The Maersk Stepnica (IMO: 9352004, Port of Registry: Rotterdam) is one of the latest newbuildings managed by the Dutch based Maersk Ship management. Maersk Stepnica was the first in a series of five 8400 TEU container vessels delivered and built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in South Korea. She is propelled by a 68,640 kW 12K98ME MK7 HHI engine. The vessel has a teu capacity of 8,400, is 334 metres long and 43 metres wide. These dimensions give the vessel a deadweight tonnage of 101,500.
The Maersk Stepnica arrived this morning at the APM terminal, Rotterdam. The Maersk Stepnica is currently deployed on Maersk’s AE-1 loop. She is scheduled to return to Rotterdam in about 7 weeks.
Karen and I were headed down the West Side Hwy on Saturday when we spotted some very tall masts. Turns out, as some of you know, that HMS Bounty is in town for the 4th. Anyone know if any other tall ships are planning to be here? Any plans for a parade of sail or some-such?
Also, I’ve put up a new post on A Movable Bridge. If you have me in your blogroll and haven’t already done so, please change the link to http://amovablebridge.wordpress.com
The Tugster and Bowsprite posed a great challenge: Make July 1st Swim Day. Getting into the water isn’t going to happen so I racked my brain for dramatic accounts of near drownings. Sadly my stories of swimming are pretty dull. To be honest I don’t really like swimming very much. For me it’s where I learned and the guy who taught me.
I grew up in Central London. Chelsea to be precise. It’s now a glamorous neighborhood, but when I were a lad, it was more down-to-earth. Yes, it was ground zero for the swinging sixties and to this day Austin Powers makes me strangely nostalgic but Chelsea was actually a real neighborhood with real people, greengrocers, butchers, ironmongers (hardware stores in American), real pubs, council flats, a great local library and best of all a public baths.
Public baths were a Great British Victorian institution. They literally were, where people went to take a bath. Like many public baths, Chelsea Public Baths was a Victorian brick edifice on the King’s Road next to the Town Hall, local cinema (movie theater) and public library. That one block was the municipal nexus for 10s of 1000s of Chelsea inhabitants.
On the outside it was red brick and institutional in the sort of Victorian way that says get your arse inside and be bloody grateful. On the inside it was a mixture of lino and tile. The entrance hall was functional with a snack machine serving Bovril (a hot beef drink) and smoky bacon crisps.
Beyond that almost every surface was heavy industrial Victorian white tile - scratched, chipped, slathered in a film of disinfectant to seal in the bacteria festering in the cracks.
The changing rooms served two purposes. Changing and taking baths. It was my first encounter with how lucky I was to grow up with basic things I took for granted like a bathtub and hot running water. While I passed through the changing rooms as fast as I could, there were others who were there for their weekly baths. A moment of luxury. Taking, hot steamy baths in small private, dank looking bathrooms that would be theirs for an hour a week.
The swimming pool was something else. The smell of chlorine and wet heat were overpowering. Your eyes stung as it hit you. The pool was not quite Olympic size, probably an Imperial 50 yards long rather than an Olympic 50 meters. It was about about 10 feet deep at one end and 4 feet in the shallow end. There was a slightly rotting, algae-covered wood rail along the sides and one solid, crappy diving board about 8 inches off the floor. When you bounced off the end you got about as much spring off it as a brick wall.
If you were lucky enough to have goggles (it was Britain in the 60s after all) you were unlucky enough to see what lurked on the bottom. Used band-aids and the occasional cigarette butt, a big iron grate with evil looking slime clogging the holes.
Best of all was the warning sign with the mysterious NO PETTING. One more thing that this municipal building was apparently a destination for. I never was really too sure what petting was but it had to be pretty dangerous to be in the same league and bombing and ducking.
The No Smoking admonition was especially controversial. Frankly I can’t recall a time when I went there when there weren’t rows of people in the gallery puffing away. In the end it took a national rumor that cigarette smoke and chlorine mixed together was explosive to finally put an end to it.
The main reason I went was to learn to swim. I was 6, maybe 7. My mum signed me up and she had paid up for a full course so the threat of bacteria, bombing, cigarette smoke and chlorine mix or not, I was going dammit!
The thing that made it worth it was the guy who taught me to swim. He was a young Israeli guy called Joseph. This was pretty cool. I had never met anyone from Israel and I can remember to this day his heavy Israeli accent teaching me the strokes, lots of encouragement, never a negative word and no shouting. He loved what he did and it was infectious. I couldn’t wait for my weekly lesson. Thanks to him I learned to swim quite well and pretty young for the UK. I even went on to swim for my school.
Well to be precise, I represented my school once in the 100 meter backstroke. I am sorry but the backstroke sucks. The thing I hated most was that you could see the crowd as you were swimming. I could see the look of sympathetic but slightly embarrassed disappointment on my father’s face as he sat in the gallery watching his offspring come dead last. That was the end of my competitive swimming career.
The brick edifice is still there at the corner of King’s Road and Chelsea Manor Street. I am sure it was sold off and is now a cleverly re-branded leisure club with a weight room, spin classes, yoga and not a hint of chlorine.
Today’s Ship of the Day is the Cosco China (IMO: 9305465, Port of Registry: Monrovia, Liberia), which is a container vessel of 335 meters long, 43 meters wide, and a teu capacity of 8,200. These dimensions give the vessel a deadweight tonnage of 100,800. She is currently sailing for E.R. Schiffahrt Germany on the China - Europe loop.
The Cosco China is expected to arrive later this afternoon at the Euromax Terminal, Rotterdam from Singapore. She is expected to depart tomorrow evening with destination Felixstowe and is scheduled to return to Rotterdam within two months.
The Taklift 7 (IMO: 7829273, Port of Registry: Rotterdam) is a seagoing floating sheerlegs vessel owned by SMIT Heavy Lift Europe. The sheerlegs has a length of 72 metres, is 30 metres wide and has a minimum sailing height of 49 metres. It has a propulsion of 3 x 460 kW and has two bow thrusters of 368 kW each. The longboom can reach a height of 160 metres above deck and has a lifting capacity of 1,200 tons.
The vessel was built in 1976 by HDW Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, Kiel, Germany as the Hebelift 3. In 1994 the vessel was acquired by Smit and named Taklift 7.
The Taklift 7 will enter the port of Rotterdam this afternoon from Cadiz, Spain. On arrival the Taklift 7 will berth at the Waalhaven, Rotterdam.
The Transpac begins its’ staggered start process today at 1pm when Division 6 and 7 get underway. Division 3,4 and 5 start on Thursday, July 2nd while Division 1 and 2 depart Long Beach on Sunday, July 5th. Division 6 and 7 consisting of 11 boats, includes the smallest boat in the fleet, a Hobie 33 as well as the Tall Ship Lynx. The lowest rated boat in Division 7 is an S&S 57 named, “Charisma”. The lowest rated boat in Division 6 is “Relentless”, a One-Design 35. Five SC50’s comprise Division 5 and four SC52’s make up half of division 4. Division 3 is quite an international group with two entries from Japan and one from Mexico. The lowest rated boat in the Division 3 is “Criminal Mischief”, an RP45. Division One and Two comprise 17 boats including Roy Disney on “Pyewacket”, sailing in his 18th Transpac. West Coast veterans include “Alchemy”, a Andrews 68 and “Ragtime”, a Spencer 65. The other six boats in Division 2 are all SC70 sleds. Division 1 features four TP52’s including the storied, “Samba Pa Ti’. The division also includes “Magnitude 80″, an Andrews 80 as well as “Akela”, an RP78
Much of the scuttlebut surrounding the race revolves around it’s lowest rated boat, “Alfa Romeo”, shown here. With a rating of -32.997, this RP100 is capable of taking the record for the race (6 days, 16 hours) as well as line honors despite leaving 6 days after the slower divisions. Owned by New Zealander, Neville Crichton and includes VOR experienced pro crew as well as Stan Honey, Transpac’s winningest navigator.
Armchair racers can keep track of the progress as it unfolds, here.
Is cheating common in sailboat racing? Are some coaches teaching kids to cheat? Do you have to cheat to win these days?
I am prompted to ask myself these questions as a result of some of the comments and debate swirling around in response to my post calling to Ban Mommy Boats NOW. My intent in raising the subject of the activities of coach boats on the race course was to draw attention to something that I find annoying and that gives some sailors what I think is an unfair advantage over others. But, as long as the coaching only happens before or after races it is within the Racing Rules of Sailing, and I would not describe such coaching as “cheating”. However, as often happens, the discussion veered off into describing other actions that could be defined as cheating: illegal propulsion, not taking penalties after infringing rules… and even of coaches teaching such behaviors.
I don’t like to hear such stuff. I don’t want to believe it’s true. I think that sometimes we are much too ready to accuse fellow sailors of cheating. Am I living in a dream world by thinking like this?
First of all let’s define what cheating is… and what it is not. In the context of sailboat racing I would define cheating as deliberately breaking a rule in order to gain some kind of advantage, or accidentally infringing a rule and then deliberately not choosing to take the appropriate penalty. There has to be some element of malicious intent.
What so often happens when racing is that different sailors see or remember the facts of what happened in a particular situation differently; o
r the sailors have different understandings of the relevant rules or how to interpret them. In such circumstances it is ridiculous and unsportsmanlike to accuse a fellow sailor of “cheating”.
Let me give you a couple of examples…
When I wrote my review of the Advanced Laser Boat Handling DVD a few weeks back, an anonymous commenter immediately pounced on the video clip from the DVD of a light air gybe…
It’s interesting that the clip you chose to show (the light air jibe) shows the sailor violating the rules of propulsion, by coming out of the jibe faster than going in. I have several other training DVD’s and they all seem to train and advocate the same thing. (One even says to do this carefully so as not to alert the refs.) What gives?
Shock horror! Coaches are teaching illegal propulsion! Deliberate cheating!
Not so fast. Thanks to the power of the sailing blogging community, fellow blogger and International Judge, Jos Spijkerman soon responded…
I’m at the Delta Lloyd Regatta and just showed this Video to the current ISAF rules 42 specialist, Sofia Truchanowicz. She informed me that the gybe is within the current interpretation of rule 42 and this manoeuvre is legal.
A great example of how different sailors interpret a particular action differently. Many of us might see gybes on the racecourse like the ones one in the clip and be quick to think we are seeing an example of “cheating”. Not so, according to the ISAF expert.
Or what about the incident I described in No Go? A starboard tacker responds to a hail of “Tack or cross?” with an answer of “Go!” and then protests the port tacker for trying to cross ahead of him. Absolutely shameless behavior! Definite cheating!
Actually not so. Read the full story and you will see that it’s actually a comedy of errors by both sailors. Stupid maybe. Laughable certainly. Not cheating.
So let’s agree that lack of knowledge of the rules, not knowing how to interpret the rules, honest mistakes, different perceptions of the facts of an incident, poor boat-handling etc. etc. are not “cheating”.
But still the question remains. Is there much cheating at sailing regattas these days? Does Tillerman need to get his head out of the boat and what’s happening all around him?
Perhaps. Maybe I am too ready to give the benefit of the doubt to my fellow sailors. Here is how I try to deal with rules incidents as they occur on the racecourse…
If I see you infringe a rule I will tell you… once, and only once. If it’s a typical boat-to-boat rules incident I will simply hail “Protest” possibly with your sail number if there’s any doubt which boat I am protesting. If it’s what looks like a blatant illegal propulsion issue I will simply tell you to tone it down. Then I will forget about it and move on with my race. I won’t get angry. I won’t scream and shout. I will not get into a slanging match with you about the incident. I’m here to sail my race and enjoy myself. If I’m spending time arguing with you about the rules I’m not concentrating on my own race.
And here’s the dirty little secret I don’t actually want you to know: if you don’t do your turns I won’t actually file a protest against you after the race. Life’s too short to spend my evening in the protest room instead of the bar. If you know you infringed a rule, do your turns. If you don’t, then you are a cheat, and you have lost my respect for ever. If we have a genuine difference of opinion about the facts or a different understanding of the rules, then we may have a polite discussion after racing about the incident. As a result one of us may decide to retire from that race. Or maybe not. I hope that at least we can shake hands and part as friends and that neither of us will be tempted to use the C-word.
So am I letting cheaters get away with it by not following through on protests? Am I living in a dream world in not wanting to believe that cheating is going on all around me on the race course? Is cheating in sailing as common as some people claim? Do some coaches really teach cheating?
One of my favorite bloggers and twitterers is Mark Hendy. He lives in the UK and shares a common passion for sailing. One of his recent posts was about how he got into sailing thanks to his sailing mentor, Tony. One outing on a boat with Tony and he was hooked:
Once we got the main sail up and switched off the engine I could feel the boat moving through the water under natures own power; the sound of the water along the side of the hull was magical and I was in a place I liked being. It became obvious within the next few hours that I loved sailing and I knew I needed to own my own boat. Not a shared boat, my own.
This got me thinking about my own sailing mentors. I have been sailing for over 20 years and there have been four. The first two were both called Tom and could have not been more different.
Our first sailing instructor was a retired engineer called Captain Tom, who was retraining to be a Lutheran minister. At weekends he taught sailing on his Morgan 42. What a lovely guy! A great teacher who took us under his wing, taught us how to sail and then helped us find our first boat a Cape Dory Typhoon. Coincidentally we bought it from one his former mentees. Without his help and advice we would not have become addicted to this great way of life.
The second Captain Tom was a skipper for the Offshore Sailing School who taught us to live aboard in the BVI’s. He was a gruff, rum-drinking, Floridian who taught us more in a week than I have ever learned. We saw him a year later and he hardly remembered us - so not much of a mentor/mentee thing. You can read more about him and our exploits in this post.
Since then I was mentor-less until fairly recently. I am lucky to have two great and fairly recent friends who are both highly experienced sailors. Like any good mentor, they are generous with their insights if requested but don’t feel the urge to ram it down my throat. Always helpful without being patronizing.
One of my mentors is my mate Phil, an Aussie who is the proud owner of a beautiful Swan 42 that he has double-handed in the Newport to Bermuda several times. Most of the time he cruises her out of Sag Harbor. I have been out on the boat with Phil and his wife Joy a few times and out for beers even more often. He has been a great source of ideas about the pros and cons of owning your own big boat and where to sail in the region. I feel much clearer about what I am looking for long-term thanks to Phil.
My other mentor is Howard, the skipper of Knot Again. Howard owns a C&C 34 that he races in Raritan Bay with yours truly frequently on the starboard winch. Howard is mostly self-taught and has clearly studied sailing well. He has been a frequent winner at RYC and drives his wife crazy with all the silverware. Every time I am on the boat with Howard I learn something new. He is a great tactician and a great person to answer technical questions about sail trim etc.
Howard is a “skipper factory”. There are several other boats at RYC owned and skippered by Howard’s former crew who have learned from him and then gone on to campaign their own boats.
I would love to hear about your mentor stories. I will of course share them back on this blog.
The Estelle Maersk (IMO: 9321495, Port of Registry: Hellerup, Denmark) is, together with its sisters (amongst which are the ‘Emma Maersk‘ and ‘Eleonora Maersk‘), the largest containership ever with a total teu capacity 11,000 teu (of which 1,000 forty foot reefer containers) according to the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group. A total capacity of 13,500 teu is also possible when containers are not fully loaded. This capacity is possible by stacking the containers in 22 rows wide. Maersk calculates the teu capacity with loaded containers. The vessel is 397 meters long, 56 meters wide, has a depth of 30 meters and a deadweigth of 156,907 tons. Amazingly, all this size and capacity requires a crew of only 13. The specially designed Wärtsilä diesel engine delivers 80,000 kW. A waste heat recovery system is installed to optimise the use of the energy produced, so that the engine can deliver up to 90,000 kW. The vessels in this series will also establish new standards for safety and environmental responsibility. Environmentally-safe silicone paint, for example, is used on the hull, below the water line, reducing water resistance, and thereby fuel consumption, by 1,200 tons per year. The ship was built by Odense Steel Shipyard Ltd in 2006.The new MSC vessels, amongst which is the MSC Danit are smaller in dimensions, but can transport more TEU than the PS-class vessels of Maersk, due to their smart design (which doesn’t give the vessels the best looks). The Estelle Maersk arrived this morning at the APM terminal, Rotterdam from Algeciras. Tomorrow, the vessel will set sail for Bremerhaven on the APM AE1 line. She will return within about 7 weeks to Rotterdam.
Great photo by Bruce Kerridge and story behind the photo. Although I think he may be wrong about the origin. I always understood that the brass monkey was a pile of cannon balls. When it was cold the brass cannon balls contracted and the pyramid of cannon balls fell apart. Hence the balls fell off if you get my meaning.
Adam
=============
I’ve had a few emails from people who’ve seen some of my sailing shots, asking for a shot taken on-board during long ocean yacht races when I’ve been stupid enough to do those races.
This one sure ain’t ‘photographic art’, but you asked for it……. So what you see is what you get
It’s taken midway through the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race – one of the classic ocean races of the world, and taken at a location about 80 miles offshore in the Bass Strait, between mainland Australia and Tasmania.
After three nights at sea, sitting on the rail of the boat in bitterly cold conditions as it lurches south through monster seas, on the verge of breaking-up, you are so wet, tired, sore, sleep-deprived and nauseous that you wonder why you do it. The only rationale is maritime masochism, or alternatively some sort of ego-trip for idiot yachties.
You’re not sure if you’re dreaming or living in reality.
You think you’ve died either of drowning or hypothermia, then you realise you can’t be in heaven because it’s not pleasant, and you can’t be in hell because it’s too bloody cold to be hell.
You’re terrified when you realise you are actually alive and this is reality. But you’re at sea so you can’t get off. There’s no way out, and no hiding place.
When your sanity returns you realise the best way to avoid sea-sickness is to sit under a tree looking at cows grazing, and reading a book.
The shot was taken with a cheap “focus free” waterproof film camera (basically a $20 camera in a plastic case held together with a rubber band) and then scanned. Don’t ask for technical details because there aren’t any. This is serious low-tech
The title of the shot means not what you might have imagined (as evocative as that might be). It is a 19th century British naval expression, relating to the pair of magnetised balls that sit atop the brass binnacle housing the yacht’s compass. Hence derivatives such as “brass monkey weather” etc – are relevant only to idiots who choose to go out to sea when sensible people don’t.
I wasn’t able to get my act together to take 116 Flashman up to Huntington last week so instead I went up on 106 Numa Boa. We had 5 days of great close racing in mostly flat water number 1 weather. The camping was fun and relaxing despite a few days of nearly freezing conditions. The smores were delicous as were all the great meals put together by Mark and Gilles and their other halves. I enjoyed just having to show up with a sleeping bag and tent and getting to go sailing without all the organisational effort. Everyone learnt more about how to sail Moores and I managed to measure quite a few rig set ups so I can decide what to do with ours. Just had some good friends over for dinner and I am racing friday, a wedding on saturday and racing on sunday.
The Channel Islands Harbor offers a free concert series at Peninsula Park. That’s also where the transient docks are on the main fairway, which you are welcome to tie up to for a couple hours. It’s a great way to end a day of sailing out in the Santa Barbara Channel or a simple and lazy excuse to get on the boat for a couple hours. The music runs from 4-6pm and you either listen to it on the boat or head to the grass in front of the bandstand.
There is a pump-out facility at the far NE end of the dock. So…you could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Use caution if the wind is blowing on the dock which it quite often does. It’s great practice at downwind docking and will require a spring line to spring off your bow or stern as you leave the dock.
The Grietje (IMO: 9147708, Port of Registry: St. John’s, Antigua & Barbuda) is a heavy lift ship, managed by Lühe Engineering, Germany. The vessel was built in 2000 by J.J. Sietas KG Schiffswerft, Hamburg, Germany, is 152 metres long and 21 metres wide, which give the vessel a deck space of 124 x 20.5 metres. The vessel has two cranes with a SWL of 320 metric tons and 1 crane with a SWL of 200 metric tons. Combined the cranes have a load capacity of upto 700 metric tons.
The Grietje arrived this morning at the DFDS Tor Line terminal, Rotterdam from Kalundborg, Denmark.
The Edith Maersk (IMO: 9321548, Port of Registry: Roskilde, Denmark) is, together with her sisters (amongst which are the ‘Emma Maersk‘ and ‘Eleonora Maersk‘), the largest containership ever with a total teu capacity 11,000 teu (of which 1,000 forty foot reefer containers) according to the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group. Rumours are that a total capacity of 13,500 teu is also possible. This capacity is possible by stacking the containers in 22 rows wide. The vessel is 397 meters long, 56 meters wide, has a depth of 30 meters and a deadweight of 156,907 tons. Amazingly, all this size and capacity requires a crew of only 13. The specially designed Wärtsilä diesel engine delivers 80,000 kW. A waste heat recovery system is installed to optimise the use of the energy produced, so that the engine can deliver up to 90,000 kW. The vessels in this series will also establish new standards for safety and environmental responsibility. Environmentally-safe silicone paint, for example, is used on the hull, below the water line, reducing water resistance, and thereby fuel consumption, by 1,200 tons per year. The ship was launched at Odense Steel Shipyard Ltd on March 3rd 2007.
The Edith Maersk will arrive this afternoon at the APM terminal, Rotterdam from the port of Algeciras. She will stay in port for about 36 hours. The vessel will then set sail for Bremerhaven on the APM AE1 line. She will return within about 7 weeks to Rotterdam.
Members, Mike and Deana Ruel, continue to prepare for their sailing circumnavigation of the world by using a SailTime Hunter 36 here to hone their skills. They haven’t chosen the boat yet to do it with but keep their eyes open to the myriad of possibilities for a suitable craft. SailTime lets them continue to gain confidence in all kinds of conditions without the hassle of owning their own boat right now. Recently they sailed up to San Miguel Island, about 60 miles away and about 25 miles off Point Conception, known as the Cape Horn of the West Coast. While anchored up there in Cuyler’s anchorage they spotted this UBO (unidentified boating object) and think it may have been inhabited by martians or some other creature.
It has a name of “Seven Sisters” and a hailing port of Newport Beach. If not an alien amphibian craft we are thinking that Mom said she did not like the way the ole power boat yawed at sea and then Pop’s got this great idea to save money on fuel…but forgot the boom and sail part of the equation. If you can shed light on the subject, we are all ears!
Today’s Ship of the Day is the ms Rotterdam (IMO: 9122552, Port of registry: Rotterdam), the flagship of the Holland America Line which has a capacity of 1,316 passengers. She is already the sixth ship of the HAL to bear the name. The Rotterdam has 658 rooms of which there are 4 penthouse suites, 36 normal suites, 120 mini suites, 381 outside staterooms and 117 inside staterooms. Furthermore there are several restaurants, bars, a theather, a kids club, a library, a casino and a health spa on board. This in 1997 in Italy built vessel is 238 meters long, 32 meters wide and has a gross tonnage of almost 60.000. The ms Rotterdam has arrived last night at the Holland Amerikakade. She will depart this evening with destination Oslo and will continue her tour to Arhus, Warnemunde, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen. Prices start from about $ 2.000 per person.
Pictures below are of the penthouse, the art gallery and the atrium.
This pretty much sums up sailing especially stuff what needs fixing:
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair. - Douglas Adams
Photos by Guido Trombetta . Here is the email I received about this:
“Storm with whirlwind strikes Isola d’elba. Hundreds of boats sunk or scattered over the beaches. One skipper is still missing in the sea“
I became involved with this organization a few years ago. Both my parents were stroke victims, and both were paralyzed as a result. Frankly, until that time, the disabled were relatively “invisible” to me. But, when your daily routine is suddenly changed — a whole new world opens up. I knew that I would have to do more in my life to help ‘people with special needs’ — and I loved sailing. So, I got this great idea — how about doing something with handicapped sailing. Fortunately for me, many people with far more experience were already pioneering this venue — and by amazing coincidence, a program exists right here in New Jersey — and not far away at all. So I got involved in 2006 as a volunteer. Now, I’m hoping to do more to assist this fine organization.
Sail Habilitation was founded by Dr, Stephanie Argyris in the mid-1990’s, as a way to help with rehabilitation in certain phyiscal therapies. Stephanie had sailed Sneakboxes growing up on Barnegat Bay, and got the idea that the very tactile nature of sailing could help people in recovery. From that, grew a program of holding community sailing events open to all people of special needs. These events are currently hosted once or twice a year at the Lavallette Yacht Club on the Tom’s River in New Jersey. They are open to anyone with a special need, including the extreme elderly, and their caregivers. The event generally lasts about half of a day. Clients with special needs and their caregivers arrive early in the morning and are fed breakfast. Volunteers, under the direction of professional Physical Therapists, assist in outfitting the clients with safety gear and transferring them into sail and power boats, donated by members of the club and other local sailors. Clients enjoy some time on the water, then return for lunch before ldeparting.
This is great program that needs to continue and grow. At this time, we are urgently seeking donations to fund this year’s community sail, scheduled at Lavellette for Saturday, August 1st.Essentially, Sail Habilitation needs to raise $4000, in order to cover the premium for the liability insurance required to conduct the events (this premium would also cover any additional events for the year). Sail Habilitation is strictly a volunteer non-profit (503-C) organization. Every $1 that is donated goes directly to the special-needs clients — all other items, foods, docks, boats, management, etc, are donated. Very few charitable organizations can make this claim.
You can read more about Sail Habitation here and by Charles Zusman from the Star and Ledger here.
Here are members of SailHabilitation “Team Odyssey” who raced the Sonar class for the USA in the Paralypics last year in China. This is a high profile organization, and much more can be realized for these folks. More is found on their website.
How to Help
The nonprofit Sail-Habilitation must raise $4,000 for insurance to continue holding free Community Sailing Days for people with physical disabilities or special needs. Although the next community sail is planned for Aug. 1 at the Lavallette Yacht Club, it cannot be held unless the group can pay for insurance. Those who would like to contribute may send a check made out to Sail-Habilitation to P.O. Box 228, Island Heights, NJ 08732.
For more information, e-mail sailhabilitation@aol.com, and the organization’s acting president, Antoinette Gobar, will respond.
Last weekend, I crewed on Knot Again in the Keyport Yacht Club Bill Volks Cup in aid of Leukemia. Last year we won the B1 non-spinnaker Class. This year in addition to some tough competition from Keyport we faced our own clubmate on Forbidden, a fast boat with a great pedigree.
As ever, I was on starboard winch, partnering with my pit-mate Jeff. The regatta was a two-day affair, with 3 races on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. We won the first and third race on Saturday but came last in the second as we got the headsail fouled-up on the pole drop. Sunday we were second and third. We ended the weekend second overall with Forbidden in first. (We got our revenge on Wednesday by winning the mid-week race against Keyport, taking first in a fleet of 15 boats).
It was an eventful weekend physically. Winching on these fairly short races is a surprisingly good work-out but it was also eventful in a couple of other ways. Firstly, on Saturday, I made the mistake of standing up to tall over the winch on a tack. The traveler was released accidentally and the boom flew to starboard on the tack, smacking me across the head at speed. So that’s how the boom got its name.
It cut me pretty badly and I bled like a stuck pig all over the winch. I was lucky. It was glancing blow. If the boom had been an inch or so lower, it would have probably knocked me out.
I went to ER that evening. Fortunately the wound did not require stitches and was simply cauterized.
Sunday, was equally eventful. Basically I slipped while standing on the lazarrette and barked the hell out of my shin. It was bloody painful and I let out a loud Anglo-Saxon expletive. The 12-year old lad who was on board was delighted by this and even more so when I showed him the wound. “Cool” were his exact words.
The irony is that I played rugby for 7 years and soccer forever but never suffered anything but a few knocks and grazes. My worst sporting injuries have all been sailing. Who says it’s a genteel sport?
In future I will be suiting up for regattas like an NFL player.
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