Thanks to Mal of Team Gherkin for reminding us, amid all the crazy commercialization and other pressures at this time of the year, that today December 23rd is the feast of Festivus. Happy Festivus to you Mal. Have a good one.
One of the most charming of the Festivus traditions is the Airing of Grievances which normally takes place immediately after the Festivus dinner has been served. It consists of lashing out at others and the world about how one has been disappointed in the past year.
So in the spirit of the season I would like to invite you to air your sailing-related and sailing-blogging-related grievances in the comments to this post. Maybe you're still fuming about that guy who ruined your finish by T-boning you in a blatant port-starboard foul just before the finish line in the most important regatta of the year. Or perhaps you really want to vent about that race committee who were so slow in setting up the course that they missed the best wind of the day. Or maybe there's some sailing blogger who drives you to distraction with his pathetic attempts at humor and his sappy posts about his granddaughter. Whoever it is, now is your opportunity to express your disappointment with them in a seasonally appropriate way.
Let me start the ball rolling by airing two of my grievances...
You people who maintain websites that look like sailing blogs but that don't allow comments are annoying the hell out of me. Sure, you write well-informed articles about sailing and often have strong opinions on various topical sailing issues. But that just makes it worse. Your posts are sometimes so stimulating that I have a strong urge to write a comment agreeing or disagreeing with your point of view. Then I find there is nowhere to leave a comment. Who do you think you are? Are you so egocentric that you don't care what your readers think? Don't you get it that blogging is all about participation and interaction? I could name names, but you know who you are. And so do most of my readers. You have disappointed us big-time.
Anonymous. Yes you. And you. You people that leave comments on my blog and refuse to sign them are intensely irritating. If you want to preserve your online anonymity, I understand. But you don't have to use your real name. On a Blogger blog like this there are lots of ways you can tell me who you are. You don't have to have a Google account. If you have an AOL/AIM, Live Journal, TypeKey, WordPress or any OpenID identity you can use it to post your comment. Or you can just click on the Nickname radio button and make up a nickname, with or without an associated URL. It's easy. Just pick a nickname and use it when you leave comments here. That way I and other readers will get to know you by your comments and we can respond and interact with you as a individual. Anonymous comments are like graffiti on my garden fence. Please sign your graffiti and stop disappointing me and others.
Aaaah. That feels better. I just love this time of year.
So now it's your turn. Get in the spirit of the season by airing your sailing grievances in the comments. After that, please feel free to celebrate the season by singing Oh Festivus and wrestling the head of your household to the ground.
Happy Festivus everyone!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
That Was The (Lasering) Year That Was
Another year almost over. A year of change and new adventures and some modest achievements. Lots of sailing but, as always, never enough. A year of increased focus -- the first year for me since the early 90's of sailing nothing but a Laser.
The year started with a bang in early January with what turned out to be one of the high points of the year, my trip to the Dominican Republic for a Laser clinic and the Caribbean Midwinters in Cabarete. I was challenged by the awesome waves but in the process learned some things, broke some personal records (though not in a good way) and even had my fifteen seconds of glory. As I wrote back in January it was an "amazing, brilliant, challenging, draining, exhilarating, exhausting, exciting, humbling, inspiring, instructive, rewarding, scary, sunny, rainy, windy, wavy and totally worthwhile experience".
I was confined to virtual sailing in February and spent way too much time playing with Tacticat, the online sailing simulator. For a while I was one of the top-ranked players in the game and shared what little knowledge I had gained with fellow Tacticat sailors in a series of posts on Tillerman's Top Ten Tacticat Tactical Tips. They were...
Hmmm. Seems like there were only eight tips, not ten. I guess I knew less than I imagined.
In February and March I was somewhat distracted with the final stages of selling our old house in New Jersey which included dealing with a rash of problems found by the house inspection (there's what buried under the drive??????), throwing out twenty years of accumulated trash, packing way too much stuff that we should have thrown out, coping with the foibles of lawyers and real estate agents some of whom were supposed to be on our side, and all other sorts of related matters. I could have written many fascinating posts on the whole process but this isn't a house moving blog and there was too much of a risk that I would write something publicly that would only complicate matters even more. Somehow in the middle of all that I continued the final weeks of my training for the marathon.
By April I was living near my son in temporary accommodation in Massachusetts and was able to go out Lasering with him. Then it was off to England for the London Marathon, my third marathon and my first in a major city. I did finish but it was bloody hot on a sweltering day when over five thousand runners were treated by the ambulance service, over seventy ended up in hospital, and one died. My feelings about the experience are still very mixed and I'm not sure whether I will ever run another marathon.
In May I sailed in my first regatta of the year on the New England circuit and between house-hunting managed to fit in some Zen-like Laser practice. More importantly we found a house in Rhode Island that we wanted to buy, had our offer accepted and completed the purchase only two weeks later. Hooray. I am a Rhodilanda.
Then before I knew what had hit me it was June and I was off to one of the major events of the year, the Laser North Americans in Hyannis. In retrospect this was a totally ridiculous idea for all sorts of reasons, but I did have some awesome days, even though I was in the end totally humiliated.
In early July I had a blast sailing with my son at the Buzzards Bay Championship. Then on to the Newport Regatta where I had photographic evidence that I was faster than some of those hotshot kids, and at the end of the month to the Hyannis Regatta where I finally felt I had rediscovered my groove and I actually beat my nemesis, That Guy.
In August my son and I sailed the Buzzards Bay Regatta though we had one or two issues with a certain inedible uncrustable lunch snack and an overstressed regatta parking lot attendant. I'm glad my son was there, always fun playing mind games on him. I'm so mean. Then later in the month we both had some wild rides, and did a bit of swimming, at the Leukemia Cup in Bristol, on a day when NOAA had issued a Small Craft Advisory for Rhode Island waters.
Early September I sailed the New England Masters out of Third Beach in Newport, one of my favorite places to sail. And then my son took me up to sail in a series he had discovered in 2006, the Ponce de Leon Dinghy Series in Marblehead. I won one race and came second overall for the day. Woohoo! I actually won a trophy, the only one all season. But that's OK.
A summer with more Laser regattas against tough competition than I had ever sailed before. Excellent preparation for my trip to Spain in late September and early October for the Laser Masters Worlds, which turned out to be the largest Laser regatta in the entire history of the universe. A truly amazing experience, a long week of competition in all kinds of conditions, sometimes frustrating, always challenging. But I finally achieved my goal, after 26 years of Laser sailing, of finishing in the top half of my age group fleet at a Masters Worlds.
Looking back on the year I think there were three keys to the progress I made. Starting the year with the practice and racing in big waves in Cabarete, moving to Rhode Island so that I was able to sail so many regattas on the sea (as opposed to my former sailing life predominantly on inland lakes), and the focus on Laser sailing to the exclusion of other classes.
So what comes next? I will be back in Cabarete in January and then there is another Laser Masters World Championship in Australia in February. It never stops. It's a tough life. But somebody has to do it.
The year started with a bang in early January with what turned out to be one of the high points of the year, my trip to the Dominican Republic for a Laser clinic and the Caribbean Midwinters in Cabarete. I was challenged by the awesome waves but in the process learned some things, broke some personal records (though not in a good way) and even had my fifteen seconds of glory. As I wrote back in January it was an "amazing, brilliant, challenging, draining, exhilarating, exhausting, exciting, humbling, inspiring, instructive, rewarding, scary, sunny, rainy, windy, wavy and totally worthwhile experience".
I was confined to virtual sailing in February and spent way too much time playing with Tacticat, the online sailing simulator. For a while I was one of the top-ranked players in the game and shared what little knowledge I had gained with fellow Tacticat sailors in a series of posts on Tillerman's Top Ten Tacticat Tactical Tips. They were...
- Get a Great Start
- Watch the Wind
- Stay out of Trouble
- Beware the Port Tack Layline
- Starboard Tack Danger
- Clear Air
- Downwind in Tacticat
- Gates
Hmmm. Seems like there were only eight tips, not ten. I guess I knew less than I imagined.
In February and March I was somewhat distracted with the final stages of selling our old house in New Jersey which included dealing with a rash of problems found by the house inspection (there's what buried under the drive??????), throwing out twenty years of accumulated trash, packing way too much stuff that we should have thrown out, coping with the foibles of lawyers and real estate agents some of whom were supposed to be on our side, and all other sorts of related matters. I could have written many fascinating posts on the whole process but this isn't a house moving blog and there was too much of a risk that I would write something publicly that would only complicate matters even more. Somehow in the middle of all that I continued the final weeks of my training for the marathon.
By April I was living near my son in temporary accommodation in Massachusetts and was able to go out Lasering with him. Then it was off to England for the London Marathon, my third marathon and my first in a major city. I did finish but it was bloody hot on a sweltering day when over five thousand runners were treated by the ambulance service, over seventy ended up in hospital, and one died. My feelings about the experience are still very mixed and I'm not sure whether I will ever run another marathon.
In May I sailed in my first regatta of the year on the New England circuit and between house-hunting managed to fit in some Zen-like Laser practice. More importantly we found a house in Rhode Island that we wanted to buy, had our offer accepted and completed the purchase only two weeks later. Hooray. I am a Rhodilanda.
Then before I knew what had hit me it was June and I was off to one of the major events of the year, the Laser North Americans in Hyannis. In retrospect this was a totally ridiculous idea for all sorts of reasons, but I did have some awesome days, even though I was in the end totally humiliated.
In early July I had a blast sailing with my son at the Buzzards Bay Championship. Then on to the Newport Regatta where I had photographic evidence that I was faster than some of those hotshot kids, and at the end of the month to the Hyannis Regatta where I finally felt I had rediscovered my groove and I actually beat my nemesis, That Guy.
In August my son and I sailed the Buzzards Bay Regatta though we had one or two issues with a certain inedible uncrustable lunch snack and an overstressed regatta parking lot attendant. I'm glad my son was there, always fun playing mind games on him. I'm so mean. Then later in the month we both had some wild rides, and did a bit of swimming, at the Leukemia Cup in Bristol, on a day when NOAA had issued a Small Craft Advisory for Rhode Island waters.
Early September I sailed the New England Masters out of Third Beach in Newport, one of my favorite places to sail. And then my son took me up to sail in a series he had discovered in 2006, the Ponce de Leon Dinghy Series in Marblehead. I won one race and came second overall for the day. Woohoo! I actually won a trophy, the only one all season. But that's OK.
A summer with more Laser regattas against tough competition than I had ever sailed before. Excellent preparation for my trip to Spain in late September and early October for the Laser Masters Worlds, which turned out to be the largest Laser regatta in the entire history of the universe. A truly amazing experience, a long week of competition in all kinds of conditions, sometimes frustrating, always challenging. But I finally achieved my goal, after 26 years of Laser sailing, of finishing in the top half of my age group fleet at a Masters Worlds.
Looking back on the year I think there were three keys to the progress I made. Starting the year with the practice and racing in big waves in Cabarete, moving to Rhode Island so that I was able to sail so many regattas on the sea (as opposed to my former sailing life predominantly on inland lakes), and the focus on Laser sailing to the exclusion of other classes.
So what comes next? I will be back in Cabarete in January and then there is another Laser Masters World Championship in Australia in February. It never stops. It's a tough life. But somebody has to do it.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Frost on Fridays
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Season's Greetings
One of the joys of living in a house with an uninterrupted view across open water to western hills is that one becomes much more aware of the changes in the position of the setting sun from month to month. In June the sun set directly across the bay behind Mount Hope. As the year progressed the sunset moved to the south, across Bristol, behind Mount Hope Bridge for a while, and is now setting behind Aquidneck Island. And today is the winter solstice, so it will start moving back north again.
Of course, ancient people spent most of their time outdoors and the seasons played a very important part in their lives. Because of this many ancient people had a great reverence for, and even worshipped the sun. The Norsemen of Northern Europe saw the sun as a wheel that changed the seasons. It was from the word for this wheel, houl, that the word yule is thought to have come. At mid-winter the Norsemen lit bonfires, told stories and drank sweet ale.
The ancient Romans also held a festival to celebrate the rebirth of the year. Saturnalia ran for seven days from the 17th of December. It was a time when the ordinary rules were turned upside down. Men dressed as women and masters dressed as servants. The festival also involved decorating houses with greenery, lighting candles and giving presents.
In my home country, Britain, the Druids celebrated the winter solstice by cutting the mistletoe that grew on the oak tree and giving it as a blessing. Oaks were seen as sacred and the winter fruit of the mistletoe was a symbol of life in the dark winter months.
It was also the Druids who began the tradition of the yule log. The Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter and during this time a log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year.
I don't subscribe to the religions of the Norsemen, the Romans or the Druids, but this week most of us are celebrating the season in a combination of their traditions. We have greenery and candles around the house, I'll light a fire and give my family some gifts. I'll tell some stories on the blog and have something to drink, though probably not sweet ale. There will be at least one feast but I'm not going to go the whole hog and emulate the Romans by dressing up as a woman. (Though there was a time at a party on a sailboat once when ... but that's a story for another day.)
Have a great Winter Solstice. 'Tis the reason for the season.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Party Like a Sailor
Don't believe everything you read on the Interwebs. Some other sailing blogger wrote a post today about what he claimed was history's largest cocktail. Some rather pathetic story about some dude in a wig who mixed a cocktail in a garden fountain with a few hundred gallons of liquor.
That's not a large cocktail. That's an itsy-bitsy pre-party warm-up drink for girls and Force 5 sailors.
If you want to have a real party this Christmas and want to go for the real world record for history's largest cocktail then you're going to have to concoct something bigger than the Margarita measuring 7039 gallons that was made on 17 May 2001 by staff at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and Mott's Inc., Universal City Walk, Orlando, Florida, USA.
Now that's a cocktail.
That's not a large cocktail. That's an itsy-bitsy pre-party warm-up drink for girls and Force 5 sailors.
If you want to have a real party this Christmas and want to go for the real world record for history's largest cocktail then you're going to have to concoct something bigger than the Margarita measuring 7039 gallons that was made on 17 May 2001 by staff at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and Mott's Inc., Universal City Walk, Orlando, Florida, USA.
Now that's a cocktail.
Die Hard, True Grit, Sail On
I didn't sail on Sunday. My post on Saturday about the weather forecast should be sufficient explanation. But at my former frostbiting club in Connecticut seven "insert suitable adjective" Laser sailors did go out racing on Sunday. Here is part of the story of the day as written by Race Officer and Fleet Captain, Stephen Fisk...
Read the rest of the story on the Cedar Point YC website...
Sunday morning 9:12am Dec. 16th the last day of the Fall '07 season: Forecast Gale warning, nor'easter with winds in the 40's, coastal flooding, raining, sleeting, snowing cats and dogs, crappy roads, emails and phone calls arriving furiously at PRO headquarters, what to do? This was probably one of the harder calls I had to make all season, do we believe the forecast and call it off, cuddle up to a good book in front of the fireplace (both of which I do not have), or actually go sailing?
I could hear and feel the pain of RC for the day, why come out for the day when in most likelihood sailing will be canceled? Damned if you do, damned if you don't but we decided to go for it...
So I drove down early to the club at 9:45 to scope the scene, and it was bad. I rounded the corner to the club and through a driving sleet and fog saw the easterly driven frothing rollers between the club and Cockenoe island, definitely no sailing outside. But in the bay things looked good, smooth water, it would be high tide soon and the wind was only in the mid 20's.
By 11:00am a few sailors started showing up, probably more out of curiosity, but things were falling into place. Just enough RC was expected, the wind was moderating to the high teens, gusting mid twenties, and by noon it mellowed to the low teens! The only delay was getting 4 inches of ice off all RC boats.
Seven brave sailors and five RC volunteers in 3 skiffs (two operating, one towed out because the battery was frozen) went out to the middle of the Saugatuck Bay....
Read the rest of the story on the Cedar Point YC website...
Why Don't Bubba Windsurf?
What's your image of a typical windsurfer?
Personally I admire these guys for all sorts of reasons...
But apparently I don't understand American culture (in spite of having lived here almost twenty years). For reasons that are a mystery to me, windsurfing is seen by many Americans as elitist and effete. I became aware of this image of the sport during the 2004 presidential campaign when candidate John Kerry took an hour or so off from campaigning to go windsurfing. The press filmed him and the resultant coverage was used to brand him as an out of touch liberal elitist.
Sure it didn't help that his opponent produced a juvenile ad using a clip of Kerry windsurfing to draw a parallel between his tacking back and forth on his board to his history of "flip-flopping" on political issues. Kerry had surely deserved the flip-flopper charge. But the harm to his image was also largely because, horror of horrors, the guy was actually windsurfing!!!
I don't get it. Why is windsurfing seen so negatively? What sports are acceptable in the land of the free for someone with presidential aspirations?
Well, there's shooting of course. It's almost mandatory that anyone with ambitions to sit in the Oval Office spends at least some time in the woods dressed in camo blasting away at furry or feathery creatures (not to mention winging the occasional lawyer.) Even if you've never hunted in your life, you'd better do your best to fake it for a photo opportunity.
And golf seems to be OK. Presidents Clinton and Bushes have often been filmed on the golf course playing each other or visiting dignitaries. Nobody seems to think that this betrays them as being part of the country club elite. And nobody dares to resurface in the presidential context the old joke that golf is a sport for "white guys dressed like black pimps".
So why has windsurfing got such a bad press? Apparently if you are a windsurfer it proves you are unable to relate to regular Joes in the South and Midwest. Doesn't anybody windsurf in Texas or Georgia or Ohio? Don't any of those guys with a pickup truck displaying a Confederate flag ever throw a board in the back and head off for a quick blast around the local water hole?
Is it true as the conservative National Review claimed that Bubba Don't Windsurf?
Please help me out with this. What is your image of a typical windsurfer? Why is it such a negative in a country proud of its traditions of tolerance and diversity? And if you're not American does the same image hold true in your country? For example, would you advise David Cameron or Brendan Nelson to avoid being seen reaching around on a windsurfer?
Please comment. But please restrain yourself from rubbishing the policies or personality of any individual politician. If you want to indulge in Bush-bashing or Clinton-bashing or Kerry-bashing there are plenty of other places on the Interwebs you can do that. Let's keep the discussion to the place of windsurfing in popular culture, why it has such an elitist image, whether it's deserved, the reasons for it, etc. etc.
Personally I admire these guys for all sorts of reasons...
- Windsurfing ain't easy. I know, I've tried. It's harder than it looks.
- Windsurfing is an athletic sport that works just about every muscle in the body.
- Windsurfing is gentle on the environment.
- Windsurfing is accessible to folk of almost any income level. It must be about the cheapest way to enjoy sailing. It's the antithesis of the rich yachtie life style with megayachts and fancy marinas and swanky yacht clubs.
- Windsurfers will go out and sail in crazy windy cold rainy conditions that would drive any normal sailor to the comfort of his fireside. These guys are tough.
But apparently I don't understand American culture (in spite of having lived here almost twenty years). For reasons that are a mystery to me, windsurfing is seen by many Americans as elitist and effete. I became aware of this image of the sport during the 2004 presidential campaign when candidate John Kerry took an hour or so off from campaigning to go windsurfing. The press filmed him and the resultant coverage was used to brand him as an out of touch liberal elitist.
Sure it didn't help that his opponent produced a juvenile ad using a clip of Kerry windsurfing to draw a parallel between his tacking back and forth on his board to his history of "flip-flopping" on political issues. Kerry had surely deserved the flip-flopper charge. But the harm to his image was also largely because, horror of horrors, the guy was actually windsurfing!!!
I don't get it. Why is windsurfing seen so negatively? What sports are acceptable in the land of the free for someone with presidential aspirations?
Well, there's shooting of course. It's almost mandatory that anyone with ambitions to sit in the Oval Office spends at least some time in the woods dressed in camo blasting away at furry or feathery creatures (not to mention winging the occasional lawyer.) Even if you've never hunted in your life, you'd better do your best to fake it for a photo opportunity.
And golf seems to be OK. Presidents Clinton and Bushes have often been filmed on the golf course playing each other or visiting dignitaries. Nobody seems to think that this betrays them as being part of the country club elite. And nobody dares to resurface in the presidential context the old joke that golf is a sport for "white guys dressed like black pimps".
So why has windsurfing got such a bad press? Apparently if you are a windsurfer it proves you are unable to relate to regular Joes in the South and Midwest. Doesn't anybody windsurf in Texas or Georgia or Ohio? Don't any of those guys with a pickup truck displaying a Confederate flag ever throw a board in the back and head off for a quick blast around the local water hole?
Is it true as the conservative National Review claimed that Bubba Don't Windsurf?
Please help me out with this. What is your image of a typical windsurfer? Why is it such a negative in a country proud of its traditions of tolerance and diversity? And if you're not American does the same image hold true in your country? For example, would you advise David Cameron or Brendan Nelson to avoid being seen reaching around on a windsurfer?
Please comment. But please restrain yourself from rubbishing the policies or personality of any individual politician. If you want to indulge in Bush-bashing or Clinton-bashing or Kerry-bashing there are plenty of other places on the Interwebs you can do that. Let's keep the discussion to the place of windsurfing in popular culture, why it has such an elitist image, whether it's deserved, the reasons for it, etc. etc.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wave Energy
There's a lot of energy in waves. Every sailor knows it. The photo above is of 2003 Laser World Champion Gustavo Lima catching a ride downwind on a typical wave during last year's Caribbean Laser Midwinter Championship in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. Can't you just feel the rush of adrenaline as he takes off down the wave? Mmmmmm. Don't you wish that was you? It could be. 21 days from today I'm going to be riding that wave (or one very much like it) in Cabarete. Come join me.
But what about all that energy in waves? With all the recent news about climate change and greenhouse gases and the need to start using more renewable energy sources, isn't it about time we started using some of that energy in waves to warm our homes and cook our turkeys and light our Xmas trees this holiday season?
It sure is. So I was especially pleased to read that my recently adopted state, Rhode Island, is planning to to develop two wave-energy facilities off the coasts of Point Judith and Block Island that would convert energy from the waves into electricity. Rhode Island is partnering with an Australian company, Oceanlinx, to develop the facilities. Here's a picture of what they will look like.
I've no idea whether this project is actually going to happen. Clearly there are all sorts of political, legislative, financial and technical obstacles to overcome. I'm sure some local water users are going to come up with all sorts of objections why the facilities shouldn't be built in their backyards. And even if these generators are built, who knows if the power they generate will be economic? And why on earth are we using an Australian company? Aren't there American companies who know how to do this stuff?
But I am kind of proud of my little ocean state for leading the way on this issue. As the rest of the world loses patience with the failure of the Bush administration to take the perils of climate change seriously it's good to know that at least one state government, led by our governor Donald Carcieri, is trying to address the issue.
Ride the wave, Don dude.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Sydney Scramble
The first time I visited Sydney I took a ferry from Circular Quay to Manly, as many tourists do. Coming back through Sydney Harbour on the Sunday afternoon I was amazed at the sight I saw. Sailor's heaven. Sailboats of every type you can imagine as far as the eye could see. Seemed like there were dozens of clubs running races all over the harbour, not to mention all kinds of cruising yachts out for a blast.
US Laser Olympic entry Andrew Campbell is currently racing in the Sydney International Regatta. I could relate to what he saw on the first day of racing...
The Sailing Instructions for the regatta recognize the need for racing sailors to keep out of the way of those damn ferry-boats.
Apparently one of the Laser fleets did have a close encounter of almost the worst kind with a ferry. As Andrew tells it...
Laser World Champion Tom Slingsby from Australia was disqualified as a result of the ferry incident, a major disappointment as he had won the race. He failed in his obligation to pass the ferry clear of 200m ahead and admitted so to the regatta's International Jury. Tough way to start a regatta.
In case anyone is in any doubt that those ferries mean business, check out this video of a famous ferry vs sailboat incident some time ago...
Good luck to Andrew who has won one race and is currently in third place overall, only two points out of first.
US Laser Olympic entry Andrew Campbell is currently racing in the Sydney International Regatta. I could relate to what he saw on the first day of racing...
A typical Saturday in December on Sydney Harbor can be quite a scene. Add a few hundred Olympic one designs to the mix and you’ve got one of the most crowded sailing areas in the world. Local clubs around the harbor are running their own races for classic 18-footers, Etchells, and hundreds of PHRF style classes. Those are added to super-maxis and other grand prix boats in final tune up stages for the Sydney-Hobart Race that starts next week. Beyond that is the normal ferry-boat and seaplane tour traffic, augmented by the standard anglers and pleasure sailors. If it weren’t enough already, add puffy 12-18 knot breezes and you’ve got yourself a sunny summer day in Sydney. Adding two forty-boat Laser fleets to the middle of the channel already chock full of 49ers, radial, finns, and 470s is a recipe for disaster.
The Sailing Instructions for the regatta recognize the need for racing sailors to keep out of the way of those damn ferry-boats.
Local Rules require sail craft to keep out of the way of ferries displaying the orange diamond. Pass the ferry clear at least 200m ahead and 30m either side and astern.
Apparently one of the Laser fleets did have a close encounter of almost the worst kind with a ferry. As Andrew tells it...
While you are racing you have to stay on your game or else you might find a two hundred foot ferry doing 11 knots bearing down on you, horns blasting. I happened to be in the other fleet when that incident occurred yesterday, but with the fleet rolling out left, into the channel and more favorable current, the ferry had nowhere to go but on his horn and in full reverse. Quite a scene, I’ll tell you.
Laser World Champion Tom Slingsby from Australia was disqualified as a result of the ferry incident, a major disappointment as he had won the race. He failed in his obligation to pass the ferry clear of 200m ahead and admitted so to the regatta's International Jury. Tough way to start a regatta.
In case anyone is in any doubt that those ferries mean business, check out this video of a famous ferry vs sailboat incident some time ago...
Good luck to Andrew who has won one race and is currently in third place overall, only two points out of first.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Weather Forecast for Sunday
SUN
NE WINDS 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 KT. WAVES 2 TO
4 FT...EXCEPT UP TO 8 FT AT THE BAY ENTRANCE. RAIN...SNOW AND
SLEET IN THE MORNING...THEN RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON. VSBY 1 NM OR
LESS...INCREASING TO 1 TO 3 NM IN THE AFTERNOON.
SUN NIGHT
W WINDS 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 KT. WAVES
2 TO 4 FT...EXCEPT UP TO 10 FT AT THE BAY ENTRANCE. A CHANCE OF
SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS AFTER
MIDNIGHT. VSBY 1 TO 3 NM.
Hmmm. Rain, snow, sleet. 40 knot gusts. Doesn't look like ideal weather for my first day of Laser racing in two months.
NE WINDS 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 KT. WAVES 2 TO
4 FT...EXCEPT UP TO 8 FT AT THE BAY ENTRANCE. RAIN...SNOW AND
SLEET IN THE MORNING...THEN RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON. VSBY 1 NM OR
LESS...INCREASING TO 1 TO 3 NM IN THE AFTERNOON.
SUN NIGHT
W WINDS 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 KT. WAVES
2 TO 4 FT...EXCEPT UP TO 10 FT AT THE BAY ENTRANCE. A CHANCE OF
SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS AFTER
MIDNIGHT. VSBY 1 TO 3 NM.
Hmmm. Rain, snow, sleet. 40 knot gusts. Doesn't look like ideal weather for my first day of Laser racing in two months.
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