Around the World of Sailing

7 November 2001

This weeks features:

Finish Line

Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/no/1107/frw.htm
Newest Sailing Record

AROUND IRELAND SINGLE-HANDED. WORLD RECORD.
Yacht: Zeal
Sailed by: Peter Keig
Dates: 20th October to the 27th October 2001.
Elapsed Time: 7 days 10 hours 24 minutes 27 seconds

Water Level Update

Weekly Water Level Update
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/oc/1024/frw.htm

Below you'll find water level info that pertains
to Lake Michigan and Huron.
For information on other lakes see:
http://huron.lre.usace.army.mil/levels/weekly.html

Reference Point

Inches below Chart Datum +1
Difference from last month +1
Difference from last year +2
Difference from long term average for November -15
Difference from Record High -53
Difference from Record Low +15
Forecast for 2 December 2001 -3

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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VOR Protests
Some notes and comments on the recent Volvo
Ocean Race protests. Assa Abloy found about the website
they protested Illbruck for using from a Swedish web surfer.
Thanks to Emma Sutclife for this. She has an excellent
story on this on the Djuice website at http://dragons.djuice.com/
Although during the protest hearing Illbruck
demonstrated how to get to the Spanish based site in question
from www.noaa.gov, the path they used has not been released.
I have perused the NOAA site without luck. So who can tell
us how to get from http:/wwww.noaa.gov to
http://atmosfera.lma.fi.upm.es/rsm?
Finally, so although Illbruck admitted to a rules
violation and since they could have gained almost as much
as their leg 1 margin of victory, they received a meaningless
penalty?
I'll finish with this comment/quote from noted
British Yachting journalist Bob Fisher, "The financial
penalty is ludicrous. Illbruck's budget for this and the
parallel America's Cup campaign exceeds £50 million - the
fine represents 0.00002 per cent of that total, effectively
no penalty at all. It is not surprising therefore that the
sailors in the other boats are distressed at the whitewash
which they argue has been applied following this protest.
They feel cheating has been condoned."
***************
The Rowing Reporter Book Scout Lookout
Online one day, I checked Ebay book auctions about
to end. Among those listed The Voyage of American Promise
by Dodge Morgan. I bid on it and shortly it showed up in
my postal mailbox.
The books is the story of how Morgan conceived and
built his 60 foot sailboat and then sailed solo around the
world in a then record 150 days in 1985-86.
Morgan is a skilled writer and the books goes well
beyond simply a rehashing of the logbook of a circumnavigation.
Morgan gets pretty deeply philosophical asking, "Can a human
mind measure the sky? Or time. The hardest is time."
He also discusses a major fact of solo sailing- solitude.
He concludes, "But the more I am alone, the less I feel I know
about solitude."
Morgan also writes about his sailing preparation for
his voyage. He states, "Before Promise, I sailed a
considerable number of miles, most shorthanded or alone and
almost all in gaff-headed schooners."
Our current era filled with extreme 60 foot trimarans,
100 foot plus cats and ever faster 60 foot mono hulls differs
even from Morgan's advanced Hood designed sloop. Probably a
small percentage of the Jacques Vabre racers counts gaff-headed
sloop time on their CV.
No matter Morgan's voyage was ultimately successful
taking 43 days off the solo circumnavigation record. The book
he wrote is just as good going far beyond just sailing narrative.
Morgan's current writings can be found at
http://www.points-east.com/thegulf/morgan.shtml
***************
Readers Write
Readers Ken and Donna unsubscribed from ATOWS.
No worries though as, "Hello...no complaints...just that we
are going off sailing and will not be using our E-mail."
Being a sailor as well as a writer I can't say there aren't
pangs of jealousy.
Mike writes, "I always get a smile on my face when
I punch up my e-mail and there is a message from you." Well
that's a good effect from the ATWOS cause. He goes onto ask
about next summers Newport to Bermuda race. There maybe as
many as 10 Farr 395's lining up in their own class.
It's a little early to start delineating contenders,
but reading the Notice of Race it'll be monohulls only.
Current word is that the successful Great Lakes point to
point racer may not be heading east for this race.
According to the notice of race, "Email and/or
subscription, passworded or restricted access web pages are
considered private information" and therefore verboten.
Organizers want crew wearing a safety harness,
inflatable PFD, white strobe and a personal EPIRB.
As with the upcoming Sydney to Hobart race there
is a fee per crewmember in this case $ 40 per crew. The
Sydney Hobart has 80 entries compared to the 175 Newport
Bermuda had in 2000. Increasing safety costs and a
difficult insurance market are causing Sydney Hobart
organizers to ask for government support in lieu of
commercial sponsorship.
All in all things seem to be going well for the
Bermuda race. Reader Mike has a berth on a J44 which
should be comfortable.
*****************
Lake Michigan Report Part 4
In 2001 one of the most contentious issues facing
Lake Michigan has been the extraction of gas and oil.
Although there are already gas and oil rigs along the
eastern shore, the debate has revolved around whether
there will be more. In light of energy difficulties and
the value of the land for tourism and recreation it has
been a good debate.
Since 1978 Aztec Producing which has wells near
Manistee has produces 40 billion cubic feet of gas and
35 million barrels of oil. In September the state
government lifted a 4-year moratorium on new drilling.
More recent developments, things are slowly
shifting to no new wells. Recently the federal House
of Representatives voted to ban new oil and gas drilling
under the Great Lakes for the next two years. Additionally
State Senator Leon Stille who represents Muskegon said,
"I think slant drilling is dead in Michigan." Stille
thinks that a drilling ban could extend to as many as
10 years or even take the form of a permanent ban.
Oil, gas and Lake Michigan are not the simplest
of combinations. America's need for oil, how we should
reduce that need for demand through conservation, and
other ways the land can be made productive are at issue.
It seems though that the Lake Michigan shore
line has switched eras. First there was the era when
stripping the land of logs provided money. Then came
using the land and especially the lake as a sewer for
industry.
Now rather than the raw materials of the land,
there seems to be a changing focus to using the land as
raw material for a tourism and recreation based economy.
This switch from using the raw materials of the land and
lake to using the lake and land as raw materials bodes
well for those who enjoy time on or near the water.