Around the World of Sailing

4 September 2002

Event News: Governors Cup Report

Thirty-five boats participated in the 2002 Governors Cup
Regatta August 31st & September 1st.
Saturday saw two Main & Jib Divisions and a 10:30 start.
They raced a 6-mile triangle course in 6-8 knots of breeze
with 1.5 knots of current traveling the same direction as
the wind. Three Spinnaker divisions started their
sequence at 11:00 competing on a 4-leg windward/leeward
course. The light breeze made the downwind legs very
tricky. The wind diminished to less than 4 knots as the
Main & Jib and spinnaker divisions finished in the same
time frame. Following a 180 degree wind shift and a course
change, the Spinnaker fleet started a second race. The
course was shorted by one leg as the wind faded again.
All the boats finished within fifteen minutes of the
leaders in each class.

Sunday saw excellent conditions with 10-13 knots from the
South and light chop. The courses were the same as
Saturday - a 6 mile triangle for jib & main and a 4 leg
windward/leeward for the spinnaker boats. They very steady
breeze allowed the spinnaker fleet to compete in a second race.

Spinnaker 1 -
Erleichda J/125
Hippy Chick 1D35
Gauntlet Kaufman 45

Spinnaker 2 -
Revelation Antrim 27
US142 Melges 24
Risky Business Andrews 30

Spinnaker 3 -
Ricochet J/30
Spectra S2 9.1
Hallel J/30

Main & Jib 1 -
Que Loco Catalina 42
Zapata Islander 40
Rumors Islander 40

Main & Jib 2 -
Gambit Catalina 30
Hydrogyrum Catalina 30
Ghost Islander 37

Complete Results:
http://www.torresen.com/races/governorscup/2002/results

Event News: Around Alone Preview Part II

This week the we preview the boats and skippers that aren't
from North America or Europe

Graham Dalton, 50, Clevedon, NZ most recently worked in
publishing and has 4 children. A long time sailor, previous
races include Sydney to Hobart.

Hexagan is one of the newest boats in the fleet launched
this year at Southern Ocean Marine. Designer is Owen Clarke
Groupe. Beam is 18 feet, draft 15.4 feet. Hexagon has over
5000 miles sailed already. Recently the boat dismasted
while being delivered to Newport for the start.

Website: http://www.education.hsbc.com/race/

Alan Paris, 37, resides in St. Georges Bermuda. His
profession is the Hospitality Industry. He has over 18,000
offshore miles, more than half solo on a J 105. He was
overall winner of the 1995 Bermuda One-Two.

BTC Velocity is one of Class II's Open 40's. The designer
is Scott Jutson who was responsible for 1994-95 Class II
winner True Blue. Boat was built of
Divinycell/Eglass/Kevlar in 2001 by All Yacht Spars of
Australia. Beam is 11.5 feet, draft 11.75 feet. In the
spring of 2002 Paris completed his qualifying voyage from
Bermuda to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.

Website: http://www.aroundalone2002.com

Kojiro Shiraishi, 34, is from Tokyo Japan. He is an
accomplished adventurer. At age 26 he completed a sailing
circumnavigation.

Spirit of Yukoh is a Finot design Open 40 built in 2001.
The boat was built at Sam C3 shipyard in Barcelona Spain.
Spirit of Yukoh has a beam of 13 feet and draws 10 feet.
Delivery from Japan to the US was on own bottom.

Website http://www.jp.real.com/kojiro

Next week we will look at the specifics of Leg 1 from Newport
to England.

News: Boat Smart

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 St. Joseph/South Haven, where
Chief Rau is currently serving.

AUXAIR plays vital role in the Coast Guard's Homeland
Security mission

By Senior Chief Tom Rau, United States Coast Guard Group
Grand Haven, Mi

I recall several years ago while on patrol on Lake Michigan
near Muskegon listening to radio traffic between Coast Guard
Group Grand Haven and a Coast Guard auxiliary aircraft
(AUXAIR). I knew Coast Guard Auxiliary boats played a vital
role in Coast Guard missions, but aircraft?

I didn't encounter AUXAIR again until three years later when
I met an AUXAIR pilot, Ben Lautner, in February 2002. I
would soon discover just how valuable they are to the Coast
Guard and the nation when Ben invited me to come along on a
Homeland Security patrol.

In July, I hooked up with Ben and his copilot, John Franklin
at Blacker Airport in Manistee. Prior to take off we
covered open water egress procedures, including how to
inflate my life vest, and deploy the life raft, a task
assigned to the person in the back seat. I would be the
first to exit the aircraft during an open water emergency.

We climbed into the single engine Cessna-172 . The pilots
performed preflight checks, and then we rolled down the
runway for take off.

Once airborne the aircraft banked left then slowly banked
right as we climbed above Lake Michigan. From 1,700 feet, I
could see well pass Big Sable Point 14 miles to the south,
and to the west lay endless blue.

Through earphones I listened to the pilots communicate with
each other, the air traffic controller at Muskegon Airport,
and later with the Chicago air controller. John, the
copilot, also maintained radio guard with Coast Guard Group
Grand Haven over the marine radio. They were all business:
checking out targets of interest, recording data onto forms,
promptly making position reports to the Coast Guard, and
investigating suspicious activity. They displayed a cockpit
presence that I've seen in many Coast Guard cockpits.
Between them they shared nearly 70 years of flying aircraft

After making several sweeps around various power plants and
water front facilities, we landed at South Haven's airport
for a quick lunch, and then headed home to Manistee. The
five-hour patrol provided nothing eventful to report. Ben,
returned to his job in plant operations at Shell Oil Company
in Manistee. John, retired, returned to his home in nearby
Onekama. John, also flies for the U.S Forest service.

Since September 11th Lautner, alone, has flown 161 hours for
the AUXAIR, mostly on port security missions around Lake
Michigan, although he does occasionally conduct search and
rescue. The flights may be uneventful but they are sure
vital to the Coast Guard's Homeland Security mission.

In the war against terrorism, keeping ever present eyes is
one of our surest defenses. However, maintaining aerial
surveillance over waterways and Targets of Interest around
the Great Lakes has placed a heavy load on Coast Guard air
resources. Captain Spillman, former Commanding Officer, Air
Station Detroit, concerned whether his air resources could
meet Homeland Security demands, turned to his civilian air
wing.

Robert Shafer, 50, a Technical Director for a television
station, and the AUXAIR Division Officer for District Nine
Central Region told me that several weeks after September
11, Captain Spillman addressed his pilots and frankly told
them he could not meet mission demands without them.

AUXAIR pilots across the Great Lakes answered the call,
providing 21 aircraft and flight crews.

Captain Spillman acquainted top officials in the FAA with
the AUXAIR program. In a letter to the FAA he emphasized
that AUXAIR pilots are Coast Guard pilots while under
orders, and similarly, Coast Guard Auxiliary aircraft are
Coast Guard aircraft. In flight, Auxiliary aircraft use the
Coast Guard call sign.

There is, however, one major difference- facility cost.
AUXAIR pilots receive $57 dollars per hour for fuel and
aircraft maintenance. Since April, the pilots now receive
only $16 a hour for fuel only. The cost to fly a CG HH-65
Dolphin helicopter costs $4,559 per hour. So not only were
AUXAIR pilots providing vital air support to Coast Guard
surveillance missions, they were doing so at considerable
cost savings to the Coast Guard.

In March, Captain Spillman presented to Air Auxiliary Ninth
District Eastern and Central Air Wings the Coast Guard
Meritorious Team Commendation. He praised his volunteer
pilots stating that they were the first aircraft in General
Aviation to return to flight operations after 9/11, where in
they increased their flight operations by 400 percent. As
of August, they have flown in excess of 1,180 flight hours
at a comparative cost savings to the Coast Guard in excess
of 4.7 million dollars. That's more than half the cost of a
HH-65 Dolphin helicopter.

AUXAIR pilots, in addition to making security patrols,
photographed nearly 95 percent of Great Lakes waterways and
Targets of Interest. This valuable input provided resource
managers the means to review and select where patrols were
best suited. Intelligence gathering is not exactly exciting
work but it certainly is mission critical.

Frankly, the patrol I made with Franklin and Lautner was no
different from the thousands of routine patrols I've made
aboard Coast Guard cutters and small boats. These pilots
demonstrated the same purpose of mission and a commitment to
duty I experienced with surface crews. That is the spirit
that makes the Coast Guard Auxiliary so valuable to the
Coast Guard. No doubt, without these committed citizen
patriots, our Homeland Security missions would be far less
effective.

Next time you see an Auxiliary vessel on the water, toss
them a salute and one for the folks topside- that's payment
enough

Links:
Boat Smart
http://www.boatsmart.net/