Arabella and Emily

This blog is taking a vacation.

Tillerwoman and I are leaving for a five day cruise on the Arabella to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Cuttyhunk. A total break from Laser sailing, running and blogging. We are looking forward to mornings spent sailing between the islands; afternoons of sunbathing, swimming, hiking, kayaking, exploring; and evenings enjoying seafood dinners ashore.

No doubt they have wi-fi Internet access in New England harbors these days but I don't care. The blog is taking a vacation.

If the name Arabella sounds familiar to some of you blogging sailors its because Sailscape posted a picture of her in June and Eliboat came across her while sailing in the classic yacht races in Maine a couple of weeks ago.

Then it's off to Massachusetts for a few days at my son's home, hanging out with our gorgeous granddaughter Emily. She and her parents have been over in Europe a couple of weeks where she has been charming the socks off her two great-grandmothers in England, and visiting many of her great aunts and uncles and cousins of various degrees and removes in Ireland.



So the blog is taking a vacation. See you in September.

Racing Rules Video

Check out the recently released DVD Learn the Racing Rules with Dave Dellenbaugh. There is a trailer here.

A lot of the footage in the DVD was of the Cedar Point YC Laser Fleet racing one Sunday last fall. As it turned out, the director of the video turned up to shoot the fleet on the weekend when it was my turn to help with race committee and I was assigned to drive the boat for him. He just sent me a complimentary copy of the DVD set as a thank you.

Actually I think I was really supposed to be a safety boat but these Laser frostbite sailors are tough and self-sufficient and rarely need any outside assistance. So I was able to spend most of the afternoon maneuvering the boat to give the cameraman the best shots of crowded mark rounding and starts and so on.

Hmmm - wonder if this could be the start of a new career in the movies?

Questions

A number of readers have expressed confusion over why my current sailing ambitions have caused me to rethink the future of Proper Course. So let me try and explain...

As I start my training program leading up to the 2007 Laser Masters Worlds I want to keep a training log, a daily journal of training activity, racing, progress made, lessons learned, notes for further training needs and so on. Should this be a blog? Or a private journal?

If my training journal is a public blog will I be inhibited from writing in it everything that I would write in a private journal? Innermost thoughts about how the training is going, details of what's happening to my body, mistakes made on the race course. Do I want to share everything with the world?

And if I write all this stuff in a blog will it be remotely interesting to anyone except myself and perhaps a handful of other Laser fanatics? Do you want to hear about the color of my pee after a long day on the water in hot humid conditions? Or tune in to a couple of Laser sailors debating the length of their vang tail and how many handles it should have and whether to tie off the end and, if so, where?

And if I do write a blog about a Laser campaign such as ab is doing with Split Tacks then what should I do about Proper Course? Proper Course and the personality of its writer have been described by various readers as funny, sunny, completely insane, casual, twisted... It's true. I do try to write it in a way that will be entertaining to a general sailing audience.

So if I use Proper Course to write a blog about my training will the change in style be fair to the regular readers? How would you feel if The Onion suddenly turned into the New York Times? Or Dilbert.Blog morphed into Freakonomics? Not that I am putting my little old blog in the same league as those publications, by any means. I'm just saying that a blog develops a certain style and it seems wrong to make an abrupt change from frivolity to seriousness, from broad to specific, from casual to intense.

But why not have the best of both worlds? Have two blogs, one more focused, serious training blog and keep Proper Course going as a more humorous, off-beat look at the sailing world and my own foolishness? Or sticking with the theme I discussed in my Sailing Magazine post, why not just throw it all into one magazine blog -- introspective training posts, nonsense writing, curious stories from the sailing world, wild sailing videos, self-deprecating stories about my own sailing screw-ups and so on?

Well, I'm not sure I want to write two blogs. I probably spend way too long at this blogging game already when I should be out sailing. And I'm not sure if I can simultaneously write blog posts about my own training on one hand and off-beat funny stories about sailing on the other. What I write in Proper Course is often the end-result of ideas and thoughts that have been rolling around in my head for the previous day or two. Would I become hopelessly schizophrenic if I were trying to be serious about my training and build up my confidence with positive self-talk while at the same time always looking to see the whacky, funny side of things? Can you be a joker and a winner?

For example, when I'm out racing and things start to go wrong, am I going to be thinking, "OK -- calm down -- put it behind you -- concentrate on the rest of the race," like a serious sailor should. Or am I going to be thinking, "Ha ha - what a crazy thing to happen - now how can I make that even more funny when I write it up in the blog on Monday?"

Does any of that make sense to you? Do you understand why I'm reconsidering where this whole blogging thing fits into my life?

Commitment

In yesterday's post Time for a Change I wrote about a change in my level of commitment to the sport of sailing. Let me explain...

I have decided to sail in the Laser Masters Worlds in July 2007 in Portugal and in 2008 in Australia. I have committed to prepare myself for these events much more seriously than I ever have before for a Laser regatta. I have set myself some goals for my results in these events and have been planning my training program leading up to the 2007 Worlds.

I find myself feeling energized and excited about this ambition. I am in a totally different place from when I wrote Schemes and Dreams back in January. Then I was feeling laid back about sailing and my only aims were to sail a lot, to have fun, and not to stress about the results.

It's still going to be fun but in a different way. Now I have a definite goal, a determination to succeed, and a commitment to do the hard work to make it possible.

For reasons I don't fully understand, my attitude to sailing has changed. Maybe it was because after a relaxed year sailing locally I am ready to take on more challenges. Maybe it's an awareness that the Big-Six-Oh is rapidly approaching and I start to wonder how many more years of active Laser sailing are left in this aging body. Perhaps it is because running two marathons has made me realize that seemingly distant goals can be reached with persistence and training. Or perhaps it's because I read this in Scuttlebutt the other day...

From Vann Wilson (With regard to the ... Laser Masters Nationals held last weekend at Richmond Yacht Club):

It bothers me to no end to be the first to publicly cast a shroud of suspicion on the Great Grand Master Division. However, I believe that all the athletes in this division should be spot drug tested for the whole works at the next big regatta; synthetic testosterone, blood doping, steroids and or see if they have been swimming in that pool from the movie cocoon.

Something is fishy with those guys. To qualify to be in that division you have to be 65+ years of age. Give me a break: tell me that the six Great Grand Masters in this division racing Lasers on the famed Berkeley Circle are not "on something."

I want to stay fit and healthy enough to be one of those Great Grand Masters sailing Lasers at 65+. But more than that I want to be racing in Masters regattas at the regional and national level with a chance of being among the winners, not struggling to keep up with the tailenders.

Thank you to everyone who left messages of support in the comments on yesterday's post. It means a lot to me that so many folk have enjoyed my scribblings over the last few months. But I have changed. And I'll explain more in a post tomorrow about why that has caused me to start thinking about the future, if any, for Proper Course.

To be continued...

Time for a Change

It's time for a change
I'm tired of that same old same
The same old words the same old lines
The same old tricks and the same old rhymes

People change. Blogs change. Blogs even die.

For the past few days I've been thinking about my sailing plans and ambitions for the next year. I'm ready to make a major change in my commitment to the sport and, as a result, a related change in what I want to write about in a blog. I've even seriously considered pulling the plug on Proper Course.

When I started Proper Course I had the idea that I could perhaps write a blog about my various activities in sailing that might be of interest to a few other people. I was involved in all sorts of voluntary activities in the sport as well as my own racing and thought that I might be able to find stories that were sometimes funny, sometimes curious, sometimes argumentative... that people would enjoy.

I hoped it worked. It's been gratifying to read all the comments and feedback and it feels like I have a community of friends interested in sailing from all over the world now. (Though I haven't yet worked out who my reader in Azerbaijan is.)

I've even got a kick out of obsessively watching my stats and seeing my number of readers grow month by month. (Congratulations to reader number 25,000 from Dallas, Texas. Hope you found what you were looking for with the Google search on "queensport kolius").

Technorati ranks Proper Course today as #3 out of 210 blogs tagged sailing. (But I could argue that #1 and #2 are not really about sailing at all.)

And some of you even say nice things about this blog. But only some of you, thank god.

So I've had a good time poking fun at my own sailing misadventures, digging up curious stories about boating on the web, writing a spoof advice column, inventing a fictional alter ego guest blogger, stirring up some controversy with those sensitive Enterprise sailors, writing nonsense, posting photos of my beautiful granddaughter and so on.

But where to next? It's time for a change.

To be continued...

Olympic Urine Test

The US Sailing Team is currently in China at The Good Luck Beijing - 2006 Qingdao International Regatta. This is the first of two Olympic test sailing events being held in Qingdao the site for the Olympic Sailing Regatta in 2008.

American Laser sailor Andrew Campbell is with the team and wrote up his first impressions of China on his blog, CampbellSailing.com. He reports that there is very little breeze and that the heat and humidity are "miserable". Clearly concerned about dehydration, the US Team trainers passed out a chart for all the sailors to check that their pee was the right color.

Andrew didn't include a picture of this chart in his post but I am pleased to report that Tillerman's spy in the US team training camp has secured a copy of the official "US AILING Urine Color Chart".

So here it is... breaking inside news of US Olympic sailing secrets exclusive to Proper Course....



If your urine is this color you are well hydrated. Go out and sail your Laser for 8 hours in 90 degrees and 3 knots. Have fun!










You are partially dehydrated. Lie down in an air-conditioned room for 2 hours and drink a gallon of water. Then go sailing for 2 hours and take plenty of drinking water with you. Be careful.










Don't think I don't know about those two crates of Tsingtao beer in your dorm room. If you persist in such self-abusive behavior you are in danger of losing your slot on the team. You are confined to base until further notice. PS I also confiscated the tequila.










See the team doctor immediately.















Unfortunately Klingons are not eligible to be selected for the US Olympic team. Please submit Form Q-403 Fast Track Naturalization for Potential Gold Medal Winners to the Department of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Sailing Magazine

Tillerwoman doesn't "get" blogging. In fact she doesn't "get" most things invented after 1960 including personal computers, cellphones, the Internet, MP3 players and Laser sailing. She's an old-fashioned girl and I love her dearly for it. So when I try and explain to her what I am doing in writing this blog, the nearest analogy I can come up with is that it is a kind of on-line sailing magazine.

mag·a·zine n.

1. A periodical containing a collection of articles, stories, pictures, or other features.

In the past few weeks the Proper Course magazine has carried a variety of articles, stories and pictures on sailing-related topics, some of which have generated heated letters to the editor in the form of comments. Here is a partial list of recent features...

Major Regatta Reports
Rohan Veal at the Moth Worlds
Women's Laser Radial World Championship
Laser North American Champion and Correction

Tillerman's Sailing Reports
Wednesday Night Sailing
Historic News
Newport Regatta

Sailing Clubs
Sunfish Fleet 17
Taplow Lake Sailing Club
Maidenhead Sailing Club
Burghfield Sailing Club

Editorials
World Championship
Intergalactic Championship
The Long Tail
Seven Reasons to Hate Laser Sailors

Videos
Wikiality
Surrender
Laser Slalom

Blogging about Blogging about Sailing
Dirty Little Secret
More Sailing Blogs

Other Vaguely Sailing Related News
Reality TV - Wife Swap
Reality TV - Survivor
Legal Report
New Political Party
A Message From President Bush

Songs and Poetry
The Ballad of Tillerman
Haiku
Clif Bars

Contests
Caption Contest - Catalina 37
Caption Contest - Lark

Recipes
Laser Beam Cocktail

How am I doing? Is this "magazine" carrying the variety of material that interests you? What's missing?

If I had to describe the blogs I read in terms of their nearest equivalent in conventional media I would have to say that there are newspapers, journals, instruction manuals, a comic book, a novel, sailing club newsletters, ships logs, photo albums... Most of them are more focused in style than my scatterbrain magazine format.

How would you describe your blog?

The Long Tail

This post really is about sailing even though you might not guess it in the first few paragraphs. So bear with me.

This week I have been reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. As Anderson explains at his website...

The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-target goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.

One example of this is the theory's prediction that demand for products not available in traditional bricks and mortar stores is potentially as big as for those that are. But the same is true for video not available on broadcast TV on any given day, and songs not played on radio. In other words, the potential aggregate size of the many small markets in goods that don't individually sell well enough for traditional retail and broadcast distribution may someday rival that of the existing large market in goods that do cross that economic bar.

For example, 25% of Amazon's sales are of products not available in offline retail stores and an astonishing 40% of Rhapsody's music sales are also of tracks not available in a typical record store.

Then it struck me that we see a similar phenomenon in the popularity of sailboat classes. Just look at the table on the Yachts and Yachting website of attendances at UK National Championships. At the top of the list are the "hits", the classes that turn out over 100 boats, Optimist, Topper, Laser Radial, Mirror, Enterprise and Firefly. But there is a huge long tail of over 200 classes down to such "niche" boats that I'd never even heard of before such as Pandora, St. Mawes One Design and Swordfish. And these are just the classes that bother to organize national championships. There are probably hundreds of smaller classes that never even make it on to this table.

So it seems that a surprisingly high percentage of sailors are not sailing the "hits" - the Lasers and Enterprises and Mirrors and so on. They are enthusiastically sailing in obscure niche classes and some of them are getting together and racing them in small fleets.

Of course the economic and social factors driving this must be very different from the ones that Anderson discusses in his book for such markets as online sales of books, digital music and video rentals. The classic "long tail" market is driven by near zero marginal costs of production, distribution and inventory which make it profitable for vendors to offer huge number of products that individually only sell in small numbers but collectively are significant parts of their businesses.

What is it that keeps the small sailboat classes alive and thriving (sort of)?

Part of it is geographical of course. Many of these smaller classes are confined to one country or one region in one country. They never achieve the world-wide distribution of the larger classes. No World Championships for these guys -- though they could organize an Intergalactic Championship. Presumably at least one local boat builder is finding it just profitable enough to build boats in the niche class. Or perhaps sometimes they are home built?

Another factor is that I am really comparing apples and oranges. Anderson's book is about current sales of products whereas the Y&Y regatta attendance table is about current usage of boats that may have been manufactured years ago. With loving care such boats will last decades and so the regatta attendance table may not be a reliable guide to the pattern of current sales of racing sailboats.

And then there is the "cult" factor. Niche boats have their wildly enthusiastic fans just as much as obscure garage bands do. Talk to an owner of a niche class sailboat and he will be rabid in his fervor and will explain why his particular class is far superior to any other. This can be expressed in negative as well as positive ways. The "why I hate Lasers" posts on forums and blogs are just as intense and fierce as some of the vitriol heaped on Britney Spears or Michael Jackson.

Yikes. I can't believe I really wrote that. I compared my pride and joy, my Laser, to two slimy, seedy, over-exposed, mass-market pop stars. Is that really how you Laser-haters see us Laser sailors?

Caption Contest

There must be a good caption to go with this photo shamelessly stolen from the Yachts and Yachting photo gallery of the UK Lark Nationals at Penzance. Suggestions please in the comments. Best answer wins instructions on how to make a cup-holder for your boat from duct tape.

World's First Heavy Weather Laser Slalom Championship

Thanks to rock steady on the Laser Forum for pointing us to this one.