Pin Made


The very powered up ID 35 Relentless nails the pin at the first Transpac start. Li'l hip Eric Shampain and owner Tim Fuller will be pushing the boat hard and will be a trip to follow. They are off to a nice start - can they hold everyone off? Thanks to John Fuller for the shot.

Point Made


We may be the red headed bastard step child of the yachting community but windsurfing, kooks in all, still gives you the most bang for your buck in terms of speed and excitement on the water. You certainly don't need to spend $15,000 on a foiling moth to get up to 30 knots. A 10 year old slalom board and 2 cam rig will get you going 20-30k with ease. A modern race board or speed needle will push 30-40k. Really put some effort into it and your seeing 45-50k! Oh yea- try looping a moth in the waves!

Respectfully submitted,

Steve Bodner
USA 4

Rock the Vote

Self congratulatory sports shows are nearly as annoying and worthless as self congratulatory 'Hollywood' shows like the Oscars. When an industry gathers to jerk themselves off, for all the world to see, we'd suggest ducking.

The ESPN Espy's is indeed one of those shows that you otherwise shouldn't care about, but they have at least one reason to care - 2008 Paralympic sailing gold medalist Maureen McKinnon-Tucker is one of the nominees in the Female Athlete with a Disability category. Given what she has accomplished, we'd suggest you make the effort to vote - it is a pain as you have to register, but do it - our community can make a difference.

Light Time


In the spirit of the photo of the Antrim 49 being finished for Transpac, (see Rapid Build) this is Ragtime's main bulkhead replacement project as of June 4th, with the old bulkhead out. The main bulkhead and aluminum ring frame, circa 1985, was discovered to be damaged just before Cal Cup in mid May. 

n a shameless plug for Dencho, we launched with the new bulkhead in place yesterday, as well as a new six foot long carbon mast step, a new chine to chine wood and carbon rib under the mast step, and a new ring frame four feet forward of the bulkhead on the line of the head. Alan Andrews did all the engineering on a rush basis, staying just ahead of Dencho's daily progress. Both the ring frame and the bulkhead have liberal amounts of carbon lay up, and the boat is stronger than ever before. 

We're looking forward to Transpac with Ragtime in the lightest, fastest, most powerful configuration she has ever hit the start line with. To plug the Dencho/Alan Andrews team a little more, Ragtime is over 3000 pounds lighter than four years ago with keel and rudder drag cut by 40%, similar righting moment, and 9% more sail area. Pray for wind.

community

Kid Stuff

In Early June, the ALPs Charter School (Alt. Learning Program) of Oshkosh, WI. culminated it's months'-long exploration of the world of ideas through the lens of sailing.  After examining art, architecture, social movements, co-housing, yellow bikes of Amsterdam, etc., the focus turned to the evolution of sail craft design, on to--cats, monos, tri's, hydrofoils, windsurfers, VOR, etc.

Students (in teams, 2-4), designed and built their own rigs ($10 cap/student, Home Depot Yacht Chandlery).  60 students, gr. 3-6, learned to sail on factory rigs (after swim-test, capsize drill), and then raced with their creations.  Some brilliant stuff, some failures, but 60 kids were added to the ranks in a single day--(more, I believe, than our local yacht club teaches in an entire season, and that w/ deep pockets).

Lucky Loser?

It was France’s day in Marstrand, with Sebastien Col, Damien Iehl, Mathieu Richard and Philippe Presti all ending the first day of the Swedish World Match Tour event with 2 wins and no losses. Also starting well was Torvar Mirsky, fresh from his victory at the Portugal Match Cup and current world Champion Ian Williams who had a 2-1 scorecard for the day.

Trailing among the no win brigade was Peter Gilmour who, up until today, has shone in the opening days of each round to date, only to fade into oblivion when the racing got really serious. Maybe this bad start will reverse the trend and Gilmour’s star will shine when it matters? Pic from Dan Ljungsvik and more here.

big pimpin'

Pointed

Longtime SA and OTW Anarchy supporter Point Loma Outfitting does a great job keeping their customers up-to-date on the latest deals and offers from the San Diego based sailing apparel shop.  Owner Tom Carruthers has embraced Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and of course, Sailing Anarchy rather than traditional print marketing - and it is working for him.

Tom has just launched a new toy for his customers to play with.  Called “Point Loma Points”, it is a reward system for online customers.

“While we love giving great one-on-one service to customers that want that personal touch, we realize that most people want their ordering quick and easy, and we've created a website and ordering process that does exactly that,” Tom said.   “The PL Points program rewards our great customers for sticking with Point Loma Outfitting when they order their high quality sailing gear.”

Customers earn one Point Loma Point for each dollar spent at www.pointlomaoutfitting.com, and points are available immediately to use toward the next purchase.  There are no membership fees, questionnaires, expiration dates, or restrictions on using Point Loma Points, and customers with existing Point Loma Outfitting online accounts will receive bonus Points if they haven't already.  “Every item available at Point Loma Outfitting is eligible to earn Point Loma Points,” said Carruthers.  “And you can use Points toward the purchase of anything we sell; from the heaviest-duty offshore SLAM parka to the lightest Patagonia underlayer, and everything in between.”

“We're not looking for marketing data from those who create accounts - just basic contact details,” said Carruthers. “Even so, those customers that prefer to check out without registering an account or earning Points will always be able to do so.”

Green, But Not Blue


The Rhodes 41 yawl Hotspur was the very last boat to finish the Marion to Bermuda Race. She took more than a week to cover the 645 miles and arrived so long after the rest that the officials had gone home and she had to take her own finishing time at St. David’s Lighthouse. How nice.

It was owner Ron Wisner’s first ocean race and he quipped “It was one hell of a first time. It wasn’t the reaching race as advertised. We had a beat most of the way and that is our worst point of sail on this old design. We even had to tack to cross the finish line.” Of the original forty eight entries, three did not start and eighteen – mostly much bigger boats with experienced ocean racers on board - retired in the face of confused seas and big winds early in the race.

With winds reaching from thirty knots into the mid forties, Hotspur faced the worst 24 hours with just a storm jib up and a storm trysail and storm jib for 12 more hours and, for its efforts, was awarded a Cook’s Trophy, which in this event is given to the last arrival in each class. In this case, it was an appropriate award for Hotspur’s cook, another first timer Rick Higgins, served up fried eggs and hot sweet rolls every morning and dinners included such delicacies as smoked salmon. Well done lads, it’s the sort of gutsy story we like to hear about. Pic of Hotspur by David Skinner and more here.

road trip

Garda At The Gates

Another Northern Summer means another Road Trip for the Cleans.  Not to confuse anyone - I mean, we're pretty much always on the road - but the next 8 weeks mean almost nonstop racing action for Mer and me, and as always, we'll do our best to take you along for the ride.

Italian Stallions
Our first stop is the beautiful Lake Garda - the small boat sailing Mecca that is the site for hundreds of regattas crammed into a few short months of sailing season.  We're principally headed over for the final event in the well-run Volvo Cup, a 5-event series for European Melges 24 racers that's seen some incredible racing from the world's top M24 teams.  We're anxious to see just how the European M24 folks continue to attract silly numbers (70 expected in Garda) during the current economic slowdown, and hope to pass along that info to the Anarchists; maybe there's something that we can all learn from these guys.  With promotional videos like this awesome reel and strong support from Volvo, it's not a surprise that they pull more entries to these non-title events than the US fleet gets at its National Championships. 

race report

A First

Jim Richardson didn’t just take his third Farr 40 title this weekend, in Porto Cervo, his Barking Mad became the first American boat to win outside home waters. It was close going into the final day, with testing racing conditions, due to a building Mistral wind kicking up a lumpy sea, made lumpier by a big spectator fleet. Two races were sailed in winds in northwesterlies that gusted to the mid-twenties and tested tired crews. Tough Joe Fly had a chance, it was the battle between Nerone and Barking Mad that all eyes were on and it was Massimo Mezzaroma's boat that went out guns blazing and took the first race of the day, making it a “winner takes all” second and final race.

According to Richardson “Immediately before the start, we just looked at each other and said this is why we're here. We're here for an opportunity to win the regatta on the last race.” Any self-doubts were kept private, though post-race Richardson confessed to some troubled thoughts, “I never doubted my team's capability, but leading wire-to-wire puts a little bit of extra pressure on each and every race. In 1999, we led going into the last race and ended up third, so that was in the back of my mind. I felt pretty comfortable that we were going to be able to get a good start in the race and get around the course in good shape. We knew we had our hands full; we knew we had to sail well and that is what we did.”

As the initial beat unwound, the crew of Barking Mad found themselves in second place, hot on the heels of Alessandro Barnaba's Fiamma and overtaking them at the offset mark with a textbook spinnaker hoist. Those watching the racing started counting back to Nerone. The left had clearly not paid for the Italian boat and the Barking Mad crew no longer had to sail as though lives depended on it. They just needed to keep between Nerone and the finish and they did that comfortably. Pic from Kurt Arrigo and more here.

Transpac Today

The single 'biggest' race on the west coast of Cali gets under way today, with Division 6 and 7 starting this afternoon. These are mostly the slow pokes, with the Turbo ID 35 double handed Relentless with Eric Shampain on board being the most interesting.

As the faster boats get going, we'll have some great on board reports from Alfa Romeo, Criminal Mischief, and Horizon.

Mine's Bigger

Both BMW/Oracle and Alinghi are putting the finishing touches on their boats in preparation for training in San Diego and Lake Geneva over the coming weeks, and everyone is waiting anxiously to see what they come up with.  One clue for the American team was the recent arrival of what may just be the largest one-piece racing mast ever made.  At nearly 200' long and 6' from leading to trailing edge, the #1 DoGzilla mast is tapered at both ends as a good canting/rotating mast should be, and is simply monstrous.  We do not know what the BMW boat will look like to be able to support a mast twice the length of the boat, but they are bound to be significant.  The existence of three distinct masts of different sizes lends significant support to the idea that the BMW boat will run on soft-sail, rather than hardsail, power, with the possibility of three distinct rigs depending on microforecasts for each day's weather.  This kind of multiple mast development works on unrestricted sail area classes like the 12 foot skiffs, so why not on the DoGs?

vid

Hell Yes?

Last week's pic of the catamaran “Illusion” riding breaking surf at Ala Moana is tame compared to this shitbox's epic outward bound trip of the same wave.  They say god looks out for fools; this video is evidence that sometimes he looks out for adrenaline junkies on a shitbox, too - and even makes sure that an all-star commentator is there to film it.  Nice one.  What do you think?

Move It
The Horus Superyacht Cup finished in Palma, Mallorca on Saturday, with strong winds and bright sunshine to give spectators and photographers exactly what they wanted. As in the last round, in Porto Cervo, Italy sponsoring brought luck for it was title sponsor Horus whose classic Sunshine won the day, with a bunch of happy guests onboard. It wasn’t enough to win the event though, that honour went to Gliss, whose distinctive turquoise hull will be remembered by Valencia America’s Cup spectators. Every time we see these things racing, we reckon you need a fair bit of nerve to drive something that size and weight into a racing confrontation with another boat; the insurance premium must be more than most of us pay for a yacht! Pic from Raw Photo and plenty more here.

Charter and Help

We like companies that attempt to give back, and here's one:

Captain Kirk’s San Francisco Sailing, a small Sausalito-based sailboat charter company, is making generous donations to several San Francisco area non-profits. Captain Kirk’s San Francisco Sailing provides 10% of all revenues (not just a portion of profits) to selected non-profits. The four organizations receiving donations at this time are: Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area (Captain Kirk has been a Big Brother for over 12 years); Sailing Education Adventures (Providing sailing opportunities to disadvantaged youth); and the Marine Mammal Center. These contributions represent 10% of revenues from late 2008 and early 2009. Additional gifts will be made in the next three months. Captain Kirk says: “The goal of the business is to support the community that has supported me. There is more to running a business than maximizing profit. We are able to make a profit while maintaining a primary goal of giving back to the community. I have been blessed with great health and an excellent education. Knowing that my sailing business helps generate funds for these deserving non-profits is very fulfilling.” . Captain Kirk brings a lifetime of sailing experience to each sailing charter. Check 'em out.

Green, Not Blue


All those blue labels, except for that one very notable green one. Barking Mad (Jim Richardson/Terry Hutchinson) and their new Quantum Sails just won the Farr 40 Worlds in Italy, by seven points over second place Nerone. Well done!  

Photos thanks to Stefano Gattani/www.carloborlenghi.com

Black, Not Blue


Telefonica Black, skippered by Fernando Echavarri finishes first on leg 10 (and final) in St Petersburg, crossing the line at 00:41:25 GMT, with Puma just behind at 00:42:48 GMT and indeed grabbing second overall.

A nice way for Black to end what has been an also-ran VOR for them. Telefonica Blue finished third for this leg, and third overall, a result for them that no doubt disappointing. We'll have skipper Bouwe Bekking's comments soon. Photo Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race

There Be Pirates


SA is co-sponsoring the Buccaneer NA's and we're happy to do what we can where we can to support classes like this. Here's a little info to go along with the pic from Chrisann Tortora.

The Buccaneer class continues its recent expansion with its first ever move to the west coast for its North American championships, currently underway at the Mission Bay Yacht Club in San Diego. At the half way point James Daus and Susan Swisher were tied for first place with class chairman David Spira and Dennis Martinelli. 27 boats are competing from '70s era Chryslers to new boats from current builder Nickels Boat Works.

Meat Loaf

Mike “Rail Meat” Hennessy made some final comments on the Bermuda 1-2 organizers' decision to postpone the start for this important ocean race here, and he wraps up his excellent coverage from onboard his Class 40 “Dragon”:

Sorry about the radio silence in the past 48 hours. My last post had us tacking east to gain some leverage on the fleet. That entire effort put us 20 miles or so east of the Rhumb line when we flopped it over and headed back in the general direction of Newport. I will give the weather gods points on one thing... the conditions were very consistent. Same wind direction (north to NNE) and same wind speed (25 to 30).

As we got up into an area that I would call roughly the lee off Cape Cod, the sea conditions moderated slightly. We still had short period waves, and there was still a lot of crashing, bashing and wetness but it was better than before. In terms of course, we still could not hold Newport but we were doing a damn fine imitation of it in a boat and Class that is not meant to enjoy going dead up wind. Ultimately, we fetched Block Island. We knew that Alex and Nick had 7 miles to go, and we knew that we had about 30 to 40 to go so that was a bit of a bummer. No magical way to cover that kind of deficit in that kind of time.

I Have Some News...


There is a pretty good story here, but you'll have to sign up for our e-anarchy newsletter to read it!

Barking Fast

The 2009 Farr 40 Worlds in Porto Cervo are one of the first one-design buoy regattas ever to include live tracking, and they've also got a good blog running.  Barking Mad is the leader, and Terry Hutchinson       checks in for the Anarchists after Day 2 of the event:

Hey all!  We're ticking along in Porto Cervo, and as expected the competition is an absolute battle.  The official press release today said that “Barking Mad is Dominating.”  Well, if our 1-point lead is 'domination', then Michael Phelps' win in the 100 meter butterfly last year was a clear win...not!

Aboard the Barking Mad we are focusing on trying not to do it to ourselves.  Last year we went 20, 22, 22 in the last three races, so we know every race needs to be dealt with in the same manner of pre-race preparation and focus.  The story right now is that there is no real story!  We've just completed the first five races, and we have survived.  Joe Fly is second, just one point back, with Nerone in third another 9 points back. Over the next two days the forecast is more of the same good westerly gradient, putting an emphasis on starting and boat speed.  From a speed perspective, things on the BM are going nicely.  We still have room for improvement but have made good gains in the upwind department.

I know that this is a little boring for all the SA readers but if anything "good" comes up I will be sure to let you know....standing by in Porto Cervo 5 down 5 to go!

SCOTW


Speaking of Barking Mad, Linda Lindquist-Bishop and Derby Anderson are chicks sailing on Barking Mad, which after Day 2 is still leading the Farr 40 World fleet in Porto Cervo. Linda explained how chicks are getting found more often on these boats. “We used to sail these boats with nine, but about three years ago we changed from fractional kites to big mast head kites and now we sail the boats completely differently within the maneuvers. A tenth person used to be an extra that just filled in, but now they have a very specific set of tasks on board. The tenth pair of hands is very useful. It's a strength position too, so it is a good combination to have a good, strong, light person and if you look we have Olympic level sailors in that tenth position.” She went on to explain why Barking Mad is on the route to success today “In the words of my great sailing mentor, Buddy Melges, the best strategy is to get out in front and stay there and that is what we did in the first race today. In this fleet an awful lot of it is about the start and that is why you see everyone just really choked up on the line, wanting to be in the right place at the right speed right at the gun, because literally a quarter boat length off the line, without enough pace, and you're buried and you really have to fight back.” Pic from Kurt Arrigo and lots more from him, Stefano Gattini and Adriana Giangrande here.

KP Duty

Our pals from the US Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point are having a great time while kicking a little ass at Block Island Race Week with their own little flotilla of race and support boats, and amazingly (for BIRW) only one of them is a J/Boat!  The teenager-crewed STP65 “Vanquish” finally took a race out of Rosebud yesterday, while their J/29 Renegade is mid fleet but fighting back.  But the real story for the Mids is the Farr 40 Nimbus, which is on three bullets in a row at the moment with Morning Light alum Chris Branning on tactics, breathing down Rod Jabin's neck aboard Ramrod.  Great news from the kiddies and the best big boat race training program in the US. Here's a little note one of the Freshmen wrote on the excellent King's Point Waterfront blog:

“Having never being on an actual sports team before, the offshore sailing team is an opportunity set out for me that I cannot even begin to describe what a blessing it is. Chris Branning always told the crew of Diana that what we have the chance to do, the boats that we are sailing on as freshman...it's almost unheard of. It's one of the things that makes Kings Point so unique. It's one of the things that gets me through the tough times here. I don't know what I would do if I did not have the sailing team to lean on. I haven't trailed off, I promise. I had one of these "clarifying" moments today. When I was sitting on Diana waiting to start on some work, A BEAUTIFUL boat came into the basin. It was breathtaking, it looked like a scene from a movie. Now, I don't even want to know how much that boat cost. It has to be ridiculous. That's when it hit me though, not for the first time, just how lucky I am to be here. I would never even have dreamed of seeing something like that if I had gone to a normal college, much less even been able to appreciate just how beautiful it was. Not to mention the other countless numbers of boats that are down at the waterfront, and the fact that I get to sail a Farr 40.”

Stockade Duty

In other BIRW Farr 40 news, the Anarchists reported that the Mount Gay and Vineyard Vines might have been a bit too much for F40 boat captain Phil Turner, who had one of those epic nights that takes a few years to recover from.  Apparently Turner decided to take the rental car out on a joyride which culminated in a deeply satisfying donut-making session on the front lawn of a Block Island home.  It also resulted in his arrest and ejection from the island, along with the disqualification of “Sundance” for the entire week.  Turner's maneuver qualifies for the Simon Daubney Public Stupidity Award, and here is an ode we received from an Anarchist on the subject:

Phil had his fill
took a rental car out for a thrill
RC kicked 'em out;
said his actions were ill
"No Donuts Allowed" said they
"Except during a race."
Sundance, oh Sundance,
You were never in the chase.

Fun BIRW fact of the day:  Roughly half the 153 boats at BIRW are J/Boats.

big pimpin

Own It

If you've seen it, you should have it in your video library. If you haven't seen it, then you need to get it. It is the DVD of Morning Light, a movie that, no matter what else, is maybe the best sailing movie we'll ever see. From Wax Works, our latest advertiser:

Fifteen young sailors…six months of intense training…one chance at the brass ring. This true-life documentary tells the inspiring story of a group of intrepid and determined young men and women, on the cusp of adulthood, as they embark on life’s first great adventure. Racing a TP 52-foot in the Transpac, one of the most revered of open-ocean sailing competitions, the crew of Morning light matches skills in a dramatic 2,300-mile showdown against top professionals. From their earliest training sessions in Hawaii conducted by world-class teachers through their test of endurance on the high seas, they form an unbreakable bond in the process of becoming a singular team that is greater than the sum of its parts. Directed and edited by two of the key filmmakers responsible for the acclaimed 2004 surfing documentary, “Riding Giants,” and the recent rock documentary “Amazing Journey: Click here to order at a super low price!