Indholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2015 i Sailing World

WE’RE SITTING BENEATH an umbrella, avoiding the high-noon rays searing the South Seas Island Resort in Captiva, Fla. It’s boiling hot, but Marty’s blood is running hotter. The morning races of NorthU. Performance Race Week were disastrous—at least in Marty’s mind—and the afternoon’s final championship races are looming. “I’m done,” he says, throwing his hands in the air, signaling his surrender. “I didn’t come here to embarrass myself. I’m 65, and I have no business being on the foredeck in those kind of conditions.” He stands and walks away. As Marty’s coach for the week, as well as for his teammates Susan, David, and Diane, I’m perplexed. I look to his wife, Susan, who, by her deadpan expression, isn’t as surprised as I. “Is he serious? I ask. “Should I…

SINCE ORACLE TEAM USA won the America’s Cup in September 2013, instability has been the keynote of the regatta’s organizers—in every direction possible. It took 15 months to decide on a venue for the defense. To everyone’s dismay, the choice was Bermuda, which is not even in the United States of America. Three months passed with much to and fro, until the first day of April, when Luna Rossa dropped its bombshell—withdrawing from the competition. It wasn’t the foot-stamping action of an angry Italian boss, rather the considered action of a principled syndicate head sufficiently thwarted in his challenge. Hiding behind an excuse that a size reduction of the boats was essential to reduce the cost of the regatta, rather than admit the chosen venue was too small for the…

FOR ZANE YODER, an experienced 43-year-old sailor, the 57th Dauphin Island Race was like the other 30 or so he’d done before. It’s a casual 17-nautical mile day race across shallow Mobile Bay with a relaxing delivery to a raft up. Yoder’s race, and that of another 117 entries, was without incident, until a sleeper of a super-cell lashed the fleet with 70-knot winds and driving rain. The storm exploded along a rapidly advancing front, and in the span of 30 minutes, 10 boats sank and many more were severely damaged. A search and rescue operation recovered six dead—5 sailors and 1 local fisherman. With overcast skies, there were no weather warnings posted before the start on race day. “I’ve sailed toward thousands of [storm cells] for the wind or…

THE MANTLE OF THE VOLVO Ocean Race leader comes with its own unique pressure, but if Ian Walker is feeling any extra weight upon his shoulders as he leaves the dock in Newport for the start of Leg 7, he keeps it well hidden. On the contrary: From the moment Walker and his teammates established a six-point overall advantage with a spectacular win in the race’s Southern Ocean leg months earlier, the team is more relaxed than ever. Even Walker, a walking stress basket, isn’t his normal self. Walker is always on. Fiercely competitive, and by his own admission, he has trouble switching off his mind when he’s ashore. Even when pushing a shopping cart through a store, he steers racing lines around corners and subconsciously plots the quickest route…

I HAD JUST STARTED CREWING on a Tornado catamaran, and it was my job to set and trim the jib. There was a lot of talk about measurements from the bow, aft, and the rail inboard. As a dinghy sailor, the cat was so foreign to me I figured those measurements were a good place to start, but then one of my non-cat friends asked, “Don’t you just want the jib to break evenly?” This simple question pointed to the obvious: Every boat has unique sail shape characteristics, but the fundamental concepts behind how to set the jib leads are the same across all boats. Although it’s a great starting point, and it would be nice to simply set the leads to “break evenly,” there’s much more we can do…

MAGNUS GEDDA IS one of the most vital sailors of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet. Although the technician and service manager from Sweden has yet to sail a single mile of the race, his responsibility is oversight of each of the fleet’s 75-horsepower, 2-liter Volvo diesel engines. Without a dedicated generator onboard, the engine is, as the manufacturers say, the heart of the yacht. In some way or another, everything is inextricably tied to its reliability: from canting the keel to powering the watermaker, the navigation, and the power-hungry communications equipment. SAILING WORLD The engines must take a beating during the race; How bad is it? GEDDA When the boat goes straight into a wave and stops, the engine, which weighs over 550 pounds, will want to keep going forward.…

1. File a float plan (at least tell your family and friends where you’re going). 2. Check the weather forecast— and keep on checking it on the radio and with your weather eye peeled to the west. In a tidal area, check the tide table. Review this information with the crew. 3. Hand out life jackets and have everybody wear them to be sure they fit. If they’re not going to be worn during the race, have crewmembers stow them where they can be easily found. Review boat’s safety rules and routines in a crew meeting. 4. Check all batteries and engine condition. Turn on the VHF-FM radio. Make sure it receives channel 16 and NOAA radio stations. 5. Cast a careful eye over the boat, checking for frayed halyards,…

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I was sitting in an audio studio with Walter Cronkite, the legendary news anchor. We were working on a film narration, and he was to speak first according to the script. Cronkite’s first words in his distinct gruff voice were: “The America’s Cup.” As he spoke, with perfect diction and impressive authority, I felt humbled. I wondered how I, with my slightly nasal tone and New Jersey accent, would hold up alongside such an extraordinary narrator. The recording session went fine, but the way he orated those three words left a lasting impression. He made the America’s Cup sound colossal and important. Over the past few years, however, there have been so many radical changes to this venerable event, to the point that it somehow no longer…

TWO READERS, Mike Gurley and Warwick Coppleson, recently asked how the rules apply in two unusual situations, both the result of well-intentioned, but unwise race committee actions. Each one highlights how risky it is for the race committee not to follow tried and true procedures. Mike Gurley reported on a race for several different classes of boats. The classes each had their own start, and the course for each one was signaled from the committee boat at its warning signal. There were two courses, both of them were windward-leewardwindward. Faster classes sailed the longer course, which was a beat to windward to Mark W, then a run to the leeward mark, Mark L, and a final beat to Mark W. The course had an unusual feature— on the downwind leg,…

RETIRED GREEN BERET Command Sergeant Major Nelson Corbin is the embodiment of a piece of granite. A career Special Forces officer with the U.S. Army, Corbin stands 6'5" with biceps resembling a bazooka. He has served seven tours of duty with Army Special Ops, and was one of the few Americans who helped hunt down Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in 1993. His 26 years of service have come with significant consequences. He has been “blown-up” and has shrapnel lodged in his side. He suffers hearing loss and has battled brain cancer. His son, Chris, lost both of his legs after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan. Nothing rattles Corbin harder than a fellow veteran, staring down the barrel of a gun, ready to commit suicide because the effects of…

FOR MOST American Olympic sailing hopefuls, making the national team is half the battle. Beyond rigorous training and a demanding travel schedule, athletes will often compete through multiple quadrenniums before they can expect to be medal contenders. The US Sailing Team Sperry’s focus on development supports young athletes along this path, but newcomers Paris Henken and Helena Scutt have the opportunity of a new class to catapult themselves closer to the end goal. “Paris and Helena are very young to be in the positon they’re in,” says Charlie McKee, US Sailing’s High Performance Director. “Normally, you would say it’s not realistic to contend for a medal at their ages [Scutt is 23, and Henken is 19]. The difference here is that this is a new class, so there are no…

“Most sailors know about covering. Even so, covering becomes a key tactic because it is so often misapplied.” —Bob Bavier I recently read the classic racing book Keys to Racing Success, by Bob Bavier, written in 1982. Chapter 8 is entitled: “Don’t Cover Early—Do Cover Late.” The esteemed author, one of the most successful racers of his generation, proceeds to illustrate how important it is to use your leverage to your advantage in the young part of a race, using examples from his 12-Meter and Bermuda Race days. He gives you permission to not cover, instead go for it a bit, take your best guess, and play it hard. Don’t be chicken. However, at some point, you become much more defensive. “Although it is foolish to cover or to consolidate…

“IT’S WHAT THE KIDS want to be doing,” says the America’s Cup skipper, wearing the Red Bull cap of his sponsor, a brand that promotes extreme sports. “These boats are awesome to sail,” says the skipper’s mate, pleased about the platform now used in the America’s Cup. It’s foiling, and it’s all the rage. Sailing has incurred progressive steps in equipment, from sails to cordage to spar and hull construction. The advancement of canting keels was significant, but foiling is the most transformative step I’ve seen in my lifetime. When a boat is fully foiling, it enters a different dimension. It is flying. While hydrofoil technology is nothing new, it was Rohan Veal’s persistence to apply the practice to the International Moth, as well as volumes of video he shared…

THERE’S A TENDENCY in our sport to overcomplicate things, especially when it comes to stringing together a series of top finishes in a regatta. We wonder why our competitors beat us time and time again and chalk it up to better boatspeed, better sails, or maybe having a few professionals onboard. While some that may be true, the reality, however, is pretty simple: they win because they’ve learned by making mistakes. In my experience there are a few obvious things that winners do to win. In other words, the beat you because they . . . HAVE MARKS on their sheets and use them to repeat fast settings. Speed is essential to winning in sailboat racing, and a big component of speed is how you trim your sails. Before the…