Start day for the Annapolis-Newport Race. We have the remnants of a northwesterly here, If they have it in the Chesapeake, the bogs should blast out of the bay. Click here for the tracker.
I have not had an update on the progress of Coronet in a while. So here are some recent photos. The knees will be re-used where possible.
There is clearly a desire for change. Vlad Murnikov’s 48 foot design has been chosen for the world match race tour. I will confess that I never envisioned such change coming. I am not saying that I did not wish for change, but I never could have predicted the direction.
The America’s Cup has taken it’s share of press for change; not the least of which was the move to multihulls. The following is a you tube video about the 45 footers which will be sailed for the first season at least of the America’s Cup competition.
The Annapolis to Newport race starts on Friday. On saturday, I will spend the day in a swimming pool in my foul weather gear, part of the requirements for the transatlantic race. The NYYC spring regatta takes place on the weekend of June 10-12. Followed quickly by the “J” Class regatta; which should be a spectacle, a feast for the eyes. Plenty of time to pack my sea bag. Summer has finally come to the Northeast. The pace of life has accelerated, after a long difficult winter. The long days of sunlight make us forget so easily the cold and dark.
I don’t think I ever experienced a more accurate forecast for the race. All of the features arrived exactly at the predicted times. Even the “backdoor front” made an appearance. Speedboat set a new record for the course in the light and testing conditions.
The latest twist in our tale of Mother Nature and the distress she causes among mere mortals: Curbed SF intel says Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will buy the home of late socialite/fashionista/philanthropist Dodie Rosekrans at 2840 Broadway- immediately next door to his- for $40,000,000. The Rosekrans’ extravagant Willis Polk-designed house, built in 1916, has twenty-two rooms and lacks a garage, but it does have unobstructable views of the bay. And the billionaire’s multi-year battle with his downhill neighbors/millionaires Jane and Bernard von Bothmer may be finally coming to a close. Apparently settled yesterday morning, with lawyers beavering away over the holiday weekend, the case is a log-book of Dickensian wrangling over an eighty-year-old acacia and some overly-enthusiastic redwoods and just how many feet of wood would get trimmed from their tops. Meanwhile, there’s been an attempt to landmark the acacia, plus during a recent deposition, Jane von Bothmer produced photos of Ellison’s employees illicitly strapped into her trees, ready to trim.
This past week, Ellison defended himself in the Wall Street Journal via his tree lawyer, and back in 2007, the von Bothmers turned down two offers from Ellison to buy their property. Having paid $6,900,000 for their house in 2004, renovating it and the garden extensively, the barnacle-like von Bothmers refused to be scraped away, but they have now agreed to maintain the redwoods at a height within two feet of the elevation of the yachtsman’s second floor.
The von Bothmer’s Mediterranean style house on Vallejo Street (not visible from the street) was designed by George Applegarth and built in 1925; it has a later garden by Thomas Church that was revised by another owner to be especially hummingbird-friendly. Back up on Broadway, the austere brown facade of the Rosekrans house hides an extravagant interior and a reproduction of a Spanish Rennaissance patio. In the 1970’s the Rosekrans hired Michael Taylor to decorate the interiors and Dodie apparently never changed a thing, although we expect it’s been emptied out since her death last year- her Picassos were sold earlier in May at Sotheby’s. In the gallery above, vintage shots, including Ellison’s new view, culled from Diane Dorran Saeks’s design blog The Salon Styliste. Ellison’s house was designed by William Wurster in 1958 for Anna Spreckels Coleman, but it’s been so extensively renovated there’s not much Wurster left. It does, however, have a three-car garage.
Are the organizers of the America’s Cup hoping that there might be some of these moments in the America’s Cup; Ala NASCAR? This collision took place during the Extreme 40 circuit in Istanbul, Turkey.
I am just back from the Block Island Race on “Snow Lion”. (arrived home at 4 am) I will report further once I have edited some video I hope I captured.
Meanwhile, since before leaving for the race I have been excitedly thinking about the video of an interview with Leonora Carrington,(Britain’s lost surrealist) shown to me by my wife. I find it captivating. It touches some many aspects of how we live. Everything we absorb is a perception based on who we are. I am sorry I could not find the video to embed it.
| # | School | Team | A | B | TOT | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
University of Rhode Island | Rams | 43 | 40 | 83 | ||
| 2 |  |
Connecticut College | Camels | 44 | 49 | 93 | ||
| 3 |  |
St. Mary’s College of Maryland | Seahawks | 46 | 49 | 95 | ||
| 4 |  |
Brown University | Bears | 52 | 45 | 97 | ||
| 5 |  |
Yale University | Bulldogs | 55 | 44 | 99 | ||
| 6 |  |
Old Dominion University | Monarchs | 53 | 52 | 105 | ||
| 7 |  |
Harvard University | Crimson | 63 | 49 | 112 | ||
| 8 |  |
U. S. Coast Guard Academy | Bears | 62 | 53 | 115 | ||
| 9 |  |
Georgetown University | Hoyas | 42 | 74 | 116 | ||
| 10 |  |
Hobart and William Smith Colleges | Statesmen | 83 | 35 | 118 | ||
| 11 |  |
Boston College | Eagles | 52 | 85 | 137 | ||
| 12 |  |
University of South Florida | Bulls | 82 | 68 | 150 | ||
| 13 |  |
College of Charleston | Cougars | 68 | 84 | 152 | ||
| 14 |  |
Stanford University | Cardinal | 91 | 66 | 157 | ||
| 15 |  |
Eckerd College | Tritons | 80 | 81 | 161 | ||
| 16 |  |
University of Wisconsin | Badgers | 91 | 100 | 191 | ||
| 17 |  |
Western Washington University | Vikings | 86 | 110 | 196 | ||
| 18 |  |
Tulane University | Green Wave | 104 | 112 | 216 |
I do not see this happening in the United States with the same charm. Reaching further I would say that the America’s Cup from an audience viewpoint should have chosen to take place in Europe. I do not say this watching this video alone, it is an accumulation of events.
Skip is an old friend. I would not dare to compare myself to Skip and his accomplishments. We are however part of a sailing generation that, as you will read, remember the sport in a different light. There was still humor and diversity.
23 May 2011Share |
Novak latest Legends Ambassador
Skip Novak, skipper of Whitbread 1985-86 entry, Drum (famously owned by British rock star Simon Le Bon), is now an Ambassador to the Volvo Ocean Race Legends.
“My genre of deep water sailor men, and I do mean ‘men’ as this was before women joined in earnest with Maiden in 1989, were generally characters of the first degree. Vagabonds, misfits, rebels without cause and pub test-pilots manned the sheets.”
The American has completed four races, his first time finishing second as navigator with King’s Legend at the age of 25 in 1977-78. Novak is the fourth Ambassador to the event, joining Lady Pippa Blake, Magnus Olsson and Sir Chay Blyth CBE, BEM.
“I admit to becoming an ‘addict’ back in the early Whitbread era when, for the best part of 15 years, my life by-and-large revolved around four circumnavigations between the second instalment of the Whitbread until after the 1989-90 race,” says Novak.
“Very few people back then made a living out of the Whitbread race; rather a living was made in between the races with a view to be in a position to do the next one. This meant full time employment with commitment was an anathema, and the possibility of not getting a berth was an emotional crisis.
“My genre of deep water sailor men, and I do mean ‘men’ as this was before women joined in earnest with Maiden in 1989, were generally characters of the first degree. Vagabonds, misfits, rebels without cause and pub test-pilots manned the sheets. They were not the top racing technicians of the day (who looked upon the likes of us as having a screw loose), but instead were generally good seamen offshore, looking for an adventure and a bit of fun onshore and the Whitbread race provided all of that and more.
“Alas, there is no room in today’s fleet for the likes of that lot and certainly not their hi-jinks, some of which still cannot be printed nor repeated in mixed company!
“For a variety of reasons I have never enjoyed a fully-funded completely professional campaign. Instead, my Whitbread history has revolved around eleventh-hour, marginal entries that were less about making a boat go fast and more about crisis management. Because they were newsworthy in themselves they have, however, helped to shape the Volvo Ocean Race we see today.
“Although there were no victories on my score sheets, I have a collection of memories that would be hard to beat. It is true that nostalgia has no place in today’s Volvo Ocean Race, but those of us who were there can still enjoy turning the clocks back, and that is what the Legends Regatta and Reunion is all about. I am proud to be a part of it.”
About Skip Novak:
Born: USA 1952 (58)
1977-78 King’s Legend
1981-82 Alaska Eagle
1985-86 Drum
1989-90 Fazisi
In 2001 he co-skippered the 33-metre French catamaran Innovation Explorer with Loïck Peyron to second place in the millennium non-stop, no limits circumnavigation
Novak is the author of One Watch at a Time (account of Drum’s race around the world in 1985-86) and Fazisi – The Joint Venture(1989-90)
Novak is a mountaineer and expedition leader, spending most of his time in the Antarctic waters onboard his two expedition yachts, Pelagic and Pelagic Australis, leading climbing and filming projects
Novak’s home is now South Africa
This article first appeared in issue 37 of Life at the Extreme Magazine.
Skip is interviewed in this week’s Volvo Sailing Podcast. Listen to it here.
