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Around the World of Sailing
27 June 2001
Event News: Queens Cup Preview Available on line
at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/ju/0627/st.htm
Certain sailing events come and go from the annual
schedule. Then there are your fixture events that
you can plan your season around. The Queens Cup is
one of those.
The racing portion of the Queens Cup is simple and
unfettered. The deed for the actual Queens Cup
Trophy reads: "for an annual race across Lake
Michigan, always starting off South Shore Yacht
Club, and ending at a point in Michigan, open to all
yachts of a recognized yacht club on the Great
Lakes". The 1st year the Queens Cup finished in
Spring Lake Michigan. Currently the finish
alternates between Grand Haven and Muskegon where it
will finish in 2001.
The history of the trophy itself is rather more
complex. It was originally won by a New York Yacht
Club vessel in 1853. It was competed for once in
the late 1800's. Finally in the 1930's it assumed
its present purpose.
Most years the Queens Cup is a pleasant and easy
race with most of the sailing off the wind. These
conditions have made for good odds for older boats.
The past 3 winners have been a Catalina 30, a 75
Square Meter and a Block Island 40.
Sailors will spend Friday night crossing Lake
Michigan, seeing who will win one of sailing most
uniquely pedigreed trophies. The bulk of the fleet
will then dock at Great Lakes Marina on Muskegon
Lake with awards being presented Saturday afternoon.
Links:
South Shore Yacht Club http://www.ssyc.org
SD 227 2000 Queens Cup Analysis
http://www.torresen.com/sd/july00/227.htm
Theme: Weather Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/ju/0627/ms.htm
This months series on Weather closes with a look at
Weather information sources on the Internet. As
with all subjects and the Internet it is not
possible to be completely definitive. What follows
is a list of weather sources in 3 areas: condition
data, maps and forecasts.
Condition Data: One of the best features of the
Internet for Weather heads is access to real time
conditions. For current conditions the National
Weather Service has a fine site at
http://weather.noaa.gov/index.html. Use the pull
down menu to select the state, and then select the
city.
If you are without Internet access weather
information can be received via mobile phone. Many
automated weather systems can be accessed via a
phone call. A listing of these sites is at:
http://www.faa.gov/asos/map/map.htm again on a
state/city basis. Here you can look up the phone
numbers for the stations you'll need info from.
Plug them in your phone and you again have real time
weather info.
The above sites generally trade in weather
information from land based stations. Data from
buoys is provided by the National Data Buoy Center
at http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/rmd.shtml.
Maps: Weather maps are where the observed weather
data is plotted to give you a larger view of the
atmosphere. There are many types of weather maps of
which we will touch on 3.
Surface Analysis: These maps contain information on
cloud cover, temperature and dew point, wind, isobars
and fronts. For the US see:
http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag436.html and
http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/UnitedStates/CurrentSurfaceAnalysis/
Another type of weather map is made via satellite
imagery. See the US Visible satellite map at
http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag23.html.
Radar Map: Finally maps that contain radar
information about precipitation. You can find these
at:
http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/UnitedStates/SurfaceAnalysis/ and
http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/UnitedStates/Radar/.
At this location you can then click on a specific
region and receive more detailed information.
Forecasts: The end product of all this information
is a variety of forecasts: short and long term,
general and marine etc.
For Great Lakes Marine forecasts see:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/grr/main/weather/marine/index_marine.html
For other United States Marine forecasts see:
http://www.marineweather.com/
For general forecasts for the United States see:
http://www.wunderground.com/.
Other Weather Links: Torresen Sailing Site Weather
Links http://www.torresen.com/weather.htm Top 100
Weather Sites http://www.100topweathersites.com/
The information links in this article will help
deepen your understanding of weather. Having good
weather information is an important part of good
seamanship which can be defined as reducing
variables.
News: EDS Atlantic Challenge
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/ju/0627/ms.htm
A new era in Open 60 mono hull sailing begins next
week. The 1st EDS Atlantic challenge will see full
crews on the fast 60 footers. Typically they are
sailed solo, or double handed.
The race will take them 8055 miles in a month and a
half. Included will be two Atlantic crossings and
stops in Baltimore and Boston.
The entry list is 7 strong. Four are boats which
completed the single handed Vendee Globe are entered
2nd place Kingfisher, 3rd place Sill, 7th place
Group 4 (renamed Ecover) and 9th place Gartmore.
There will be an all women team sailing Alpha
Graphics. Fila, the boat which won the most recent
Around Alone and La Rage de Vive from France.
Two aspects of the race should be most interesting.
One, how do the solo skippers adapt to crewed
racing. Second what types of speeds and records can
be achieved when the boat can be hand steered and
pushed hard around the clock?
News: Boat Smart Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/ju/0627/ms.htm
Boat Smart is a weekly column written by Chief Tom
Rau, Group Grand Haven, U.S. Coast Guard and
appears in a number of newspapers. Chief Rau has
been writing and promoting safe boating since 1986.
Many of his columns are taken from real life
experiences from Station Muskegon, where Chief Rau
is currently serving, or from the Group Grand Haven
Area of Responsibility.
Channel 16 - a Titanic blessing or a colossal curse?
By Senior Chief Tom Rau, Coast Guard Group Grand
Haven, MI
Two years ago, I leaped at the opportunity when
Lieutenant Karl Willis, Group Grand Haven's
Operations boss, asked if I would help spearhead a
Channel 09 outreach campaign to rescue Channel 16 on
Lake Michigan. Channel 16, the International
Distress Frequency, had become a hailing
free-for-all between boaters. Coast Guard radio
operators feared that a boater's call for help would
go unheard over Channel 16 amongst the tumult.
Command Roger Dubuc, Group Commander, Grand Haven,
and former Assistant Chief of Search and Rescue on
the Great Lakes, shared their concern and launched
the 09 campaign.
I hailed the Group Commander's initiative. For
seventeen years I endured radio misuse on Lake
Michigan and simply could not understand why
recreational boaters could abuse such a life saving
device. Were boaters that ignorant? It's ironic
that Channel 16 was born of the Titanic disaster and
that radio misuse that cold bitter night, on 15
April 1912, led to the loss of so many. The fact is
had Titanic's radio calls for help reached the
nearby Leland liner, California, 1522 souls might
have escaped a miserable conclusion. Sadly, how time
erases history's hard-earned lessons.
North Atlantic, 14 April 1912, Latitude
41-46 degrees North, Longitude 50-09 degrees West,
11:05 local mean time. Ceil Evans, radio operator
on the Leland Liner, California, which lay dead in
the water, had just fired off a radio message to
Titanic: "Say, Old Man, we are stopped and
surrounded by ice."
Harold Philips, chief radio operator aboard Titanic
fired back: "Shut up shut up, I am busy, I am
working Cape Race and you are jamming me." (Sounds
like Channel 16, Lake Michigan, 1999)
International radio procedure in 1912 required that
radio operators formally address radio traffic to
ship command. Since Evan had sent an informal
message (radio operator to radio operator) the
iceberg warning never reached Titanic's bridge. A
stack of Marconi grams had Philips and his
assistant, swamped as they tapped out radio traffic
to Point Race. Most of the commercial messages
dealt with the first class passengers, requesting
personal arrangements on their arrival in New York,
Harbor the following day.
Apparently the personal needs of the
affluent out weighted Philips's concern for
icebergs. His nasty response certainly discouraged
any further warnings from Ceil Evan. At 11:35,
California's only radio operator shut down, having
sent no further iceberg warnings to Titanic. Five
minutes later, at 11:40, Titanic struck the iceberg
and for over an hour Philips and his radio
assistant's desperate calls for help searched the
dark North Atlantic night until silenced by the sea.
Only a few miles from Titanic, California's radio
sat silent and unattended.
On top of that miscue, the California's bridge crew
told the U.S. Senate Committee (Titanic Hearings)
of sighting eight white rockets above the horizon in
the direction of a row of lights which one officer
described as: "She looks very queer out of the
water- her lights look queer." California's Captain,
Standley Lord responded evasively to inquires about
the white rockets and his bridge officer's sworn
testimony of spotting eight white distress rockets.
That the rocket sightings failed to appear in the
California's log suggested a cover up. When the
lights "disappeared" it was assumed the "mystery"
ship had passed over the horizon, but, in fact, it
was Titanic descending to her grave two miles below.
The distress rockets and radio miscues ranked as one
of maritime history's most profound errors in
judgment- is there any wonder way Captain Lord
attempted to cover it up. According to author, Wyn
Craig Wade, in his insightful book, The Titanic, End
of a Dream, when the research vessel Knorr
discovered the wreck of the Titanic in September
1985, the head of the expedition, Dr. Robert
Ballard, make an astonishing discovery. The
California sat much closer to Titanic than 19 miles
as originally reported by Captain, Lord, during the
Senate hearings. Ballard, who pinpointed the
Titanic's latitude and longitude, revealed
California lay close enough to Titanic to have seen
her distress rockets and rescue her passengers.
Ballard insisted, "He was a lot closer. Inside of
ten miles, perhaps as close as five miles....The
passengers could have been rescued. No one needed to
die."
Why Captain Lord, after being notified
three times by his bridge officers of the rockets,
failed to awaken his radio operator, Cecil Evans,
remains a mystery locked in time. From the bitter
soil of experience, sprouted maritime radio
procedures that Senator Alden Smith (Michigan
Senator who conducted the hearings) and his
colleagues chiseled into law. Never again would a
commercial vessel's radio go unmanned: around the
clock manned radio watches became law.
Today, that same life-saving advantage is now
afforded to recreational boaters on Lake Michigan
where three Group Command Centers at Grand Haven,
Milwaukee, and Sault Ste. Marie maintain a vigilant
ear around the clock, ready to alert Coast Guard
boat crews at 20 search and rescue stations around
Lake Michigan. Many of these stations maintain their
own radio watches from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. What a
remarkable defense against a hostile marine
environment!
Yet it remains vulnerable to the same radio
debauchery that plagued Titanic. Thanks, however,
to the outstanding cooperation of most recreational
boaters using Channel 09 as their hailing frequency,
Channel 16's primary role as a distress frequency
appears promising. Whether it remains so, depends
solely on recreational boaters. It is their story
to tell, let them not make it a sad one.
Boat Smart- use Channel 09.
Links: http://www.edsatlanticchallenge.com