May 2004
| Open and Closed Speaking
of Open boats and the Transat,
a major bummer is the withdrawal of not only Roland Jourdain's
brand new Open 60 Sill, but now also her sistership Bonduelle,
skippered by Jean le Cam has also withdrawn. Sill had experienced
keel problems and the the concern that Bonduelle could as well,
prompted both Marc Lombard designs to be scratched. We'll get
more as we know. 05/28/2004 |
| Pimp Daddy Measure Up A lot
of you wouldn't know a good sail if it walked up and introduced
itself. And truthfully sometimes it is hard to know what you are
looking at and looking for when eyeing a sail. UK Sailmakers can
help. They've got a downloadable software program called AccuMeasure
that does a nice job explaining sail shapes, and what to look
for. You can get it and its free. Check
it out. |
| Damn it - The French Still Rule! We kid. Bertrand Pacé continues to lead at the ACI HTmobile Cup being sailed in Croatia. The wind is light, not making for very exciting racing, but Pacé won the only race he sailed. The pack however, is nipping at his French heels! More can be found right here. 05/28/2004 |
Home Style A while back we did a feature on a slick little home built 24' that garnered a lot of e-mail from guys doing much the same thing. Here's one, that while it may not be our choice of design, still looks well done. And no matter what, you just have to admire the moxie to get up and build their own god damn boats. Impressive. 05/27/2004 |
| 05/27/2004 |
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Fair and Square? Word that the 2005 Transpac will not allow any boat faster than the maxZ86's is a sad example of politics working their back room magic. Unfortunately, this race has a history of setting and then resetting artificial "speed" limits, almost all of them applied by political pressure. Sleds, then turbo sleds, now maxZ86. Interesting how that progression has developed, isn't it? This time TPYC had originally agreed to maxZ86 limits if the maxZ Class could get three of them to the start line. Well there is only going to be two, but the maxZ86 rating limit still applies. Why? Of course we all know that the maxZ86 Pyewacket will be doing the '05 Transpac. We also know that the owner, his sailing master, and navigator are all also TPYC Directors. Any ideas on how much influence they wield? Right. This
is one reason why the race is considered by many to be an archaic,
politicized race that has been surpassed by the Pacific Cup in
almost every way. A race like Transpac should have no rating limit
at all, let alone one that is set for the self-interest of a select
few. Open it up, be inclusive rather than exclusive, and let those
who can and want to come with their big boats, rating whatever
they rate, do so. Anything less just doesn't seem quite right. 05/26/2004 |
| Game, Set, Match
05/24/2004 |
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| New World Order Well, the J/22 World Order at any rate. The new Champ for 2004 is Alec Culter along with crew Max Skelly and Paul Murphy. Apparently they won the event in the last race, although we are waiting for details. John den Engelsman finished just two points behind, and David Van Cleef finished third. Look for an Innerview with Alec shortly. Final results are here. 05/24/2004 |
| Farewell Folli Legendary Star boat builder Danilo Folli recently passed away, due to complications of lung Cancer. Considered one of the true artists of boat building, to own a Folli was to own a masterpiece. Many of the past and current Star great sailed Folli's and it is sad to see a legend pass on. Arrivederci, Danilo. 05/24/2004 |
|
With
the help of a jury's decision to reinstate a race that had been
protested out, Italian boats ended up winning both divisions of
the 2004 IMS Worlds held in Capri. The reversal smacks of some
very smelly politics. Photo courtesy Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship 05/24/2004 |
The Shape of........ ...well surely not speed, but then again speed is a relative thing, right? And if all the boats are relatively slow for their length, and you are a bit better, then you are fast, right? Look at this slab-sided beauty, it is Talisman, a Quantum powered B&C 58' sailed by Terry Hutchinson .Leading early, they ended up fouth at the IMS Worlds. Photo courtesy Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship. 05/21/2004 |
| Hey Wait A Minute Weren't we just the other day singing the praises of the death of IMS? Then how the hell did they get 122 IMS entries for the 2004 Newport Bermuda Race? We didn't know there were 122 IMS boats in the US! Well, a look at the entry list does indeed show 122 entrants in the IMS fleet, but many of them are boats that one would normally find in PHRF, so the numbers are perhaps not what the seem. But we'll give 'em credit for getting 122 boats in the fleet, and truthfully, thanks to the 4 TP 52 entries, the non R/C IMS class looks interesting. Good times. 05/21/2004 |
| J/22 Worlds Day 2
05/21/2004 |
Our man on the scene Ray Wulff has not filed
his report today, but we can tell you that they got three races
in Thursday, sailed in nice breeze and American Alec Cutler remains
in front. Until we bitch slap Wulff, results and the rest can
be found
| Big Pimpin' B-Day You know we love our advertisers, and not just for the most obvious reason that they generate revenue for us. What brings us satisfaction is when we can offer a partnership that helps get them some recognition and sell their products and services. We are equal opportunity Pimps. With very few exceptions, those who have joined with us have stayed and we think that is just bitchin'. Sails-Online is one such company and this is their one year anniversary and we wanted them to at least tell you something about them, so here ya go. - Ed. Twelve
months ago Sails-Online
went into the market place with a website that sells sails over
the Internet by mail order. 05/21/2004 |
Full On This is the new Full Pelt, a 36 ft, 3,500 lb. Jo Richards designed canting keel speedball. It is due to launch later this month and should be pretty spectacular. We'll get our friends at UK Sailmakers, who are building the inventory, to give us the story once they go sailing. 05/20/2004 |
| Join The Party
Yassou is now on the market and is a turnkey boat for the right owner who wants to get into this class, right now. Click here for your invitation to the party! 05/20/2004 |
| Laser
Worlds 05/20/2004 |
Pigs at the Trough
Okay
that's a bit harsh, but that's what came to mind when we saw this
picture from the Rolex IMS World Championships just under way
in Italy. On one level it is very cool that they can still get
this many big boats out for handicap racing, but jeez the rule
is lame and the boats are dumb. Check out all the action from
the Worlds right here. |
| Not Alone We're not the only ones who want to see IMS go away. The next running of the Sydney to Hobart race will not have an IMS division. If you want to race this time, it'll be in IRC, PHS or one design classes. No IMS. Good riddance.
|
Nuclear
This
is the pretty new 52' Atomic, owned by Aussie Denis O'Neil. It
is mostly a scaled down AC boat with a few trick features like
a canting keel with wings on the bulb. It is apparently very quick
and doing a good job of shaking up the status quo. Designer Andy
Dovell has filed a patent on the foil concept that he developed
for the boat. |
| Big Pimpin' Nice Pants And
shorts. We're talking about CLEWGEAR, makers of Best Damn Sailing
Shorts to be found anywhere, period. Based in San Francisco, which
is normally a reason to make fun of them, in this instance it
gives them a great environment for making sailing shorts and pants
that really work. Made in the USA, unlike some others, people
that have CLEWGEAR know how good their stuff is. Find
out for yourself. |
| Lipton Cup Taken Away After spending a couple of years in San Diego (SDYC, '02, SWYC, '03) Jack Franco and his team from Balboa YC, won the '04 Lipton Cup. Sailed in J-105's among the best YC teams in SoCal, Balboa sailed a nice series to take the Cup. The racing was tight, and we hope to have a report from SWYC's Geoff Longnecker, who finished third this time. 05/17/2004 |
| Shout Out We
have to give a shout out to TBoats,
our newest advertiser here at SA! Those of you who have been with
us from the beginning, know what fans we are of Steve Thompson's
designs, and those of you who have raced against them know how
fast they are. His boats seem to have design elements that separate
them from the herd, both in looks and performance, and Steve is
dedicated to the concept of fast, fun and well-built boats. 05/14/2004 |
Artful
This
sketch of the T 1770 was drawn by Steve Thompson, principal of
T Boats I thought it is quite nice and figured y'all would enjoy
it. This is T Boats first canting keel design, and though not
slated for production, it is available to be built by an owner
who so desires. T Boats is getting new boats under way, with the
Jim Betts built T 1150 nearly complete, and the 1770 and the 1280
ready to go. Check out their latest stuff right here. |
| Bummer The
women's 470 fleet at the World's was thrown by the withdrawal
of favorites Sofia Bekatorou and her crew Emilia Tsoulfa of Greece.
After yesterday's race, Sofia who is a 4 time World Champion and
Athen's gold favorite, returned to shore with severe back pain
and apparently unable to have full use her legs. She was treated
on scene but was then immediately airlifted to Greece for treatment
and possible surgery. |
| Mari Crash
Perhaps too obviously Caption Contest material, we thought this one just needed to be seen. It is the 144' Mari Cha running into the back end of the VOR 60 Venom at Antigua Sailing Week. That the Big Rig Mari Cha got in some trouble on a crowded start line is no surprise (You try steering it), the remarkable part is how little damage there was to Venom. Picture credit to the ever talented Sharon Green. 05/12/2004 |
| Damn We were looking forward to getting daily reports on the Atlantic 1000 beach cat event from Mike Krantz of Team Weathermark. Maybe next year.
05/12/2004 |
| New Swag Sailing Anarchy Dryshirts
We just got the first batch of Dryshirts in, and they really are amazing. Light weight and high tech, they will keep you warm or cool depending on the weather, and also shed water in case you find yourself in the awful situation of actually getting wet. Plus in order to create the fashion statement that says, "Bite me", we've put the SA logo front and back. They run just a bit on the small side, so if in doubt move up a size.Order up. 05/10/2004 |
| Seahorse Kicks Ass For those of you who don't know, Seahorse magazine just rocks. Too bad the US mags blow by comparison. Do your self a favor and pony up with the 70 something bucks it costs for a year subscription. Worth every penny. And they didn't even have to pay me to say that. Well not much anyway. 05/12/2004 |
Esmo Goes Sailing
It's not like we're particularly queer for this boat, but we do like the TP 52's and know that a lot of you do too. Notice that what we referred to as torsion or support bars are being used, at least in part, for the attachment points for the split backstay adjuster. The top picture shows a pretty clean exit wake, as the boat moves along at a reported 16 knots in 18 true. You know the sport is progressing when these sort of numbers start to appear routine. these pictures of the new Esmaeralda were taken by Dan Neri and courtesy of John Boone of Goetz Custom Sailboats. 05/11/2004 x
|
| The Kids Are Allright The
young dudes (and dudette) from Point Loma High School here in
Dago just won the ISSA
Mallory High School Championships sailed out of Southern Yacht
Club in New Orleans, LA. |
| Fly Boys Luca Santella and owner Giovanni Maspero dominated the 2004 US Melges National Championships held this past week in Santa Cruz, Ca. The Joe Fly boys won 5 of the 8 races they finished - A beating by any measure. Only 25 boats showed up, low for this class.Second through five were: 2)
Sheldon Ecklund Apparently
Samuel Kahn's induction into the Sailing Hall of Fame might have
to wait just a bit, he finished seventh. Full results here. |
6 60's We know, there are only five in the picture, but 6 of the IMOCA 60's are on their way in the1000 milles de Calais race. The course takes them from France, around the Fastnet, to a bouy off Dover, then back to Calais, France. This should be pretty interesting, and there is a very nice website to follow along with. Enjoy. Picture courtesy of G.Martin-Raget 05/10/2004 |
| Worst to First
05/10/2004 |
Z Answer? This is the drawing of the new Brett Bakewell-White designed and Hakes Marine built Z 39, of which hull number one is set to launch next week. There are already a few on order, and it will be interesting to see how big the class actually gets. It is a crowded size range (Sydney 38, IMX 40, Farr 40, etc.) and getting traction may be difficult. On the other hand a modern 40' with an interior, sprit and modest price might be what a number of people are looking for. What do you think? 05/07/2004 |
|
You won't see this very often, and we'll bet it doesn't end up this way, but Russell Coutts is currently last out of 12 top match racers at the Toscana Elba Cup, part of the Swedish Match Tour. Being held at Porto Azzurro, Italy, there are still 10 races to go, so look for some movement in the standings. Pretty wack when we are more interested who is in last rather than who is first, eh? 05/07/2004 |
| Bro Deal? Who's Yo Daddy
Photo and link courtesy of YachtWorld.com 05/07/2004 |
Our Caption Contest this month is brought to you by our very good friends at The Sailing Pro Shop. You may want to click on the picture to get the full flavor, but this one is a beauty! First place is one of the really cool new Dryshirts. I'll figure what second and third get. Go to the Caption Contest forum and fire away. 05/06/2004 |
| Have A Hobie Day The Hobie 16 Worlds are under way at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort on the Riviera Maya, Mexico. Now this sounds like the perfect regatta! We're not sure we care much about who wins, but we'll keep our eyes peeled for some good eye candy to share with you. Check out their website for more information. 05/06/2004 |
| One of Three
Here is the new Farr TP52 Esmeralda rolling out of Goetz Custom Sailboats. Near sisterships Bright Star and Sjambok are to follow shortly. A nice order for Goetz! Check out the interesting deck/cockpit transition, and what appear to be torsion bars or support struts in the corners of the stern. Comments anyone? 05/05/2004
|
| The Biz Swan Dive Amid
anticipated layoffs of 10% of the staff, and displeasure with
management over the same, workers at Nautor staged a walkout last
Friday. 05/05/2004 |
| Legal Copyright This Signaling that it is apparently okay to steal, a US District Court Judge recently ruled that Nautical Solutions Marketing of St. Petersburg, Florida, did not infringe on copyrights held by boats.com, even though Nautical Solutions used boat listings from boats.com's web site YachtWorld.com. It is thought that Nautical Solutions uses a software program to glean yacht sale information from other websites. Last
time we checked, someone cannot simply take one's copyright-protected
material without permission or at least an implied agreement to
do so, can they? It certainly doesn't sound like boats.com agreed
to such a thing and it brings into question public domain, who
owns the listing information, and if one has the right to use
someone else's material. The April 1, 2004 decision was following a jury trial where the jury did find for boats.com on the intentional interference with business relations. The jury found in favor of yachtbroker.com on the defamation count and also awarded punitive damages in relation to that count. The amount of the jury award for boats.com on the intentional interference claim was equal to the awards on the defamation count together with the punitive damages. The yachtbroker.com’s internet spider “boat rover” momentarily copied the html code of boat.com pages to extract the facts about the listings, including the thumbnail photos of the listed boat. Facts are not protected under the copyright law. Boats.com claimed a copyright in the headings used in the yacht listings on Yachtworld.com (e.g., "galley," "accommodations," etc.) but the headings were not protected either because the headings merge with the idea of listing a yacht for sale. The court found that the same headings are commonly used in the industry to describe the elements of the yachts. On the “look and feel” claim that the two websites look and feel similar the court found that the similarities between the two webpages do not arise from protected expression. “Rather, they arise from the parties' use of a common format to address topics common to the [similar subject of the two webpages]." The “look and feel" of a typical yacht listing on yachtworld.com differ markedly from that of a typical listing on yachtbroker.com, the court said. Format
of the listings was different and therefore not protected either.
Although the “valet service” of yachtbroker.com used
the pictures pulled from boats.com, the pictures that were then
displayed on yachtbroker.com, the copyright in the pictures belonged
to the individual yacht brokers and not to the website. Obviously,
the yacht brokers did not mind the extra exposure that yachtbroker.com
provided. 05/05/2004 |
| Tri Bien
05/04/2004 |
| A Star is Crowned
05/03/2004 |
