Sailing qualifications - US
 

Sailing qualifications - US
 

On Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:11:03 GMT, "Thomas, Spring Point Light"
wrote:


but this global warming thing is political.

Only in your corrupt little corner of the world where lobbyists pull
the strings.

Sailing qualifications - US
 

On Mar 1, 5:43 am, wrote:
What do you "unlearn"?
For some racing sailors, it's difficult to relax while cruising but my
observations seem to indicate that it's a personality issue, those
individuals find it difficult to relax *any*where.

Well, attitude is certainly an issue. Some people will like cruising
who don't like racing and the reverse and some will like both...
Racing and cruising are very different. But I wasn't really thinking
about attitude as such. At least in my case the majority of my racing
was done a few hours at a time in the day with the occasional week or
10 days of day races and an an occasional fully crewed long distance
race. When I jumped into cruising full time my fist leg was from
Brisbane to Noumea and my second was Noumea to Opua. While those
aren't particularly long passages by Pacific standards they are
marathons by racing standards. Moreover, I undertook them with just
my girlfriend who was a novice sailor. Just in terms of the sailing,
the mistakes I made on those legs were a result of applying a
sprinter's skill set to a marathon. I won't bore you all with the
gory details but on the first leg I shrimped the kite and on the
second I averaged more than eleven (yes 11) sail changes a day.
Needless to say, my wallet, my psyche and my body all suffered a lot.
While I still set outboard sheets and barberhaulers and run the kite
on a fairly regular basis, as a result of those first two legs I
retrained myself in some pretty fundamental ways. Tweaking is fine
when it amuses, but pace and rhythm are key to passage making. The
pace and rhythm that were engraved in my brain as "sailing" from day
racing weren't just inappropriate to the kind of long distance
cruising that I took up, they were downright dangerous. And it is
that that I am thinking of when I say I had to "unlearn" racing.
There's also a bunch of stuff that I never learned or only thought I
knew from racing that I think are important to safe and enjoyable
cruising. That's a story for another day. But, IMO, the intersection
of day racing skills and long distance cruising skills isn't all that
big...

-- Tom.

Sailing qualifications - US
 

"Dennis Pogson" wrote in
:

I have noticed that "global warming" as a phrase is no longer used here n
the UK. They now refer to it as "climate change". Covers a multitude of
sins!



Hmm...Parliament must have come to its collective senses and cut off the
free cheques...(c;

Sailing qualifications - US
 

"Thomas, Spring Point Light" wrote in news:refyj.62
$Td2.55@trndny08:

Didn't England go through a period
refered to as the little ice age?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

Sailing qualifications - US
 

They get all excited, too, if you steer right towards the yacht club dock with the spinnaker haulin ass..

I was on a 40'er that did that once. Skipper wanted to show off and
the wind was exactly right
to shoot up the channel about 10 feet from the dock into the mooring
area. Fun, kinda stupid
but what's a 40' racing dinghy for if not to goof around on....

Sailing qualifications - US
 

Samuel Murphy wrote in news:bfbdfd6b-859c-4ba8-
:

Fun, kinda stupid


The trouble with "racing", a nebulous term on the boats I get to sail on,
in a heavy cruiser like an Amel Sharki 41 full of booze, tools, enough
parts to rebuild the diesel 50 miles offshore except for the engine lathe,
sitting low in the water from the massive weight....our trouble is having
enough wind to make it over the starting line and past the committee boat.

If we get her to "start", even though we don't finish until the race
committee is standing with their stuff all packed up waiting to go to the
party.....with our big handicap....we can place pretty good, even if we
don't arrive back at the starting line until we're out of beer!

We're pretty easy to spot on a calm day (race days in Charleston are
ALWAYS, INVARIABLY the calmest days of the month). We're the guys with
every rag the masts will support fully extended with more guys at the rail
holding up sheets from the aft cabin trying to extend the trailing edge of
the biggest genoa another 6 feet without blocking the mizzen staysail very
much...

The red satin sheets off the captain's playroom bed seem especially
effective, probably from the other crews laughing so hard they are the ones
filling it!

But, you let the race be about some charity for sick kids and you'll see us
at or near the top of the leaderboard in funds collected, the more
important part of that race....(c;

We may not be fast, but NOONE has more fun trying....

Sailing qualifications - US
 

"Samuel Murphy" wrote in message
...

They get all excited, too, if you steer right towards the yacht club dock
with the spinnaker haulin ass..

I was on a 40'er that did that once. Skipper wanted to show off and
the wind was exactly right
to shoot up the channel about 10 feet from the dock into the mooring
area. Fun, kinda stupid
but what's a 40' racing dinghy for if not to goof around on....
\

We did that on a 28' viking a few years ago. We were finishing a race and
as we quickly approached the dock flying the spinnaker, discovered that I
had wrapped the sheet around the winch once to many times.
No way could we loosen it quickly to spill the air so the helmsman whipped
out a Spyderco knife and made short work of the line.
I learned my lesson that day.

Sailing qualifications - US
 

On Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:50:01 +0000, Larry wrote:

Look around for the new "Solar Dimming" buzzword.

And Goofball replied:
Ok..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4171591.stm


Google sunspot activity

Numerous recent scientific announcments have been about the low of
sunspot activity resulting in cooling of the earth this last year. If
you follow the ups and downs of earth temp averages there are
corosponding changes in sunspot activity. Several prominent Canadian
scientists have stated in the last few days that they believe we are
going to see another mini ice age like in the 1700-1800's due to this
phenomenon, and that it could last a few hundred years. The sun rules.
Al Gore is a fraud.

Red

Sailing qualifications - US
 

What do you "unlearn"?
For some racing sailors, it's difficult to relax while cruising

Rosalie B. wrote:
There's more than just relaxing unless you define relaxing as not
rushing to the destination but enjoying the journey.


Is it a matter of enjoying sailing? If an individual does not enjoy
sailing then they're not going to like cruising *or* racing. If they
do, then there is enjoyment to be found in both.

Maybe it is that they need to value sturdiness over lightness. To
pick sturdier materials.

I can tell that you're one of those "cruising only" sailors. Breaking
stuff is slow. The surest way to lose a race is to have even minor
gear failure. And racers go out to sail & race in conditions that
cruisers stay home in.


And to have spares aboard in case something
breaks, and also to have the stuff on board that one needs to live
comfortably and not feel that they are camping out.


That's not a *sailing* skill, is it? Sounds like common sense plus a
slight amount of organization.



" wrote:
Well, attitude is certainly an issue. Some people will like cruising
who don't like racing and the reverse and some will like both...
Racing and cruising are very different.

Agreed.

.... But I wasn't really thinking
about attitude as such. At least in my case the majority of my racing
was done a few hours at a time in the day with the occasional week or
10 days of day races and an an occasional fully crewed long distance
race. When I jumped into cruising full time my fist leg was from
Brisbane to Noumea and my second was Noumea to Opua. While those
aren't particularly long passages by Pacific standards they are
marathons by racing standards. Moreover, I undertook them with just
my girlfriend who was a novice sailor. Just in terms of the sailing,
the mistakes I made on those legs were a result of applying a
sprinter's skill set to a marathon. I won't bore you all with the
gory details but on the first leg I shrimped the kite and on the
second I averaged more than eleven (yes 11) sail changes a day.
Needless to say, my wallet, my psyche and my body all suffered a lot.

Hmmm.... please don't take this as an insult, because I don't mean it
to be... but your racing did not teach you to prioritize wisely.
"Getting there" is a goal for both cruising & racing, but the effort/
reward ratio is very different.


While I still set outboard sheets and barberhaulers and run the kite
on a fairly regular basis, as a result of those first two legs I
retrained myself in some pretty fundamental ways. Tweaking is fine
when it amuses, but pace and rhythm are key to passage making. The
pace and rhythm that were engraved in my brain as "sailing" from day
racing weren't just inappropriate to the kind of long distance
cruising that I took up, they were downright dangerous. And it is
that that I am thinking of when I say I had to "unlearn" racing.

Okay, that makes sense; but when you were planning the leg (which is
*certainly* a part of both racing & cruising) did you put any priority
on getting good rest? On letting the boat settle down, perhaps even
heaving-to, for meal preparation & eating? Certainly racers aren't
going to do that but then they have greater manpower available and
enjoying mealtimes isn't on the priority list. But prioritizing is
certainly a common skill!

There's also a bunch of stuff that I never learned or only thought I
knew from racing that I think are important to safe and enjoyable
cruising. That's a story for another day. But, IMO, the intersection
of day racing skills and long distance cruising skills isn't all that
big...


Day racing not so much; however I will say again that it's easy to see
the difference in skills between racers & cruisers when watching them
maneuver in close quarters (which is a pretty big part of cruising).
And point-to-point racing, whether in the ocean or in sheltered
waters, is essentially the same as cruising except that risk/effort/
reward priorities are different... and that's partly a matter of
attitude and partly a matter of realizing that it's up to you to set
your priorities in the first place.

Was it Socrates who warned against "the unexamined premise"?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King