The Biz

Repo Man

You knew this was coming. This may be the one area that powerboats rule.

So many people have so many things they can no longer afford. This is an excellent time to be a repo man. When a boat owner defaults on his loan, the bank hires Jeff Henderson to seize its property. The former Army detective tracks the boat down in a backyard or a marina or a garage and hauls it to his storage area and later auctions it off. After nearly 20 years in the repossession business, Mr. Henderson has never been busier.

“I used to take the weak ones,” he said. “Now I’m taking the whole herd.” Read the story.

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Big Pimpin'

Dress Up

Please welcome SA's newest advertiser - Bluwave Solutions. This Aspen Colorado based branded apparel company has been the source the best Grand Prix racing programs have been using for the past few years- check out their client section. The Pro's like them because they produce the highest quality decorated items and because they get the job done on time.

They are now launching the first online interactive crew apparel decoration site plus offering cool free stuff like a global sailing calendar; news articles about their clients and links to other important sailing sources.

The site offers you the products the Pro's use all the time; allows you to use their design tools or upload your own logos to create and purchase the type of team clothes you only dreamed about.

So now you can to sit at home or the office - probably the office - and design cool clothes to show "the Owner" for your next regatta. Heck "the Owner" owes you good sails and a good boat as much as they owe you great looking clothes for humping their gear and their butt around the course.

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Accidents Up, Death Down

According to a report from the United States Coast Guard, boating deaths are down, but accidents and damage is up:

Top causes for all accidents revealed by 2007 statistics remain fairly consistent with previous years. Operator inattention, careless/reckless operation, passenger/skier behavior, excessive speed, and alcohol use rank as the top five contributing factors. Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents; it was listed as the leading factor in 21% of the deaths. Where instruction data was submitted, three fourths of the deaths occurred on boats where the operator had not received boating safety instruction. Over two-thirds of those killed in boating accidents drowned, and of those, 90 percent were not wearing life jackets. Read the report.

On a related note, you may wish to take a look at the rather lengthy H. R. 2830, the 2008 appropriations bill for the Coasties...

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Breaking

Vincent Riou Abandons Ship

20/5/2008 17:29 GMT Vincent Riou reported hitting a large sea mammal at 3:00 AM this morning, but his initial assessment was that the damage remained superficial... The skipper realised this afternoon that one of his keel pins was missing, and that the appendage was only held by the ram used to cant it. With an approaching storm, Vincent Riou has decided to abandon ship and has requested assistance. Loick Peyron onboard Gitana Eighty has been directed towards PRB by the Race Direction team, and should arrive in the vicinity around 17:00 GMT. PRB has dropped her sails, filled her ballast tanks to increase her stability even if the keel was to drop out from the hull. PRB is in 2.5 metres of swell, in 10 knots of NW wind, in light fog and is 530 miles from Halifax (Nova Scotia). File keel photo courtesy of Jacques Vapillon.

Update: PRB's skipper is now safe aboard Gitana Eighty, and Loick Peyron is back in full racing mode - his "passenger" prevented from participating in the manoeuvres. PRB has been left with the ballasts full and the sails stacked at the lowest point of the hull in order to stabilise...Read on.

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Trickle Down Theory?

Look what Juan K hath wrought! The big booty, squared off, chine stern section phenomenon has now spread to the production cruiser racer world. This one is the new Simonis Voogd Pacer 376 EP and while it won't win many beauty contests, it doesn't look too bad here. What, no sprit? And are those North panel sails???

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InnerView

No Machine

We did a quick five (okay seven) question hit with Peter de Ridder, one of the nicest guys in the sport and owner/driver of the TP 52 Mean Machine who recently won the first round of their Med Cup circuit. Enjoy. Btw, we'll have part 2 of the Dave Ullman Innerview tomorrow...

SA: Okay, before we go any further - five straight bullets? that is an amazing roll for anyone, let alone in that fleet. How did you put that string together?

PdR: The boys did an awesome job in many respects. The afterguard (Ray, Tom and Kevin) were on the tip of their toes in analyzing the breeze and fleet management; the trimmers trimmed the sails to perfection and boathandling was immaculate. Furthermore we had great starts, which makes things easier to keep the options open which side of the fleet you want to go..

SA: So it seems obvious, but how fast is the new boat? and what are the differences between this MM and the last MM?

PdR: For sure the new boat is quicker than the old one. Especially upwind. The 2008 boat is a further development of the 2007 J/V TP52's. To my opinion the big jump forward was made in 2007 and for now the rate of improvement has slowed down.

SA: There was a reference during the last regatta to your boat end starts. Tell us about those. The boat end can be treacherous - what is your technique?

Local Knowledge

Shooting Stars

Twenty-six Stars gathered at Gull Lake this weekend for the 55th Annual Tulip Time Tune-up Regatta. Tom Londrigan Jr. handily won his second championship sailing with Canadian Steve Cutting as crew ad scoring 1,2,1,2,1. In attendance were 8 past champions including 9 time winner Peter Wright who finished second, 10 points behind, with son Dan as crew. Peter's string of wins dates back to 1970 and ran through 1990. In third was 2 time champion Ross Adams with crew George Lucas. Separated by 1 point, 4th and 5th places were won by organizer extrordinaire, Jon 'Who Has More FUN!' Vandermolen, with crew Steve Ticknor and Rick Brethorst with crew Bob Carson.

Both days saw wind in the 15 - 20 knot range that built to the mid 20's with gusts over 30 and of course the complimentary 45 degree Gull Lake windshifts. Saturday's 3rd race was a real gutbuster with many wipeouts, but only 1 broken mast. PRO Melinda Titus did a great job of running the races even though the shifty winds caused some starting line problems on Saturday with several general recalls. Gull Lake is a beautiful sailing spot and the Yacht Club members really know how to host a regatta. -- Harry Glen

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The Vertical Game

Intrepid sailor, Adrian Flanagan will sail in to Southampton Water tomorrow, the first person to complete a single-handed‘vertical’ circumnavigation of the globe, westwards around Cape Horn and across the Russian Arctic Coast. Adrian’s challenge to set the record for sailing round the world ‘over the top’ has tested the limits of his endurance. He is the only yachtsman to have ever sailed Russia’s Arctic Coast along the Northern Sea Route single-handed. Amongst many adventures, Adrian has been washed overboard, dislocated both wrists, suffered two knockdowns at Cape Horn and been tracked by pirates off Brazil, but tomorrow he will sail up the River Hamble to a tremendous welcome from family and friends.

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It's not much of a surprise anymore when our pal Bora Gulari kicks serious ass in the Melges 24 fleet - he's that good, and may be peaking just before he heads for the UK for worlds. He beat the downtrodden once again, winning by 6 points over the nearest competitor. For Bora, winning big Midwest events isn't much of a challenge any more, and he proved his ability this weekend at the Regatta on the Great Lakes, driving "Don't panic" for new owner Brian Poppert in 15-30 knots of breeze. Brian owns USA-12 - that's a boat built in 1994 and is still winning races almost 15 years later.

What IS surprising is how he managed to beat some of the best in the Midwest with 5 bullets in seven races in a boat this old, and a crew that includes Bora, Pootie, one clumsy, sixty year old man, and one smaller dude. Here are the results.

Pic thanks to Scott Corder.

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Thomas Coville’s maxi trimaran Sodeb’O is currently moored at Brooklyn’s Gateway Marina in New York, ready to set off on the North Atlantic record attempt.

Thomas' objective is to make Lizard Point single handed in less than 6 days, 4 hours, 1 minute and 37 seconds, a time set by Francis Joyon aboard his first trimaran IDEC, in 2005. “It’s true that the bar has been set high. Francis’ route was exceptional once again." confided the skipper of Sodeb'O. “Ideally, I’ll set out ahead of a low, which will push us all the way to the finish; this is why it’s complicated choosing the right weather window. Two years ago, we waited too long for these ideal conditions. This time around we’ll be more daring.”

Weather routers Thierry Douillard, Christian Dumard and Richard Silvani are now watching their screens in a bid to dissect and analyse the grib files, ready to pounce on the slightest movement in the lows. With this in mind, as soon as they spot this infamous favourable weather window, Thomas will jump onto the first plane to New York. The sailor will then have a few days to get over his jet lag, whilst his shore scrub down the maxi-trimaran from top to toe and load two days of fresh food aboard. More Sodeb’O images.

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Tragic Tuesday

Boomed

Rescuers braved sharks and gale force conditions to rescue a woman whose husband had been fatally struck by the boom of his yacht in wild weather off Queensland. Read the story. As much of a bummer as this story is, there is at least a positive side to it.

Schooner Boomer

While he was under sail, the rudder of the 1940s-era Newfoundland schooner broke. The 48-foot gaff-rigged wooden sailboat was pushed into the rocks behind the Ocean View, a residence at 290 Ocean Rd. Read it.

Dung Heap

A boat carrying fertilizer sank in Cho Gao Canal in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang on Saturday night after colliding with a barge. Read on.

Trashed Again

Out in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, hundreds of kilometres from land, Captain Charles Moore stood at the bow of his 50-foot catamaran and looked toward the horizon. But instead of gliding along calm, sapphire-coloured waters glistening in the afternoon sun, his aluminum-hulled Alguita carved through a sea of shiny, modern-day refuse. Read more.

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Powered Up!

How's that for a headsail? From the Grand-Prix de voile E-Gestion. As cool as this picture is, here is the flip side, no pun intended.This is the first race of the SAFRAM M2 Speed Tour on the lake of Neuchâtel, known as being more windy than the Geneva Lake. And as usual, it really was.

The 18 M2 cats raced 8 legs over the week-end and gave quite a show to the spectators located either on the edge or on the follow boat of the organisation, which was moored in the middle of the upwind dog-leg, just a couple of meters beyond the harbour entrance.

Given the good wind conditions (12-17 knots), the M2 cats showed that they can also fly without copters. The heavy "traffic" at the marks caused various cats to capsize but no one was hurt and the up-size-down boats did not suffer either. The SAFRAM M2 Speed Tour '08 is now on track and the forthcoming races are scheduled for Saturday (Bol d'Or of Neuchâtel Lake) and Sunday (Grand Prix Batimetal - KSR of Grandson). Photos thanks toCahit Baha Pars.

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AC

Wasted

Whilst the Swiss team was probably feeling good about their first legal victory in the America's Cup battle against BMW Oracle, others were venting some anger and wondering if they were just nuts or if someone else could see things the same way. While realizing that we all could be wrong and were maybe taking a biased view.

Looking back at building scheduled put in place for the 33rd America’s Cup, it was interesting to note that Alinghi, Desafio, TeamOrigin and Team Germany were going to launch their first AC90 in June 2008 whilst Shosholoza and TNZ were probably working on a similar time frame.

America’s Cup’s teams would have been at full steam by now with sailmakers and mast makers finishing their work to sail these new monsters. All bases in Valencia would have been flat out preparing the launch of their first AC90. What a sight and a great feeling it would have been!

Instead? We have a waste land in Valencia and a bunch of people out of work worldwide. Not only team members but suppliers.

Mas Rapido

The New Mark Mills designed/New England Boatworks IRC 68' Alegre. Looks good, and given Mills run of late, quite likely goes good too. We'll have more soon.

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New OD?

The first VLC 35 goes sailing. A pretty interesting looking boat that makes us curious to see how fast it goes. We have seen some different ways to handle a sprit, but not sure if we've seen one done this way...There are a bunch more pics right here.

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Local Knowledge

Dead Sea Regatta

They threw a regatta, and no one came. Well, practically no one. A once meaningful regatta between yacht clubs, the Lipton Cup on the West Coast here in Cali, has slowly deteriorated into a small fleet J/105 regatta of almost no import. That this years' event despite the weak turnout, turned out to me a pretty exciting match race at the end that ultimately saw local boy Kenny Manzoni of SWYC edge out SDYC's Billy Hardesty for the win. An upset and a nice win for sure, but this incarnation of the Lipton Cup is dead. Next?

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Channel Island Zac's World Adventure Posted to Sailing Anarchy on May 18, 2008 Click to Play | View Details Will the kid make it? Seems like a good kid, but we're not sure he can make the long run. Comment? 05/19/08

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BT Express Derailed

Leading at the halfway of the Artemis Transat, Sébastien Josse and the IMOCA 60 BT were forced to drop out of the to due mainsail problems. We don't know much other than what we read:

At around 1530 GMT yesterday [Saturday, 17th May] during the blackout phase of The Artemis Transat, Seb Josse, skipper of BT, called his shore team to report that the mainsail on BT had come crashing down. After pushing very hard during this phase of the race to take advantage of the positions blackout, a combination of two linked factors, mast track damage and headboard car lashing failure [holds the mainsail up], led to the crucial failure. Read it.

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Mean Time
Five straight bullets sandwiched between an opening 7th and a closing 8th were enough (barely) for Pete de Ridder's brand new Mean Machine to hold off all TP 52 comers, en route to winning the first round 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit. Dean Barker and Bribon got really close to stealing the show, but the regatta was called with one race left. Check it. Mean Machine above looking very much like its name from Thierry Martinez.

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Longview

The owner of Korina Korina watches through the bino's from the Wing Point jetty as the fleet sails the final leg of Vashon Island Race while he waits the 8 hour tide change. The back eddy was sweet and they were gaining on the fleet! Apparently, the dude forgot to check the chart or see the red nun marking the spit.

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Y'all know how the 20-foot sportboat sector is heating up lately, with manufacturers, dealers, and passionate owners throwing together an unprecedented amount of hype as they compete for the numerous racers looking to downsize their headaches as they upsize their speed. If you need a refresher on the twenties, there's one here.

Sailors at the Lake Lanier Sailing Club near Atlanta, GA have arranged for four of these 20-footers to be on the water this weekend for prospective owners - a number of them Melges 24 racers - to demo and compare. As far as we know, this is the first time that the Laser SB3, Open 5.7, Viper 640, and Ultimate 20 have shared the same piece of lake, so it should be a very cool way to get to know these four little chargers and the differences between them.. The 5.7 is sporting the new "East Coast" package as well, which includes a masthead kite and tiny spreaders to deal with the additional loads above the hounds.

If you're in the area and want to go sail some cool li'l boats, check the thread for all the info you need. We'll have an in-depth report next week, thanks to Justin from Overstock Marine.

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A good way to judge the level of a regatta is to see the professionals who are quietly attending; naval architects (Conq, of Finot-Conq, Open 7.50 and Open 5.70), world class sailors (Sebastien Audigane, crewed Around the world record holder on Orange) not to mention a few Admirals and dignitaries. It was also cool to see the girls boat with Anne-Claire Le Berre and crew, take the Open 5.70 class out of 39 boats. Story and photo from Lyn Hines.

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Once again, the time has come for the Cleans to hit the road - and hit it hard. This Saturday, we start a month-long trip to the wilds of the Old Country for the 2008 Volvo Melges 24 World Championship. We've got quite the production planned for you - a little travel, a LOT of sailing, and from May 28th to June 6th, you'll see the most exciting On-The-Water Anarchy report that we've ever done.

We're not just there for the racing - our duties include picking up GBR 592 from Belgium (she's on a ship now) and taking her down to Sardinia for the owner - SA'er SimonS. Simon's "Team Sevenstar SLAM" has current World Champ snacktician Billy Hardesty calling tactics, and we'll be hanging with the crew for the entire regatta. Afterwards, we'll haul the boat nearly to the Arctic Circle to deliver her to her new owners in Oslo, Norway before heading back to the UK via Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France. We've got plenty of time to stop in some great places along the way , so be sure to check in on the thread and let us know if you have a fun sailing event or anything else you think Anarchists should check out anywhere along our route. We're bringing the whole lot of you along for the ride.

For the first time in a long time, defending World Champion Dave Ullman couldn't be at the M-24 Worlds - so he did the next best thing - and we're incredibly stoked to announce that today, Ullman Sails stepped up to become the exclusive sponsor for SA's comprehensive Melges 24 coverage from Europe. Dave and the rest of our friends at Ullman will be an integral part of OTW Anarchy from Sardinia, so make sure to stay tuned for news, technical information, and great offers from Ullman - starting with an in-depth Innerview with Dave that you'll find on SA this Monday.

Please show your gratitude to Ullman for bringing OTW Anarchy to Europe for the first time - at a minimum, check out their very slick new website and have a peek around. And enjoy the ride.

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Paint Your Wagon
A couple weeks ago we showed you a rendering of a pretty cool paint scheme for a Flying Tiger. We didn't know it would become a realty so soon. It's uh, bold but at least they left the bow white for starting line purposes!

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Other Media

Whale Tail

When biologist Frank Fish spied a figurine of a humpback whale in a Boston gift shop and noticed the pointy bumps along its fins, he said, "That has to be wrong." But when the shop manager produced a photograph that showed the leading edge of the long fins was indeed serrated like the teeth on a saw, Dr. Fish was intrigued and decided to investigate.

He discovered that these bumps, called tubercles, are this creature's secret weapon, allowing a whale the size of a school bus to make tight turns and capture prey with astonishing agility. Fish, a biology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, is now using this technology perfected by nature to produce fans with serrated blades that use 20 percent less electricity than traditional models. This finding contradicts conventional designs that strive for the smoothest possible edges.

To understand this phenomenon, imagine airplane wings. Pilots increase the angle of the airfoil to provide more lift. But when the angle gets too steep, the air current drags on the wing, suddenly reducing the lift and causing the aircraft to stall. Read on.

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