Litoralis

Why we like shellfish

2009-12-16T11:34:00.000-05:00

Apparently, at least according to a professor from a state with no coastline, shellfish may have saved the human race at some point in its history when there were no protesters available to lobby world leaders to prevent climate change.

How shellfish saved the human race

Image courtesy Flickr user avlxyz, via CC

Yum. I guess that explains why I like shellfish so much. How does it explain the existence of people with shellfish allergies though?

Fish Flops on Friday

2008-08-29T09:51:00.000-04:00

NBC is clueless

2008-08-13T13:23:00.004-04:00

Adam at Messing About In Sailboats posts about NBC's lack of Olympic sailing coverage. I agree, it is pretty abysmal. Even on the website, they can't get the names (or sex) of the sailing competitors right when the competitors' names are WRITTEN ON THEIR SAIL!!!

It's pretty obvious that the sailors in the photo above are not Sarah Mergenthaler and Amanda Clark but are actually Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl.

Just because you can use PhotoShop, doesn't mean you are smart enough to use a dictionary

2008-07-07T20:30:00.001-04:00

(Gold)Fish on Fridays

2008-04-18T13:53:00.001-04:00

83-year-old Ada Shaw has had her pet goldfish Goldie for 15 years, 50% longer than a goldfish is expected to live even with great care. Goldie is a whopping 15.7 inches long and weighs over two pounds! Shaw, of Folkestone, Kent, cleans his tank once a week and adds a bit of boiling water to keep it warm.

Looks Like A Big Laser

2008-04-18T10:26:00.006-04:00

They keep making these big yachts look more and more like Bruce Kirby's humble Laser hull shape:
Wide and flat is fast, apparently.

Photo of the Day: Solomon Sea

2008-04-17T10:22:00.004-04:00

I found this on the internet with only the somewhat cryptic caption "Solomon Sea" to indicate where it came from and who these adventurers are.

Iceman 2008 - Crazier than Tillerman?

2008-04-10T09:38:00.003-04:00

Some guy from Wisconsin has already rigged up his (unusually rigged) Laser and gone sailing. Why is my boat still sitting under a tarp in my backyard? I'm pretty sure that the lake near my house is completely free from ice, unlike Lake Kegonsa.

Tacticat is now SailX

2008-04-02T09:27:00.003-04:00

After much development work from the creators of Tacticat...a new site, called SailX has been launched. If you haven't tried the best online racing simulator, then now's the time to give it a go.

P.S. Obviously all the posts from yesterday were jokes...why would anyone quit sailing to wear silly clothes and walk around hitting a little white ball into a hole in the ground?

Photo of the Day: Look at those hummocks!

2008-04-01T10:55:00.002-04:00

What a great idea!!!

2008-04-01T10:52:00.002-04:00

Look at this product I found. I need one immediately! I will be the hero of the game...no more bending over to pick up the ball. Think of all the wear and tear I will save on my back! This one even picks up two balls at the same time!!!

Product Review: The LifeStyler

2008-04-01T10:50:00.002-04:00

If I got one of these I'd never have to worry about those long walks on par 5 holes again!

Photo of the Day: Pink Socks

2008-04-01T10:48:00.004-04:00

Check out those pink socks!!! I just have to get me some!

Quitting Sailing

2008-04-01T10:34:00.003-04:00

The time has come. It has become clear to me that sailing just isn't for me. I have become too old and fat for a Laser...and even a Force 5 seems to exciting for me. So, I have decided to take up the ancient sport of golf.

This site will now feature interesting commentary on the how different kinds of grass can affect putting, seasonal allergies, whether walking is too strenuous, the right kind of club covers to buy, the biggest and best umbrellas, how to avoid blisters, etc.

Watch this space...for exciting coverage of GOLF!!!

Take a Walk on a Virtual Beach

2008-03-21T09:38:00.001-04:00

Click the picture to explore Virtual Sand

Deep Thought: There's Not That Much Water and Air

2008-03-11T14:42:00.001-04:00

Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc.

Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth.

Windy Landing

2008-03-03T15:42:00.001-05:00

Good weather for sailing...not so good for landing an Airbus A320.

Over the weekend, a Lufthansa Airlines flight scraped its wing on the ground during a landing attempt in Hamburg, Germany.

Pirate Mural

2008-02-28T12:50:00.002-05:00

Check out this massive (180cm X 190cm) pirate ship wall-decal for your kiddies' room. A perfect way to get the li'l sailors off on the right foot. Or peg. Link

Random Photo: Looks Like Fun

2008-02-15T12:13:00.001-05:00

I have no idea who this is, or where the photo was taken. Via Pizdaus.

Carnage at the Laser Worlds

2008-02-13T08:57:00.003-05:00

Windy conditions in Terrigal for the Laser Worlds.

Been there, done that...well, not at a World championship, and not as badly as poor Deniss Karpak from Estonia (the guy in 193043 who seems to have started this mess).

Don't feel bad Tillerman...even the "kids" capsize in Terrigal.

Laser World Championships

2008-02-12T10:45:00.000-05:00

(Photo Monica Palloni)

Crash of the Week: Mallard

2008-02-05T08:55:00.000-05:00

Little Known Naval History *

2008-01-29T08:44:00.000-05:00

The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (fresh water distillers). However, let it be noted that according to her log, "On July 27, 1798, the USS Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping." Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchantmen, salvaging only the rum aboard each. By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, and though unarmed, she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whiskey distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home.

The USS Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, NO rum, NO wine, NO whiskey and 38,600 gallons of stagnant water. Now these guys knew how to drink!

* Possibly an urban legend...but who cares, it's a good story anyway.

Dolphins Playing with Bubbles

2008-01-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

Check out this amazing video of dolphins playing with bubble rings. The control they have over the rings is remarkable.

Apparently, both dolphins and certain whales are known to blow bubble rings. Two ways of creating such rings have been reported: one way is by letting a ring out of their blow hole, the other by creating a water vortex ring and blowing air in the vortex ring.

There are few ways that bubble rings can be created:

Rings can be created by letting air escape through an orifice that is opened and closed abruptly. A bubble-blowing diver falls in this category.
Rings can be created by letting a fixed amount of air escape through an orifice that is permanently opened. The bubble machine of David Whiteis falls in this category
Dolphins create bubble rings by blowing air in a water vortex ring. They create a vortex of water by flipping a fin. They then blow air in the ring. The air goes to the center of the vortex ring. When air and water move in a circular path like they do in the vortex ring, air and water are separated due to the centripetal force. Since the density of water is larger than air, water moves at the outside, while the air ends up in the middle.

Crash of the Week: The Kursk

2008-01-25T10:18:00.000-05:00

K-141 Kursk was a Russian nuclear cruise missile submarine which was lost with all hands when it sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000.

The Kursk sailed out to sea to perform an exercise of firing dummy torpedoes at Pyotr Velikiy, a Kirov class battlecruiser. On August 12, 2000 at 11:28 local time (07:28 UTC), the missiles were fired, but an explosion occurred soon after on Kursk. The only credible report to-date is that this was due to the failure and explosion of one of Kursk’s new/developmental torpedoes. The chemical explosion blasted with the force of 100-250 kg of TNT and registered 2.2 on the Richter scale. The submarine sank to a depth of 108 metres, approximately 135km (85 miles) off Severomorsk, at 69°40′N, 37°35′E. A second explosion 135 seconds after the initial event measured between 3.5 and 4.4 on the Richter scale, equivalent to 3-7 tons of TNT. Either this explosion or the earlier one propelled large pieces of debris far back through the submarine.

Kursk was eventually raised from her grave by a Dutch team using the barge Giant 4, and 115 of the 118 dead were recovered and laid to rest in Russia.

A particularly scary image...I think this is the collapsed nose cone of a torpedo:

I don't think even Tim Zim could make this look pretty again...even with some wood cladding:

Poetry Corner

2008-01-20T18:08:00.000-05:00

In response to Carol Anne's challenge to write a poem about "Where I'm From" based on the model provided by the poem of that name by George Ella Lyons:

I am from Matchbox cars,
from Marmite and conkers.
From emigration and immigration;
I am from the beach and the lake,
from duckweed and stone walls,
oak trees and ski poles.

I'm from home cooking and gardening,
from George and Joan, Geoffrey and Beth.
I'm from do-it-yourself and make-it-look-easy.
From "only boring people get bored" and "do what you're told."
I'm from C-of-E schools, Our Father, and hymns;
science and logic won out in the end.

I'm from Turpin's Green,
cheese-on-toast and toad-in-the-hole.
From a stonemason, his shed full of tools,
and an Australian with two bionic knees.
From the munitions factory, West Africa in the War,
and a Lincolnshire lad with a Cambridge degree.

I'm from the boxes of slides, sorted and labeled.
Memorized stories of mountains and campsites.
Two boys and their Mum;
Dad behind the camera planning the fun.

Tillerman at the 6th Caribbean Midwinters

2008-01-13T21:03:00.000-05:00

Pull that Halyard Up!

2008-01-09T10:09:00.000-05:00

If you are going to motor sail...at least pull your main all the way up. Reefing is for sissies.

Warm Day

2008-01-08T14:01:00.000-05:00

It is unseasonably warm today in Boston; 66 degrees Fahrenheit in the city. I took a break from work and went for a walk near my office in the Seaport area. Here are some photos I took with the camera on my phone:

A tanker being pushed by a tug.

Rowes Wharf from the Moakley Courthouse.

Sailboats moored near the Boston Harbor Sailing Club

Fishing boats at the Fish Pier

Another view of the fishing boats at the Fish Pier with the white tent of the Bank of America Pavilion in the background

Solar Power

2007-12-31T15:48:00.000-05:00

Adam from Messing About in Sailboats has a New Year's resolution to do one thing every week to save the planet. These guys are already doing their part by sharing their boombox and using solar power to avoid using batteries:

Married to the Sea Cartoon

2007-12-28T13:35:00.000-05:00

I am pretty sure that the folks who create Married to the Sea comics were completely unaware of the current America's Cup legal battle when they used Ernesto as a name in the cartoon above.

Fairytale of New York

2007-12-21T22:05:00.001-05:00

After dating and eventually marrying an Irish-American girl (and her extended Irish family) I have a soft spot for Irish music. This Pogues song, which was apparently voted best Christmas song of all time three years running in 2004, 2005, and 2006 in polls by music channel VH1 UK, is a really good example of modern, Irish-influenced rock music. I rediscovered the song when I heard it played on WBCN earlier this week (listen at least to about 1:25 when the band comes in).

Unfortunately, Kirsty MacColl, the female vocalist in the song, was killed by a speeding powerboat while diving in Mexico. She was able to save her son's life by pushing him out of the path of the powerboat, but she was hit by the boat and killed instantly.

Fish on Friday

2007-12-21T16:19:00.001-05:00

Crash of the Week: Princess May

2007-12-21T09:34:00.001-05:00

The ship above is the steamer Princess May, hard aground on Sentinel Island, Alaska, in August, 1910. She was part of a fleet of passenger and freight haulers operated by the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company along the West Coast of North America at about the turn of the century.

The Princess May was built in 1888 in Newcastle, England. She measured 249 feet in length so was a formidable sized vessel when you consider what happened to it. As the story is told, she stranded on the island’s rocky outcrop on August 5, 1910, within full view of the lighthouse on the island. She was steaming at full speed in the early morning in heavy fog, southbound from Skagway, Alaska, when the accident happened.

The lifeboats were lowered and some 80 passengers and the 68-member were safely evacuated to the island. It was said that the ship also was carrying gold, which also was taken ashore for safe keeping. Then the tide went out and the ship was left high and dry, as it appears in the classic picture snapped by W. H. Case.

Believe it or not, the Princess May was salvaged about a month later by Captain W. H. Logan and his salvage tug Santa Cruz, from Seattle. Logan managed to get the steamer lighted and re-floated during high tide.

The other interesting thing about this ship was that it probably had more names than any other vessel that ever sailed the high seas. The steamer was originally named the Mei Shih when it was launched. Before it came to the American coast, the ship was renamed Cass, then Arthur. After that it was renamed Cass, then Ningchow and finally the Hating before the railroad company bought it in 1901 and gave the vessel its final and infamous name.

The May remained in service for nine more years before she was sold to new owners, the Princess May Steamship Company in the Caribbean. In the end the vessel was scrapped and then scuttled off Jamaica in 1930.

A Dream Job (Almost)

2007-12-20T15:50:00.000-05:00

Tracy Usher, the North American Chairman of the Laser Class, posted a link to a job on the LaserForum today. The job is ILCA Technical Officer, and I would be really interested...if my current employment situation were a little more flexible.

The Position

A Technical Officer, to fill a current vacancy, providing technical support to the International Laser Class Association (ILCA). The support will be in 3 main areas:

1. Manufacturing (including construction manual maintenance and compliance, quality control, material specifications, recommending and implementing policy) reporting to the Chairman of the ILCA Technical and Measurement Committee.
2. Measurement (including drafting of rules and interpretations, maintenance of the measurement manual, measurers communications, recommending and implementing policy) reporting to the ILCA Chief Measurer.
3. General Technical (including technical drawings and illustrations on various aspects of sailboat racing).

Employment

On a part time basis (50%). The function holder will be working from his/her home.
Administratively he/she will report to the ILCA Executive Secretary stationed in Falmouth, Cornwall, England.
Travelling abroad (several weeks per year) is inherent in the job.

The Candidate

The candidate will have a technical/engineering degree or similar qualifications. He/she will be highly proficient in written and spoken English and familiar with marine technical language. Experience in the manufacture of small GRP boats and familiarity with mast technology and sail making may be an advantage although training will be provided. The candidate should also be familiar with popular office computer software, technical drawings and CAD packages. Current involvement with small boat racing would be an additional advantage.

Applications close 31st January 2008

For further information (including a detailed job description) please contact:

The Executive Secretary
International Laser Class Association
Email: office@laserinternational.org

Party Like a Sailor

2007-12-18T16:26:00.000-05:00

In honor of the "holidays" (as they are known here in the politically correct US) and the requisite "holiday" parties, here's a historical example of a remarkable party.

At an officer's party in 1694 (an officer's party, not an office party, but close enough), the British Lord Admiral Edward Russell commissioned history’s largest cocktail.

That's the Admiral above.

The "cocktail" used a garden fountain as a punch bowl. The concoction included 250 gallons of brandy, 125 gallons of Malaga wine, 1,400 pounds of sugar, 2,500 lemons, 20 gallons of lime juice, and 5 pounds of nutmeg.

A series of bartenders actually paddled around in a small wooden canoe, filling up guests’ cups. Not only that, but they had to work in 15-minute shifts to avoid being overcome by the fumes and falling overboard.

The party continued nonstop for a full week, pausing only briefly during rainstorms to erect a silk canopy over the punch to keep it from getting watered down. In fact, the festivities didn’t end until the fountain had been drunk completely dry.

Fish on Friday: Fish Escape

2007-12-14T10:10:00.001-05:00

Down on the fish farm, workers could not understand why the number of brown trout had suddenly taken a dive. But close observation revealed the reason - an aquatic version of the Great Escape.

The resourceful fish are leaping 3ft out of the water and into an eight-inch pipe which brings fresh water into the farm near Alresford, Hampshire.

Following their instincts, the trout, cousins of the Atlantic salmon, then swim against the flow for 30ft before finding freedom at the other end as they plop into a tributary of the River Itchen.

Simon Johnson, director of the Wild Trout Trust, said: "Brown trout do have migratory tendencies and swim upstream, especially in November and December.

"The water coming down from the pipe is oxygenating the pond and this could be kicking in their natural instincts.

"They might well think it is a waterfall and are trying to head up it to find a place to spawn."

The Edge of the World

2007-12-11T16:01:00.000-05:00

Now that's a continuing obstruction!

Sailing Photo of the Day

2007-12-07T10:18:00.001-05:00

This great photo of an Optimist was taken at Glacier Waterton National Park in Alberta, Canada by K. Chisholm.

There are many other photos of sailing in spectacular scenery at the photographer's Flickr page.

I wonder how the wind is affected by all those mountains...I'd better re-read Tillerman's Lake Winds posts.

The Best Sailing Post of the Year

2007-11-30T10:29:00.000-05:00

Tillerman asks for nominations for the best sailing post of the year.

My nomination for this honor is this post from Stan Schreyer. I remember sailing against Stan on the Charles River back in college. At the time, Stan was a hotshot dinghy sailor for the BU Sailing Team (known as the BUDS). Stan was easy to spot because he had an unusual green lifejacket. Anyway, following a Tornado Olympic campaign for the Atlanta Games, Stan is now skippering the Tommy Hilfiger Extreme 40 catamaran.

Stan's nominated post is about the Centomiglia Race. The post combines great descriptions of racing action:

We had some equipment problems during this part of the race, as our jib sheet ripped off of the clew board on the sail. We were able to put it in another hole on the clew board, which quickly ripped out. So we lashed it through the remaining 5 holes in the clew board, and hoped that this would spread the load out. Fortunately, our fix held for the rest of the race. But our jib issues did not stop with the clew board. We were also ripping the jib luff out of the foil on the forestay. Only about the bottom 6 inches had gone by the time we noticed, and we were able to punch some holes in the luff of the sail, and sew it to the forestay before it ripped out any further. This was not an easy job though, as it required us to send someone out onto the spinnaker pole, and climb up the forestay bridle to the point where the sewing needed to be done. We were fortunate that we were able to get this fix done without incident. About the time were doing the fix, we were sailing through the bulk of the monohulls in the race, which had started before us that morning. While sewing the job to the forestay, I would catch an occasional glimpse of a monohull on its ear, or struggling with their own breakdowns. The race had gone from boring to out of control in only a few short minutes.

Great photos:

Photo by Roberto Vuilleumier/Slidebox.it.

And even some interesting discussions of wind on lakes to keep Tillerman happy:

We had a light (about 4 knot) southerly as we started the race, which meant we had our spinnakers up as we crossed the starting line. After about 15 minutes, the northerly overpowered the southerly in one of the fastest 180 wind transitions I had ever seen. There was virtually no transition zone between the two breezes, one instant we were in a 4 knot southerly, the next, we were furling our gennekar because we were going upwind in a 4 knot northerly. The 4 knots became 8 knots, which became 12 knots, and in about 8 minutes time we were sailing upwind in an 18 knot Northerly breeze. The breeze continued to build as we sailed up the lake, and it probably topped out over 25 knots sustained (and puffs that were higher) as we sailed through one particularly narrow area on the lake.

Stan doesn't post that often, but his post deserves to be nominated as a top ten post of the year.

From left, Randy Smythe, Jonathon Farrar, Mark van Gelderen, At van Barneveld , Stan Schreyer, and Roberto Benamati.
Photo by Roberto Vuilleumier/Slidebox.it.

So, what's does "having" a regatta mean?

2007-11-28T10:29:00.000-05:00

The Deed of Gift says:

Any organized Yacht Club of a foreign country, incorporated, patented, or licensed by the legislature, admiralty, or other executive department, having for its annual regatta an ocean water course on the sea, or on an arm of the sea, or one which combines both, shall always be entitled to the right of sailing a match of this Cup, with a yacht or vessel propelled by sails only and constructed in the country to which the Challenging Club [Challenger of Record] belongs, against any one yacht or vessel constructed in the country of the Club holding the Cup.

According to this guy, "having an annual regatta" means that the regatta has happened in the past and will continue to happen in the future. I agree. When I discussed this earlier, I noted that the important part of the dispute between GGYC and SNG/CNEV was whether their Optimist regatta would be sufficient to comply with the Deed of Gift's requirement of "having an annual regatta."

Having read many court opinions over the last four years, I am glad to see that Justice Cahn's opinion is clearly written and leaves no doubt as to the result.

"The court concludes that CNEV's challenge is invalid, and that GGYC is Challenger of Record pursuant to the Deed."

It's time for a yacht race.

Where'd the Sea Go?

2007-11-28T09:56:00.000-05:00

I have no idea where this photo was taken. It appears to be the wreck of a large ship sitting in a desert. Anyone have any ideas?

Wind Dam

2007-11-23T16:24:00.001-05:00

The Wind Dam is a proposed energy project by Chetwoods Associates. The sail is 25 meters high and 75 meters wide, and funnels the wind into a turbine. If the project is approved, the wind dam will be built in a gorge near northern Russia’s Lake Ladoga.

The Wind Dam Project uses a giant spinnaker sail suspended in a mountain gorge near Northern Russia’s Lake Ladoga. The £2.5 million dam will include a unique cup-shaped spinnaker sail, an original design, which will capture and harness wind to generate renewable energy by funneling wind through an attached turbine.

The spinnaker shape is similar to the mainsail of a yacht, and is thought to be particularly effective in capturing the wind with it’s kite-like properties. Project architect Laurie Chetwood stated that the shape of the sail was influenced by functionality and a desire to produce something “sculptural”. “The sail looks like a bird dipping its beak into the water, which will be much less of a blot on this beautiful and unblemished landscape…It is also highly effective at capturing the wind because it replicates the work of a dam and doesn’t let the wind escape in the way it does using traditional propellers.”

If the project is approved by next year, the wind dam will be approximately 25m high and will span 75m wide. Chetwood Associates is also looking at applying for planning permission for another project in a nearby gorge of the Lake Ladoga region. If all moves forward, we could be sailing into the future with solutions that are as poetic and imaginative as they are practical and environmentally grounding.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T19:31:00.000-05:00

No Fish for Christmas

2007-11-21T08:59:00.000-05:00

To stop Polish and Romanian immigrants from taking fish from rivers and lakes for their Christmas dinner, the UK Environmental Agency put up this pictographic warning:

To any peckish Poles or ravenous Romanians, the message could not be clearer.

Keep off our fish.

Three roadsign-style warnings were launched yesterday to stop Eastern European immigrants from spearing, taking home and cooking coarse fish from our rivers, lakes and canals.

The initiative is timely because carp and pike are a traditional Christmas dish in Poland and officials fear an increase in fish rustling over the next few weeks.

UhOh

2007-11-16T12:20:00.000-05:00

Earth Set

2007-11-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

The image above was taken by the KAGUYA's onboard high definition television (HDTV) for space use developed by NHK. The moving image data acquired by the KAGUYA was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center, and processed by NHK. This still image was cut out from a moving image taken by the HDTV onboard the KAGUYA at 12:07 p.m. on November 7, 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST,) then sent to the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center.

In the image, the Moon's surface is near the South Pole, and we can see the Australian Continent (center left) and the Asian Continent (lower right) on the Earth. (In this image, the upper side of the Earth is the Southern Hemisphere, thus the Australian Continent looks upside-down.)

Fish on Friday

2007-11-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

How to Recusitate a Drowned Cat

2007-11-14T10:27:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot of chatter on the sailing interwebs about cats lately.

The Edmund Fitzgerald

2007-11-10T20:36:00.000-05:00

I discovered this song in college when one of my friends introduced me to Gordon Lightfoot's music.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was a lake freighter that sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the incident in a song in 1976. Joseph Fulton made this video remix of the song in tribute to those who died on the Edmund Fitzgerald 32 years ago today.

Bananas on the Beach

2007-11-08T15:44:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, thousands of bananas washed up in the Netherlands on two North Sea islands. At least six containers fell off a cargo ship in a storm and at least one burst open.

A half-mile stretch of beach on Terschelling island, 70 miles north of Amsterdam, was littered with bunches of unripe fruit from Cuba. Bananas also washed up on neighboring Ameland island.

Sailing in Boston

2007-11-07T11:21:00.000-05:00

Tillerman's "sailing in the city" series is going well. So far the following cities are represented:

Sailing in Boston
Sailing in Cape Town
Sailing in New York
Sailing in San Diego
Sailing in Stockholm
Sailing in Sydney

Here's another photo of downtown Boston showing the moorings in front of Lewis Wharf and the Boston Harbor Sailing Club. The Custom House Tower is visible among the taller buildings, and in the background you can see the Charles River Basin.

Sailing in the City

2007-11-05T12:31:00.000-05:00

Tillerman asks for some photos of sailing in the city. Having spent many years of my life (and a lot of Tillerman's money) sailing at MIT, I thought I should post some of the best photos I could find of sailing on the Charles River. This won' t be the first time I have posted photos of sailing on the River Chuck...last November I posted an image from the very windy 2006 Schell Trophy.

Here's a photo taken during this year's Schell regatta, which MIT won, showing Tech dinghies racing upwind and FJs coming downwind in front of the Prudential Tower and 111 Huntingdon on the Boston shore of the Charles River.

Via MIT Sailing.

Next is a great photo taken from the MIT Sailing Pavilion, the birthplace of college sailing, looking towards downtown Boston. The boats on the dock are Tech dinghies, the boats in the water are FJs.

Via The Tech.

For comparison, the photo below was taken in the 1940's from about the same angle. You can see that the Boston skyline has changed considerably in 60 years. In the 1940's, the tallest feature on the skyline was the 496 foot Custom House Tower. The profile of Beacon Hill is now obscured by the skyscrapers of the Financial District.

Via MIT Sailing and the MIT Museum.

Finally, a great photo I found on Flickr of the MIT Sailing Pavilion docks taken looking towards the Citgo sign, Fenway Park, and Boston University. The boats on the dock are MIT's FJs, which are color coded for team racing.

Via Flickr.

Crash of the Week: Windsurfer

2007-11-02T09:35:00.000-04:00

Via Flickr.

"Windsurfing off the south coast of Mersea Island, Essex, in the huge mouth of the River Blackwater estuary."

The Ship's Cat

2007-11-01T13:52:00.000-04:00

Tillerman's comment on my Halloween post was enigmatic: "The cat has to go." I assume he was referring to my wife's cat, which is completely useless and constantly annoys me.

Inspired to find a story of a useful cat that related to sailing, I found this story about Simon of the HMS Amethyst.

In May 1948, a gangly green-eyed black-and-white Tom cat was found wandering alone and hungry on Hong Kong's Stonecutters Island by the Amethyst's captain, Lieutenant-Commander Bernard Skinner, and so it was that two year-old Able Seacat Simon joined the ship's complement. Cats had long been popular as shipboard mascots in the Royal Navy, not least for their pest-control skills, but also because of their remarkable ability to adapt to new surroundings in a manner which will surprise only those who have never chosen to share their lives with them.

In 1949, the ship was attacked on the Yangtse River in China by communists. Simon was wounded, but not found for days. The injured sailors had been evacuated, so the ship’s doctor nursed Simon’s facial burns and shrapnel wounds. As Simon recovered he resumed rat catching, but also added the duty of visiting sick and wounded sailors. Upon return to Hong Kong, Simon was presented with a campaign ribbon and news that he would receive a Dicken Medal, an award for animal gallantry. When the Amethyst reached England, Simon had to go into quarantine. He developed an infection and died just before his planned formal medal ceremony. The veterinarian believed the young cat would have recovered if his war wounds hadn’t weakened him. Simon was buried in a specially-made casket with full naval honors.

Happy Halloween: Dead Ducky

2007-10-31T08:52:00.001-04:00

Crash of the Week: Skiffs Again

2007-10-26T09:20:00.001-04:00

Via the Sailing Anarchy Forums

The Science of Knots

2007-10-22T09:15:00.001-04:00

Tillerman is talking about it, and the Laser Forum has a post discussing it...but scientists have already figured it out. Apparently it doesn't matter whether you use the Rooster mainsheet or the new Bzzz line, even mathematically simulated strings form knots without much provocation.

The best knotting came from very flexible, long string contained in a large box. "A highly flexible string placed in a very large container will have a higher probability of becoming knotted than a stiff one that's confined in a smaller container," Smith told LiveScience.

The researchers suggest that cramped quarters limit the tumbling motion that facilitates the string weaving through the coils. That would explain why knots were less likely to form in smaller compared with larger boxes.

But in real life, most people don't tumble cords and wires on a daily basis. Smith explained that while this tumbling is not a requirement for knots to form, some motion is necessary.

"Surprisingly little disturbance or motion is even needed," Smith said. "It's quite easy for something to get knotted." Even the act of picking up the phone and placing it back down could be enough jostling to trigger knot formation.

While there is no magical knot buster, Smith advised what all sailors, cowboys, electricians, sewers and knitters know: to avoid tangles, keep a cord or string tied in a coil so it can't move.

It sounds like a tumbling motion is what causes the worst problems...not good news for rope that is sitting in the washing machine that is a Laser cockpit.

Crash of the Week: 18ft Skiff

2007-10-19T11:44:00.000-04:00

Bruce finds a manly way to pee by hanging over the side of the boat.

Windy!

2007-10-16T10:56:00.001-04:00

I have the opposite problem from Edward over at EVK4: my daughter loves the wind -- she has been saying "Windy!" when she feels the breeze on her face since she could talk -- but she is afraid of my boat. Of course, my boat is not as attractive as Edward's Lady Bug; it is just a Laser sitting on a trailer in the backyard. When we go outside she usually acknowledges its existence with a "Dat's Daddy's boat," but if I ask her if she wants to sit on it she'll just say, "No, no, no, don't like it." Anyway, I should have been sailing this past weekend. The weather was beautiful, with that nip in the air that lets you know autumn is here. Instead of sailing I spent a lot of time playing with my daughter. Here's a gratuitous shot of her enjoying the wind on our long walk at Borderland State Park.

Crash of the Week: Hiking Straps Are Not Optional

2007-10-12T11:54:00.000-04:00

by Duncan Enman, via Scuttlebutt

Lovely Boating Weather

2007-10-08T11:37:00.000-04:00

Anna Tunnicliffe (#52), Paige Railey (#53), and rising star Sarah Lihan (#47) in what appears to have been their usual order so far at the Olympic Trials. This image of three sailors emerging from the fog also serves as a metaphor for these sailors' positions relative to the rest of the fleet. The racing has been very close between Railey and Tunnicliffe, although Lihan is keeping her more well known competitors on edge:

Tunnicliffe had a 10-12 boat length lead going into the first leeward mark. Railey picked up a few good shifts up the second beat, and halved her lead at the top. Railey then worked a puff down to pass Tunnicliffe in the first third of the run. After a total of 4 lead changes down the run, they came into the leeward gate (port rounding to a beam reach leg to the finish) overlapped.
Tunnicliffe and Railey jibed onto starboard, and with the Judge boats right there to observe, Tunnicliffe surfed ahead, and Railey had no overlap at the mark. Although there were words exchanged, no flags were flown. Other Notes: Sarah Lihan led at the first 3 marks of Race 3 (second race today).

Crash of the Week: A Broken Moth Wing

2007-10-05T11:59:00.000-04:00

Via Doug Culnane's Blog.

Vikings in Boston

2007-10-03T11:16:00.000-04:00

When I was sailing on the Charles River during college, I occasionally wondered why the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge had Viking ships on it:

A little research reveals that the answer has a strange connection with baking powder. Eben Horsfeld revolutionized bread-making in the 1890s when he developed Rumford's Baking Powder. Inspired by a Norwegian superstar and nationalist and a mysterious stone, he became convinced that the Viking Lief Ericson had landed in Cambridge, which he called Norumbega, and funded monuments and research to that effect. The Boston elite, threatened by new Irish immigrants, quickly seized on this concept, since it showed that the cleaned-up Viking, and not Catholic Columbus, had first settled their sacred city. A century later, it was discovered that the Vikings did reach America first, though never Boston.

Statue of Leif Erikson, erected in 1887, on Commonwealth Avenue

Tillerman Spotted in Roses

2007-09-30T18:45:00.000-04:00

Tillerman is in Roses for the Laser Master's World Championships.

I was looking through the regatta photos after the first day of racing today, and I spotted him on the beach with Tillerwoman:

(See left side of photo, Tillerman in red hat and stripy shirt)

and rigging his boat:

(USA sail number)

Crash of the Week: The Alva Star

2007-09-28T14:24:00.000-04:00

If you get into any sticky situations on the water this weekend, remember you are almost certainly better off than these guys:

In 2002, the Norasia container ship Alva Star crashed into Zakynthos Island in Greece due to a "navigational error at night."

Sunset in Roses

2007-09-27T14:09:00.000-04:00

Eight o'clock and all's well in Roses...still windy though and a pretty sunset too.

The Grup D'Esports Nautics de Roses webcam is great. I can't wait to watch the old guys launching their boats on their first day of racing at the Masters Worlds on Sunday.

Poll: Should "practice" sails be used for racing?

2007-09-26T11:52:00.001-04:00

The Laser class has a strict one design philosophy, as shown by the preamble to the class rules which reads:

"Our class is strong and popular because we believe in a strict one design and our sailors want to know that they are racing on equal terms. The ILCA takes a very strong line with Laser sailors who do not sail according to the rules...Our class is much bigger than the odd person who wants to gain advantage by illegally changing the Laser or its equipment. They can sail in other classes where the rules allow changes to a boat to get an advantage. We do not want them with us."

Much debate has been generated on the Laser Forum about whether to allow so-called practice sails in regattas. I have started a poll on the right to find out what people think. Please leave any comments below or in the Laser Forum in this thread.

By practice sail, I mean one of the several sails produced by non-builder approved sail makers.

The class rules do not specifically allow the use of non-class approved sails.

The class rules say that if the rules "do not specifically allow a change or addition - IT IS ILLEGAL! If you race a Laser that has a change or addition not allowed by the class rules you will be disqualified from the race."

So, what's a "race" and what's "racing"?

Does a "race" need to be sanctioned by the Laser class to be a "race"?

What if the sailing instructions say the class rules apply?

What if the sailing instructions specifically allow "practice" sails?

If the sailing instructions don't mention the class rules, and the regatta permits the used of practice sails, can I slap a Laser sticker on my Finn and show up for racing? Can I use my Rooster 8.1 rig? Can you stop me if I do? What would you argue?

Why should "practice" sails be allowed in any racing whether it is informal or not?

World Laser Masters Championships

2007-09-26T10:42:00.000-04:00

Looks like it's already windy in Roses where the World Laser Masters Championships are being held later this week. Best of luck to Tillerman and all the other Masters!

Roses looks like a beautiful place to sail. Only six more years until I can join in the fun!

Atlantic Ocean Disappearing!!!

2007-09-24T08:34:00.000-04:00

With all this talk about carbon footprints and global warming, there is one more Inconvenient Truth that needs to be exposed: the Atlantic Ocean is disappearing! Where is Al Gore when we really need him?

About 250 million years from now, the plates on which the present day continents rest are again projected to reposition themselves so that a single landmass dominates. The above simulation from the PALEAOMAP Project shows this giant landmass: Pangea Ultima. At that time, the Atlantic Ocean will be just a distant memory, and whatever beings inhabit Earth will be able to walk from North America to Africa.

Why use a trailer when you have a truck?

2007-09-21T12:08:00.001-04:00

Tomas Hornos wins Snipe Worlds

2007-09-17T08:32:00.000-04:00

Last week I posted about Tomas Hornos winning the first race of the Snipe Worlds. After a regatta with no wind and only three races over 5 days, Tomas is now the Snipe World Champion, beating Augie Diaz and Peter Commette!

"It is an honour and a privilege to conquer the title. The light shifty winds we got are our preference, favouring us. On this last race, because we have a good speed, we managed to cover our closest adversaries till the end". Tomas Hornos

Fish on Friday (A.K.A. Where's Joe Rouse?)

2007-09-14T14:55:00.000-04:00

Edward at the EVK4 SuperBlog started it. Tillerman continued it with fish and chips on Friday. I would like to join in the fun with a photo of some really fresh cod, caught by a guy who really liked to fish.

Snipe Worlds

2007-09-13T12:48:00.000-04:00

Tomas Hornos, a young hotshot from my local Star fleet, has won the first race at the Snipe worlds in Portugal. Tomas is a freshman at Tufts University, and is on their sailing team. He has been sailing Stars for the past few years, with his father Luis crewing.

Photo: João Tata

What's Going on Here?

2007-09-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Here's a photo of a Laser mast step. Can you see anything wrong with it? (Click on image to see larger version)

Old and New (Again)

2007-09-04T10:56:00.000-04:00

Last month I posted a photo of 1935 I-14 Phoenix and 2007 I-14's at the 75th Anniversary POW Cup in Cowes. Today I came across this great photo from Carlo Borlenghi (via Scuttlebutt's photo gallery) of a Farr 40 at the Worlds in Denmark.

How NOT to Lift a Boat

2007-08-31T08:58:00.000-04:00

Via Scuttlebutt:

"On a day when the boatyard guys weren't around, the guy who owns this boat tried to launch it himself. Apparently the boat does have a deadeye in the keel for lifting, but the owner didn't catch on and attached the lifting sling to the shaft, just above the deadeye. Ripping out the engine is messy business, and this incident is further evidence that despite the lifting sling and the engine shaft being adjacent to each other, close still only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. "

Amazing Beaufort Scale Cartoon

2007-08-29T08:51:00.000-04:00

Howtoons -- the comic strip for kids that explains how to build cool stuff -- has just launched on the Web. The artwork is great and the projects are interesting. While perusing the site, I came across this great cartoon that illustrates wind strengths on the Beaufort scale. When I was sailing Optimists as a kid in England we used to refer to wind strength using the Beaufort scale instead of using knots. No one seems to use it in the US, but I always liked it because it is based on observations which are easy to differentiate, rather than wind speeds which are hard to judge. For example, the difference between a Force 3 and a Force 4 is that white caps have started to form.

Click for huge version.

Wall of Foam

2007-08-28T09:11:00.000-04:00

Some amazing pictures of what happened when the shoreline north of Sydney was transformed into an enormous bubble bath after foam churned up by powerful currents and then tossed by waves appeared on the beach.

From the Daily Mail:

Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards’ centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales. One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.

The foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed.

All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles.

These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore.

As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam.

The foam "surfs" towards shore until the wave "crashes", tossing the foam into the air.

Breaking News: Boston Tea Party Museum on Fire...AGAIN!

2007-08-27T13:45:00.000-04:00

For the second time since I have been living and working in Boston, the Boston Tea Party Museum is on fire. Boston tourists will remember this as the museum where visitors could reenact important historical tax evasion by throwing fake bundles of tea into the harbor (actually the Fort Point Channel). After a fire in August of 2001 caused by a lightning strike did great damage to the site, the entire site was demolished, and a new interpretive facility was under construction in its place.

The original Tea Party Museum opened in 1973 and included a replica of the Brig Beaver, one of three ships raided by colonists in an act of defiance that helped sparked the American Revolution. The Beaver was hauled out of the water in 2004 and taken to the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center for what was described at the time as a $300,000 reconstruction.

The current renovation was supposed to double the size of the museum, which is owned by Historic Tours of America based in Key West, Fla. The plans called for the addition of replicas of the Dartmouth and the Eleanor, the two other tall ships raided by colonists in 1773.

The August 3, 2001 fire.

Now it is on fire again:

The August 27, 2007 fire (Fort Point Channel in the foreground).

Paper Boat...is it art?

2007-08-27T08:37:00.000-04:00

An "artist" in Germany named Frank Boelter has built a boat of the that 'Tetrapack' stuff that they use to make milk cartons.
He "came up with the idea one breakfast time, while he was sitting at his kitchen table fiddling with an empty milk carton, which he cut up and made into a scaled-down model."

The boat is 30 feet long, weighs 55 pounds, uses a 170-square-metre piece of Tetrapack paper, and took only two hours to construct. The "artist" said it will survive forty days before it disintegrates into a wet, sinking mass.

It is part of his exhibition named 'Bis ans Ende der Welt' (Until the end of the world).

Old and New

2007-08-22T07:59:00.000-04:00

A great photo by Renee Speak via Sailing Anarchy of the 1935 I-14 Phoenix and 2007 I-14's at the 75th Anniversary POW Cup in Cowes.

12 Meters in the Fog

2007-08-16T20:40:00.000-04:00

On the return trip from Block Island today there were two 12 meters sailing upwind in the heavy fog. One was US-22 (Intrepid) and the other was US-18 (Easterner).

US-22 Intrepid

US-18 Easterner

I can see your keel!

2007-08-14T22:22:00.000-04:00

I know canting keels are supposed to increase righting moment and all that...but does the leeward daggerboard really provide all the lateral resistance these boats need?

Using tides to create electric power

2007-08-14T19:29:00.000-04:00

Watch out Bonnie, there might be big propellers under the water in the East River.

A company that seems to have some trouble designing cast aluminum turbine blades has installed a small number of test turbines in the East River. The currents are so strong that several of the turbine propellers have been sheared off a third of the way down, and stronger replacements were hampered by insufficiently strong bolt connections to the turbine hubs. The East River is not actually a river; it's a tidal strait, and one can easily observe the current moving in opposite directions with the tides. The plan is to install a field of turbines anchored to the bottom of the East River and use the currents to generate electricity for the city.

It is worrying when the founder of the company, Trey Taylor, thinks that: "The only way for us to learn is to get the turbines into the water and start breaking them." The trial turbines — five generating electricity and one housing the dynamometer that measures water rotational speed — have been installed on the bottom of a narrow strip of the river’s eastern channel.

That's a lot of Optimists!

2007-08-10T10:19:00.000-04:00

The Optimist New England Championships were held this week in Newport. One thing I noticed immediately was the sail numbers. When I was sailing Optimists, my sail number had four digits...now they are up to five!

There were so many boats that the organizers had to launch the boats in flights (as indicated by this special notice from the regatta webpage).

SPECIAL NOTICE:
Sailors Must not leave the spot to which they are currently parked until beach launch is signaled. To control the access to the beach, optis will be called by FLIGHTS. Do not leave until we tell you by bullhorn to get in line for the beach.

There were also quite a few Mommy boats on the water; they even had to register with the race committee (notice the numbered flags on the sterns of the Mommy boats).

Another Use for Duct Tape!

2007-08-06T11:53:00.001-04:00

As a sailor and skier, I have used duct tape for many things including the occasional repair of actual ducts (for which it is not actually very good). Just this past weekend I used it to stop my boom from falling off the gooseneck, and to stop my broken inspection port from leaking. I also had a duct tape wallet for a few years. Now it turns out that researchers have proven that duct tape is more effective than cryotherapy for warts.

In patients treated with duct tape, 85 percent of the warts completely resolved, compared with 60 percent in the cryotherapy group. These results were statistically significant. Resolution of warts treated with duct tape usually occurred within the first 28 days of therapy. If there was no response within the first two weeks, the warts were unlikely to respond to a longer course of therapy. The main adverse outcomes with duct-tape therapy were difficulty keeping the tape on the wart and minor skin irritation. The main adverse effect in the cryotherapy group was mild to severe pain at the freeze site during and after the treatment.

The authors conclude that duct tape occlusive therapy is more effective than cryotherapy in the treatment of common warts. They also state that duct tape therapy is less expensive and has fewer adverse effects than cryotherapy.

Ouch!

2007-08-01T11:15:00.001-04:00

The story is that "control problems" caused this:

Law and Sailing: The America's Cup

2007-07-23T14:37:00.002-04:00

Litigation about sailing! What fun!

The Golden Gate Yacht Club (BMW Oracle Racing/Larry Ellison) sued Society Nautique de Geneve (Alinghi/Ernesto Bertarelli) on Friday in the New York Supreme Court.

In summary, the complaint alleges "that SNG has accepted a challenge that is invalid under the Deed of Gift from Club Nautico Espanol de Vela ("CNEV"), a brand new yacht club that had never had an annual regatta before it was specifically created to collaborate with SNG. Indeed, after its supposed challenge for the America's Cup it sponsored a sham annual regatta for children in a sailing training session. SNG used CNEV, as a fabricated challenger, to engineer a match Protocol in which virtually all challenger rights are eliminated and total control of the event and its rules are granted to SNG, altering the very nature of the competition and giving unprecedented and unfair advantages to SNG."

Both parties (Ellison and Bertarelli) have money to burn, so this might go on for a while before the parties settle. If this thing does go to trial, I think I might have to go down to New York to watch. The partner who filed this case, James V. Kearney at Latham and Watkins in New York, has previously represented tobacco companies...and won, so Bertarelli has a fight on his hands if he wants it.

Is this a regatta?

2007-07-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

Looks like a regatta to me, but then I am a dinghy sailor not a fancy big boat sailor.

Perhaps a better question is whether this is an "annual regatta" sufficient to allow CNEV (Club Nautico Español de Vela) to continue as the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup? I think it is important to ask whether the regatta can be "annual" if it has only been held once.

Ducky!

2007-07-16T11:03:00.000-04:00

When I give my daughter her bath, she always wants her ducky. If she saw this thing she'd go nuts:

It's an art installation in France on the Loire River. It's 26 x 20 x 32 meters (which is BIG for you non-metric folks) and is made of rubber coated PVC.

Sailing Photo of the Day: Stars off Nahant, MA

2007-03-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

Been there, done that.

Sailing Photo of the Day

2007-01-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

"Wow, your sail cover is bigger than my Optimist! Can I come for a ride?"

Tillerman's Caribbean Adventure

2007-01-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

Tillerman recently returned from the Laser Caribbean Midwinters with tales of huge waves and high winds. He told me the photos didn't do it justice. You can decide for yourself:

Photos by Roberto Alvarez courtesy of caribwind.com

A new book!

2006-12-31T16:19:00.000-05:00

Gasoline Fumes Cause Litigation

2006-12-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

John Lagana would like to ride his WaveRunner around the shores of East Hampton, but can't, thanks to the wealthy beach town's ban on water scooters.

Mr. Lagana prefers to travel by WaveRunner, heading out into Gardiners Bay and zipping from Sag Harbor to Greenport to Shelter Island to meet friends for lunch. Water scooters are allowed in the bay, but banned in Hog Creek, which Mr. Lagana must cut through to get there, and Three Mile Harbor, where he stops to get gas.

So, after breathing exhaust fumes for too long on his silly and pointless craft, Lagana is taking the matter to court. And he has an interesting historical argument:

The case is now pending in state appellate court, where a panel of judges must decide if an obscure 17th century charter known as the Dongan Patent does indeed protect a man’s right to buzz around the waterways on a machine its signers could hardly have imagined.
When King James II deeded the eastern tip of the South Fork — which now includes East Hampton, Amagansett and Montauk — to a group of settlers in 1686, the governor in chief of the province of New York, Thomas Dongan, drew up the patent, granting “freeholders and inhabitants” of the area the right to “enjoy without hindrance” recreational activities like “fishing, hawking, hunting and fowling.”
The legal power of such deeding documents, which exist throughout Long Island and in other early-settled places, has been upheld by courts including the United States Supreme Court.

Lagana continues his argument with constitutional contentions:

Among Mr. Lagana’s arguments is that a passage in the federal Constitution prohibiting the creation of “any law impairing the obligation of contracts,” and a provision in the original New York State Constitution protecting “grants of land made by the authority of the king,” gives Dongan power in perpetuity. “If you’re going to ignore the Dongan Patent, you might as well throw out the Constitution,” he said.

But the town has several counterarguments. Their main point is that "the patent is too vague and out of date to govern a modern municipality." But they also have historical contentions of their own:

[Gary] Weintraub, the town's lawyer, pointed out that if East Hampton were to live by the centuries-old patent, it would have other obligations, including the annual tax to the king of “the Sum of one Lamb Yearly and fourty shillings, curant money.”
Assuming East Hampton was not in arrears at the time of the American Revolution, that would amount to 230 lambs and 9,200 shillings the town owes, payable to Queen Elizabeth.

Sailing Photo of the Day: New Island in the Pacific

2006-11-10T09:55:00.000-05:00

The crew of the yacht Maiken discovered a new volcanic island in the Pacific. Pretty amazing stuff:
"We left Neiafu and Vava'u yesterday after some tedious checking out procedures and set sail for Fiji, passing the north side of Late island as first way point. After five miles we noticed brown, somewhat grainy streaks in the water. First we thought that it might be an old oil dumping. Some ship cleaning its tanks. But the streak became larger and more frequent after a while, and there were rocklike brownish things the size of a fist floating in the sea. And the water were strangely green and "lagoon like" too. Eventually it became more and more clear to us that it had to be pumice from a volcanic eruption. And then we sailed into a vast, many miles wide, belt of densely packed pumice. We were going by motor due to lack of wind and within seconds Maiken slowed down from seven to one knot. We were so fascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a couple of hundred meter into this surreal floating stone field before we realized that we had to turn back...
A couple of hours ago we identified the active volcano as the one close to Home reef, and we are on our way there now to take a closer look.
We are two miles from it and we can see the volcano clearly. One mile in diameter and with four peaks and a central crater smoking with steam and once in a while an outburst high in the sky with lava and ashes."

Sailing Photo of the Day - Schell 2006

2006-11-01T17:20:00.000-05:00

Tillerman found some photos of the Schell Trophy regatta, held October 28-29th at my alma mater. Some of my best memories from my college years involve sailing on the Chuck. I once windsurfed in the remains of a hurricane on the river, I have fallen into it while shoveling snow off the dock to go sailing, and I have won regattas there. Even so, a Tech dinghy planing with a storm sail is not something you see everyday.

In the words of MIT Sailing Master's Franny Charles: "This event will be remembered for a lifetime by all who saw it."

Too Windy

2006-10-30T11:04:00.000-05:00

I spent most of the last two weeks looking forward to it.

Tillerman helped me install a new hiking strap to be ready for it.

When I saw the weather forecasts I got even more excited about it.

I bought a new spray top to be ready for it.

I packed up the car and took the tarp off the boat the night before to get ready for it.

I emailed the organizers begging them not to cancel it.

I got up early, switched baby seats between cars and hooked up the trailer so I could get there early for it.

But in the end they cancelled it because it was too windy.

I could have been doing this:

and this:
Hopefully some of this:
Or this:
And probably a lot of this:

And this:

But instead I unhooked the trailer from the car, put the tarp back on the boat until next weekend and went for a run instead.

2006-10-25T13:01:00.000-04:00

Sailing Video of the Day - Extreme 505

Courtesy of LiveSailDie.com