Sailing Anarchy

Will sailing die in this generation?

Two friends have offered to give me their boats since Jan 1, 2023. I’m currently boatless and crewing for a guy doing Beer Can races. I sold my boat of 13 years ownership about 5 years ago, because I was buried under too many family (kids in college) and work responsibilities and no budget left for marina fees and properly maintaining the boat.

I also have some property and a semi-empty barn and I think those are the primary thoughts motivating my friends to give me their boats (both are in Marinas and are not tailorable in that their beams are too wide without permits and giant trailers). I’m 59. Most of my boating friends are older than me (65-75), so it’s natural that they are winding down and simplifying their lives…

I feel like along with so many other “boomer” hobbies, millennials and younger generations have been lost to the world of sailing, and boating in general.

IMHO – why I think sailing will be dead soon

1) Lack of expendable income for marina/maintenance/insurance and any loans on boat purchase
2) Fewer DIY boatyards.. almost completely extinct.. I can only think of two in entire S.F. Bay Area
3) Very large inventory of heavily neglected boats
4) “Working Man” yacht clubs are almost extinct because of so few “Working Men” (I.e. middle class)
5) Lastly, the KILLER…. Lack of interest, like so many activities and hobbies over the last 100 years, “Hands-On” stuff can’t possibly hit the dopamine highs so consistently and effortlessly as playing games with the smartphone or computers (as I observe.. not a gaming guy).

What do you think is the way to turn this around? Jump in the thread to discuss.

We’re guessing that US Ailing must be pretty desperate for money. Check out the sponsor for the US Team Racing Champs. Word is that they paid $80k to be the title sponsor.

Now read this:

The lawyer representing two groups of AeroVanti members says its Top Gun membership has the ‘hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme’ If true, the allegations against private aviation membership provider AeroVanti in two separate lawsuits filed earlier this week could mean dozens of the private flight provider’s clients have lost as much as $15 million.

That sure as hell sounds like trouble. Nice work.  More here.

Some things are just so easy to call and this was one of them. Now I am not against people having big dreams and big ambitions, but seriously this one was bound to fail. This dude, and you might expect this from a Frenchman and not a Brit, this dude was planning to sail across the Atlantic in a three-foot boat. Well, you can hardly call it a boat. Andrew Bedwell from Scarisbrick in Lancashire, England was hoping to sail from Canada to England in the smallest boat ever, a home-built, blunt-nosed thingamajig that had a sail.

It’s 1,900 miles from Canada to England and let’s guess how far he got. I actually don’t know the exact distance but I think that it was around a couple of miles from the dock before his boat started to take on water, and well you guessed it, it started to sink. His yacht, and I use that word kindly, was 3 feet long and 11 feet wide built out of fiberglass with a foam core and was called the Big C. Bedwell was raising money for cancer research and broke down in tears when he announced that he had to abandon his three-year-long dream.

OK, I don’t want to be dick here, (that part comes naturally to me) but seriously, he was never going to make it and in my most humble opinion he was lucky to sink close to land. Ferchristsake the Titanic didn’t make it across the Atlantic and there have been many other more seaworthy boats that have gone down to Davy Jones’s locker. Mr. Bedwell said in a video statement, “Hello everyone. Firstly I am so sorry. We had a difficult problem yesterday. (Understatement – my comment) We got back to the harbor and the boat had basically sunk.”  Well, it went to the bottom so I guess that means that it sunk.

The boat itself was actually quite a clever design. It had 12 watertight compartments and vents which could be opened and closed. The keel could hold just under a gallon and a half of drinking water which could be refilled with a hand crank watermaker.  Big C had twin rudders (in case one broke), dual furling headsails, outriggers, and an A-frame mast. Perfect for a sail around the Solent or perhaps Narragansett Bay on a mild summer afternoon.

I have sailed across the Atlantic numerous times and the weather can get tricky out there, in fact some of the worst weather I have encountered in my 40+ years of girdling the globe has been in the North Atlantic. He didn’t stand a chance, but there you go, and as the saying goes, nothing ventured nothing gained. 

– Brian Hancock

Over the past 3 years, there has been a thread in the forums called TP52 Cruiser.  As the owners of this refit, I thought it was time to answer some questions as forums tend to have a lot of people’s opinions that aren’t based on facts.

First things first.  It should be RACER/Cruiser.  It was never meant to be a full-blown cruiser.  It will always be a RACER first and foremost with a few cruising additions.  

J-Bird III was Hull #2 of the TP52’s.  Originally there were three in series 1, all built together to create the class.  Remember that these initial boats were built for one purpose, hence the name TP, the TransPacific Yacht Race.  They were built as offshore racing machines, not like the current 52 Super Series vessels.

When we bought the boat we paid AUD$30,000.  One person said we paid $29,500 too much for it.  Well, if you consider buying a boat that the mast is worth over $100K and the winches close to $100K as bad buying, then I guess we got ripped off.  In fact, we could’ve sold the mast and winches countless times throughout this build and made our money back several times over.

But as stated, Annika fell in love with the boat and so did I. The hull lines are incredible and it is built solidly.  As to implying that Annika gets what she wants, it’s what we both wanted.  I’m just fortunate enough to have a wife that loves what I do and lets us take on a project like this.  O.K, when we bought it the balsa in the deck was rotten due to reconfiguring the deck layout, but we had always wanted a fast yacht that we could replace the deck to give us room for me at 6’4.  So this project was perfect.

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The understatement of the week…

Skipper Paul Mielhat has reported that the Biotherm IMOCA has broken the main shroud (the cable attached on the outriggers that supports the mast) on the port side of the boat. This happened early morning (CEST) as the team was racing between Iceland and the UK, en route to Aarhus, Denmark in the Ocean Race.

Everybody is safe onboard and the mast is still in position. The crew has managed to put halyards on the outrigger to secure the mast.

Biotherm is now sailing under J2 with one reef in the mainsail, and is currently on starboard tack.

The team expects to be slower after this incident.

The Environment

Antarctic currents that enrich 40% of Earth’s deep ocean with oxygen and nutrients that are vital for marine life have slowed dangerously in recent decades and could collapse by mid-century, a study published Thursday revealed.

The research—which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change—showed a 30% slowdown in deep water currents around Antarctica since the early 1990s.

Currents known as Antarctic bottom waters—which are driven by cold, dense waters off the Antarctic continental shelf—power a worldwide system of currents. The most important of these, known as the Southern Ocean overturning circulation, comprises two massive cells—one subducting downward and the other upwelling—that connect the various water basins in a global circulation system.

“If the oceans had lungs, this would be one of them.” Read on.

The Environment

Oh great, let’s just drill the hell out of everything… Oh and the title inspiration is thanks to Caribou Barbie

Aker BP has made a significant oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, near its planned Yggdrasil development. In an exploration well in block 25/2, Aker BP found about 40-90 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), twice what it had expected to encounter.

The well was drilled by Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 semisub rig, just three months after Aker BP received consent for exploration drilling at the site.

“We are extremely pleased with the results of this well. The discovery will be evaluated as a potential addition to the Yggdrasil development. We see further upside potential around Yggdrasil and, in collaboration with our partners, will continue active exploration in the area,” said SVP of E&P Per Oyvind Seljebotn in a statement.

Read on.

So we had our first race last night on my new-to-me J/105 Black Flag, and it was good, and then fucked. Got a good start near the pin, seemed to have decent speed despite one of the worst jibs imaginable – board flat entry, draft way too far aft. The sailmaker’s brand starts with a D and ends with a fuck you. I’d buy a powerboat before I’d buy sails from those twits.

Breeze was around 6-8 knots,  we rounded the first weather mark in second place, and started gaining on the lead boat right away. Chuck Driscoll on Juiced was gaining on us,  and in typical Beer Can fluky fashion, boats that were way back brought breeze, and we all ended up in a giant cluster fuck off the carrier dock. Some made it through, we got hosed, then had kelp and didn’t know it and by the time we got it off (I think), that was that, resulting in a very marginal 5th out of 9.

It is the first time a few of us – including me – have ever sailed a 105, so clearly there is a learning curve that we need to climb. The new sails will be here soon, we’ll get Jeff Thorpe to come out with us, start to figure it out, and perhaps start to find results better than 5th.

Of course I was furious that we lost that way, but I got over it and am quite looking forward to getting towards the pointy end of the fleet. Nice shot by Cynthia Sinclair.

At 1541 UTC on Thursday, May 25, while racing in Leg 5 of The Ocean Race, 11th Hour Racing Team activated its Hazard Button to alert Race Control and the wider fleet they had hit something, suspected to be a marine mammal or megafauna.

The Team was in the mid-North Atlantic Ocean at 52°N, 35°W – approximately 750 nautical miles [863 miles/1,389 km] off the coast of Newfoundland, sailing at 29 knots [33mph/54 kmph], in 28+ knots [32 mph/52 kmph] of wind speed – some of the fastest conditions yet seen in the race.

The impact was sudden, and the crew onboard were thrown forward, causing two injuries onboard. Trimmer Charlie Dalin (FRA) has a suspected mild concussion, and Media Crew Member Amory Ross (USA) has injured his shoulder. The Race’s on-call Doctor – Dr. Spike Briggs – has spoken to the sailors onboard the boat by satellite phone. Dr. Briggs has prescribed painkillers, bunk rest, and plenty of water to hydrate, and is monitoring the situation closely. The two sailors are reported to be comfortable, and their next of kin have been informed. More here.

Somehow, Badalona in Spain seems to be the pasture where the former steed assemble and await an unceremonious death. Kialoa (iv) is there with the bungs on the outside and hardware-store-grade plywood epoxied on the transom. I always think someone will be nostalgic enough to rejuvenate these yachts.

The Arctic grade anchor tells the tale of trials and tribulations and aborted ambitions… – anarchist Valentin.

Title inspiration thanks to The Pixies.

Matching colors – must be nice…

One of the newly-launched hot favorites for the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s (RORC) 50th Rolex Fastnet Race in July, Ino Noir, had its boat christening ceremony at RORC, Cowes on Sunday. The liquid crimson 45ft monohull will catch the eye on the race circuit. Ino Noir bears all the hallmarks of its creators; Shaun Carkeek’s signature lines and all-round speed, the performance, style and colors of James Neville, the owner and commodore of RORC, and the attention to detail and finish of the builder Jason Carrington. Neville will be able to seamlessly move from land to sea now with Ino Noir carefully color-matched to his Aston Martin DB11 AMR.

So someone got their knickers in a twist and decided to complain to just about everyone she could, claiming the boat name “Himalayan Women” is misogynistic, offensive, etc. We looked it up and just didn’t see what the beef is, but having been on the receiving end of ridiculous attacks, we know what a giant pain in the ass they can be.

Given the number of, um,  ‘questionable’ boat names in the States, we’re quite surprised this sort of bitching hasn’t happened about 100 times in the US. Or maybe it has and we don’t know. When I had the GP 26, I named it “Sleeve of Wizard”, and it got questioned, but I made up a bullshit story, and that was the end of that. That name was of course, inspired by Borat.

Read the story here. And if you have some of the ‘better’ names that have been used over the years, jump in and comment.

A little long, but it’s fairly compelling. Fairly.

Pretty interesting…

Not a fun day for this Club Swan 50 at the Swan Sardinia Challenge. Thanks to Max Ranchi for the candid shot.

Harry Clemons “Buddy” Melges Jr., considered to be one of the greatest competitive sailors in the sport of sailing, passed away at 93 years on May 18, 2023. He leaves behind a remarkable legacy as one of the most accomplished and revered sailors in American history.

Born on January 26, 1930, in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, Buddy dedicated his life to the pursuit of excellence on the water. Growing up on Delavan Lake, he honed his skills sailing the boats crafted by his father, Harry Melges Sr., at Melges Boat Works.

From its humble origins as a wooden rowboat builder, the family business evolved into a trailblazer in sailing innovation, providing top-quality performance hulls and sails while fostering a passionate sailing community over the last 78 years.

Over his eight-decade career, Buddy advanced the sport and etched his name into the annals of sailing history, showcasing unmatched skill, strategic brilliance, and an unwavering passion for the sport. While being a fierce competitor, Buddy made lifelong friendships both on and off the water. His triumphs in international competitions solidified his status as a sailing icon. There is a thread.

That looks wet. More here.  Photo: IMA / Studio Borlenghi.

The French company Airseas, which was created with technologies from the aviation industry’s Airbus, reports it has achieved a key milestone in the testing of its wind propulsion system known as the Seawing.   As part of the ongoing sea trials aboard an in-service Ro-Ro, they successfully delivered the first traction from the kite system to the vessel.

The engineers explained that the system for the first time was positioned after earlier flight tests. After lowering it to the correct angle for propulsion, they achieved traction sufficient to provide wind-assisted propulsion to the Ville de Bordeaux, a 5,200 dwt cargo Ro-Ro which is operated by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and chartered by Airbus. The ship is sailing transatlantic between France and the U.S. Gulf Coast transporting components for Airbus.  Read on.

This article, badly translated, talks about an interesting and bizarre “wind motor” sail that has zero chance of becoming an alternative to conventional rigs. Read on.

We sorta dig the butch look of this VMG designed 40′. More here.

More than ten months after the FarrX2 Nexba lost its keel and capsized off the Australian east coast we are still no closer to a confirmed explanation of that structural failure, or why it took more than 12 hours for the crew to be rescued.

As a hard news story, the incident has now drifted into the distance. Meanwhile, the local offshore community is growing understandably impatient for answers. There must be useful safety lessons to be learned from the loss of Nexba and its aftermath. Any sailor who ventures to sea surely deserves to have the benefit of that knowledge.

So why are we still waiting? Lawyers. Or more accurately, lawyers acting on behalf of insurance companies.

SA has repeatedly sought comment from all the parties involved but no one is yet prepared to speak on the record. We can, however, assemble an outline of how this unfortunate impasse has developed.  

It’s important to understand that there are two separate areas of concern here. The first relates directly to the cause – or causes – for the loss of the yacht; the second is an investigation into the safety aspects and the long delay before the search and rescue operation began. 

Farr Yacht Design has been quite open about their modifications to the keel-fixing system on the X2 following the incident. That would seem to indicate an implied admission of possible fault. But establishing actual liability is another matter. 

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A good read from the NY Times…

Shortly after dawn on Sept. 30, 2021, Richard Jenkins watched a Category 4 hurricane overrun his life’s work.The North Atlantic storm was a behemoth — 50,000 feet tall and 260 miles wide.

Wind circled the eye wall at 143 miles per hour; waves the size of nine-story apartment buildings tumbled through a confused sea.

More here.

Photo by Soeren Hese. The title inspiration is here.

An impressive first race – and victory – for Thomas Ruyant and co-skipper Morgan Lagraviere onboard TR Racing’s new IMOCA 60 FOR PEOPLE in the Guyader – Bermudes 1000 race. After battling all race long with Jeremie Beyou and Franck Cammas on Charal 2, the two new-generation IMOCAs clearly established themselves as the class of the fleet in a complex and challenging race that saw the 13-strong IMOCA fleet chewing up miles on virtually all points of sail and in a variety of different wind strengths.

With 40% of The Ocean Race fleet dismasting in the most recent leg from Brazil to Newport, the race organizers wisely chose to alter the course mid-race and avoid sending the fleet bashing upwind in breeze that built into the 30s. Reaching in the breeze, the newer boats were pinging their trackers at up to an incredible 29 knots sustained.

Rounding out the podium in his IMOCA debut as a skipper on FOR THE PLANET, Briton Sam Goodchild has continued to impress at every level in which he’s sailed. Sailing two-up with an OBR on each boat, the IMOCA class seems to have found a winner as the media coverage of the Guyader-Bermudes race had fantastic coverage and stunning images. Next up for the IMOCA fleet is the iconic Rolex Fastnet race which currently has more than two dozen IMOCAs signed up. – Ronnie Simpson.

A SailGP Report from The North.

I watched the Big Cats in 2013 from shore, including the comeback, with my pregnant wife. I was thinking the whole time, one day I’d be watching The Cup on the water, from my own boat. I’ve only spent about eight years of my entire teenage and adult life without a boat. The Cup certainly didn’t come to pass, but the 0.001% brought some table scraps in the form of SailGP. After my first kid was born, I got that boat. My wife describes it as “like a 1980s RV” when friends in the ‘burbs ask questions.

A veteran of many Fleet Week air shows, I have a firm understanding of the exclusion zone for that event. However, information about SailGP, and the authority to close publicly navigable waterways for a private event, is a little harder to find. Enter the Federal Register and the Mystery of Zone C. The Federal Register is where laws in the US get changed. New laws, and temporary requests governing how federal agencies operate, are proposed and approved there. So I look up the permit, requested by the Coast Guard and DHS, and delegated to the Captain of the Port of San Francisco, who in-turn delegates certain responsibilities to the race organizers.

The FedReg entry contains a list of waypoints and says “Located within this footprint” there are areas for racing (Zone A), areas for VIPs (Zone B), and an area for spectators; the Mysterious Zone C. The only thing you can’t do in Zone C is drop an anchor. The FedReg also says to watch the Coast Guard notices to mariners in for more information about the zones. Week 18’s notice only contains a list of waypoints for the event footprint, with the northwest corner inexplicably about 200 yards south from those published in the Register.

Wanting to plan ahead, I contacted the email address listed in the Federal Register and asked about Zone C. The reply included a map showing that spectator areas were divided into North-South, and East-West, with the event authority having control over the prime viewing from shore and from the North side. But the FedReg shows a key difference between the language of last year’s permit, and this year’s. This year does not break apart Zone C. Great, I thought, we can be close to the start and watch the race from the North Side. No need to buy a flag. I wrote the Coast Guard noting that their map may be out of date, and the Federal Regulations changed this year. After four emails were exchanged, no reply.

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I was so Wasted, I thought I’d bring a little punk spirit to the J/105 class here in Dago. I’m sure we’ll be well received, s/. What, you thought I’d do something lame like name it after a Tom Petty song? – ed.

The Environment

In the chilly gloom of the Californian seabed, thousands of barrels ooze a banned chemical. Some date back to the 1940s when the first was dumped off the coast. In March this year, researchers found that the chemical, DDT, has barely broken down, remaining as toxic as it was 80 years ago.

DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is an insecticide that was widely used in agriculture until being banned – in the United States in 1972 and globally in 2001 – due to concerns about health impacts on wildlife and people. Its dense chemical bonds can resist degradation for decades.

Researchers now worry that dredging or storms could cause this polluted stretch of seafloor off the Los Angeles coast to release toxic plumes, threatening sea life and those who eat it.

Plastic gets the limelight when it comes to ocean pollution, but chemicals pose “a major threat, one that we’re probably consistently underestimating,” says Alex Rogers, a marine ecologist at the University of Oxford, and science director with REV Ocean, a research non-profit working on solutions to ocean challenges. The problem goes far beyond legacy pollutants like those barrels of DDT. Today, around 350,000 synthetic chemicals are widely used in manufacturing. They are embedded in our everyday lives in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, cleaning products, electrical goods, textiles, furniture and other products. Ninety-five percent of all manufactured items now contain synthetic chemicals of some kind. Read on.

What can we learn from Sail GP?

Shortly after the start of the first race of the final SailGP round in San Francisco one of the hyperventilating commentators screamed at us that this was “NASCAR on water!” There was certainly some good close racing, but that outburst of hyperbole was about as silly as calling something “LIV Golf on ice”.

Beyond appropriating the “Grand Prix” tag, the series has, indeed, attempted to ape the crash-and-burn intensity of motor racing. Even the television coverage (which is generally excellent) includes many of the same stylistic devices. Close calls and collisions are treated as the highlights. The producers seem obsessed with top speeds (which are given in kilometers-per-hour, not knots, just to annoy real sailors) and any ‘fender-bender’ moment is replayed umpteen times from multiple angles. 

We can all understand the underlying impetus in attempting to develop yacht racing as a viable commercial product. The conventional wisdom is that to be attractive for big-money sponsors the events must secure super-sized TV and online audiences. To achieve that, the assumption is that all races should be short, and conducted within easy camera range.

Consequently, the SailGP heats each take only between 12 and 15 minutes to sail. Crossing a digitally imposed boundary – even during the pre-start – incurs an instant penalty. The series culminates in what we’re given to understand is a $1m winner-take-all final race – a confected climax that reduces the event to a one-off crap shoot that’s contrary to the whole ethos of regatta sailing.

But never mind. It seems that Messrs Ellison and Coutts are determined to continue with their creation. Teams and sponsors come and go but the caravan moves on. So, rather than bemoan its crassness, maybe there are some useful takeaways for the mainstream sailing community from the SailGP experiment. Here are a few…

Lesson 1: Sir Ben Ainslie is not god. It seems that the multiple Olympic champion’s default response to any pressure is to sail with increased aggression. That might have worked well for him while fleet racing in small boats but the big F50 cats demand an entirely different approach. 

Because of this consistent aggressive approach, Ainslie made more tactical mistakes than many of the other skippers over the series and therefore had to claw his way into the final. It was notable that Sir Ben was then out-thought by Slingsby in the final pre-start and never recovered. Maybe he would rather have been invited to the coronation of his new monarch, King Charles III, in London. 

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The story of the Etchells 22 World Sexual Harassment Championships is pretty well known. The 28-page Etchells Worlds Creeps thread is full of opinions, and here, I rather poorly articulate mine. Enjoy.

And they didn’t, as the big white boat went on to beat the big blue boat. More here. Photo by Maria Muiña.

This is a “Bestevaer” from KM Yachtis. We know what the phrase, ‘horses for courses’ means, but does that mean said horse has to be so goddamn ugly? The cockpit looks like it is from a 30′,  with the lack of windows, it has to be dark as a dungeon below, and there is nothing attractive about it.

Props though, on the Cal T/2  cabin house.

OLINKA, another classic S&S 65’ yawl out for a Saturday sail off LA Harbor, beautifully photographed by Steve Jost.

It does if you’re into indentured servitude. Here’s the opening paragraph for a crew wanted job:

From May / June through early September I will be spending most of my time cruising and sailing around the Salish Sea on a 44ft catamaran with a combination of family and friends. I am looking for a deckhand who is flexible to be wherever we are going, whenever we go there. Room and board included, though what room is available will depend on how many guests we have.

There are 3 cabins on the boat and a couch of sorts that becomes a bed; guests will take priority in terms of cabins. This is a mid-sized boat, so while it’s comfortable it is not a super yacht so requires a willingness to share small spaces with others. Start is May (somewhat flexible) through mid-September.

Read on to find out about your tent accommodations.

That’s the Swan 55 Lulotte shot by James Tomlinson at the RORC Cervantes Trophy Race. Results.