TIME OUT: Sailing Movie Quote Quiz

For all of you sailing movie buffs - I was watching one of my favorite films last night and thought I'd throw a little quiz your way. There are times a movie character thrills the viewer with his or her authenticity - the things they say and do, and the way they do them and say them seem to ring true. This takes good acting, good casting and most of all, really good writing. So who said the following, what movie was it and who was he addressing?

"You know what's out there? Wind and wave and rain. Endless glassy pools that'll hold a sailing ship for weeks and then spit her out into the eye of a hurricane. A blow that could knock the bridge off a battleship. Reefs and rocks and sandbars that'll tear the belly from her and enough fog and night to hide it all. "

Unrelated - check out this terrific story in Cruising World about Humphrey Bogart's old yacht, now restored to her glory, the schooner Santana.

Arts Alliance 2005 poster design by Patrick O'Brien '86

St. Mary's Overnight Race (& Party)

The annual Governors Cup – a classic overnight Chesapeake Bay race from Annapolis to St. Mary’s College – is set to begin on Friday, August 5. As this article in the Baltimore Sun reports, roughly 160 boats will compete on a 73 mile course that heads down the Bay and then bangs a right up St. Mary’s River. The “sportsman” interviewed in the Sun article explains, “It is a combination of moments of dreamlike pleasure, communing with nature, seeing shooting stars juxtaposed with the sheer terror of racing in a thunderstorm with a spinnaker up in the middle of the night.” Having done the race back in the late 1990’s I can vouch for all of that PLUS the whizbanger of a party they throw on the St. Mary’s College campus. I crewed on one of the local Annapolis yachts and we arrived in the morning...crossing the finish line under spinnaker chute, doused and docked and began drinking immediately - drank through the day, stumbled to the dinner under the big top tent and left the dock that evening for home port Annapolis. I can’t claim to recall this part of the journey as I was unconscious on the deck – waking up only briefly when we grounded in the Chesapeake mud at 1:00 AM. Eleven different classes are expected to compete in the race, including Multihull, PHRF and the St. Mary's Alumni class.

Catbird Cayard Commissioned

I first wrote about the Black Pearl many moons ago – the boat is being built by a Walt Disney Co.-backed syndicate to compete in the Volvo Ocean Race, set to begin this coming November. According to news reports, celebrities will join on various legs - Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are among the names that have been passed about. And now we have news of another celebrity of sorts, at least in our world…Paul Cayard has apparently agreed to skipper the Black Pearl. This announcement lends a semblance of credibility to what was arguably a glorified (and expensive at $17 million) marketing stunt to promote Disney and it’s sequel to the movie Pirates of the Carribean. But at what expense to the reputation to this sailing icon? As this article details, Cayard, a 46-year-old San Francisco native, has sailed in five America's Cup campaigns and is a seven-time sailing world champion. He was selected Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year in 1998 and was elected to the Sailing World Hall of Fame in 2002. This is a serious sailor, now revealed as a shill for a profit-hungry, marketing mad corporation. Aren’t we all, you might ask? Good point. But we aren’t all Paul Cayard. Shouldn’t the guy be a little more discerning? Corporate sponsorship is nothing new but, in the context of a race that features the most competitive and skilled offshore racers in the world, it is a challenge to take the Disney effort very seriously…that is, of course, until Cayard came along…

S/Y Misconduct in light air off Newport, RI

Sailing Hero Hilary Lister

I try to not take my generally robust good health for granted...but when you’re blessed enough to be healthy, it is easy to do. Just like childless people trying to envision having children, it’s tough to know how one might handle a serious disability or health crisis until actually faced with it. So it is that stories about people like quadriplegic Hilary Lister appeal to me. Hilary, 33, is in constant pain and has spent half her life helplessly monitoring the gradual loss of sensation in her limbs. Before discovering sailing she was contemplating suicide - now she’s preparing to single hand across the English Channel at the end of August. You can read about her Channel Challenge here…according to this news report she will be strapped into a cushioned racing driver’s seat, piloting her boat by sucking and blowing gently on two plastic straws linked to a control unit that operates the tiller and the two sails. Breathing in on one straw will steer the boat to starboard; breathing out will guide it to port. The other straw controls winches that adjust the sails. The courage of this woman is an inspiration to not only disabled sailors worldwide, but to we “enabled” sailors who handle the many tasks aboard a sailboat without a second thought of our extreme good fortune.

We Love a Parade (of sail)

An event called Sail San Francisco, sponsored by the Pacific Rim Foundation, began yesterday with a “Parade of Sail” from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge – the event runs through the weekend, ending Monday. For anyone who lives in the Bay area this is a unique opportunity to see these beautiful, historical ships under sail…as well as to tour aboard them dockside, join as crew on a day sail, witness the booming battle reenactments, enjoy the history of the San Francisco waterfront, etc. As this article in the SF Chronicle details, ships in the fleet include the 270-foot Mexican barque Cuauhtemoc and the fully rigged, 2,284-ton Russian training ship Pallada. Thirty-two ships and smaller vessels, including diesel-powered-vessels, are to participate in the parade. Vessels range in size from the 30-foot sloop OlÈ to the 442-foot Jeremiah O'Brien, a World War II Liberty ship. The 88-foot scow schooner Alma hailing from the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park will be the senior ship – 114 years old. I’ve posted on tall ships before and for those who have not seen this sort of thing you will be impressed not only by the beauty of the ships, but also by the thought that our seafaring ancestors actually ventured to new worlds, plied trading routes and made their lives aboard these vessels – as pretty as they are they offer one tenth the comfort of your average modern production cruising sloop.

S/Y Avalon downwind at the Newport Bucket Race,
July 16, 2005 (Photo Credit: Billy Black)

At the Altar of Endeavor

Back to the Newport Bucket for a moment – I failed to mention a key opportunity I had when we were back at dock. The charter chef for the classic J-class yacht Endeavor was part of our crew on Avalon and post race he invited me to tour her at dock three slips down from us at the Newport Shipyard. I’ve posted on Elizabeth Meyer and the work she has done in yacht restoration through the IYRS– being aboard a craft like the Endeavor, even at dock, is a religious experience. The care and workmanship that has restored her glory is astounding but beyond this, the sense of history that permeates every corner of the boat, both above and below deck, is truly exceptional. For someone who loves classic yachts, not only for their form but as a living link to a bygone era, this was a highlight. She charters for 65K a week plus expenses…nine professional crew aboard to serve eight charter guests...looks as if I’ll have to be content with a dockside visit ;-)

Not for Wussies

I posted on Great Lake sailing a some weeks back and received very positive feedback from Great Lakes sailors agreeing that inland sailing grounds make for excellent cruising and racing. It’s a good follow-up to point you toward a wrap-up of the annual Bay View Yacht Club-sponsored Port Huron-to-Mackinac Island Sailboat Race - the self proclaimed largest fresh-water sporting event in the world. According to the article the 266 boats competed on two separate courses (depending on what class they were racing) and both routes had heavy winds that made this race one of the fastest (read most nerve racking) in history. The 253-nautical-mile Southampton Course featured a steady blow throughout the race, while the 204-nautical-mile Shore Course challenged sailors with heavy thunderstorms that caused carnage across the fleet. A point I made during my last post on lake sailing is well proven by this experience – yes these lakes are relative ponds compared to the ocean and yes, we all know that many dangers lurk on oceans that aren’t part of lake environments...but don’t think for a second that lake sailing is for wussies. It can blow like holy hell and the waves build quickly and steeply. Another point being that they apparently have good wind in the summer - not a factor on Long Island Sound at the moment.

Swan Song

Busy day so back in force tommorow. In the meanwhile check out updates from the Rolex Swan Regatta in Newport - including an announcement of a new racing class sloop, the result of a collaboration between Nautor Swan and the New York Yacht Club.

Mari-Cha (Photo Credit: Thierry)

NEWS: Morning Glory Takes the Transpac

To kick off our week we have news that the 80-foot maxi sloop Morning Glory has shattered the elapsed-time record for the 43rd biennial, 2,225-mile Transpacific yacht race from Los Angeles to Hawaii. Morning Glory, co-skippered by German owner Hasso Plattner and three-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts, reached the finish early yesterday morning to complete the race in six days, 16 hours, four minutes and 11 seconds – beating the record of 7:11:04:11 set by Roy Disney's Pyewacket in 1999. According to reports her average speed was nearly 14 knots. Wind was light at the start of the race and for most competitors consistently below the normal 20 knot trade winds that define the sleigh ride to paradise. Morning Glory didn’t see winds above 20 knots true until they had nearly finished the race, but the boat, built by yacht designer Reichel/Pugh, claims a "go fast" pedigree that few other offshore grand prix sailboats can match: it was designed, get this, using "...state-of-the-art America's Cup calibre design tools, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD), velocity prediction programs (VPP), tank testing and ultra-advanced construction methods and materials. " All of this boils down to making Morning Glory one of the fastest high tech rocket ship maxi yachts that money can buy. How very German industrialist...

S/Y Chippewa bears down on competitor S/Y Avalon
- Newport, RI - July 16, 2005

THIRD REPORT: Newport Bucket

If you are, like me, a fan of sailboats made by Nautor’s Swan, then you’ll want to tune into the Rolex Swan American Regatta set to take place July 25-29 in Newport, R.I. Hosted by the NYYC, over 40 Swan yachts from America, Asia and Europe – including two Swan 56’s, a Swan 60 and a new Swan 601 – will be competing courtesy of sponsor Rolex.

Speaking of Newport, I posted earlier in the week on my experience last Saturday aboard the S/Y Avalon during the Newport Bucket…but haven't detailed the actual sail. The wind was SW at six knots at the start, not ideal for a 106’ yacht but we put the canvas up and crossed the line in good form. Conditions had been fair in Newport Harbor but as we left the East Passage behind outbound to the Narragansett Bay, we sailed back into fog. Interestingly the wind picked up as the fog thickened and we soon had nearly ten knots of breeze with low visibility. As helmsman Ron Holland had several people calling tactics and monitoring the radar the limited line of sight did not slow us down...but the mist did make keeping track of our competitors a challenge. The boat sailed well with more pressure and I soon got the hang of the push button winch system. It was a strange feeling not to be able to see the headsail from the primary winch – we had someone amidships call the trim for me which took a bit of finesse out of the job but still, nice to be ghosting through the fog at six knots SOG (speed over ground). All through the day as the fog cleared the wind lightened. When we sailed back into it, it built. It was my first encounter with fog tactics. By far the best leg of the day was downwind – the boat sails very deep and accelerated well with the spinnaker up. All in all a pleasant, if a bit damp, sail with nobody getting their blood pressure up… though we emerged from the fog to see the last mark dead on our bow and had to bear away sharply. Our tactician was nearly too good! The post-race scene back dockside was epic – I’ll finish up on this topic next week. Have a great weekend all and hope you spend some of it sailing.

Deck crew at the 2005 X-Yachts Adriatic Cup
S.Giorgio's Island, Venice, Italy (Photo Credit: Max Ranchi)

Schooner Woodwind II Goes Hollywood

Here’s an article in the Washington Examiner about actor Christopher Walken’s use of the Annapolis day-sail schooner, Woodwind II. Walken was filmed sailing the boat for the new Vince Vaughn comedy, The Wedding Crashers. Not having seen the movie, I can’t vouch for the cameo but I used to crew aboard the Woodwind when I lived in Annapolis in 1998. That spring, having hopped a yacht delivery up from the U.S.V.I., I scored a bartender job at Pusser’s Landing and by June had a 2^nd job as deckhand aboard Woodwind. The family (Ken and Ellen Kaye, daughter Jen) that owns and runs the program are tremendous people – the Examiner article features daughter Jen Brest who was steering the boat, flat on her back with a compass on her chest, during the film sequence with Walken. The first Woodwind, the one I worked on, was built in May 1993 by the Scarano Boat Builder's Yard in Albany, NY. Her hull is made of Port Orford Cedar ribs and strip planked with the same material, her decks Douglas Fir, a thin sheathing of fiberglass on the outside of the hull. As the business grew, they added the Woodwind II in 1998. My deckhand job ended as the season wound down post Annapolis boat show. I let my apartment near St. John's College go and sailed on a yacht bound for Ft Lauderdale and points south.

W-Class Yacht Wild Horses approaches the mark, day one Newport Bucket - Newport, RI, July 16, 2005

New ISAF Pres Goran States Populist Mission

I'm taking a break midweek from Newport Bucket narrative to discuss this Sailing World interview with the new ISAF (International Sailing Federation) president, Goran Petersson, of Sweden. Goran took over from former president Paul Henderson in the fall of 2004. Paul had been president for 10 years and, according to the article, his leadership was characterized by aggressive use of the media on sailing issues. In contrast, Goran has been much quieter and so Sailing World went knocking at his door. The resulting Q&A is, in my humble opinion, heartening in that the man is ocused on the most essential issue of all, increasing grass roots participation in sailing. It may seem strange to write about participation opposite a post about my day aboard a multi-million $$ mega sailing yacht in Newport…but rich people will always have their toys and while it’s fun to have a chance to play on one of them, the reality is that a sport where only the wealthy can participate is not much fun at all. Take a look at polo for a real life example. The future of sailing depends on making the sport accessible, enjoyable and generally welcoming to as broad a segment as possible – including a generation of youths coming of age in a world overflowing with distraction.

"The biggest challenge to our sport is participation. We are not only in competition with all other sports, but also with a lot of other activities. We have to make the sport attractive to young people—and older people—and we have to make it accessible, affordable, and exciting." - Goran Petersson

Avalon crew gathers for a winch lesson, outbound to the Newport Bucket day one start - Newport, RI - July 16