Sailing Anarchy

light air 2019 big boat series

Leaders after two days are in the largest fleets, the J/70 with 14 and the J/105 with 23 boats Scott Sellers/Geoff McDonald/Harrison Turner, Emerald Hills, CA, USA on the J/70 1FA, and Ryan Simmons, Sausalito, CA, USA, on the J/105 Blackhawk. Blue, the Swan 53-2 of Paul Ray, San Francisco, CA, USA, is first in the ORR A class, Kuai, the Melges 32 of Daniel Thielman, San Francisco, CA, USA, leads in the ORR B class, and Peregrine, the J/120 of David Halliwill, New York, NY, USA, is on top of the ORR C class. —– All results. —– 79 boat split in 8 One-Design and ORR classes are participating in the 55th edition of the Big Boat Series consisting of four days of buoy racing on San Francisco Bay, organised by the St. Francis YC. The high temperatures ashore during the past two days made it difficult to run races, and only one race each day could be completed in very light winds. —– The news of day 2 and the Big Boat event website. —– Racing continues today, Saturday, September 14, with two planned races and a significantly improved forecast, followed by Sundayu0092s scheduled long-form Bay Tour course. But the good news is that Saturday and Sunday look to be typical San Francisco Bay conditions.

prostrate for the prostate

It’s day 58 of my round UK trip. I’ve just completed the longest open water crossing I’ve done so far from Port St Mary Isle of Man to Holyhead in Wales. The last few days have been a real highlight of this trip. Not least because it’s not rained as much. I’m now aiming to be on the South Coast within 10 days. Weather dependent of course. Picture below was taken by Jen Kneale Coxswain of the Lifeboat in Port St Mary. Isle of Man. Thanks to everyone who has donated to this very worthwhile cause.

Back story:
I am embarking on an exciting but seriously challenging and dangerous mission – I am sailing round the UK in a 13ft open Laser for PROSTATE CANCER UK because we men all have one and it takes balls to talk.

I will sail around the UK mainland in a 13ft one-man laser dinghy THE WRONG WAY ROUND. Although fascinating and fun this epic voyage is throwing up some huge challenges, bringing a wide host of emotions from fear, passion and frustration and a lot of anxiety!! It’s thoroughly testing my faith in everything. But to get a diagnosis of cancer is MUCH, much more frightening – now that’s a real battle and I want to try and do what I can to help those affected win their personal battle, by raising money for much-needed research and funding. So thank you too for being part of this fantastic journey with me.

I started at Eastbourne Pier in East Sussex on 17th July 2019 at 12noon, and I plan to land back there sometime in September having traversed around the coast of Kent, London, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincs, Yorshire, Tyne & Wear, The Borders, Berwickshire, Aberdeenshire, Caithness and all the way back down the other side via the Western Isles of Scotland, Cumbria, Lancs, Merseyside, Wales, Somerset, Devon and so on all the way back to my home town of Eastbourne.

I’m sailing a 1970 beaten up Laser that I paid £50 for a few years back. It’s been re-modeled in lumpy grey and orange paint with an orange tip on its “027” sail. I’ve slightly modified the rear with a hatch to allow me to store my tent and food, but essentially its just a bog standard old laser.

Please Like my StickDaringRoundUK Page on FaceBook to keep up with photos and videos as I continue. I’ve met some of the kindest people ever on this trip and it’s restoring my faith in humanity.

tartan ten anarchy

We love this kinda stuff. Of course it’s from our Fabulous Forums…

So next week my college team and I are going off to Chicago to race T10’s against other Midwestern colleges.

I’ve thumbed through the North, Doyle Boston and Sobstad tuning guides and they seem to point in similar directions as far as rig setup and trim goes, and a lot of the advice is pretty intuitive. We were assigned an LS-10, which is the newer boat with the coachroof and some layout changes on deck and inside.

1. Are there any special tuning considerations for the LS-10 that wouldn’t be true for the T-10?

2. Any preseason prep (Fairing, Longboarding, Sanding/Antifoul, New Sails) would have to already have been done by the owner, is there anything we can do to increase performance before leaving the dock?

3. For the main trimmer, how much of the trim is done with the traveler versus the sheet? The guides talk about keeping the aft third of the top batten parallel to the boom and the telltale stalling about 50% of the time, and that it’s more crucial to induce twist coming out of tacks to promote flow adhesion on the keel-obviously keeping a dialogue with the driver, is that just slowly pulling the car to windward as the boat flattens out or is there some sheet play? Downwind, is it just playing out mainsheet until the sail hits the spreaders or is there more finesse?

4. Weight placement downwind-I assume that the goal is to keep weight out of the cockpit unless it’s nuking, does the T-10 do better with a little windward or a little leeward heel? Better to soak or to try and keep boatspeed up? It’s a pretty tiny kite…

5. Any tips to get a crew that has never sailed big boats together before; and most of whom have only sailed Opti/420/Laser/FJ or some very “Cruisy” PHRF boats up to speed quickly?

Jump on in!

ain’t nothin’ but a g thing

GC32 – grand prix foiling cat racing
Driven on by the last three America’s Cups, development in sail boat design has taken some of its biggest steps forward over the past decade. Leading the charge have been foiling multihulls where America’s Cup technology, to make these boats fly, has now filtered down to the mainstream.

Back in 2013 the GC32 cat was born with the aim of bringing state-of-the-art America’s Cup-style foiling catamaran racing to regular racing sailors. The boat was conceived by Laurent Lenne and Australian catamaran specialist Andrew McPherson and designed by Martin Fischer who is currently design co-ordinator for Luna Rossa. Read on.

omg

There is just something not quite right with what we can see of this brand new IMOCA,  but we just don’t know what it is. Maybe the funky paint job? Hell, what do we know, the thing will prolly win…

What it is, is the DMG MORI Global One Japanese effort for the 2020 Vendee Globe.

cruising anarchy

Anarchist QBF posted this in our Fabulous Forums brought to you by Marlow Ropes.

Steve and Linda Dashew have been sailing and working as a team for more than 50 years: racing, initially, and cruising for the past four decades. This is the first of multiple posts and starts leading up to their 20’ Shark catamaran, to their D-Class Beowulf catamarans (Steve at the helm with Linda on the wire), to their 78-foot ketch, Beowulf.

This is a fascinating and in-depth read from a very talented couple. Enjoy.

critiquing

From our Fab Forums. I watched a bit of the  Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, and Anarchist Ziggy is not wrong.  As for Tucker – Mr. banality is a tool, and always has been. 

I just watched a little bit of the day three video on YouTube and have a couple of observations and wanted to hear other peoples’ opinions

•  Both the video and audio quality as well as the professionalism of the presentation completely sucked. The presenters not knowing which boats had onboard cameras, which way the tide was going when they mention it as an advantage, and general amateur quality of the commentary. Greenie should be banned from public consumption and Tucker has had much better showings
• The commentators mentioned in one race that the wind was between 14 and 16 knots which the video seemed to confirm.  My question then is why do all boats have main and jib reefed? Is an IC37 unsailable or dangerous to life and limb fully canvassed?
•  Is there something in the class rules or perhaps the rules for this particular regatta that says that all boats must race in the same configuration?  My experience in other one design classes is that proper sail selection for the conditions as part of the game. J24 big jib vs little jib as an example although admittedly dated.
• The tracker at times not even close to video or commentary regarding boat positions to each other or the course. Jump in and discuss.

yet another fire

A fire at Wickford Shipyard in Rhode Island early Tuesday morning destroyed the building housing George W Zachorne Jr and Sons, a builder of wooden sailboats since the 1980s, as well as Coastal Ironworks.

“Every boat with a wooden mast around here was built there,” Scott Duckworth, who himself had two boats launched from the shop about two weeks ago, told the Providence Journal. “There are very few people left in the state who still work [wooden antique boats] like that and do it true to the craft.”

In addition to the building, at least three boats were destroyed and several others damaged. Read on, thanks to IBI

where’d ya go?

Where has your boat, or any boat, taken you? When you stepped onto the boat, alone, with friends, or with family, where did you go?

And what experiences did it bring?  Jump in the thread.

how nice

The NGO TRAFFIC has released a study identifying the world’s top 20 shark and ray catchers and traders, who collectively account for some 80 percent of the global reported catch.

Commercial and artisanal vessels from Indonesia, Spain, India, Mexico and the U.S. topped the list of catchers between 2007 and 2017, with a combined total of 333,952 tons caught on average each year. Indonesia was the top global shark catcher with a mean catch of 110,737 tons per year. The Atlantic Ocean accounted for 80 percent of recent catches.

west coast, bitches

Three races were held yesterday at the NYYC Invitational Cup in Newport, RI, and the dominating leader is the San Diego YC , 17 points ahead of a group of 5 teams from AUS, JPN, CAN, IRL and ITA within 5 points. —– The results and the event website. Racing can be followed live over a race tracker.

um….

We get the world of Press Release notices, we just don’t much care to publish them. If you like them, head over to dickhead’s site, there isn’t a PR that he won’t publish. So we laughed especially hard at this one. FFS, if you are going to invoke a major sponsor’s name, at least get the name of the team right…

As I’m sure you know, the America’s Cup is just about 18 months away and Helly Hansen is proud to sponsor the America’s Magic boat – the boat of one of the competition’s top race teams. We would love to offer you a very exclusive opportunity to get up close and personal with the boat and its crew.

n2deep?

We aren’t smart enough to even understand the translated pages from the Tour de Bretagne, but this is one hell of a shot! Title inspiration by – you guessed it – N2deep.

is there anything better?

Wall to wall sunshine, sparkling clear waters and steady trade winds, the conditions alone have long been among the major attractions to racing in the Caribbean. Add to this the region’s legendary reputation for outstanding parties, lay days, music and general fun ashore and it’s easy to see why the Caribbean regatta circuit has been a key part of so many people’s sailing season, for so many years.

But like many regattas around the world, even the most enticing events in this sailing paradise have previously struggled to maintain their momentum. The reasons for the change have been widespread and complex, but at the heart of the issue is the way that competitors themselves have changed how they work and play. Increasing day to day demands of work puts sailors under more pressure to play closer to home. Put simply, habits and holidays have changed. Read on.

newport airshow part II

Well, it certainly looks good here!

paired up

A former winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre, Frenchman Pascal Bidégorry, will pair up with American offshore sailor Charlie Enright as co-skippers on board 11th Hour Racing for the upcoming 2019 Transat Jacques Vabre, a two-handed race across the Atlantic that starts October 27 in Le Havre, France.

yawn

World Sailing’s Council confirms Laser as Paris 2024 Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy. More.

bottoms up

From our Fabulous Forums, brought to you by Marlow Ropes.

What’s your go-to cocktail, and how do you make it?  Not beer, not booze-in-soda, not straight whisky.  I need to add a new drink to my lineup.

My current hockey team lineup of cocktails features a medium dry martini with olives and less floral gin, a proper fresh made whisky sour, the Negroni / Boulevardier, the Sidecar, and the Old Fashioned, an underrated and sophisticated flavor that hits it out of the park if you use the right whisky and Luxardo cherries, and both orange and Angostura bitters.

But my fave is the daquiri.  Not the treacly bullshit frozen Sno Cone of a cold headache-inducing Slushee that low end chain restaurants popularized, but the honest-to-God, reputable, probably-has-been-in-a-church-once-in-its-life foster stepbrother of grog.

3 ounces white rum
1.5 ounces fresh squeezed lime juice
1 ounce (plus a couple drops) of simple syrup, store bought is okay it’s better homemade Demerara sugar syrup.

Pour ingredients onto ice in a cocktail shaker, shake vigorously for about 5 seconds, serve promptly in a martini glass.  If guests are coming over you can fancy the glass up with sugar on the rim, and a slice of lime and or orange for garnish.

What do you got?

hey dad, what’s with the colored sails?

Well son, that’s what spinnakers used to look like back in the day…

information society

Think data analysis and it’s hard not to conjure up images of earnest technical studies with spreadsheets full of numbers and detailed conclusions. Yet for some, like the instrument manufacturer Sailmon, data analysis is a new route to bring more fun into sailing and it is this that is at the heart of their recently launched free app.

At its most fundamental level the Sailmon app allows any user to see basic sailing data based around the GPS functions available on their smartphone. Whether you are racing or cruising on anything from a superyacht to a dinghy, trips can be logged, replayed and shared. Read on.

sail on

We failed to mention the passing of builder/sailor/designer Mark Lindsay, but here is a comment from designer Bob Perry:

Sorry to read this morning of the death of Mark Lindsay. Mark worked for Dick Carter at the time I was there. He was a lot of fun, high energy. He had a unique drafting style involving a lot of free hand lines. It was very effective.

Magazine articles of Carter designs would say “from the drawing board of Dick Carter” despite the fact that Dick did no drawing at all.. Mark cut one of these quotes out of the magazine and taped it to the edge of his drawing board. It read, “The drawing board of Dick Carter”. Dick must have seen it but said nothing.

Discuss.

it just goes and goes and…

I bought Mike’s DURACELL from him as he was building his next boat COYOTE. My plan was to do my own, non-racing, solo non-stop circumnavigation. After bringing her to Seattle (through the canal) and winning the Pan-Pacific Race, I brought her solo back from Japan as a shakedown. My circumnavigation was cut short by losing the top 50’ of the mast in a collision with a freighter down by the equator.

Putting her on the hard next to my home, it was my intention to put it back together and return to sailing. Shore life got in the way with business and family obligations and now age and health issues. I no longer have the means to chase that dream. So what now?

I love that boat. I can’t imagine a more easily handled, sea kindly, safe, proven, shorthanded boat capable of sailing anywhere on earth. So a refit for a solo circumnavigator? Or shorthanded go anywhere?

Move the helm aft and replace the short pilot house with a long coach roof, build in creature comforts for a fast, shorthanded cruiser or ‘six pack’ charter boat? A Salish Sea, sailing/whale watching boat sailing out of Deception Pass?

Much of the movie “Coyote: The Mike Plant Story” was shot of and aboard this boat. The movie trailer can be viewed here.

In any case, I want to make it possible for another individual or organization to own her and get her sailing again. I’m looking for a buyer, proposals and/or ideas.

Join the discussion!

they all look the same to us

Good Trade, led by Nicole Breault and Bruce Stone, won the J/105 North American Championship hosted by Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA on Friday. Conditions were considerably lighter after Dorian passed by the day before, and from the West.

Taking the first race of the 4th and last day of competition (Race 7) was Ken Horne on Final Final, followed by The Usual Suspects in 2nd, who slipped to 8th after a penalty, and Californian boat Ne*Ne in 3rd. Charlie Garrard and Merlin took 4th. The final race of the day made all the difference, Good Trade taking 1st place, Merlin in 2nd, and Terry Michaelson and The Usual Suspects in 3rd.

So overall, the North American Champion for 2019 is Good Trade, followed by Final Final in 2nd, and local favorite Merlin in 3rd. A hard fought regatta over 4 days, and some great racing and sportsmanship throughout. 

Photos are available on the J/105 Class Facebook page, and complete results may be found here.  

26 is a good number

Twenty-six large luxury yachts is a fine enough launch tally… but designer Philippe Briand’s CNB 76-footers are still rolling out the shipyard

How do you improve a yacht that’s been a runaway success and is well on its way to becoming a modern classic? At CNB Yacht Builders, the luxury arm of Group Beneteau, the favoured approach is to keep on building their flagship CNB 76 while introducing some carefully developed refinements.

‘After six years of production we still can’t see an end of life for this boat,’ says Christophe Harvey, product manager and design engineer at CNB. ‘We have sold 26 of them, there is still very high demand and the boat is becoming iconic.’  Read on.

scotw

Jeanne Socrates has become the oldest person to sail around the world alone, non-stop and unassisted.

A British sailor and grandmother has become the oldest person to sail around the world alone, non-stop and unassisted, according to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.

Jeanne Socrates, 77, left Victoria last October aboard the 11-metre S/V Nereida, and spent more than 330 days at sea before returning to Victoria Saturday afternoon. Read on, thanks to CBC.

warming up

From the   Tour de Bretagne voile. Photo by Pierrick Contin.

how it is

This is mostly for those of you who don’t “do” Facebook & the other social media sites. Just heard from Christine Russell and Mark Ripco in the Fortune Bay area. They say it is sunny and humid with 30+ temp. There is no power or water service as yet and there appears to be little damage to houses, mostly gardens & trees. The storm lasted 44 hours, and dumped more than 24 inches of rain according to the government.

The storm surge was deepest from the north, over 30 feet in some areas. Queens Highway and other major roads downtown remain flooded. And areas adjacent to and going east from the Grand Lucayan Waterway are still flooded. The new bridge has been damaged by debris and the Casuarina bridge is apparently not yet passable. Rescue efforts have been underway on Grand Bahama since yesterday. It appears to be a combination of the official services – police, fire, paramedics, Grand Bahama Defence Force – and individual volunteers who are using small boats, jet skis in the areas that are unreachable because of flooded roads.

Folks are being taken to churches and other central points and ZNS says, the Grand Lucayan and other hotels are being opened up as emergency shelter. The Castaways took in people off the street during the storm. The Royal Navy auxiliary ship RF Mounts Bay is due to arrive today according to CNN. It carries a helicopter, transport and building equipment, and aid supplies. It appears from photos there is less wind damage on Grand Bahama compared with Abaco, where some neighbourhoods are flattened. Bahamas Evac & the US Coast Guard are helping with the rescue effort on there, the injured being taken to Nassau.

On Grand Bahama, the Sunrise Medical Centre remained dry through the storm and is providing emergency service until the Rand is back up and running according to www.medpagetoday.com It is still unclear where the patients evacuated from the Rand because of flooding were taken. On Abaco, the Marsh Harbour hospital remained intact during the storm. The photos below are all from various online sources, all of Grand Bahama, taken over the last day.

not all fun and games

Maxi sailing isn’t all awesomeness. This is Essentia, new Grand Soleil 80 that we featured earlier this week. Thanks to Max Ranchi from the Maxi Worlds.

microdosing

At 10PM last night single hander Keith Leitzky sailed back into Kaneohe Yacht Club on Oahu, where he had departed two months earlier on his modified Cal 20 “Magic”. (yes, it really is a Cal 20! -He modified it extensively.  Moved the chainplates outboard, modified the deck a bit, removed the jumper struts from the rig, removed the windows, installed a micky-mouse dodger…  but the base hull, keel, and rudder are vintage Cal 20. –  ed.)

He sailed to as far as 55 degrees north latitude on his 6,000 mile sojourn through the North Pacific, never coming closer than 150 miles to land. Keith described it as “a shakedown cruise” for an upcoming attempt at Cape Horn, which he noted is no further south than he went north.

He got whacked by three big low pressure systems while up in the Gulf of Alaska, but he “just put up the storm jib and went below” to ride them out. Keith had backup systems for nearly everything, but nothing broke. He did note that the gap between the second reef in his mainsail and the storm trysail was too great, so he will have a third reef put into the main.

Otherwise, all he plans to do is “buy a bag of oranges at the store” before casting off for the iconic Cape in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned…. – Anarchist Noodle.