Innehållsförteckning för May - June 2016 från Sailing World

IAN BRUCE’S DEATH in late March, at age 83, caused me to reflect on the influence he and many other industry icons have had in shaping our sport. It’s only when we lose someone that we deeply consider his or her lasting contributions. In Bruce’s case, it was the Laser — nurtured from its meager beginnings to the 130,000 of them out there in 2016. Without Bruce, we would have no Laser. The same is true of the other Bruce — Kirby, that is. It’s hard to imagine what would stand today in the famous singlehander’s place if not for his and Ian Bruce’s influence. Yet rather than lay platitudes upon Bruce’s obituary, I thought it best to turn over this space to Kirby himself, to have him reflect on…

OLYMPIC AND Paralympic hopefuls love training in Miami over the winter. In January, the city of Miami reciprocated that love by opening Regatta Park in time to host the Sailing World Cup Miami. For the first time in more than two decades, all fleets launched from boat parks along the Coconut Grove shoreline. Many sailors had given up on the multimillion-dollar Regatta Park project, which was proposed in 2008 as part of a comprehensive shoreline improvement. But by scaling down the original plan, the city was able to open the area to the public in the fall of 2015. The World Cup was the first regatta on its schedule. Seven acres of grass and pathways replaced the decrepit Coconut Grove Exposition Center, providing a venue to house 49er, FX and…

AT REGATTAS AROUND the world, Russian is a language heard more often these days. With the demise of the USSR some 25 years ago, a number of wealthy individuals have inevitably emerged across the former Soviet states. Some of these have chosen to spend some of their hard-earned — or not so hard-earned — rubles on taking up our sport. Before Gorbachev and the easing of the regime, the USSR was best known for its Olympic sailing, a fact helped by the authorities, who were able to cherry-pick talent from across the breadth of the world’s largest country by landmass. Most notable among this talent was Valentin Mankin, one of the most successful Olympic sailors of all time, and still the only person to have won gold medals in three…

WHEN I ARRIVED at Oracle Team USA’s compound in San Francisco in 2013 for a sail aboard the AC72, then-tactician John Kostecki instructed me to pay close attention to the safety briefing, which was a 30-minute routine given to anyone who stepped on the boat. This safety session was far different from any other I’d attended over my many years of racing. In that half-hour, I learned how to use a Spare Air oxygen tank and all the custom safety gear I’d be wearing, including a helmet. I felt as if I was being prepped for a fighter jet sortie. To borrow a line from Bob Dylan, the sport it is a-changin’. The America’s Cup is only one highly visible example of safety protocols being refined. The Cup’s foiling catamarans…

In 1948, when Richmond’s greatgrandfather was sailing on Garner Tullis’ legendary Havana racer, the 60-foot schooner Windjammer, the Cuban rum Bacardi was taking the world by storm. The Bacardi family had distilled their way since 1862 to become the premier rum makers around the globe, as well as one of the top economic powerhouses in Cuba and the Caribbean. With access to acres of sugarcane fields and a growing appetite for the liquor among the public, this family business produced what was arguably the first highly distilled rum with a consistent level of quality. Ernest Hemingway brought more cachet to the famed Cuban rum and was notorious for his consumption of Bacardi double daiquiris at the long bar of Floridita’s, on Calle Obispo in Old Havana. Castro’s revolution in 1959,…

LIKE SKIERS AT the top of a giant slalom run, sailors using pre-race mental imagery probably visualize launching off the starting line into a strong position against the fleet. From there, we know playing the shifts and keeping good speed will bring success, but we don’t always envision what happens when our lane closes with 30 seconds to go, or how to recover from being late to the lineup. With the help of aerial pictures from photographer Keith Brash and Quantum Sails, we can look at two teams (highlighted in red and green) that had very different ideas of how to escape trouble in a 54-boat J/70 start at Quantum Key West Race Week. The outcome of their decisions can be a valuable lesson to all of us for any…

THE WAY IT IS I STEP OUT of the rental car and stare at the stately three-story Southern YC. As a New Englander, I’m used to old, humble yacht clubs. I’ve never seen anything like Southern. I’m anxious about the high school regatta that has brought me to New Orleans for the first time, but once I walk into the place, I’m instantly at ease. I can tell it’s all about sailing. This is going to be fun. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans, Southern’s clubhouse burned to the ground, but even without a clubhouse, the members held regattas, including the Great Oaks Invitational, which started 17 years ago. The purpose of the regatta is to give developing high school teams the experience of a national championship. For…

AS A ROUND-THE-WORLD skipper, I spend 90 percent of my time managing the crew and their expectations. When I applied for the job of skipper for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, I was coming to the end of a 24-year career in the British Army. Those who volunteer for military service do so for a reason. This is also true of the paying crew of the Clipper Race. As a leader and motivator, if my crew wants to be there and do well, I’ve won the battle. In the Clipper Race, skippers have a privileged position; we are highly trained and have seen most situations in which we’ll be sailing. Our charges hang on our every word and do exactly what we say. It is challenging to teach…

IT’S JUST BEFORE sunset in Key Largo, Florida, and at the end of a long day of racing, three Moth sailors are gearing up to launch again. They’re stoked — it’s not often they go night sailing in their foiling craft. Plus, they’re about to be part of something unique, a photography project of mine. The project is meant to highlight the soulful, adventurous side of sailors as well as the evolving technology of sailing, letting the boats star in the shoot. I’ve pulled inspiration from other adventure sports, working to come up with images that are as innovative as the technology in the boats and the tools I use to shoot them. I initially tried to make the project work with Lasers, but there was too much light bouncing…

IT USUALLY TAKES a catastrophe to alert us to a problem. How many bridges must fall before we deal with our aging infrastructure? Will we deplete Social Security before we address the situation? Why is doing what’s needed always a priority once it’s too late? I might ask the same of our Olympic sailing efforts. American sailing has a long history of Olympic domination: No country has won more total medals than the United States. We lead the count when it comes to silver and bronze medals. Only Great Britain holds more gold. Since 1932, American sailors have won medals in every Olympic regatta in which they’ve competed, but not in 2012. Getting skunked was inevitable. The warning signs were there, but it took a kick in the ass to…

OUR RULEBOOK contains only six pages of rules that apply when two or more boats meet on the course. Those are the rules in Part 2, “When Boats Meet.” It’s obvious we need basic right-of-way rules (Rules 10, 11 and 12) and some limitations on the actions of rightof-way boats (Rules 14, 15 and 16.1), but those rules occupy only one of the six pages. Some of the rules on the other five pages puzzle many sailors. Here I’ll discuss why four of those puzzling rules are in the book. Rule 24.1 is simple: If you’re not racing, don’t interfere with boats that are — it’s basic courtesy. A reader once asked me, however, why the phrase “if reasonably possible” is in the rule. Those words are there to handle…

I have always been fascinated with balanced objects. Buildings, stones, sculpture—the more impossible a balanced item looks, the more intriguing. I have been thinking for a long time about how to bring almost unbelievable centers of gravity into objects that are practical. A good floor lamp is hard to find, so after our children destroyed our paper-lantern shaded floor lamp while playing hide-n-seek, we went shopping and found nothing. I decided I wanted to build a balanced and beautiful floor lamp. Lamp construction is very approachable. Lamp-specific hardware elements are readily available for next-to-nothing on a few well run internet stores. Aside from these standard fittings and castings, any material can be incorporated and the design possibilities are endless. Design The inspiration for this lamp would be a Fiddlehead Fern.…

When Jan Gougeon built Strings in 2010 one of the most interesting features he included, at least from my point of view, was the float that goes on top of the mast. Due to its zeppelin-like shape, this is also called a blimp or a dirigible. The purpose of the float is to make the boat self-rescuing: if the boat tips, the float prevents it from going any farther than lying on its side. The mast and float are then used to right the boat. Jan developed this system when designing the Gougeon-32 back in the late ’80s, so he thought it would work for Strings. Jan built the float by making a half mold to build the two halves from, then gluing the sections together. He simply used pink…

FRANCK CAMMAS HAS prevailed against adversity before, but his attempt to return to sailing’s pinnacle event, after almost losing his foot in a gruesome accident last year, may be the worst he’s faced yet. Unable to properly coach his team for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series or continue his campaign for the Rio Olympics in the Nacra 17, Cammas has another worry: how to make up for a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall for Groupama Team France’s America’s Cup campaign. Despite all this, Cammas retains a stoic face and positive public demeanor. “It is just life. Sometimes you don’t have a choice,” says Cammas. “You just have to find a way to bounce back.” The Volvo Ocean Race-winning skipper had managed to avoid major injury throughout his career. His luck…

WHEN ANDERSON REGGIO, a principal race officer, is running a regatta for 400 Optimist sailors, he says his biggest concern is “getting 400 kids off the dock, and then getting 400 smiling kids back at the end of the day.” His focus on safety keeps him up at night. Reggio notes that the logistics at huge youth events are staggering, and most of the time there are large groups of Opti-Moms with clipboards, making checklists as sailors leave shore and return at the end of the day. The problem is the lists have to be cross-checked manually, and there is no emergency information linked to each clipboard. Now there’s a better way. What Steve Jobs did for personal computing, past Olympian Graham Biehl and co-founder Chris Jones are doing for…

ALTHOUGH A UNIVERSITY situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is an unlikely sailing school, the sailors at Columbia University prove they’re up to the task. These city-slicker Ivy Leaguers may be in one of the busiest cities in the world, but they are located on an island, after all, and commute five days a week in sailing season to City Island YC, in the Bronx. The facility is 40 minutes from campus in traffic. “There are many days when we can sit in traffic on the Cross-Bronx Expressway for over an hour,” says Lauren Bednarz, head coach for the team. “The sailors deal with the commute well and know that getting time on the water is well worth the trip.” During the season, the sailors are required to…

Part Two The finished boat was delivered to its new owners the summer of 2015. Here are the proud new owners of a Van Dam Custom original, doing what it was meant to do-having fun and LUV N IT! Cover Photo: Nokomis, the sister ship to LUV N IT. Photo taken by Michel Berryer In the previous issue of Epoxyworks, we looked at the start up process employed by the craftsmen at Van Dam Custom Boats as they built LUV N IT, affectionately referred to as the Limousine in Part One. We ended our “tour” of this build with the hull stained and pre-coated with WEST SYSTEM® 105 Resin/207 Special Clear Hardener, and the custom-built stainless steel cutwater being fitted for installation. Let’s pick up the build with the cabin…

During warm summer months, handling characteristics of WEST SYSTEM Epoxy will be different than at other times of the year. Our cure times are based on an ambient temperature of 72°F, but in warmer temperatures the epoxy will cure faster. There are some steps you can take to ensure good results when using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy in warm environments. Epoxy cures by a chemical reaction between the resin and hardener that releases heat, called an exothermic reaction. The larger the volume of epoxy the more heat that is generated. Many epoxy users have seen pots of epoxy uncontrollably exotherm. The good news is there are some things you can do to prevent this. A good rule of thumb for gauging cure speed is that for every 18°F increase above 72°F,…