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Around the World of Sailing
17 January 2001
This weeks features:
- Finish Line
- Rowing Reporter
- Watery World News
Finish Line
000 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Nominees.
The winners will be announced February 9.
Yachtsman of the Year: Etchells World Champion Vince Brun,
Olympic Silver Medallists Paul Foerster and Bob Merrick, Olympic
Bronze Medallists Charlie and Jonathan McKee, J 24 World Champion
Brad Read and Star Gold medallists Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljerdahl.
Yachtswoman of the Year: Mistral Olympian Lanee Butler, Snipe
Champion Carol Newman Cronin, Olympic Silver Medallists JJ Isler and
Pease Glaser and America's Cup Semi Finalist Dawn Riley.
If the journalists on the panel vote as Torresen Sailing Site
Visitors did in naming the Torresen Sailing Site Sailors of the year
look for Olympians to come out on top.
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.
Readers Write: In response to last week's Vendee Globe report,
Mark Turner of Kingfisher Challenges wrote: "just so you know, I
would estimate that Ellen has pushed her boat very little in
fact...herself yes, but not the boat." I think this is largely
correct. Kingfisher does sound to be in good shape. However,
Ellen still has holes in her sail inventory that could prove decisive.
Phillip Dickinson wrote with a query, "Have you ever heard
of a record for the oldest (at the time of crossing) sailing boat to
cross the Atlantic?" I am personally familiar with several sorts of
Atlantic records: mono hull, multi hull, crewed, single handed and
smallest boat to name some familiar ones. I draw a blank on Phillip's
question. Can anyone point to a source to answer his interesting
question?
***************
Weather Observations: A Winter Interlude in Muskegon
Last Thursday the Cottage Grove boat landing was transformed
into its winter purpose: land yacht base. Ice fisherman park their
vehicles and then trek via the ice their fishing holes.
As Thursday became Friday I noted an interesting temperature
fact. The Muskegon Airport showed 28° as a low. The Lake Michigan
field station, nearer the lake, reported 32°. This effect is typical
in the winter, warmer nears the water and colder inland. In the
summer it is the reverse, cooler near water, warmer inland.
Odd that water that currently has a temperature in the mid
30's and which you would not survive an hour in can actually warm
the air over the land. The same water which takes away body heat
30 times greater than air warms us up in the winter.
Friday saw atypical midwinter fog. It knocked down the
visibility. The definition of fog says that visibility must be
under 5/8ths of 1 mile. It was Friday as from Lake Shore Drive
you could not see past the land based structures.
On Sunday I walked outside to rain. Not a downpour, but
steadily falling rain. The rain and fog served as an interlude to
more wintry conditions. Now the interlude has ended. Temperatures
are down from yesterday and we are again seeing snow fall.
**************************
A Sailing and Sponsorship Quote
While reading The Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton I came across
an interesting bit. It's from a letter written by Arctic explorer
Matthew Peary. It reads: "Of course you know that thousands of
people today are using Lipton's Tea who had never heard of Lipton's
tea until they know of Sir Thomas, through his interest and
association with the International Yacht Races."
While many decry, professionalism and sponsorship in sailing
yet more evidence that's its been going on long before our current
time.
******************
The Race: How Long and How Fast
The Race is now 17 days old. Just how fast is the new
generation of catamarans sailing? To date, Club Med has covered
6300 miles at an average of 14.7 knots. Due to maneuvers she's made
good 4982 miles an average of 11.7 knots. According to officials of
The Race the course from Barcelona to Marseilles is 23,300 miles.
Using this distance gives Club Med a pace of between 65 and
66 days using the 14.7 knot figure. However, the 11.7 knot figure
means that the boats have spent time tacking. Cam Lewis now sailing
Team Adventure wrote that when Explorer was the first to break 80 days
they sailed 6000 miles without tacking.
According to an official of the World Sailing Speed Record
Council the distance is not 23,300 miles. Their rules state that to
qualify as a circumnavigation the course must be 21,600 miles.
Council member David Pelly recently wrote: ". The minimum
distance required to be sailed is 40,024km/21,600 nautical miles
(the circumference of the Earth) and this is not satisfied by a start
from Barcelona."
I have queried the Race office on the matter of the official
length of the course. I hope to report a definitive answer to this
geographical and mathematical quandary next week and then be able to
present a more accurate look at how long the course is and how fast
the boats are sailing it.
*************
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.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis will carry products made by North
Sails for the Space Station Module Destiny into space. The launch is
scheduled for 6 February.
North Sails built ultra light Zero G soft racks. These are
built of Kevlar and Nomex. Each rack is 6 feet tall and 3 feet
6 inches wide.
The lab contains 24 of these racks. 13 are for scientific
experiments, 11 for power, cooling and other functions.
Major scientific facilities inside the laboratory module
include biotechnology, fluids and combustion, a space station furnace
facility, human research facility and a gravitational biology facility.
By using light weight materials North saves both weight and
dollars. Launching items into space runs $ 10,000 per pound. In this
case North and its sailing technology save money by building lighter
equipment.