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Short-Handed Sailing Association
Newsletter September 2008

In this edition:

    Evacuation in the North Pacific
    A couple of new (or perhaps previously) unknown races
        The Brooklyn Ocean Challenge Cup
        Maine Rocks Race
        Whalers Race
        Gear Buster   
    An evening with Sir Robin Knox-Johnson
    Sail Newport 25 Anniversary dinner gala
    The Homer Simpson award for Dumb Move
    Medical emergencies seminar
    Update on the folks in Texas


Skip Allen evacuated from his boat 350 miles west of SFO
Late flash-After writing this on Tuesday evening I was proofing on Wednesday morning and I checked back to the SSS forum noted below. Skip Allen has another posting there where he touches on some of the points raised below but in reference to comments from other forums un-named.
Please note all that my observations ARE NOT criticism of this great sailor but rather questions I would like to discuss with him had I the chance. Allen has had more salt water thru his boots than any to guys you know and few people are alive on the planet to day to questions his actions. I am not one of them.

While I was rummaging thru weather sites in advance of last weekends non-event TS Hanna I got an email from a mate of mine in San Francisco Bay. It was a link to the Singlehanded Sailing Society, one of the original short-handed communities in the US. They were reporting that one of the guys sailing back from the Solo Transpac was in the midst of a decent size blow with big seas. Ultimately Skip Allen was taken of his Tom Wylie designed Hawk Farm 27, that he had owned and sailed for roughly 30 years and 60K miles around the Pacific including multiple solo Transpac's. His account of the conditions he was in, the seas, the thought process he went through and protocols he followed and the aftermath of getting off your pride and joy onto a 1000 foot container ship in strong wind and big seas is very illuminating on several fronts. Without in any way wishing to analyze the skipper’s actions, for only the master of the ship on the spot can take responsibility for his actions, I would pose the following questions to Skip if I was along side him, which I may well be at some point for we share a common shipmate. This is the link to the forum posting: It is on page two about half way down:
http://www.sfbaysss.net/showthread.php?s=eabbdb5c5f8bab42d0987a7daed77241&t=217&page=2

1. Reference: Trying to make washboards watertight. It is my belief based on my own experiences, that conventional drop in wash boards, such as almost every production boat on the planet has, just do not cut it when the fertilizer is really in the fan. Compare his description of water getting in side the boat with the hatch system on VOR 70’s, Open 50 & 60’s and Minis. Personally on my own mini I used a Lewmar hatch set at an angle in the deck.

This hatch arrangement kept the ocean on the outside, as well as any Lewmar (or other brand for that matter) hatch can. And yes I concede that this is a specialized case of a specific race boat, but I have to also say that I have had two customers who have had the same idea on their boats. And again these were one off built boats but Goiot makes a version of this hatch that both of them used. You can see an image of one of these boats here: http://www.wanderingalbatross.org/images/passagesouth/lastlight_lrg.jpg
The hatch top has been slid up into the teak cowling above the actual opening.

2. Skip makes reference to the poor functionality of his mechanical wind vane, not a monitor….Perhaps there are folks reading this with experience with the Sail-O-Mat vane that he used? I would like to know more about what was happening, or not happening here.

3. In concert with this are his comments regarding tiller mounted autopilots, being used in hard weather and the outcome of having them fail. He makes a good argument, without saying anything actually, for under deck pilots.

4. He makes reference to the size of the cockpit drains, the cockpit configuration and the speed with which the cockpit actually drained. Bear in mild that this boat is a late 1970’s half tonner basically. One is tempted to like the idea of an open transom, none the less, under these conditions.

5. He reports that the boat was sailing too fast down wind and so he reduced sail to a Storm Staysail of 39 sq.ft. Ever since the 1998 Hobart race there has been promulgated the idea that the standard ORC regs. for storm Jibs makes for a sail that is too big (in many cases). I believe that this was one of the findings in the CYCA’s report but don’t quote me. I have done the math for the ORC reg MAX size storm jib for the Wylie 27: “I” of 36-squared times point 05. The answer is 65 sq.ft. And this is on a fractional rigged boat. If my assumptions regarding which Wylie boat (I looked up in my data base) are correct, Allen was sailing with a Storm Jib HALF the “recommended” (square foot) size AND this was too much, in this condition apparently for he later dropped it after sailing at 6-9 knots and ran under bare poles towing a drogue which ultimately failed.

6. While there no mention is of is a sea anchor, (in the later posting (page 4) he does refer to it- best to read posting) a parachute type device streamed off the bow allowing the yacht to basically park, ideally perpendicular to the wave path. The above mentioned shared shipmate, one Warwick “Commodore” Tompkins has carried parachute sea anchors on many of the yachts he has delivered over the past 20 years and swears by them. Most recently he used one about 2 days SE of Tokyo in a 50 plus knot blow the week of Christmas on a 40 foot cruising Cat. He reports that deploying the device made all the difference to the vessel and the crew.

7. The wave path is a generator of crashing seas in this episode. In fact the wave path seems to have played a big role in this action in that the wave’s direction apparently changed from north to NW over the course of the blow. Those of us who have read Bernard Mortissier will know of his accounts of sailing in the southern ocean and noting the effect the change in wave direction has on creating the so called Rogue Waves. As I read his accounts two waves travelling from two different angles converge at one point and increase dramatically in height, perhaps as much as 2 times the “standard” wave height. Without a corresponding increase in the wave length, the combined waves crest and break. A great but not especially light read on the physics of this is to be found in the book: Oceanography and Seamanship by William Van Dorn.

So, these are some of the issues I would like to hear more about, but please read Skip’s posting. It does not get any better for clear, lucid, no dramatics description of what happens when it hits the fan. And for the cost of all this my heart goes out to Skip Allen who I have met but do not really know, for his great loss.

Up coming short-handed races:
Brooklyn Ocean Challenge Cup:
This race is a 90 mile lap around Block Is Sound, including the island itself, starting and finishing in Greenport NY. Looking on the website I see two DH entries, Mike Hennessy in the Class 40 and Peter Rugg (and yours truly) on the Rugg J-105. http://chineseyachtclub.com/index.html

It goes off on Friday 03 October. Yes I know it is kind of short notice but if you can make it give it a shot.

Maine Rocks Race:
The first edition of this race took place Sep. 13 (Results here) and was put together by Bermuda 1-2 vet and local sailmaker Doug Pope in Rockland, ME. All indications are that this was a good race, reasonably well attended with 10 entries, 8 starters, and a classic no wind to 25 knots with a full moon sailing kind of deal. I have had some email comms with individual race reports that I put together (Click here). All told it seems to be a winner so mark the calendar for September 2009.

Whalers Race:
At the other end of the spectrum was the Whalers Race, hosted by New Bedford (Mass.) Yacht Club over the same weekend, Sept 13, and sailed on Buzzards Bay and around Block Island. It attracted only three starters and in the non-spinnaker division at that. Rain and no, or light, wind this year not withstanding this race seems to me to have all the elements of a good race.
        Minimum size is 25 feet,
        It is a Cat 3 event-no rafts
        It is not too long a course, 105 miles 
        Lots of corners (6 turning marks)
        Lots of current questions (plenty mental noodling to keep us young)
        65 bucks entry fee
        It starts early (0830 warning signal)
        You might not have to devote a whole night to sailing
            (and so spending the next day recovering)
       A good club and administration
       Relatively speaking, close to Newport
           (where we can attract 40-60 boats for the Solo Twin)

But for some reason the DH class of the Whalers Race cannot get off the ground…… Are we all too burned out by September (cannot believe this- the guys in Maine will never let us live that down), is it because we are all at the Newport Boat Show, getting the kids sorted in school…I have received an email from the New Bedford YC inquiring on this subject and frankly I do not know what to tell them. If you have any ideas on why you cannot do this race can you let me know and maybe we can consult with NBYC to make it more attractive for DH crews?

Gear Buster:
Coming up on Saturday 11 October (warning signal at 1155) is the Gear Buster hosted by Indian Harbor YC in Greenwich CT. A well named race there is often plenty of wind and the club invariably starts the fleet anyway, something that does not always happen in the US these days. The newer, shorter course (Greenwich to Stratford Shoal to port and back rated at 46.5 miles for handicap purposes) makes it a long day race. Buffet dinner is available post race at the club. And thanks to the Club for putting a DH boat as the background graphic for the NOR on their website.
http://www.indianharboryc.com/intraclub/query/catquery.html?doc_number=750

Evening with Sir Robin Knox-Johnson:
Fellow short-handed sailors: I have the privilege of hosting Sir Robin Knox-Johnson, the greatest living short-handed sailor, October 24 in New York. Any of you who purchase a ticket for $375 will be seated at my two tables with Robin. We can also chat with him before the dinner. Please let me know.

Rich du Moulin.
Office-203 355 8755
Dumoulin111@aol.com

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, CBE
For those of us of a certain age, the name Robin Knox-Johnson, even before he was knighted, was a name to be held in high regard and perhaps for some sailing crazed 12 year olds, awe, even if we did not know how to spell it or what it meant. Even before say Sir Francis Chichester, Bernard Mortissier and Eric Tabarly, Sir Robin was the first to sail around the Globe, solo and, in those days, most certainly very un-assisted. I still have my battered copy of the Pan paperback edition of his book “A World of My Own” being his account of this record setting solo circumnavigation undertaken between June 1968 and April 1969. As a sailing mad 12 year old I probably read this book 3 times straight through when I first got it. And I probably still have the newspaper clippings that my dad would collect that would appear from time to time in the local press, the information for the story culled from intermittent short wave transmissions. After 280 odd days at sea, solo in his 32 foot carvel built, timber, double ended ketch “Suhaili,” he returned to England having done the “impossible.” The accomplishments of this fellow are, at least for me and for many sailors I know, beyond quite remarkable-they are in a league of their own. Not content with having established the benchmark passage 40 years ago he recently completed his 4th (by my count) & again solo, circumnavigation in an Open 60 in the Velux Five Oceans (formerly the Around Alone and the BOC). Much of the rest of this amazing career is outlined on his own website: http://www.robinknox-johnston.co.uk/

The NMHS Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, CBE, for utilizing his extraordinary accomplishments and influence as a world-renowned yachtsman to promote the heritage of seafaring. The first man to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single-handedly in 1969, he won the Jules Verne Trophy with Sir Peter Blake for the fastest circumnavigation in 1994, was president of the Sail Training Association, served as a trustee of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and has promoted yachting through his many popular books. NMHS Overseer and accomplished yachtsman Richard du Moulin will present the award. Tickets are available at the society’s website.

Sail Newport 25th anniversary Gala dinner
While not strictly a short handed event (with exception-see below) this excellent Community Sailing program-of which I am honored to serve on the board of directors of-is celebrating its 25th anniversary on Sept 19, a Friday, at the NYYC Harbour Court, Newport station. SN was instituted almost hours after that fateful day in September 1983 when my country-men lifted the America’s Cup from the NYYC. It is a double edged sword for me in that I sailed on the 1980 Australian contender (when we beat Dennis in one race and were ahead by 20 minutes when the time limit expired on another race) and was the last guy not selected for the 1983 campaign. I still chuckle at some of the BOD meetings when the genesis of SN is discussed. The Short handed connection? In those days 12 meters were sailed with 11, today they use 16, I’m told and I bet that is not too many. Sailing these 65,000 boats with no life lines and a deck full of hatches with 11 guys did in fact require a considerable amount of thinking into who was going to do what when and how using which bit of string. Not at all dissimilar from sailing a normal boat short-handed. Tickets are $225 available here also more information on the evening.

http://www.sailnewport.org/npt/m/_general/silveranniversary.asp
Dinner and dancing and, what I’m reliable informed is an excellent recap of the first 25 years of SN in video produced by Gary Jobson.

And on the subject of Short-handed sailing, and “class development” Sail Newport has produced, in conjunction with St. Michael’s Country Day School in Newport, a middle school student interactive website for following the VOR boats around the world. Link to this innovative program is here: http://globallearning-sailnewport.org/

I gotta say this is exactly what I wanted to do with my S.A.I.L for Kids (Sailing As Integrated Learning) program in the 1995 Mini Transat but hey, I was ahead of my time. If you need more info contact Brad Read, executive Director at Sail Newport, or me, and I can point you in the right direction. And of course the short handed connection here is a bit like sailing 12 meters with 11 guys-The VOR crews are limited to 10 on a 35 knot, 70 footer, which in normal circumstances, might be sailed with 25 hearties. Planning and practice is again key here-Just like sailing the family Yacht to Maine, only the VOR guys get paid more….

Homer Simpson Award:
I am pleased to announce the presentation of the first annual “Homer Simpson Award for Dumb Move”. This award, which I have christened the Palm Sore, in homage to both the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the image of the famous Homer palm-of-hand-on-the–forehead “Duh” move is a very shadowy third cousin to the much more famous Darwin Awards, details of which I will forgo. The first Palm Sore award is actually going to me; and not for trying to port tack an LNG tanker in the Castle Hill narrows but for neglecting to tell everyone where to mail the registration forms and money for the Medical seminar. And yes I was wondering why no one had registered. I must say you are all very polite for a bunch of sailors-only one person has brought this to my attention.

So, please make checks payable to the Short-Handed Sailing Association and mail them to me:

                SSA
                c/o Joe Cooper
                6 Simmons Terrace
                Middletown, RI 02842

Medical seminar update:
Well, considering the above it is not surprising that as of today, Sat. 20 Sept I have only one starter for this seminar. Maybe by the end of the month that will have changed. There seems to be lots of interest since I have about 25 names on my short list…. If I don’t start to see some registrations soon I will be starting to think about getting nervous-All dressed up and no place to go as it were.

News from Texas:
First off, a big thank you to every one who rallied to the call. As you will read below, Drew and Katie are, well, I’m not sure exactly what they are but overwhelmed would be a good place to start. I’ll let you read what they have to say; this is an unedited cut and paste from an email from Katie I received last evening:

Everyone,
The other night I told Denver (who's hosting us as evacuees) "I can't believe what the Mini class is doing, and SSA! It's unbelievable, I'm so overwhelmed." And Denver just looked at me and said "You can definitely be overwhelmed and amazed, but you CANNOT possibly be surprised!"

He's absolutely right. I'm not surprised at all. It's always been this group of people, my great friends, who have helped me achieve every dream, and who are there for us every time we've ever needed it. You guys are the most amazing group of people. I'm so incredibly grateful for the help you have given us after the hurricane, but it just reminds me of all the other times this same group has bailed me and Drew out of any "trouble"!

I've got to remember Tom Henry showing up when he didn't even know us, and helping Tara and I put our boat together before the 1-2. Jay Sharkey trying desperately to get his boat together while still helping Drew every step of the way! Jan and Ryan and Mark Williams coming to the rescue when we couldn't figure out why our boat was so unbalanced and not at all ready to sail to bermuda! And then, of course, Jan taught me how to sail the boat!! Wendy and Dave running errands, buying and cooking our meals, sewing lee cloths, and generally saving our "poor" selves from certain bankruptcy before the race. Kendall arriving in Newport with safety gear for Drew, and then getting new battery for him just before the race, and last minute life jacket cartridges for me!! And Joe Cooper and his fantastic leadership skills making sure all the minis had a tow to the start line.

And this is not to mention Mario Biagioli and Michael Hennessey who have ALWAYS supported us through EVERY endeavor.

And last but probably most important to me, my incredible girls Tara Thomas and Katie Triplett. Everyone knows what Tara has done for me in the past. We never would have made it to the 1-2 if it wasn't for her incredible organizational skills, her artistic genius, and her preparation of the boat. And Tara, Katie and Wendy all played tag-team as Mothers of the Mini Class before the 1-2. Would any of us have eaten, or slept for that matter, had it not been for them!? Even now, from thousands of miles away, Tara will still always bail me out!

And Katie, who just survived the same loss in a hurricane herself, knew exactly what to say and exactly how to "fix it". As usual she organizes the rescue so nonchalantly that everyone might miss the fact that it was she who just saved the day. I cannot thank her enough. Really, I hardly have words for how thankful I am for Katie Triplett.

So, Thank you everyone, SO much.

Thank you Jan for getting the word out that we were alive and for asking everyone to help, Thank you Joe for always being there and for your incredible gesture of asking the SSA for help, and Thank you Katie for knowing exactly what to do. Thank you SO much to everyone who helped, Bjorn Johnson, Jay Dives, Todd Mogensen, Mark Morwood, Mike Millard, Christian Reimer, Leo V., and the whole mini crew mentioned before.

You guys are incredible, and I can never thank you enough.

Our little house is a mess, but as you all know, Drew and I don't really mind living without too much stuff... and Thanks to everyone in the Mini Class and SSA, I've already paid all my bills this month and really have no worries.

Sam tells us that the power may be on in the shop and we can likely go back to work on monday. As usual he is here to save us as well, and we will likely be staying with the Ausmus' (Again!!) for a little while, while we find another place to live.

Most importantly right now, we have got to say the BIGGEST thanks to Denver and Paige Hopkins and their beautiful family who have let us stay in their home for a whole week while we drag our wet possessions back from Clear lake Shores to throw them in their washing machine!! I just hope that the washing machine will do it's best to croak so that Paige can get her new high-efficiency washer and dryer that she so deserves!! ;)

Honestly, my dog has never had so much fun as he has with Grant and Will and Piper who take him for walks and bike rides every day. We feel so incredibly welcome here and we cannot thank them enough.

So everyone! We love you all so much and I cannot tell you how much we appreciate all of you. We owe you all so much!

Love!
Katie and Drew
Coop! Can you please forward to SSA again!? Thank you SOOO much!!!!!

Denver Hopkins lives in NW Houston and has been hosting Drew & Katie for the past week or so. I received this email from him on the whole affair. He too speaks to the larger sense of community that we all find so attractive.

Follow Ministas and solo sailors,
Last night I asked Katie Ambach how she was coping with all that has transpired in the last week. "I'm fine" she told me, to which I responded, "No... Really. How are you really? If I had taken the hit you did, I don't know if I would handle it so well."

Her reply was simple and to the point. "Yes you would.", she said. "You would do what you have to and get on with it. If you were dismasted, you'd cut away the pieces so they couldn't damage what was left. You wouldn't wait. You'd do it, and start working immediately on a jury rig."

I knew she was right. And without taking any credit from Katie and Drew who are handling their loss with grace and determination, I realized that the traits that make good solo sailors also make good survivors; traits like radical self reliance and a strong self rescue ethic among others. It's not that they had to rescue themselves in the absence of any outside assistance, but they certainly could have, and would have as a matter of course if necessary.

It also made me think that few of us who fancy ourselves "solo sailors" really are per se. Sure, we sail our boats alone and even relish the solitude we find in doing so, but do we really do it all by ourselves? Certainly not in my case. At minimum there is my family-- Paige and our children-- who support my sailing goals in spirit whether or not they actually sail with me. Katie's note of thanks to the Mini and short-handed sailing communities included an extensive accounting of occasions when others have "come to their rescue" in the past. Anyone who has ever mounted a campaign of any complexity knows we're only successful with the help of volunteers, sponsors, and other supporters. And, should any of us ever require 'real' rescue at sea, I've no doubt that it would come quickly and without hesitation from another 'solo' sailor. We all know it... sailors rescue sailors, solo or otherwise.

Despite all the tragedy Ike has brought to this area (and it has in such abundance that we may never know its full measure), my individual experience has been embarrassingly easy to endure. Sure, there have been days without power, unavailable food and fuel, no phones, and countless other inconveniences. But for most of them, my family was prepared. And thanks not least to a generator that has run for days since the hurricane made landfall, my family was hardly impacted them at all. My business has been interrupted for days, my children have only recently been able to surf the Web again, but really-- we had HD satellite coverage on a wide screen TV through the entire storm and aftermath! I think it's safe to say that our experience could have been worse.

In fact, my individual experience has been, on the whole, positively enjoyable. It's not that I've been AWOL either-- I have bloody blisters from clearing debris, and I've committed about as much time, money, and effort helping friends and neighbors as I have caring for my own family. But neither I nor my family have hurt for it and so all that we can do is, in my opinion, the least that we can do to help anyone around us who needs it.

I say that my experience has been enjoyable for this reason alone-- for the first time in a long time, I've been connected, albeit indirectly, with the greater Mini community through the presence of Drew and Katie here in our home. When I first joined MCUS in 2003, I did my best to connect with other Mini enthusiasts. I volunteered to build a website for the class, I setup the forum. I eventually met Sam Ausmus in person (practically in my backyard of all places!) and also met a few of you online. By sailing with Sam on the return leg of the B1-2, I met but didn't really have a chance to get to know a few more of you. But for the most part along the way, work and other things have conspired to keep me on the fringe of the community. There are even other issues that continue to keep me (and probably others) in that fringe outside the main lines of dialog-- an email list (mcus@usa650.com), for example, to which no more names can be added for some obscure, but legitimate technical reason. I hear of messages (some of them important to me) that circulate there, but I don't receive them.

I say all this not to complain, but to illustrate by way of example how I could possibly describe my own experience post-Ike as "enjoyable". But it has been. For an entire week now, I've had other sailors in my home. And not just any sailors, but Mini sailors. And not just any Mini sailors, but the ones who are building my Mini. Also some who are obviously very well connected to the rest of you-- the larger Mini community from whom I've been so isolated for so long. And I have VERY much enjoyed having Mini sailors in my home, at my dinner table, in my local pub and coffee shop, in my car, on my patio in the evening, etc. It's been positively enjoyable to go less 'solo' for a while and trade stories, ideas, and opinions with good people with whom I share common interests.

And so, to all of you whose names I know, to some of you whom I've only met very briefly, and some of you whom I've never met but will, allow me to say this...

Through your reaction and response to Drew and Katie's loss, I've indirectly witnessed the very best of the Mini community. It reminds me in a most graphic way that I'm missing out on getting to know some great people, remaining as I have either by my own silence, some technical bug, or any other reason at the quiet edge of the Mini community. I suppose there was also that agreement with Sam to keep my own project (the prototype Texas Mini) a secret until we were all ready to disclose more but it has passed. So... please allow me to say this to you all...

In case we've never met... I'm Denver Hopkins and I live in northwest Houston, Texas. My Mini (USA578) is a Rolland-designed carbon prototype that is under construction at Third Coast Composites in League City, Texas. I expect to see some of you in November, but before and after that, don't even think about traveling near Houston without contacting me. You even have a place to stay here if you need it.

Please add me to your contact and email distribution lists. If you think about it and you don't mind, when you send email to the Mini Class (mcus@usa650.com), please CC me separately (denver@denverhopkins.com). Add my cell phone number (832-353-9421) to your phone. Drop me a line or call me sometime-- really. Besides, as I prepare to outfit and then learn to sail my Mini faster than you, I'll have lots of questions. In fact, some of your names (Jan, Alex, and others) are already on my list and so can expect to hear from me. :)

And finally, to all of you, let me also say thanks on behalf of Drew and Katie for all you've done to help them this week. Despite their apparent good spirits, I've seen, touched and smelled first hand the mess they've been dealt and it is ugly by any measure. But as Katie explained last night "You do what you have to do and get on with it." I know they are as capable as anyone of doing that. They are after all 'solo sailors' which, perhaps ironically, means they aren't alone.

Best,
Denver Hopkins
USA578
Houston, Texas USA

So, once again to all who helped, a BIG thanks from Drew & Katie and the rest of us.

Questions and/or comments to me, at Hoodri-sales@att.net
or mobile 401 965 6006

Thanks,
Cheers,
Coop