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Around the World of Sailing
7 February 2001
This weeks features:
- Finish Line
- Rowing Reporter
- Watery World News
Finish Line
PBO is a braided rope made of Zylon PBO Fiber. 2 inch PBO is rated
at 1,000,000 pounds!
Rowing Reporter
Rowing Reporter
The Rowing Reporter is a weekly column of commentary and
observations by Ike Stephenson, Marine Informationist. It
concentrates on the home waters of Around the World of Sailing Lake
Michigan and Muskegon Lake.
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Glossary Terms: As part of the official website for the tall
ships event that will occur in Muskegon I have been involved in
creating a glossary of sailing and tall ships terms. This glossary
is at: http://www.sailmuskegon.com/sailing-terms/
In last weeks article about the event, one of the ships was
described as a "square top sail schooner." This made me wonder. Are
there three types of schooners- topsail, square topsail and gaff rigged?
According to my research there are actually only topsail
schooners and gaff rigged schooners. A topsail schooner involves
having square topsails set on the foremast. A gaff schooner's
topsails are set with gaffs and are fore and aft sails.
The Pride of Baltimore II, which will be in Muskegon, is a
topsail schooner.
This ship is on the web at: http://www.intandem.com/NewPrideSite/
The schooner Red Witch that may attend is a gaff topsail schooner.
See a picture of the Red Witch at: http://www.redwitch.com/about.htm
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Weather Routers
Boats in the America's Cup, various record attempts and The
Race employ weather routers. Weather routers work with sailors from
shore, providing weather information to the team at sea.
They gather weather information via the Internet and other
sources and send it to the team. They also speak to the teams via
satellite phone in hashing over decisions.
If the router is working with a team at an inshore regatta
they operate differently. The router will get an early start and
gather information, observation and forecasts. They will distill
this into a information package that will provide wind direction,
current, and tactical suggestions like which side of the course is
favored.
Typically some of the most successful and famous weather
routers have been French. However, in The Race, Club Med's router
is Australian Roger Badham and the navigator Mike Quilter is a
New Zealander.
Club Med skipper Grant Dalton also a Kiwi counts himself as
unawed by the French saying: "They have taken Jean=Yves Bernot [Team
Adventure's co-navigator] apart, and he's their guru. French flair is
French crazy."
Router Pierre Lansier is on a recent hot streak. He is
working with Innovation Explorer, the 2nd place boat and advised Armor
Lux - Foie Gras Bizac the new Trans Atlantic mono hull record holder.
While Armor Lux set a record in the Northern Hemisphere,
Innovation Explorer set the 24-hour sailing record in the Southern
Hemisphere. Both had Lansier as their router.
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Glossary Term II: This next term is also from the Sail
Muskegon glossary. I chose this term because it is just such a
pleasing and obscure term. It is Shifting Backstay - A Backstay which
can be attached to either side of the vessel. Used as extra support
in heavy winds.
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Rowing Reporter Interactive- The Rowing reporter seeks
comments, questions and suggestions. Send email in a bottle to
ike@torresen.com. If readers write we can start a dialogue about
rowing reporter writing. Send challenges, remarks, queries and they
will make you a part of this column
Watery World News
Watery World News is dedicated to our watery planet and the
things that people do on the water other than sail. Whether it's
tug-barges, kayaks, rowing shells, PWC's, swimming or other water
activities Watery World News will attempt to give the sailing audience
of ATWOS a look at other water activities.
As we pass through winter, one might wonder what is the
outlook for lake levels in 2001? The short answer is don't get your
water level hopes up.
All of the Great Lakes are below their average levels. Lake
Michigan is down 5 inches from a year ago. Lake Superior is down 6
inches. Lake Erie is not down from a year ago, but is still below
average. Lake Ontario has gained 5 inches but still is below average.
This winter has not given reason for optimism. Western Lake
Superior has had little snowfall. An excess of snow would melt and
help Lake Michigan levels.
For the month of January most NW Great Lakes cities had a
precipitation deficit of .4 to 1.4 inches.
Unless there's a swift reversal of precipitation levels Great
Lakes sailors will once again have less water than normal under their
keels.