7Up

We admit to being suckers for big fast boats and Alfa Romeo is certainly that. Here they fly a kite with their new sponsor for the Sydney to Hobart race, Channel Seven. They've got be odds on favorites to get to Hobart first, yes?

11/30/05

Unhappy Ending?

In what is becoming a very bad day at the design office, yet another Farr boat has pulled up lame in the VOR, this time Ericsson had an apparent failure with their keel canting system. A loud "bang" was heard, the boat was stopped and the keel was seen flopping from side to side. They were able to lock it down and Ericsson is now sailing towards Cape Town under reduced sail. What a major bummer for all concerned.

11/30/05

Step Right Up

So you say you've just got to own a piece of history, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof? Then we suggest you bring your (large) checkbook to the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge, London on Wednesday 14th December 2005 as the Schooner America will be sold at a public auction. We can't quite imagine what the minimum reserve might be, perhaps $2 million?, but for sure this would be an incredible event to be a part of. If any of you Anarchists are going to be there, please give us a report!

11/30/05

Free IRC

Beneteau doesn't bother having us on their mailing list, but we see they are now apparently in the business of promoting IRC, as they "will offer new Beneteau First series owners, for boats delivered through Beneteau USA dealers during the 2006 season (January 1, 2006-August 31, 2006), a voucher that will entitle them to get an IRC rating certificate at no charge for standardized measurements (vouchers will be paid for by Beneteau USA)."

Probably not a bad marketing idea. Maybe next time they'll even think about telling us.

11/30/05

WaterWorld

So how cool is this underwater photo of a Farr 40 taken during the Savills Regatta in Sydney courtesy of Christophe Launay? Very, we say.

11/29/05

We Have a Winner!

We now have a title sponsor to our new Dinghy Anarchy forum, which should be up next week. Here is the brand new boat that our sponsor is getting ready to launch. Looks very cool and the forum will be too! Thanks to all of you who have expressed interest in the new forum. Stay tuned.

Photo courtesy Abner Kingman

11/29/05

Form and Function

Here's the Anderson-Mitterling & Hughes Team USA 1734 looking good at the St. Francis YC Fall Dinghy Regatta. We want to to pay a bit more attention to the world of dinghys and as such we'd like to find a title sponsor for our new Dinghy Anarchy forum which we'd like to start very soon. Anybody interested should get in touch with The Ed. (You may certainly get in touch with the Ed for any advertising concern, but the Dinghy Anarchy forum is now spoken for! 11/29/05)

11/28/05

VOR

Small Fleet, Big Numbers

Sure, there are only four boats racing in this leg of the VOR, and yes, this event, for a number of reasons, has seemingly lost its cachet, but that does not detract from a remarkable 538 mile 24 hour run put forth by ABN Amro One. Amro two didn't do too bad with 533 in the same time period. It looks good so fat for those Juan K boats, but as everybody knows, there is a hell of a long way to go.

11/28/05

Number One. With a Bullet?

It looks good to us. This is the first Stomp 38 getting ready to get wet. With a few on order, and at least one being purchased by one of you Anarchists, we expect a full report very soon.

11/28/05

TJV

Reward
We received this report frpm Merfyn Owen onboard Artforms in the Transat Jacques Vabre on Friday.

We've got here in in the deuxieme slot (2nd). Seems like a big thing to me. What a battle, third was only on hour and six minutes behind and we both managed to beat the old race record in to the bargain. We had, as foretold a 'DING DONG' battle down the Brazilian coast and they pushed us to the limit all the way. Fantastic racing.

Hope those SA guys who were interested enjoyed the tussle we've had over the last few days. Kip and I are both very glad it's over. Thanks for the web space. I've enjoyed writing the pieces.

Cheers all,

Merf
www.ksopen50.com

Read Merf's Race Reports

Insane

Funny how conditions that look unimaginable to some seem like nothing more than child's play to others. Check out this short windsurfing video.

11/28/05

Crackers

Here's thenew 25' Rob Shaw designed sportboat we featured last week - here on it's first sail. Looks fast and fun!

11/24/05

Boo Hoo

What's a $122 million? Probably not that much to Larry Ellison, but having to pay $122 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit charging him (and former CFO Jeff Henley) with selling $900 million worth of shares before reporting an earnings shortfall to investors, likely isn't putting him in the Holiday Spirit, now is it?

How dare those pesky SEC rules and regulations can get in the way of a lousy $900 million stock transactions!

11/24/05

The Old Man and the C

A local legend in Long Beach, CA, Barney Flam holds hope for the rest of us as he recently won the Cal 20 Class at the Turkey Day Regatta at ABYC. More than just that, Flam is thought to be 80 years old! As we understand it, he sailed in the very first Turkey Day regatta at ABYC over 50 years ago and placed second. We believe that this was his 50th Turkey Day Regatta! Pictured here is another local veteran, Ken Hodges sailing his 20, Lorylee.

This shot is courtesy of GTS Photos, our newest advertisers here at SA, and have a brand new 2006 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association Calendar for sale that you small boat junkies may be interested in - Holiday shopping right here at SA!

11/23/05

New Gear
Responsive

Yesterday, I asked if any of you had experience with the furling spinnaker as seen on the new J/124 that we previewed. We received a number of responses, and here is a good one.

You asked if anyone has used a roller furling spinnaker, well I have had the chance to test one on a J/100 this past spring. John Kolius is our local J boat dealer and asked me if I wanted to sail a new J/100 in the J-boat Rodeo on Galveston Bay. Not only did we get to race the new 100, we got to try a furling spinnaker by RollGen. Of course, being the a typical male, I rigged the RollGen up without looking at the directions and have a few problems. I was not impressed at first. Of course one of my crew, Gray Rackley, pulled out the instructions and we got it rigged correctly.

After reading them, it was very simple to hook up and it was smooth sailing the rest of the day. Interestingly enough, the luff of the sail does not attach to the furling unit. The sail is fixed at the head of the unit and furls from the top down. But once we got use to using it, it was very convenient and would be perfect to use on the 100 or even 124. - Ryan Glaze.

11/23/05

Gray Day

An I-14 stepping through the murk at the Turkey Bowl in Seattle. This piece of art courtesy of Sean Trew.

11/22/05

New

Same As It Ever Was

Pick the cliché: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Don't mess with success. An apple never falls far from the tree. As solid as the ground we stand on. They likely all apply to this, the latest offering from J/Boats, the 124. It looks, uh, very familiar. Too familiar to us, but what the hell do we know? Clearly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The boat did have one trick thing - a close look shows the spinnaker roller furling. Anybody have experience with these?

11/22/05

Bargain?

The TP 52 Yassou is on its way to Seattle. John Buchan has gotten back in the game with the purchase of the Nelson-designed 52. Always good around the cans, but a couple of generations old now, the boat will no doubt be the boat to beat in Seatlle. A bargain too at a reported $370k..

11/22/05

B Creative

A look for y'all at the new 2,700 pound Backman 29, featuring a canting keel with adjustable wings - all hydraulically controlled. Nice to see the envelope getting pushed.

11/21/05

Purple Reign

A new and very hot looking new 25' Rob Shaw designed sporty getting close to getting wet. We like-ee!

11/18/05

Fun and Funner

The question is, which one is more fun. Like to hear from you guys who have done both. Kite boarding, or Dinghy racing? This shot is from the North/South Collegiate Intersectional Regatta held on Lake Isabella. It is the West Coast Fall Championship and it is courtesy of our friends at GTSPhotos.

11/17/05

Movin'
Geronimo is hauling ass to Hawaii. Click on the image to see what four days in a 112' trimaran gets you on your way across the pond. Muy impressivo.

11/17/05

Reader Rant

VOR Snore
I can’t say that I follow the VOR that closely, due to the way it has developed, but from what I see it is a Volvo Ocean Flop so far. They only attracted seven teams. The teams do not seem ready to race yet. In the most important days they had some of the top management draining energy out of VOR by making their highly personal catamaran dream a part of VOR. Eventually none of the two projects meets the expectations or seem to be good enough. I’m sure there will be a lot of attention for VOR regardless and maybe Volvo and some teams will find the whole thing acceptable. The intentions with the VO 70 and the race are great! If there will be a next time around I wish the main sponsor better luck with strategies and management. As far as the catamarans – send them to some Swiss lake along with the management!

Håkan Lindström

11/17/05

The View

The view sometimes doesn't tell the full story. This one gives a better view of the new Wild Oats getting closer to becoming a major force on the maxi taxi scene. Thanks as always to Andrea Francolini for the great shots.

11/17/05

Over Easy

The ORMA 60 trimaran TIM Progetto Italia racing in the Transat Jacques Vabres, capsized yesterday. 450 miles west of Freetown. The sailors, Giovanni Soldini and Vittorio Malingri, were rescued by a tanker heading to Mexico. The tri is apparently beyond salvage as the starboard float was smashed by the mast, which broke into 3 pieces and was heavily damaged.

11/16/05

Better Ask Someone

We've expanded our Ask the Sailmaker feature to include designers, builders, riggers and forecasters. Dawg created a slick new page for this, and if you want to take advantage of our wide array of contacts (okay, we know like three guys) to get some info, technical and otherwise, click here and be a part of the community.

For future reference, the Ask Someone button is and will be located in the left column of the front page.

11/16/05

Un-Spanked

The much-maligned Donovan designed TP 52 Trader finally had a good result last summer, finishing a very respectable third in class and third overall. Or so they thought.

They were penalized on-hour for missing a roll call, dropping them to fourth, a tough penalty for such an infraction in our minds. We're happy to say that Trader, whose protest in Hawaii was denied, recently won on appeal, getting their 3/3 back, and giving them the happy ending they quite likely deserved.

11/16/05

Ship Wrecked?

We know one of these boats is likely wrecked, the question is which one? Thanks to The Sydney Morning Herald for the cool snap.

11/15/05

Blast Off!

ABN Amro One looking very powerful and very wet after the start of the VOR. Our only question after getting the first face full of water would be, "How many miles did you say this race was, again??" But it would get much waorse than that minor discomfort for most of the boats. ABN One later suffered damage resulting from crew members getting swept into one of the wheels, breaking it and leaving them in repair mode.

The conditions have gotten very rough, forcing Movistar drop out, heading to Cadiz with a broken main bulkhead, and a broken hydraulic ram on the canting keel system. The Black Pearl has suffered some keel area damage, which has resulted in water coming into the boat, and they are heading to the south of Portugal to assess the damage and begin repairs. The very shaky Sunergy and Friends is having a ton of trouble (rudder, rigging) and may too pull upWow.
Great shot from Thierry Martinez.

11/14/05

VOR

Not Our Boys...

Here is the report from from the Movistar team, and below this fine Skipper Bouwe Bekking's on board report:

After a promising start, and when the Volvo Open 70 was sailing at full potential in a heavy downpour and in close competition with the Dutch boat, ABN-AMRO One, nearly 60 miles ahead of the rest of the fleet after a mere 12 hours of the competition, the boat leaped over a wave and slammed back down into the sea, causing structural damage to boat. The damage affected the work load of the pivoting keel’s hydraulic system. For reasons of safety, the team is forced to set course for Cadiz (Spain) in an attempt to repair the damage.

The decision was taken after passing the latitude of Lisbon (Portugal) at 10:00 a.m. (Spanish time), when the Spanish boat was 300 miles from the port of Cadiz. The entire shore team has set off from their base in Sanxenxo for Cadiz.

11/14/05

"Say, would you mean peeling that off now? We've changed our minds."

So no sooner do we hear that the Sunergy company came to the financial rescue of the VOR 70 Premier Challenge, then we hear Brunel, former partners with Sunergy (Brunel Sunergy 1997), decided to also come aboard. Then, no sooner had the decals been attached, Brunel suddenly changed their mind and backed out of the deal! A poor showing to be sure, and unfortunately indicative of what a poorly executed effort this VOR program has been. Their on the water performance so far also speaks volumes. Too bad, really.

11/14/05

G Ride
The big tri Geronimo left Los Angeles today for their record run to Hawaii. With any wind at all they will obliterate it. Follow along here.

Photo by John K. Fuller.

11/14/05

Your Name Here

The first promising, then doomed VOR Premier Challenge looking in need of a sponsor. See story below to find out if it happened.

11/11/05

TJV Update

Brutal

The 60-ft trimaran Groupama-2, very likely the pre-race favorite, was reported capsized last night while sailing downwind in breezes right around 30 knots. The helmsman at the time, Franck Proffit was thought to have broken his ribs in the incident. A helicopter has been sent to pick up Proffit from the boat and the other sailor on board, Franck Cammas, is staying on board. This is the 5th retirement in the Multihull ORMA class, which leaves just 5 boats left, lead by Banque Populaire. Also, Poujoulat (Stamm/Elies) have announced their official retirement from the race.

VOR

What's in a Name?

Apparently everything as far as the Premier Challenge is concerned. Lacking the serious funding needed to make the race, it looks like they may have been rescued, at least partially, by Sunergy, a solar-cell technology company that has steped up with funding and renaming the boat Sunergy and Friends.

Is that "friends" as in "Hey, you'd better get some more "friends" with some more money?" Regardless, it all looks fairly promising now for this decided dark horse.

11/11/05

Next Week

How to get your Mumm 30 ready for the Hobart(!); Yacht Design 101; our new Website of the Weak feature; a look at AC electronics technology; and an exciting new partnership here at SA; VOR and TJV updates and yes, oh yes, even more.

11/11/05

Darth

Something wicked comes this way......very soon.

11/10/05

ORC 42

A move is in place to establish an international Grand Prix 42 class (think TP 52), and here in the states there are some East Coasters getting it in play. Click here to see who, what and why. The ORC 42 drawing is courtesy of Naval Architect Alessandro Paganini.

11/10/05

Smack

Where is this sort of talk from the equivalents in sailing? (Thanks to F1 Racing for the quote):

The Brazilian oil company Petrobras (currently a Williams F1 sponsor) are also rumored to be defecting to B.A.R. for 2006. Williams marketing boss Jim Wright said: "B.A.R. are trying to poach them. Petrobras have been with us since 1998, they've got a firm contract for next year and they're very happy. You can tell B.A.R. to fuck off..."

11/10/05

Blue

The boys wait it out on Orange. The were later rescued. Stunning imagery from Gilles Martin-Raget.

11/09/05

Better Days

The Transat Jacques Vabres fleet has taken an absolute pounding with three of the big Orma trimarans all suffering catastrophic failure (see the Code Red story below). Here Sodebo looked much better after the start than after their port hull broke off and the mast fell down. All sailors are safe. Look in the archives for full reports
Photo courtesy of Yvan Zedda.

11/09/05

Sail-ING?

Well the VOR Premier Challenge may have missed the first inshore race, but it looks like they will at least make the legs to Melbourne. Here's our man on the scene with the latest:

It definitively looks like they are a go. a New keel fin has been attached to the bulb. They chainsawed out a large chunk of lead under the plastic, I assume to measure. Wharro seems positive and the word is a rich European bloke is funding. All name/Aussie writing gone from boat, only ING left. Also some furious work being done to get ready for Saturday with most other teams are kicking in some help as well..

11/09/05

Not so Extreme

Sure the cats are cool, (and cool for cats), but perhaps not always quite so Extreme. Here's a short report from Anarchist Waybarger:

The Volvo Extreme 40 racing was canceled today. Ironically the fleet was initially held ashore as it was too breezy. About 3 PM they went afloat but the wind soon disappeared, so they drifted about for a couple of hours before being sent it....

11/09/05

Mumm's the Word

A couple of minutes of a few Mumm 30's hauling ass. There is no doubt how quick these dudes are. Sorry for the crappy metal soundtrack - just turn it down!

11/09/05

Before it Snows...

It's not always about the latest race rocket, sometimes its just all about going sailing on a friendly old steed (a 1953 Hinckley pictured here) , enjoying friends, the vibe and the last sail of the season. Then of course you spend all winter thinking about how you are going to kick everybody's ass next year! Thanks to Anarchist Slowboat from Vermont for the pic and the scene.

11/08/05

Welcome to the Jungle

Hi guys - I was sitting at a bar in Kamala, Thailand, when suddenly I heard a big scream and a guy pointing at me yelled out loud, "The first time I've seen one alive!" Then he asked me to turn around, but all he wanted to see was my Sailing Anarchy T-shirt logo, the first live one seen in Thailand!

Chris

11/08/05

Fun. Right?

Yes, yes it is. It is the multihull start of the Transat Jacques Vabres and here is the 60' trimaran Sodebo getting wet. Fun, right?

Our thanks to Gilles Martin-Raget for the great shot! You may now post comments on this awesome event in our new TJV/VOR Forum. Enjoy.

11/07/05

Silly?

Silly, No. Ballsy, yes. Here the Open 60 sill blasts away from the start of the Transat Jacques Vabres. We'll be following this race closely with reports from Merfyn Owen (see blow) and the VOR (with reports from Movistar). Also, as an actual response to our readers (as opposed to the usual money grab) we've created a specific TJV/VOR Forum here at SA for y'all.

However, we would like to have a title sponsor for the new forum, so if your company is interested, get in touch with us. In the meantime, Enjoy.

11/05/05

VOR

That Kostecki Kid, He's Pretty Good

We see that the VO 70 Ericsson won the first inshore VOR race, squarely on the tactical shoulders of John Kostecki. No big surprise that he would school this fleet. We'll bet Ericsson wish they had him for the whole thing! Oh yeah, those Juan K'er designed ABN Ampro's brought up the rear end of the fleet quite nicely. Shocking.

11/05/05

How's That?

Might there be just a little load up there? Wild Oats hauling ass courtesy of Andrea Francolini.

11/04/05

Old School Anarchy

Yeah, I know we act like we invented Anarchy (but of course we know we didn't), and sometimes we forget that even back in the day there were hints of it in various areas. Anarchist Greg shares this page from a 1965 edition of One Design Yachtsman with us.

11/04/05

That '70's Show
As you know, the '70 sleds originated as a West Coast phenomenon, later partially morphed into turbo sleds, and then died, only to be resurrected in the Great Lakes as a very vibrant fleet. Much to the chagrin of many Left Coasters, btw. Might the tide turn once again? We hear that the SC 70 Holua is on its way back to Newport Beach and that at least one other former sled owner is looking to play again.

You bastards may have also taken our TP 52 idea as well, but damnit, we're bringing back these 20 year-old '70 IOR sleds, and we'll show you!

11/04/05

Don't Let the Door Hit You in the Ass

So we hear that resident Latitude 38 writer Rob Moore is leaving the mag after too many years. Rob turned in fairly pedestrian reports, and while there was not much to complain about his work, his love affair with a very few sailors bordered on ridiculous. That we dared to critique his boyfriends from time to time turned ol' Rob against us pretty quickly, and here is an e-mail that he sent out back in 2001:

Scot Tempesta is a bitter person who is burning a lot of bridges in San Diego with his personal attacks on people (Leweck, Isler, Conner and many others) and things (PHRF, etc.). It isn't journalism, and no one in the industry expects it to last much longer. Scot has an occasional decent 'innerview', but most of it sounds like the rantings of a deranged and mostly ignored wierdo screaming at people from the street corner, shaking his fist at the world. That's just my opinion, of course.
Cheers, R.

Well guess what Rob - we're still here! And yes, I've taken a few good whacks at some of your idols, hell I even did just that yesterday, but who would have thought that you'd be dragging your sorry ass off to obscurity, and I would be commanding the most visited sailing site in the world? I think that is either great irony or poetic justice, either of which works for me!

Cheers indeed mf'er,

Ed

11/04/05

Go Son!

Last weekend The Ed and family took the blokart out for sail down at The Strand in Coronado. As the breeze was dying, I took turns letting my boys sail by themselves with Daddy running along just behind, holding the mainsheet. Here my five year old Troy gets his swerve on! These karts are an incredible amount of fun, and are even better to ride in!

11/3/05

Artful

Needless to say, we said yes to this. Look for the reports shortly.

Hi Scot:

There are two 50's in class 2 in the upcoming Transat Jacques Vabres double handed race to Brazil. Artforms and Wells Fargo. I'm going to be racing on Artforms and as a designer - I guess that's pretty unique. We also have two 60's in the race, Ecover and Skandia.

I would be interested to write a 'log' from the boat before the start and every couple of days through the race with a personal view - you know the stuff - for your readers exclusively. Let me know if you're interested and I'll get on it.

Take care,

Merfyn Owen
Owen Clarke Design

11/03/05

We Rock

The SA community speaks again....

I was visiting Seattle from Singapore last week to attend a sales conference but had a chance Friday to go shopping for offshore safety gear. So on the outside chance I threw up this question in the SA forum: where is the best place to buy this stuff in Seattle?

In barely an hour or so I had replies from 5 or 6 people, confirmation of the best chandlery, trade discount at that chandlery and an invitation to go for a beer a the local yachtie dive bar that night. Amazing. I met three of these guys - after loading up on $3 grand of stuff - and consumed large quantities of a very refreshing drink called "squidge" which I have since got a bar in Singapore to replicate.

How cool is that! Huge thanks to Snapper, Crank Boy and Minimus (not his SA name) for helping me out and for the great US Northwest hospitality.

SA community delivers yet again!

Good times,
Tuf-Luf

11/03/05

Heaven and Hell

The angelic Ellen MacArthur and a very devilish anarchist. Might one suggest that this is a blessing and a curse? Thanks to Mstrsail for the pic!

11/03/05

AMF

And David said to the Goliaths, "Kiss my ass!" That's in the bible, right? This fun shot of an I-14 sailing away from a couple of SC 52's is courtesy of our pal Sean Trew.

11/02/05

Group Sex

Mystery boat

So one of you anarchists had a great idea for a boat partnership. He wants to get a bigger boat, but doesn't want to own it outright, or even half, so he thought it would be an interesting idea to see how many of us might be interested in buying ownership shares in a pretty nice big boat that has just come on the market. Sure every big boat has its share of problems, logistically and otherwise, but if enough of us collaborate, I believe we can make this thing happen. Good times!

11/02/05

SEX

They say sex sells. Will this? It is the new Brenta 30 sailing for the first time on Lake Garda.

11/1/05

Marketing 201

An advanced course in the more subtle aspects of marketing, Marketing 201 takes the student to a new understanding of the sophisticated approaches to researched and proven marketing techniques. Led by Professor Ed, this course promises to deliver on the finer aspects of marketing, advertising and naked women.

11/1/05

Talk Talk

Apparently the SA community has a way of finding itself. This from a loyal anarchist at a yacht club party in the Pacific Northwest:

SA was talked about all over the place on Saturday night at the party. It seemed like everyone was asking each other if they saw the article about the…or did you see what they said about....or how about that new 30.... or hey cool shirt, do you like how the Dryshirt works? It could have been an SA reunion at that thing! And yes there were some SA burgees to boot. SA Rocks!

11/1/05