Proper Course

Oysters and Beer and Crabs by the Sea

2013-05-17T19:28:00.001-04:00

Well, I didn't complete many of the 33 things on my to-do list of items to prepare for this weekend's regatta.

But I did complete #14 today. "Take Tillerwoman out to lunch to let her know how much I appreciate her letting me go sailing all weekend."

As I wrote in The Meaning of Wife, we men will never understand women. Their minds work differently from ours.

Several days this week I asked Tillerwoman if she would like to go out to lunch. She always had some reason why she didn't want to go.

But today I found the secret key. I didn't ask here if she would like to go out to lunch. I said, "Let's go and have some oysters." Worked like a charm.

So we went to the Boat House and had a dozen Powder Point oysters on the half shell. From Duxbury. Plump, salty-sweet with a remarkably clean finish. (It says on their website.) But they were good.

I've even sailed at Duxbury. I seem to remember the water was salty-sour and my race finishes were remarkably unclean. Oh well!

I've been reading on Mitch's blog and in other places how bad the blue crab harvest is in the Chesapeake, and how expensive soft shell crabs are becoming. So imagine my surprise when the waitress said there was a special... a soft shell crab sandwich! And very reasonably priced.

I asked her where the crabs came from. Maryland, she said. Delivered to the restaurant live, she said. And then she launched into an explanation of how the chef chops the eyes and gills out himself and would we like him to come to our table and explain how he does it in even more graphic detail...

Ummmm. No thanks.

Just bring the sandwich.

It was delicious.

As were the two pints of Smuttynose IPA.

I came home and turned my boat over. I think it's the first time I've looked at my bottom in 5 years. Not a pretty sight. I cleaned it and polished it. Good for another 5 years, I reckon.

OK. I'm done.

I'm ready for the regatta now.

Bring. It. On.

Dambusters!

2013-05-17T15:15:00.003-04:00

70th anniversary this week.

Spot the Difference

2013-05-15T19:55:00.002-04:00

Photo of "Kirby Torch" on the Torch website earlier today

What the same photo on the Torch website looks like now

Kirby Torch Sail

2013-05-15T18:00:00.000-04:00

Here is one of the first pictures of the brand new Kirby Torch sailboat released today on the Kirby Torch website.

Here is a close-up of the sail on that "Torch".

And here is a picture of Robert Scheidt sailing a Laser in the 2000 Olympics.

Photo: Katrina Butler - Sail-World.com

Notice anything?

Does this mean Robert Scheidt is endorsing the Kirby Torch?

Or does it mean that we will all be able to buy Kirby Torches with replica Olympic sails like those used by our favorite Olympic Laser sailing heroes? Can I be Anna Tunnicliffe?

Torch

2013-05-15T16:31:00.001-04:00

This is a Torch.

"The Torch is an ideal boat for the family. Children can learn to handle her quite easily."

There is a 1961 original Torch dinghy for sale on this forum.

Here's one that was for sale on eBay.

According to this forum thread, the The Torch was designed by Bert Keeble, a metalwork teacher at Maldon Grammar School in England, in the early 1960s. It was meant as a boat that could be built in schools and used to teach pupils to sail.

Here is another picture of the Torch...

The designer, Bert Keeble, died in 2008. Here is his obituary.

Thanks to Scuttlebutt for breaking some of this news a few weeks ago.

Carpe Diem

2013-05-14T17:56:00.001-04:00

On Monday morning I posted 33 Ways to Prepare for a Laser Regatta (most of which was written on Sunday) and then asked myself, "Which of these 33 things am I going to do first today?"

It was almost like the Monday mornings when I used to work for a living. After a refreshing weekend sailing or spending time with the family or skiing, I would go into work on Monday and start to get my head around what needed doing that week. Usually it was a list at least as long as the 33 Ways post, and with the similar depressing realization there there was no way I could get them all done.

How to choose what to do first?

I think there used to be some guidance about the difference between "urgent" and "important", but I forget what it was.

In the end I decided to go sailing first.

I trailered my Laser over to Bristol and set sail in a shifty, gusty wind from the WSW coming off the Poppasquash shore. There are more boats on moorings in the harbor now than there were a few weeks ago. One of them was called Carpe Diem. So I made that the title of this post. Why else?

I had planned on sailing some short windward-leeward courses and then doing some tacking practice. And that's what I did, but what I was actually practicing was getting used to sailing in a crazy, unstable wind that was so different from the afternoon sea breezes I've trained in on most of my outings recently. Gusts splashing down on the water and creating huge shifts. Slam dunk headers. Unexpected lifts taking me above the layline. Hey, that's the kind of wind we race in as often as not, especially on the lakes. All good stuff.

And then after a shower and lunch I did a few of the less appealing chores on my "to do" list.

It struck me that going sailing first made a lot of sense. (If there's any wind in the morning.)

Sometimes by the time I've done all sorts of other stuff in the morning, I am too weary or not in the mood for sailing by the middle of the afternoon. And then later I regret that I didn't go sailing.

I've always hated that hoary old quote, "When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did."

I think it's nonsense. There are so many things that you can't do in one lifetime that focusing in old age on what you didn't do is simply a recipe for misery.

I'm old now. I never climbed Everest. I never became an astronaut. I wasn't one of the Beatles. I didn't marry Angeline Jolie. But I don't "regret" not doing any of those things. I prefer to reminisce about all the wonderful experiences I have had in the last 65 years... not to mention what I still intend to do.

But as a guideline for what to do first each day I think it's not a bad guide. "Do first what you will most regret this evening if you didn't do it."

Especially if that thing is going sailing.

Youngest Water-skier in the World?

2013-05-13T20:32:00.002-04:00

33 Ways to Prepare for a Laser Regatta

2013-05-13T09:02:00.002-04:00

It's our Laser district championship in Wickford, Rhode Island this weekend. A two-day event and the first real regatta I've sailed since the Fat Boys Regatta in Bristol last October.

I'm not sure what to expect. Either my advanced age or my lack of fitness or my general wimpiness or all of the above were factors in my pathetic racing season last year. The Fat Boys was actually the ~~first~~ only regatta all year in which I completed all the races.

So I have five days left to get ready for Wickford. That should be enough right?

But I need to make some decisions, in the limited time I have available, on how best to prepare for the regatta. There are hotshots coming from as far south as Virginia, and last year's district champion, so I have to be at my best.

Here are 33 things I could do to prepare for the regatta. Which ones do you think are worth doing?

Do several long runs to build up my stamina.
Go for a long bike ride to build up my stamina.
Meditate on Rule 5.

Check all the bits of string on my boat and replace the ones that have frayed the most.
Refinish my foils.
Polish my bottom.

Get my car serviced so it doesn't break down on the way to the regatta.
Attend to all the rust on my trailer so it doesn't fall to pieces on the way to the regatta.
Find out where the regatta is and put it in my GPS so I don't get lost on the way to the regatta.

Put Ben Ainslie's book under my pillow.
Read a chapter or two of Ben Ainslie's book.
Hypnotize myself into believing I am Ben Ainslie.

Buy Tillerwoman some flowers to let her know how much I appreciate her letting me go sailing all weekend.
Take Tillerwoman out to lunch to let her know how much I appreciate her letting me go sailing all weekend.
Tell Tillerwoman how much I appreciate her.

Mow the lawn because it needs doing.
Mulch the shrubs because it needs doing.
Write a blog post every day because... hmm... I have no idea why.

Buy more Powerade.
Buy more beer.
Buy more rum.

Visualize that race last winter when I led the Newport frostbite fleet round the first mark.
Visualize that race at the Fat Boys where I was almost second.
Visualize drinking rum after sailing.

Go sailing a couple of times this week.
Sit on my hiking bench a couple of times this week.
Do some yoga.

Buy one of those fancy Zhik wetsuits with hiking pads. They are so expensive they must make you go faster, right?
Buy a new wind indicator so I know which way the wind is blowing.
Buy more Advil.

Pre-register for the regatta so I actually have to show up.
Set some objectives for the regatta.
Decide to have fun at the regatta.

So what do you think?

If I could only do, say, seven to ten of the above, which ones do you think I should choose?

And what have I missed?

Something Every Laser Fleet Needs...

2013-05-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

Warning

2013-05-12T09:06:00.000-04:00

When I am an old man I shall sail a purple Laser

And wear a red do-rag which doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on single malt Scotch and Zhik wetsuits

And a new sail every three months, and say I've no money for gas.

I shall sit down on the dock and drink rum when I'm tired

And pump three times on every wave and shout "protest" a lot

And use the F-word in rants on all the sailing forums

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out sailing in 30 knots on my own

And steal bits from other sailors' boats

And learn to ooch.

You can wear Hawaiian shirts and grow more fat

And eat three large pizzas at a go

Or only oysters and beer for a week

And hoard duct tape and tools and Advil and things in boxes.

But now we must have USCG approved PFDs that keep us safe

And pay our entry fees and remember to thank the race committee

And set a good example for the children.

We must do our RC duty and read the sailing instructions.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to sail a purple Laser.

with apologies to Jenny Joseph

Not a Kirby Sailboat Rant

2013-05-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

This post was going to be a rant.

I wrote some angry stuff about some of the people posting on forums and blogs about the Kirby Sailboat/ Laser/ Torch issues.

Then I decided it was crazy for me to be angry at other people for being angry.

I don't always agree with all my fellow sailors but some of them are very upset about this issue. And they are my fellow sailors. So I've decided not to rant at them, but continue to listen to them and to respect their views.

Personally, I don't think that any of us regular sailors really know enough about this issue to know which course of action will lead to the best result for all the sailors.

We don't know who will win the court battle between Bruce Kirby and LaserPerformance. We don't know if the design rights contracts between Kirby and the current Laser builders were still valid and enforceable. We don't know what LaserPerformance's defense in the court case will be. We don't know what legal advice has been giving to the Laser class that has informed their actions on this issue. We don't know what has been discussed and decided in countless meetings behind closed doors.

There is so much we don't know.

What I do know is that the only people whom I can rely on to be working for my interests as a Laser sailor are the voluntary leaders of the Laser class. I have met Andy Roy (North American Chairman) and Tracy Usher (President of the World Council) and they both strike me as people who are even more enthusiastic about Laser sailing than I am, who care deeply about the future of the sport, and who must be putting enormous amounts of voluntary effort and time into dealing with this issue. So I support them in their efforts to resolve this mess and wish them well.

I also have the utmost respect for Bruce Kirby (whom I have also met) for designing the boat which has given me so much pleasure for many decades, but he is also pursuing his own commercial interests in this dispute, just as LP and LPE and PSA and Global Sailing and the new builders appointed by Kirby, and all the rest of them are. Nothing wrong with that. But I am way too cynical to believe that anyone who is trying to make a buck or two out of my sport is 100% on my side.

I take solace in the thought that when this is all over and the dust has settled and the lawyers have been paid, we will all still have our Lasers and we will all still be able to play with them. The newer Lasers might be called something else but I'm sure nobody will really care. We will want to play with our fellow sailors whatever their boats are called. And there will still be volunteers willing to run the class and organize regattas for us.

This too will pass.

Andrew Simpson

2013-05-09T18:30:00.002-04:00

The British sailor Andrew James Simpson MBE (born 17 December 1976) was killed today in a training accident on the Artemis AC72 on San Francisco Bay.

He won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, as crew for skipper Iain Percy in the Star class.

Percy and Simpson competed at the 2012 Olympic Games, again in the Star class, and won the silver medal.

Simpson was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.

Game Changer?

2013-05-08T10:20:00.000-04:00

Can a blogger change the world?

Or at least the Laser sailing world?

Maybe.

Most of my readers probably know that the Laser sailing world is in an unholy mess right now. There is a legal dispute going on between Bruce Kirby (the designer of the Laser) and LaserPerformance (the builder of the Laser in North America and Europe.)

Bruce Kirby says that LaserPerformance no longer has his approval to build Lasers to his design, and claims that they are infringing his design rights by continuing to do so. We haven't heard much from LaserPerformance but undoubtedly they will have some legal defense to Kirby's lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Kirby has appointed two other builders in Canada and the Netherlands to build the Laser. But he isn't calling it a Laser; he is calling the boat a Kirby Torch. He can't call it a Laser because LaserPerformance owns the right to use Laser trademarks, the Laser name and starburst symbol, in North America and Europe.

At least everybody thought they did.

Then along came Pam.

Pam, along with her husband Doug, writes the blog called Improper Course.

Pam has been doing some digging into the ownership of the Laser trademarks and their current status. It turns out the Laser trademarks being used by LaserPerformance are owned by a couple of offshore corporate entities called Velum and Karaya. And Pam has dug up some evidence that there are some issues affecting both these trademarks.

On April 23, Pam wrote a post LASER Trademark for Running Regattas. Pam reported that "in the US, Velum holds the trademark in the class of services that pertain to organizing sporting events, namely, sailing competitions, and regattas." Nothing to do with actually building and selling boats at all. And as Pam pointed out, Velum, or LaserPerformance, don't actually run Laser regattas. That is typically done by sailing clubs. So what's going on?

On May 5, Pam (aka Mrs P) posted on the Laser Forum that she had spoken with a representative for Bruce Kirby in the previous week.

Then on May 7, Bruce Kirby Inc. filed a petition with the US Trademark Office asking them to cancel the Laser trademark owned by Velum on the grounds that they had "abandoned" the trademark by allowing numerous third parties to use it.

Interesting. However, it doesn't seem to me that the Laser trademark for running regattas is central to the issue of who has the right to use the Laser trademark on boats. But wait, there's more...

On May 7, Pam published another post Laser Trademarks Up for Grabs?. This time she turned her attention to the LASER trademarks owned by Karaya, the ones that do actually pertain to the class of goods that includes sailboats and sails. She tracked the transfers of these trademarks between various corporate entities and the name changes of some of those entities. She discovered that it seems that the trademarks may have been conveyed at one point to an entity that wasn’t yet legally in existence, and that the last entity to hold clear title to the trademarks has since been dissolved.

It's all very confusing. It makes my head ache to read the story. Doug has made a little diagram to make it all clearer but that makes my head ache too.

But if there really is some question over whether LaserPerformance (through some associated company) actually does have the right to use the Laser trademarks, that would be a real game changer.

Can a blogger change the world?

Or at least the Laser sailing world?

Maybe.

Sailing the Queque

2013-05-07T08:36:00.000-04:00

Last night I had the strangest dream.

I was participating in some sort of multi-day dinghy sailing event that was being held in a different venue each day.

All of the sailors were staying in some big, rambling house.

I was sailing a two-man dinghy. I was the crew. That's pretty strange to start with.

Every day before sailing we had to write an essay about our strategy for the day.

My skipper and I had done pretty well on the first day of the regatta.

On the second day we were due to sail the Queque.

As far as I could gather the Queque was a long winding lake, or perhaps a river.

There were charts of all the sailing venues for the regatta on the walls of the house but I couldn't find a chart of the Queque.

On the morning of the day scheduled for the racing on the Queque I had to leave the house to attend to some personal business, and I was late for the essay writing "exam."

I rushed in with only a few minutes to write my essay and I didn't know what to write about the Queque.

All I could remember was that my skipper had told me that we should "stay in the hoo."

What does this all mean?

In the dream I seemed to think that Queque was some kind of native American place name. But I googled "queque" this morning and discovered that this is a queque.

Ask the Tillerman #3

2013-05-05T19:07:00.000-04:00

Mark R asks...

I wonder if I might submit a question on behalf of my training partner, I know she would be embarrassed to ask herself.

It is Thursday night, you have just finished racing, and beaten the other Lasers in your 4.7. You wish to celebrate using the £2.50 left in the weekly household budget, perhaps with a bottle of white wine or similar beverage. What purchase offers the best alcohol to price value, whilst befitting the Laser 4.7 sailor?

Mark R writes a blog called Slipper Musings. He sails one of those exotic boats that look all technical with fancy black carbon bits called an RS300. Apparently there aren't many of these exotic boats around in his neck of the woods because he has been writing for the last few months about how he goes out and practices sailing his RS300 with a lady called Claire who sails a very sensible boat called a Laser 4.7. (In case you don't know, a Laser 4.7 is a Laser with a smaller sail than the standard Laser.)

Mark and Claire go out sailing on Chichester Harbor in England in all sorts of weather in the English winter. Where they sail is not far from where I sailed the Laser Masters Worlds in 2010. The experience still gives me nightmares. I have only just stopped shivering from sailing in such frigid weather. And I was there in September!

So let's get this straight. Mark sails some oddball boat and has nobody with the same kind of oddball boat to practice with. And yet, he has a lady friend who will come out and practice with him in the miserable, rainy, cold English weather. She is a Laser sailor so she already has 200,000 other Laser sailing friends to practice with. But she obviously feels sorry for Mark and his eccentric obsession with his bizarre boat and out of the kindness of her heart she goes training with him.

So Claire beats all the other Lasers in her 4.7 in the Thursday night racing and Mark asks what she should buy to drink with the following constraints...

Cost no more than £2.50
Something like a bottle of white wine
Best alcohol to price ratio
Something befitting the Laser 4.7 sailor

I hardly know where to begin..

First of all, I'm not all that familiar with what stuff costs in Britain these days (I've only been back for the occasional vacation in the last few years) but I seem to remember from my last trip that £2.50 does not go very far. Isn't that what they charge now for a bag of crisps?

Secondly, why is this woman buying her own drinks? She beats all the other Laser sailors. She goes training with Mark in his deviant, odd little boat in the English winter. Clearly Claire must be pretty much a cross between Mother Theresa and Ellen MacArthur.

Every man in their oddly named Slipper Sailing Club (and especially Mark) should be lining up to buy drinks for her and to throw their cloaks down in the mud for her to walk on while she launches her Laser. Whatever happened to English gallantry? Don't they teach the story of Francis Drake and his muddy cloak in English schools any more?

Thirdly, have you people not been paying attention? What have I been teaching you on this blog all these years?

Real Laser sailors drink beer.

Check out Beer and Sailing.

Check out Beer is Better where it was conclusively proven by real scientists that beer is the best thing for you after exercise.

Above all check out Laser Sailing: The Rules and meditate on Rule #28 Drink real beer.

You should not need telling again.

White wine? At £2.50 a bottle? You have to be joking.

Cows in Spring

2013-05-04T20:17:00.000-04:00

JP made me do it.

Rowdy Raunchy Loud Hysterical Crazy Fun

2013-05-03T15:20:00.000-04:00

In a Scuttlebutt newsletter back in March there was an article by Glenn McCarthy arguing that the decline in sailing over the last 40 years is because it isn't as much fun as it used to be. He says that the sport is striving too much for perfection, crew are under pressure to perform their duties well on board, even sailing clothing has to reflect a businesslike atmosphere, and after sailing folk run off home as if they were leaving work. He makes a plea to "bring on the rowdy, raunchy, loud, hysterical, crazy pranks, shenanigans, hoot and hollers, in anyway and every way you can." He wants to convert sailing back into a really fun time.

He's right of course.

What's the point of doing something like sailing if you're not having fun?

It's not supposed to be like work.

But who are these people who go sailing and never have any fun?

Haven't I spent the last eight years writing a blog that tries to expose the fun in sailing, that makes fun of myself and makes fun of others, that is even crazy and hysterical at times? Can anyone read this blog for any time and not come to the conclusion that sailing is fun?

Hell, I wouldn't go sailing and I wouldn't write this blog if it wasn't fun most of the time.

Of course, kids know how to have fun on the water. I was just finishing up six years as a junior sailing instructor in the year I started this blog, But I did write at least one post Kids Learn by Playing - Duh! in which I discussed how to balance safety and learning and FUN in a junior sailing program.

So why don't (some) adults have fun when they are sailing? I don't get it?

Is it because racing isn't fun? Absolutely not.

Sure it's fun when you are winning. I do win occasionally. No, really.

But 99% of the time I don't win, and most of those times sailing is fun too.

Yesterday I went for a sail by myself on Bristol Harbor.

It was blowing 12-15 knots on a glorious sunny Spring afternoon.

I worked upwind for about 20 minutes and then went reaching down the waves, zig-zagging back and forth all over the harbor.

Hiking right at the back of the cockpit. Spray flying everywhere. I may have let out the odd hoot and a holler or two. Nobody could hear me.

All by myself having fun in the sunshine.

Rowdy, raunchy, loud, hysterical, crazy fun.

Maybe Mr. McCarthy should buy a Laser?

Four Things

2013-05-02T20:18:00.000-04:00

One of our sail-blogging friends is thinking that his sailing days may be over. The adversities of advancing age are catching up with him and his wife, and they are trying to sell their boat. Or maybe not. He doesn't seem sure what he really wants to do.

It made me think about my own situation. I am lucky right now that I have good health and reasonable fitness, and some of the things I enjoy the most are outdoor physical activities such as sailing and running and gardening.

I was reminded of some advice I read a few years ago (can't remember where - can't find it on the Google) about how we should choose the activities and interests to pursue in retirement. It was suggested that we should think of two dimensions - physical vs mental and social vs solitary - and try and choose at least one activity that would combine every combination of those two dimensions. In other words do some physically challenging things with other people and some by yourself; and do some mentally rewarding activities with other people and some by yourself.

I think the logic was that it's good to get some exercise but as you get older your ability to pursue physically demanding pursuits may wane because of illness or injury or just old age, so if that's all you do you may find a huge gap in your life when you have to give them up.

Similarly it's good to get out and socialize with friends, but as you get older you may find your friends dying before you, or you may not be able to see them so often for other reasons, so it's good to have some rewarding activities that you can follow on your own.

Also it's good to exercise your brain. But if that's all you do, what's going to happen if and when your mental facilities decline?

Seemed like good advice.

Not sure how well I've been following it...

Physical and solitary - running is very much in this category for me, although some people make it more social.

Physical and social - in spite of being a single-handed sailor, one of the things I do really appreciate about sailing is the ability to hang out with sailing friends before and after sailing, preferably over a few beers.

Mental and solitary - when I'm feeling lazy this is my natural place to go. Reading, sudoku, browsing the web, playing SailX.

Mental and social - Hmmm. This appears to be the missing quadrant in my life. What am I supposed to do? Join a chess club? Take nuclear physics classes at a local university? Enter the Senior Olympics Spelling Bee? This one is a puzzle to me. Or does blogging count?

What about you?

How are your four things?

Ask the Tillerman #2

2013-05-02T06:45:00.000-04:00

The deliciously named Doc Häagen-Dazs asked, "Why did the icky gaff-rig triump over the more efficient Marconi rig in the world-wide establishing of the Opti class for juniors?"

I have no idea what you are talking about Doc.

This is an Optimist...

Ask the Tillerman #1

2013-05-01T18:51:00.000-04:00

In response to my request to Ask the Tillerman some questions, a reader named Was it Was asked, "Am I normal in enjoying a bad start because I get to overtake more boats, than have a good start and watch boats go past me?"

Ain't that life for the mid-fleet sailor?

Happens to me all the time.

I guess the truth is that the 15-20 guys at the front of the fleet really are faster than me. And then there are 5-10 guys at the back of the fleet who, incredible as it sounds, really are slower than me. So, contrary to popular wisdom, it really doesn't matter whether I get a good start or a bad start.

If I get a good start I might round the first windward mark in the top 10, but then the fast guys will pass me and I will end up somewhere around 20th. If I get a bad start I might round the first windward mark with the tail-enders but then, even in a short race, I will pass a few boats and end up around 20th.

OK. Sometimes, once in a blue moon, I might get an amazingly good start and luckily go the right side of the beat even though all the good guys favored the other side and then I might round the first mark up with the leaders and might even finish in the top 10. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.

So is it normal to enjoy a bad start, asks our friend.

Well, one way to look at it is if most of your starts are bad starts you had better enjoy those races else otherwise you would be miserable most of the time you are racing, and then you might do do something incredibly stupid and desperate like taking up golf... or even cruising.

And a start is just one moment in the race. Good or bad the moment is soon over. So why not enjoy spending the whole race passing the boats at the back of the fleet rather than suffer the frustrations of getting passed by all those really annoying fast sailors at the front of the fleet?

In fact, the more you think about, why even bother to try to get a good start? Last time I did RC duty I noticed there was always a bunch of boats hanging out above the layline for the boat end of the start line not making any serious attempt to be on the line when the gun went off. They just waited until the rest of the fleet had started and then they rounded the committee boat and followed the fleet up the course. Were they deliberately getting bad starts in every race? And, more to the point, were they the smartest sailors there? Had they found the real secret of how to enjoy racing?

I have read advice somewhere, in one of those totally useless books which purport to teach you how to win races, that sometimes you should deliberately be OCS, and not go back to restart, so that you can get the experience of sailing in clear air and being able to decide your own strategy for the beat without getting bounced from tack to tack by all those annoyingly fast sailors at the front of the fleet. I think the point is to motivate you to try hard to win the starts so that you could sail like that in every race. Fat chance!

No. I think the opposite is the best advice.

The secret of happiness is to start last and spend the race overtaking other boats.

Which is a rather long way round of saying in answer to the original question.... YES.

Volunteers

2013-04-30T20:16:00.000-04:00

At the grassroots level, the sport of dinghy sailing depends on volunteers.

Our sport wouldn't exist if it weren't for all the people who give up their free time to do all the work to run the sport.

Everybody plays their part.

(Well, almost everybody.)

In my time I have been a fleet captain (several times), a sailing club secretary, a sailing club commodore, a newsletter editor, a regatta chairman, a principal race officer, a junior sailing instructor, an area junior regatta series organizer, a class regional representative, and a class district secretary.

I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet in listing the above jobs. All my friends who sail dinghies regularly end up making similar, or greater, contributions.

Some do much more.

One of my sailing friends from New Jersey served as president of his national class association for several years.

One of my sailing friends in Rhode Island ran almost single-handedly (well double-handedly with his wife) one of the most successful regattas on the Laser Masters circuit for many years.

I don't think I've ever run for election (against an opponent) for any of the jobs I've done. Usually it doesn't work like that.

Sometimes I've seen something that needed doing - and it was clear that nobody else was going to do it - so I just went and did it.

More often than not some greybeard in the club or the class, the local "godfather", took me aside and told me that I should be.... the next newsletter editor, the next commodore, whatever.

I've mentioned before on this blog that after I moved to Rhode Island it felt strange that I wasn't doing anything to give back something to the sport.

That feeling didn't last long. About a year ago the Godfather made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Now I have a voluntary job.

Usually when I start one of these jobs I have no idea what I'm doing.

But that's OK. I can always ask my predecessors what to do. I can always find some kind of mentor. If all else fails I can ask the Godfather for advice.

After a while I usually work out what I'm doing. And then I can start trying out new things to do the job even better.

Sometimes people give feedback to the folk doing these volunteer jobs. "You should have done that." "I wouldn't have done it that way."

Sometimes that criticism stings a bit but, if it's meant in the right spirit, it can be helpful. I try not to take it too personally.

The issue of volunteering is summed up well in Laser Sailing: The Rules.

Rule #35 Volunteer. If you see something that needs to be done in your local fleet, club or district and it isn't being done or isn't being done as well as you think it should be done... then don't whine about it; do it yourself.

Rule #36 If you can't think of anything else you can do to help the sport, then be the guy that brings the beer.

Yes, YOU.

I'm talking to YOU

Be the guy that brings the beer.

Caption Contest

2013-04-30T12:56:00.001-04:00

On Track

2013-04-29T19:14:00.000-04:00

Back in January I wrote a post Can I Make it to 100?

No, no, no.

It wasn't about whether I will live to be 100 years old.

That's not likely.

I don't think I want to live to be 100.

Cheat the nursing home. Die on your LASER.

The post was about how, if in the unlikely event that I should set my mind to doing so, I could sail my Laser 100 days in a year. It was just an intellectual exercise, you understand. Not because it was a real goal or anything serious like that. God forbid.

I even went so far as to work out, just as an intellectual exercise you understand, how many days I should aim to sail each month if I were to make it to 100 in a year.

The first four months of the year are not the best weather for Laser sailing around here. There is frostbiting if you are crazy enough to do that. The water is cold and nobody in their right mind goes out and practices Laser sailing on their own in these months.

So I set a fairly modest target for sailing in January, February, March and April.

18 days I said.

Let's see how many days I actually sailed.

18.

Oh shit.

I appear to be on track to sail my Laser 100 days this year.

Now some of my more insane readers will think I'm actually aiming to sail my Laser 100 days this year.

Just for book-keeping purposes you might like to know that those 18 days were made up of...

5 days of frostbite racing
4 days of a group sailing clinic in Florida
9 days of solo practice (which somebody said nobody in their right mind does at this time of year.)

Just saying.

I appear to be on track to sail my Laser 100 days this year.

This is getting seriously weird.

Compression Socks

2013-04-28T16:48:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit slow in noticing new trends.

Probably it's been going on for years but I noticed for the first time at the Newport 10 Miler running race today that a fair number of the runners were wearing knee high socks.

I've seen ladies wearing long socks to run before but I always assumed that they were some kind of fashion statement because they were usually pink or covered in polka dots or little flowers or hearts.

But these socks today were worn by men and women, and they looked "technical" in the way that products look "technical" when they are supposed to do something "technical" that will help you in your sport and the designer wants to make sure that you and everyone else sees how "technical" their product is.

I think they are called compression socks.

Apparently they are supposed to do something to make you run faster or hurt less when you are running or hurt less after you have been running.

There's an article about compression socks on the Science of Running blog. It's about 2,500 words long so let me summarize it for you...

they might help blood flow
they might stop your leg vibrating (seriously!)
they might improve performance
they might improve recovery
various experiments have been conducted and results are mixed
the author tried them out and got the best results by wearing them on the day before the race (go figure!)

I noticed that one lady running near me for most of the race was wearing a fetching pair of lime green calf sleeves. (Hey, what else am I going to look at for 10 miles?) I guess these are supposed to work in the same way as compression socks.

Why hasn't this technological marvel been adopted in dinghy sailing yet?

You could wear those lime green sleeves on your arms as well as your legs.

Or does a tight wetsuit or tight rashguard have a similar effect?

Further research is indicated.

Caption Contest

2013-04-27T17:49:00.000-04:00