Saving One Design

Hey All,

So today I got some really good news. I am for sure going J-22 sailing this coming season. I will be teamed up with Roger Gamache a good friend of mine and Ned Goodman a good friend of Roger's.

Ned is one of the people that has a Ultimate 20 on order with Bill Abbott, but since the Abbott site is still in a bit of limbo after a serious fire, Ned has decided to buy a J-22 in the interem and go sailing. We have found a great boat, in fact it is Scott Nixon's personal boat, (it's the one in the picture!) and we will have no excuses on the hardware front! It will be up the three of us to get our shit together and make this work.

I titled this Saving One Design after a short posting by my buddy Wally Cross of www.destinationonedesign.com. Wally was talking about finding old OD boats and re-announcing them to his clientel. When it became apparten the Ned, Roger and I would not be sailing a brand new U-20 this season I started looking around for a boat that the three of could sail, that Ned could easily sail at home and also a boat that has good regatta participation and with good fun people!

Well Ned nears lives near Cleveland and there is an excellent J-22 fleet there that he can play in during week with some of his other sailing buddies, he can take the family sailing anytime he wants and it gives us a chance to sail in what will be a 60+ boat J-22 North American regatta that is in Cleveland this season.

We get the added bonus that by buying a good boat like 1464 it will hold its resail value for when and if the U-20 comes to fruition. For me personally the deal allows me to drive some of the events! Which is key, that is one thing that I truly miss in sailing. I do not get to drive much anymore. With the rules in the MUMM 30 class or the Farr 40 it keeps me from driving and has taken some of the fun out of sailing that I used to have.

So we will take possesion of 1464 next weekend after a trip to Annapolis to meet with Scott, pick up the boat and bring her back to Cleveland. I cannot wait for the Annapolis NOOD regatta which will be our debut in the class. Just hoping that the begining of April is warm in Cleveland so that we can sail some before we go!

Anyway that is all for today. Have a good one!
Peacefrog!

A Long Week!

With not much to say. Sorry about that. I am the only one at the loft now that Sue has retired and I have been pasted with paper work and trying to get some sail repairs done! Yikes do I miss Sue!
Cheers

Tac

Key West, Done and Done!

So today is the last day of Key West Race Week, but a few boats are able to be on the trailer or on the delivery home. It will be interesting to see whether Alinghi decide to sail today or jet back to Dubia to sail thier AC boats. WOW what a choice eh?

So I was having a drink or two with Roger the other night and we got to talking about the Farr 40 class in KW. I starting thinking about how you have two of the AC owners sailing in that event as drivers and how the "ultimate" owner driver is not and has not ventured into that class.

Larry Ellison has always thought of himself as a great sailor and driver, shit there was talk that he was going to drive Oracle/BMW last time around.

So my question of the day is......Why does Larry not get himself a Farr 40 and go head to head with Ernesto and Vincenzo? Both of whom are Farr 40 World Champs. It would certainly be a heck of lot cheaper for him in the long run?

Hey Larry, maybe after you lose the Cup again this time you can finally see the light and try to beat Ernesto in the 40?

Key West Race Week, Arm Chairing it!

Key West Race Week thoughts from a far!

So the fleet has just finished up Day 3 of Acura Key West Race Week and there have been lots of surprises and a few “duh of course they are kicking ass” teams on the leader board.

I have yet to actually talk to my brother, but since he had a good day today, maybe I will call and congratulate him for getting his head out of his ass! (Sorry had to be said). I am sure that the Seal Bashers are having a much better day and are finally getting the results that they should have been getting from the get go!

Anyway some highlights and comments from the hack that is not there.

1) Farr 40 class. Any doubt that Ernesto cannot drive a boat should be quickly dismissed! Go the Flash! Showing that a solid finish at the Worlds is not fluke! First WOW of the regatta……..Warpath! Holy shit is they getting pasted. I would guess a few changes are needed in their bid to win the Worlds.

2) Good showing in the Melges 32 fleet. Sorry to see Nitemare dropped a little in the standings. I was seriously hoping for a great result out of Tom and crew. Keep kicking ass Tom!

3) I guess if you want to win IRC 1 you might want to get off your ass and buy Rima, it is for sale and you can have a three way with Hissar and Numbers! They are certainly showing the fleet the way to do it. Ouch on Russell and the Swedes.

4) Tight results up front in the IRC 2 fleet. Come one Markey get our boys jumping and keep the Leprechaun’s behind you!

5) No idea on the Div 3 boats today as the Premier site sucks ass.

6) Don’t really care about the PHRF fleets down there other then it is nice to see a 10 year old SR 33 still kicking ass. That has to make Glenn quite happy.

Anyway, like I say it is easy to sit up here and arm chair quarterback the results a few thousand miles away!

Sitting, waiting, wishing........

So today is the day that many sailors are driving, flying or sailing your way down to Key West for the 20th Edition of Key West Race Week, oops, I am supposed to call it Acura Key West Race Week.

No worries there as I know that without great sponsors like Acura regattas like Key West would never happen. Anyway, so here I sit in the old sail loft in Holland Michigan trying to find all the info that I can on the events that are about to take place or that have taken place, such as the Lauderdale to Key West Race that went off yesterday.

I am looking forward to seeing the pictures of both new Sjambok and the Yeoman. I also talked to my good buddy Mark Pinney who is now working with the TP 52 Windquest late yesterday and they are ready after their trying exercise in International shipping. Windquest is the ex Warparth the Botin Carkeek TP 52 that was runner up in the Med Cup last summer. Well as they shipped the boat over to the US for some winter sailing the boys at the shipping terminal broke the rig as they off loaded the kit from the ship! Can you believe that? Well it happens more then you can imagine.

I hear that the Samba Pa Ti had the same issue when their new BC TP 52 was shipped from NZ.

Anyway, I am also keen to see the results from the MUMM 30 Class at this event. There are only 10 boats in this class, manly due to, in my opinion the fact that we just sailed our World Championships in late November. I think it is just too much to ask owners and crews to do two major events just a little over a month and a half. But of the 10 that are there we should see a great event with some high talent in the top of the fleet yet again. Routing for Black Seal as the brother, (Brad), is back trimming main and calling tactics.

We also see the North American debut of the masthead kites on the Farr 40's. I am very interested to see the results of that change. I am a bit concerned that the boat will just dig in and carve a big ole' hole in the water much like older IMS boats. But the class is trying new things and the numbers are still there. Go Barking Mad! (I have two friends sailing with Jim, Curtis and Mike Hill)

Oh, well time to get back to the loft floor and try to forget that all my buddies are South sailing and I am North freezing my ass off. Oh well it is not to long before St. Croix where I am supposed to trim jib and kite on the RP 44 Storm.

So I say good by for now, I hope my first blog attempt is worth the read.
Cheers,

Tac


PS, now is a great time to buy a new sail from True Wind Racing! email tac at truewindracing dot com and I will be happy to help you out.