THE
WORLD PICTURE
The world is simply
FULL of record attempts, huge boats, and fast boats. You can chase them
on the web for a long evening's entertainment if you are interested.
There are a couple things, however, that I thought shouldn't be missed.
*****************
Russell
Coutts, the most successful America's Cup was at odds with the Alenghi
team and its billionaire. As best I can figure it out, Coutts wanted
to make it more national, and keep costs down to where more nations
could compete, while Bertarelli wanted to stack it so that the most
money wins. - and given that Paul Cayard found himself in a similar
position, the two of them are cooking up something big.
It would seem that
they want to upstage the America's Cup in favour of a better event.
Fleet racing would replace match racing (which really is not great to
watch), and the boats would be faster, more modern and would race one-design,
and thus far less expensive, and more equal for all to play. All the
costly development costs would be eliminated, and the boats could be
mass-produced. The new boats would have more sail and less crew and
be really a challenge to handle. America's Cup people are concerned
that sponsors will hold back their money, one the possibility of investing
it in this better event. And it would be better, I hope you agree.
******************
Its hard to believe
it, but the 2007 races are underway this month, with what is called
Act 1. Check their website www.amerciascup.com
*****************
The other thing
I might mention, since you might see the boat...Whirlaway
This seems significant
not only for J-35 sailors, but for anyone in the area, because we might
see this 140 footer, since its home is in Seattle. It seems that a J-35
sailor went to New York, and came back as owner of WHIRLAWAY. For more,
see http://www.48north.com/aug_2004/style.htm
Whirlaway, Home in Seattle
TCYC
RACING IN OTHER VENUES
This will be incomplete,
but scanning the various Yacht Clubs, here are the results for TC boats
this summer:
Whidbey
Island Race Week
HARWAR Roy Hossack 11th (Raced with short crew)
RVYC
Wednesday Evenings
LODESTAR, Glen Mitchell,
May Series 4th,
June Series 5th,
July Series 4th,
August Series 5th.
FCYC
Spring Series (Thursday evenings).
URBAN WELL, Chris Bligh 1st
PEGASUS Gerry Furseth 1st
SASSY Stu Hicks 2nd
MAKAI Tim Coughlin 3rd
ALDERBARAN Darrell Lesueur 4th
WVYC
Wednesday Night Series
Nobody!!
VRC
Suntan Series
SENZA, Ernie Fiedler 1st
MAKAI, Tim Coughlin 6th
Apologies to those
I've overlooked
TCYC'S
OWN RACES
Summer Shorts
Series
Summer
Shorts Race #1, 15 Minutes After Start
Summer
Shorts Race #4, At The Start
The
Summer Shorts series went as planned, in winds ranging from light to
lighter. Gerry Furseth served as race committee. Sometime soon, I hope
to get the results, and they will be published!
Summer
Shorts Racing
English Bay Scramble
Tiddly
Cove English Bay Scramble
And a scramble it
was! This year, it was anything but obvious, which way to go, as proven
by the fact that we had a sizeable fleet of boats heading out in all
four directions from the start. In case you're reading this, and wondering
if you did it right, here's some interesting data:
Average corrected time for those that started to Kits 3:35
... to the Bellbuoy 3:59
... to Passage Island 3:55
... and to QB: 4:30
The overall winning
boat went Kits, QB, Finish, Passage, Bellbuoy.
And I doubt if that's
a lot of help on figuring which way to go next year!
Scramble for the Race Committee Too
Not only the sailors
had SCRAMBLE, but the committee, Graham McClashan, his bride, myself,
and Lynne Allen, had enough scramble for a whole season. We acquired
the use of Lynne Allen's boat -Lynne crews on Senza...It was a great
boat, - except that the engine died, three nm. short of the start line.
From this point, the success of the race is a tribute to many people
pitching in to rescue the situation. We tried to sail, but the wind
was light and the boat is heavy. To the rescue was HARWAR, which towed
that 19 tons of steel boat out to the start line. Next, HAVOC took the
separator mark out to set it (with a much oversized anchor). Then LODESTAR
came to the rescue taking out the pin - except that when I picked up
the pin to put it aboard Lodestar, it broke in two pieces in my hand!
We still gave it to Lodestar, along with a lead ball, and they did a
great job of improvising a pin - that worked.
The start went OK - except for a pretty weak horn -
Next challenge
- the S I's said the midline pin would be lifted after the start. How
to do that?? Lynne and I rowed her dinghy out to the mid-line buoy,
deflated it and tried to pull up the anchor, only to discover that with
eight inches of freeboard, and 18 inches of chop, you had to leave the
dinghy free to rise with the waves, or the waves would come right on
into the dinghy. We might have gotten the dinghy down to the anchor,
but we sure weren't going to get the anchor up to the dinghy. So the
mostly deflated mark floated "like a dead soldier" for the
rest of the race. But what were we to do at the end of the race?? We
couldn't go anywhere.
A freighter came
uncomfortably close while Lynne and I were out in the dinghy, and Graham
hastily hoisted Lynne's bike helmet up the forestay for the "black
ball" which signifies that a boat is anchored. We (mostly the very
resourceful Lynne) spent hours working on the engine. She cut and fitted
new fuel lines to an alternative fuel tank, and bled the air from the
system (repeatedly), until we got the Monsterous Mitsubishi going -
and we kept it going for the last couple of hours of the race and thereafter.
By the time we had hoisted Lynne's big anchor, the two marks, and then
Lynne's dinghy aboard that high cabin-we felt we'd been through the
war! Sorry there was no time for taking pictures that day!
Ernie Fiedler
It's Not Over
Yet!
September
25, Last Chance Series. One more day of racing for the Tiddly Cove Yacht
Club Season Championship!
CLUB
MEETINGS
September
The September meeting
will be September 16, at the Maritime Museum. There will be a BBQ and
tall tales of summer experiences, told by those who experienced them.
October
The October meeting
will still be on October 21, but the program has been changed. We are
going to see a film my Gary Jobson. I'm not going to say much about
it- you'll have to check it out in next months Winks, but having read
about this film, I'm really eager to see it. It sounds fantastic!
CRUISING
NEWS
Centre Bay
The scene is changing
rapidly in "our nitch" in Centre Bay. All the lots are sold,
and building is underway in several of them. The east third of the cove
is now water lease, and to anchor there is to trespass. The others have
rights to build very small floats only. The couple that has lot 29,
second lot north of the tree swing, welcomes boaters to anchor, and
the others will also, having no choice.
Southern Gulf
Island National Park
Yes, a national
park of this name, is being established. A representative from the park
will be at our September meeting, and a meeting will happen at WVYC
on Sept 23, where we can have input into what boaters would like. If
we don't speak up we miss a great opportunity, and the right to complain
if we don't like the park!
OTHER NEWS
Canadians
Win Silver Medal
Of course you know
this already, but Ross MacDonald of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, with
his crew Mike Wolfs, won the silver medal in star class at the Olympics.
You may not, on the other hand, realize the level of achievement this
represents. The sailors in the star class had far more Olympic experience
than any other class -- with some of the great names in sailing. Various
sources raised $150,000 for their campaign, which Ross says made the
difference. They were free to hire a professional coach and lay aside
every concern other than sailing.
Ross already has a bronze in the Star Class at the Olympics.
Torben Grael of Brazil won gold.
On behalf of the
Tiddly Cove Yacht Club, I salute Ross and Mike.
Happy
Canadians Ross and Mike
Want
To Follow the America's Cup?
ACT I THIS WEEK!
You'll need this address:
www.americascup.com/en/americascup/places/valence/journey2007.php
The Teams of the 32nd America's Cup
ALINGHI Société
Nautique de Genève - SUI
BMW ORACLE RACING
(Challenger Of Record)
Golden Gate Yacht Club - USA
+ 39 Circolo Vela
Gargnano - ITA
TEAM SHOSHOLOZA
Royal Cape Yacht Club - RSA
EMIRATES TEAM NEW
ZEALAND
Royal New Zealand
Yacht Squadron - NZL
LUNA ROSSA Yacht
Club Italiano - ITA
Club Delegation Lobbies Premier
Hoping for the best
possible influence with the B. C. Government, our youngest member was
selected for a conference with Premier Gordon Campbell on June 27. Our
delegate was Adrien Granoux, son of Sabine and Arnaud. If better provisions
for racing, crewing and partying develop over the coming months, it
will be understandable.
Conference
Update
Your Yearbook
Carl Eden's new
email: ceden@telus.net
The 10 Best Places To Sail
Where are the best
places to sail in the U.S.? In the June issue, Sail magazine offers
its selection of the country's 10 most sail-friendly towns and harbors.
Employing a criteria that includes such factors as sailing conditions,
length of season, access to cruising grounds, and strength of the sailing
community, our edit staff sifted through a seemingly endless number
of possible harbors and came up with a list sure to evoke both the praise
and ire of Sail readers. Here are the ten harbors that the editors selected:
- Bayfield, WI
- Bristol, RI
- Camden, ME
- Charlotte Harbor, FL
- Oriental, NC
- Oxford, MD
- Port Townsend, WA
- San Diego, CA
- Sausalito, CA
- Seward, AK
I agree with the
Port Townsend - great sailing, but if they included Canada, there'd
be places at least as good.
ed.
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