the cockpit where you can store extra clothes, lunch, drinks, a paddle, a sponge, a camera, all kinds of stuff. There is no equivalent on the Laser unless you want to add an inspection hatch and a bag and store stuff inside the hull.
   
   
9. Even a doofus like me can get invited to sail on the US team at the Sunfish Worlds. Don't get me wrong, the standard of sailing at the top of a Sunfish Worlds fleet is as high as in any class. But it seems the talent pool of people interested in traveling to sail in a Sunfish World Championship is maybe not as deep as it is in other classes. In theory you need to qualify for the Worlds but in most years they are practically begging people to fill out the numbers in what has traditionally been a 100 boat fleet.
   
   
10. I hope some of my hotshot Sunfish racing friends won't take offence at this final comment because it is meant in a positive way... Sunfish sailors are generally more "laid-back" than those ultra-competitive, type A personality, Laser chaps. If you don't believe me, just look at the picture at the top of this post again. If that's not laid-back sailing, what is? When did you ever see a guy sailing a Laser with a cushion?

Update 2 Feb 2008: the picture at the top of the post shows one of my friends from Hunterdon Sailing Club in New Jersey. Here are some links to more stories about sailing at HSC.


Related posts
Hunterdon Sailing Club
Sunfish Fleet 17
Wednesday Night Racing
Sold

Camels in Narragansett Bay

Last summer, after moving to Rhode Island, I enjoyed sailing my Laser at various locations around Narragansett Bay. There were a number of regattas, and then on other days I just went sailing on my own exploring some of the bays and inlets, nooks and crannies of this fascinating area. Tillerwoman and I have also explored from the land side almost every legal access to the shoreline of Mount Hope Bay, the north-eastern arm of Narragansett Bay and the part closest to our home.

Not once did I see a camel.

I was therefore shocked to read that a 2005 survey of the bay discovered the remains of over 100 camels littering the Narragansett Bay shoreline. Whaaaat? How did that happen? Where did they come from?

The survey I mentioned was carried out by two Rhode Island mariners, Captain Alan Wentworth and Captain Ed Hughes. They found hundreds of tons of debris on the bay's shoreline, including the camels, and drafted a report documenting the types of trash and its locations.

The two captains took their survey report to anyone that would listen and as a result, ridding the bay of debris has become a priority to local, state and federal agencies and officials, and has also led to a major public, private and volunteer effort to clean up the bay.

Starting in August 2006 the first phase of this initiative has removed over 1,000 tons of debris from Narragansett Bay and its shoreline, but the program is far from complete and it will continue next year.

But what about those camels?

Well, apparently they don't look like this...



They look like this...



Well, I learn something new every day.

Apparently the good captains found over 100 of these heavy wooden objects, weighing over a ton each and soaked in cresol, on the shores of the bay. There was a suspicion that they might have been used by the US Navy as floats for anti-submarine nets but most of the camels only had nails where identification plaques had once been. So it was tough to find someone to take responsibility for their costly removal.

However, in 2006 the bay clean-up crew found a plate on one of the camels clearly identifying its naval origin and the US Navy quickly took responsibility for removing the camels.

So the story has a happy ending.

But to all of my readers please do your part to keep the bay clean. In future, please take care of your camels and make sure they don't escape when you're not looking. And if you have any camels you no longer need, please please please don't leave them in my bay.

Related links

What about those camels?
Locations of the camels and other debris
News of the status of the bay clean-up initiative
Clean The Bay.org

More Moth Porn

I expect that by now you've all seen videos of Rohan Veal and others sailing those amazing foiling Moths. But here's a different view. Rohan and Andrew McDougall (a.k.a Amac) mounted a waterproof video camera on Amac's foredeck with a carbon bowsprit and produced this gem of Amac flying at Blairgowrie.

Look to Windward

Just discovered a new blog that aims to help "sailors, race officers, committee members, judges and umpires to get a better understanding of the Racing Rules of Sailing in general and of anything to do with protests." It's written by Jos Spijkerman who is an International Judge and International Umpire. He's only been posting for a couple of weeks but there's some excellent material up there already if rules are your thing.

Check out Racing Rules of Sailing - Look to Windward. (Yeah, I know today's post is in Dutch but most of the others are in English.)

Fish on Fridays

My granddaughter likes to draw. She likes to draw in chalk on her drive. To be more truthful she likes grownups to draw things for her that she can "color in" a.k.a "scribble approximately between the lines". She is only two.

If you ask her what she would like you to draw for her she will answer 99% of the time, "Fish." I don't know why. Maybe her mind has been warped by exposure at too early an age to Joe Rouse's Fish on Fridays feature. Maybe it is a sign that she will grow up to be the world champion bass angler. Or maybe she just wants a design for a fish decal to stick on her campaign boat for the 2028 Olympics.

Or maybe the kid just likes fish. Whatever.

Anyway, in our family it has been a tradition for almost 30 years now that when a child has a birthday my wife, Tillerwoman, will make a birthday cake with a theme. I'm sure both my sons had boat cakes some years, there was definitely a Hickory Dickory Dock The Mouse Ran Up The Clock nursery rhyme cake one year, there was a train cake another year, and last year for her first birthday Emily had an Elmo cake.

You can guess where this is heading. This year, Mrs T just had to make a fishcake.






No, wait. That's not right. Not a fishcake. A birthday cake with a fishy theme. A fish cake.

So on the day before Emily's birthday party four of us, including master cake chef Mrs T, assembled to decorate Emily's cake.



What do you think? Did we do well?

We all made something. Uncle Mike contributed a whale, a lobster and a seahorse. Aimee made the puffer fish and the octopus.


Even I, the only member of the group with no culinary or artistic skills whatsoever, made one fish. You can probably guess which one.


Tonight, Tillerwoman is promising to cook Fish and Chips for dinner. She is currently out shopping for malt vinegar and mushy peas. I am a lucky man.

Fish on Fridays

Bad to the Bones

Do Not Click Here

Top Ten Sailing Posts of 2007 - Nominations Requested

Thanks to everyone who responded to my request for nominations for my list of Top Ten Sailing Blogs of 2007. There sure are a lot of fine sailing blogs out there so, thanks to your help, I'll be publishing the selection of my own favorites before the end of the year.

In the comments to that post, Edward of EVK4 SuperBlog came up with an excellent suggestion for "a complementary piece on the top ten sailing posts of the year. This would allow those blogs that post infrequently but brilliantly to have a voice."

What a great idea. There are some blogs that aren't really sailing blogs but that do occasionally come up with some superb posts about sailing. And as Edward says there are some blogs that probably wouldn't make the Top Ten Sailing Blogs list because they haven't posted consistently over the year, but there are still gems of posts tucked away in those blogs.

Edward's comment was a bit ambiguous about whether he was going to produce the list of Top Ten Sailing Posts of 2007 himself or whether he wanted me to do it. Edward, I fully concede that you thought of it first so, if you have the time what with your Laser Olympic campaign and all, you are certainly welcome to pull this one together.

But as a first step let's please have some suggestions and nominations for the list of Top Ten Sailing Posts of 2007. Individual posts not whole blogs please. Which posts inspired you, informed you, made you laugh out loud?

No suggestions of posts from Proper Course please. Much as I enjoy the obsequious flattery that some of you purvey, it's not going to win you a coveted Top Ten placing for your blog. On the other hand if you will send me the details of your PayPal account I'm sure we can come to some arrangement for a modest four figure sum.

Lake Winds - Part 2

The second in a series of articles discussing Stuart Walker's article in Sailing World on Unlocking the Mysterious Lake Winds with help from a "translation" of part of the article provided by Tom Donlan.

In Part 1 of this series, we set the scene by talking about "gradient" and "thermal winds" and why local thermal winds are often the dominant factor in lake sailing.

In the second part of the second paragraph of his article, Dr Walker discusses the kinds of wind to expect on a lake on a clear day when the sun is shining. This is classic Walker.... one sentence running on for nearly 70 words... technical words explained in phrases in parentheses... text galloping madly on and and on.

So let's take it slowly and find out about each kind of wind one by one. I've split Walker's words of wisdom into numbered bullet points, one for each type of wind, to make it somewhat easier to follow.

Cold lakes can only expect a sailing wind on clear days in the presence of insolation (surface heating by the sun), and the winds that are then most likely are

1. a morning offshore downslope wind,
   
   
2. an afternoon onshore lake breeze,
   
   
3. or an afternoon offshore expansion differential wind (created when the pressure levels above an elevated lake fail to rise as much as those above the surrounding heated lowlands).
   
   
4. Then thermal turbulence (heated air rising and expanding and cooler air sinking above the near-shore heated land) brings the cool air on the upper mountain slopes down to the lake
   
   
5. or brings the cool marine air onshore in a lake breeze
   
   
6. and brings upper, higher velocity airflow in an overflowing gradient or expansion differential wind offshore onto the lake surface.

The first two winds seem fairly straightforward. Expect air flowing over the land on to the lake in the morning. And then as the land warms up in the sun, expect a thermal breeze blowing towards the land in the afternoon.

Or as Donlan puts it (with my bullet points added again)...

On a clear, sunny day, a lake sailor may experience

1. a morning offshore wind coming down the slope from surrounding hills and then
   
   
2. an afternoon thermal lake breeze blowing toward the warm shore.

So far so good. If only life were so simple.

Another option according to Walker is an offshore breeze in the afternoon, or as he puts it, "an afternoon offshore expansion differential wind (created when the pressure levels above an elevated lake fail to rise as much as those above the surrounding heated lowlands.)"

You see, this is why I find Walker hard to read. I trust his information is correct because of his reputation but I don't find that last idea very helpful. I sort of understand the physics of why the situation he describes would cause an offshore wind. But I want to know when that condition would occur. And why. And how I can predict when it will happen. It's not much use to be told in effect, "in the afternoon the wind may blow offshore; then again it may not."

Let's see if Donlan conveys that thought any more clearly...

A lake high in the mountains, however, may generate an afternoon wind blowing off the shore if there is a great deal of temperature difference between the water and the surrounding land.

Aha. I think I get it now. If the water is warm and the land is cold, then the land may not warm enough to generate a thermal onshore breeze, so you get an offshore breeze in the afternoon instead. At least I think that's what he means. And at least there's some information in the Donlan version that I can use to predict what will happen in the afternoon.

And if the thermal onshore breeze doesn't kick in, Walker says you can get any or all of winds 4, 5 and 6 which basically means

• it could be offshore
• it could be onshore
• it could be the gradient wind.

Thanks Doctor. I feel like one of your patients and you have just described that I have some awful medical condition and when I ask you what it means you tell me, "Well you could go blind, or impotent, or you might die tomorrow." Thanks Doctor.

Let's see how Donlan delivers the prognosis...

Heated air rising and expanding above the warm land near shore and cooler air sinking above the water near shore can create turbulence. This disruption can do almost anything.

It can bring the cool air on upper mountain slopes down to the lake, like the morning breeze. It can bring the cool moist air over the lake onshore in a lake breeze. It can even bring strong breezes from the overhead gradient wind onto the lake surface, in whatever direction the gradient wind happens to be blowing. Sometimes it can do all of these things simultaneously within short distances.

lol as they say on the forums. lmao even. I love that phrase, "This disruption can do almost anything." And then having described the three kinds of winds you might see, he delivers the coup de grace, "Sometimes it can do all of these things simultaneously within short distances."

Ah. That's the lake sailing I know. Anything can happen anywhere. Some wind. No wind. Wind from almost any direction. I'm sailing a beat and that boat on the same leg 50 yards away is on a run. Yes, that's lake sailing.

So, to sum up, what have we learned today? On a sunny day on a lake, expect an offshore breeze in the morning that might be replaced by a thermal onshore breeze in the afternoon if the land warms up enough in the sun. If not, anything can happen and probably will.

Comments welcomed. Especially if I have misinterpreted what the experts say. Does this explanation so far align with your experience of lake sailing?

Happy Birthday Emily

My granddaughter is two today

What a difference a year makes