Sailing WorldSeptember - October 2015的目錄

WE’RE CRUISING west on San Francisco’s Lombard Street, late for a photo shoot at the St. Francis YC. The late-afternoon traffic is thick but flowing. Paul Cayard, the unshaven 56-year-old hall-of-famer, is in the driver’s seat of his son’s blue Ford F-250. I’m peppering him with questions from the passenger seat as he jags from lane to lane. He’s on a roll, but misjudges a lane change and suddenly lays on the brakes, coming full stop behind a small utility truck waiting to turn across a stream of oncoming traffic. “Damn,” he mumbles, shooting a glance in the rearview mirror. “This toolbox is going to want to go left.” Without a moment’s hesitation, and seizing the opportunity, he jabs the wheel right and guns the truck into the right lane.…

STU MCNAY AND DAVE HUGHES’ Olympic campaign was tested with midyear distractions — McNay and his wife welcomed a daughter in July, and his and Hughes’ friend and teammate Trevor Moore was lost at sea. Such disruptions can derail a campaign, but the partners maintained focus, winning gold at two important 470 events back to back. “We found out that Trevor was missing in the middle of Europeans,” says Hughes. “We had to make the decision to go home or continue to compete. We knew that staying was the decision he would want us to make. When we won, that was all for Trevor.” They both credit their chemistry for the team’s gold medal haul at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in June and the 470 European Championships in July,…

WHILE THERE’S ZERO QUESTION that modern electronics, state-of-the-art design, and laminate sails ensure speed and safety offshore, they also strip away a certain element of adventure. Fortunately, for anyone who appreciates bigger, bolder question marks and lower-percentage outcomes, the Golden Globe Race of 2018 is offering a portal back to the so-called golden days of low-tech offshore sailing. Round-the-world racing began with the fabled Sunday Times-sponsored Golden Globe Race of 1968-1969, which saw Sir Robin Knox-Johnston best a fleet of eight to complete the world’s first nonstop, singlehanded circumnavigation aboard Suhaili, a 34-foot Bermudan ketch. Knox-Johnston’s achievement made international headlines, and the art of singlehanded round-the-world racing was born. However, as interest and participation levels swelled, and marine electronics, yacht design, and weather routing became increasingly sophisticated, the adventure quotient…

THERE ARE SMILES all around. It’s a Wednesday night, and roughly 160 crews around the Annapolis waterfront are rigging their boats for another twilight race. A light southerly breeze is spread across the Chesapeake Bay, and the race committee is on station for the first warning signal at 1810 — sharp. Soon, in fiveminute intervals, class after class sails across the starting line, flanked by a dozen spectator boats out watching the races and cheering for friends. The bay is soon filled with sails, black and white, small and large, working to windward toward the first turning mark. It’s a sight to behold, and it’s one that plays out all across America on any given summer’s eve. Twilight racing, beer-can racing — call it what you will. It’s the pulse…

The All Blacks of sailing are the longest-running America’s Cup team in modern history, having challenged for every Cup since 1987 (bar one, the two-boat race between Alinghi and Oracle in 2010), and now have their sights set firmly on the 35th Match. Those three decades have witnessed upheaval and dramatic personnel changes, celebrated successes ( victory in 1995 and successful defense in 2000) and crushing losses (the one-second defeat by Alinghi in 2007, and the comeback loss to Oracle Team USA in 2013). Eight campaigns have been led by superstar skippers and team directors who have been feted as national heroes or vilified countrywide — or both. Sir Peter Blake, Russell Coutts, Grant Dalton and Dean Barker are household names, and the recent fallout between the latter two was…

The first of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series regattas will have been done and dusted by the end of July, and for all the teams, challengers and defender alike, it seems as if it’s been a long trip to get to this milestone. It’s not the first hurdle in the America’s Cup game, not by a long shot, but it is the most public one, being the first showcase regatta to kick off the 35th America’s Cup in 2017. The next Cup will be like none of its predecessors. So many aspects have changed that we can be forgiven for not recognizing the next two years as a buildup to an event referred to as “yachting’s Holy Grail.” Mind you, when we boil it down, each team is…

When the cameras are live and the reporters swarm Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Volvo Ocean 65, de Castro promptly shuns the spotlight. As a seasoned veteran of the race, he belongs frontand-center, but he doesn’t like interviews. Instead, at the arrival pontoon, he fades into the bustle of shore crew putting the boat to bed as soon as its docklines are made. While his skipper crouches at the lifelines, fielding questions, de Castro will find a line to coil, a sail to move, or a hushed conversation with one of his teammates — anything to avoid the cameras. A few of his teammates celebrate the leg’s completion and victory, but the mop-haired 45-year-old Spaniard simply waves to the crowd, smiles, and goes about his business as usual. It is said…

THE INTERNATIONAL 110 originated in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1939, and today it is experiencing a rebirth, 3,000 miles away from its East Coast origins, in the even smaller seaside town of Inverness, California, which is located at the gateway to Point Reyes Peninsula, with two parks — one national and one state — that are populated by more elk, mountain lions, whales and dolphins than sailors. The town’s population of 1,304 people live surrounded by natural beauty. ONE-DESIGN FLEETS ELSEWHERE IN THE COUNTRY ARE SHRINKING, BUT NOT BILLER’S. SHE BUILT HERS FROM TWO BOATS TO 23, ONE BOAT AT A TIME. There’s also an immigrant population of 110s, led by 62-year-old Milly Biller, who has been at the helm of a 110 since she was 5 years old. That’s when…

LAMBASTED IN A Miami Tribune editorial as “dangerously naive stooges of Castro’s propaganda,” crews racing in the 1994 Sarasota to Havana Regatta were forced to navigate a gauntlet of angry protestors as they readied their boats. Coast Guard, police, and news helicopters buzzed the 85 docked sailboats while the crews readied sails and stowed gear and supplies. Official patrol boats from the Tampa Bay area scoured the harbor, while scuba teams methodically searched the bottom of each vessel for bombs before giving the skippers clearance to head to the race start. Along the waterfront, rumors circulated about an opposing fleet of anti-Castro boats waiting to strike the racers in the Florida Straits. Rarely, if ever, can one find such a controversial and colorful history for a simple sailboat race with the…

What do science, technology, engineering, math and ocean conservation have to do with the Volvo Ocean Race? Well, just about everything! That’s why US Sailing and Harken teamed up to create an Exploration Zone at the Volvo Ocean Race Newport Stopover in May. The US Sailing Reach program teaches STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education through sailing, and what better place to spotlight the connection than the Volvo Stopover? The Harken-provided interactive purchase system display let kids explore the concept of mechanical advantage. A simple machine scavenger hunt had participants searching the Race Village for examples of STEM in sailing. What was their favorite simple machine? The 75mm winch on the Volvo 65s, a great example of a wheel and axle. Class field trips, organized by schools from four…

AFTER THE completion of the Volvo Ocean Race, I was talking with Mark Towill, co-founder of Team Alvimedica, and he was sharing a familiar sentiment. Mark’s team got into the race without a lot of experience but was as prepared as possible. However, there’s no experience like actually sailing the racecourse, and after more than eight months and 40,000 miles at sea, he now felt prepared to start the race. Wisdom is wonderful when it arrives, typically right after you need it. This seems to apply to most everything we do. As a parent, I think about this often. My kids are now in college, and whatever I’ve done thus far is done. But all those years before, I was winging it. Oftentimes it felt like the Volvo Ocean Race:…

The opening event of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth, England, in July saw the first competitive outing for the fleet of AC45Fs. The AC45 was no slouch around the racecourse in its original form, but a bigger wing sail, adjustable dagger foils, and a set of rudder elevators has transformed it into a supercharged flying machine. These performance-enhancing features dramatically increase the boat’s complexity, and yet the crew remains limited to five, putting a huge premium on fitness — crew work constantly at close-to-maximum heart rate — and boathandling during the fast and furious 25-minute ACWS races. AC45F sailors need to be quick thinking and adaptable to deal with the fast pace of the action. As Land Rover BAR wing trimmer Giles Scott explains, their crew…

One of the very first things Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker did after he stepped onto the pontoon in Lorient, France, having closed out the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race with a leg to spare, was to highlight the “incalculable contribution” made by the team’s performance director. That would be, of course, the one and only Neal McDonald. One of the best-known names in ocean racing and a competitor in six Volvo campaigns, McDonald was tasked with building a squad for Walker’s third tilt at sailing’s toughest trophy. The pair already had history, having raced the 2009-2010 edition together aboard the Irish-Chinese entry Green Dragon. Back then, as a self-confessed rookie offshore skipper, Walker picked McDonald as one of his two watch captains to help make up for his…

WHILE COACHING, I’m often asked the best order of depowering. It is a good question because there are several options such as sheets, steering and controls, which all contribute to keeping the boat flat in a breeze. All of these tools should be used, but for just about any boat and condition, my suggestion is to start with the backstay. It’s a control that considerably reshapes both the headsail and mainsail at the same time. Since use of the backstay has almost no downside, it’s an excellent tool to depower the sails. Let’s explore why. The discussion needs to start with how mast bend and forestay sag control the power of the main and jib, respectively. As a quick review, there’s inherent shape built into sails using what’s called “broad…

WILLIE MCBRIDE COACHED 29er sailors at the St. Francis Sailing Foundation Performance Clinic in June, and he asserts that those four days on San Francisco Bay contributed to “the most competitive youth championships in my memory” three weeks later in Bristol. Attending the clinic were 43 of America’s best youth sailors, “the cream of the cream,” as McBride puts it, “with plenty of support on the water, so as coaches, we could push and push.” Three weeks later, the cream rose at Bristol. US Sailing’s Olympic Development Program accepted an invitation to partner with the St. Francis Sailing Foundation to create the clinic, which US Sailing called “an unprecedented gathering” of talent. Think of it this way: When you’re umpteen years young and you’ve sweated to keep up with Olympian…

Nevin Snow has experienced his share of on-the-water achievements. After a strong season that included winning College Sailor of the Year, Snow is spending his summer at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, interning for Global Basketball. In the fall, he will return to Georgetown for his final season of college sailing, and will try his hand at mentoring the team’s young recruits. YOU START YOUR LAST SEASON OF COLLEGE SAILING SOON. WHAT WILL BE YOUR FOCUS? In years past, I’ve probably focused more on winning College Sailor of the Year than on anything else. You always want to do the best at regattas right from the beginning, and you’re under stress to win the Nevins Trophy, win Navy Fall, stuff like that, but this year, we learned a…

I HAD THE PLEASURE of racing my own boat in the Van Isle 360, a nine-leg adventure around Vancouver Island. During the long leg down its west coast, we were surprised by a pod of gray whales migrating north to Alaska for the summer. It was a beautiful sunny day, the wind about 18 knots from the northwest, and we were just cruising downwind and playing the stereo, enjoying the day. Our tranquility was interrupted by a little splash about 100 yards in front of us. All five crew knew right away it was a whale, but it seemed to be tracking off our port side. Not 30 seconds later, a huge gray whale surfaced right next to us, 25 feet away. It was at least as long as our…

“There was a time I got to play at this level, and it was really fun,” said Ed Baird. “It’s great to be here watching my kids race and enjoy the sailing the way I did and still do today.” Perched on top of the new Roger Williams University Sailing Center’s viewing deck, Ed Baird peered through his binoculars at VJG .CUGT 4CFKCN ƃ GGV KP CEVKQP QP Mount Hope Bay. He couldn’t help being nostalgic as he watched his two sons, Nic and Ty, race at the U.S. Youth Sailing Championships. The former Laser and J/24 World Champion, and two-time winner of the America’s Cup (one as helm, one as coach) has an interesting take on the state of youth racing in the U.S. “It’s impressive to see how…

Some things were never intended to fly — take pigs, for example. Planes? Yes. Rockets? Of course. A boat that’s propelled only by sails? Nah. Yet, given mankind’s propensity to make the impossible possible, “flying” sailboats are now commonplace. They’re exotic specimens of efficiency, technology, material and gumption. Exhibit A is the new America’s Cup Class for the 35th America’s Cup. Where the AC72 of past was massive in scale, frighteningly powerful and not necessarily meant to fly on foils, the ACC for Bermuda has made no pretense of doing anything but flying. While some components are strictly one-design for all teams — challengers and defender alike — there’s still exploration aplenty to be found in foils, wings and control systems. Yes, the America’s Cup is still very much a…

WHEN YOU MEET up with another boat in open water, well away from any marks or other boats, applying the rules is usually quite straightforward; the rules are written for pairs of boats. So when an incident involves two boats, you have to consider only the rules that apply for those two boats. But when there are three boats close to one another, things get more complex because you must consider the rules that apply for each pair of boats. For a three-boat incident, there are three pairs of boats; for a four-boat incident, there are six pairs. Let’s consider what, at first glance, seems to be a very simple threeboat incident. The diagram shows Luke, Molly and Willie on starboard tack on a downwind leg. The boats are lightweight…