The Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta (RMOCR) is a serious regatta. According to Gary Jobson's article in the latest issue of Sailing World, the 2011 RMOCR saw more than 700 Olympic aspirants from 53 countries. There's a lot on the line for these sailors... funding, sponsorship, qualification for other major regattas, a step on the way to earning an Olympic berth in 2012. So it's crucial that the regatta is run smoothly.
Jobson's Sailing World article reviews a number of ways in which the organizers of RMOCR strove for a level of excellence in running the regatta: everything from using smart phones to speed up the processing of results... to creating buzz with "pinnies." (Buy the magazine and check it out yourself if you don't know how to create buzz with pinnies.)
But Gary does have one suggestion for how to make RMOCR even better. From his perch 300 feet above the race course he did spot one problem. Those dratted Mommy Boats were creating havoc yet again. After the start, a group of Mommy Boat drivers (Jobson diplomatically calls them coaches) would take off to one side of the course and create waves that would "dramatically affect" the boats on that side of the course. Gary was bothered seeing how the waves from the bad Mommy Boats would cause the racing sailboats to lose distance and speed as they pitched through the waves.
I thought I would check out the Sailing Instructions (SIs) for RMOCR to see if the organizers had done anything to prevent this totally unfair and unnecessary interference with racing by these so-called coaches. Indeed they had.
The RMOCRSIs have a whole section, section 16, devoted to an attempt to police the behavior of Mommy Boats. It has 8 sub-sections and sub-section 16.3 has 6 sub-sub-sections. Wow! It covers everything from where Mommy Boats are not allowed to go... to what will happen if they are naughty and don't follow these rules. RMOCRSI 16.4 requires that Mommy Boats "that are motoring above 5 knots shall remain at least 150 metres from any boat racing." And RMOCRSI 16.7 says that the International Jury "may direct the organizing authority to revoke privileges from any boat or person found to be in breach of SI 16."
So they tried. But it clearly wasn't good enough. A swarm of Mommy Boats behaving badly still managed to mess up the races for all the boats on one side of the course.
How many more times must this happen before we ban this menace from our sport?
Related Posts
Mommy Boats
Ban Mommy Boats NOW
The Other Side of the Argument
One Hundred Mommy Boats
Mommies Gone Wild
A Wise Man Once Said
Fairness
All these huddled masses of Laser sailors packed together in this pocket handkerchief of a district means that there are a gazillion Laser fleets in New England and, Laser sailors being the generous, gregarious folk that we are, most of these Laser fleets feel the need to organize at least one annual regatta each year so that even more Laser sailors can mill around together on the same puddle for the weekend and have lotsa fun yotting with each other and drinking with each other and screaming, "Starboard!" and "No Room! Yes, you sir! No bloody room!" at each other.
As a result there is at least one Laser regatta almost every weekend throughout the (mercifully short) New England summer which creates enormous problems for all us Laser sailors who need to find excuses not to sail in all these damn regattas. I mean, just look at the following list of District 7 Laser regattas that I already know about...
May 1 - Peter Milnes Regatta - Newport, RI
May 15 - Cedar Point YC Spring Regatta - Westport, CT
May 21-22 - Wickford Regatta - Wickford RI
June 4 - Lake Mascoma Spring Regatta - Enfield, NH
June 5 - Lake Sunapee Regatta - Lake Sunapee, NH
June 18-19 - Atlantic Coast Masters - New Bedford, MA
June 25-26 - Championship of Buzzards Bay - New Bedford, MA
July 9-10 - Newport Regatta - Newport, RI
July 29-31 - Hyannis Regatta - Hyannis, MA
August 5-7 - Buzzards Bay Regatta - New Bedford, MA
August 13-14 - Mallets Bay Boat Club Regatta - Colchester, VT
August 27 - Niantic Bay Regatta - Niantic, CT
September 10-11 - Massapoag YC Annual Regatta - Sharon, MA
September 24-25 - New England Masters - Middletown, RI
And really it's much worse than that. I haven't even listed some regattas that fall on the same days as others on the list. And I know that last year there were a bunch of regattas in Maine, at least another one in New Hampshire, and innumerable ones dotted around Massachusetts that will probably all be held again this year. I just haven't been able to find them in The Google yet.
Even so there are hardly any free weekends in the (mercifully short) New England summer. When am I going to find the time to enter some running races, learn to kayak properly (which I promise myself I will do very year round about now) and play with my grandkids? Not to mention that some of my so-called friends in New Jersey have organized a grand-sounding Centennial Regatta on the Independence Day weekend and are trying to blackmail me into going to that too by claiming that the whole shebang was my idea. There goes another "free" weekend.
I need help dear readers. I need some creative excuses not to sail in some of these regattas otherwise I will never have any other fun in the (mercifully short) New England summer. Ideas please!
If you can't some up with some good ideas I might just have to move to Montana.
Or South Dakota.
Some of you will be trying to guess the origin. Others will just relish in the discovery of such a great affordable alternative with a delicious personality. It's not sweet at all but neither does it turn your mouth inside out on the way to its perfect finish. Excellent value.
Style: Crisp, dry, somewhat tropical and very refreshing.
Fenders come in all sorts of colors: white, blue, red, gold, green... whatever takes your fancy. But perhaps the most famous Fender of all is black: Eric Clapton's Fender Stratocaster guitar, known as "Blackie."
Back in 1970, Clapton bought a bunch of 1950's vintage Stratocasters. He gave some to his friends like Pete Townshend and Steve Winwood, and from the ones that were left, he took a 1956 body, a 1957 neck, and the pickups from a third guitar, and made Blackie. From 1970 until the mid-80's, Blackie was Eric's primary stage and studio guitar.
In 2004, Clapton sold Blackie at Christie’s in New York to raise money for the Crossroads alcohol and drug treatment centre he had founded in Antigua. Blackie sold for $959,500!
I also own a black Fender, but it's not worth as much as Blackie. And I don't sound much like Eric Clapton when I play it. But I can dream.
What's that you say? You thought this was a sailing blog? You imagined this post would be about boat fenders? Please try and keep up. There was an election around here in 2008 and my readers voted convincingly that they didn't want this blog to be about sailing any more; they wanted me to write about "whatever the hell I want." So that's what I'm doing. I like Eric Clapton. I like guitars. I like Fenders. Especially black ones.
In the interests of full disclosure, I would like to point out that this post is sponsored by Boating.com, a great resource for boat fenders and more. So if you want to know more about boat fenders, fender locks, fender adjusters, fender lines, fender hangers, blue fenders, red fenders, white fenders and (my favorite) black fenders then head over to boat fenders and knock your brains out.
Boat fenders are a mystery to me.
After all, I'm a Laser sailor.
And a guitarist.
Many native American tribes know the full moon in March as the Worm Moon, so named because as the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear. This year the Worm Moon is even more spectacular than usual with worm casts 14% larger and 30% more numerous than normal. The reason for this impressive "Supercast" is that the worms are nearer to the surface then they have been for 18 years. Wow!
Now, here's a challenge for you natural navigators out there. Can you tell from my photo of worm casts which direction is north, how many hours it will be to moon rise, how far it is to the nearest herd of bison, and what brand of lawn fertilizer I used last year? The prize for the first person who gets all the answers right will be a signed photo of the Supercast! Woo Hoo!
The photos above are taken from a blog I discovered recently The World Tour which is a cruising blog about a young couple from Barcelona, Alex and Taru, who are sailing around the world on their Hallberg Rassy 352. (That's Taru in the first and third pictures.)
Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm not usually much of a fan of cruising blogs. But this one is different. I can't quite define what it is about Taru and Alex's blog that especially appeals to me, but I expect I will work it out as I continue to follow their voyage.
They are currently in Martinique and the photos of wildlife and scenery are magnificent. Hope you enjoy The World Tour too.
Today March 14, often written as 3/14, is Pi Day. Get it? Pi= 3.14159 etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum (literally).
Of course, being a bit of a geek I could write several hundred words about Pi. But that would probably bore all of my readers and would not help me in extending my streak (currently standing at 17) of writing posts with titles referencing Simon and Garfunkel songs.
So I will write about pie. Here is a real English delicacy. A pork pie.
I stole this photo from a blog post entitled Things I Tried Once but Never Again! The lady who writes the blog says, "There’s no earthly reason for this gastronomic monstrosity. Bits of fat and gristle covered in lard and grease." She hated it so much she included it on her list of "Things I Tried Once but Never Again" along with "Asking out boys" and "A Brazilian wax in Brazil." Kat just doesn't get pork pie. (She doesn't get Brazilian waxes in Brazil any more either.)
But oops. Simon and Garfunkel didn't write about pork pies as far as I know. But they did write about Mrs. Wagner's Pies. Apparently it's what you buy just before you walk off to look for America with Kathy, and some real estate in your bag. Hmmm. Kat? Kathy? Any connection I wonder?
Now, one of the problems with having moved to America in 1989 (and I'm still looking for it too, by the way) is that many cultural references to anything before 1989 often mean nothing to me. Apparently Mrs. Wagner of Mrs Wagner's Pie fame went out of business in 1969. So I have never seen a Mrs Wagner's Pie, much less tasted one. But they were famous in their day (or so it says on the Internet.) I wonder if they were like English pork pies?
But oops again. This is supposed to be a sailing blog, and I don't think Mrs. Wagner of Mrs. Wagner's Pies was a sailor. But it's possible. She was from the Jersey shore, home of many accomplished sailing Wagners.
There is also a Wagner who sometimes paints pictures of sailboats. Arline Wagner.
That picture at the top of the post is by her. It's called Sailing at Sunset.
I think I'll go and watch the sunset now. Happy Pi Day.
My 5-year-old granddaughter Emily loves to draw. Lately she has been drawing various groups of family members.
The good thing is that each person in her drawing is unique. She is not just drawing random stick figures. She is trying to draw pictures that represent each person individually.
However, it's not all that easy yet for us mere adults to work out who is who in her pictures.
The drawing above is of me, Tillerwoman and Emily. I am the rather short person on the left. Apparently I am about half as tall as a 5-year-old. I guess it's good news that I am also married to a woman about twice as tall as me. I think.
But if you look closely you will see that Emily has given us all distinct hairstyles. She is astute enough to notice that I have hardly any hair on top of my head but two little tufts on each side.
What does this mean? Why is my hair (or lack of it) the thing she remembers most about me? Why does Emily think I am shorter than her? Is it a recognition of my childish and playful nature? I appear to be a most peculiar man.
Radial sailor Jody Machio at the SailFit clinic in Clearwater, Florida this week, demonstrating the advanced Laser skill of keeping the boat on the plane while her body is totally immersed.
