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Around the World of Sailing

24 April 2002

Finish Line

According to the Pew Ocean literacy quiz invasive species
can come from the following sources: Ship ballast water,
Oil drilling platforms, home aquariums, and the live bait
industry. 83% of quiz takers answered this correctly.
Add to that boat bottoms, wash them after using your boat.
See
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/04/04192002/pewquiz_46932.asp
for the full quiz.

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

Difference from Chart Datum +3
Difference from last month +4
Difference from last year +9
Difference from long term average for April -14
Difference from Record High -45
Difference from Record Low +19
Forecast for 19 May 2002 +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.
****************

This is the monthly installment of Rowing Reporter that is
longer and covers only a single topic.  Please send comments
on this to ike@torresen.com
******
Long Form Book Scout Lookout: Best of Yachting
	A visit to Ebay earlier this year netted a fine
little blue hard back, The Best of Yachting.  The volume
contained articles from Yachting Magazine dating from the
early 1900's to the mid 1960's.  During this time Yachting
was much more focused on sailing than the mega power boats
they cover today.
	As I read articles by writers such as Winston Martyr,
Bob Baiver, Bill Robinson and Alf Loomis who wrote the Under
the Lee of the Long Boat. I was struck by the issues raised.
In many cases the issues from as early as the 1920's are still
with us in the sailing community.
	In the early 20's Alf Loomis wrote of an acquaintance
who had changed his mode of sailing.  Due to some money
problems he's become a charter boat, ie with paying guests.
His friend was accused of professionalism.  Loomis didn't buy
this.  He wrote: "An amateur is one who loves something...If
you're so keen about sailing that you will endure the
embarrassments of paying guests.... I think you are doubly
an amateur."
	The next time Loomis met his fellow sailor he found
that his friend "had been expelled from my club for
professionalism."  He wasn't 'Corinthian' enough.
	Visit http://www.sailing.org/isafsailor/ to see if
professionalism is still a sailing issue.  Enough so, that
a worldwide classification system now exists!
	Continuing on a 1934 article mentions a 50 foot
schooner with a "crew of Corinthians."  What was meant by
Corinthian?  Well we can rule out his crew being from
Cornith or somehow being associated with leather.
	Arguments about this also continue today.  In the
current Sailing Magazine writer Chris Caswell (who writes
for Yachting therefore I justify this divergence) about
Corinthian denoting a high standard of ethics and
sportsmanship.  He was replying to a reader who wrote,
"Corinthian spirit to me is closer to the size of one's
yacht, blue blazers etc."
	The definition is still not settled.  We can
probably assume that the 1934 crew had day jobs not related
to sailing and may also have cut a sharp figure in a blue
blazer.  The same could apply in 2002.
	The issue of professional v. amateur sailors also
arises in a pair of articles on the America's Cup.  Writing
about the 1934 Cup William H. Taylor said: "The British crew,
most of them amateurs, hastily recruited in England when
Endeavour's professional went on strike just as she was to
be shipped, weren't as rugged or hard-handed as the 20-odd
professionals who worked Rainbow's gear." Further sailing
the J class sloop was affecting the amateurs, "tearing their
hands to shreds and wearing them down."
	28 years later Taylor wrote about the 1962 Cup.  "The
crews-all amateurs now..." he commented.
	40 years later 100's of professional sailors are now
employed by multi national teams readying for the 2003
America's Cup.  This is not new just a cycle of the wheel of
sailing preferences.
	A lot of the above deals with racing.  Obviously
that's not all there is to sailing.  In fact according to
retailer West Marine 92% of sailor don't race, leaving 8%
to win all the trophies.  Gives credence to William H.
Taylor's 1941 comment, "Which reminds me of another seagoing
philosopher, Bobby Salto, who divides the entire human race
into two convenient classifications: the cruising men and
the racing men."
	Amorita the schooner which held the Chicago Mackinac
record prior to Pied Piper's 1987 record run makes a couple
of appearances.  Amorita's record was set in 1911 which
J.M. Handley wrote in 'The Mackinac Race in a 60-Mile Gale'.
Amorita's time was 31 hours 14 minutes.  The record could
have been better but, "The last 24 miles from Waugachance
light to the finishing line were sailed right into the teeth
of a gale dead to windward."
	Earlier in 1909 Amorita had sailed the Bermuda Race.
She finished the 635-mile course in 78 hours 19 minutes
and 15 seconds.
	Another famous racer is America, the schooner that
initiated the America's Cup in British waters.
	Come the Civil War America became Memphis a
Confederate blockade runner.  In April 1862 she was discovered
sunk in the St. John's river in Florida.  She was turned over
to the Naval Academy for use as a training vessel.
	By 1870 she was once again a private vessel.   In fact
according to Henry Lawrence Jr. she finished 4th in the first
America's Cup race sailing in American waters in 1870.  America
raced with lessening success up to 1885.
	Sailing like all sports has it's jargon.  The last
America's Cup saw strategists pop up in afterguards.  This
in addition to tacticians.
	In 1937 the J boat Ranger had an observer in the
afterguard. According to skipper Mike Vanderbilt writing
in 'The Ups and Downs of a J-Boat Skipper' the principal
duty of our observer was to watch our rival and to inform
us in advance of any contemplated move on his part such as
a tack or sail shift."  He wife filled this position.
Perhaps the observer has morphed to strategist?
	The Rowing Reporter is an electronic publication
propagated by the World Wide Web and email.  We'd be remiss
not to touch on computers in sailing.  Take Bill Robinson's
account of the 1966 Bermuda Race.
	That year an IBM computer was used to calculate
handicap results. Actual conditions were factored into
the results.  Sound like IMS anyone?
	Raw data was teletyped from Bermuda to New York.
A long wait occurred as boats finished and provided data
for the special handicap.
	To add to the suspicion the overall winner a Cal 40
was owned by the president of IBM.  Further the class B
winner a 58 foot cutter was owned by IMB chairman Tom Watson.
According to Robinson there were "cracks about programming
yourself into 1st place."  Such cracks continue to this day!
	Two conclusions then.  The Best of Yachting is an
excellent books serving as an enjoyable veritable history
of 1900's sailing.  Second, sailors have been debating the
same things for many years.  We either need conclusions or
new debating topics!
	Note:  Several Copies of The Best of Yachting are
listed for sale at http://www.abebooks.com/ for reasonable
prices.