A few days ago I wrote a post Three Laser Classes? about a contentious issue facing the Laser Class. There's a dispute going on between a company who owns the design rights to the Laser and another company who builds Lasers. The International Laser Class is caught in the middle of the dispute and is doing its best to chart a way forward for the class. There are all sorts of players potentially involved in the issue: the original designer, the company he set up to manage his design rights, the company he sold that first company to, the builders in various parts of the world, the trademark owners etc. etc. I'm sure there are several firms of lawyers involved too.
(If you really want to understand more, then check out this thread on the Laser Forum and this interview with Bruce Kirby on Sail World.)
I said at the end of my post, "This could get messy."
I didn't know how right I was.
Today comes news that someone has been threatened with a lawsuit. But it's not one of the players mentioned above. It's just some random dude who expressed an opinion on the Laser Forum that was somewhat critical of two of those major players. He reports today that he has been threatened with a libel lawsuit by the lawyer for those two players, and he's desperately trying to work out how he can edit his original post.
So the message is, "Be careful out there kiddies." This is serious business. And if you express an opinion on one of the various forums debating this topic that is unfairly critical of certain people, you might be hearing from their lawyers.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Thought Comes Before a Fall
Alex Mineev made an interesting observation on his blog the other day about the similarities between falls in skiing and capsizes in Laser sailing, and how they are often failures of the mind rather than the body. Which leads to the question, can you train the mind to not "give in" to capsizing? As Alex says...
I know exactly what he means. As regular readers of this blog will know, my Achilles heel in Laser sailing is the death roll when sailing downwind in heavy air and big waves. I can cope well for a while with the conditions but then there comes a moment when a bigger puff or a rogue wave rolls the boat a little more and something clicks in my head and I develop the conviction that I'm going to capsize to windward and there's nothing I can possibly do to prevent it... and a moment later I prove myself right. Glug, glug, glug. There's definitely a split second when the mind decides that the hassle of keeping the long pointy thing aiming at the sky is just too much pressure any more, and it "gives in" to capsizing.
So what can be done about it? I'm no expert on the question. If I were I wouldn't be wiping out so much downwind. But three possible approaches occur to me.
1. Practice on the water
One of the drills we did at Kurt Taulbee's SailFit clinic was the Maximum Heel Drill. The idea is to sail downwind heeling the boat to windward as far as you can. If you never capsize you're not really trying. One year at SailFit, there was a kid from the Clearwater youth team who joined us for the weekend of the clinic who could heel the boat to about 80 degrees from the vertical in a solid breeze and then not only recover from the death roll but also go straight into a gybe. Amazing!
Of course you don't have to go to a clinic to do this drill. You can do it any time on your own. Play around. Experiment. How far can you heel? What is the best way to recover from an impending death roll? Does it work better to head up or to steer further to leeward? Is sheeting in the key? How fast can you get your weight to leeward to prevent the capsize? What's the best way to move your weight; what do you do with your feet, your hands? Play around.
All this play is training the mind. You will develop unconscious skills on capsize avoidance. You will will learn that you can heel further than you thought possible and still recover. You will gain confidence. You will train your mind not to "give in" to the capsize.
2. Mental rehearsal
Of course the sports psychologists would tell Alex that he can train his mind through mental rehearsal while lying in bed at home. Think positive thoughts. Imagine yourself sailing a windy run. See the waves, hear the wind, feel the boat, taste the salt. Visualize yourself dealing successfully with every puff, every random wave. Think competence. Feel confidence. Etc. Etc. Etc.
I've never used this technique much. Maybe I've been sailing badly for so many decades that it's hard for me to even imagine sailing properly any more? Would it even work for a problem like this? Or is telling yourself not to think of capsizing the same as the old game where you tell someone not to think about elephants and then ask them what they are thinking about? Elephants, of course!
3. Distraction
I wrote a few years ago in Wheels on the Bus how singing a silly kids' song had an amazingly positive effect on my ability to sail a Laser in heavy air. Usually when I am going downwind in big air I am all tensed up and thinking, "Oh shit, don't capsize. Oh shit, don't capsize. Oh shit, don't capsize." Not surprisingly the more I think about not capsizing, the more likely I am to capsize. But if I am singing at the top of my voice, "The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round... " it seems that I am more relaxed, and instead of thinking about capsizing I am thinking about, "What verse comes after, 'The wheels on the bus go round and round'?"
The theory behind this approach is essentially that you really know how to sail downwind without death-rolling all the time. You just need to stop your conscious mind from trying too hard not to capsize, and instead make it get out of the way and let your subconscious mind do what it already knows how to do. Relax. Breathe. Stop trying too hard. Sing, if that works for you.
Of course all three suggestions above could be total crap. God knows I'm no expert on this topic. So please feel free to abuse me in the comments, tell me what is wrong with my three ideas, and then offer Alex (and me) some more constructive advice on how to stop thinking ourselves into falling.
Related Posts
Broken Record
Losing It
Half a World
There is one common thing with skiing and sailing outside of the comfort zone. When pushing it hard, the weakest link that breaks first is usually the mind. It's rarely muscles or motor skills.
Most of the falls and capsizes happen when mind gives in to the pressure of fear and commands the fall or the capsize to escape the pressure, to get back into the comfort zone.
So, is it possible to train the mind and push further away the snapping moment? How much further?
I know exactly what he means. As regular readers of this blog will know, my Achilles heel in Laser sailing is the death roll when sailing downwind in heavy air and big waves. I can cope well for a while with the conditions but then there comes a moment when a bigger puff or a rogue wave rolls the boat a little more and something clicks in my head and I develop the conviction that I'm going to capsize to windward and there's nothing I can possibly do to prevent it... and a moment later I prove myself right. Glug, glug, glug. There's definitely a split second when the mind decides that the hassle of keeping the long pointy thing aiming at the sky is just too much pressure any more, and it "gives in" to capsizing.
So what can be done about it? I'm no expert on the question. If I were I wouldn't be wiping out so much downwind. But three possible approaches occur to me.
1. Practice on the water
One of the drills we did at Kurt Taulbee's SailFit clinic was the Maximum Heel Drill. The idea is to sail downwind heeling the boat to windward as far as you can. If you never capsize you're not really trying. One year at SailFit, there was a kid from the Clearwater youth team who joined us for the weekend of the clinic who could heel the boat to about 80 degrees from the vertical in a solid breeze and then not only recover from the death roll but also go straight into a gybe. Amazing!
Of course you don't have to go to a clinic to do this drill. You can do it any time on your own. Play around. Experiment. How far can you heel? What is the best way to recover from an impending death roll? Does it work better to head up or to steer further to leeward? Is sheeting in the key? How fast can you get your weight to leeward to prevent the capsize? What's the best way to move your weight; what do you do with your feet, your hands? Play around.
All this play is training the mind. You will develop unconscious skills on capsize avoidance. You will will learn that you can heel further than you thought possible and still recover. You will gain confidence. You will train your mind not to "give in" to the capsize.
2. Mental rehearsal
Of course the sports psychologists would tell Alex that he can train his mind through mental rehearsal while lying in bed at home. Think positive thoughts. Imagine yourself sailing a windy run. See the waves, hear the wind, feel the boat, taste the salt. Visualize yourself dealing successfully with every puff, every random wave. Think competence. Feel confidence. Etc. Etc. Etc.
I've never used this technique much. Maybe I've been sailing badly for so many decades that it's hard for me to even imagine sailing properly any more? Would it even work for a problem like this? Or is telling yourself not to think of capsizing the same as the old game where you tell someone not to think about elephants and then ask them what they are thinking about? Elephants, of course!
3. Distraction
I wrote a few years ago in Wheels on the Bus how singing a silly kids' song had an amazingly positive effect on my ability to sail a Laser in heavy air. Usually when I am going downwind in big air I am all tensed up and thinking, "Oh shit, don't capsize. Oh shit, don't capsize. Oh shit, don't capsize." Not surprisingly the more I think about not capsizing, the more likely I am to capsize. But if I am singing at the top of my voice, "The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round... " it seems that I am more relaxed, and instead of thinking about capsizing I am thinking about, "What verse comes after, 'The wheels on the bus go round and round'?"
The theory behind this approach is essentially that you really know how to sail downwind without death-rolling all the time. You just need to stop your conscious mind from trying too hard not to capsize, and instead make it get out of the way and let your subconscious mind do what it already knows how to do. Relax. Breathe. Stop trying too hard. Sing, if that works for you.
Of course all three suggestions above could be total crap. God knows I'm no expert on this topic. So please feel free to abuse me in the comments, tell me what is wrong with my three ideas, and then offer Alex (and me) some more constructive advice on how to stop thinking ourselves into falling.
Related Posts
Broken Record
Losing It
Half a World
Poetry in Motion
Overhead view of the Laser Cup event at Lake Lugano in Switzerland last weekend, taken from a restaurant in Gandria. Credit to Hilmar Brand, and LaserPerformance Europe who posted the video on their Facebook page.
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Save The Life Of Our Sport
Everyone wants to "save" sailing, but it is a totally ridiculous ambition.
Because there is no such thing as sailing.
Or to be more precise, sailing is not a single thing. It is many things. And it is so many things that it is a nonsense to talk of saving it... or even them.
Let me give you an analogy.
What is sailing?
Sailing is the art (or pastime or sport) of propelling oneself across the surface of the water using the power of the wind captured by one or more sails.
An analogy might be the art of propelling oneself across the surface of the land using one's feet and legs. But there is no single word to describe this art. So let's make one up. Let's call it "flegging."
Flegging includes walking and running and skating and skiing and dancing and hopping and jumping and bicycling and pogo sticking. In sports, it includes all kinds of walking and running races from sprints to ultra-marathons, not to mention long jumping and high jumping and pole vaulting. It includes hiking and long distance trekking and mountain climbing. It includes everything from a gentle walk on the beach to climbing Everest. It is casual recreation. It is extreme sports. It is a pastime. It is many Olympic sports.
No wonder "flegging" isn't a real word. Who would even think think of the need for a single word to describe so many different things? And even if it were a real word, would anyone talk of "saving flegging"?
Sailing is just as diverse and varied as flegging.
It includes dinghy sailing and keelboat sailing and multihull sailing and windsurfing and kiteboarding and riding foils in an International Moth. For those who want to race there is short course racing around the buoys and races around the world and everything in between. You can sail on lakes or rivers or bays or down the coast or across an ocean. You can try and set speed records over 500 meters or across the Atlantic or around the world. You can sail in a wooden boat you made yourself or some high-tech marvel of carbon-fiber equipped with all manner of electronics and gizmos and other amazing technologies. Sailing is everything from a gentle sail in the setting sun with the love of your life, to taking five years to cruise around the world, to racing around the world with a crew of a dozen sweaty hairy men. It is a couple of billionaires frittering away their fortunes trying to win the America's Cup; and it is a man and his wife day-sailing in a Catalina 30 on their local bay.
Sailing is just as varied as flegging. It ain't one thing. It's a hundred things. At least.
So why do people talk of saving sailing?
Does kitesurfing need saving?
Does college sailing need saving?
If you "save" Star sailing, does that mean you will have made it possible for more people to try and set records for sailing around the world?
If you "save" the America's Cup, does it make the International Moth Class stronger?
A very smart chap called Nick Hayes wrote a book called Saving Sailing. I wrote a review of it a couple of years ago. Nick is a good bloke with his heart in the right place and his book makes a compelling case. I'm sure he really believes his ideas could "save sailing." But it seemed to me that his book was really about saving one type of sailing, the sort of sailing that Nick knows best. Nothing wrong with that. It's just not about saving all kinds of sailing. It's as if someone had written a book about how to promote more people to hike the Appalachian Trail in the belief that that would somehow encourage more people to take up ice dancing or the hop, skip and jump.
Gary Jobson is a good bloke too. He must be. He used to sail Lasers. As President of US Sailing he is working hard to save sailing, as he sees it. One of his initiatives to this end is a Yacht Club Summit in Chicago this weekend. They have been having speeches and breakout session on all sorts of topics such as Information Technology and Yacht Club Branding and Financial Stability and Building Membership. I'm sure it's all good stuff. But I fear it's more about saving yacht clubs than saving sailing.
And while we're at it, why do we have organizations like US Sailing or ISAF? Do we have US Flegging or the International Flegging Federation? Would anyone in their right minds think of creating a single organization to administer and promote both speed skating and marathon running; ballroom dancing and cycling? Why do we think that one organization should worry itself about the America's Cup and Wednesday night beer can racing; kitesurfing and sailing solo around the world? It's nonsense.
Our ancestors have been flegging for millions of years. They have been sailing for thousands of years, at least. Both are so much part of our nature that neither is in danger of dying out.
I really think it's a shame that the word "sailing" was ever invented. It confuses people. It makes them think there is such a thing. There isn't.
There is no such thing as sailing.
Just like there is no such thing as flegging.
So let's forget about trying to "save" it.
"Good God! Don't jump!"
A sport sat on the edge.
An old salt who had fainted was revived.
And everyone agreed it would be a miracle indeed
If the sport survived.
"Save the life of our sport!"
Cried the desperate author.
The man from US Sailing
Ran to call the press.
"He must be high on something," someone said.
Though it never made The New York Times.
In Sailing World, the caption read,
"Save the life of our sport!"
Cried the desperate author.
A jury boat passing by
Halted to a stop.
Said the International Judge in dismay:
"The juries can't do a decent job
'Cause the kids got no respect
For the Rules today (and blah blah blah)."
"Save the life of our sport!"
Cried the desperate author.
"What's becoming of the sailors?"
People asking each other.
When darkness fell, excitement kissed the crowd
And made them wild
In an atmosphere of freaky holiday.
When the spotlight hit the boat,
The crowd began to cheer...
It sailed away.
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel (and Nick and Gary.)
Because there is no such thing as sailing.
Or to be more precise, sailing is not a single thing. It is many things. And it is so many things that it is a nonsense to talk of saving it... or even them.
Let me give you an analogy.
What is sailing?
Sailing is the art (or pastime or sport) of propelling oneself across the surface of the water using the power of the wind captured by one or more sails.
An analogy might be the art of propelling oneself across the surface of the land using one's feet and legs. But there is no single word to describe this art. So let's make one up. Let's call it "flegging."
Flegging includes walking and running and skating and skiing and dancing and hopping and jumping and bicycling and pogo sticking. In sports, it includes all kinds of walking and running races from sprints to ultra-marathons, not to mention long jumping and high jumping and pole vaulting. It includes hiking and long distance trekking and mountain climbing. It includes everything from a gentle walk on the beach to climbing Everest. It is casual recreation. It is extreme sports. It is a pastime. It is many Olympic sports.
No wonder "flegging" isn't a real word. Who would even think think of the need for a single word to describe so many different things? And even if it were a real word, would anyone talk of "saving flegging"?
Sailing is just as diverse and varied as flegging.
It includes dinghy sailing and keelboat sailing and multihull sailing and windsurfing and kiteboarding and riding foils in an International Moth. For those who want to race there is short course racing around the buoys and races around the world and everything in between. You can sail on lakes or rivers or bays or down the coast or across an ocean. You can try and set speed records over 500 meters or across the Atlantic or around the world. You can sail in a wooden boat you made yourself or some high-tech marvel of carbon-fiber equipped with all manner of electronics and gizmos and other amazing technologies. Sailing is everything from a gentle sail in the setting sun with the love of your life, to taking five years to cruise around the world, to racing around the world with a crew of a dozen sweaty hairy men. It is a couple of billionaires frittering away their fortunes trying to win the America's Cup; and it is a man and his wife day-sailing in a Catalina 30 on their local bay.
Sailing is just as varied as flegging. It ain't one thing. It's a hundred things. At least.
So why do people talk of saving sailing?
Does kitesurfing need saving?
Does college sailing need saving?
If you "save" Star sailing, does that mean you will have made it possible for more people to try and set records for sailing around the world?
If you "save" the America's Cup, does it make the International Moth Class stronger?
A very smart chap called Nick Hayes wrote a book called Saving Sailing. I wrote a review of it a couple of years ago. Nick is a good bloke with his heart in the right place and his book makes a compelling case. I'm sure he really believes his ideas could "save sailing." But it seemed to me that his book was really about saving one type of sailing, the sort of sailing that Nick knows best. Nothing wrong with that. It's just not about saving all kinds of sailing. It's as if someone had written a book about how to promote more people to hike the Appalachian Trail in the belief that that would somehow encourage more people to take up ice dancing or the hop, skip and jump.
Gary Jobson is a good bloke too. He must be. He used to sail Lasers. As President of US Sailing he is working hard to save sailing, as he sees it. One of his initiatives to this end is a Yacht Club Summit in Chicago this weekend. They have been having speeches and breakout session on all sorts of topics such as Information Technology and Yacht Club Branding and Financial Stability and Building Membership. I'm sure it's all good stuff. But I fear it's more about saving yacht clubs than saving sailing.
And while we're at it, why do we have organizations like US Sailing or ISAF? Do we have US Flegging or the International Flegging Federation? Would anyone in their right minds think of creating a single organization to administer and promote both speed skating and marathon running; ballroom dancing and cycling? Why do we think that one organization should worry itself about the America's Cup and Wednesday night beer can racing; kitesurfing and sailing solo around the world? It's nonsense.
Our ancestors have been flegging for millions of years. They have been sailing for thousands of years, at least. Both are so much part of our nature that neither is in danger of dying out.
I really think it's a shame that the word "sailing" was ever invented. It confuses people. It makes them think there is such a thing. There isn't.
There is no such thing as sailing.
Just like there is no such thing as flegging.
So let's forget about trying to "save" it.
"Good God! Don't jump!"
A sport sat on the edge.
An old salt who had fainted was revived.
And everyone agreed it would be a miracle indeed
If the sport survived.
"Save the life of our sport!"
Cried the desperate author.
The man from US Sailing
Ran to call the press.
"He must be high on something," someone said.
Though it never made The New York Times.
In Sailing World, the caption read,
"Save the life of our sport!"
Cried the desperate author.
A jury boat passing by
Halted to a stop.
Said the International Judge in dismay:
"The juries can't do a decent job
'Cause the kids got no respect
For the Rules today (and blah blah blah)."
"Save the life of our sport!"
Cried the desperate author.
"What's becoming of the sailors?"
People asking each other.
When darkness fell, excitement kissed the crowd
And made them wild
In an atmosphere of freaky holiday.
When the spotlight hit the boat,
The crowd began to cheer...
It sailed away.
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
Golly gee! I forgot my PFD!
with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel (and Nick and Gary.)
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Dynamic Views
Those clever people at Google have just created five new dynamic creative ways to view Blogger blogs. Currently you can enable them by adding /view to the URL of a Blogger blog. But my understanding is that they will eventually allow the authors of Blogger blogs to offer Dynamic Views as the default mode for their blogs and include the ability to edit them.
Here is how Proper Course looks in each of the five views...
Flipcard
Mosaic
Snapshot
Sidebar
Timeslide
Check them out. Please tell me what you think. Which one works best with a blog like mine?
Technical Notes
If you own a Blogger blog the Dynamic Views will only work if...
- your blog is public. Your readers don’t need to sign in to view your blog.
- your blog has feeds fully enabled. In the Settings | Site feed tab, you have enabled either Full or Jump Break for your Post Feed.
- you have not disabled dynamic views. In the Setting | Formatting tab, the option for Enable Dynamic Views is set to Yes.
If you want to see Dynamic Views then you need a modern browser such as Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox 3.5+, Chrome or Safari. Many elements of these views will not work should you have an older browser.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Best Sailing April Fools Joke of 2011
I was going to write an April Fools post this year. I had it all worked out. It was based on the current brouhaha going on in the Laser class about intellectual property rights, and who is really allowed to build Lasers, and whether the class should change the rules to say who can build Lasers... and .. and...
It's a mess. There are currently 94 posts on the Laser Forum and 90 on Sailing Anarchy about the issue and I'm still no nearer to understanding it.
I had a crazy scenario based on this Laser class meltdown worked out in my head yesterday that would make a perfect April Fools post. But then the more I thought about it the more I realized that my ridiculous, impossible, fantastic spoof scenario might actually come true any day now. And when (potential) truth is scarier than the worst fevered fantasy I can imagine... we are really in the shit.
So I thought my April Fools post would be in bad taste, and as the standard bearer for good taste in the sailing blogosphere I decided to desist.
The next best April Fools joke on the sailing Interwebs this year (after mine) is undoubtedly Shingles Bank Sparks Isle Of Wight Ownership / Independence Claims.
And it has a nice historical picture too.
Enjoy.
New Laser Sail
It's good to know that among all the current controversy within the Laser class about design rights and fundamental rule changes and all that crap, that someone at the International Laser Class still has a sense of humor.
Check out ILCA Announces New Standard Sail for the full story.
Rum and Guava
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about a cruising blog called The World Tour with Alex and Taru. I couldn't quite put my finger on why I found it so fascinating. I'm still no clearer on the answer to this burning question. In the past two weeks there have been posts on The World Tour about phones and amp-hours and fishing and watermelon, all subjects in which I have no interest whatsoever. Why do people like watermelon? It tastes like water to me.
And yet, I am still addicted to The World Tour.
Why?
Oh yes. There was a recipe for rum and guava. Apparently the secret is to mix rum and fresh guava juice. Who would have thunk it?
I do like rum.
Maybe that's it?
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Red or Green
Esteemed blogger Carol Anne of Five O'Clock Somewhere is running one of those group hug writing challenge thingies. She want us to write about food. Apparently she teaches English at a community college and is currently
Huh? Can she read my mind? How could she possibly know that "Red or Green?" is the food related question that I most frequently have to address, at least during the sailing season. Every Tuesday night in the summer it is the question of the moment.
Let me explain. Last summer some of my most enjoyable and memorable sailing experiences were doing some informal racing with a group of like-minded friends in Bristol Harbor on Tuesday evenings. I wrote about some of those evenings in posts such as The Rabbit and the Old Dog and A Man with a Goat and a Stick and a Cessna.
As the sun sets and the wind dies we sail back to the beach, pack up our boats on to our trailers, change into our street clothes, and then ask the question, "Red or Green?" We have a decision to make. Where are we going for the most important part of the evening's fun, the après-sail?
Actually we don't pose the question in quite those terms, "Red or Green?" But that's what we mean. There are several excellent drinking and eating establishments within walking distance of the launch area but we only consider the best two...
Red? Red is Redlefsen's a small town European style restaurant which draws the best from several countries with German food being the primary focus...
... or Green? Green is of course the color of Ireland and represents Aidan's Pub, the quintessential Irish pub just down the street from Redlefsen's.
It's a tough choice.
Redlefsen's has an excellent selection of European, mainly German beers on tap. Such choices. Should I go for the Ayinger Celebrator or the Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier this week? Or the Warsteiner Dunkel? Mmmm. Often it's the Pilsner Urquell that is the choice of the majority of our crowd, You just can't go wrong with that.
On the other hand Aidan's has Guinness (of course) and a vast range of mainly American beers on draft. Vermont's Long Trail Ale tends to be my après-sail beer of choice here.
Red or green? The food is a factor too.
The main dinner entrees at Redlefsens tend to be a bit too large and fancy for an après-sail snack, though I have been known to go for the Grilled Wurst Platter. But most of the sailors are satisfied with a pasta or a hamburger. The Fettucine a la Bolognese is always a favorite with me.
Aidan's on the other hand has the traditional pub fare. When Tillerwoman and I go there, often in the winter, for lunch I will usually go for something hearty and filling such as bangers and mash, or fish and chips. Probably nostalgic for the food of my childhood. But on a warm summer's evening sitting on one of Aidan's outside decks, nothing seems more appropriate than a burger with melted blue cheese dripping down the sides. Yum.
Red or Green? The two establishments have very different ambiences. Somewhat formal European style restaurant with eclectic decorations. Or out and out Irish pub atmosphere.
Red or Green? I think we pay a bit more each for an evening in the Red than we do in the Green. The kids (i.e. under 40's) in our group tend to favor Aidan's, perhaps for that reason. On the other hand the elder statesman of our fleet and his wife (who does sterling service for us every week as our trolley dolly) do prefer Redlefsen's. I think they even have frequent flier cards for Redlefsen's.
And so that's how we decide between Red and Green. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, so much worth seeing after an evening of Laser sailing than your launching trolley neatly lined up with everyone else's at just the point on the beach that the tide has currently reached. Our trolley dolly is a gem. And if she prefers Red that's fine with us.
But on the nights she's not there we go Green.
Now how did Carol Anne know about Redlefsen's and Aidan's?
Monday, March 28, 2011
Three Laser Classes?
I've had a suspicion for some time that something weird was going on with the Laser builders and trademark owners. There was a mysterious ad on Scuttlebutt Europe last summer from an outfit called Global Sailing "looking for enthusiastic and well established marine dealers to become national or multi national distributors in the European region for the Bruce Kirby designed Olympic Sailing Dinghy." They were obviously talking about the Laser, and I thought there already was a Laser builder for Europe, Laser Performance Europe. What was that all about? There were some other cryptic comments on forums and in meeting minutes that made me suspect something was afoot too.
Now it's all out in the open. The Laser International Class announced today a proposed class rule change to the Fundamental Rule. That's really serious. The Fundamental Rule basically says a Laser is a Laser and you can't mess with it. Apparently there's a dispute as to who really has the rights to build Lasers for most of the world and there's a real danger that the Laser Class may split three ways and even lose its Olympic status.
Holey moley! It's a good thing this news wasn't announced on Friday (April 1) else nobody would believe it.
The current class rules currently say that a builder of legal Lasers must have "a building agreement from Bruce Kirby or Bruce Kirby Inc." (Bruce Kirby is the original designer of the Laser.) According to the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) website "a dispute has arisen between parties who claim to be representing Kirby’s interests: a New Zealand company called Global Sailing; and Laser Performance Europe (LPE), one of the manufacturers, which holds the Laser trademark rights for Europe, South America, Africa and Asia... The dispute centers on whether a valid 'design rights holder' agreement exists with LPE... Each of the parties to the conflict has threatened ILCA in various ways – Global Sailing has said it may form a new class association for a 'Kirby Sailboat.' LPE informed the ILCA that it intends to form its own 'Laser' class. We may therefore end up with three different classes and may lose the Olympic status."
My head is spinning.
The announcement goes on to say that because of this conflict "there may not be a sufficient quantity of new Laser boats compliant with the ILCA Class Rules available in Europe and other countries in 2011 and beyond to satisfy the demand of its current and future ILCA members."
OMG. This is serious.
The class proposes fixing the problem by changing the definition of what constitutes a legal Laser builder, and is asking class members to vote to approve the change.
This is complicated. The announcement leaves a lot of questions unanswered, Not least, who is Global Sailing and how did they come to be "representing Kirby's interests"? The whole proposal needs more explanation and consideration. This could get messy.
Update 4 April
Since I first published this post, some of the background to this issue has been made public, although there is still much unknown and a spirited debate about the advisability and impact of the proposed rule change continues in various forums.
For more up to date information check out...
this thread on the Laser Forum and
this interview with Bruce Kirby on Sail World.
Now it's all out in the open. The Laser International Class announced today a proposed class rule change to the Fundamental Rule. That's really serious. The Fundamental Rule basically says a Laser is a Laser and you can't mess with it. Apparently there's a dispute as to who really has the rights to build Lasers for most of the world and there's a real danger that the Laser Class may split three ways and even lose its Olympic status.
Holey moley! It's a good thing this news wasn't announced on Friday (April 1) else nobody would believe it.
The current class rules currently say that a builder of legal Lasers must have "a building agreement from Bruce Kirby or Bruce Kirby Inc." (Bruce Kirby is the original designer of the Laser.) According to the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) website "a dispute has arisen between parties who claim to be representing Kirby’s interests: a New Zealand company called Global Sailing; and Laser Performance Europe (LPE), one of the manufacturers, which holds the Laser trademark rights for Europe, South America, Africa and Asia... The dispute centers on whether a valid 'design rights holder' agreement exists with LPE... Each of the parties to the conflict has threatened ILCA in various ways – Global Sailing has said it may form a new class association for a 'Kirby Sailboat.' LPE informed the ILCA that it intends to form its own 'Laser' class. We may therefore end up with three different classes and may lose the Olympic status."
My head is spinning.
The announcement goes on to say that because of this conflict "there may not be a sufficient quantity of new Laser boats compliant with the ILCA Class Rules available in Europe and other countries in 2011 and beyond to satisfy the demand of its current and future ILCA members."
OMG. This is serious.
The class proposes fixing the problem by changing the definition of what constitutes a legal Laser builder, and is asking class members to vote to approve the change.
This is complicated. The announcement leaves a lot of questions unanswered, Not least, who is Global Sailing and how did they come to be "representing Kirby's interests"? The whole proposal needs more explanation and consideration. This could get messy.
Update 4 April
Since I first published this post, some of the background to this issue has been made public, although there is still much unknown and a spirited debate about the advisability and impact of the proposed rule change continues in various forums.
For more up to date information check out...
this thread on the Laser Forum and
this interview with Bruce Kirby on Sail World.
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