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28 Oct 2009 00:47
Fall Finnage
10/28/09
Longtime Yankee fan Erik Simonson sends us these shots from the Fall Dinghy & Olympic Classes Regatta in Frisco. Speaking of long time, we dug this shot of Finn sailor Henry Sprague. Christ, how long has he been sailing Finns - 30 years? Phil Toth (2012) shows good downwind speed ahead of Ed Wright (GBR 111), one of the fastest Finn sailors anywhere.10/29/09Fukk Throttle
Today started as a normal, routine day in my life. I woke up in my sweet "penthouse" room which is the entire top floor of our house in Annapolis, butt-fuck early in the morning, and left the house not ten minutes after being awake in foul-weather gear. Clean and I got up so early to trek down to our boat to replace its fuel filters in the cold rain. Like I said, just another average morning. As a crew, we were pretty set to ensure today was much better than yesterday, coverage wise. It was definitely a get-up-and-do-work-bitch kind of day, and I think we all had that mentality heading out to the race course.
The sun absolutely sucked at life today, by the way; it was cloudy, foggy, hazy, rainy, and a little cold. It was absolutely depressing and unhealthy for my soul, but at least there was a little more wind than we expected, blowing about 12 -15 knots. If the wind had been stronger, the weather conditions surely would have been worthwhile.
The first race got off pretty quickly, with the majority of the boats hanging out towards to middle of the line. I saw this clearly from my new position on the bow where I had scrambled up to be ready to fend off of a race committee boat. Our engines had gone out while we were positioned directly to the right of the starting line, which could have gone VERY bad for us. Fortunately, our engines, which were being fed fuel through our BRAND NEW FUEL FILTERS, kicked back in to save our happy asses. Don't worry about missing it, though, because we got our driver's reaction to the whole shitshow on video.
During the first race, we were hopping around the boat, untangling cables, trying not to get in Mer's way so she could get some great shots, trying to maintain chatter through the mic for the live broadcast viewers, looking for a writing utensil, struggling to get access to the high traffic forums on Sailing Anarchy, and doing the best we could to stay braced for impact and keep all limbs inside the moving vehicle. Our driver even did an impressive gymnastic stunt to pee off the stern without falling in.
The first race ended with a strong push from the top of the fleet finishers. It was cool to see the aggressive competitors push themselves to their maximum to get to the finish first after such a haphazard day yesterday. Uka Uka came in impressively strong, followed shortly by Hardesty on the Atlantis boat and Joefly, who interestingly enough has a caricature of the Jackson 5 painted on his mainsail. Mer and I have been singing Jackson 5 songs for the past 2 days, and if yu have any requests, just send them along through the thread or the justin.tv chat while we are broadcasting live.
Between the two races that took place today, there was a long pause. I went and sat up on the bow of our boat to look at what all the teams were doing and try to figure out what the wind was going to do. I also wanted to have early knowledge of which end of the line was going to be favored. As I saw a lot of teams practice a few short legs starting towards the pin end, I decided that the action would most likely take place on that end of the line. Well, the RC FINALLY got a race sequence kicked off, and we stationed ourselves down at the pin to get some good footage. The race sequence played out, but within one minute to the start, a reset was called!! Wow ... we had waited so long to get this race started and as soon as we were amped to watch an aggressive start, the sequence was reset. The worst part was that because of our low-visibility and the lack of communication, we didn't have a whole lot of knowledge as to when the race would actually get going. So we waited. Again.
This is when Clean and Petey decided it was time to get some rum drinks, and thanks to our newest good friend Ellie Riggs, we got some!! Thanks so much, Ellie! I think this made for more interesting commentary, in the least. Let's just say that I only got further confused. I think people sometimes forget how dumb I can be. Wait until you see the videos of the race after the rum came out, it is some pretty good footage.
I was so busy plugging stats into my Blackberry that it was hard to get a good perspective on the course as we raced from one end to the other. I didn't know it was possible to hang onto a captain's chair with the death grip and still type at the same time. Well, I guess it's not since apparently I misspelled "Full Throttle" as "Fukk Throttle". I like to think of it as "Fuck throttle, we don't need that shiz cause we're a rocket today." Do rockets have throttles? I don't know, but Fukk Throttle performed pretty consistently towards the top today, with a 5th and 11th place, putting them in 4th Overall with 31 points. That is great considering there are so many star players throughout this fleet.
Racing on the Chesapeake Bay is very tricky, especially this time of year, but I don't want to harp on it too much. Talking about how the Chesapeake Bay is tricky and inconsistent is like talking about how cool I am. It's a given; enough said. I would not have been surprised if the sun had come up following a hail storm today. That shit happens all the time. I remember last winter when it snowed one day and was 75 degrees the next. These are the patterns a racer should be prepared for when coming out for anything along the C-peake Bay, whether the upper bay where Annapolis is located, or the lower bay, which is where I grew up in a city actually named Chesapeake.
To wrap up my perspective, I would just like to point out that I did not upchuck off of the boat in the rough water today. See, last night was not Bora's birthday party, so I was at a pretty high level of sobriety when today began. Additionally, after watching the videos from today, I have to FINALLY admit that I do indeed sound pretty Valley. I have been told this for years, but I refused to believe it. So like, I am totally amped up about the like, racing tomorrow because it's going to be soooooo cool. Like crazy, dude.
Speaking of TOMORROW, we have a SICK boat to broadcast from, where we will be able to work freely and easily from as many computers as we feel like bringing. I can't wait to improve our coverage simply by adding a new boat to our OTWA mini fleet in Annapolis. Let's get it done! We will be working as fast as possible to update the chat and forum, so please stay logged in or keep checking back in for updates.
You can check out all of race 3 and 4 starting with this clip, and results are here. The contests start tomorrow from a bunch of our sponsors, with a new set of carbon Melges mainsail battens from RBS Battens the first of the bunch. Go to the Day 3 thread for more info, and watch the live feed starting at 1030 EST. Contests will be announced in both places - ya gotta tune in to win! And today's wrap-up viddy...
Thanks to Latis Yachting Solutions, Velocitek, Point Loma Outfitting, Ullman Sails Newport Beach, Saving Sailing, RBS Battens, Ocean Sailing Academy, Eastport Yachts, Charleston Harbor Access, and Justin.TV
-Katie
acDifferent Venue, Same Nonsense?10/28/09Anarchy readers were treated to a live forum feed of the America's Cup court proceedings yesterday from Centre Street in NYC, provided by Sparbuilder, Anon, Rennmaus, and I. The two-hour session started with the judge expressing her displeasure to find new papers from Golden Gate Yacht Club in her courtroom, and wondering aloud if GGYC even wanted to race. She would repeatedly express her displeasure with GGYC throughout the court proceedings.
Kornreich decided to take the less complicated of the motions before her, the first being venue. When Herman Cahn wrote in his decision that the venue chosen by SNG could be Valencia (Spain) or anywhere, did that mean anywhere that matched the conditions of the Deed (GGYC’s position) or anywhere (SNG’s position), period.
After a clear and to the point presentation by David Boies for GGYC that stressed anywhere couldn’t have meant anywhere, the judge asked him to continue about the concern GGYC stated about the venue itself. Out came a map illustrating the proximity of Iran to the racing area, and an additional short presentation about the proximity of Iran. The whole presentation couldn’t be more direct, honest, clear, and undisputable.
Barry Ostrager, representing SNG, opened up by mocking his opponent's knowledge of geography and made several boisterous statements that all of GGYC’s arguments on this point were “flim flam”. The judge gave Barry’s every courtesy during the presentation until he uttered the words “125 million was spent” preparing the venue for this event, at which point she started shuffling papers and seemed uncomfortable or maybe disinterested. I think the latter, as Barry was laying it on thick.
Next up was Joel Rosenthal to represent the Emirate of RAK. I felt him touch my heart as he spoke about many other world sporting events have chosen venues with initially limited infrastructure, and gave them an opportunity to shine on the world stage, as several events had already done for UAE, and the Olympics would soon do for Brazil.
The judge then explained what she was considering in her decision and announced that she felt a need to render the decision at that moment. She voiced a clear displeasure with GGYC that seems unfounded and with great regret announced RAK was out, and there would be no more discussion.
Wow. The court continued in silence as we witnessed what many thought was an unlikely decision, and even then days away. It came suddenly and fell on the shoulders of SNG’s lead attorney like a ton of bricks. After a brief pause, Barry stated to the judge “you are canceling the race”, and then rambled for some time restating parts of what the judge had considered in her decision, and he struggled to come back from total failure on this motion.
I would believe almost every one in the room had great sympathy for the man and his team at that moment. I cannot imagine what the impact will be on SNG for their unsportsmanlike approach to selecting a venue miles from a country whose leaders constantly lead the citizens’ in chants “Death to America”, but no matter how they made that decision for the moment, I had sympathy for their loss on this motion. It quickly evaporated however as I was reminded of the lack of sportsmanship SNG exhibits in and out of court as Barry got back on his feet and pursued a rather dishonest but ingenuous strategy on the remaining of the agenda for the day.
Actually Barry never really ended, for the rest of the session he acted as a man that had just been granted a pass to speak whenever he wanted with nothing further to lose, and he used that to great advantage against David plus played off the judges apparent distrust of GGYC.
Next up was the motion to reargue a previous decision by the judge to allow SNG to set and modify additional rules going forward. The judge stated it would be unfair to reverse her decision but “she was perhaps overly broad” in her ruling and then entertained specific issues that GGYC had over the rules to date.
While this seemed like a good enough opportunity for GGYC to demonstrate how unsportsmanlike SNG has been with the rules, Barry would never let David make that point. Barry used his superior grasp of the subject matter to prevent GGYC from making much other progress this day.
For example, Barry sabotaged every attempt by David to deliver and defend important complaints GGYC had with the rules and behavior of SNG, batting each one back with a combination of pushing the judges buttons on several negative perceptions she has about GGYC and when that didn’t work just changing the subject.
David also struggled to keep the conversation on topic, and each time he succeeded in getting the judge to question for a moment why Barry didn’t answer a question or otherwise stay on topic, David could not speak clearly enough about why it mattered before Barry would seize control again.
The whole time David was going down in flames, I felt two things. He continued to come across as honest and measured and employing no tricks, but also came across unprepared.
The whole issue on the discussion on rudder temporarily left the judge asking Barry for help that he was eager to give, and with a man seemingly with nothing to lose, capitalized on the judges confusion in a really dangerous way (if ever caught by the judge he is toast) as Barry talked absolute nonsense and kept David from advancing his position. (It’s no exaggeration when SA’s state Barry appears to be playing Jedi mind tricks, it can certainly look like that, as Barry suggests to the judge of GGYC bad behavior such as competing in the courts rather than the water, and the judge agrees and repeats that back).
Going nowhere for sometime, David brought out the big guns reminding the court of Barry’s earlier promise that SNG rules to come wouldn’t disqualify GGYC's boat. The judge acknowledged her memory of Barry previously assuring the court that no rules would be created to DSQ GGYC’s boat and stated that back to Barry. To my surprise, Barry stood by that statement, repeated it, and boy was I ready to watch a lawyer be keelhauled. But no, Barry explained away that GGYC kept changing their boat 4 times, how was he to know which one they would race? Ultimately the judge, with a glint in her eye, gave Barry a pass and changed the subject. She inquired if there is anything else to discuss beyond ballast and rudders (she seemed more than ready to rule in favor of the rudder configuration of BOR90 before this, but wasn’t ready anymore).
At this point both attorneys made it clear there was much to discuss, and so it continued, but David kept making little progress except for minor issues that Barry wasn’t contesting. Literally within seconds “not to exceed” was dispatched with a decision from the bench today in favor of GGYC that “not to exceed” (in length) means exactly that. A wise decision by Barry to avoid letting David finally paint SNG as unsportsmanlike with a rule of any kind.
David next took a major jibe and went right to the secret ISAF agreement, but had a difficult time of convincing the judge why the modified ISAF rules are unfair and lack teeth for the “impartial umpires” to act. A fair attempt to bring in a baseball analogy, where if the other team keeps moving the plate (an example of a late rule change or interpretation) the umpires need the power to insist the plate is returned to its original position. This example failed to impress the judge. She seemed to indicate that GGYC’s examples were to contrived, how could SNG possibly mean to have the outcome David suggested. Moments before the baseball analogy the judge stated she believed SNG when they said the ISAF rules were unchanged from previous ACs (simply untrue), and on that basis David was eventually cut off.
The sessions finished with a promise by the judge to get through as much as she can and issue rulings by the end of the week. Perhaps we will see in some rulings this week that the judge has had second thoughts, and some real limits to SNG’s rule making will emerge, but with all the confusion created around rudders and LWL, I don’t have high expectations.
If many of those go in SNG’s favor, I will surely feel the big win today was almost entirely neutralized by a combination of smaller wins by SNG that will enable them to continue the same rules shenanigans (just in another venue). -- b393capt
Notice: The author owns a software company that is a reseller level business partner of Oracle. Many thanks to Rennmaus, Sparbuilder, and Anon for their help before, during, and after the hearing today. Thank you also to Rennmaus for editing this article.
Metre Me10/28/09Starting Monday Nov 1st, The Edison Sailing Center in Ft Myers is hosting the 2.4mR Worlds (ISAF approved) with 45 entrants from around the world. The Oct 28th, the US Nationals start, with 38 entrants, and will be a prelude to the Worlds.
I had a quick chat with Mark Bryant, the US builder and helping to organize the events.MB: The 2.4mR is a most difficult boat to jump in and kick anybody's butt. Like any other boat you need a great start and good racing mechanics.
Are you saying the Star is not a difficult boat to win in?
MB: Not at all, I am saying, a new competitive Star is $100k in the water a new 2.4 is $12.5K in the water. This is a boat within reach of everyone. The most difficult part of this boat is watching some of the sailors get out of their wheelchairs and get in the boat and then KICK MY ASS. This is a boat that anyone can sail (no crew needed) and you will be a better sailor for it.
Mark went on to tell me about Peter Dupont and his sons visiting Team Paradise Saililng and taking the day to sail the 2.4mR.Mark Bryant and Magnus Liljedah of Team Paradise, set up the boats and gave a little instruction before turning them loose for a few hours of fun. After some fun sailing they got a few pointers now that they were familiar with the boats. Time to do a few short races and WOW.....Dad smokes the boys. Mark said "Peter showed speed and good judgment". More proof that the 2.4mR is a great boat for any age....male or female. - Dawg.
Pirates Again10/28/09Somali pirates have kidnapped a British couple who went missing in the Indian Ocean four days ago in the middle of a round-the-world sailing trip. Fears for the safety of Paul and Rachel Chandler, 58 and 55, from Tunbridge Wells had been mounting since the emergency beacon aboard their yacht Lynn Rival went off last week.
“We have captured two old British [people], a man and woman in the Indian Ocean. They were on a small boat that we have hijacked,” a pirate called Mohamed Shakir told The Times by phone from Haradheere in Somalia. The pirate added that the two were “healthy and in our hands” but would not say where they would be taken. Ransom demands are likely to follow. Read on
ac breakingAdios, RAK10/27/09A New York judge has ruled that Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, cannot host the America's Cup based on the 19th-century document that governs sailing's marquee regatta. The ruling by Justice Shirley Kornreich of the New York State Supreme Court is a blow to two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland. The Swiss picked the Persian Gulf for their February showdown against American challenger BMW Oracle Racing. Kornreich said her decision was based on the stipulation in the Deed of Gift that the America's Cup cannot be sailed in the Northern Hemisphere between Nov. 1 and May 1, not on concerns by the Americans that RAK was unsafe due to its proximity to Iran. Jump in the thread
Upbeat
10/27/09
The Rodger Martin designed Presto 30 sails and we gotta say we like it - light, beachable, easy to sail and it certainly is different.We'll get more for you soon, in the mean time jump in Weary At The Worlds10/27/09Our daily reports from the Melges Worlds will feature the work of the excellent Katie Burns as well as some words from Mr. Clean. Here's Day 1:
Clean Report: The OTW Anarchy team delivered its first ever live streaming broadcast today from Day 1 of the 2009 Sheehy Lexus Melges 24 World Championship. While it was not without its glitches, it's an exciting new technology that we believe will change the way racing is broadcast forever. We're confident that, by the end of the week, you race fans will be on the edge of your chairs/couches/asses, especially if the action stays as up-and-down as it was today. Check out shooting and editing skills on the OTWA cameraman 'the rev petey" and be sure to check out dozens of interviews and videos posted in the SA Melges 24 Worlds forum, 2009 Melges 24 Worlds. For more on that, we'll go to Katie's Report.
Katie's Quips: I hate to be cliche and talk about how inconsistent the conditions are on the Chesapeake Bay, but has anyone ever noticed how inconsistent the conditions are on the Chesapeake Bay? I guess I should have gone around and warned everyone before the regatta started. I probably should have informed the rest of the world that a race on the C-peake Bay rarely kicks off without a course change at the downwind mark. Hell, our second race today even included a course change at the first top mark, which was a little stunning, however necessary after the huge left shift that left a half-dozen boats short of the pin end of the line at the start.
Before I get into the specifics about the racing today, I just want to talk a little about working as an On-The-Water Anarchy correspondent. Sure, the attire from is pretty badass, but as I learned a long time ago, wardrobe alone doesn't make a production. We look great out on the race course, and it's certainly easy to spot us, but did our performance today on the water match our athletic gear? Many of you have asked that question, and I want to talk a little about what happened.
Firstly, I feel that many people forgot that this is the first time Sailing Anarchy has attempted to go fully live covering races on the water itself. There are only six of us out on the water; one is our driver from LATIS Yachting Solutions, two are our video producers/shooters/editors/pimps/posters/prayer leaders Aaron Siegler and Petey Crawford, one is our photographer Meredith Block, and then there is Clean and myself for the commentary and tactical info. That being said, and apologetically so, it was a COMPLETE oversight on our part about updating the On-The-Water Anarchy thread in the forums on Sailing Anarchy. This oversight will be addressed tomorrow, and for those of you who cannot watch our coverage live, we will ensure that you can read current updates through the thread and see the racing action we recorded before the end of the day. We're bringing two more computers tomorrow and we do want you to stay tuned - it's too fun not to watch!
We will even bring extra computers to do this. Please stay tuned.
Another oversight on our part was not giving the right credit to the true designer of the 2009 Melges 24 Worlds official cake, which is totally badass. Though Cat Evans played a major part in ensuring the sailboats were correctly represented on the magnificent and stunning cake, it was Heather Evans, Cat's sister, who put her heart and soul into baking it. She planned it out, taught us how to make and shape the sails, designed the boats, and overall created the final design for the giant dessert. I hope you guys watch the video of it and see how intricately the cake resembled a true race course. You can reach Heather Evans at heavenly.taste@live.com
Ok, I can FINALLY get to the racing aspect of today. Sorry it took me so long, but I bet your day didn't start with a flying leap through the first floor of a rented house in Annapolis on account of some very strong coffee, so shut it!
The five legged first race started off pretty one-sided, with the majority of the fleet stacked up on the pin-end and headed to the left side of the course. The boats that went right started strong because they had a clear path, but it didn't pay off at the top mark. Blu Moon, Quantum, and a few other strong programs who went left rounded the top mark first and headed for the gate, where the RC signaled for a left move to the next top mark. which proved for RC to call a course change to a more left upwind mark. Many of the boats continued what they did in the first upwind leg, however Quantum and some others went right and it paid off big, with Quantum sailing around Blu Moon and Kristen Lane on Brick House and opening up a 10 boatlength lead that they would extend to the finish. After all of the boats rounded the 2nd upwind marks, Mer and I went down to catch the finish, and I wish I had a video of what transpired next. You could say that Mer and I both have more than a little racing experience, so we were pretty damned embarrassed when neither of us could find the finish line after looking at EVERY RC boat in the area. Well, we finally realized that there was no finish-line because it was a course 5...suffice to say that I will be expecting the unexpected from now on!The second race of today requires a bit more explaining, and I don't even know that I can adequately describe it, but I'll try, and you can watch the video to see if it makes any sense. So, the race course was set after a half hour of waiting around for a stable breeze. A big shift inside the sequence meant a hugely favored pin, right where all the spectators and press were, and everyone and their grandma just went for it. Both Millewa Milluna and WTF shot up to clear the pin, and both were called over early, with WTF tactician Steve Hunt screaming bloody murder at the T2P camera boat that completely blocked WTF off from their path back to the line. The press boats were yelling, the competitors were yelling, and only a last minute burst from our driver kept us clear while the cluster f&*k went on behind us.
With the left so favored, the boats in the middle and right were hosed from the beginning, and many teams at the top were ones that you just wouldn't expect up there. With boats like World Champ Uka Uka, Quantum, Brick House, and World Champ Celon on Fantasticaa well at the back. And by the end of the day, those boats, as well as top teams like Simplicity, Wild Child, the other Brick House, and Corinthian World Champ Gannet are all in the teens or twenties. You don't see that every day, but as one sailor said today, Annapolis may be the hardest place on Earth to race. Full results are here
I'd love to keep going, but our internet is slow right meow and we have a lot to do to ensure tomorrow is FULLY covered and that no Anarchists are left without a current update on the latest Melges 24 Worlds news (see Day 2 Thread here). Stick with us as we explore all of our resources and adapt to our environment. I promise you we will figure it out and have everything up and running for you shortly. Stay tuned, and please support our sponsors if you want to see more of this on your computer in the future. Most of them are offering big discounts on their products and services for the OTW Anarchy audience, and don't forget to watch tomorrow when they start giving away free swag! They are: , , Point Loma Outfitting, , , , , , Charleston Harbor Access.
I heart Ronnie Simpson, by the way. Photos by Meredith Block
acDoes It Ever End?10/27/09From GGYC... Reckless and repeated disregard in its stewardship of the America’s Cup by the Société Nautique de Geneve (SNG) has prompted the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) to ask the New York Supreme Court to remove the Swiss yacht club from its position as Trustee in a Breach of Fiduciary Duty complaint filed today. Read on..
Greater Good
Every year across the country there are about 40 Leukemia Cup Regattas. With an average of about 150 participating boats and their crews in various classes, the LCRs involve a vast percentage of this country’s sailing community. Every year, a select group of LCR participants is rewarded for their performance with an invitation to the Leukemia Cup Regatta Fantasy Sail, a weekend sailing with Gary Jobson. This year’s Fantasy Sail was hosted by the San Francisco Yacht Club. This was my third year qualifying and I thought some of you out there might be interested to know what it’s all about.Before I get started though, you should know that the “select group” is not based on sailing ability. This is not to say that there aren’t some great sailors in the group, there are a lot. I am not one of them but they are there. The select group is made up of those folks who have managed to raise $8500 or more for the Leukemia Cup Regatta. That’s it. In fact I heard that there was at least one person this year who raised money as a virtual sailor and our weekend of racing was their first time on a sailboat.I left Washington, DC on a 6:00 am flight on Friday and arrived in San Francisco at 11:00 and took the BART to the Embarcadero where we were all staying at the Hyatt Regency. After dumping my gear in the hotel room, it was down to the lobby to meet up with John and his wife Andrea (also from the DC Regatta) to do a little sight seeing. We had decided on a little walk through China Town. John assured us that he knew where we were going but somehow we ended up walking through the red light district which I guess made sense for sailors.After a quick beer in China Town at a really weird bar with one of the most frightening bathrooms I’ve seen (you know it’s a bad sign when the bartender tells you how to get to the bathroom and then says “Be careful.”), we headed back to the hotel to register, sign our waivers, get our complimentary bottle of Dry Creek Chenin Blanc (they put paintings of America’s Cup boats on their labels!) and meet our hosts. We all knew that we were to be racing J105s but beyond that we knew nothing. The PRO outlined the course (once around windward leewards), what the wind was expected to do (5-10 in the morning building to 15 in the afternoon), and the currents (holy crap!). We were to be divided into morning and afternoon groups. Last year I had chosen to sail in the morning and photograph in the afternoon. Since we started last year with 20-25 in the morning moderating in the afternoon, I had decided to photograph in the morning and sail in the afternoon.We also learned some numbers: 17 years ago there was one event that raised $30,000, this year there were 38 events this year and we raised a total of just under $4 million dollars. The total raised to date is over $31 million. There were 75 people attending the Fantasy sail this year though a bunch more had qualified and not been able to make it. 67% of the money raised came from individual donations brought in by sailors which does not include corporate donations, silent auction items, etc. The final announcement of the evening was the location and date for next year’s fantasy sail. Charleston, SC, get ready. On December 3-5 a group of about 100 sailors is going to descend on you and some of us will do our best to deplete your liquor stocks even though you’ve given up the little airline bottles. Then it was time for cocktails.One of the reasons best things about qualifying multiple years is that the people you meet at this event are incredible. The mood is festive and everyone is upbeat. Just about everyone has had a personal experience with blood cancer, either a friend, family member, or actually survived themselves and the feeling of having been able to do something to help people living with blood cancer and find cures is really amazing.Included in the group of survivors is the perennial host of the Fantasy Sail, Gary Jobson. Gary started as the national spokesman for the LCR way back in the last century, long before he was actually diagnosed, and he continues to inspire and spur us on to do great things. This cocktail party is all about meeting up with the folks you went drinking with last year (Hello, Emory!) and meeting new folks you missed the year before. Last year was very dangerous since we were in Florida so all the west coast people were feeling like it was 8:00 at midnight and some of us east coasters were more than happy to keep up. This year it was an early night for me since I’d been up since 1:00am west coast time.
On Saturday it was no problem getting up in time for breakfast and in fact I was able to get down there at 7:00am and sit through the entire 2 hours the buffet was open. At 9:00 it was time to head to the busses. There were two other groups in the hotel at the same time as us, one a group of social security lawyers, the other was trauma doctors. Watching all these lawyers and doctors react to the crazy people in the foul weather gear walking through the lobby was pretty funny. I should also mention that this was the first time I got to wear my Puma foul weather gear I received as a result of the Rock the Cat contest and I can tell you that I’m very happy. Fleece lined pockets, waterproof zippers, the back of the jacket actually goes down to cover your ass when you’re sitting on the rail, ... good stuff. One suggestion, the bib could use a pocket to put your hand in while you’re drinking beer after the race.The only other time I’ve been in San Francisco was for a trade show and we never left the convention center so this was a big adventure. Driving over the Golden Gate bridge to Tiburon was pretty cool. After seeing the bridge in so many photos, movies, TV shows, it was pretty impressive in person. We pulled into the SFYC and I was put on the Protector that was to ferry Gary from boat to boat in between races. This is one of the more fun parts of the Fantasy Sail: when possible, Gary gets on a different boat for each race, usually transferring onto the last place boat to give them a little boost. The morning started out slow but built through the three races until it was steadily 10 gusting to 15. With fog pouring over the city and burning off halfway across the bay, the opportunity for photos was breathtaking, the entire scene changed every 15 minutes. I don’t know how the folks sailing kept their concentration on the racing.By the time we got back to the dock at lunch time to switch groups, the RC was talking about having the racing go to non spinnaker. I dropped off my cameras with Robin (the SF LCR coordinator) and grabbed my gloves to head out to Danae, my ride for the racing. Owner Steve and his crew Bill welcomed us aboard and we headed off to the race course. Also on the boat with me were Sanford and Alex from Annapolis, Steve from San Francisco, and my drinking buddy from last year, Emory from Arizona.My first gaffe of the day was to almost fall off the cabin top during a tack in the first race when we did indeed sail without spinnakers because . I managed to catch the vang and get myself back on the rail without even a bruise. Luckily that was quickly eclipsed in importance when we were hit at the leeward mark by a boat driven by the only professional sailor in the regatta. There was some question of whether that was vengeance for Bill asking Gary if he wanted to do the bow when Gary sailed with them in the morning. The Annapolis contingent promised to ride him about it when they got home.
The next race we fired up the spinnaker and I got two actual jobs beyond getting my 180 lbs out on the rail: jumping up the spin, and “pitman” pulling the spin back into the hatch after the douse. We had a spectacular set, and were actually picking up ground. The fleet was packed pretty close together and it looked like we were in for a very interesting, which is to say crowded, rounding. We then jibed and a couple of things went wrong. First the lines were rigged wrong and second, the spin sheet caught my leg and nearly shot me off the boat. Bill was kind enough to grab me by the scruff of the neck and pull me back in but not before the lifeline had given me a fairly spectacular bruise that runs the length of my torso from a point just to the right of my family parts (missed becoming a soprano by about a half an inch) all the way up my chest to my collar bone. The result was that we just doused the sail since we were close to the mark anyway but in the confusion we lost a few places and ended up coming in 6th in the fleet of 8 instead of 4th.Before the last race, Bill re- rigged the spinnaker and we were all set to kick some butt. Right up to the moment when I was about to start hoisting the sail and I looked over and realized that something looked wrong and pointed it out to Bill who then re-rigged the sheet mumbling about gremlins the whole time. We had another beautiful set but by that time we were destined to not be in the running for a top three finish in this race either. All in all it was a great sail and Steve and Bill were great hosts.We returned to the dock, got the sails flaked, and headed to the clubhouse to find a cold keg with a handwritten sign on it that said “Fantasy Sail” and I could not have been happier with my decision to sail in the afternoon since the morning sailors had gone back to the hotel and their bus did’t return them until 6:30. It was 4:30, dinner was’t until 7:00, I was hanging around with great people, and there was a keg of free beer. Top that off with hot showers and it does’t get much better.Dinner and the presentation of pickle dishes was topped off by a speech from Ian, a sailor from San Francisco who is just over a year into his recovery. This is what they call a mission moment to get us fired up for next year and Ian was a perfect example of why we raise money. Ian volunteered to be on the regatta committee at the SFYC last year and a few weeks later while training for a triathlon, he started to feel like he was coming down with something. He went to the doctor and the verdict went from “you might have the flu” to “you should see an oncologist” pretty quickly. After that it was the unpleasant experience of getting treated which left him unable to join us for the fantasy sail last year. The contrast was remarkable. Looking at this guy standing there smiling and walking around with a microphone you would never be able to guess that he had been sick a day in his life let alone had just recovered from a disease that would have had a 5% survival rate just 40 years ago. It was an inspiring end to a great weekend.Raising $8500 sounds like a big deal but I’ll let you in on a little secret: I have raised an average of $11,000 every year just by sending out 8 emails every year. Other folks have raised their money by doing everything from holding fancy dinners to selling lemonade (literally). The society provides you with tons of tools including raffles and incredibly helpful staff folks who seem to have no end to their reservoir of energy. So if you’re going to sail in your regatta, try to make enough to meet us in Charleston next year. You’ll have a great time and I think Clean said we could all stay at his house. - Peter HowsonMore photos at http://www.peter-howson.com--10/27/09The Right ThingFrom Ullman Sails' Chuck Skewes... The Campbell Cup in Long Beach with the Sleds and Farr 40 was this last weekend. On Alchemy we were waiting for the wind to come in on Saturday while in Postponement and a baby Sea Lion started coming up to the stern of the boat. It had a fishing net wrapped twice around it’s neck cutting into it’s flesh. The sea lion then jumped up on our boat obviously seeking help. It was very docile and not fearing us at all. We called everyone we could to come rescue it and finally the harbor master at Alamitos bay got in touch with the Fire Rescue and Animal Control. We had to leave the race course and bring the sea lion into the Harbor Patrol dock where we scooted it off the boat onto the dock and animal control cam and got it. The race committee postponed the 70’s until we got back on the race course. A call to the Wild Life Rescue on Sunday confirmed that the sea lion was doing better. Jump in the thread if you wish.
10/27/09the bizCounterpoint10/27/09Last week we ran the court documents pertaining to a lawsuit against Goetz Boats from the owner of a Rogers 82 under construction. Here Goetz fires back. Good times...
race reportHigh10/27/09
It was some spectacularly close racing this weekend at J80 NA's in Kemah Texas. Lakewood Yacht Club ran a fantastic event and the competitors were treated to some perfect weather and excellent racing. 26 boats entered with a few big names in the sailing world coming out to play. I was fortunate to get a ride on Mojito and race with a team that was on average probably the youngest crew out there. Day 1 was a perfect day on the water and the first race started without much intensity. Almost the entire fleet was more than 2-3 boat-lengths away from the line so it seemed everyone was taking things extremely cautious. Kerry Klingler stated his intentions by getting the first win of the weekend. The Storck family, also from NY put in two solid races and if not for a little lack of consistency would have challenged for the top spot. It is really nice to see a family program on the water doing so well. The rest of the top five were the usual suspects with a few of the Houston locals like Uzi Ozeri on his boat Infinity putting in some solid races trying to break into the top group.
Saturday was postponed for a few hours so I hit the bar and met some of the people running the event and had a fun time conversing about the racing over a bloody mary. The race committee eventually sent us out in the light stuff and we started to get some races off. Light and shifty was a big change from the 15+ we had the day before. Boats were up and down and Klingler registered a 13 on race number 5, which happened to be our best finish, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. The rest of the top 5 were not without their difficulties with Darden getting a 8 and Team Quantum on a 10. The party Saturday night was excellent, free beer, a Reggae band and my new favorite bartender all made for a fun evening. I was pretty sure I won the party so if you were the person posting in the forum before the regatta you got at least one thing right!
Sunday was filled with expectations and we were on a high after getting a second in race 5 and were thinking top ten should be easily attainable. The racing ended up being so close that a few boat-lengths would be the difference between top ten and a 15! We were able to see the smoke from the finishing gun but still were really deep. This just displays how evenly matched most of the boats are. In the end it was Kerry Klingler who edged out Terry Flynn by 1 point and took the honor of top spot and J80 North American Champion! We did not get our top ten so a little disappointment was felt on our boat. What I did get was a new respect for racing around this area and a few new friends in the sailing community. Congratulations to everyone who came out, especially if you came in from the East Coast or Colorado, it is that kind of commitment that will keep this sport thriving. Results -Keith Magnussen. Ariel Shot by Chris K. Stop, Drop
10/26/09
From anarchist Paul: Frenzy hit the start running, scorched ahead of two hundred boats in the HSBC Coastal
Classic,...and bang went the rig and past went the fleet. Here they are in trouble, and the trouble arrives. All that remains is to put a call in to the insurance company... Loads more pics here...Mini Nailbiter
It was a riveting finish to the Mini Transat For US fans of the class when Chris Tutmark on Mini Anarchy and Jesse Rowse on Reality Sailing drag raced the final 24 hours to the finish. For the two US Proto fleet competitors to find themselves within shouting distance after more than 4,000 miles of racing is simply awesome, and Anarchists were riveted to the leader board as Tutmark and Rowse swapped leads over and over with 100 NM to go, but Rowse had a hotter course to the finish and pulled out nearly an hour over Tutmark at the line in Bahia. But in the battle for US supremacy, Mini Anarchy had the last laugh, finishing with a combined finish in 22nd place at 29 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes; just 6 minutes ahead of Rowse in 23rd. Regardless of the winner, this kind of exciting battle should only increase US interest in this great race, and hopefully there will be a veritable fleet of North American ministas in the next Mini Transat. We game in late to the game with our sponsorship for Chris, but we truly want to be more engaged for 2010. We already have a deal in place for sponsorship with Ryan Finn for next year. Results are here and we'll have a full report from Mini Anarchy later this week. Photo of Chris by Thierry Martinez
10/26/09This One Goes to Eleven
10/26/09
I saw this very interesting and revolutionary brand new Laser dinghy -
3(!) masted and with twin rudders at the Hamburg Boat Show. This design may be a killer!
Imagine how hard you can brake with those rudders if you're to early on the starting line! We just couldn't resist the title for this one. Thanks to anarchist Klaus.otwEmbedded10/26/09I'm pretty damned entrenched in our live coverage of the Melges 24 Worlds here in Annapolis, but first I want to discuss a serious problem that I have. I know it's weird, but I HATE getting off a plane and not being greeted at the airport. I get pretty anxious about it when coming to meet the OTW Anarchy crew for the first time, but when I got off my plane in B-more on Friday, Clean was waiting for me at the airport with my own pimp-ass Point Loma Outfitting ON-THE-WATER ANARCHY jacket already open and waiting for me to slip it on. It was all I needed to get completely amped for the insane regatta that is about to take place.
While I'm on the subject of getting amped, you lucky readers will soon see footage of me spewing my guts out all over the upper Chesapeake Bay, largely because I got a little too amped on Friday night. Team Simplicity threw a birthday party for one Bora Gulari, and I'm simply not going to talk about it too much. You'll all get to see the wonderful effects of it soon enough, which include a little performance of my body wholly rejecting food and fluids. Happy Birthday Bora - that was all for you and a little game we like to call "flip cup". Going out to test the internet and live feed Saturday worked out pretty well. We at least found out that it works in between hurling and bouncing around like corks in the short Chesapeake chop. We also familiarized ourselves with the course; I've sailed the ol' Thomas Point course enough, so I concentrated on learning as many bow numbers and crew names as possible. I can say that one good thing about the banging parties every night is that I got to connect the dots with the people that I'm covering on the race course, like the awesome Erik Shampain [who works for sponsor Ullman Sails Newport Beach]. I'm not positive, but I think Erik and I got in a slapping contest on Saturday night. I'm pretty sure I got in a slapping contest with Eric on Saturday night, and after following his west coast exploits here on SA, it's great to be able to follow him and WTF during the week. I also found out last night that WTF tactician Steve Hunt was my old sailing instructor , a great influence in the old days no matter how many times he yanked the mast of my Opti over because I wasn't getting enough capsize drills. Also, no one is an official badass until they've participated in a Watermelon Race.
Can we talk about Team Barbarians now??? Oh my GAWD did they threw a wild party last night! All I really know is that I woke up with about six and a half "Team Barbarian" stamps on my body. The party was either a great success or yet another event where I ended up wearing a sombrero and river-dancing all night. Either way, I'm sure it was a great time.
I feel the need to mention here that English muffins DO NOT MAKE GOOD FRENCH TOAST. My bad.
Anyways, many of you have asked what it's like to work with Clean, Mer, and the OTW team. The truth is that it is nothing like what I imagined. I'm not going to lie; I totally envisioned coming into a shit-show. I imagined epic chaos and rudimentary technology, maybe even some message-carrying pigeons and smoke signals. Fuck that. We have some great people out here, including Aaron Siegler, who has worked with COOLIO, and Petey Crawford, who used to shoot on the set of "24". Do I need to say more? We are presently walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and you guys may even hear me rap at some point this week. I'm pretty good with Reading Rainbow, anyways.
Stay tuned - this is REAL and NEW, and you can keep it running in the background while your boss if yelling at you, which is more than you can say about spider solitaire.
Huge thanks to all the great sponsors of this year's Melges 24 Worlds coverage, especially Latis Yachting Solutions, Velocitek, and Point Loma Outfitting, whose gear Mer and I will be modeling on camera. Be sure to tune in to the live coverage and forum updates for great discounts on sails, apparel, logistics, and electronics, and you have to watch to win great prizes that we've got for you all week long. Racing starts at 10:30 tomorrow morning.
--Katie Burns
Rubber Room
10/26/09
Do you ever yearn for those simpler times when you could race an Opti without a Protector tender?The Road Less Traveled
Back in 2004, I was a .50 cal gunner on a Humvee, serving in the Marines. We got into a firefight just outside of Fallujah, Iraq, with RPGs, mortar fire and small arms fire started coming out of the tree line in the middle of the night. I literally thought I was going to die. With the butterfly trigger firmly down, I fired into the tree line at a cyclic rate to suppress the enemy. An RPG exploded just 1 meter away from me, and I was immediately med-evac'ed back to the states, in a medically induced coma. I ended up spending 18 days in the coma, losing half my left lung, sustaining a lot of permanent eye damage, shrapnel, burns, blown out eardrum, ruptured stomach, intestines, spleen, etc. etc. etc.
So I started recovering, and when home on convalescent leave to visit family only four months after my injury, my dad died of a heart attack in his sleep. It absolutely rocked my world; I was devastated. So I went back to Texas (where the military hospital is), and kept on living the life. Going to college and eventually getting medically retired from the Marines at the age of 20. (i was 19 when i got hit.) By the time I was 22, I was a senior in college, had a full time job selling motorcycles, had a house with equity in it, and a fiancee. I was very unhappy and had some personal issues that needed to be resolved. What really got to me was that I had a second shot at life, and I was blowing it. I had this breakdown and moment of realization that something had to give. So my brother calls me one night and says "wanna go sail around the world in like 5 years?" I said "sure."
Neither one of us had ever set foot on a sailboat in our lives. I spent the whole night looking at cruising stuff online, and decided I wanted to go for it. 5 days later, I had a for sale sign in the front yard, dropped out of school, told the fiance (I'm single now), and told my boss i'd be leaving when my house sold. 3 months later it sold, and I found myself in San Diego on a 41 foot 1961 Palmer Johnson Bounty II. Sick-ass boat. Had solar panels, wind generator, water maker, wind vane, SSB, all the toys. So I learned about sailing, fixed up the boat a lot, partied a lot and then left Dago six months later to head to Hawaii, where my brother lives. I was singlehanded (Ed McCoy from "Anarchy" was my mentor last year in SD. Don't know if that hurt me or helped me....Just kidding. Thanks dude.)
So I had some problems, but overcame them as you do when you're out there. On October 7, Tropical Depression 15-E started developing. The next morning it became Tropical Storm Norbert. Conditions quickly became 30 knots and really lumpy seas. No problem, just reef down, adjust vane, keep trucking. Things kept getting worse and worse. The storm intensified from a Tropical Storm to Category 4 hurricane in 16 hours. A fully crewed, fully functional Outbound 46 abandons boat and gets rescued less than 50 miles from me on October 8. I keep trucking. So i'm trying to cook some food down below when my boat rounds up. What the hell? Back into the cockpit and I sheet out and turn hard to port. Nothing happens. Keep turning and turning. Nothing happens. LED headlight over the side and BROKEN RUDDER. Wind vane broke in half too. The rudder eventually left the boat entirely. I personally think I hit a whale or something that had come to the top. Meanwhile, NOAA reports said 50-60 and 10-12 meter seas which seems about right, I've certainly never seen anything like that before or since. 
So here I am, 800 miles from land with no rudder in a hurricane. I stay calm and try to fix the problem. Play with the sails, throw a bucket over, try steering with gale rider, try steering with a big ass knot of rope, etc. Try re-attaching my wind vane and using the small rudder on it, etc, for the next 13 hours. (That was a loooong 13 hours....) By this point it's the next afternoon and the storm is moving on, but it's still pretty rough. About the time I was trying to rig a bathroom door to the spin pole (it wasn't going that well but sounded cool at first), I was informed over SSB that a freight ship could pick me up in 5 hours time. I was asked if I wanted to get picked up. I thought about it, and really didn't think I had another feasible option, so I said yes. I had been knocked down twice, was running out of options and could not get the boat to steer. This meant that I had to leave my boat, and EVERYTHING I owned out in the middle of an ocean on my maiden voyage. It was extraordinarily difficult, but such is life.
5 hours later, the "M/V Vecchio Bridge" came to pick me up. They hit my boat head on, ripping two shrouds out of the deck and breaking off a spreader. Bent the mast too. Then they almost missed me and had to use the thruster to move to starboard and bring my boat into their side. It was almost dark and my boat started drifting away again, so I just jumped in and swam to their little orange life ring. 3 heroic Phillippinos pulled me out of the drink, and to safety. On the way up, my boat rocked and I took an aft mounted solar panel to the thigh. Biiig bruise. So I spent 12 days on a freight ship with 17 Philippino's and 4 Koreans. Guys could not have been cooler if they tried. Very professional too. Much appreciation to Captain I/O Kyun and Fukujin Kisen shipping Co. On October 21, 2008, I arrived in Shanghai. (Yes, I literally got Shanghai'd). The US Consulate came and picked me up and dropped me off at an airline pilot's hotel who had ironically been talking to me over SSB when I was making my distress call. (He had been flying overhead from Shanghai to San Fran on Jet Airways at the time).I had no visa and could only stay in China for 24 hours. So I flew to Hong Kong and looked for a boat. I only had like $3,000 left to my name, so I settled on a mountain bike instead of a boat. I spent 2 months in Hong Kong just racing sailboats, working a bit, traveling China a bit, mountain biking and preparing for my next trip. So on January 1, I left Hong Kong and cycled through China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. 58 days and close to 3,000 miles. I couldn't get a visa for Burma, so I flew into Calcutta, India and cycled across India for a month. 1,200+ miles. Pakistan was spiraling into a civil war and wouldn't give me a visa, and Hitler, I mean, Ahmadinejad didn't want anyone in the country coming up to elections, so Iran denied me a visa as well. I had to fly to Turkey. I really wanted to go to Iran though, so I booked the only flight from India to Turkey that had a layover in Tehran. I couldn't leave the airport in Tehran though.I spent 12 days in Istanbul, sightseeing and getting denied an Iranian visa again, so I started pedaling to England. I rode through Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Holland, (I sailed from Holland to Belgium on a Swan 43. Friend from Hong Kong.) Belgium, and France. I boarded a ferry to Dover, England from Calais, France. 1 more day to London from Dover. Second day in London and my bike gets stolen.
10/26/09
So I bought a crappy English bike for about 200 dollars and threw my gear on. What was left any ways. I rode up to Mildenhall, England and hopped on a US Air Force cargo plane headed to California. (cheapest way for retired military to fly) So I arrive near San Francisco and go into the city. I spent the first weekend back home racing sailboats with Caca Cabeza and the Peckerheads (they're on SA) before heading south. 1 final week cycling down the coast from San Fran to Dago, and I'm officially done. July 28, 2009 I finally made it home. 8,700 miles pedaled,, 800+ miles sailed, 1 boat lost, 1 bike lost, and about 21 countries that I visited. Pretty good trip!
2 days after getting home, (I had literally $88 left to my name when I got home), I got a job working construction at my old marina on Harbor Island, building new docks. Job ends in December. I was going to try to build a boat and race next year's Singlehanded Transpac, but reality hit, and I just can't afford it without outside funding. (I reallllly want a Moore 24...) So I bought a Cal 25 off of Craigslist for $1,000 to live on and cruise Mexico with. I hope to cruise Mexico for 2 months, leaving in January, and be back by March.
While on my trip, I just had this insane desire to sail and ocean race. That's all I want to do, so that's what i'm going after. I have been racing every weekend since i've been home.
Scot heard my story from my friend Ed and came and talked to me at the ISAF regatta. I mentioned to him my desire to race the Pac Cup, amongst other races, and he said he would try to help me out by getting the word out, which I hope this story does.
I hope my future holds some major solo ocean racing in it, and in the meantime, I'm looking to do some major ocean races. I may not have decades of experience, but I do have plenty of references and work my ass off on every boat I crew on. So please check out my websitelet me know if you're interested in adding this ex-marine to your crew.
-Ronnie SimpsonCity Slicker The final tally of 52 or 53 boats at the Melges 24 Worlds is less than half the total at least year's Worlds and slightly smaller than even the US Nationals in 2007. This is clearly a big disappointment, though not necessarily for the City of Annapolis or for sailing. It's hard not to love an Anarchist sailor chick with the nickname "emf," though in this case, those are actually her initials, and here's Melges 24 Regatta Chair Liz Filter explaining how she and her EYC supporters turned something shitty into something special, pushing to move the boats and parties from a distant spot on the peninsula to smack in the middle of downtown Annapolis. Racers love being the center of attention, and it's injected some much-needed energy into the event, which begins tomorrow, live on OTW Anarchy TV. 10/26/09big pimpin'A Lot to the LittleSay hello to the Seascape 18, our newest advertiser...
With European Yacht of the year nomination and numerous events ranging from raid trough Croatian Kornati national park to Match racing we are confident to say that after one year of her presence on the market, Seascape18 is here to stay.
She is 18 ft one design racer/inshore cruiser/day sailor, developed from the minitransat roots and designed by Sam Manuard who among others designed the winner of 2005 minitransat. It is part of the new generation of sailboats that range from ours Seascape18, through, Minitransats, Open60, VO70 up to new 100ft Leopard, with wide, hard chined hulls offering lots of stability for a generous sailplan. While about equal in performance as her main competition she offers few advantages: - It was designed for recreational sailors so the boat is simple in layout with all controls simplified and cleaned to essentials. With twin rudders and stable hull form, the boat is forgiving to weekend sailors and beginners. However saying that, we can’t overlook the appeal of the boat’s power/weight ratio to a gang of experienced sailors, who can use some fresh wind to push this little baby to some nice speeds, with current boat’s speed record already exceeding 20kt.
- The development team consisted from French mini designer & guru Sam Manuard, Groupama and Sergio Tachini ORMA 60 project manager, now turned Seascape dealer for France Francois Coutant, Croatian RC44 skipper, Olympic 470 sailor and match racer Tomislav Basic and veteran Minitransat team Adria-4ocean.
- Mast is carbon spreader-less custom made tube in order to simplify masting/dismasting, transport & maintenance. The entire rig is build by Southern spars development partner Compotech and weights only 14kg, allowing single person to mast/dismast the boat quickly and comfortably.
- Beside modern square top main and 100% jib, Seascape flies relatively big asymmetric at 32m2 from the retractable 1,5m long carbon bowsprit. The spinnaker is retrieved into the snuffer bag simply attached to the deck. A nice F18 like feature enjoyed by everybody who tried it.
- Keel weights 125kg, which together with a powerful hull offers enough stability that even a weekend sailor can feel comfortable, while it is, like rudders, completely retractable. This makes the boat de-facto beachable and dead easy to launch/recover. With a sail ready boat weighting 470kg, dry sailing was actually practiced quite a lot on the 3 prototypes we built for the testing.
- She was designed to offer the crew of two a tent (interior of the boat) and a beach (big cockpit with removable toerails). To get more info check our , blog, videos or latest newsletter
10/26/09
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