ROGER VAUGHAN and IAIN MURRAY ON THE AMERICA’S CUP | stephenlirakis.com

ROGER VAUGHAN and IAIN MURRAY ON THE AMERICA’S CUP | stephenlirakis.com:

From Roger Vaughn, Oxford, MD:I’ve tried hard to get behind the 2013 America’s Cup. I really have. I’ve been covering this event longer than I want to admit. I’ve written three books about it, including one about about Dennis Conner’s precedent-setting multihull defense in 1988, so I understand the nature of the multihull beast. I wrote the book (as yet unpublished) about Oracle’s dramatic, nail-biting victory in 100- foot multihulls in 2010, the match that led to using multis for 2013.Along the way I wrote scripts for the videos produced about the AC 45 World Series.Those events convinced me there really could be arresting match race competition in high-tech, winged multihulls. And I wrote the introduction to the striking new book about the 2013 Cup, Sailing on the Edge. I wrote in a positive way about it, relating how John Cox Stephens had a catamaran in 1820, and how his businessman’s smile would be broad as a Cheshire cat’s if he could watch the AC72s flying by.But it’s time to rethink. There have been 3 matches in the Louis Vuitton final and we have yet to see a race. Three matches, three breakdowns, and one frightening bow plunge by New Zealand that was a miracle of survival. Why that boat wasn’t totalled is a mystery. Three matches without one display of tactics by either boat. Three matches with no light sail handling. How can there be light sails when the apparent wind angle on the leeward legs is 25 degrees? Gone is the compelling ballet of billowing spinnakers, the sets, the jibes, the takedowns that are the lyrical melody of sailboat racing. All we’ve got is big, hugely expensive, overpowered, dangerous machines ripping at 40 knots and more, with crews wearing body armor suits and crash helmets with oxygen bottles and commando knives strapped to their bodies just in case….

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On A Rocky Maine Island, Puffins Are Making A Tenuous Comeback : NPR

Eastern Egg Rock, Muscongus Bay, Gulf of Maine
photo by Diane Schmidt

On A Rocky Maine Island, Puffins Are Making A Tenuous Comeback : NPR:

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Winches for the weaker sex! from Lewmar

Lewmar - the manufacturer of winches for sailboats - has moved beyond its now comical advertising approach.

Marian McPartland, Jazz Pianist and NPR Radio Staple, Dies at 95 - NYTimes.com

My favorite was when she and her guest would do an impromptu, unrehearsed duet. - Marian McPartland, Jazz Pianist and NPR Radio Staple, Dies at 95 - NYTimes.com: "By PETER KEEPNEWS

Marian McPartland, the genteel Englishwoman who became a fixture of the American jazz scene as a pianist and, later in life, as the host of the internationally syndicated radio show “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz,” died on Tuesday at her home in Port Washington, N.Y. She was 95."

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Seaworthy? Oracle's Ellison - We certainly never intended for people to be hurt CBS//Charlie Rose

I am not a curmudgeon about hydro-foiling ultra-expensive sailboats.  But I am a lawyer and person concerned about seaworthiness - an issue on which the organizers have failed, as I recently discussed here.  As you can see in this video Both Prada and Team NZ suffered major damage on the first race of the challenger series.  And Team NZ lost two crew overboard - and continued the race, leaving their two grinders to be picked up by the crash boats.  Below is Oracle team president Larry Ellison speaking with Charlie Rose - defending their effort.
Ellison says that an extreme sport should be risky with "the illusion of danger".  He acknowledges that they might go back to the "much safer" 45 footers.  But Andrew Simpson died on a not-yet-foiling 72 footer that capsized due to a structural failure.  There is legal liability there for the consequence of the structural failure.  But was the Artemis team's boat also unseaworthy due to unsportsmanlike behaviour by the race sponsors?
Seaworthiness in this context is synonymous with sportsmanship.  Racing has its origins in the seaman's paired priorities: to get to the fishing ground or port safely and quickly. The safety of the crew is vital to seaworthiness because the seaman's help is needed.  Ellison stated that principle clearly.  So there is no corruption at the heart of the effort.  But what about their decision?
When they adopted the AC 72 design rule the designers did not realize that the parameters permitted a lifting hydrofoil.  When the New Zealanders (of course) surprised them all with its foiling boat, all raced to redesign their boats to meet the competition.  But the effort crashed up against the race deadline. Experimental and unseaworthy boats were brought to the starting line of the championship.  Prototypes, not production models, one might say.  Seaworthiness is a strict liability concept.  Not fault but fitness for the voyage is being measured.

Seaworthiness: America's Cup first race debacle

Emirates/Team NZ reaching in the second LV Cup race

There really is no denying it: the first race of the Challenger finals for the right to try to take the Americas Cup was a debacle.  Sportsmanship demands  seaworthiness. For sailors, as for all seamen seaworthiness is the objective of racing, of seamanship, and of design.  The first race of the Challenger finals saw both New Zealand and the Italians suffer major damage.  Prada broke down moments after the start and withdrew.  Emirates/TNZ nose-dived, throwing two crewmen into the San Francisco Bay.  Rescue teams fetched them out, and the damaged boat finished, uncontested, and shorthanded.  A debacle.

Capsizes and equipment failure are an acceptable part of the sport, as every dinghy sailor will tell you.  What makes the AC different is that the equipment has failed so early.  Seaworthiness was defined by the great admiralty judge Learned hand as "ability for the service undertaken".  The T.J. Hooper, 60 F. 2d 737 (2d Cir. 1932)  By that measure these AC 72's should not be raced because they are "not fit for (their) intended purpose", as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals defines the term.
For independent thinking by a sailing master and photographer follow Stephen Lirakis.

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Captain JP's log: Crossing to Greenland: ice and fog

Captain JP - crossing the Greenland Sound from Iceland.  Ice forced a change in course. 
Captain JP's log: Crossing to Greenland: ice and fog:


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Penobscot Bay and River Pilot disembarks Irving New England, then boards Penn 92 inbound

As we headed south from Allen Island, following the Monhegan boat route we spied an Irving supertanker, with a Penobscot Bay and River Pilots launch following alongside. We slowed and followed in the wake of the giant ship and the 40 foot pilot launch. We saw the pilot climb down the gangway and then the rope ladder of the giant tanker which was running in ballast, having delivered its cargo to he Port of Searsport. Then it turned south to deliver the PenBay and River pilot to the waiting Penn 92 pushed by Coho, inbound for the Searsport liquid cargo terminal. - GWC  (click pix to enlarge and for slideshow)

Cave dwelling

Each of us needs a room of one's own.
This is mine. 
(click pix to enlarge and for slideshow)

Wilbur Morse was the father of the Friendship sloop

Back River - Half Tide

Deer rest