Fish on Fridays

Cape Cod Canal Tunnel Permit

I want one.

Happy Birthday Willie Nelson

Happy Birthday to Willie Nelson - 75 years old today. The video of this duet with Bob Dylan is from Willie's 60th birthday celebration.

Also on this day, April 30...

In 1492 Christopher Columbus received his commission of exploration...

In 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone...

And the rest is history....

What has all this to do with sailing? Not a lot. Except that Columbus was a sailor (and so is Bob Dylan for that matter) and without the Web how would sailors read about socks?

Sock Fetish

Wed Apr 23

I love my socks.

Forget all the conventional advice that you read about how to stay warm when outdoors in cold weather. All that garbage about how you can lose 75% of your body heat through your head. It's a myth. If you don't believe me check out this post on the Wilderness Medicine Newsletter.

In any case, when sailing a Laser in cold water which extremities are likely to start wet and stay wet? With a bit of luck you won't be dunking your head in the icy waters... though it could happen. And your hands may or may not get wet but at least they are out of the water most of the time. But your feet are going to be immersed when you launch from a beach or ramp and are likely to stay wet throughout your sail.

That's why I love my socks.

Last Wednesday I went for a sail on the lake near my son's house in Massachusetts. For my recent solo sails on Narragansett Bay I wore my drysuit which has latex booties so my feet stay totally dry. I love the socks I wear with my drysuit too but that's for another post. Or maybe I should start a parallel blog about the socks I wear each day? That would surely win any competition for Most Pointless Blog in the World. But then it might attract all sorts of weirdos with a sock fetish...

Hmmm, I was going to post a link to a sock fetish site here but you really don't want to go there. Or maybe you do. Use the Google, weirdo.

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes, socks.

For my lake sail last Wednesday I wore my wetsuit with neoprene boots and inside the boots my NRS Hydroskin G2 Socks.




There they are. Or rather, there is one of them. Or one exactly like mine.

Isn't it a beauty? It's a wonder of advanced sock technology with (according to NRS) a 0.5-mm neoprene core that insulates and protects, 4-way-stretch PowerSpan™ outer layer for enhanced mobility and greater durability, ThermalPlush™ inner lining for increased insulation that also repels moisture and dries quickly, titanium laminate adhesive that aids body heat retention without adding bulk, and DWR coating that forces water to bead and roll off the material reducing evaporative cooling.

You can tell from the description alone that some serious sock science brainpower has been at work here. All I can tell you was that last Wednesday my feet were toasty.

I love my socks.

PS. If any sock manufacturer would like to sponsor my Olympic campaign please get in touch.

Beast of Burden

Sun Mar 30

I have a physics question for all you sailing geeks.

We all know the relationship between body weight and boatspeed in a small racing sailboat like a Laser, right? Or we think we do.

In heavy winds, let's say over 25 knots, the heavier guys do better in the races (other things like overall ability being equal). Generally speaking, in these conditions someone of 200 lbs will beat someone of 150 lbs in a Laser because the big guy can hike the boat flat upwind and will still be surfing downwind, while the little guy is struggling all the way upwind and would be better off in a Radial.

On the other hand in lighter conditions, let's say 5-10 knots, the little guy will probably be faster around the course. Upwind he may well be hiking flat out while the big guy will be simply sitting on the side deck and going slower, wallowing in the hole his heavier mass makes in the water. And downwind the lighter sailor will be soooo much faster. It's all to do with displacement and drag and Newton's Second Law, F=ma and all that.

So far so good. Please don't bother to argue with the above, because I know I'm right. I can even look at the results of the racing at my old frostbite fleet and make a very accurate guess of what the wind conditions were like based on the relative finishing positions of two (both excellent) sailors of very different body weights.

The question I have is what happens at the very light end of the wind spectrum, say 0-3 knots? I know that no race committee in their right minds would run races in these conditions... but sometimes they do. I've noticed on a number of occasions that the heavier sailors start doing well again in these conditions.

There was the time my (heavier than me) son beat me in the 2006 Laser regatta at Hunterdon Sailing Club in New Jersey, in a very light patchy easterly wind.

And it happened again on the last day of the Kurt Taulbee clinic in Florida last month. There was one other guy on the clinic who said he weighed 150 lbs while I owned up to 200. (OK, I rounded down, but who's counting?) On the Saturday in 5-10 knots he beat me easily in every practice race. But on the Sunday in a dying gradient breeze fighting the new sea breeze, shifty, patchy, and dying away to zero occasionally, I did a horizon job on him in every race.

So my question is, why? Is it a matter of these heavier sailors actually having very good light air skills (relative to the opposition that day) that overcome any weight disadvantage they may have? Or does weight actually become an advantage again in the very light stuff? Is there some kind of inertia effect which means that the heavier sailor somehow keeps coasting through the lulls, maintaining flow on the sails and foils, until the next little puff comes along?

Answers please. Do no attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once. Credit will be given for references to any physicist other than Newton and for the use of second order differential equations. Bonus points will be given for anyone quoting Stuart Walker and being able to explain the quote in less than 500 words. Anyone referencing Nietzsche, Sartre or Rilke will be awarded a failing grade.

Fish on Fridays

Play safe in the water this weekend kiddies.

A man was killed early this morning by a shark while swimming off Solano Beach, north of San Diego, California. Experts say the attacker was probably a great white shark.

Whitey is still out there and he loves the smell of neoprene in the morning.

Hot with Road Rage, Egos, Collisions and Speed

Who said it?

"The juice." That’s probably the best way to describe the power and the mayhem involved with 55 boats starting absurdly close to the line and all arriving to a mark ... all within less than a minute. Then every mark from that point forward, regardless of the windstrength, the mark roundings will be overcrowded and hot with road rage, egos, collisions and speed. So many fouls occur through the races it would boggle most people’s minds.

No, that's not a quote from my post about my only day sailing this year with the Newport frostbite fleet on Sunday. Though it would have fit.

It's actually Andrew Campbell's description of a typical race in the gold fleet at the ISAF Grade 1 Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, France.

Hmmm. Maybe racing next winter in Newport will be better training for high level regattas than I imagined.

Reassuringly Expensive Potent Wifebeater

What do beer and Lasers have in common?

LaserPerformance announced today the appointment of Devin Kelly as President. Mr. Kelly was most recently with INBEV where he served as Vice President of Marketing for UK and Ireland. INBEV is the global brewer of many well known brands including Beck’s and Stella Artois.

So the guy formerly responsible for marketing Stella Artois, the beer favored by Britain's binge-drinking lager louts, is now going to be running my favorite small boat company.

Will the Laser become "reassuringly expensive" (Stella's old image)?

Or will it become better know for its "potency" (Stella has 5.2% ABV)?

God forbid that we Laser sailors will, like Stella drinkers, be tarred with a "wifebeater" image.

I wish Mr. Kelly every success in his new role. But the mind boggles...

Ironman No More

Sun Apr 20

Be careful what you wish for!

After tempting providence by asking my fellow Rhode Island boaters, "So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?", and celebrating sailing alone in The Sound of One Foot Clapping, it was bound to happen. More freaking boats than I could handle. Boats to the left, boats to the right. Boats crashing into me and boats that I crashed into.

Of course I knew all along where they all were. Or at least where the Laser sailors were. The Newport Laser frostbite fleet is famous worldwide for their commitment to winter sailing, the depth of their skills, and their excellent turnouts in the coldest of weathers. So when I showed up for their end-of-season regatta last Sunday it wasn't entirely a surprise to find fifty or so fellow Laser sailors there, many of whom had been sailing with the fleet all winter.

What was a surprise (at least to me) was my total incompetence at dealing with this form of big fleet short course racing. It's been a couple of years since I've sailed in a large frostbite fleet and it showed. I'd forgotten exactly how confusing it can be when forty Laser sailors all show up at the first windward mark within a few seconds of each other. Or how to deal with the situation where ten Lasers are planing into a leeward gate side-by-side and another eight are surfing along with a couple of feet of their transoms.

Total chaos. Collisions. Capsizes. Crashes. Curses. At times it was more like bumper boats than real racing. This kind of sailing requires superb foresight into developing tactical situations, instant analysis of how the Racing Rules of Sailing apply, quick reactions, excellent boat-handling... I have to say that my own skills in all these areas were sadly lacking.

It should have been fun. It used to be fun when I did this every week at my old fleet. But the crowds of boats at every mark rounding -- and my own incompetence at dealing with them -- made the day less than fun for me.

My starts were reasonable, my boatspeed was OK, but the mark roundings were disastrous. After three awful races full of all kinds of catastrophes, I sailed a reasonable fourth race. Managed to insert myself in the starboard tack parade at the windward marks without fouling anybody, or overstanding by a mile, or hitting the mark, or capsizing, or all of the above. Rounded the leeward marks on the inside both times without hitting anybody. Remembered to approach the short finish line from the right with the starboard tack advantage. So, I decided to quit before it got worse again. And I was sure it would get worse as I became more tired and my boathandling abilities went downhill

Quit! Me? Me... the guy who won the Ironman Trophy at my old frostbite fleet a few years ago for sailing every race one season, (or sailing more races than anyone else, I forget which)? Me... who used to sail every winter Sunday afternoon until my arm muscles were cramping up and I couldn't grip the sheet any more?

I'm afraid so. I quit. Must be getting old. No longer the Ironman.

I'm angry at myself for skipping frostbite sailing the last two winters on the flimsiest of excuses such as moving house and some minor injury. I'm angry at myself for wimping out early on Sunday.

Anger is a great motivator. Especially anger at oneself. I'm going to be out there every Sunday next winter with the Newport Laser Fleet. I'm going to become familiar once again with large fleet short course racing and crowded mark roundings. I'm going to master it.

Watch this space.

Or even better... come join me.

The Sound of One Foot Clapping

Wed Apr 16

I think I'm becoming addicted to solo practice...

The last few days of practicing my Laser sailing by myself (literally by myself as most of the time there weren't any other boaters of any kind in sight) have reminded me that solo practice has a unique benefit. You can work on the minutiae of your sailing technique in a way that you never do when you are trying to beat your competitors in a race, and which can you never do quite so obsessively when training with a group because the coach or the group is always moving on to some other drill.

Case in point: on Wednesday I focused relentlessly on what I'm doing with my front foot in medium air tacks...

You will recall that Rulo in Cabarete had pointed out a flaw in my tacking technique in that I needed to hike out hard after the tack before swapping tiller and sheet hands. I've been concentrating on doing that the last few months and, in spite of the can't-teach-an-old-dog-new-tricks syndrome a.k.a. it's-hard-for-old-farts-like-me-to-break-the-habits-of-a-lifetime, I'm getting better at this aspect of tacking.

So after a warm-up with a long beat and a long run on Wednesday I resolved to tack every 30 seconds or so on the next beat. First of all I concentrated on the back foot technique. When exactly to lift it over the toestrap so it goes under the strap as I tack? Early so that I am hiking with one leg for a couple of seconds before the tack? Or just as I initiate the tack? Either way I also worked on eliminating another bad habit that Kurt had pointed out in Florida: my tendency to move inboard a couple of inches before starting the tack.

Once I had ironed out the wrinkles in the back foot technique over twenty or so tacks it was time to work on the front foot. In particular to work on the I Can Tie Knots With My Feet syndrome that I have written about before...

You see it's finally dawned on me after 25 years of Laser sailing why it is that I'm always getting the sheet in a tangle in the bottom of the cockpit. In that earlier post I told you than I'm a front-endian... I try and keep my sheet tidily arranged at the front of the cockpit. But it always seems to work it's way back to the middle of the cockpit where it can tangle itself around my feet during tacks, get trapped under my feet when I'm trying to bear away at a crowded windward mark rounding, or just generally work its magical trick of tying itself in knots.

And why is the sheet not staying at the front of the cockpit? When I started concentrating with Zen-like focus on my front foot during tacks the answer was obvious. Because on at least half the tacks my front foot was coming down off the hiking strap on to a pile of sheet and then as I crossed the boat that foot was turning and sliding and pushing the sheet towards the back of the cockpit.

Ahah!

Or rather... Duh!

How could I have been so stupid?

So just a minor correction. Instead of a swivel and a slide with my front foot I changed to do a little push-off against the front of the cockpit, a one-legged jump even, as I crossed the boat and neatly caught the hiking strap with my new front foot, and smartly assumed the hiking position. Result: a smoother, swifter move across the boat and no more kicking the sheet around.

I think I'm becoming addicted to solo practice.

What shall I work on next?