High Water, Low Water

Last night, the south wind was like a giant cork in the bottom of the Chessie. Water nearly over the docks at Magothy Marina. Tonight, wind is forecast to blow hard from the north, so we might see the opposite extreme!

Take a look at the latest forecast

Sailboat for sale

Here's a great deal for someone looking for a gunkholer/cruiser for the bay. Our friend, The Crazy Albanian (and expert boat refurbisher) has just finished her off. He's asking $5500. The sails are practically brand new and she sails like a dream!

More here:

Sailboat for Sale

We are seeing first signs of spring. Bubblers have been pulled from Magothy Marina.

Race committee chatter for Magothy River Sailing Association is up. First Race April 21.

And best of all, the spring tour of Annapolis yacht brokers.

It is a good deal. May 8-9 Park near any hub, they drive you around. No charge

Charge controller?

Are you looking at solar power for your boat? Consider your charge controller carefully, there are two types. Here is a PWM vs MPPT charge controller comparison

A news reporter once asked Mr. Atkisson about the fear factor during some of his more harrowing moments at sea. He said that, as a recovering alcoholic, "I am at pains . . . to, as we say it, 'stay in the now' -- i.e., don't dwell on the past or obsess on the future. . . . Nothing keeps one in the moment like single-handing a small boat across a big ocean. Hard to explain, but when you are that deeply set into the moment, you just cannot fear the future."


John Atkisson; After law career, he sailed across Atlantic

one more quote ...

from Alinghi's Grant Simmer:

"The next Cup cycle, could be in multihulls if we were successful and had a challenger that wanted to race in multihulls, it would be something we'd consider. But I think it's more likely that the next Cup will be held in monohulls."

America's Cup Sails Into Uncharted Waters

Here's a feature I did for NPR on the America's Cup:

America's Cup Sails Into (and Over) Uncharted Seas: NPR

A few more interesting comments from Coutts and Simmer that didn't make it into the story:

RUSSELL COUTTS (BMW/ORACLE SKIPPER):
"I'm a purist myself and was brought up sailing the more conventional monohulls. Having said that, I think this multihull competition could be exciting for a much broader range of people because of the technology interests and also the 'wow' factor of these boats."

"Having said that, though, we've got to draw the line somewhere and putting engines on the boat is a step too far. There are many sports – Formula 1 motoracing, for example – had the opportunity to have a lot of their systems computerized rather than relying on the driver's intuition and skill. And they chose not to do that because they recognized that the fans wanted to see the skill of the drivers and I think the same applies and certainly sailing could learn lessons from that."

"Where the grinders on board are tremendous athletes in their own rite – many of them are Olympic Gold medalists and world champions and so forth – they are tremendous athletes and it's a real shame to lose that aspect of the racing."

GRANT SIMMER (ALINGHI DESIGN TEAM COORDINATOR:
"In different parts of the course or in different weather conditions, there'll be substantial performance differences between the boats. It may be that when we're beating into the wind, one boat is a lot faster but then when we come downwind, the other boat's faster."

"The boats are so different that we have to expect there will be big differences on the course but it's quite difficult to predict the net result."

Does he worry about a catastrophic failure on the race course?
"Yeah, very much so."

"We do that because we obviously don't want to damage our boat but also, almost any failure of the main platform of the boat could be incredibly dangerous for the crew."

About BMW/Oracles hard wing:
"We're quite comfortable with the sail plan we've got, with the wing mast and the soft sails. There's certain restrictions of racing with the wing and there's certain advantages. So, we're going to balance that out."

"I think we have the ability to carry a wider range of headsails than they do. Mainsail alone, their wing is more efficient than just our mainsail. But, you need to look at the forces in the overall sail plan and not just the wing."

We're back ...

Sailing Maryland went on walkabout for a few months, but we're back and will begin posting regularly.

Stay tuned ...