I See No Icebergs

Captain JP, himself an intrepid sailor of Arctic regions, asked me in the comments to yesterday's post for some photos of RS Aero sailing "in proper icy conditions where there are bergs in the water."

Well, I've spent at least three minutes searching the Interwebs and I can't find any.

The nearest I can come are these two photos.

The first one is of my friend launching an RS Aero in Newport Rhode Island last March.

And the second one is from some guy in Norway who had to outdo my friend by posting this picture of his RS Aero.

No icebergs to be seen.

But I did accidentally come across this picture of Kate Upton (whoever she is) taken on a ship in Antarctica where she had some photos of herself taken on the snow for some magazine called the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, "Feminists have expressed that the Swimsuit Issue promotes the harmful and dehumanizing concept that women are a product for male consumption."

And that's all I have to say about that.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

RS Aero News Roundup January 2016

There's been a lot of good news from RS Aero world in the last few weeks.

1. The Audacious Anglo Saxons

Those crazy English people are still sailing their RS Aero Winter Series even though the country is apparently facing its coldest winter in 58 years with forecasts of weeks of freezing blizzards, crippling snowfall and brutal winter storms.

In spite of the weather, plucky RS Aero sailors from this island nation were out in force at...

the (aptly named) Bloody Mary on January 9th

the (somewhat warmer sounding) Starcross Steamer on January 17th

and the Steve Nicholson Trophy on January 30th.

And here is a video of Emily Davis sailing at the Steve Nicholson Trophy.

Brrr! Enough of the English. I am getting cold just looking at them!



2. The Tenacious Texans

Ash Beatty

I hear that RS Aero sailing is really taking off in Texas. Ash Beatty recently announced the 2016 RS Aero Texas Circuit. Let's hope we see similar RS Aero circuits getting organized in other regions of the USA in the coming months.

April 30 - May 1 Rush Creek YC Spring Dinghyfest
June 18-19 Seabrook Sailing Club Summer Solstice
September 17-18 Houston Yacht Club HOOD Regatta
October 15 - 16 Rush Creek YC Fall Dinghyfest
November 4- 6 Wurstfest

But not everyone who buys an RS Aero is principally interested in racing. Some people buy an RS Aero just to go and have fun in the wind and the waves and the surf. One such sailor is Dion Alaniz who has been posting videos on Dinghy Anarchy of his RS Aero sailing in Texas on Corpus Christi Bay and Bird Island Basin.






3. A Boatload of Boatshows

It's boat show season in various parts of the world right now - especially in the northern part of the United States. And it is good to see the RS Aero represented at most of the shows.

4. Boats. Boats. Boats.

When I ordered my RS Aero in March 2014 (first order placed in N.America I was told later) I had to wait until May 2015 for it to be delivered (which to be fair was when RS Sailing promised it would be available.)

There wasn't exactly an over-supply of RS Aeros in our part of the world last year. I even heard one story about a local sailor who wanted to buy an RS Aero and when he realized he would have to wait several months for it, he changed his mind and went off to buy a Laser. Oh, the humanity!

But this year is different. Already, at the beginning of February, our regional RS Sailing distributor, Zim Sailing, has plenty of RS Aeros in stock, and more on the way I hear.

Just imagine! You could walk into the shop in Warren RI and leave with an RS Aero!

As far as RS Aero fleets in the USA are concerned, 2016 will be the year of growth, growth, growth!


5. Regattas. Regattas. Regattas!  And beer!

It's that time of the year when we are all scanning the regatta calendars and working out which events we want to sail.

Should I go to the UK Nationals in Torbay in England in June?

Or the RS Aero Europeans in Travemunde in Germany in July?

Or the US Nationals in the Columbia River Gorge in August?

But wait. What's this I read? The Czech RS Aero Open on Lake Lipno in the Czech Republic in May is being sponsored by the Cvikov Brewery. The event organizer promises "a lot of free beer."

No contest!

11 Lessons I Learned from Sailing with Fleet 413 on Sunday

On Sunday I went racing with the Newport Laser Frostbite Fleet also known as Fleet 413.

It was a beautiful day for sailing. Temperature about 50 degrees and a 15 knot SW breeze.

I would often describe those as perfect conditions for Laser sailing, but Sunday's races were a humbling experience for me.

A learning experience in all sorts of ways.


Lesson #1: Laser sailing is not like riding a bike. 

Riding a bike

You do forget how to do it (properly) if you don't do it for a while.

At least I do.

I hadn't been Laser sailing for six weeks and it felt like a strange and difficult thing to do.

At least at first.



Lesson #2: Get out to the course early.

I was at Sail Newport in plenty of time but somehow I frittered the time away and didn't take my boat down to the beach until about 15 minutes before the start. Then I spent some time helping some other people to launch. Then I launched my own boat only to discover that my evil sheet had wrapped itself around both the boom and the tiller extension in one of those triple buntline carrick bend double surgeon's clinch knots, which it has a tendency to do at times. Then I capsized my boat trying to untangle the triple buntline carrick bend double surgeon's clinch knot. Then I spent a few hours (or it felt like it) actually untying the triple buntline carrick bend double surgeon's clinch knot. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

Triple buntline carrick bend double surgeon's clinch knot

As a result I only arrived at the start line just after the three minute signal for the first race and didn't have time to do all the things they tell you to do in the sailing books, like work out which was the favored side of the course and check out the start line bias and sail upwind for a while to check out the timing of the shifts and sail downwind for a while to check out how to play the waves.

Which is one reason I didn't do very well in the first race.

Or the second race.



Lesson #3: Buy a new sheet.

This sheet is old. This sheet is evil. Any sheet which will tie itself into a triple buntline carrick bend double surgeon's clinch knot deserves everything it has coming.

 I love the smell of burning sheets in the morning

Lesson #4. I am terrible at starts.

I really should concentrate on making 2016 the year I finally get around to working out how get better at starts.

After about 35 years of Laser sailing, it's about time. Seriously!

I could even blog about it.

Not me in not one of the starts on Sunday

Lesson #5. I did learn the lesson from Dave Perry about how it's better to overstand the starboard tack layline in a large fleet than to risk tacking below the layline.

Dave Perry

Well...... maybe I did overdo it a bit. Maybe I occasionally overstood too far. Maybe occasionally I hit the layline too far from the mark.

That's OK. I can gradually work on being more aggressive about when I hit the layline and when I tack. But at least I won't be having any more nightmares about not laying the mark.




Lesson #6.  Steve Cockerill is right.  Sailing a Laser downwind in 15 knots IS like dancing with Anne Widdecombe.

Dancing with The Right Honourable Anne Widdecombe

But that's OK. Dancing with Anne can be fun in a masochistic kind of way. Once you get the feel for how she's going to react to your moves (or not) it can even be sort of satisfying.

At least I didn't capsize on the downwind legs on Sunday like certain people did. You may have sailed in all kinds of fancy big boats but, in a Laser, The Right Honourable Anne Widdecombe can still trip you up.



Lesson #7. I am not bad at leeward mark roundings.

Seriously!

I did it like they tell you in the books.

In a crowd, I avoided getting trapped on the outside of the pinwheel and slowed down and rounded just behind the transom of the inside boat which sometimes gave me a good lane, and if not at least I had freedom to tack.

Pinwheel

And one time I saw a huge crowd in front of me going for the right hand gate mark (looking downwind) so I threw in a gybe and went for the left-hand gate mark and had clear air coming out of the mark and passed at least half a dozen boats on that leg.

But see Lesson #8.



Lesson #8. In a crowded fleet you need to approach the finish line on the starboard tack layline for the favored end of the finish line.

What was I thinking?

In what anyone could see would be a crowded finish I approached the finish line on starboard tack but shy of the layline for the port end of the line. As a result I had to tack on to port just a length or two short of the finish line. And it was a bad tack and I ended up in irons. And as I drifted backwards and desperately tried to get out irons, about ten boats passed me. Ugly!

Bad tack

Lesson #9. If I don't make any stupid mistakes I can easily finish in the middle of this fleet.

Apart from sucking at starts and a tendency to do stupid stuff, I have reasonable boat speed. I can hold my own downwind and (thanks to all that extra weight I put on over Christmas) I can sail faster upwind than the bottom half of the fleet in these conditions.

In the third race I did finish about mid-fleet.

I should have a goal to do at least as well as this in every race by the end of the season, and better if I can get good starts.

A goal

Lesson #10. When you don't sail for 6 weeks (and don't do much exercise of any kind in those weeks and eat too much over Christmas) you lose a lot of your fitness and stamina.

Too much Christmas dinner

After three races I had had enough. I was hiking hard on every beat and my back was feeling it.

Better to quit early than have another of those back problems which can put me out of sailing for many weeks.


Lesson #11. Sail against the best.

One of the lessons in Nick Craig's book, Helming To Win, is to "sail against the best." His advice is to "sail in fleets where the standard is high and above your own." Sailing against better sailors than yourself will sharpen you up. Observing and talking to top sailors is a great way to learn.

Sailing with Fleet 413 certainly qualifies.

I think I'll take a nap now.

What Was God Thinking When She Made Australia?

You will never look at Australia the same way again.

From Amazing Maps @amazingmap on Twitter.

Best Aerial Footage of Laser Sailing Ever

Check out this video of the last day of racing at the 14th Caribbean Laser Midwinters in Cabarete, Dominican Republic in January.

I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that this could well be the best aerial video of Laser racing ever made. Plus it totally captures the experience of sailing and racing at Cabarete. Kudos to ALZA Cabarete for a superb job.

My 2-year-old grandson Andrew loves to watch videos of boats.

When I am over at his house he will come up to me with a big grin and say, "Boats. Boats. Boats." This is the sign that he wants Granddad to get out his computer and show him the video in this post of last year's International Moth US Nationals at the Columbia River Gorge.

Next time Andrew asks for "Boats. Boats. Boats" I am going to show him Lasers at Cabarete.

It's never too early to get them hooked on Lasers!

Laser Frostbiting with Dave Perry

The last time I sailed with the Newport Laser frostbite fleet (aka Fleet 413) was on December 20. We enjoyed a special treat on that day because we had racing rules guru Dave Perry give us a seminar on the Racing Rules before sailing. Then we did our normal racing and Dave came out in a motorboat to shoot some video of us. After racing, Dave gave us a debrief using some of the video from our racing to illustrate various points about the Racing Rules and tactics and other good stuff.

A guru - not Dave Perry

So it's now 40 days since I last went sailing and I am getting a serious case of cabin fever.

A cabin

There have been a few weekends in the last few weeks when there was no sailing at all by the fleet on account of circumstances beyond our control like Christmas, gale force winds and heavy rain, winds in the 20s and temps in the 20s, or other such nonsense.

Fleet captain checking whether it is OK to sail this week

And then on the weekends when there was some sailing I wimped out on account of the dreaded man cold or the dreaded twisted ankle from falling over in the kitchen (how did that happen?) or other such nonsense.

I have been reduced to writing blog posts about such fascinating topics as squeezing a pimple, gasometers,  and Strictly Come Dancing. Blame the cabin fever.

Strictly Come Dancing

What Laser sailing is like according to Steve Cockerill

So let's get back to some real sailing again.

My performance when racing on that Sunday before Christmas was about the same as every other week I sailed this season.

• One fairly good race, when I managed to find a clear lane not too long after the start, play the shifts and the puffs more or less correctly, and arrive at the windward mark with the Laser sailing rock stars.


• A couple of bad races when I got totally blown away on the start line and spent most of the first beat gasping for air on account of the 40 or 50 Lasers in front of me.


• A couple of races where I arrived at the starboard tack layline simultaneously with the majority of the other 40 or 50 Lasers, tacked on what I thought was the layline, only to discover because of the tide or a big lefty shift or not being able to judge the layline properly or other such nonsense that I wasn't going to be able to lay the mark, and having to gybe around and go back down the line of 40 or 50 boats to try and find a gap to tack through which usually was between the boats who were 47th and 48th in the race. Ugly!

Here for your amusement are a couple of Dave Perry's videos.

The first is from my only good race that day. Dave used this video of a leeward mark rounding to teach us about communication at the mark.  That's me in 157812 rounding in the company of sailors who usually finish way ahead of me. I think I scored a 5th in this race

And here is a windward mark rounding. Dave used this video to explain why it is better to overstand than to tack short of the layline in a crowded fleet. If you look carefully you can see me in the middle distance bailing out when I realize I won't lay the mark and going the wrong way to try and find a gap between the 47th and 48th boats or something. 

Have a good laugh at my expense.

You're welcome!

A Question for Sea Lawyers

I was just browsing the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions for the Sailing World Cup (as one does.)

The Sailing World Cup Miami Round is under way this week and this event will be the first of two regattas by which US sailors will be selected for the 2016 US Olympic team in eight of the ten Olympic sailing classes.

Among the usual gobbledegook you find in NORs and SIs, the table below caught my eye. It defines the minimum third-party liability you need to enter each of the round of the Sailing World Cup.

Can anyone explain to me why it varies so much from country to country?

For example...

On the one hand, Australia - 5 million dollars and UK - 3 million pounds

On the other hand, USA - 300,000 dollars

And don't tell me the answer is exchange rates. The Aussie dollar and the GB pound are not THAT weak against the US dollar!



I thought the USA was the home of litigiousness, and ambulance chasing lawyers willing to sue on a contingency basis for personal injury, and outrageously high awards of damages (as well as being the home of the brave and the free, of course.)

Why do you need so much higher liability insurance to compete in the UK, Australia or Europe?

Hammerhead and Gasometer - Digging Up Isle of Wight History

Is there anything you can't find out on the Internet?

Yesterday's Where Am I? photo quiz was a great example.

I posted a photo of myself sailing a Laser about 30 years ago because I had totally forgotten where it was taken. Would any of my friends know where I was?

A few hours later, Bursledon Bogger had the answer. On the River Medina in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. And he identified it by using a landmark in the photo that I had hardly noticed - two tiny little black squares in the far distance, probably about a mile away, which he recognized as the Cowes Hammerhead Crane.

The Cowes Hammerhead crane is a massive dockyard crane at the mouth of the River Medina and is unique in being the only pre WW2 dockyard crane left in existence in England.

This was excellent confirmation for one of the locations I had suspected for the photo, as I do remember taking a sailing course at the National Sailing Centre in Cowes which was about half a mile upriver from the crane.

But one thing troubled me initially about my theory that this could be the location. What about that even more prominent landmark in the photo, that black cylinder on the right of my photo? It looks like one of those gas holders aka gasometers that you used to see in almost every English town. I couldn't find any such object in the satellite view on Google Maps anyway near where the photo must have been taken.

But wait, surely the Internet could solve the mystery.

A quick Google yesterday afternoon turned up this old Pathe newsreel (sadly with no sound) of the Duke of Edinburgh officially opening the National Sailing Centre in 1969. I don't think I can embed it in this post so you will just have to follow the link to watch the video. (You can buy it for 40 quid, if you want!)

At 1:00 the Duke arrives - by boat of course!

At 2:00 the Duke gives a speech to a crowd assembled outside by the side of the river. Hoorah!

At 2:16 the camera pans right to look upriver and you can see a gasometer!

At 2:33 the camera pans right again as the Duke enters the building and looking upriver we see not one - but two gasometers. (You can see them also at about 1:50.)

At 2:40 the Duke unveils a plaque to commemorate the event. God save the Queen!

At 3:07 the audience seeks shelter from the rain. (It is England in summer after all.)

At 3:14 the camera pans left to look down the river - it is still raining - and we see through the drizzle.... the Hammerhead Crane!

So there were a couple of gasometers on the East Cowes side of the river, upriver from the NSC. Why can't I see them on the satellite view in Google Maps?

In researching the gasworks in East Cowes on the Google, I discovered this email (on ancestry.com of all places) which said that the works were resited to Kingston Road in the 1920s or 1930s.

So I went back to Google Maps. At the end of Kingston Road by the side of the River Medina we see this!

Hmmm. Looks pretty conclusive to me. I bet those circular concrete pads were the bases of the gasometers, one of which is in my photo.

So the photo of me, taken by the course instructor presumably, shows two of the most prominent and memorable landmarks on the River Medina and I didn't remember either of them, even though I had visited the NSC two or three times and must have sailed on that river about ten times.

I am only grateful that we have the Google these days to assist the failing memories of old geezers like me. Why bother to remember anything when almost everything worth knowing is all on the Interwebs... somewhere.

This silly meme, currently doing the rounds on Facbook, didn't quite get it right for me.

Tillerman DOES annoy his friends by asking stupid questions.

Then Tillerman googles the questions and annoys his friends even more by blogging about it.



Oh well.

I am what I am.

Where Am I?

Where am I?

This photo quiz is a little different from previous ones, in that I don't actually know the answer myself. I am hoping one of my clever readers will tell me where this photo was taken and that I will then have an "AHAH!" moment and my memory of this day will come flooding back.



So here is what I do know and what I don't know (as best as I can remember.)

I have never owned a Laser with a sail with a rainbow stripe like that.

I have never owned a sail like that.

It looks like the sail number starts 11xxxx.  I have never owned a Laser with a number in that series.

My first Laser was number 93933 and it had an orange hull and orange sail. It was bought in the early 1980s.

My next Laser was number 134628 and it had a teal hull and a white sail. It was bought in 1988.

So the sail in the photo was from a Laser sold in the mid 1980s.




So if it's not my Laser why am I sailing it?

Maybe I was doing some sailing course where the boats and sails were provided?

The fact that I appear to be being followed by a motor boat suggests it might be from some kind of course or coaching session.

Or perhaps I just rented or chartered that Laser when I was on vacation somewhere?

Or borrowed it from a friend?



The fact that I seem to have some hair left in this photo, and was wearing that red non-USCG approved "bubble wrap" PFD suggests that this photo was probably taken in the 1980s or early 1990s.

I moved from England to New Jersey at the end of 1988. So the place could be either of those.

Or France. Or Spain. Or somewhere else in the north-eastern US. Or Canada. Or Texas. Or Florida. Or somewhere else that I don't even remember visiting in this years.



It's just a hunch (and I could be wrong) but I think the most likely explanation for this photo was that it was taken on a sailing course I went on before leaving the UK.

I do remember doing one such course at the National Sailing Centre in Cowes and another one at the Calshot Activities Center. So this photo could have been taken on the Isle of Wight or somewhere on the mainland opposite IOW.

Or did I do some other sailing course in a place I can't remember now?



That big black cylindrical object on the right of the photo might be the best clue to the location.

Could that be one of those gas holders aka gasometers that you used to see all over England? If so, remember this photo is probably almost 30 years old, so that gasometer may have been demolished by now.

Or maybe it's not a gasometer at all, but some historic coastal defence tower? It's hard to tell.

Anyway, that object would surely be remembered by anyone who had sailed this waterway. (Except apparently not by me!)



So please help me! Where am I?

Winter Storm Jonas - This Too Will Pass

The weather forecast for tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon...

Looks like a perfect day for frostbiting!



Hard to believe when we also have this winter storm warning in effect for today and tonight.

* HAZARD TYPES... HEAVY SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS... SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 8 TO 12 INCHES.

* TIMING... SNOW WILL DEVELOP AROUND MID MORNING AND BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES IN THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. SNOWFALL RATES OF ONE TO TWO INCHES PER HOUR WILL BE POSSIBLE AT TIMES. GUSTY WINDS UP TO 50 MPH COMBINED WITH THE SNOW WILL RESULT IN BLOWING SNOW AND POOR VISIBILITIES AT TIMES. THE SNOW WILL BEGIN TO TAPER OFF AFTER MIDNIGHT.

* IMPACTS... HAZARDOUS TRAVEL WITH HEAVY SNOW AND POOR VISIBILITIES. HEAVY SNOW COMBINED WITH STRONG WINDS MAY RESULT IN ISOLATED POWER OUTAGES.

* WINDS... NORTHEAST 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 55 MPH.



Nothing to do but hunker down and dream of sailing. (And maybe put a snow shovel in the car to dig the boat out?)

Where's my bottle of rum?

---

1:23pm Saturday: Update just received from the fleet captains via email...

Hello Fleet 413, 
We are planning on racing tomorrow! 
Bring snow shovels!