Messing About In Sailboats

One More Time - Vote For Brice

2012-12-12T11:35:12-05:00

US Sailing and Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky recently announced its top six finalists for the Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award. The award sought out unsung heroes in sailing communities across the country making a significant contribution to the sport.

Each finalist was nominated by another member of their sailing community based on their charitable and selfless efforts. The top nominees were then carefully selected by Old Pulteney and US Sailing representatives. The finalists draw from different backgrounds as well as experiences and are as follows:

Bruce Bertucci – Perth Amboy, NJ -- Bruce created the Perth Amboy High School Sailing Team and implemented the summer program which is open to all aspiring sailors regardless of their ability to pay.
Chris German – Ashford, CT -- Chris founded Connecticut Community Boating in 2007 which gives inner-city and underprivileged children a chance to experience the sea
Donald Backe – Annapolis, MD -- Donald created the o, Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating organization and inspires the disabled to sail
Marcus Asante – Baltimore, MD--Marcus brings the sport of sailing to the African American community and founded the Universal Sailing Club, bringing history and sailing education to African Americans
John O’Flaherty – Portsmouth, RI--John brings the sport of sailing to children of all socio-economic backgrounds who would otherwise not have an opportunity to experience the sport.
Rachael Miller – Granville, VT--Rachael connects and educates people of all ages on the importance of locating and removing marine debris in order to maintain a clean, safe sailing environment.

There are only a few days left to vote for the finalists! The voting period ends on Sunday, December 16^th at 12:00 AM EST. The 2012 Maritime Hero will be recognized for their humanitarian efforts at an award ceremony in January during US Sailing’s 2013 National Sailing Programs Symposium in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Visit www.maritimeheroes.com today to vote for your favorite sailor!

Sailing Photo Of The Day - 22 footer skiff on Sydney Harbour

2012-12-05T12:37:08-05:00

Adam Turinas

How Not To Board A Boat

2012-12-04T16:59:48-05:00

Adam Turinas

Vote For Bruce

2012-11-14T11:52:48-05:00

US Sailing and Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky announced its six finalists for the Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award. The award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to their sailing community. A public vote is now being held at www.maritimeheroes.com and is open until December 16, 2012. One winner will be honored at a gala event on January 23rd during US Sailing’s National Symposium in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

I stronlgy suggest you vote for Bruce Bertucci. Bruce created the Perth Amboy High School Sailing Team and implemented the summer program which is open to all aspiring sailors. It makes a huge difference for these kids.

Bruce in his own way is saving sailing.

Full disclosure, Bruce is good friend and crew-mate.

Old Orchard Lighthouse - Another Victim of Sandy

2012-11-08T16:31:44-05:00

Orchard Lighthouse before and after Sandy.

RYC Boatyard After The Storm - We Will Rebuild

2012-11-04T07:24:39-05:00

We are running a watch system at RYC to keep looters away. I was there from 1600-2000 yesterday and took these up close in the yard. It's staggering seeing what Sandy did to our club. From what we hear, we were lucky compared to Richmond County YC in Great Kills and Keyport Yacht Club.

It will be tough but we will recover.

RYC - Aerial View

2012-11-03T11:47:41-04:00

Adam Turinas

Sandy's Devastation Part 3 - Three (nearly) Lucky Escapes

2012-10-30T18:16:36-04:00

So what happened to Cadence? I got very lucky. As you can see below, Cadence is still upright on stands. I am not exactly sure what happened but I think, the boat to port washed up from the dock as the storm came in and jammed in against her side. The boat to starboard fell off her stands as the water retreated and pinned Cadence from the other side.

I was told by Joel, my contractor, that he found with only two stands and put six additional ones back. There is damage but I think (hope) it's superficial.

The second near escape, is my old boat fka Messing About, now Genesis. She was on the dock but as you can in this shot washed up on to the deck 4-5 feet above and stuck there with a dock tied to her starbaoard and a boat tied to her port.

Five minutes after I took this shot, I heard an allmighty crash and turned round to see that Genesis had slid back and was now floating with dock and other boat still attached. She seemed fine. Hopefully the damage is repairable. She's a good old boat.

The last lucky escape is even more extraordinary. On Saturday, I helped my friend Ed move his boat up river to Brown's. This marina is not as far up the creek as Morgan and pretty open to the elements. Ed was not able to get his boat hauled out, so we tied and sprung her well (we hoped).

The photo below shows Brown's Boatyard today. Al the boats in the front part of yard and all the boats in slips were washed away. Except one that is. Ed's boat which you can still tied up to the slip.

Bloody miracle. Ed claims it was my knot-tying.

CORRECTION

Apparently I missed the irony in my friend Ed's email. When he said my knots were good as his boat was tied to the dock what he didn't mention was that the dock was not actually tied to anything else.

His boat ended up in Morgan Marina. Still, he's optimistic that she will be OK.

Sandy's Devastation Part 2

2012-10-30T17:49:32-04:00

I spent a lot of last night and this morning trying to find out what had happened at Morgan Marina, where my boat, Cadence was hauled out and on the hard. Given her location, I assumed she would be safe.

Morgan is up Cheesequake Creek, a small river off the Southwest of Raritan Bay. The marina is about half a mile from the Bay past two bridges: One, the Rte 35 road bridge where Rte 35 acts as a seawall except under the bridge. The other is a low rail road bridge. To the East is a very large wetland, presumably plenty of place for the water to go. The South is Garden State Parkway. To the immediate North are Brown's and Lockwoods' marinas and yards.

There is a dock holding 50-80 boats and a large yard about 4 feet about the water level with 100 or so boats on jackstands. I have kept my boat here for several years and know the folks who work there well. Nice bunch of hard-working people.

All morning I heard mixed information: The dock had washed away but boats on stands were OK, my boat was in "decent shape" (a statement that is relative), but nothing specific. None of this prepared me for what I saw.

As I drove up, on the left hand side of the road were several boats and this iron dock, several hundred yards across wetland beyond Lockwoods Boatworks.

The entrance to the yard was blocked by half a dozen yachts. To the left and right as far as I could see where yachts off their stands, tangled up like this.

Once you entered the yard, boat were everywhere, rolled, smashed up, tied up in each other's rigging. Boats had washed down from the other yards or washed up from the destroed dock. It was chaos.

Sandy's Devastation Part 1

2012-10-30T16:40:07-04:00

These two shots were taken by fellow RYC clubmember, Alan Uminski this morning.

You can see the full extent of what happened here. Watch in Slideshow mode. It may me weep.

Yesterday, there 30-40 boats standing there. Great boats like Sinn Fein, multiple winner of Newport-Bermuda; great boats I crewed on like Bellefaster; great boats like Why Knot,a daysailer clubmate George inherited from his uncle and took loving care of so that he could take his family sailing; great boats like Forbidden, Slice, Poppy, For Sail, Mad Cow and Magic who would race multiple times a week come rain or shine

Boats are inanimate objects and it's so much more important that their crews and owners are safe but boats have souls. We lost a lot of souls last night.

Raritan Yacht Club Devastated

2012-10-30T07:48:02-04:00

Just received this from club-mate Bob Wardlow. My heart is breaking:

Very Bad News... at 6:00pm the intense waves and storm surge from Sandy, breached our yard. All the boats in the yard were knocked off their stands and floated heading toward the west end of the yard. From there the boats were continuously smashed against the yard buildings until the lcoker and ice building gave way colapsing and washing onto the nearby beach. The water was up to the floor of the cupola as of 8:00pm. For the rest of the night I was unable to see more than the outline of the cupola. At this point I don't know how much of the docks have survived. There were a couple of trailered boats that were still standing but I can only image how much damage they sustained by the other boats crashing into them with each oncoming wave. I estimate we had 5 to 6 feet of water in the yard with 6 foot waves crushing the boats.

The club house is intact except for one door that was ripped off it's hinges. It was quickly put back in place and tied shut. The stairway from the deck to the yard is mostly gone. I think the main deck is still solid although the mass of boats, fence, yard building was continuously crushed against the retaining wall the is the foundation of the deck.

At this point there is nothing you can do. There is no power at the club and under this state of emergency and per our Vice Commodore DO NOT COME DOWN TO THE CLUB. We will see what tomorrow brings. Right now if you have a boat in the yard you will need to notify your insurance company to put in a claim.

Thankfully no one was injured during the storm.

Because of the power outages it was difficult to get this information out to you. I will continue to try my best to keep you informed.

Raritan Yacht Club and Sandy

2012-10-29T16:45:40-04:00

This photo was taken from the yard at 1600, four hours before high tide, when the wind will be at its highest. Seriously concerned about RYC.

Sandy GRIBS

2012-10-29T09:16:42-04:00

I downloaded the GRIBs for Sandy. This tells the story of how long we will be in the middle of this thing. Combined with an especially high tide later tonight, things will get ugly along the shore. At 0800 today the water was over the bulkhead at RYC in Perth Amboy. Very concerned about the next 4+ high tides.

Stay safe out there.

Worrying. Sandy Has Us In Her Crosshairs

2012-10-28T15:52:37-04:00

Maybe I am being paranoid but in the last 36 hours the sharp end of Sandy's estimated landfall has shifted North from Delaware to the Northern Jersey Shore. According to this Storm Surge projection, Raritan Bay (clumsily-circled in dark blue by me) will see 9-12' storm surges. Thankfully my boat is up the creek at Morgan Marina and hopefully out of reach.

When I left RYC yesterday, there were still a handful of boats on their moorings. I fear the worse for them. I also fear for the 40 or so boats in the yard at RYC. They are very exposed.

Sandy's Threat Explained

2012-10-27T11:09:16-04:00

Great article on Sandy and why we can expect to see more of these in years to come. Oh goody! The short story with Sandy, is that the cold front is keeping Sandy offshore longer. As the Ocean is warmer than normal (Global Warming at work) the storm gains power and sucks up more warm moisture. Next 24 hours will be key.

Trailer For Documentary About 2008 Vendee

2012-10-24T17:16:46-04:00

Is it really 4 years agao and it's about to get started again. More stuff like this here.

Oracle 17 Capsize Footage

2012-10-17T09:00:35-04:00

Taken from the shore by a spectator. Not high quality but still dramatic.

Sailing Photos Of The Day - 2012 Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta

2012-10-12T16:54:14-04:00

Thanks to Adam Loorie for the nice pics. More on the regatta here.

Moon Over Tallinn

2012-10-09T21:39:00-04:00

a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbigwood/8062084268/" title="Moon over Tallinn Harbour by Matt Bigwood, on Flickr">

Sailing Photos Of The Day - Avel Winner Of The Rolex Trophy in St. Tropez

2012-10-08T16:29:59-04:00

Photo: ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi