EMPTY CUP (Thank you Herb)
Following is an excerpt from a story by Herb McCormick, the editor of
Excerpt...
Yes, the
Friday, August 26, 2005
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Sailing culture for voyagers, zealots, poets and populists
About Me
- Zephyr (Sail)
- New England, United States
- "All that we do is touched with ocean, and yet we remain on the shore of what we know." Richard Wilbur
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Recent Posts
Zephyr's Sailing News
"The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective."
-Henry David Thoreau
"Sailors work like horses at sea and spend their money like asses ashore."
-Anonymous
"Never go into strange places on a falling tide without a pilot."
-Thomas Gibson Bowles
"They that go down to the sea in ships; and occupy their business in great waters; these men see the works of the Lord; and His wonders in the deep"
-Book of Common Prayer
"There was a grandeur in everything around, which gave almost a solemnity to the scene; a silence and solitariness which affected everything. Not a human being but ourselves for miles; and no sound heard but the pulsations of the great pacific."
-Richard Henry Dana
"It was with a happy heart that the good odysseus spread his sail to catch the wind and used his seamanship to keep his boat straight with the steering-oar"
-Homer
"Why is almost every robust, healthy boy with a robust, healthy soul in him, at some time or other, crazy to go to sea? Why, upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land?"
-Herman Melville - Moby Dick
"To insure safety at sea, the best that science can devise and that naval organization can provide must be regarded only as an aid, and never as a substitute for good seamanship, self-reliance, and sense of ultimate responsibility which are the first requisites in a seaman and naval officer."
-Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid."
-Robert N. Rose
"O Captain! My Captain ! Our fearful trip is done, the ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought is won, the port is near, the bells i hear, the people all exulting."
-Walt Whitman
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking."
-John Masefield
" Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. "
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
"The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power."
-Joseph Conrad
"The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.
-Arthur Ransome
"Confronting a storm is like fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an extraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting."
-Franciose LeGrande
"Men go abroad to wonder the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering."
-St. Augustine
-Henry David Thoreau
"Sailors work like horses at sea and spend their money like asses ashore."
-Anonymous
"Never go into strange places on a falling tide without a pilot."
-Thomas Gibson Bowles
"They that go down to the sea in ships; and occupy their business in great waters; these men see the works of the Lord; and His wonders in the deep"
-Book of Common Prayer
"There was a grandeur in everything around, which gave almost a solemnity to the scene; a silence and solitariness which affected everything. Not a human being but ourselves for miles; and no sound heard but the pulsations of the great pacific."
-Richard Henry Dana
"It was with a happy heart that the good odysseus spread his sail to catch the wind and used his seamanship to keep his boat straight with the steering-oar"
-Homer
"Why is almost every robust, healthy boy with a robust, healthy soul in him, at some time or other, crazy to go to sea? Why, upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land?"
-Herman Melville - Moby Dick
"To insure safety at sea, the best that science can devise and that naval organization can provide must be regarded only as an aid, and never as a substitute for good seamanship, self-reliance, and sense of ultimate responsibility which are the first requisites in a seaman and naval officer."
-Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid."
-Robert N. Rose
"O Captain! My Captain ! Our fearful trip is done, the ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought is won, the port is near, the bells i hear, the people all exulting."
-Walt Whitman
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking."
-John Masefield
" Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. "
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
"The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power."
-Joseph Conrad
"The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.
-Arthur Ransome
"Confronting a storm is like fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an extraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting."
-Franciose LeGrande
"Men go abroad to wonder the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering."
-St. Augustine
Zephyr - May 05, 2005 - Sailors are intrinsically storytellers
Technology is having a significant impact on sailing culture, particularly in how sailors communicate with one another and share information about key aspects of voyaging and cruising (weather, friendly ports-of-call, sheltered anchorages). Some of the best examples of this are found in the multitude of individual sailing weblogs being published with more popping every day. Unlike Zephyr, which focuses on a specific topic (sailing culture) and covers it broadly, these sailing blogs are written from the perspective of voyagers, boatbuilders, weekend warriors they're mostly about the individual journey and serve as a two-way, grassroots window into the sailing world. When I was mate on the Maxi in the late 90'€™s I used to punch out email updates to all my desk-bound friends back in the States, compile a mailing list and send them whenever I could find an Internet cafe when we paused in Roadtown, English Harbor, Culebra, etc. I remember people enjoyed them, forwarded them all over their offices, to friends across the country. Sailors are intrinsically storytellers and the Internet has magnified this attribute. Consider the shift from the viral, uncontrolled mass email to a narrow-casted, self published weblog. We are witnesses to this technology proliferating, evolving and beginning to virtually knit together the larger sailing community...not surprisingly the results are (like many things in life) heterogeneous - we discover compelling content side-by-side with the trite, sublime with mundane, unique with conventional...
7 comments:
Ummmmmm - thank you very much kind sir for these profligate words of encouragment. And howdy right back to you!
Er, back to the cup...
IMHO: The original thoughts are right on the money (pun?).
With millions of people dying of starvation and disease, pouring billions of dollars into this is a a cruel folly.
I've wondered, what the heck was wrong with the 12 meters?
More affordable, they were 'real' boats that didn't fall apart in 20 kts of wind and the close tactical manouvers were exciting.
You'd think at least they could put a 'cap' on what each campaign can spend per year to level the playing field.
I think that the last Cup series that I took any interest in was the Koch victory in '92(?). Since then, all of the obscene amounts of money and increasingly poor sportsmanship from all parties involved has eroded my interest. And since team members now jump from syndicate to syndicate and there are Americans helming foreign boats, it's no longer America vs. Another Country, it's this billionaire vs. that billionaire. This has drained the last bit of interest that I had. I just don't care anymore.
Don
Have to agree with the last two replies. I love sailing, but I will only watch the Cup itself, the buildup is way overdone. I don't even read the Cup articles in the monthly mags. It's a spending contest, not sailing.
Ok, A contrary opinion:
I still love the whole AC circus. I don't think the acts are a bore, I think they have been interesting, and have been fun to follow. No, they don't mean that much, with old boats, and little impact on the eventual cup competition; they are just sailboat races, but with the neatest big boats, heaps of talent. It's the big time buoy racing, folks, why be so down on it?
The cost?
I don't care where these fat cats blow their money, it's theirs. Is the cost keeping out entries? Doesn't look like it to me. To have four teams with a real chance is pretty good.
The change in format, in the font chosen for the logo?
Hey, loosen up a bit gents.
Coutts and Cayard out?
Yeah, that's too bad, but who cares, there is plenty of talent sailing these boats, and these two and the others who couldn’t get along with the owner, and now can't sail, well, they are big boys, they can cut it, and I can still enjoy AC racing without them.
Nationality?
For every bad aspect, (I too would enjoy national teams) there is a good point to be made too, the change has opened it up for more teams to complete from more countries. This has leveled the playing field. Without it, the Kiwis would simply own the cup for the next 151 years or so.
Valencia?
You don’t like their choice of venue, well, opinions, like assholes; everyone has one. It’s a venue. It’s got water and some wind, and I’m giving the guys who selected it the benefit of the doubt.
Ellison and Bertarelli
Yeah they are slime balls and arrogant. So what, you’d rather have a crook like Bond or a mouth like Ted Turner? Conner is gone, yeah; lots of guys from the past have aged out. Big deal.
You know what? For all you guys who are bored, they aren’t holding this event for you, or for the elitist’s in the media, nor are they doing to make a buck. They are doing it to feed their egos and to try to win or keep the big prize. And it is sure paying the salaries for a lot of sailors, designers, builders, etc. I like to watch them do it. If you all don’t, switch the channel.
And Herb, maybe you need to change with the times, things don’t stay the same, and…there is no going back. It’s OK.
Ha! Bravo Wingsail...I was wondering when a contrarian would weigh in. I still think Herb is right to lament the overall direction of the Cup contest but a lot of what you offer up - particularly the "if you have an issue change the channel" type commentary - is spot on. And you hit the crux of what we're really discussing at the end of your comment. Times truly HAVE changed and like it or not - there's no going back. True to form people who have cherished the Cup contest in days gone by are not going to be pleased by what they see (and I have to put myself in that catagory) but what's evolving surely reflects the values and priorities of the day...and though it bears all the marks of our era, big money, big egos, poor sportsmanship and go fast boats that fall to pieces in a matter of years...are these attributes really that unique to 2005? Well maybe the boats falling apart but not the rest of it...
You know, we are concentrating on what the Cup series means or has meant to us, but as I think about it more maybe we should be more concerned with what it means to the sport. I would be willing to bet that John Q. Public's only exposure to the world of competitive sailing is the sarcastic commentary on the Cup races that is shown on ESPN SportCenter. I just don't think that the way the syndicates behave these days paints a very good picture of our sport, and may potentially turn off newbies because they'll think you have to be a Rockefeller to even contemplate getting into sailing. Which I guess is ultimately fine, because I really don't want all of the cognitively-challenged Jet Ski crowd to decide that they want to attempt sailing in the same waters that I ply. So I have officially changed my mind. Keep up the good work Larry and Ernesto! I will be anxiously not watching you guys make asses of yourselves.
Don
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