Pac Cup Blogs

I recently seconded a member of the sailing community's call for a return to civilized attire for yachting. Since business casual started I just don't get the use out of my suits that I used to.

I only have one problem: water. I tried to be civilized once. I brought a nice shirt and tie on my Trans-Atlantic Pleasure Cruise to wear into port. Great freakin' idea I thought, I'll look so sharp they'll never check my seabag for contraband.

Thanks to Peter Lyons for being Johnny on the Spot for this incredible picture. Click on this link to see a great animation of the sequence of events on Sailing Anarchy.

People, this is why you should not sail under the influence of stupidity.

I took a friend out yesterday and I had to switch lifelines, back to the Bay one. This involved removing the ocean (18') lifeline, rinsing off the holes with fresh water and pressure hose (I used the external bilge pump handle to take the last bits out), wiping dry the hole using a batten stuffer and a dry rag, then applying some soft silicone sealant around the holes using that same batten stuffer and the same pump handle for the very bottom. Let the whole thing try (and tape off for the night) - put the old lifeline back in place. I also put some soft white silicon sealant around each of the stanchions so that less water will be trickling in. Hopefully, the next time I need to do this operation will be a little later thanks to this small precaution.

This is a practice race in Alicante getting ready for Saturday's in-port race; I just hope this order doesn't actually presage anything because poor Green Dragon isn't in the place that I expect.

In other news, Ericsson 3 is getting a scoring penalty for their keel not measuring in. Hope nobody has them in the office pool.

Since we can't all be Serious Ocean Going Racers, the kind folks at VOR have created a game where we can race around the world at the same time as the real SOGRers. If you sign up be sure to post a comment on the blog with your boat name.

Mine is EVKfour. I'm not sure how to see how anyone is doing or even how to play but what the hell, it's gotta be better than sitting at our desk worrying about end of quarter numbers, right?

Since I have officially gone on record as supporting Green Dragon, I need to remind everyone to root for them this weekend. The Volvo Ocean Race officially starts on Saturday 4 October 2008 with the In Port Race in Alicante. Finally.

I have no idea how the points work and really don't care since it seems very odd that teams can skip legs and still win. I just love following where they're going, what the wind is like, what kind of routing decisions they make, and the videos. I love the freakin' videos. These boats are incredible (and remember I, too, am a Serious Ocean Going Racer so I know about these things).

I haven't sailed in a few weeks. But I'm keeping up with my mandatory water-time. I'm going to swim meets. Of course, I'm a middle aged father of two, I don't actually swim, but my daughter does. And fast.

The above is her weekend haul. Six events, six personal bests. Three second places and three third places. But most important, five of the six races got her the vaunted "A time"! You get a medal for those.

The correction is that I'm actually not an ingrate, I appreciate that they took the time to design a shirt that some will really like. But, still, it's not the shirt that you've come to expect from the SSS:

Opinions?

I'm mostly disappointed because I don't have pictures. I raced in the Richmond/South Beach race for a few reasons: 1. to have a day sailing, 2. for the international accolades, and 3. for the shirt. Number 3 is really the key. I love the Singlehanded Sailing Society Shirts...if I could buy all of the past shirts off of Ebay I would. They're that good. I have friends that could go weeks wearing different outfits every day completely head to toe in SSS gear.

Erik over at H2oshots just uploaded this picture to Sailing Anarchy. After going through what must have been thousands of shots of the Big Boat Series, something in this shot jumped out at him.

Elise has a new main halyard! And it is BLUE!!!! This is so cool - we also have a lot of small little West Marine gadgets and I have discount coupons for a few active Beethovens at any West Marine store!

I'll admit I was a bit embarrassed to get seasick on my Great Trans-Oceanic Journey & Race. But this is a full disclosure blog and it did happen so I reported it. What I didn't expect was that there'd be so few posts to the blog while I was out there; I thought it'd get drowned out by the flood of post-sickness stories. But that didn't happen. And, to a few people, their enduring memory of my Brave & Intrepid Exploration of the Pacific Ocean was my "no time now, seasick, get back to you later" post.

Oh well, them's the breaks.

But it did have a silver lining, a 5 year old family friend took it upon himself to draw me a picture; just a little something to cheer me up. He gave this to me as soon as we got back:

Where do these terms come from???And the French is "Tribord' for starboard and 'Babord' for Port

From the Dutch "stuurboord" and "backboord" - stuur = to steer and bak = back. The tiller, before becoming a helm, was located on the right-hand side of the boat as the helmsperson was often right-handed, and could steer the boat by facing forward with his (mostly his...) right hand. 
For English speakers: this means that in the harbor, the vessel could tie up on the other side of that steering board, the rudder that was external to the boat (easier to build without a throughhull initially), so that the board wouldn't get in the way, or risk being broken. Hence the 'port' side of the boat...

Tillerman recently requested suggestions for the best sailing invention ever. I thought through all the usual suspects: auto-pilots, roller furlers, electric winches, crew, galley slaves, and AIS. All of those surely make the act of sailing easier on my spindly little arms. But sailing is still hard work.

I then realized, it's my spindly little arms that are the problem, not the lack of labor-saving inventions. What do I usually do when faced with insurmountable odds? I pop open a can of spinach!

It's simple as pie. Shorten the course to, say, about the length of a backyard swimming pool. Try to get in as many roll-tacks as possible before the gorilla capsizes you.

I can guarantee it will be on NBC proper in prime time.

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2008-09-02&dayid=162

Writeup from Latitude38 - Skip's own account is published by Sailing Anarchy
Wow.

The wind didn't actually blow on Saturday, it sucked. That's not a lame nautical/meteorological joke, the wind just plain sucked. Or, rather, the lack of wind sucked.

Brian and I hustled over to the start line fully aware of the lack of wind but hopeful that the forecast would hold for the breeze to fill in by Noon. As we approached the Richmond Yacht Club there was a great convergence of sailboats on a glassy sea; nobody was out sailing unless they were "racing" that day, there was just no reason for it. Did I mention that the wind sucked?