October 2005
A Snoot
Full 10/31/05 |
Pay to Play We've long thought that quality websites should likely be subscription-based. Newspapers and magazines are and so should worthy websites. But the Internet community has largely resisted the idea, and with few exceptions, most sites like SA are free to you. However, without advertiser support we could not be free, and now there is another sailing site that wishes to go the subscriber route. Here is the e-mail they sent out. Whadda ya'll think? Hi, I’m writing to let you know that SAILjazz is moving to a subscription model. Now let’s talk about what we’re doing and what it means to you. We launched SAILjazz to bring sailors together and exchange knowledge. Our goal was to provide a series of resources that would benefit all of us. We know from the E-mail we receive that everyone wants a professionally run community with standards to prohibit flamers and obnoxious posters. No one wants a constant barrage of advertising. Editorial freedom to call it like it is when products or services don’t live up to expectations is important. People also want original content with depth, responsive service when they need it, etc. While the site is still relatively new, it’s fair to say that we’re on course to achieving all that and more. We have a variety of new ideas in the queue and look forward to a steady stream of enhancements in the months to come. We’re certain it won’t surprise you that there’s no free lunch here. We’ve previously tried supporting a comprehensive sailing community with retail sales, voluntary donations and our own money. The reality is that a stable, professionally run community needs a steady flow of revenue. To that end, we’re switching to a yearly subscription fee of $36.50 for access to the site. Now, before you utter a seaman’s curse that would make a mermaid flee, realize that this boils down to exactly $0.10 per day! That one thin dime each day gives you access to a powerful body of sailing knowledge. There are the E-mail lists, original content from the likes of Don Casey, John Kretschmer, Sue and Larry, Mark Matthews, new emerging voices in the sailing world as well as some excellent articles from your fellow members. You can also use the on-line resources to read the retail experiences of other sailors. In short, that access delivers far more than $0.10 in value each and every day of the year! Some Details: 1. We are officially flipping the switch on Monday October 31st at 12:01am. Every registered member gets until November 8th (10 days) to think about this and make their own choice. During the transition period, each registered member will have free and full access to the SAILjazz site. IMPORTANT! In order to get free access during our transition period you must be registered. http://www.sailjazz.com/register 2. Anyone who made a SAILjazz donation will have their $$ contribution prorated toward their subscription. Example: $10 buys you 100 days, $30 buys you 300 days and $100 buys you 1000 days. 3. For those of you eager to be among the first members at SAILjazz you’ll be able to sign up Monday October 31st. Don’t worry… you will still be entitled to free membership until November 8th and we won’t run your credit card until then. If you’re hesitating then we ask you to find anything sailing-related as useful and engaging for $0.10 a day. We hope you’re familiar enough with the site to know the full spectrum of resources SAILjazz.com offers and the value this represents. Perhaps you’ll think of the friendships you’ve made on one of the lists, the information in an article or resource that saved you from a wasted afternoon or unnecessary purchase. Yes, it’s a departure from past online models. But this is where the wind meets the sail, and the hull meets the water, so to speak. It’s time for all of us to face the fact that a quality community is going to cost and we are committed to bringing you the best! We look forward to your continued membership. 10/31/05 |
Trick
or Treat Here´s some pictures from Stockholm of a 1986 Omega 36. Incredible what you can do with an older boat, in terms of enhancing the performance. We removed the backstay, made a Carbon GPL fathead main (50 sqm instead of std 39), a furling selftacker with one vertical batten, also in GPL (29 sqm instead of std 25). She handles like a beauty, is a lot faster, perfectly balanced and a lot more fun to sail with her new dress. Before the initial testing, we thought that we would have to mount a jumper and a pair of backstays. The jumpers will definitely be a no-go, the sturdy Isomat-mast cope very well with the roach, and backstays may be nice to have when offshore-racing, but for inshore/archipelago tours there is no need. Enjoy! Kent Wretman 10/31/05 |
| I Fought the Law...
Last week we told you of a reported fight between Chris Law
and Gavin Brady which allegedly happened after the two of them
played bumper cars with some rich guys' million dollar Swan
45's. Chris Law has sent me a couple of e-mail's saying there
was no fight, but I've also asked him a couple of times to then
write something for us that explains what did happen, but so
far he has not responded to the requests. Jeez, you'd think
that if indeed nothing happened, one would happily tell the
tale. But because we're fair blokes, for now we'll assume that
there indeed was no fight, and we'll wait for Law to indeed
tell us what then did happen. We're waiting..... 10/31/05 |
Things
to Come... 10/28/05 |
Big Deal
It will be fun to hear the bitching from the status quo about that evil Sailing Anarchy sullying the good name of the J/24 class. Good Times! 10/28/05 |
Well
it is to us at least, and I'm sure it will set the tongues to
wagging. Sailing Anarchy will be the title sponsor of the upcoming
Tangerine
Dream 10/27/05 |
Go
Fast. Now. We
will be featuring a Farr
Yacht Sales boat of the month here at SA, and this month's
offering is a good one - the Farr 43' Flash Gordon 2. Cookson
built, beautifully maintained and updated in 2005, this is a good
boat. I raced against the 40' High Five, an earlier generation
boat, and it was a very quick boat - the 43' has to be at least
as good. For more info on the boat, click
here and good luck.10/27/05 |
| "Mmm......Beer" -Homer Simpson  We can see the new ad campaign now: Tastes great, hauls ass! Courtesy Photo Sails. 10/26/05 |
We
Got Your Back The
latest in our line of exclusive Sailing Anarchy gear. This limited
edition shirt is dark gray, long sleeve and full of 'tude. Finally,
a shirt to match your dark, brooding mood.Get one. 10/26/05 |
First
Blood Conventional, nothing earth-shattering and pretty clean, the brand new X-35 looks pretty nice to us here on its first sail. Oh wait, there is something earth-shattering: they have over 100 orders! Word. 10/25/05 |
| So
Over Speaking of PHRF, we apparently are not the only ones who think that PHRF blows. The very first editorial that we ran here something like 4 years ago was titled PHRF Sucks, and we've consistently maintained that position since. Sure there are some good people in PHRF, but PHRF boards are largely populated by small minded, self-serving hacks who wouldn't know how to win a race without a gift rating if their life depended on it. It looks like the once vibrant PHRF San Diego fleet has finally had its share of the bullshit. Get a load of this great turnout out for Area G PHRF Championships. Gotta be something better, boys. 10/25/05 |
Flying
a Kite No matter what, these OutLeader kites still take some getting used to! Here the TP 52 Flash gets some distance in Frisco. 10/24/05 |
Malo
Mali That
would be malo as in bad, but as you know bad can also mean good,
and here we mean good, as in it is great to see the Mali
33 has finally become a reality! This project has been a while
in build and now it here. Looking sharp in red, we'll hopefully
have some more news on this nice looking rig soon.10/24/05 |
| 33
Rebut Last week we told you (from a PHRF board member's words) about the suspension of a modified Hobie 33 here in SoCal. Tomorrow, we hope to present the 33's sailors perspective. It is pretty interesting. 10/24/05 |
Oh
Yeah! 10/21/05 |
VOReport In Search of $$$ We told you last week that the VOR Premier Challenge was in money trouble and still are, but we are lead to believe that Warro just got another million out of ING but is in search of another. The latest is that he needs $2 mil to get the boat to Melbourne which ING are very keen to see happen. As far as the boat getting into full Volvo trim in two weeks with no container, workshop, or tools up there, we think they are pissing in the wind. However, good luck boyz. 10/21/05 |
Sequence 10/21/05 |
| 33 NA's
10/21/05 |
33 DQ'd Speaking of Hobie 33's here's a story directly from a PHRF meeting about a modified 33 Magic Light here in SoCal that due to various mods and apparent rules violations, has gotten the principals in just a bit of trouble. When you win everything people tend to look closely at what you're doing. Bad Times. "Both K and the owner came to the meeting. They both played the innocent babes in woods game. Their first ploy was that they had sent their San Diego certificate to Long Beach when they got their SoCal Certificate. The San Diego cert had some notes on it about the backstay and hull mods on it which did not get transcribed to the LB cert. It was pointed out that since they had signed the new cert, they were certifying its accuracy. The response was: "Oh there are always so many typos on the certificates that we tend to ignore a lot of the inaccuracies." But that didn't include the fathead main with large girth, which they had made just shortly before King Harbor, and "they didn't notice that it was slightly oversized". (At this point most of the eyes in the room were rolling skyward). Nor the dual backstays ("well, we forgot those, and they don't affect boat speed"), or the carbon boom ("because of the dismasting in SF, we had to have a new boom, but we didn't have time to report it"). One item you missed and it isn't obvious - PHRF requires evenly spaced battens - K jumped on this one with both feet. He wanted to lecture long and hard about all the other boats in PH which have unevenly spaced battens. Basically, at this point, the discussion was cut off and asked them to step out. It took about five microseconds for a motion to suspend them from PHRF and require that they reapply for a rating with all the proper measurements, etc., if they wanted a PHRF certificate. The only discussion was on the length of the suspension, and that was whether six month or three months was appropriate. There have been very few suspensions of persons in PHRF, and I think only one six month (the longest I'm aware of) for re-enabling water ballast after applying for a certificate which excluded water ballast. They finally agreed on 3 months. I'm okay with this; it's symbolic in any case." Comments? 10/21/05 |
| UKite 10/20/05 |
Market
Driven Speaking
of Chinese, some teams really take advantage of their regional
products, service and reputation. Here, we are glad to give you
an up-close look at how Team China is taking full advantage of
this marketing opportunity. Click on the picture to see the wonders
of marketing.10/20/05 |
Quick Look The interesting little Backman 21 zooming along here at a reported 14 knots of boatspeed. Short, sweet. 10/20/05 |
Not
North 10/19/2005 |
| All's
Well... 10/19/05 |
Envelope.
Pushed. 10/18/05 |
Coming to Cali
The big rig will be making a stop here in San Diego first, and
you can bet your Editor will do what he can to get onboard for
a spin. 10/18/05 |
The
very big trimaran
Find
The Maxi
Thanks to Alessandro Paganini for the shot. 10/18/05 |
B
as in Bitchin' 10/17/05 |
Pretty
In Pink 10/14/05 |
Damage
10/14/05 |
According
to Boat US, there was approximately $700 million in damage to
recreational boaters, and that only about half of that was covered
by insurance - ouch. We can take some solace in the fact that
at least some of those were power boats.
Nice Ass! We think you get the picture. This good shot from Andrea Francolini at the BMW Winter Series, Sydney Australia. 10/13/05 |
Going
Back To Cali  We
hear that the TP 52 Atalanti maybe coming to the West Coast with
a new owner. The deal is in the works as we speak and we think
the boat would do Key West and the 52 worlds then come to the
West Coast to beat up on the homeboys. Nice to see an actual addition
to the TP 52 fleet here in Cali as compared to the numerous subtractions
over the last couple of years.10/13/05 |
| Aloha We're real sorry to read about the loss of windsurfer and all-around water lover Monica Weyant while windsurfing in Hawaii. Our best thoughts go out to husband Dan (Great Red Shark) for his loss. We're very sorry. 10/13/05 |
The Match
Game Looks pretty sharp! Hope you can read Danish. 10/12/05 |
| Gigantic
Oh, and just one more detail: according to the latest VPP-implemented
routing simulations, Groupama 3 could sail around the planet
in roughly 47 days… The biggest gain, if one wishes to
compare with Orange II's performances, will be made in the 8
to 15 knots windspeed range. Typically, the trimaran should
be faster in transition phases - up and down the Atlantic, to
be more specific. Pictures by Y.Zedda/Groupama 10/12/05 |
| VO
Over It is has been confirmed that The Premier Challenge VOR syndicate is on shaky financial ground and is very unlikely to complete the upcoming VOR. According to them, "The boat is on a ship and we will be there for the start, with a view to doing leg one. Trying to get as far as Melbourne but not easy – with a race like this it’s expensive to do anything (and Leg 1 and 2 Southern Ocean – very dangerous legs so care must be taken not to compromise safety etc.) and we haven’t spent any money on boat/ sails for some time now. We let crew go in early September, and expect to get hosed by teams with much better budgets (all the others!), all of this is really hard." There was talk about a 1 million dollar loan to keep them going, but we understand that has not and will not happen. A bummer and a blow to the VOR for sure. 10/12/05 |
Colt 45? Naw, try the Coutts 44. The new RC 44 looks, uh, different. It also looks uncomfortable as hell. It better be fast. Thanks to Max Ranchi. for the nice shot. 10/11/05 |
Cluster....
 No, it's just a shot of racing at Barcolana, organized every year by Barcola Grignano Yacht Club in Trieste Itsone of the larger regattas in the world - yesterday there were more than 1700 yachts on the starting line, across the entire Gulf of Trieste, with typical North-east wind (called: BORA) up to 35kt! Photo courtesy of Max Ranchi. 10/10/05 |
Love/Hate This
sport is often a mixture of the two. My first race in about a
year was exactly that. I was asked to help sail the J/125 Lucky
Dog for the new owner, Bob Shanner in the 62-mile San Diego to
Ensenada race. Like most of the So Cal "distance" races,
this one was a moderate air race, with a maddeningly light air
10 miles to the finish. The 125 is very quick reaching and considering
that we sat in a hole near the finish while a bunch of the fleet
came from way back to catch right up, we felt pretty good with
a fourth in class. Not bad, and I'll likely sail the Dog in the
upcoming Hot Rum Series. Photo Courtesy of Da-Woody10/10/05 |
"Uh,
Guys?" "Didn't the Kiwis nearly sink looking very much like this during the last Cup?" Photo courtesy of Max Ranchi. 10/07/05 |
Little
Boats, Big Hearts From the IFDS Single Person Dinghy World Championships& Sabaudia's Cup, a regatta for sailors with profound disabilities to sail solo, competing against each other in the World Championship, while at the same time sailing in the Sabaudia Cup, against more able-bodied sailors. Hard not to like that. 10/07/05 |
Back
In The Saddle Shockingly,
your Editor is about to make his reemergence in the world of yacht
racing! I am going to help the J/125 Lucky Dog go fast on the
San
Diego to Ensenada race starting Friday. The thing should be
quick, though none of us have sailed on it before. I'll give you
the dope on Monday. 10/07/05 |
Numbers
Indeed Yesterday
we were marveling over the fact that Swan has sold 20 something
NYYC 42's. Quite good of course, but nothing like the 80 new X-35's
sold, also before the first boat has seen the light of day. Impressive.10/07/05 |
Wicked Here's another look at the Wicked skiff from below. We'll have the full skinny next week. 10/07/05 |
| Wow The
response to our InnerView request from you all has been overwhelming!
I am still sorting through all the e-mail's and suggestions.
Good people, good ideas and I really appreciate the responses.
It is little wonder why our community rocks the house. Great
job people. |
Wow,
Again We
are hearing from the Swan people that there are something around
25 firm orders for their new NYYC 42! That is an impressive number,
especially given that these are not inexpensive boats. Give the people what they want, and they will come, but here's the question: what do you think is the void that these boats are filling? And at expense of which brands/boats? 10/06/05 |
Odd Job The Sail Rocket folks are gearing up for another run, this one at Weymouth Speed Week. They will have a new wing mast that should make this duck really quack. 10/05/05 |
| InnerViews We're going to be cranking out InnerViews on a regular basis again, but do not want to bore you to death with perfectible interviewees. Here's where you come in - if you have someone who you think would make an interesting subject who is not on everybody's radar, send the idea in to The Ed. Should make for some good content, again that not found elsewhere. 10/05/05 |
| Back
In The Day We've gotten a lot of entries to our Back In The Day feature, but here is one that The Ed used to sail! A Garrett-built Farr 40 named Freefall from the IOR days. We made some amazing Airframe sails (anybody remember those?) for the thing and kicked some ass in SD with it way back when. Good Times.  The
mid 1980's saw the hey day of the IOR One Ton Grand Prix Rule.
Many old One Tons are still racing hard to this day under PHRF,
Americap and IRC. Launched as Freefall 2 in 1984, the Bruce Farr
design One Ton currently known as Obsession is still racing on
the Great Lakes. Obsession has stacked up an impressive list of
literally hundreds of trophy finishes since her current owners
brought her to Lake Michigan in 1989. As a Section 4 boat in the
2005 Chicago to Mackinac race, Obsession finished 10th in fleet
crushing all the Santa Cruz 70's, turbos, and hot Section One
boats on corrected time under the Americap rule - a rule known
to be very unfavorable to old IOR designs. The real beauty of
old One Ton rig is the infinite control of sail shape. No other
rig design allows for such minute adjustments. And, in my humble
opinion, the sheer grace of One Ton lines makes for some of the
prettiest racing yachts ever built. Al MacDonald photo: Renee Zomaya 10/05/05
|
| Wicked  Soon to make an official splash here at SA? 10/04/05 |
| On Trial The widows and a surviving crew member are suing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia for damages occurred in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race. They claim the race fleet was not given warnings about the seriousness of the storm conditions and are also taking action against the skipper of the Winston Churchill, and the distributor of the liferafts used on the yacht, alleging that were not adequate for the conditions. The hearing continues in the New South Wales Supreme Court. 10/04/05 |
Well Heeled
The
big tri's at the Grand Prix Cape Lorient. Is there any doubt how
cutting edge these boats, builders, designers, and sailors are?
Photo courtesy of Yvan
Zedda.10/03/05 |
| Brokered
Deal |
There
are plenty of good brokerages, but only one carries the name
Farr with, and we are pleased to announce