Category: 12 meter class

CARL EICHENLAUB

BETTY SUE SHERMAN
BETTY SUE SHERMAN

the passing of a legend

Carls HatCarl Eichenlaub passed away early this morning. In a sport full of iconic figures, he stands with the best and most unique. Few people in the sport have the breadth and depth of his talent.

Any one of his many accomplishments would have made him worthy of inclusion in a list of greats. Champion sailor in the Snipe, Lightning, while also sailing in the Star, Soling, FD’s and IOR classes. As a builder of those boats, a few of which helped to change the face of the sport, perhaps most notably Doug Peterson’s “Ganbare”. Friend and mentor to literally thousands of people around the world.

Carl’s boat building skills were legendary. “In many ways Carl is a genius,” says Lowell North, a sailmaker who has three times sailed himself to a world championship in Eichenlaub Stars. “Although some sailors on the East Coast may not agree, we on the West Coast know that he is the best.” This quote was from an extensive Sports Illustrated article in 1965, the entirety of which is well worth reading, because it captures the essence of the man, which almost literally never changed. Anyone remember the slogan “Any slob can win in an Eichenlaub”?

Away from the sport he played classical music on a bassoon and contrabassoon with several different local orchestras. He loved the San Diego Chargers and NASCAR and in recent years had taken to traveling to what he called “Dog Regattas”, otherwise known to the rest of us as dog shows, with his wife Jean and their herd of dogs. A graduate of San Diego State in ’53, Carl is a member of the Intercollegiate Sailing Hall of Fame and is an SDSU Distinguished Alumni. He was 83 years old. He passed away quietly with Jean and his children Betty Sue Sherman and Brian close by.

While winning races and building great boats for customers is interesting, of far greater importance is the esteem with which he was held in the sport. Carl was the shipwright for the US Sailing team for decades. He always took care of the US team first every day, but after that work was done he would help sailors from other countries fix their boats. For the sort of service he gave to the sport in 2000 he was awarded US Sailing’s highest honor, the Herreshoff Award.

Many people will have words of tribute for Carl, and we thought it appropriate to start off with what Dennis Conner had to say about him this morning:

“Carl Eichenlaub was truly a genius. He could sail a bath tub down the San Diego river with a sheet as a sail. He built championship boat after champion boat for the Snipe, Lightning and Star class He could play in the orchestra, build a railroad, invent a cedar core spruce star mast, go to the Olympics and not only repair the damaged US boats but help the entire fleet, He could build, paint and launch an ocean racing boat capable of winning the SORC “STINGER”, in 30 days from start to finish! All this as well a being a great sailor, winning Championships from Sabot to Snipes to Lightnings. He inspired some of our very best sailors, Lowell North, Pete Bennett, Malin Burnham, Earl Elms in San Diego.. He will be remembered as being one of our greatest sailing talents, along with Lowell, Buddy and Bill Buchan.There will never be another Carl, he was simply the BEST!”

I was in San Diego just one month ago. I saw Carl’s Daughter and asked after him. She replied that he was at the boat shed working.

I first met Carl when I was in San Diego, rebuilding a Dragon for the Olympics. That was 1971. The boat had been built by Kelvin Savell, a close friend of Carl’s and another lover of classical music. Kelvin’s first love was building musical instruments, but boatbuilding gave him a living. Our paths crossed a number of times after that. When Carl was about to build his first aluminum hull, we spoke, I had just finished “Courageous” the 12 meter.

I told Betty Sue the story and how the idea of this  remarkable group in San Diego was a thought that remained with me.

GOODBY STRETCH

We are in San Diego racing in the International Masters Regatta with a contingent from 1977 when we received a telephone call with the news.
Eight Bells for Stretch Ryder

We are very sad to report from Port Washington, New York, the passing of a wonderful friend and sailor- Gould “Stretch” Ryder.  Stretch is best known as the winch grinder for Ted Turner aboard Courageous for the 1977 Americas Cup defense against Australia (one).
Stretch fought cancer for the past ten months and leaves behind wife Gerry, sons Michael and Christopher, and many family and friends.
Over the past few weeks Stretch received visitors and calls from all over the country. Every member of the Courageous crew called or visited Stretch. A highlight was last Friday’s visit by half the crew of Courageous, flying in from Montana with Ted Turner on his jet.  Ted, Gary Jobson (tactician), Bill Jorch (navigator) and John “LJ” Edgcomb (bow) exchanged hysterical stories (mostly true) about the 1977 Cup.
Stretch was his communicating and humorous self up to the end. Stretch grew up sailing and playing football and basketball.  Winning the Bacardi Cup racing a Star with Frank Zagarino was a major sailing highlight. At AlfredUniversity he was a tight end.  While serving in the Army, Stretch coached football and flew helicopters in Southeast Asia.   Since 1982 Stretch worked with John Thomson, running marinas, the famous “Barge” Restaurant, and Ventura Aviation.  He raced for decades on John’s famous series of ocean racers and Farr 40s named “Infinity”.  Stretch has been a longtime member of the Storm Trysail Club.
There will be a celebration for Stretch at the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club at 2 pm next Friday afternoon November 1.  All his friends are invited.

THE QUIET MAN

TED AND TEDDY
TED AND TEDDY
MARBLEHEAD COLD AND RICK HOOD
MARBLEHEAD COLD AND RICK HOOD
STILL COLD
STILL COLD
TED HOOD ON INDEPENDENCE
TED HOOD ON INDEPENDENCE
LOOKING FROM OFF THE BOAT
LOOKING FROM OFF THE BOAT
COURAGEOUS 1974
COURAGEOUS 1974

Ted Hood passed away this summer. I was traveling and did not have access to me archive of photographs. For me he will always be the quiet man; after nearly a year of sailing on the same boat we only ever exchanged a handful of words. He was a clever man that mostly saw the whole picture and must have have exceptional three dimensional vision. He could make a boat go fast, however, I believe match racing did not fit his personality.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

from Scuttlebutt:

Lessons Learned, Myths Disputed and, Oh, that Nationality Thing by the Guy That Screwed That Part Up

By Andy Rose
First, congratulations to Commodore Norbert Bajurin and the Golden Gate YC and Larry Ellison’s Oracle Team USA on an incredible comeback and successful second defense at the 34th America’s Cup. Congrats also to the Hamilton Island Yacht Club of Australia as Challenger of Record for the next Cup and the GGYC for accepting that challenge.

I think it is only fitting that after the most amazing America’s Cup, that the Challenger of Record for the next edition is from a country that held what generally is considered the best previous America’s Cup, in 1987. While Fremantle is about as far from Hamilton Island as you can get and still be on the Australian continent, they are all Aussies and it will be great to have them back!

Of course, I am somewhat prejudiced towards Australia given that I sailed as tactician on Australia I in the 1977 Cup, the first American to sail for another country. As America’s Cup Management head Iain Murray said to me, “You’re the guy that screwed this up”.

So, with regard to reflection, I might as well start with the nationality rule:

A Nationality Rule Should be Reinstated ? 
I had good reasons for what I did way back then in the mists of time but I think the complete abandonment of the rule was a mistake. Given various concerns expressed by others, perhaps a sliding scale with three minimum percentages of national crew based on things like a country’s participation in major ocean races, Olympic Games, sailors with ISAF Match Race Rankings and to allow smaller countries to still compete, perhaps some credit for population or GNP. So, an inexperienced country might only have to have 33% national crew, an experienced but small country 50% while the US, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, etc. might have to have 66%. Obviously no one is going to listen to me, but some minimum percentage should be reinstated.

Don’t Give Up on “Majestic” – 
I believe Russell Coutts was quoted as saying the 72’s were a mistake and they should have used the 45’s or at least something smaller but they thought they needed the boats to be big enough to be “majestic” for the America’s Cup. Russell, you weren’t wrong, you do need boats big enough to be a bit “majestic” and while we don’t need mega?yachts or 100 footers, the boats should be quite a bit larger than a typical ocean racer. Don’t underestimate the “wow” factor.

The TV was Great But Don’t Let That “Tail Wag the Dog” –
You can paint a NASCAR type number on the side of a hull but that doesn’t make it NASCAR or command those type of TV ratings. Congrats to Stan Honey and his team for the truly fabulous TV graphics but despite his best efforts, it doesn’t look like TV revenues are ever going to be a huge part of funding America’s Cups, at least if US viewership is a factor. Necessary, yes; fun to watch, yes: important for sponsor fulfillment, yes; providing significant revenue to share with teams, probably not.

If that is true, then it seems to me that you start with designing the best sailboat race you can and then perhaps make a few modifications to accommodate television, not the other way around. And what’s wrong with billionaires anyway? For better or worse, rich people have always been integral to getting Cup campaigns going and probably always will be. 

The Catamarans Were the Big Draw, Monohulls Would Have Bored the Audience – 
The cats were indeed spectacular and there were more lead changes than ever in the Cup. But does that mean that a 70?75 foot planing monohull with identifiable helmetless crew members in various positions on the boats grinding, trimming, hiking and setting and dousing huge spinnakers (instead of lined up in a row grinding hydraulics) with the boats a lot closer than 150?500 meters apart as was often/mostly the case in this Cup would not have attracted the same excitement on shore and on TV?

Match racing maxi?boats in the old days was pretty exciting, but a 5 minute match race pre?start among two modern boats in 25 knots of breeze would be breathtaking – both literally and figuratively – and both such boats planing within a boat length or two of each other at 20?25 knots of speed downwind with the spray flying wouldn’t be too bad a visual either. And finally, don’t underestimate the venue. San Francisco provided without a doubt the best visuals of any America’s Cup and I believe that added greatly to the visual impact of the Cup races and that would have been true no matter what boats were used.

Celebrate the Sport –
I cringed at a couple of the commentators statements to the effect that “now this is a real sport” as if only 72 foot catamarans sailing 20 minute races was “real” and things like, for example, the Volvo Round the World Race, the Olympics, the Sydney?Hobart, Bermuda or Fastnet Races, the World Match Race Tour, and frankly even those races in which us amateurs still sail offshore are some kind of quaint hobby. Sailing is a real, difficult, sometimes dangerous and incredibly complex sport and it seems to me that the America’s Cup of all things should highlight and honor that.

As Roger Vaughn wrote about this Cup, “We are still calling it sailing, calling it the future. The speed and the technology is intriguing, even momentarily arresting. But is it sailboat racing?” Well, of course it is part of our diverse sport, but couldn’t we include a few more parts of the sport in the next Cup? While every once in a while a “tactic” broke out, for the most part, the races were drag races and the only sail changes were the rare deployment of a code zero on a furler. And the fact is that the early races weren’t really close and neither ultimately were the later ones, the only difference was that one boat was faster at first, the other later.

Conclusion – 
There were moments at the 34th America’s Cup that were nothing short of spectacular and exciting, especially the first mark roundings. But, since it sounds like these boats are about to be history due to expense and safety concerns, if the next Cup is in soft sail multi?hulls, logic would say that they are going to be somewhat less spectacular and yet the drawbacks of multi?hulls will still be there (lack of maneuverability thereby allowing less tactics; just as boring to watch as monohulls in light air; generally very large leads/deficits).

Yes, I know monohulls have drawbacks too but I’d sure love to see the boats I described above given a try. They’d be cheaper, more easily accessible to more countries (gotta have a bunch of challengers this time and it would probably help Oracle a lot to actually have competition to defend) and I think just as spectacular to watch in the long run. Of course, many of the great innovations from this Cup should continue including the World Series races in non?Cup years (something like Russell’s RC?44’s would be a good vehicle), and shorter courses than in the “old days”. I truly hope it will be held in San Francisco again and can imagine one race a day, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours long with the first weather leg about a mile and a couple of short reaches requiring gybes and/or sets of asymmetric chutes right in front of GGYC and the boundary on the City shore even closer. Trust me, that would require just as good an athlete as was touted and required on the 72’s this year.

Having said that, I’m old and obviously out of it and have absolutely no influence on anyone. But, just some thoughts from someone who still sails actively, has been involved in a number of Cup campaigns, and still remembers them as highlights of my life. But whatever the venue and boats next time, I will support GGYC and Oracle and can hardly wait for the next Cup.

rose

Andy Rose (center) at the 2013 Governor’s Cup, the 47th Annual International Junior Match Race Championship

I sailed against Andy in college and then again in 12 meters later in life. I have made my share of criticisms, but The America’s Cup was a success. We, in my opinion, can never go back from this spectacle.

As I have stated before, I believe that there will be at least one foiling dinghy class in the Olympics; not in 2014, the the following one.

TED HOOD 1927-2013

A twilight sun cuts though the clouds,
Shining down on wind swept seas,
Where one man forever longs to be,
Facing the wind and sailing free.

But he settles not for meaningless miles,
Fast through the waves, to his face brings a smile,
So down on his knees, to work and to sweat,
To try and to test, new ideas to perfect.

From all of this came a bird swiftly flying,
Or a fish gently gliding, and a man who belongs,
In the hearts of us all, especially mine,
For he somehow found time, to bring me along.

The sport of sailing, and the boating world at large, lost an icon over the weekend with the passing of Frederick E. “Ted” Hood on June 28. Hood, who was born in Beverly, Mass., on May 5, 1927, was a longtime member of the New York Yacht Club, joining in 1960. He was 86 years old. [Please note memorial information below]

“Ted was such an important part of the heritage of the New York Yacht Club,” said New York Yacht Club Commodore Thomas Harrington, “And he’ll be sorely missed.”

Hood, who grew up in Marblehead, Mass., was a complete sailor. He started his career as a sailmaker, and when he couldn’t find sailcloth to his standards, he built a loom and started making his own. He then branched out into yacht design and construction. He was also a remarkable innovator when it came to sailing gear and technique. He is credited with the grooved headstay, roller furling, and the dip-pole jibe, among other things. And, of course, through it all, he was a superlative skipper. His signature performance on the water was a 4-0 win in the 1974 America’s Cup, driving Courageous. But he was a dominant force in ocean racing for decades, winning races from the SORC to Marblehead Halifax, usually at the helm of one of his many boats namedRobin. His record puts him on par with any of the top skippers of his generation, or any generation. His understated, gentlemanly manner may have contributed to his accomplishments being overshadowed by those of more outspoken sailors.

“Ted Hood lived in a time when specialties were not the norm,” said New York Yacht Club Vice Commodore Rives Potts, a veteran of the 12-Metre era of the America’s Cup. “He was the most forward-thinking, the most complete yachtsman of that generation, and maybe of generations to come. Nowadays, we have guys who are excellent helmsmen, or tacticians, or bowmen or are good yacht designers or sailmakers. Or maybe a good yard manager. Ted Hood was all of those and more.”

In the mid-1980s, Hood sold his sailmaking business and focused on boat design and construction. He purchased the Melville Boat Basin, in Portsmouth, R.I., from the government and built the Ted Hood Marine Complex. Little Harbor Yachts, which he started in the 1960s, was initially a sailboat company. But as the market for sailboats softened and the demand for powerboats increased, he shifted his focus. He was among the first to embrace jet drive propulsion for power boats. He sold the company to Hinckley Yachts in 1999. Soon after he started Ted Hood Yachts, which has a broad line of ocean-going poweryachts and motorsailers.

According to a biography posted at tedhood.com, he was refining and improving his designs right into his last days.

Memorial information: In honor of Frederick E. “Ted” Hood (May 5, 1927 – June 28, 2013), the Hood family cordially invites all he has touched to a celebration of his life to be held at New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court, Newport, RI on Friday, September 20 at 11 a.m. Parking at the Club may be limited; overflow parking will be available on Wellington Ave. Carpooling where possible is encouraged, as is arriving early. All are welcome to stay for refreshments and to share stories following the service.

 

A DAY OF CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

The final day of racing in the 12 meter North American Championships. It has been close racing, closer than the scores reflected in some cases. Today showed just how close the racing was, both upwind and down.

Dennis Connor sailing KZ 7 ultimately won the Grand Prix division, Victory “83 owned by Dennis Williams won the Modern division, and Columbia  owned by Alain Hanover won the Traditional division.

The Melges 32 championship starts at the end of the week. The boats are all identical and there is nothing notable about the boats themselves. They are fast, but it is the level racing of some very good sailors that makes it compelling to watch.

 

SHADOW ACT

It is fall and the sun is lower in the sky. Quite apart from the fact that the sun sets noticeably sooner, the light changes as well. Another splendid day on the water.

The racing is tight. the finishes are close. American Eagle and Columbia finished tightly overlapped nearly every race.

 

12 METER NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP DAY 1

Summer is over, but not the sailing. Today was the first day of the 12 meter north american championship. An overcast day turned to sunshine and the wind out of the north a 10-15 knots held all day. Three races were held. Twelve meters only go 8 knots; nothing like the AC 45 catamarans which can sail over 40 knots, but they are so elegant and graceful.

Victory 83 has 3 firsts in class 2. Ted Turner was over the line in two of three starts for a second place in the classic division which comprises 2 boats. Dennis connor is sailing in the grand prix division with Tom Whidden as his tactician.

 

COURAGEOUS 35TH ( or the way we were)

 

This week was the 35th re-union of the “Courageous” crew; celebrating their successful defense of the America’s Cup in 1977. Commodore Harry Anderson made some remarks bemoaning the present state of the Cup. I always feel that Ted is so nice to have included me in the event over the years. I was not part of the crew; I have sailed quite a lot with Ted over the years and was part of the same syndicate in 1977. What was announced as an event for 50-60 people swelled to over 225.

Courageous was the first aluminum 12 meter, the last two time defender of the America’s Cup. I lofted and built her in 1973-74 at Minneford’s.

There was another re-union of sorts this evening. Duby Joslin reminded us Richie Sayer, Jimmy Gubelmann, Duby and Myself have know one another for 52 years this month. We have all sailed together or against each other on 12 meters, big boats and dinghys since before high school and college.