This is a much larger subject than the space I am giving it today. The more I think about it the more I might expand this thread. It should be no surprise to any of us that the America’s Cup is the focal point. It is specific, and has had a long history. Sculptors, painters, illustrators, photographers, film makers all have made the Cup the object of their work.
Abu Dhabi, skippered by Ian Walker, won the opening inshore race of the Volvo Ocean Race. Mar Monstro (Puma) skippered by Ken Read was second.
It is points on the board for each, but this is a distance race; and whoever has the best weather routing win win.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is becoming the elephant in the room. I refer to myself as part of the woodstock generation; mostly because I was in college at the time. Most of my dorm mates burned their draft cards; an action they did not take lightly. (I am reminded that Russell Coutts refers to my generation as the Flintstone generation, how little he understands.)
I watched Kent State happen with shock. All of this led me to believe that by the time I was a fully functioning part of society, we, collectively would have found solutions for so many of society’s problems. Instead I watched as those problems grew much worse.
Had there been a draft by the time of the Iraq war, the war likely would never have happened. It became a war for the poor and misguided.
No one on Wall Street broke a law, that I am aware. But something went terribly wrong never-the-less.
If we outlawed lobbyists and limited contributions to political campaigns I believe change would occur very quickly.
People complain that the protesters have no demands; I see a system that is broken; one that needs EVERYTHING FIXED. I remain troubled that we allowed ourselves to get where we are. But I am relieved, and comforted to see the protests finally happening.
Something we all tend to forget is just how well J boats rate. They also tend to sail well, but perhaps more importantly they seem to outsail their ratings. I cannot count the number of races, where we considered we had sailed well and were biting our nails about a j boat close on our heels, wondering if we would have saved time against the competition.
The Swans, a Sparkman & Stephens staple in the seventies. We have forgotten how dominate these designs were. “Noremya” a Swan 48 was the first foreign yacht to win the Bermuda Race in 1972. I sailed this boat in her next life as “Weald” and was so impressed that we could power away from “Carina” often.
Skip Novak’s remarks demonstrate how captivating the anecdotes of life can be. Todays boats are so fast, there is little time for those little stories. Sitting on the rail is now so critical to a yacht’s performance; so life on a boat is now pretty much eating, sleeping or sitting on the rail. Not much time for shenanigans.
Rolex Middle Sea Race 2011, currently underway, is organized by the Royal Malta Yacht Club. Approximately 30 boats are still racing and 39 boats have finished as of 18.30 CEST.
After racing over 600 miles, the J/122 Artie crossed the finish line at 15.22 CEST, eight minutes in front of Jaru Team EC, a J/133, and, in doing so, was the first Maltese boat home. That finish also put the local entry, co-skippered by Lee Satariano and Christian Ripard, ahead of Rán (GBR) as overall handicap leader.
However, the crew of Artie will have to cool their heels on the Royal Malta Yacht Club terrace as they wait to see if any boat still racing might be able to beat them on handicap. A formal announcement of the overall winner will be made tomorrow at 1200 CEST at the Royal Malta Yacht Club.
Owner Lee Satariano was clearly relieved to beat his local rivals home and said, ‘It was very achievable because we worked very hard. The crew has been preparing the boat for the past several months, we even have a new sail wardrobe. Being the first Maltese boat gives us a big satisfaction because the local competition is very, very big.’ As for the possibility of an overall victory, he was more cautious and said, ‘The competition is growing every year. In the past we’ve had two second place finishes; we hope this third time is even better.’
Christian Ripard, co-skipper said, ‘It’s a great feeling. We ended up doing most of the race alongside or crossing tacks with Jaru; it’s nearly a rerun of last year, though this time we managed to beat them.
King’s Legend Joins Legends Fleet
Kings Legend in 1977. Click on image to enlarge.
Alicante, Spain: King’s Legend, the boat that finished second in the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1977-78 with Skip Novak as her navigator, has become the latest entry to the Volvo Ocean Race Legends Regatta and Reunion in Alicante, Spain in November after securing sponsorship from The Jalousie Enclave, an exclusive property development in a UNESCO World Heritage site, Val des Pitons on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.
In 1977-78, owned by English gentleman Nick Ratcliff, flying the British ensign and drawing on the talent of a multinational professional crew, King’s Legend — a sloop rigged Swan 65 built by Nautor in Finland — came second behind Flyer.
“On King’s Legend we had a real boat race on our hands as the pre-race favourite, Flyer, had exactly the same handicap rating,” Novak, one of the Legends Ambassadors, recalled. “The wealthy Dutchman, Cornelius van Rietschoten beat us into Cape Town by only two hours after a hard-fought upwind battle in the South Atlantic. But the most poignant moment for me was seeing Table Mountain on the horizon from 50 miles out, having navigated there with ‘a sextant and a time piece’.
“The next crew drama was when a leak was discovered at the rudderpost, which was opening and closing in the huge waves. We made contact with the crew of Adventure, Great Britain II (both yachts will attend the reunion), and Heath’s Condor, all of whom agreed to listen out for King’s Legend via the radio every six hours.”
After two days of worry, the crew was able to bring the leak under control. However the event was a stark reminder that these are desolate oceans populated only by albatross, whales and ice, with no shipping within thousands of miles.
After a massive broach while stampeding towards Cape Horn, water from the heads found its way into the SSB radio, which immediately ceased to function. “It may seem strange today,” says Novak, “but no-one was in the least alarmed that we were completely cut off from the outside world.”
By being one degree of latitude too far south, King’s Legend lost Flyer on the scorecard forever, and trailed her across the finish line to take second overall.
TESTING CONFIRMS DANGERS OF ETHANOL IN MARINE ENGINES On Friday (Oct. 21, 2011) the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy released the results of two studies on the effects of using fuel that is 15 percent ethanol in volume (E15) in marine engines. The studies were conducted on engines provided by two marine engine manufactures; Both are members of National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA). The long-awaited reports show significant problems with outboard, stern drive and inboard engines. Results of the reports show severe damage to engine components and an increase in exhaust emissions, reinforcing the recreational boating industry's concern that E15 is not a suitable fuel for marine engines. Emissions and durability testing compared E15 fuel and fuel containing zero percent ethanol (E0) and examined exhaust emissions, exhaust gas temperature, torque, power, barometric pressure, air temperature, and fuel flow. Specifically, the report showed degraded emissions performance outside of engine certification limits as well as increased fuel consumption. In separate testing on engine durability, each tested engine showed deterioration, including two of the three outboard engines, with damages severe enough to prevent them from completing the test cycle. The E0 test engines did not exhibit any fuel related issues. -- Read on: http://www.nmma.org/news.aspx?id=18043
As pretty as any city in the East.
The lighthouses of the Mediterranean are no less impressive than those in any other part of the world. After all, these were the waters of the known world for quite some time.
The middle sea race started yesterday. This is one of the great races. I had the pleasure of sailing the race in 2009, a race which saw 33 boats withdraw the first night, before reaching the Straits of Messina between Italy and Sicily. We finished, but not well enough for silver.
TWO
From Paul Larsen aboard Sailrocket in Namibia:
Hi all, just a quick one to say that we have punched through 54 knots, 62 mph and 100 kmh. The fun part is that we did it two up and VESTAS Sailrocket 2 was far from optimally trimmed. It was a wild ride. The day was quite unsettled but I decided to make the most of it and take Adam from WIRED USA for a shot in the back seat. We have never sailed two up before. VSR2 struggled to get started but once she found her feet… WHOOSKA! It was a crazy ride that took me…well… I’ll do the full update tomorrow. I just saw the photos and they are wild. Adam had the ride of his life. In 1 ride he’s been as fast as I’ve ever been.
This boat will do the business. It WILL beat the current world record. I know that now. The question is how much we can get out of it. Triple rum and cokes in a pint glass are the drinks for a new best speed. So where are we with the new foil? I don’t know… all I know is that it’s fast. There is so much to tell about that last full-on run.
Update to follow… everyone is sitting here madly downloading data, HD video footage and photo’s… and slurping on rum. We are still sailors remember.
Cheers, Paul.
