Bar Graph

Top 20 zip codes with the most alcohol drinking places in 2005

Never let it be said that I am unresponsive to my readers. O Docker asked for a bar graph less than 30 minutes ago so here is a bar graph which graphs bars.

Hmmm. Is it any coincidence that most of the places on this list are also great sailing towns?

Update: I spoke too soon. There is clearly more than one guy in that little crack...

Your Chance to Help Plan the 2010 Laser US Nationals

I received an interesting email yesterday...

Dear Tillerman:

As a way of introduction, I am going to be the PRO at the Laser Nationals at Milwaukee next August.

We are neck deep into the long range planning for the event and the first question is should there be three or four days of racing? The ILCA has replied, "do what ever you think is right." (or pretty close to that.) A fair answer but a bit vague.

Someone had a novel thought, should we ask our customers??

Since you have an established forum for such things, may I hijack your agenda and ask for feedback?

Wow. I am honored that this guy, John Strassman, should think of my blog as a good place to seek feedback from his "customers" at the Laser Nationals next year. Although I have a fair number of Laser sailor readers, and no doubt a handful who are considering going to the Nationals, many of my readers are not Laser sailors and have other reasons for stopping by here. But I'm glad to help...

John continues with some more questions...

Since we are having the Standard, Radial and 4.7's, would the 4.7's feel slighted if we had a separate (but still real swell) race course. This would allow us to (hopefully) minimize the delays waiting for the previous start to clear the course.

Additionally, if we are anticipating to have have multiple starts (split fleets) for both the Standard and Radial fleets, what if we stagger the start times from day to day, for example:

day 1
1100 warning first division Standard rig with second division soon thereafter on full trap course. Max two races for day
1330 warning first division Radial with second division ASAP - up to three races

day 2
1100 warning first division Radial with second division soon thereafter. Max two races
1330 warning Standard rigs with second division ASAP - up to three races

and so on.

The problem is that with a little luck, a RC can run two divisions on a trap pretty much continually. Three starts will cause some delays to occur in order to clear the race course and four starts can quickly devolve into a furball of many impatient competitors sailing by the signal boat shooting daggers with their eyes while pounding on their air tanks.

We are assuming we are going to have a qualifying series going into a gold and silver series - again, any feedback?

We are seeking to have a great event at which the competitors will have great racing with a minimal amount of stress.

Any comments would be welcome.

So if you have any views on these issues please fire away in the comments. It would probably help John if you tell him if (a) you are a Laser sailor and (b) you are thinking of sailing in the US Nationals next year. I know that some non-Laser-sailing readers of this blog have strong experience in such areas as regatta organization and race management so, even if you are not a Laser sailor, please feel free to offer advice.

Change We Can Believe In?

Is this the most important sailing innovation since the Ollie Box? I'm not saying it is or it isn't. But isn't it fascinating that I am the only one asking this question? Why don't they want you to know the answer? The paradigm of trusting the wisdom of the original designer is over. It is over to these people. And this is what the real battle is all about. Those with power, those with money and those with influence will influence you to buy things that you don't necessarily want. And they are selecting the winners and the losers. I got news. I got news for you. Unless you want to sell your soul to the devil, in this system you will be a loser. I didn't think a bad tree could bear good fruit. I didn't know a good tree could bear bad fruit or bad trees bear good fruit. I didn't think that was possible. I've read that some place in some big thick book. And, you know, it is a straight and narrow path to success, and when you run down that road, there are so many little branches that you could run off on that doesn't seem like it would make any difference, but it will. And if you know what those roads are that you don't want to go down, when somebody is saying, "Go down this road, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick! We've got to go down this road," you'll know in advance and so you won't be panicked and you are like, "No, thanks, I know what goes down that road." And it is amazing to me how freeing it is in many ways to mentally prepare for the worst. I'm sorry, I just love my boat and I fear for it.

... with pottery stuff too...

This spectacular bowl, part of the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is made of earthenware covered with an opaque tin glaze and painted in lustre, a metallic pigment. It is decorated with a ship that has the arms of Portugal on its sail, and it may well have been commissioned by a Portuguese maritime merchant. It was long presumed that this bowl came from the famous lustre potteries around Valencia on the east coast of Spain. They were active from around 1300, when this region was under Christian rule, although the techniques employed (notably the tin glaze and lustre decoration) were of Islamic origin. It is thought that these techniques were introduced to Valencia by potters from Málaga, a port on the south coast of Spain that remained in Muslim hands until 1487.

In 1983 scientific analysis of the clay body of the bowl showed that it contained schistose inclusions characteristic of the wares from Málaga itself. The bowl, which can be dated to the mid 15th century, therefore demonstrates that the lustre workshops of Málaga were still producing ceramics of outstanding quality during the last decades of their existence. It stands at the end of one great tradition and at the beginning of another.

300,000

Congratulations to the 300,000th visitor to this blog (or at least the 300,000th since I turned sitemeter on.) He or she checked in from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil at 3:15pm their time today and left a couple of minutes later to read that story about John Lennon's sailing adventure. If you would like to identify yourself I will buy you a caipirinha next time I am in Rio.


Breaking news: The mystery 300,000th visitor just sent me an email. He usually sails Snipes and Solings, and doesn't live in Rio but about 400 km north which is where the Brazilian Laser Nationals will be in January.

Hmmm.... January, Lasers, sunshine, wind, Brazil, caipirinhas... tempting.

Three Laser Sailors

As I missed sailing this weekend due to being stricken by the terrible, debilitating disease known as a Man Cold, I have had to get my Laser sailing fix by reading about the exploits of others. Thankfully there are many Laser sailing blogs out there. Here are my three favorite posts of the week...

B.J. Porter is an experience big boat sailor but has recently bought himself a Laser and, on Saturday, he started frostbiting at his local club the other side of the bay from me in Rhode Island. Sounds like he had a blast, performed better in the races than he expected, and described the experience as "The most fun an adult can have wearing a hermetically sealed rubber suit." Check out his account at Blind Squirrels...or.

B.J. Burrows (what is it with this BJ thing) is a 16-year-old living in the Bahamas just making the transition from Sunfish to Lasers. Last Thursday was his first Laser training session with a local coach in which it sounds as if B.J. learned a lot about how to sail a Laser downwind in 15 knots. His summary of the day: "I have never had so much thrill or excitement while sailing in a Sunfish as I had today in the Laser." Read all about it at Welcome to Laser Sailing...

Meanwhile at the other end of the Laser sailing skill spectrum, 2012 Olympic hopeful Clay Johnson is Training in Clearwater. I am never sure whether to be inspired or to abandon all hope when I read how hard the guys at the top of the class are working. Clay is training in Florida with some of the top Laser sailors from other countries, in what sound like perfect conditions - 89 degrees and 15 knots.

Each day we either go to the gym or bike in the morning, followed by a long session on the water in the afternoon.

The past two days we've done 15+ mile downwinds to John's Pass. We start by sailing out the inlet, work on downwinds to John's Pass, sail in the inlet, derig in our boats, and tow up the inner-coastal back to the sailing center. It makes for a pretty long and tiring day...

Phew!

Night Race

Antolin left a comment on my post about (almost) giving up sailing in which, among other things, he said...

another tack (one that I use often) is to sail just because sailing is such an extraordinary experience... last Thursday night we had the last Thursday night race of the season... so I rigged a glow stick on the sail's head atop the mast and went racing...but the sunset was so, the moon was so, the tangerine tinge on the water due to the lovely sunset, the sound of dolphins... the whole evening was magical...

Today he sent me this photo taken that evening.

For once I am lost for words.

John Lennon: Family Man, Sailor

John Lennon's Watching the Wheels seems like an especially appropriate Song for the Day in the light of yesterday's post. Lennon wrote this song to answer those who were mystified by his withdrawal from his musical career from 1975-1980 in order to enjoy family life with his wife Yoko Ono and their son Sean.

It's not widely known that John fulfilled a lifelong ambition by learning how to sail in early 1980 and that in June of that year, accompanied by a small crew, he sailed a 43-foot sloop from Newport to Bermuda. There is a fascinating account of the voyage at Whatever gets you through the storm. Apparently the passage inspired John to come out of his five year retirement from the music business. Once in Bermuda, he started writing songs for a new album Double Fantasy, which he recorded with Yoko and which was released in November 1980.

Three weeks later, on 8 December 1980, John Lennon was murdered.



The morals of this story (uh oh, I feel another list coming on) are...

1. People say I'm crazy.
   
   
2. It's good to put family first.
   
   
3. I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.
   
   
4. If you have a sailing ambition, do it now. Next year may be too late.
   
   
5. When you take a break from the activity that defines your identity you can take it to a whole different place when you return to it.
   
   
6. Sailing can change your life.
   
   
7. I just had to let it go.