La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art

In 1986 I received a request from The La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, for material for an exhibit they were producing on the subject of sailing. I stumbled upon this letter searching for something else. I doubt the curator had any idea of exactly what or why he was requesting these items. In fact, my harnesses changed the way racing boats were handled. No bowman, today would not be wearing his harness all the time. Sail changes evolved as a result, closing the gap between closed course racing and offshore racing.

last snow of 2008

It is snowing. I am waiting to shovel, burning off the calories of the holidays. 

It seems Bernie Madoff is the poster child of the unraveling of the economy. perhaps even a candidate for man of the year, he is the manifest icon of what happened.

On to the purpose of my post: Ted Turner at the end of the 1974 America's Cup trials, In the photograph Ted has just been notified that "Mariner" the Britton Chance design has been eliminated from the trails. The syndicate tried everything even major surgery to the boat in the middle of the summer, all to no avail.The boat was just slow, finishing last in the consolation race, even losing to France 1, sailed by Baron Bic.  I sailed aboard the boat for that race.

During the winter of 1973-74  while I was building "Courageous" at Minneford's in City Island; I took a class in tank testing at Stevens Institute in Hoboken taught by Peter Desaix. Peter, at the time was exuberant about the results produced by "Mariner" in the tank, claiming a breakthrough. He would later recant his claim realizing a flaw in the test data.

It was a bitter blow for all involved. The relationship between Ted and Brit soured,hence the poster circulated during the Southern Circuit. Ted felt betrayed by Dennis Connor, who had been his tactician, but recruited by "Courageous" as a starting helmsman. Brit Chance's career was put in jeopardy; although he recovered with his design of the one tonner  "Resolute Salmon". 

These events probably contributed to Ted's choice of "Courageoous" for 1977; a proven quantity. Not taking any chances. Surrounded by his "inner circle" those who stayed loyal to him. 

Hobnail Boots

After arriving in Ireland at the finish of the Trans-atlantic race; I was informed that I was included on the list of invited to all the events in Cowes; which meant that I would need a dinner jacket and other appropriate clothes.

On the first saturday after our arrival in Cork I went to the flea market. There I found A pair of Hobnail Boots, perfect for black shoes. Once we arrived in England we hauled out immediately at Camper & Nicholson's Yard in Gosport; once the boat was secure, I took the train to London buying a very nice double breasted, double vented blazer, which I still own. After the Channel race we moved "Carina" to Souter's Yard in Cowes. After racing one afternoon I shopped for a pair of black trousers, so ugly that they were really a one time use. My tie was a piece of ribbon(red, white and blue) that had decorated a bottle of wine that was used to celebrate the 4th of July during the race.

I did attend the Royal London Yacht Club Ball, sharing a table with Sir Alec Rose, who raced "Lively Lady" single-handed a number of times across the atlantic.

"My Life" Ed du Moulin

I unexpectedly received at Christmas a copy of Ed du Moulin's book "My Life". During the Jubilee in 2001 at Cowes Ed came aboard "Columbia" the 12 meter along with Jim Hardy and presented me with a copy of his book " The America's Cup and Me".

I am a big fan of autobiographies.I have already read the book cover to cover; finding so many familiar names entwined in the stories found there.

I raced to Spain with Rich in 1972 aboard "Charisma" belonging to Jesse Philips. I found the stories that Rich would have told his father in the book. I look back at these events fondly, and have only the best memories of all the crew.

Jesse was in the process of divorcing his wife of 27 years. He spent so much time on the SSB that he would run the batteries down. We told Jesse that he had to be careful. His response was that Huey Long on "Ondine" seemed to have no problem , why was it that he did?

Copies of these books are available by contacting the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol Rhode Island.

The Morning After

It snowed all day long today adding at least another inch the the total. We received about 9 inches as of this morning. The wind never materialized, amazing considering the weather map. I shoveled a total of about 12 hours, certainly burns calories, although I can think of more amusing ways to do it.

First Real Snow

This afternoon the snow started as predicted. Several inches an hour, no wind yet. Not particularly cold. Tomorrow morning will tell the whole story.

 Yesterday I spent some time with a group who are trying to leave Newport for Florida. Naturally the suggestion was that they hold off this weekend and start watching the weather forecasts for a window of 48-72 hours; about as much as you might hope for at this time of the year. If they can get to Norfolk, the rest of the trip is easy. It it this first few hundred miles that is trying.

"Norrie The Story"

I wrote yesterday about Norry Hoyt and my fond memories of him. I should add that he sailed across the Atlantic at least 28 times, never mind all the other sailing he did. His stories captured my imagination.

Later in Life I came to understand that the truth should not stand in the way of a good story. My copy of "Addicted to Sail" has numerous annotations in the margins, since for many of the stories I was either present or knew the parties involved. Sometimes multiple stories were blended together. Mind you I am not in the least trying to be disparaging about Norrie. I have reached an age or sufficient time has passed that I am entirely capable of unintentionally doing the same thing. Sometimes the words just plain flow better.

Norris D. Hoyt

Norrie Hoyt, teacher, shipmate, mentor. A wonderful intelligent, engaging, kind man with a tireless curious mind. My English teacher at St. George's School, with whom I sailed my first Bermuda Race. He was probably responsible for my enduring interest in photography. He forced me into an orderly mind. 

Norrie wrote a book titled "Addicted to Sail" a charming little book in which his enthusiasm pours out on the reader. 

At school his apartment was always full of students, Norrie and his wife never seemed to mind. They made students feel welcome and cared for. To this day I do not know how they managed. English class was always stories of sailing which kept us captivated.

When Sail Magazine was started almost every cover the first ten years were photographs taken by Norrie.

Norrie held a Phd in English Literature and his swimming records stood for years at Yale.

World Yacht Racing Forum

December 10-11 of this year was the first attempt to bring together Professionals in the Yachting Industry; held in Monaco. I will emphasize the word Professional; as that seems to be the true essence of the meeting. It was not about bringing more people into sailing, or how to build sailing as a sport but really about how to get the most bang for your buck in sailing.

Tim Jeffrey of the UK wrote most clearly about the meeting. Like Formula One Auto racing this group of people and the events in which they participate have very little impact on the sailing I am involved in, no matter how seriously I may wish to think of myself.

November 2008

I'm back. I have not made a posting since the beginning of November. I have been out of contact, so to speak, without a computer. I was in France; in the Pyrenees Mountains. I had not been there in perhaps 15 years. I was married there, my first child was born there. I am American, born and bred, however my ties to this part of the world are deep and strong. The sounds, smells and sights were all very familiar to me.

The Snow in the Mountains was already so deep that the danger of avalanche was already real. The Mountain in the photo is the Pic Du Midi. with an observatory at the top. Interestingly this peak is exactly on the Greenwich Meridian.

Admiral's cup 1969

1969 was my first Admiral's Cup and first Fastnet Race. The Admiral's Cup team: Carina, Palawan, and Red Rooster. The Dick Carter designed Red Rooster was chosen for the team before she hit the water. It proved to be a good choice.

This is also the first time I met Syd Fisher owner of a long line of boats called "Ragamuffin"

this one being a 49 foot S&S design. As Carina was approximately the same size we were tasked with covering Ragamuffin. I had never encountered a boat as well sailed as Ragamuffin.

Racing was under the RORC rule, used in almost every country except the United States, where we sailed under the CCA rule. 1969 was the year that the IOR rule would replace both older rules. "Carina" had been launched in the spring of 1969 and the IOR was not yet published. McCurdy and Rhodes had been tasked to design a boat that would rate fairly under any rule. (Many of you may be familiar with "Carina" as she is still winning race today 40 years later.)

The United States team scored well enough to win the Cup. the photo shows Max Atkin and Dick Nye holding the cup. The black and white photo is at the prize awarding in Plymouth at the finish of the Fastnet Race,if you look closely you will notice Ted Turner, Dick Cater, Alan Paul Hope Kirkpatrick in the picture.

The Fastnet race became one of my favorite races; although I have only completed 5 .

Trans-atlantic 1969

June 1969 was the start of the Trans-Atlantic race to Cork Ireland from Newport Rhode Island at the Brenton reef tower, now just a memory. the finish at Daunt light ship.

Sailing aboard "Carina". We won our class, in a race that was commemorating the anniversary of the oldest yacht club in the western hemisphere The Royal Cork Yacht Club, founded in 1720. It is hard to summarize a 15 day long race in a few pictures and a few paragraphs.

1969, as many of you may remember was an eventful year. The Newport Bridge was completed. I took the photo of the bridge and the ferry from the stern of "Carina" as we headed out to the start. I returned at the end of the summer, my college roommate picked me up at the airport. The question on everyone's lips was :"did you go to Woodstock?" To which I replied : "What's Woodstock?"Perhaps my most memorable moment of the race, was the cold rainy night that the BBC stayed on the air after midnight to carry the landing on the Moon.

After cruising the south and west coasts of Ireland, where the Irish where the greatest of hosts, "Carina' headed to England for the Admiral's Cup and the Fastnet race.

TRAVEMUNDE 1968

The finish of the 1968 trans-atlantic race was in Travemunde, West Germany; having started in Bermuda, a week after the finish of the Bermuda Race. It is known as the Monte Carlo of the north.

It is important to put this in historical context. The photograph of what appears to be a field is really a road fenced off and protected by land mines. The Family of our assigned host was still on the "other" side. I would run in the morning on the beach until I arrived at the fence, land mines, and the guard with a dog and a machine gun. It gave reality to the plight Europe had experienced and as a young American; I had only read about in a history book.

The Germans were extraordinary hosts. ( I had occasion to experience this again in 2003 in Hamburg)The easy formality I did not fully appreciate at the time.

Another of the crew, in fact a classmate and myself had the clever idea to cash in our airplane tickets home and buy a car, the plan would be to re-sell the car at the end of the summer and re-purchase tickets home. This decision resulted in many adventures. The engine blew up on the highway in Denmark. As you may have guessed we lost our investment. I can look back today with a smile;at our youthful indiscretion. The stories of foolishness are more often than not, amusing.

ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON

The Royal Yacht Squadron was founded in June 1815; long considered the most prestigious yacht club, perhaps in the world.

Some years ago, I bought at auction two volumes pictured here, "Burnets Own Times" 1838. Opening the front cover I found a do not take label. I contacted the RYS librarian concerning these tombs. The response was one wondering how it could be that I might have possession of these books. A tone I initially interpreted as accusatory . I recovered from this thought and in 2005 at the finish of the Trans-atlantic race co-hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron , I returned the books to the Club.

602 MILES IN 24 HOURS

Ericsson 4 has sailed 602 miles in 24 hours. wow

585 miles in 24 hours

Ericsson 4 the Volvo 70 with skipper Torben Grael has sailed 585 miles in 24 hours; a new monohull record. Rumor is that they may exceed 600 miles iin the next 24 hours. This is a really hard thing to accomplish; to be able to maintain these speeds for extended periods of time. It is the adrenalin rush that keeps crews returning for the punishment they receive in return.

Speedboat, probably could not achieve these speeds, except under ideal conditions, strong wind well aft, a regular sea state, not too confused. And then probably not for several days in a row.

BOOKPLATE

I have been working on this for years. My bookplate. As with so many things I worked around it until I realized what I wanted, I already 
had. The finished product has the lettering on it. 

I am sure everyone has now realized that Speedboat dropped out of their trans-atlantic record attempt. Conceptually the coolest boat on earth. 

New York Yacht Club Race Week 2008

In July, I raced on J-109 belonging to Peter Rugg.I had previously written about the exciting Sunday, our final day of the regatta. The forecast was for intense thunderstorms. we managed racing in the morning, when powerful clouds appeared over Pt. Judith; the race committee chose to start a race, anyway. I was too busy on the boat to get photographs. These are from a boat that was nearby; caught by the same storm.

VIRGIN MONEY aka SPEEDBOAT

Speedboat left today from New York in an attempt to break the monohull powered winch trans-atlantic record. Aboard is an all star crew headed by Mike Sanderson.

I freely confess that I am envious. Six days across the Atlantic is exciting and not so hard. In my opinion the hard part on this boat, will be not breaking it. In other words press as hard as you can without reaching the limits of the boat.;ie. never redlining.Speedboat is much larger than a Volvo 70 used in the Round the World race, however she is more fragile, not built for the punishment the Volvo 70's are.

I will be following their progress with interest and envy.

Commodore Tompkins

Warwick Tompkins, one of the finest sailors I ever had the pleasure of sailing with. Not only a complete seaman, but a great closed course sailor as well. Independent minded and clear thinking, which occasionally caused friction, but usually right. It may be that this personality trait kept him from being recognized as the truly great sailor he is.

I would, in the words of another friend, sail with Renzo, anywhere, anytime.