By admin | Published:
February 24, 2013
Photo © (presumably) Gilles Martin-Raget/Oracle Team USA I don’t think anyone connected to America’s Cup competition was quite prepared for the poise and capability of the young sailors who showed up this month to try out for a spot in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. An event that once sounded vague and dicey is [...]
By admin | Published:
September 11, 2012
REMEMBERING GEORGE “I’LL GUARANTEE YOU TEN BOATS” GRIFFITH George Griffith rocked my world. The man had a vision for a next boat, and he didn’t care about the doubters. The result was the Cal 40, arguably the most influential raceboat of the second half of the 20th century, and I have it on good authority [...]
By admin | Published:
September 11, 2012
Twenty-five years ago, Dennis Conner’s comeback win at the America’s Cup in Australia inspired a Japanese movie producer to make a feature film about sailboat racing – WIND. Quite a few of the usual suspects of the sailing scene got involved, and I was one of them. Amid the fustigation, stress and associated smoke approaching [...]
Also posted in Sailboat Racing, Sailboats | Tagged Carroll Ballard, Dean Jones, Jack Sutphen, Jennifer Grey, John Sangmeister, John Toll, Mata Yamamoto, Matthew Modine, Mike Erlin, Peter Gilmour, Roger Vaughan, Stu Silvestri, Tom Luddy |
By admin | Published:
July 31, 2012
Photo © Kimball Livingston When we slowed to 22 knots, it felt like sailing into molasses. That is the addiction of speed. And I appreciate it, Jimmy Spithill, that you once showed me 28 knots on an AC45, but the boys on l’Hydroptere let me drive at a boatspeed of 34 knots. Top number for [...]
By admin | Published:
June 11, 2012
oooKAY. Today I got a press release on behalf of the African Diaspora Maritime regarding its legal action against the Golden Gate Yacht Club, Defender and Trustee of the America’s Cup. Said press release describes the situation as, “one man’s two-year attempt to integrate the upcoming 34th America’s Cup.” Which doesn’t go far toward building [...]
By admin | Published:
May 12, 2012
Having sailed the Centennial Newport-Bermuda with Joe Harris aboard Gryphon Solo, I am naturally tuned in to the man’s prospects in the Atlantic Cup and a first leg now under way from Charleston to New York. Gryphon Solo was an Open 50, the same that Brad Van Liew sailed to win his first solo race [...]
By admin | Published:
April 30, 2012
There’s more to it, I think, but that quote from reigning world champion Johnny Heineken is not a bad start for explaining why kites are hot. Heineken continues to dominate the course-racing scene with a combination of raw speed and the tactical smarts developed out of growing up racing dinghies and skiffs. How long can [...]
By admin | Published:
April 22, 2012
Does it say something about sailing or does it say something about journalism that even the New York Times had to look for an America’s Cup tie-in when it reported the tragic deaths of five amateur sailors aboard a keelboat rounding an island at the edge of the Continental Shelf, 27 miles from the nearest [...]
By admin | Published:
February 23, 2012
A San Francisco treat since 2004, the Ocean Film Festival is growing in new directions, and you should know. Will it go international come 2013? Don’t bet against it, and meanwhile there is a pre-event on Friday, February 24 at the Aquarium of the Bay to launch their first Evening of Sailing with three shorts [...]
By admin | Published:
December 29, 2011
The wildest sailboat ride I ever had was not on a wing-powered catamaran. It was on a “simple” Star. What Tom Blackaller once told me about sailing in an Olympic Trials on San Francisco Bay— “It was like going into a fire hose that’s shooting 40 knots.” and “I just sailed it under.” —crossed my [...]