Two Reviews From Famous Sailing Bloggers

Two more entries came in over the weekend for this month's group writing project, Write a Review...

Carol Anne of Five O'Clock Somewhere adopted the role of film critic and wrote a review of the cult sailing movie Pirates of the White Sands, "the best 14 minutes you'll ever spend." It takes almost as long to read her review as to watch the movie.

Captain JP of Captain JP's log chose to write a review of Bareboat Sailing with Sunsail in the Greek Aegean, with ratings out of five stars for everything from the flight to the boat, the weather to the islands. "In general very happy with the package and would be happy to sail with them again."

You too can join this talented duo by participating in our group writing project Write a Review. You have a week left before the deadline on Monday July 13, but why not do it now?

Thought for the Day

What the Hell Does Tillerman Mean?

"What we've got here is... failure to communicate," said The Captain.

It's my fault. When I invited you all to Write a Review for this month's group writing project I didn't make it clear enough what I meant by a "review". So what does dictionary.com say?

Hmmm.

The noun alone has 11 different definitions. What I was thinking of was definition #1: "a critical article or report, as in a periodical, on a book, play, recital, or the like; critique; evaluation."

It seems that at least one of the two first contributors thought I meant definition #4: "a general survey of something, esp. in words; a report or account of something" (and I have no idea what the other contributor was thinking... or smoking for that matter.)

My mistake, but let's please keep to that first definition. I want criticism, evaluation, what you like and what you don't like about your subject. Check out some of my examples in Reviews What I Have Writ if you're still confused.

So I hope you are all enjoying the holiday weekend for America's birthday and that you had the chance to Swim Naked. Make sure that when you go back to work on Monday you find some time to participate in our group writing project Write a Review. You only have a week left before the deadline on Monday July 13.

"Reviews"?

Two entries already for our group writing project Write a Review ...

Timmynocky submitted a "review" of Chepstow and District Yacht Club's 60th Annual Regatta

and Sam Chapin wrote a bizarre little piece entitled Real View Four Tiller Man.

Hmmm. I appreciate the effort guys but neither post is quite what I meant when I asked for reviews.

Full details of how to participate in our group writing project at Write a Review.

Commenter of the Week - Smilicus

A shout-out today for someone who has been leaving comments here for a while, Smilicus.

Smilicus is from South Africa and blogs about sailing at Sailing Catch 22. Well actually he blogs more often about his excuses for not sailing. That's OK. I haven't been sailing much myself for the last six months so I feel some empathy for a guy who says that he has sailing in his blood but who lets obstacles prevent him from indulging his passion. In the past few months his excuses have included...

• the wind isn't right
• handicap systems aren't fair
• he can't decide what dinghy to buy
• and there's no space left in the marinas.

Love it.

Now that it's winter in South Africa he has another excuse but he did get around to writing a list of what to do in the winter for our Lists group writing project. OK, he was two months late but better late than never. It's great to find someone who is almost as big a procrastinator as me.

Hey Smilicus, how about participating in this month's group writing project, Write a Review? There are nine days left so you could actually submit it by the deadline! And you could even do it while enjoying item #8 of things to do in the winter...

July 4th - Swim Naked Day

Tomorrow is American Independence Day, when Americans celebrate their freedom from rule by those nasty English kings, and we English give thanks that we don't have to put up with those obstreperous colonials any more.

No wait. That's not right. We still have to put up with them. Dang.

Sorry Americans. Only joking. Most of my immediate family are Americans and I love them all dearly.

Anyway... Elizabeth, as her contribution to Bowsprite and Tugster's Swim Day blogging project this week, made her own very specific declaration of independence: she needs to swim naked.

Good for her. I'm all in favor of Elizabeth being able to swim naked if that's her thing. That's what freedom is all about. What better way to express our inalienable rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness than to enjoy the pleasure of a swim without the constraints of clothing? Why should we be denied this simple pleasure because of petty regulations, or what Elizabeth calls "culturally-enforced feelings of impropriety"? Wear a burqini if you must, or celebrate American freedom by swimming naked.

That's Elizabeth in the photo looking very elegant wearing only a pair of sunglasses as she salutes the flag. Feel free to celebrate Independence Day tomorrow by joining Elizabeth in swimming naked.

I hereby declare July 4th to be Swim Naked Day.

Reviews What I Have Writ

This month's group writing project (which was launched yesterday) is Write a Review. If you're still casting around for inspiration, here are a few reviews that have appeared on Proper Course over the years.

Advanced Laser Boat Handling DVD - "Don't tell Ari but I would probably have paid even more for it; it's that good."

UK-Halsey Racing Rules Quiz Program - "Will also teach a thing or two to arrogant bastards like me who think they know it all."

Bottleport - "What can I say? It works exactly as advertised. No problems whatsoever."

Intensity Sails Tyvek Regatta Deck Cover for Laser Sailboats - "If Jim would just treat the cover with a marsupial repellent I would give it 100 out of 100."

Sailfit Laser Sailing Seminar - "When do we break for lunch? Never, apparently."

Evelyn's Drive-In - "A clam sandwich and a local brew sitting by the water. What could be better on a hot, humid summer day?"

Intensity Sails Gription Hiking Strap - "Scientific tests have shown that Lasers with the Intensity Sails Gription Hiking Strap are on average 0.38 of a knot faster than other Lasers."

NRS Hydroskin G2 Socks - "Some serious sock science brainpower has been at work here."

Minorca Sailing - "I guess sailing instructors do remember the day they thought, if only for a second, that they might have drowned a client."

Tacticat - "Less broccoli and more heroin than Second Life."

Uncrustables - "They taste vile."

Full details of how to participate in this month's group writing project at Write a Review. Deadline for submissions is Monday July 13.

Write a Review

This month's group writing project is Write a Review.

Easy. Just write a review of anything that's vaguely to do with sailing or whatever other perverted form of boating turns you on.

It could be a review of a boat. Or a piece of boating equipment. Or some boating apparel.

It could be a review of a favorite place you like to go sailing. Or a yacht club. Or a marina.

Perhaps you could write a review of a regatta which you like. Or a sailing resort. Or a sailing school. Or your favorite Caribbean island.

You could review a sailing book. Or a sailing movie (though your choice is somewhat limited there.) Or an instructional DVD about sailing.

The possibilities are endless. Just write a review telling us what you like and don't like about your chosen product or service or place or whatever. You can be as analytical or as emotional as you like. You can give your reviewee "stars out of five" or "points out of ten" or assorted "thumbs up." You can do scientific tests or express the most extreme opinions of no basis whatsoever.

So here is how to participate...

1. Write a review (of something to do with boating) on your blog. Please publish the review before Monday July 13.

2. Once you've posted your review, let me know about it by sending an email to tillermeister@gmail.com including a link to your review. If you don't have a blog just email me your review and I will post it here.

3. I will post here two links to your review. Every day or so I will write a post listing any new entries in the project. Then at the end of the project I will publish the complete list of "Reviews of Boating Related Stuff."

Look forward to hearing from you...

This Summer I Went Swimming

It is raining again this morning but I'm running out of rain song videos. Also tugster has declared today July 1st to be Swim Day. He wants you all to join him in blogging about swimming today. So now I need to support tugster and write a post about swimming...

Just by chance I did go swimming yesterday. It was actually quite a coincidence because I can't remember the last time I went swimming on purpose, as opposed to falling off my Laser, or capsizing my Laser, or otherwise generally making a fool of myself on a Laser. There was the time I went swimming when it was my big chance to shine, the time I went swimming three times before dinner, and, perhaps best of all, the time I went swimming with a rope round my neck. Oh yes, this blog is full of stories about Tillerman's unintentional swims.

But yesterday was different. It was an intentional swim. After a thrilling morning at the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles waiting for two hours to enact a transaction that took all of thirty seconds, I emerged around lunchtime and realized that something strange was going on with the weather. It wasn't raining. It wasn't drizzling. It wasn't even foggy. It was actually sunny. Yikes.

So Tillerwoman and I jumped in the car, enjoyed a leisurely lunch of chowder and clams and lobster sandwiches sitting by the water at Evelyn's Drive-In, and then spent the afternoon on Goosewing Beach in Little Compton where I appreciated the rare (for me) pleasure of a long relaxing swim in the ocean. On the way home we stopped by at Peckham's Greenhouse to pick up a few more plants for the garden. Tiverton and Little Compton were looking their best in the unseasonal summer sunshine. All in all a perfect Rhody day... apart from that DMV experience.

Did I mention that it's raining again today? But I can say that this summer I went swimming...

This summer I went swimming,
This summer I might have drowned
But I held my breath and I kicked my feet
And I moved my arms around, I moved my arms around.

This summer I swam in the ocean,
And I swam in a swimming pool,
Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes,
I'm a self-destructive fool, a self-destructive fool.

This summer I did the backstroke
And you know that's not all
I did the breast stroke and the butterfly
And the old Australian crawl, the old Australian crawl.

This summer I swam in a public place
And a reservoir, to boot,
At the latter I was informal,
At the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit.

This summer I did swan dives
And jackknifes for you all
And once when you weren't looking
I did a cannonball, I did a cannonball.

If you need further instructions on how to enjoy Swim Day then check out Bowsprite's post on How To Swim From a Schooner.

Tiller of Doom

You have to hand it to those Moth dudes. They know how to have a seriously close championship and then have a serious party afterwards including the infamous tiller of doom (see photo above).

Congratulations to Simon Payne for almost, almost, winning the European Championship and for writing about it at Baltic Ballistic. And even more congrats to Arnaud Psarofaghis who beat Simon in the closest of close tie-breakers.

So serious Laser sailors, how about introducing this "tiller of doom" tradition at serious Laser regattas?