Just a couple months ago the 50 knot barrier was shredded by several kiteboarders in Namibia, Africa, after an epic quest that started in the land Down Under with Yellow Pages Endeavor in 1993. Not 3 weeks later, we have the British Pirate himself ,Sir Richard Branson, going after the Transatlantic Record on Virgin Money. Also, we cannot forget the records the Volvo 70’s are attempting during their 2008-2009 Circumnavigation, or the feats of speed and endurance by the sailors in Vendee Globe. So what’s the deal? Do these records re...
Thanks to Sailgroove contributer Ken Legler for this blog. Three items in my "morning paper" saddened me. Beginning with the least upsetting...470s dropped as Women's doublehanded equip for next games, replaced by 29erxx. This comes just days after listening to Isabel Kinsolving (Yale'02) recounting her (and Erin Maxwell's Dart.'01) win in the most recent women's 470 Worlds and how they had planned to continue with Olympic dreams. Perhaps this is not such a sad story as a class I was closely involved with (many years ago) goes the way of a new ...
Are you a fan of the Volvo Ocean Race? Do you check the Sailgroove VOR coverage daily to see those speed machines blaze across the seas? Do you read Ken Read's Blog? Whether or not you are--in fact, whether or not you are even a sailor--you are sure to love the Volvo Ocean Race Game, and perhaps maybe a little too much. The game is simple: you make a boat (mine's called Sailgroove dot org) and pick the colors you want. Then you start in the middle of the leg with 20% of the fleet behind you (the fleet is over 50,000 players worldwide!) The game...
The end of the season draws near and the coed rankings show absolutely no change in places 1-5. The west coast is down to just one ranked team, Stanford (18), who drops five places, and one A.R.V. team, UC Santa Barbara. That means the ACC's in less than two weeks will likely have a huge impact and largely determine the rankings going into the winter offseason. In other words, check back then. BU is ranked 16th. Rah BUDS! In the women's world, BC is back in action, jumping four places to reassert themselves as the number 1 coed and women's team...
Race 10 (10:50 AM): Good morning race fans! It's a beautiful day out here on the bay. The wind is hovering around five kts, but it's sort of patchy. The forecast doesn't look much better than this. 11:05 AM: The race comittee is moving the course north in search of breeze. Looks like a short delay. 11:40 AM: The breeze is finally steady and race 10 is underway. Terry Hutchinson's Quantum Racing is going to be hard to catch. We'll see what Joe Fly, West Marine Rigging/New England Ropes, Blumoon, Monsoon and Full Throttle can do today. 12:00 PM: ...
10:50 It's a beautiful morning on the bay. First time since i got here i'm not wearing my coat. 10:53 Seabreeze-Wind forecasted to be 5-10 and dropping throughout the day. It's about 5 right now. 11:06 First start was supposed to be at 11, but the RC has been struggling with changing wind direction. They're making final adjustments now. Race 8 11:28 General recall. 11:40 More delay as the RC adjusts to the new wind direction. 11:56 We're floating... We're floating... Still floating. I'll let you if anything changes. 12:27 We're moving south to ...
10:44 The sun is shining and the wind is just came up. It's now 10-15 MPH, gusts to 20. 10:46 It will be tricky work for the RC as the breeze is coming down the Severn and the Bay, converging on the race course. We're minutes away from first warning. Race 4 11:16 Race 4 is off and running. 11:33 At the top it's Joefly (Maspero), Erica (McNay) and Monsoon (Ayers). 11:37 Correction: Gannet (Von Blumencron) sounds ahead of Monsoon. 11:39 Leeward Mark: Monsoon, Gannet, Joe Fly 11:51 Fairchild's Wireless moves into second at the windward mark. 11:55...
Live updates via CLove text messges: Race 1: 1st windward mark: David Ullman from Newport Beach, California leads at the first windward mark. The rounding brings 3 near broaches and Wolf Lixfield shreds his chute. 1st leeward mark: The Chilean boat goes into a full broach with the kite up. They'll be deep. 2nd windward mark: Ullman, The Swiss Rossini, and Larson around first. Finish: (1) Ullman (2) Favini (3) Porter (4) Hutchinson (5) Ayers 12:30 Race 2 12:56 At the start, boats stacked at the pin end. General recall. 13:06 Start. All clear. 13...
And so the Sailgroove Bump seems to have had its effect: every coed team that Sailgroove has visited since the last rankings has improved in these latest rankings. Roger Williams, Brown, Tufts, MIT, Harvard, and Rhode Island, you're welcome. To those teams that have dropped in the rankings, it may be time to set up a meeting. But seriously, the only major shakeup in the coed rankings is Yale, formerly ranked 2nd, dropping to 6th. After their brilliant finishes at Harry A's, Hatch Brown and Hood (3rd, 2nd, 1st, respectively), the team of Barrows...
Do you have the bug? I've had it for a long time, but I didn't realize it until fairly recently. The bug, in case you don't know, is an undetectable virus that you can catch from sailing. It makes you do seemingly foolish things. Examples include: spending more time per week sailing than sleeping; traveling 8 hours to sail 6 races and calling it a good weekend; wrapping yourself in a $600 plastic suit so you can sail in the snow; etc. If any of this sounds familiar, then chances are you've got it too.Well, the bug can affect people in many diff...
