BAND OF BROTHERS

I am about to start my 9th transatlantic race on 7 different boats. I have sailed with a number of people as a result; and have warm memories of each race, each boat, and each and every person.

It is a fraternity that one can only join by competing.

I had news a few days ago that another of that fraternity had died. Peter Van Dyke passed away. A loss to our group.

PETER VAN DYKE, '72 TRANSATLANTIC RACE
PETER VAN DYKE, ’72 TRANSATLANTIC RACE
RICH DUMOULIN '72 TRANSATLANTIC RACE
RICH DUMOULIN ’72 TRANSATLANTIC RACE
HARRY MORGAN, JACK CUMMISKEY
HARRY MORGAN, JACK CUMMISKEY
LARRY HUNTINGTON AND CREW
LARRY HUNTINGTON AND CREW
ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSON AND DAVID AISHER
ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSON AND DAVID AISHER
TRANSALANTIC TROPHIIES
TRANSALANTIC TROPHIIES
PARTY TENT
PARTY TENT
THE RACE
THE RACE
COLLEGE AND AMERICA'S CUP
COLLEGE AND AMERICA’S CUP

NOT A 12 METER

Tom Ehman’s San Francisco Yacht Racing Challenge is a great idea. The proposed boats are NOT 12 meters. The International rule is like a sonnet; it sets particular parameters that allow latitude. These boats as I see them and as described do not fit the rule.

These boats will be more lively and quicker on their feet, but they are not 12 meters.

There is no reason the 2 meter class could not do a regatta on the same format using 12 meters, not, not 12 meters.

 

 

INTREPID
INTREPID
NORTHERN LIGHT AND ONAWA
NORTHERN LIGHT AND ONAWA
COURAGEOUS AND INTREPID
COURAGEOUS AND INTREPID
ONAWA
ONAWA

courageous 3226 - Version 2

12 METER RULE
12 METER RULE
THIS IS NOT A 12 METER
THIS IS NOT A 12 METER

THE WAY WE WERE

I recently attended my 50th class reunion at St. George’s School. Everyone who could came; I think suddenly happy to be able to be seen.

No less, college memories are now distant memories. Blaze Starr was one. We were sailing at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. After dinner we headed for the “Block” in Baltimore. The photo of Blaze is the only proof I have that we were actually there.

 

BLAZE STARR
BLAZE STARR
URI AT THE KENNEDY CUP
URI AT THE KENNEDY CUP
HENRY BOSSETT STEPHEN LIRAKIS
HENRY BOSSETT STEPHEN LIRAKIS

 Blaze Starr, Burlesque Stripper Linked to a Governor, Dies at 83

By ASHLEY SOUTHALLJUNE 16, 2015

Blaze Starr in New Orleans in 1959. Credit Associated Press

Blaze Starr, the voluptuous stripper who became one of the most famous burlesque performers in America, and whose affair with a Louisiana governor was the basis of a movie, died on Monday at home in Wilsondale, W.Va. She was 83.

She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, her nephew, Earsten Spaulding, said. In recent years, she had heart problems and underwent bypass surgeries, he said. She had been in pain on Sunday, he added, but she refused to go to the hospital after she began feeling better.

Ms. Starr, with a head full of red hair, an ample bosom and a penchant for playful humor, stoked the fantasies of her legions of admirers from the runways of burlesque clubs across the country for more than 30 years, seducing many men along the way.

Her most famous affair, with Gov. Earl K. Long of Louisiana, produced a scandal that was the basis for the 1989 film, “Blaze,” starring Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich. The film was based on her memoir, “Blaze Starr: My Life as Told to Huey Perry,” published in 1974.

One of 11 children, she was born Fannie Belle Fleming on April 10, 1932, in Wilsondale, W.Va. As a child, she worked washing laundry for $1 a day.

In 1947, she traded a life in the coal fields and got on a bus to Washington, D.C., to pursue a career as a country singer. While working at a Mayflower Doughnut Shop, she met a promoter who convinced her to become a stripper instead.

At age 15, Ms. Starr began performing at a club near the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., before moving to Baltimore, where in 1950, she stepped onto the runway of the 2 O’Clock Club on the Block, a famous strip of adult entertainment shops and venues.

She gained national recognition in 1954, when she was featured in Esquire magazine, and continued performing for more than 30 years before hanging up her G-string and pasties in the 1980s to become a gemologist. She made jewelry, which she sold at a mall in suburban Baltimore.

Reflecting on her career as a stripper, she told The Baltimore Sun in 2010: “Honey, I loved it. But everything has its season.”

On stage, she often delighted crowds with the way she would tuck a rose between her bosom and blow the petals across her chest. Sometimes, she stretched out on a couch, wiggling and looking seductive while removing her garments. When she got to the last pieces, smoke emerged from between her legs, triggering laughter from the crowd.

She met Governor Long while performing at the Sho-Bar in New Orleans in 1959. She recalled their affair in her memoir, and also claimed to have had an affair with President John F. Kennedy after he attended one of her shows.

In an interview with People Magazine in 1989, she said she had stopped performing burlesque because it had become too raunchy.

Ms. Starr was married to Carroll Glorioso, the owner of the 2 O’Clock Club, for 12 years before they divorced.

Her survivors include five sisters: Betty June Shrader, Debbie Fleming, Berta Gail Browning, Mary Jane Davis and Judy Maynard; one brother, John Fleming; and a host of nieces and nephews.

In a short video profile filmed before the movie was released, Ms. Starr was asked whether she would change anything about her life.

“Not a thing,” she responded. “I would just do a lot more of it and try a lot harder, and seduce a lot more men than I did.”

ONE MAN’S DREAM

Much like the Watts tower in south Los Angeles

A postman collected pebbles every day for 33 years and what he created is astounding

More than 120,000 people travel to the commune of Hauterives in southeastern France every year to see the Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval, a stunning palace constructed entirely from handpicked pebbles. 

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ferdinand cheval

(Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval)
Originally called “The Temple of Nature,” the man-made wonder was built one stone at a time from thousands of pebbles that postman Joseph Ferdinand Cheval collected for 33 years.He combined the stones with mortar and limestone to create the impeccably detailed castle.

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(Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval)
At 26 meters long and 12 meters high on one end, and 14 meters long on the other, the palace is complete with pillars, buttresses, a terrace, and animals constructed from the postman’s memories of the postcards he delivered everyday. 

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(Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval) Today, as part of the offered tours, children are challenged to play a game where they locate all of the animals hidden within Cheval’s palace.

The palace has a fascinating history.

When Cheval was 43 years old, he stumbled across an oddly shaped rock while delivering mail on the same 18-mile route he took through Hauterives every day.

He was so fascinated by the rock’s shape that he put it in his pocket and took it home.

“It was a stumbling block shape so bizarre that I put it in my pocket to admire at my ease … I thought: since nature wants to do sculpture, I will do the masonry and architecture,” Cheval wrote in his journal.

That day began the next 33 years he spent collecting uniquely shaped pebbles to construct his palace, carrying them home first in his pants pockets and eventually in a wheelbarrow before beginning work alone overnight with an oil lamp for light.

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ferdinand cheval

(Copyright Collection Palais Idéal – DR/Mémoires de la Drôme) Cheval at work.

He would mark the stones he found interesting while delivering mail, pick them up at the end of his work day, and take them to his collection garden, soon to be the home of his palace.

After years of construction, the palace was officially opened to visitors in 1907.

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(Copyright Collection Palais Idéal – DR/Mémoires de la Drôme) Ferdinand Cheval hires a maid, Julia Micoud, to be in charge of the Ideal Palace’s visits.

Since then, it has since been a treasured destination for visitors and a popular location for concerts by renowned pianists like Arthur H, quartets, and a variety of musicians during the end of June and July.

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(Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval) The palace makes for a stunning backdrop.

But Cheval’s work with the pebbles did not end at his palace. You can also see the tomb he built for himself at the age of 78, known today as “The tomb of silence and endless rest.” The tomb is located 1 kilometer from the palace and free for visitors to see.

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(Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval) The tomb in which Cheval was buried.

Cheval was able to build his magnificent creation without any formal artistic training, which is why his work has been a major source of inspiration for artists including Picasso, Jean Tinguely, and French writer André Breton, who dubbed the palace the precursor of surrealistic architecture. 

Today, the palace is open to the public year-round. Tours cost 6.50 euros for adults and 5 euros for children ages 6 through 16. 

If you have the chance to visit the palace, take a close look at the walls where you can see Cheval’s poetry, which he etched himself. Perhaps one of the most touching inscriptions is the one that reads, “The dream of one man.” 

ROUND THE ISLAND RACE 2015

 

After a delay the race started, in reverse, the light wind plagued all and the race was shortened to meet the time limit finishing at beavertail. A fine day on the water.

NYYC SPRING REGATTA
NYYC SPRING REGATTA
ROLEX BOW STICKERS
ROLEX BOW STICKERS
HOLDING OFF THE COMPETITION
HOLDING OFF THE COMPETITION
SUBISTITUTE BOWMAN
SUBISTITUTE BOWMAN
DUTCH ISLAND
DUTCH ISLAND
BEAVERTAIL FINISH
BEAVERTAIL FINISH