JFK's VICTURA

50 years ago this month, information that Soviet missiles were found to be in Cuba was released to the American public. Here is a pictorial history of our then President in a place that he is quoted as saying was his favorite place to be - VICTURA.

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came."
John F. Kennedy

Boat Make Wianno Senior

Boat LOA: 26 Feet

Boat Width: 8 Feet

Boat Weight: 3500 lb

Boat Material: Wood

Boat Builder: Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, MA

Boat Launched: 1932, Joseph P. Kennedy purchased it the same year as a 15th birthday present to his son John. It was President Kennedy's favorite boat.

Olympic Sailing History - A Family Affair

Out at Oak Orchard, not unlike many other places were club sailing takes place, sailboat racing is also part of family time. Sailing is a sport, or recreation that is uniquely suited to allow a wide range of people, from almost any age group to sail around the buoys, or just sail  two miles out and two miles back as some people prefer.

Olympic history holds evidence that, in fact sailing is very much a family sport with some interesting firsts. One has to go back to Count Hermann de Pourtales of Switzerland, in the 1900 Olympic games for evidence. He was the oldest sailor in the games at 53. Sailing alongside was his wife, Helene de Pourtales at 33, the oldest woman in any of the 1900 Olympic sports. Helene became the first female Olympic medalist when Lerina (pictured below) crossed the line in a corrected time of 2 hours, 15 minutes and 32 seconds in Race 1 of the 1-2 Ton Class. The wife and husband sailing duo were also joined by their nephew Bernard and they added a silver medal to their collection in Race 2 after they finished behind the German boat Aschenbradel.
Resource: http://www.sailing.org/17516.php

Lerina - 1900 Olympic games

This feat would be repeated by the British couple eight years later in the 7 Meter division. The skipper was Charles James Rivett-Carnac who, at the age of 55 in 1908, remains the oldest Briton to have won an Olympic gold medal in sailing. His wife, Frances Rivett-Carnac, was one of the crew, and became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal at sailing.
Resource: http://propercourse.blogspot.com/2012/04/sail-over.html

7 Meter - Bluebird

Father and son Paul and Hilary Smart won a gold medal for the U.S. in 1948, sailing in the Star class. It’s a family feat not since repeated, in any sport, summer or winter.
Resource: http://startsailingnow.com/ and  http://savingsailing.com/2012/04/03/unlike-any-other-sport/

Paul and Hilary Smart

Fast forward to 2012 with brother and sister, Zach and Paige Railey from Clearwater, Fla., birthplace of the Optimist dinghy: "We were pretty much those tan little hippie babies with bleach-blond hair running around with their mom down at the beach," Paige Railey said. "It just seemed like a natural thing for us to go into a sport that was associated with the water. Our whole life was based around the water." When Zach was 8, their family dentist suggested that his mother, Ann, enroll him in a summer sailing program. Three years later, it was Paige's turn. They both fell in love with the sport and began winning regattas.
Resource: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sailing-siblings-zach-paige-railey-191026792--oly.html

Zach (Finn) and Paige Railey (Laser Radials)

Sailboat Racing - Ronstan ClearStart Watch

$60 - Ronstan ClearStart 

It's always a good idea to have more than one watch counting down on a start. In some instances the clock that we are counting on to get us to the line may obscured by the flailing arms and off-balance bodies of the frantic crew, and perhaps with an extra clock running, a bowman could let the skipper know if it's going to be close.

Finding a countdown timer that doesn't have whole bunch of useless functions that invite disaster and also comes with a reasonable price tag is a pretty narrow search. However, the Ronstan ClearStart Sailing Watch is just the ticket.

The watch is usually available at West Marine, but at the time of this post they were out of stock. A quick Google search will usually result in multiple places to purchase this $60 watch.

The size of the numbers on the dial is really nice and big for folks who don't want to wear their reading glasses during the start sequence. Also, the 5 minute, 3 minute, 1 minute and then every 10 second beeps are nice and loud. You can set the watch to count up the time after the start to find your elapsed time - all good stuff.

West Marine did a great job of showing the features of this watch in the following video:

Fifth and Final Race of Mid-Summer Series

Winds went light out of the southeast as the last race of the season saw boats drift across the finish line of a shortened course.

Thanks to all participants for a fantastic 2012 racing season. Thanks also to Bruce Franklin for this evenings "Committee Cottage" shoreline start and finish times.

Name------Place.-----Corr. Time

Spinnaker Fleet

Red Line ----------2-------55:03
Emeraude ---------1-------54:04
College Tuition-----DNR-----
MoJo--------------3-----1:06:43
Blast Wave-------DNR------

Genoa Only Fleet

Sciabola---------2------1:00:27
Sea Dog---------DNR------
Mariah-----------3------TBA
Damas-------------DNR----------
Advantage-------1-------1:00:07
Col. 26-2---------DNR-----------

Many thanks to Mike Goheen, vacationing from his home state of Texas, for crewing aboard BLAST WAVE and then on board EMERAUDE.

Want to post crew pictures and thank-yous to your crew here on the racing page?
Email any and all pictures along with captions and names to: OurBoatingLife@gmail.com.We'll make them available for any and all to see...

Mike Goheen aboard EMERAUDE at end of race No. 4

Results of Race Four of Mid-Summer Season

Name------Place.-----Corr. Time

Spinnaker Fleet

Red Line ----------DNR-------
Emeraude ---------1-------50:44
College Tuition-----2------53:57
MoJo--------------DNR-----
Blast Wave-------DNR------

Genoa Only Fleet

Sciabola-----------1-------54:28
Sea Dog---------3--------57:34
Mariah-----------4-------58:12
Damas-------------DNR----------
Advantage-------2--------57:22
Col. 26-2---------DNR-----------

J/24 Worlds - Rochester Yacht Club - Sep. 13-21

Over 100 J/24 are expected in Rochester in less than a month.They will be starting on a single start line. Here at Oak Orchard it is crowded if four boats converge at the pin - this will be a wild scene.

Mike Ingham, a J/24 National Champion and North Sails rep from RYC took some time to talk about the J/24 Class, how races are going to be run in Rochester, and what it's going to take to win here. For more information about the Worlds, go to www.2012j24worlds.com

Also, Mike Ingham has a YouTube channel with advice on tuning and sail trim at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/mikeinghamsailing?feature=watch


Promo music video for the race upcoming J/24 at Rochester. You can get a feel for what it would be like to
be onboard a J/24

Epic Fail of a Chain Plate

Trey Rose is taking the video while Doug Scheibner the owner, driver, and skipper handles this demasting very well. It is good to see just how well this potentially disastrous situation was handled.

Sailing Debate - Sailing Is a Sport Apart

Bomani Jones wrote an opinion piece "Sailing Is a Sport Apart" in the New York Times that has sparked a debate about Olympic Sailing and sailing itself.

Jones writes:
"...what does sailing embody that anyone loves, specifically, about the Olympics? Where is the simplicity of the event that gives the impression that anyone could participate? You need to be of a certain class with special access to sail. In an event that celebrates inclusion, it is the most exclusive"

Over 200 comments have been left on the page, so this seems to be an interesting topic.

Photo of PDRacers National Championships in Pennsylvania.
Can be built for $150 - materials at Home Depot
PDRacer history link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puddle_Duck_Racer

Spider a Beiley B-25 Sailboat out of GYC

My brother, Darren trailered his B-25 down from Genesee Yacht Club to participate in the Oak Orchard Yacht Club Invitational Regatta. I spliced together some video of him and crew during the race.




Information about the designer of the B-25:

LEIF BEILEY started sailing and surfing while in high school in southern California. As a teenager he built surfboards in his garage and sailed multihulls. After college he worked in the aerospace industry as an engineer. In 1988 Beiley founded Bboats, Inc. to build and market a production version of the B-25. This boat not only won many Grand Prix regattas, but was the first trailerable boat to be competitive in virtually all venues, winning such diverse events as the Colorado ILYA PHRF championship, Key West Race Week (twice), Trimble North Race Week and the Santa Barbara--King Harbor Race. While designing and building racing yachts occupied much of his time and energy, he continued to race.
From http://www.bravurayachts.com/company_profile.htm

Oak Orchard Yacht Club Invitational - Results

August 11th was a great day for racing.

Much thanks to John Brown, OOYC Fleet Captain for being in charge of the Invitational, Bob Elliot of GYC for heading the Race Committee, Bob Frost, RC member and his boat Frostiana, and Bruce Franklin, RC.
A special thanks to the two mark-set boats with Bob and Kayleen Muscarella, and Dan and Marietta Schueth - that looked very tiring with shifting winds and multiple mark changes...

Video of mostly preliminary start activities along with some racing scenes. Video taken onboard EMERAUDE - Cal 2-27.

RCR Yacht Sailor's News on Olimpic Sailing

Don Finkle, in RCR Yacht Sailors News, comments on the state of Olympic sailing.

Sailing in the Olympics: Anyone from the US and Canada who has been following the sailing action is likely disappointed that North America got shut out of the medal stand completely. The last time this happened for the US was in 1936. Clearly the rest of the sailing world has gotten better and more countries are working hard to achieve Olympic success. But there is no way around the fact that this is a shock to NA sailing. I was exchanging notes yesterday with my good friend Jack Mathias, who sailed in the Olympics in 1976 for the US. Jack crewed for Norm Freeman in the Flying Dutchman class and went into the last day with a shot at a medal. He is obviously very interested in what went wrong and we’ll no doubt be hearing and reading much more in the coming months as the current program is dissected.

RCR Yachts
Youngstown, NY
http://www.rcryachts.com/

Nicholas Hayes - Olympians Need You to Go Sailing

Nick Hayes, author of Saving Sailing,  states that, "Olympic sailing success depends on a robust inter-generational recreational sailing population. Period. These data confirm it."

"If you compare the number of recreational sailors in the US to the number of medals earned per recreational sailor, you learn that one short generation (15-25 years) after sailing was at its peak popularity in the US, the US was fielding its most talented Olympic sailing teams. Soon after sailing began to fall in popularity, we began to perform more inconsistently, and eventually, we struggled to represent in international competition."

Read Nick's article and more at:  http://savingsailing.com/

Results of Race 3 of Mid-Summer Series

Name------Place.-----Corr. Time

Spinnaker Fleet

Red Line ----------3-------44:37
Emeraude ---------4-------45:39
College Tuition-----1-------38:27
MoJo--------------2-------41:27
Blast Wave-------DNR------

Genoa  Fleet

Sciabola-----------2-------43:11
Sea Dog-------------------DNF
Mariah---------------------DNF
Damas-----------DNR----------
Advantage---------1-------41:24
Col. 26-2--------DNR-----------

Exciting evening of sailing. The winds and waves were equally strong, but the water was beautiful for swimming as I, the editor of this page found out on the second leg. EMERAUDE was running downwind nicely with sails to port. We dipped down into a troth of a pretty big wave and we were healing pretty good. EMERAUDE righted herself with enough force to throw me into the port lifeline. I was sitting just forward of the winch tending the jib sheet so it would not shake the rigging so hard when the jib flagged then filled from running down a wave. The righting action of the boat along with the filling of the jib combined to launch me into the upper lifeline which broke and sent me into the water. My dad, Ray spun EMERAUDE around and the crew snagged me out of the water. We continued on to 4th place. Needless to say, I will be wearing a PDF from now on. Falling off a boat is not just for the clumsy.

O.O. Represented at Seabreeze

Apparently there is a small boat out of Oak Orchard that escaped and ended up as part of a kiddie ride at Seabreeze. WAKE MAKER exceeding the 5 mph limit now causes yells of joy not anguish.

This picture was sent in by Darren Leonard.

Results of Race Two of Mid Summer Series

Name------Place.-----Corr. Time

Spinnaker Fleet

Red Line ----------1-------53:39
Emeraude ---------2-------54:24
College Tuition-----DNR-----
MoJo--------------3-------1:12:12
Blast Wave-------DNR------

Genoa Only Fleet

Sciabola-----------1-------57:35
Sea Dog---------2------1:02:34
Mariah---------------------DNF
Damas-------------DNR----------
Advantage-------3-------1:02:57
Col. 26-2---------DNR-----------

Our fantastic Race Committee: 
Bob Frost on his FROSTYANA with crew of Bruce Franklin, 
Bill and Marlee Diehl, and Joe and Judy Rizzo

The winds went light at the end of the race...