Morgan In The Pit
All Photos Courtesy of Morgan Larson.
I love living vicariously through my pro sailor friends, they’re quite the adventurous lot. Just the other night, I met Morgan Larson at the Santa Cruz Civic to watch Social Distortion, and he was excited for his upcoming trip to Mussanah, Oman to helm the Extreme 40, Oman Air. Luckily, Morgan spent a little time practicing in the pit at Social D, because today his boat was involved in a little moshing on the race course. It seems that Ernesto Bertarelli aboard Alinghi didn’t quite clear Morgan’s Oman Air, and the result is pictured below.
Morgan sends us this quick report, “We have had 4 great days of training here in Mussanah, Oman. The team is starting to gel. Unfortunately today, doing some match racing practice races with Alinghi, we had a crash. Ernesto tried to duck behind us and missed! So, the boat sustained major structural damage which will keep us off the water for a few days.” Good luck to our Santa Cruz bro Morgan!
Not your typical sailing attire found here in the US.
Should Buff Right Out
We’re gonna make it! We’re gonna make…! We didn’t make it.
Sailors For The Sea Greens Up The AC
Back in the day, when Sailing Anarchy was just a glint in Scot’s, errr, eye, advertising dollars were few and far between. Enter Dan Pingaro, owner at the time of ClewGear, makers of sustainable sailing gear. Here’s what the Ed had to say about ClewGear way back in 2004, “…makers of Best Damn Sailing Shorts to be found anywhere, period.” Dan and ClewGear were one of the very first advertisers on Sailing Anarchy, and according to Dan, the Ed hooked the cash-strapped startup up. Dan recalls, “SA was the first place that we ever advertised.”
The strong community that is SA took ClewGear in an interesting direction. In a round-about trade for the kind advertising price, Dan met our very own Dawg, and ClewGear built a pair of custom fleece-lined sailing shorts that would work with his special needs. With a quick Google search, I found that the only vestige of ClewGear’s existence is on these very pages.
Dan has an entirely new gig, but it’s within the same environmental-consciousness-mixed-with-sailing vein, as ClewGear. Dan is the executive director of Sailors for the Sea, an organization that, as Dan puts it, “…galvanizes the sailing community around ocean conservation. Surfers have Surfrider, fisherman have Trout Unlimited, our organization is for sailors.” Generally, sailors are more conscious of the natural world, since we’re in it all the time, so it seems that Sailors for the Sea is a natural fit.
Raise your hand if you have ever worked Race Committee for a large Regatta. At the end of the day every mark boat, safety boat, and committee boat can produce a veritable mountain of plastic trash. From water bottles to lunch bags and everything else, regattas can create a ton of trash. Sailors for the Sea has a multi-step program that can help regatta organizers learn how to lessen their waste output. Dan expands, “We have a program called Clean Regattas that has 18 best management practices to reduce the environmental footprint on both land and water. We’re the only organization focused on the sailing community.”
The impact of Sailors for the Sea is starting to make a serious difference across the sailing community, especially since they have recently partnered with one of the largest regatta circuits on the water today: The America’s Cup. Dan’s statistics are impressive, “This year alone, 75,000 sailors have come through our program, so we have the track record, and we were able to bring that to the America’s Cup.” Sailors for the Sea’s involvement with The Cup Circuit alone, has saved mounds of trash from filling the landfill. Dan states, You’ll see everyone from Stephanie Martin to Artemis racing using the same water bottles. We’re also making lunches for everybody in reusable plastic containers, which significantly reduces waste.” It was very evident when I walked around the AC village in San Diego that the program was having a positive impact, every trashcan in the staff areas was empty the entire week.
Sailors for the Sea covers more nautical miles than just waste reduction, and according to Dan, “At each location we’re talking about sustainable seafood, we’re talking about invasive species, we’re talking about recycling…we’re working both in front of the public and behind the scenes. We have a Rainy Day Kid Program, which is a science based kids program with lesson plans from some of the best scientists and institutions in both the United States and around the world. They have helped produce 30- 40 minute lesson plans for 6 to 16 year-old children, that sailors can teach to students. You can download the lesson plans for free at Sailorsforthesea.org.”
I had to grill Dan on the fact that from the boat construction, to shipping tons of carbon all over the planet, and readying the venues, the America’s Cup is one of the most ecologically intense regattas going. Dan’s response, “We absolutely recognize that there is already inherently a large footprint in this event over the next couple of years. We’re working to reduce that footprint at each location globally.” From what I saw in SD, I believe that they really did significantly reduce the footprint.
Sailors for the Sea is funded through a variety of resources, from corporate foundations, private foundations, individuals and members. 85% of every dollar goes directly into programming, and you can help support Sailors for the Sea, here.
Rocket Rides Again!
So, who won last year, and currently holds the doublehanded 3BF trophy? Hint: Look at the photo in the background on the wall of the team van.
Rocket 88! The home built 34′ catamaran has held several sailing records around the Bay over the years, and she’s looking for more, with her fresh new owners and crew. The Rocket, built by my friend Serg Pond in 1987, and designed by well-known Santa Cruz Multihull Designer Howard Spruit, is alive and very well! She recently got some new paint, so fresh in fact that today at her relaunch, she was seen sans graphics.
Her new paint job by Elkhorn Composites is looking good!
She also got a lot of new bling, including all synthetic rigging…
…and has a beautiful newish main built by Dave Hodges and the crew at SC Sails. They kept some pink in the sail numbers.
The original builder, Serg Pond was on hand, and highly approves of how well the new owners are taking care of Rocket!
The Rocket Team Van is still firing and sporting the traditional team graphics.
This weekend should be a good cat fight on the water, with a handful of these overgrown beach cats racing in the 3BF! Stand by for pics!
SF City Council Approves EIR
The San Francisco City Council voted unanimously to approve the final Environmental Impact Report, which will allow America’s Cup 34 to move forward, and hopefully into some smooth sailing. The meeting was attended by a packed crowd of concerned citizens, from both sides of the issue, and was well-run and thoughtful on all accounts. Tom Lippe, an attorney representing several environmental organizations including the Sierra Club and the Golden Gate Audubon Society, began the dialog, “The draft EIR, and EIR were rushed through…Its clear that these issues haven’t been studied enough.”
During his opening statement, attorney Lippe made reference several times to an 80% reduction between the draft EIR and final EIR in the ‘projected spectators’ figure. The crowd would murmur in disbelief amongst themselves every time he made the reference. As it turns out, Attorney Lippe was referring to a reduction the estimated number of spectator vessels. Data for the number in the EIR were based on a count taken at Fleet Week 2011, whereas the number in the draft was pure speculation, and wildly optimistic to boot. Attorney Lippe set the record straight when he addressed the council later in the evening. It wasn’t a very good move for the attorney to make such an obvious error, since one of his main arguments was that since spectator numbers were down, then so too would be the revenue required to offset the costs of the various tools available to mitigate environmental impacts by the event and spectators.
One of the major sticking points was the ACEA’s plan to erect an enormous JumboTron, a giant screen that would broadcast the America’s Cup live, in Aquatic Park. The plan was to sink a number of five-foot cube concrete blocks on the Bay floor, and anchor the JumboTron just off the shoreline. For power, the screen would house several diesel generators within the structure. A handful of community members spoke about, “The consistent 30 mile an hour winds,” that would buffet the giant screen every afternoon, and potentially knock it over and create a hazard.
The Dolphin Swim Club, which has been a Bay Area fixture since 1877, and whose members use Aquatic Park for their swimming activities, were concerned about the concrete blocks creating a physical hazard and disturbing toxic sediment. The club is well organized, and they’ve been mobilizing their members on the JumboTron issue for months. They recently posted, “We support the America’s Cup racing program, but have strong concerns over the unclear, open ended collateral aspects proposed for Aquatic Park, such as the mooring of a Barge, 12 story long with a 22 feet high by 44 feet long, JumboTron video screen 3-4 feet above the water in the muddy bottom of the shallow cove of Aquatic Park.” Board Member, David Chiu, said that he also uses Aquatic Park for swimming, and had concerns about the barge as well. He alluded to the fact that he wouldn’t vote to approve the EIR if the JumboTron issue wasn’t adequately solved. Mary Murphy a super-sharp, and quick-witted lawyer for the ACEA quickly conceded that if the JumboTron were an issue, they would forgo the barge idea and look for a land-based alternative, to which there was major applause. Minutes later, the Dolphin Swim Club website read, “Great News (1/24): No JumboTron in the Cove! Congratulations to all who participated (sic) in getting this done! Go AC34!!!.”
The pro-AC line to publicly speak was quite long in comparison to the appeal folks. The Bay Area Marine industry was out in force, and after the proponents of the appeal and Attorney Lippe addressed the Council, it was time for the pro AC34 crowd to step up to the microphone and speak. First up was Peter Stoneberg, Commodore of the StFYC, followed by several other members of different Bay Area YCs including my friend and long-time Bay sailor John Super. All touched on how the AC has created interest in their clubs, and that they have seen an upsurge in membership. John Arndt from Latitude 38, Paul Kaplan from KKMI, and a rep from Port Supply all articulated how they have already seen an increase in business from the developing AC. Several members of the Longshoreman Union addressed the need for jobs within their industry, and that the AC would satisfy that need. A number of small business owners rounded out the mix, and it was set up for a vote. The vote was 10-0 in favor of approving the EIR. The crowd applauded.
It’s really amazing that in a city such as San Francisco, stereotyped as it is, that the eco-groovy faction wasn’t more vocal and that the appeal was allowed to sink into the muck. Of course in closing, Attorney Lippe stated that his clients would make the decision whether or not to sue the city by Feb 14, so there’s still time to royally screw things up. But for now, things are a go. I spoke with several business folks outside after the vote, and they were excitedly making plans to open the doors to their new business tomorrow, a decision that hinged on this EIR decision. Sure, a lot of us are winners tonight. We’ll be working for the AC, our businesses will grow due the AC being held here, a lot of revenue will be generated, etc., but there’s a David and Goliath highlight here that I don’t want to pass up. The podunk swimming club (no offence) was able to thwart Mr. Ellison’s giant JumboTron. Onward! We’ll see what happens next.
Cat Scratch Fever: Interest in Multis Surge
Having been involved with Multihulls in the Bay area for over a decade, I’ve become acutely aware to the ebb and flow of what the different fleets are doing. I’ve seen some anomalies in the past few months that I attribute directly to the America’s Cup influence that’s developing here. Check it out.
On a recent work trip to the South Bay, I noticed two Nacra Carbon 20 beauties sitting in one of the most beach cat active areas of the entire bay area, which is generally dominated by F18s. According to Oracle Racing’s Tim Jeffery, “The Carbon 20s are used to getting time on the water between sailing AC 45 sessions.” This is great for local fleets, it adds more multi presence on the water and adds legitimacy to a fleet that has historically been shunned by mainstream sailing. This, for me, is one of the most exciting aspects of the AC being run on multis. Finally, after almost 30 years since the Hobie 16 really hit the mainstream hard, cat sailors are gaining rank within the sailing universe.
Picking up Oracle Racing's Carbon 20
A little further, up in the heart of The City, I noticed a little more multi carbon blasting around The Bay. Sure enough, a small fleet of A-Class cats formed seemingly overnight. The A-Class has fluctuated wildly in the past 5 years or so, from a max of around 15 boats within the region, to now, less than a handful of active boats. Jeffery told me that the Oracle Team, “Decided that A Class are a simpler, easier option for impromptu outings as it only takes one person to rig.” So I’m sure that we can expect to see more small multis joining the fleets around The Bay.
Oracle Racing has a tradition of using small multis for training. During the last Cup Cycle, Oracle Racing used a matched set of Hobie Wild Cats. The original idea was not only to allow their sailors to be able to check out the nuances of a new sailing venue on a smaller boat, but was also to help their engineers understand how a catamaran works in an effort to aid in the design of their larger multis.
Perhaps the greatest anomaly in the Bay Area multihull fleet, is the recent addition to Mr. Philippe Kahn’s armada, a nice shiny Hobie 16. Most recently known for blasting across the ocean on a “Waikiki 70”, Kahn decided to explore the several small boat fleets, including the Laser. And, of course, the Laser and the Hobie 16 are two of the largest One-Design fleets in the world, and are very active locally.
Rumors abound that there will be several more multihulls joining Bay Area Fleets very soon, especially a couple of carbon beasts in the 33’ range. Stay tuned for more on that.
With all of the multi action in The Bay area these days, you would think that the manufacturers of smaller cats would be all over trying to snag their piece of the AC pie by trying to coordinate their efforts and run complimentary events. And what about the Youth aspect of the AC? The smaller boats are perfect for the younger contingent. They could run events like the Prosail 40s did back in the late 80s, with Hobie 21s racing along the 40’ beasts. Put the youth on a couple of F16s and make an exhibition out of it! The Extreme 40 Series does something very similar to what the Prosail events did, but instead of multihulls, the youth sail 49ers.
If I were Nacra, Hobie, AHPC, etc., I’d be on the horn with the ACEA every waking hour to try and coordinate an event with them. And vice versa, it would probably work out pretty well if the AC courted small cat fleets in the areas where they race the 45s. Who knows, maybe there’s something in the works? With the fever spreading, if the manufacturers fail to seize the opportunity from the interest in multi sailing that has developed around the AC, their marketing teams should look for other work.
boondoggle
Anyone that has planned for, organized, and executed a regatta can understand the challenges of putting on an economically viable event, especially here in the US. The truth of the matter is that we as Americans have a back-woods mentality towards sailing; we’re just not into it as much as other parts of the world are. Descending from a band of revolutionaries, our population tends to root for the underdog, and to a lot of people, sailing is viewed as a privileged sport for the “haves”. In a down economy, where people are struggling to put food on their table, the AC may seem superfluous to many.
Whatever the reasons for the lackluster acceptance of sailing here in the US, we can’t downplay the fact that the America’s Cup is putting in some serious effort to bring sailing into the spotlight of the mainstream. The technology that is being developed by ACTV is astonishing. In San Diego, the ACTV compound was housed in an enormous bank of shipping containers, and occupied the entire end of the Navy Pier. There was an armada of camera and photo boats, multiple helicopters buzzing around, announcers, massive amounts of computer gear, big screen TVs, and it was all being broadcast on the web. There are several cameras that the AC uses, that are so high tech, that they have to be shipped as individual components so as to not raise the ire of Homeland Security. If one could just throw money and technology at sailing and make it successful, the ACWS event in San Diego would have won in a big way! Well, to find out if their city is going to win over the next few years in their partnership with the America’s Cup, an entourage of SF City employees, on a fact-finding mission to San Diego during the ACWS, found out some facts all right. From the sounds of it, the facts that they found were a bit surprising.
Unfortunately, these visiting San Francisco city officials had a moment of clarity as they toured the sparsely populated America’s Cup Village in San Diego, and pondered the high-priced drinks, and costly access to the viewing areas. The crowds weren’t as large as they had hoped, or were led to believe, and someone even uttered the word “Boondoggle”. As San Francisco Police Chief James Dudly was getting ready to leave early from San Diego after assessing the AC’s crowd control strategies, he was quoted on Local Bay Area ABC7, saying, “It’s game time. Boats are on the water and we’re not seeing the throngs of crowds that we had expected…I actually planned to come earlier and stay later, but there’s really not that much going on.” Ouch! Peter Albert, the San Francisco MTA deputy director of planning who made the trek down to San Diego, was quoted in the same article, and had a similar response as Dudly, ”Well it’s easy to look at this and think, ‘Wow, maybe did over plan?’”
ACWS San Diego
The rubber hit the road in San Diego. The marketing, lobbying and hype was instantly quelled for these SF City reps with a dose of reality. They found out first-hand how sailing is received in the States, and that it really isn’t easy to promote a sailing event here. Any one that’s tried it on any level, from Optis to, now the ACWS, understands that. But did the AC alphabet miss several opportunities to promote the ACWS in SD that would have piped up their attendance numbers? Probably. Two blocks from the event site, there was absolutely zero evidence that the ACWS was even taking place. Mention of the event on local radio, television and in print was virtually nonexistent, other than a few news stories. I had several people from SF comment that they saw more advertising in the Bay Area for the ACWS in San Diego than they did in the city of San Diego itself. A media blitz running a few weeks prior would’ve most likely done wonders, but was sadly missing.
Albeit, the ACWS in San Diego was the first event of its kind to be run in the US with this level of coverage, technology, and world-class sailors, so low attendance is to be be expected. Still, the crowds in San Diego were estimated to be around 80,000, and in comparison to the attendance of the much more low-tech Extreme Sailing Series event in Boston last summer, estimated at 50,000, the dollar spent per spectator for the ACWS must be astronomical. Newport will surely be a more accurate litmus test of things to come, and when the ACWS comes to SF in August, I think we’ll see some serious support, a sentiment echoed by Phil Ginsberg, General Manager of SF’s Recreation Dept, who was also quoted in the ABC7 piece, “I think what you see today is a far cry from the excitement that will be generated on San Francisco’s Bay.” I feel that the Bay Area has a fairly strong sailing-centric populace, and that the “throngs of people” will indeed show up. I’m optimistic.
And as far as the ACWS being required to be monetarily self-sustaining, especially on this side of the pond, I think it may be an impossibility, but does it really matter to Larry Ellison? I doubt it. I’m sure he just views the outflow of coinage as an entertainment expense. It’s the monetary equivalent of you or I going to a movie.
Check out the local Bay Area ABC7’s report in its entirety.
The Revolutionary History of SC ULDBs (Act 2)
A quick interview with Buzz Ballenger of Ballenger Spar Systems in Watsonville.
Brad Webb: Oracle Racing’s Bowman on AC 17
spinning webbs
Back in June, Team Surf City had the opportunity to sail aboard a magnificent ship. We left the GGYC dock in the light morning breeze aboard the 139’ America headed to tour the Central Bay and then under the Golden Gate. This America is a replica of the boat that won the ‘One Hundred Guinea Cup’ in 1851, a race that was later renamed the ‘America’s Cup’ after the name of this fine yacht. The replica, America, built in 1995 to the tune of $6 million, is absolutely beautiful. The teak decks, bright-work, and giant tree trunks for masts tell the story of the bygone era of the age of sail, when sailing fast didn’t just give the skipper and crew bragging rights, it meant getting your goods to market that much faster than the next guy. The details are stunning; from the myriad of bronze trinkets and custom fittings, on down to custom wood Harken ‘America’ blocks that bling-up the rigging.
We entered the Central Bay, hoisted all of the cloth, and headed upwind toward The Gate, when off in the distance an ominous black-hulled racer with a giant rig appeared and motored up along side. USA 76, the 85’ beast that was built for the 2003 America’s Cup, threw their fenders over as our skipper on America hoved-to and our crew tossed them a line. My friend Ellen grabbed my arm and said, “Let’s go.” The last thing that I expected that day was to be photographing from the deck of USA 76, and what a treat it was!
After being helped aboard with all of my camera gear, I picked a nice spot on the aft deck and wedged my foot into the carbon tube superstructure to get a good stable spot to start firing the shutter on my 5D. Brad Webb, bowman for BMW Oracle Racing, welcomed us aboard, and his crew untied 76 from America. We were off! The crew hoisted the giant main up the 115’ rig, then the jib, and the excitement mounted. The instant that they sheeted, it was obvious that we weren’t aboard your usual 5ksb, or even a thoroughbred racer for that matter. USA 76 hooked-up and settled into a groove upwind like no other boat that I have ever sailed. The boat heeled slightly, it had a gentle ‘big boat’ motion, and just freight-trained up so much that I actually got goose bumps. The boat didn’t even feel the wind-chop, it just motored right through everything. Even when we got outside of The Gate and into the groundswell, the sucker felt like it was on rails, and all the while we were outpointing anything that I have ever sailed BY FAR! It is truly an incredible boat to sail, and everyone on board is encouraged to take the helm.
USA 76 is part of Brad’s latest endeavor on his long list of entrepreneurial and sailing accomplishments. He and businessman Troy Sears started a company called ACsailingSF, with the vision of chartering both America and 76 for tours around The Bay. 76 can carry up to 20 guests for anything from tours corporate team building events; the program is completely tailorable to the charterer’s needs.
As we exited The Gate, Brad was moving all over the boat like a 6 foot hummingbird, and I could tell that he was a bit nervous to have a boatload of the general population aboard this incredible carbon machine. He was constantly keeping a sharp eye on safety, and reminding people to keep their fingers out of the sheets, runners, etc.
Something truly incredible that I witnessed, and I’ve seen it happen before with other professional racers of Brad’s caliber, he switched from cordial, happy-go-lucky boat host, to hard core racer in the instant of a puff. You have to be tuned in to see the subtleties, their words stumble, their eyes get steely with competition as they assess the puff coming up in 3 boat lengths, and they get really intense. One time, Brad stopped mid sentence while I was talking to him as he scanned the horizon. I could tell that he was playing out the chess moves of an imaginary sailboat race that was only in his head. Multiple times he called a puff or a shift that I’m sure no one else on board, no matter what their race experience was, was even remotely aware of. Brad snapped into racer mode several times during this jaunt, which for me, added incredible dimension and insight to this awesome experience.
What does it take to reach this level of competitive sailing? I had a little sit down with the man himself, and boy, did he give some insight! Friends, meet Brad Webb.
SCR
How long have you been living in the Bay Area?
BW
I’ve been coming here since 1996 doing the Citi-Bank Cups and the Big Boat Series. I compare it to Wellington, where I’m from, which is a windy place. There’s never a day where you’re waiting for the wind to come up. I love the feel of the place, I love The City, and I was always going to come back here. I met my wife Karen, who is a Bay Area native, during the 2003 America’s Cup in Auckland. That was a good enough reason to move here permanently. In 2003 I ran the sailing school at Inverness Yacht Club for the summer. Karen and I were married in 2005 and for the past eight years we’ve been off traveling with the Oracle Campaigns.
SCR
So you’re originally from Wellington, what did you grow up sailing?
BW
I actually started quite late in New Zealand terms, I didn’t get into a P-Class, which is the quintessential Kiwi boat, until I was 12. Nothing was handed to me, you know, I had to pay the thing off by mowing lawns and washing cars. I was a big kid, so I rolled straight into the Laser Radial, and started crewing with a buddy on a Javelin, which is basically a fourteen-foot skiff. Did that for a few years, and then started sailing keelboats.
I found a ride for the Kenwood Cup, and then joined Chris Dickson’s TAG Heuer Campaign in 1995. I put my head down and worked as hard as I could, because I really was extremely green when it came to Cup Boats. After that, I realized that even though I had that experience, my career wasn’t going to be handed to me on a silver platter, so I took off around the planet sailing as many boats as possible. From 1995 to the next campaign, which was America True in 1999, I was doing something like 26 regattas a year. Just going from one to the next to the next, and if I managed to make some money at the yard, or was paid for a gig, that money went into another air ticket to go to the next event.
SCR
So just sailing as many different boats as possible?
BW
Yeah, really! And just trying to find that balance between being social around my peers, but still being able to get up the next morning and find that next level, and really build on my skillset. I didn’t want to be just that average bowman. I had done a Cup, and I knew what it was going to take to get back there. I started doing a lot of match racing with whoever would take me, because I realized that that was the essence of the America’s Cup. In match racing you really are building up your skills, because in a match-racing event, you’re doing ten races a day. In a normal Cup race, you do maybe one race a day, and in that one race there might be a half-dozen maneuvers. When you’re doing ten races a day on the match racing circuit, you’re doing hundreds of maneuvers a day. So you really get your timing down, and you really learn how to work within a team. You learn to work very quickly and think many steps ahead, so that you’re not reacting, you’re planning. That was really how my career built up from fledgling to going to the Cup with America True. There is an element of luck, but you make that luck, because if you’re sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring, that luck isn’t going to happen for you.
SCR
What is the most challenging thing about being a bowman at your level?
BW
That’s a good question. A lot of times it depends on the boat, it depends on the crew. Your job can be made very, very easy by the guys around you, if they understand your job, and they understand what you need… By the end of the 2007 Cup, sailing on 98, we didn’t get to the finals, but our crew and our crew work was virtually flawless. That makes everybody’s job easier, because you know you’ve got somebody there to back you up, and everyone felt that way.
SCR
So communication; relying on your fellow crew?
BW
Yeah. And that just comes from sailing with each other. It doesn’t matter if it’s an America’s Cup or a Farr 40. If you know each other, and trust each other, and respect each other the job gets very easy. So to answer your original question, getting to that stage is the hardest part of the job. Everyone’s got a different personality, and a way of doing things, so it’s a lot of talking and compromise, it’s a long road to get to that point, but when you get there it’s sweet. At that point, there’s no yelling, there’s no screaming, barely a word is said.
Even when I think about the trimaran, it was the same. We spent two years trialing and testing, so we only had a month to get to that point in Valencia before the Cup. We had been so busy trying to make the boat go faster, we hadn’t had a chance to go around the course. In fact, the first time we did a full complete race was the first race of the America’s Cup.
SCR
It must have been really intense to just haul-ass on AC 17?
BW
It really was. You really have to stop yourself and look around, and remind yourself…The thing is, the minute that you step aboard that boat and drop the mooring off, everyone is on high alert, because you were sailing. Whether you were being towed out, with the wing up, you were sailing, so you’re always looking out. Is the wing in the right place? Is gear lashed down? Especially with the engine, you know, we had a lot of power. We were always making sure that we knew what winches were engaged, and what is connected to what, if the hydraulics were working, is the PLC doing what it’s supposed to. Are we ready for the next maneuver? Because you’re doing 30 knots, you’re next thing is going to happen very quickly.
SCR
Let’s switch gears a bit. Let’s talk about USA 76. I’ll tell you right now, I’ve been onboard a lot of race boats, but never one like that. It was really incredible to watch you go from tourist mode to race mode when we started to power up.
BW
Yeah, I have to catch myself sometimes, because you start to look around and try to figure out how to go faster. Now we’re doing this, that’s not the focus. I have to make sure everyone’s having a good time, and make sure that everyone’s had a go at the wheel. Are all hands off of the mainsheet and the runner? You still get that flutter, that thrill, like you said, OK we’re locked in and we’re going. And those boats are so cool. Even with the experience of the tri, There’s still nothing better, I think, than a Cup Boat locked in going uphill.
SCR
I couldn’t believe how that thing climbed.
BW
Yeah, they really go. We actually have the trim-tab on the fin, but it’s locked because of the partitions that we’ve had to put in for the Coast Guard it’s hard to figure out how to lead the controls to the wheel. Right now there’s quite a bit of weather helm. I’d like to figure out how to make them useable, because it’s a pretty cool tool to use. Then you’d really see the boat go up wind. You just put 4 or 5 degrees of trim tab on and you watch the track behind the boat, and we’ve got a touch of leeway, not much it’s still efficient. But you put a little tab on and you see the boat just have negative leeway. You’ll still be going upwind at 10.2s.
SCR
What’s the goal of ACsailingSF?
BW
The inception was, after we won the Cup, 76 was sitting on the hard in Valencia, and there’d been talk of sailing her again for one of the Louis Vuitton events. I knew that boat pretty well, and I knew that it was going to be a big task to put that thing back together to go racing. Then, we were there doing the media trials for the RCs and the X40s, and a light bulb went off in my head, and I thought that even if San Francisco doesn’t get the bid to host the cup, SF should have some type of America’s Cup attraction. I mean, every city in the world that has ever held the America’s Cup has some sort of touch/feel legacy there for locals, guests, tourists. So I started to look at utilizing 76.
I knew the boat was solid. You know, we used 71 a lot as our tune up boat, now she’s in the pond over at Oracle. She’s a great boat, but she really got driven hard. I found out that Troy Sears was looking at 76 as well. He has the operation in San Diego with Stars and Stripes and Abracadabra. It just made sense to me that if I was going to do something like this, that I would want to do it with someone who had been successful. So I got on the phone with him, and we started chatting, and it became apparent that we had pretty much the same idea
SCR
What has been the biggest challenge so far?
BW
The biggest challenge so far has been finding a venue with enough depth and still in a visible location. We had meetings with Port of SF and Pier 39 and they originally didn’t have a spot for us. After assessing several other places, Pier 39 came back to us and said that they had a spot in the corner of one of their marinas that stays at a depth that we’d be pleased with. We did our own soundings and investigated what it might take to build the infrastructure. We’re getting a lot of help from Pier 39, they want us there, and we want to be there. It’s a great spot.
SCR
Will you do team-building events and tours?
BW
We want customers, from the general public to corporate, to tell us what they want. It’s really all about that we’re providing something very unique. It’s all about your experience; you can build it however you want. A classic example happened last weekend. Several people cancelled, but one couple showed up and just wanted to go sailing (Editor note: Anarchist CarbonComposite and Mrs. CC) so we looked at them and said, ‘it’s your boat, go where you like’. They were at the helm for about 3 hours. It’s there for people to use. We want to take sailing to the masses.
SCR
Is there any truth to the fact that you bought USA 76 for $1?
No comment. (Laughs)
SCR
Last question. Let’s talk about the 45s. How do you compare them to any other boat that you’ve sailed?
BW
They are faster, more fun and definitely more physical than anything else out there. They are full-on for the crew, and the 72 foot version will be another step up. The plan to have a ton of cameras on the boats is really going to allow viewers to experience the action and get a feel for how much is going on during the race. Each match is only going to be 45 minutes or so, so it’s going to be an absolute frenzy.
SCR
Thanks for the chat, brotha.
BW
Thank you.
Check out the ACsailingSF web page and like them on FB for more info. More pics here.
Santa Cruz Boatbuilding History
We are digging deeply into the history of the Santa Cruz boat building industry! We’ve got massive support for our book project from all of the major players that were there, designing, building, laminating, grinding, and sniffing glue during the building of these revolutionary boats. We’ve been invited into the attics of some of these guys’ houses, and have been mining out some gems, of which you can see a small sample below. Our new website with complete information on our book project will be up in about a month.
Tom Carter, who worked with Bill Lee for almost 30 years, looks through some old negatives of Magic.
Signed Moore Poster from 1986.
Original poster from SC to SB race 1974.
Original water color of imp by Skip Allan.
Name this boat.
International 18 Skiff Regatta-2011
Photo:Jade Allen
The International 18 Skiff Regatta finished up their last two of ten races today and it came down to the wire for the winners aboard CST Composites. The triple team of Howie Hamlin, Paul Allen, and Matt Noble proved yet again that consistency pays dividends, and never finished a race over the 5th position. (Editor’s Note: This is the same Paul Allen in “Deliverance” below.) Thurlow Fisher Lawyers finished in a very respectable 2nd spot, with Yandoo in close 3rd. The number 58 is significant here. Several of the top skippers in the class are each 58 years old. Good on ya fellas, for keeping at it and holding these beasts down!
The Eyedeens are extremely fun to watch blast along the bay by themselves, but another dimension of the story is the Ronstan Bridge to Bridge, which is generally run just before race 8. The Ronstan B2B consists of a downwind start line, just outside of the Golden Gate Bridge, a downwind blast across the City Front, and a downwind finish at the Bay Bridge just south of Angel Island. It is a somewhat open race where kiters and formula boards, and sometimes other manner of strange multihull craft, vie for bragging rights. For the skiffs, it counts as a race in their International regatta.
As the boats progress eastward in the late afternoon conditions, the wind generally peters out. At the start, when the pressure is on, it’s a madhouse free for all! There are kite strings everywhere, formula boards zipping around like mosquitoes, and powered- up 18s, with their giant chutes and carbon poles ready to shish kabob anything in their way. It’s incredibly fun to watch, and incredibly difficult to capture the true feeling with a photograph.
Here’s what happens… At the start everyone is quite equally gunned. The breeze is there, and the kites might have a slight advantage because they have the height. The Formula Boards sail bad angles downwind, so they start to taper off. The skiffs, with their giant downwind sail area, just kind of trudge along. It’s all relative of course, because they’re probably hitting the low 20s at this point. As the wind lightens up mid-course, the buoyancy of the skiffs, and their ability to sail deeper gives them the upper hand…usually. Not this year, friends!
Sequence by Ellen Hoke
The Ronstan B2B was won handily this year by kiter Bryan Lake, who was pretty stoked as he crossed the line! Lake set a new course record with his blistering time 16 min 15sec! Chip Wasson and Andrew Koch, both kiters, finished second and third, followed by the Thurlow Fisher and CST skiffies. For perspective, the first Formula Board to finish was Seth Besse in 14th. Alan Prussia from Ronstan commented that, “The kites made a huge technological leap with their board and fin designs this past year. They’re really fast downwind.”
On the entry list was Don ‘Foil Boy’ Montague with his “Tri-Kite”, which is basically a kite powered Hobie Trifoiler. We were looking forward to seeing what modifications they had made to the craft since last year’s B2B. Unfortunately they were not on course. Word on the street is that they may have gotten a little sponsorship money from a company, which rhymes with oogle, to develop some neat foiling things. I’ll try to follow up with that. Don is a cool guy, and no doubt will come up with something brilliant.
Check here for full results. Thanks to Pegasus Racing for offering us use of their boat and driver, and to Ellen Hoke our lovely guest photog, who snapped some great shots!
18 Skiff International SF 2011
International Eyedeen-Footahs
Breeze averaging in the high teens has been giving the skiffies a sporty time for their 10th annual International 18 Skiff regatta, run along the San Francisco city front by StFYC. Preliminary results show Elder Classman, John Winning (Woody) and the crew of Yandoo, holding a one-point lead over Howie Hamlin and crew aboard CST Composites. See the complete results, and be sure to check out the footage from the boys at 18 Footers TV, and especially their intro video that represents the flavor of the City By The Bay. And be sure to check out our friend Christophe Favreau’s massive amount of sweet pics!
Delivering Holua From HI to CA
There’s nothing quite like blazing across the Pacific on a Santa Cruz 70 in 15 to 20 knots of tropical breeze, waiting for fresh caught Mahi burritos to come up on deck from the galley, and all the while The Cult is providing the soundtrack. This scene exemplifies the last two weeks of my life while delivering Holua back from Hawaii after the TransPac. The sound track changed ocasionally, from iPod, to wind, to the sound of Holua bashing through the waves, and the good times rolled on strong. We had 5 good bros on board, all with diverse sailing skills, and had the epic opportunity to completely unplug from society and just sail! There are few chances these days to put yourself into such a remote part of the planet with nothing but the stars, the ocean and breeze to keep you company on a lone Middle Watch. We only saw one other boat, a container ship, for 2000 miles! This trip for me was one of the pinnacles of my sailing life.
We left Honolulu after stacking on mass provisions, including $1100 worth of fuel, and made our turn North. After leaving Kaena Point to stbd, the lights of Haleiwa and Oahu’s North Shore faded over the horizon. This would be the last land that we see for almost 2600 miles. As the sun set, the wind piped up to 25 knots and the seas became confused, a perfect trial run for our newly assembled, and fairly green crew. We hoisted a small delivery main and storm jib, and made tracks at just under 10 knots toward 023 degrees. This would be our heading for 6 days until we threw our first tack around Lat 38.
We set up two watch teams, each 3 hours on and 3 hours off, with the extra crew being a rover. After 3 days of beating in squalls up to 30 knots, the crew was pretty hammered. Sleep deprivation started to play a role, and one of our crew twisted his ankle, which took him out of the watch schedule for over a week. Luckily, the weather eased around day 5 as we headed toward the Pacific High.
The entire time, we had 3 fishing lines trailing and on the third morning, bam, bam, bam! We hooked three good-sized Mahi! We had Sashimi in the cockpit for breakfast at 7am, and the flesh was still quivering as we gave it a light dunking in Wasabi and soy sauce. The fish would hook us up with some fatty Mahi burritos for the next few days. We ate well for the entire trip, thanks to Skipper Paul Allen’s supreme galley skills.
The amount of trash floating around the Northern Pacific, mostly what looked like fishing gear, is staggering. During the course of the trip, our prop was fouled twice, once with a section of monofilament fishing net and the second with a giant clump of 1/4“ 3 strand. It took a couple of hours, and some serious skills from our youngest crewmember Matt, to jump in and free the monofilament from our prop in rough conditions. The 1/4 “ line was snagged on my 3 am watch while motor-sailing toward the Eastern edge of the Pacific High, so we hoisted the number 1, slogged along at 4 knots, and waited until first light to clear it. There are massive box shaped clumps of ¾” 3 strand that are the size of Smart Cars strewn about. From my non-scientific assessment, the second most common flotsam is Styrofoam blocks and the third, plastic water bottles. Of course, every time we were able so see one of these clumps of trash, we steered near it in hopes for snagging another Mahi!
The crew was a genuine mix of skilled eccentricity, ranging from 24 to 60 years old. We had a lot of common interests, and it was neat to get thrown into a virtually unknown situation and learn the strengths and weaknesses of each. Our Elder crew, Robbie was epic! He was always smiling, and was the mature glue that held the boat together. He was always encouraging, and just stoked to be out there. Paul Allen the skipper is a strange mix of hardcore racer, and old man and the sea. I’m convinced that he can do anything on a sailboat; from glasswork to rebuild a diesel, to galley wench, to rip around on an eyedeen-footah, the guy is incredibly versatile. Vinnie, the injured guy, held tough even though he was hurting. And Matt our youth, was competent in all aspects of running the boat. We had a good solid crew, both attitude-wise and skill-wise. We’ve all heard the nightmare stories of the delivery gone wrong because of a bad crew mix. That definitely wasn’t us! It was all rainbows and unicorns.
We had a communal reading scenario, where everyone would share something interesting, from whatever they were reading, with the whole group. The star of the show? The Legend of imp. The whole crew was enamored with the book! It covers a ton of ground, and chronicles the hardcore racing that these old-school SF Bay and Santa Cruz sailors pulled off over the years aboard some very cutting-edge boats. imp is a highly recommended read, and wasn’t put down the entire trip! This particular copy is special, and we are were very careful with it. The inside flap is signed by the author Bill Barton and dedicated to Skip Allan, who loaned us the book the day before our trip. Legendary guys, and friends and mentors to all of us aboard Holua. We felt like there was no more appropriate place to read imp, than power reaching a SC70 down the Pacific Coast in the true adventuresome spirit that these guys embodied during their racing days aboard imp, Red Rooster, Improbable and the rest.
On day 5, our water maker, which had been pissing out marginal water at best, shit the bed completely. Paul decided that it was time to break into our emergency water supply, which is stored in soft bladders strewn around the boat. The water was from the Ala Wai hose, so Paul thought it’d be a good idea to boil and filter it. The ensuing contraption was reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg meth lab, with hoses and filters and boiling pressure cookers full of water precariously placed throughout the galley. We were on fresh water rations for the remaining 9 days. I felt, looked and smelled like a salty homeless guy.
We hung a right on the 7th day, and motored for several days through the High. The High is a pretty magical place. The sea state was mellow, the air temperature was mild, and the water temp was in the 60s. The motion of the boat eased, and we caught our first truly restful days. We showered on the sugar scoop, dried out our gear, did laundry, and generally tidied up. We all jumped in the water and took a swim at our furthest point away from any land. Before hitting the water, we dropped a quarter in and watched it flicker, for what seemed like minutes, as it descended into the deep. The water in the middle of the Pacific is super clear!
In an act of respect for the ocean, when we were 300 miles off of Northern CA, the approximate position where Skip Allan scuttled his beloved Wildflower, sitting on the deck lounging on a stack of sails, I read aloud the passage in imp where he describes the scene as he climbed aboard his rescuing container ship.
We hit the Eastern edge of the High and started to see pressure, so we hoisted our number one again, shut down the D-sail and were sailing. The pressure increased on our port quarter, and we saw some of the of the highest speeds of the trip. Surfing, we were hitting 13s. Standing on the back of a SC70, driving in swell, is just like standing on the back of a long board. Drive it, drop in, and it goes.
We started to see clumps of Bull Kelp 150 miles or so offshore and there were more birds and sea mammals. As we pulled into the Santa Barbara Channel we were greeted by a huge, playful pod of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins, who seemingly called several hundred of their buddies from all over to come and play in our bow wake. We finally got our first smell of land. The intense scent of sun-baked chaparral blew right into our nostrils as the light breeze wafted the distinct scent of California Sage Brush, Black Sage, Manzanita, and dry grasses, off of Point Conception. We were home!
We landed in Marina Del Rey and hit the showers at CYC. Fresh water! We snagged a couple of heavenly tasting beers, our first in two weeks (Holua is a dry boat), and stripped the boat for cleaning. As quickly and intensely as the Delivery crew of Holua met and accomplished our task, we cleaned the boat, shook hands, and parted ways. We scattered like dust, free, and each got swallowed-up by the energetic madhouse that is Los Angeles; a pretty intense place to reintegrate into society. When I finally got back to Santa Cruz, I spent a few days holed-up, half-assedly catching up on business, and not quite ready to face reality and the bombardment of signs, cars, people, the Internet, and TV, that modern life throws at us. All of the input felt taxing, and quite dimorphic from the moon and stars and vast expanses of Ocean that we had been living amongst for 2 weeks. I’d do the delivery again in a heartbeat, if for nothing else than to be disconnected from society and meet, and truly connect with some good friends. Good times!
Joel Verutti
Have you ever wanted to see what it’s like to have the resources of your own racing team like Team Pegasus? How about have your keel repaired by one of the finest composite repairman on the planet like Craig Smith at Elkhorn Composites? I know! How about a one-on-one training session with pro sailor Morgan Larson? Well, the Moore 24 class, and a ton of generous donors got together and collected some remarkable goods to auction off in support of the family of class stalwart Joel Verutti, who succumbed to cancer early this year.
Joel started sailing Moore 24s in the early 80s and was a driving and kind force in welcoming people aboard. Representing the class as their president twice over different eras, in such a long-standing and tight-knit fleet it’s like loosing a family member. The unofficial class historian, Joel always had insight into how to keep the class strong. Joel bought his boat, Mercedes in 1983, and sailed hard with the class from then forward. Joel is survived by his wife of 25 years and young daughter, and 100% of the proceeds of this auction go to supporting them in his absence.
Check out this list of incredible auction items! You’re never going to find some of these things offered up anywhere else. I mean a skiffy sesh with National Champ Max Fraser? How about 5o5 World Champ Trevor Baylis walking you through his winning tactics? Go bid on a day with legendary Santa Cruz sail maker Dave Hodges! Bidding closes in November, so get on it and support a good cause! RIP Joel.
18 Foot Skiffs in SF
There are few boats as exciting to watch go around the cans as the 18 Foot Skiffs. Five boats from the NorCal 18 Footers League showed up to try their skills against the challenging conditions of The Bay last weekend. These 3 person carbon potato chip hulled boats have massive sail area. They require communication, teamwork and agility to avoid what could prove to be a spectacular trip around the forestay. Saturday and Sunday, while the Delta Ditch Fleet struggled in some nasty conditions, the main Bay along the City Front was rather benign with winds tickling the low double digits. The flood, as often is the case, was a massive tactical challenge as the fleet ripped along the shore off of Aquatic Park.
The skunky scent of NorCal’s finest hung in the air over the bleachers at Aquatic Park, as the 18 Footer’s rigged down on the beach. A group of Hip-Hop looking teens were relaxing nearby, and seemed genuinely interested in the rare sight of these high-tech boats rigging up in their hood. As they rolled their blunts and discussed the scene, the fleet was unrolling their sails and readying for the race.
In a show of the true randomness that the city of San Francisco is known for, as I photographed the launch area, the retired heavyweight boxer Seamus McDonagh stopped and asked me how he could get on an 18. Expect a FB message, fleet.
The GGYC ran 5 races between X Buoy and Blossom, just off the City Front. The swirly wind made for some great westward spinnaker runs, a rare occurrence here in NorCal. The GGYC utilized some of the StFYC’s race equipment, including several RIBs, showing that these two powerhouse clubs that share the SF City Front can play nice together. Check the GGYC Club’s page for results, and join up the US 18 Footers League on FB to find out more about the fleet.
To end a fine weekend of racing, Ellen Hoke and VC Dave Santori from the GGYC offered up trophies to the first and second spots. A bottle of JD for 2, and a seven-five-oh of Petron Silver for the first spot! Look for more racing in the coming months from the GGYC. Lots of pics tell the story.
Larson Unplugged
Morgan Larson aboard Bruzer
Morgan Larson is probably best known for one of his multiple America’s Cup campaigns. In 2002, flanked by Paul Cayard and John Kostecki, he trimmed main aboard AmericaOne. In 2003, Morgan filled the tactician position aboard OneWorld Challenge with Peter Gilmour and James Spithill, and in ’07 he again was tactician with Victory Challenge. Morgan has a slew of other championships on boats ranging from the 5o5 on up to the mighty TP52. You’d think with such a successful, international sailing resume he might not get a chance to compete in local, Santa Cruz stylie fleet racing. On the contrary, Morgan definitely hasn’t forgotten that he hails from SC, home of ULDB revolution and in his case, the Moore 24. He took his purple Moore, Bruzer to win the Nationals in 2010. Morgan attributes his success to growing up racing the Moore 24 with his parents, as well at the vibe of the SC sailing scene during the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Morgan has recently taken up A Class catamaran sailing in hopes that he can gain some multihull experience and earn a position with one of the America’s Cup teams aboard an AC72. At the Ronstan A Class Midwinters in Florida last month, Morgan placed 2nd and never finished past the 3rd spot. Morgan’s a natural sailor, and can hop aboard anything and understand how to make it go fast around a course.
Right now in San Diego, Morgan is sailing aboard the Artemis Racing (SWE) RC44, and is currently in 3rd place, just behind the Katusha (RUS), and ORACLE Racing (USA). Just before he left town I had a chance to sit down over a beer and find out more about what makes this guy so fast. As it turns out, Morgan is so personable that at least half of the interview was him asking questions about me. Friends, meet Morgan Larson.
SCR:
What’s your primary job with Artemis?
ML:
I primarily work for Artemis on the RC44 program. We’ll be racing in San Diego next week. I am not really involved with their America’s Cup program.
SCR:
How about the first Pitch of the AC45, did you hear any stories?
ML:
Yep. I heard that they were just chilling having lunch and, the problem with those things is that you have all that sail area and it’s efficient, but sitting into the wind you have all that windage. They were just kind of luffing and they started going backwards a little bit and they picked up speed. Well, you don’t have wave-piercing sterns. The sterns dug and they kind of did a backwards wheelie until it tipped over. It’s one thing that we learn with the skiffs, no matter how good of a sailor you are, you’re not going to have…let’s say, you’re never going to relax having lunch, you’ve got to be on your game. (Laughs) They got caught with their pants down.
SCR:
Are you going to get a chance to sail a 45?
ML:
I’m hoping so. I’ve been talking a lot with the Italian team, Mascalzone. I’ll probably end up working with them when things come together. Still a little up in the air. I did some work with Artemis on their Cup program in the early days and I just didn’t see my personality fitting into their team. They’re a bunch of really great guys, a lot of talent, the owner’s amazing. They’re going to be one of the front players. They’re, maybe, more organized than Oracle. I won’t say that they’re the most organized right now, but the people that they’ll pull from, from boat builders to sailors, all the way through the management, they’re going to have a great program. They’re going to be a challenging team.
SCR:
Aside from sailing, it’s the interaction of personalities that makes a good team great?
ML:
That’s right. At the end of the day you’ve got to be happy in that spot. I’m a better fit with Mascalzone, and it’s been great. They’re really fun guys, a little chaotic, but it works. There’s so much passion there, and they bring the right talent to the table. If they can raise the money and get things kicked off and find the right person to bring everyone together, it will be a great team. It’s always fun.
SCR:
You’re able to jump aboard pretty much any boat and be successful, what do you attribute that to?
ML:
From being 10 years old on my parent’s boat, Moore hull # 88 Tonapalo. They always did really well. And being a kid, whatever it was, handing up beers or packing the spinnaker. There’s some really great people in that class that helped my sailing. Dave Jocelyn on Mooregasm, you know, we were like 17, he’d throw me the keys to the van and say, ‘take my boat to San Diego and race’. Really good people.
SCR:
Is that how you got started, on the Moore 24?
ML:
Yeah, on keel boats anyway. We had a good group of juniors here at SCYC. We used to have a junior/senior challenge that was awesome. We should really try to do that again. I remember that we were competitive enough and had enough people that we had a sail-off in order to make it to race against the seniors. And now, the Moore that we own, Bruzer, I sail with my wife and friends. It’s a good time.
SCR:
You sail with your wife a lot?
ML:
Yeah especially on the Moore. She does the bow. The first regatta that we sailed together was on a Vanguard 15, and we said let’s just have a fun day. We loaded a 6pack on board, did a shot at the bar, and ended up wining this regatta in SF. I think it was a V15 PCCs or something, so we just kind of kept it going. If you do a shot before racing, it kind of takes the edge off, and we don’t end up bitching at each other.
SCR:
Why do you think Santa Cruz produces so many top-notch sailors?
ML:
I don’t know. It’s obviously a great place to sail, you know, the yacht club and the harbor straight out into the ocean. I think a lot of it comes from a solid junior program. We had a little bit of a dry spell and its starting to come back. A lot of it is the energy. My dad was involved in the ULDB thing, you know with Bill (Lee) and that whole group of people, the Moore Brothers, Terry Alsberg of the Express boats. You had all of these guys building all of these cool boats. They created a great vibe down there at the harbor. So maybe from ’76 to, let’s say, to ’86 was an awesome era here for sailing in Santa Cruz.
SCR:
What was your role during that era?
ML:
Well, being a kid around it all was just great experience. Being a kid that was interested, I was mentored by a ton of really great sailors, Dave Wahle, Jack Halterman, Phil Vandenberg and a lot of other guys that were around.
SCR:
Tell me about breaking your arm in the Chicken Coop?
ML:
(Laughs) You know, those days, there were a lot of good times. A lot of good people. Bill Lee did a great job of cultivating an atmosphere there where they had fun. My dad and the guys would drink beers at lunch, you wouldn’t want key parts of your boat to be built on Friday afternoon. I think it was a New Years party, but every year they would have a party. They would clear out the coop. It was this long shop with a smooth cement floor. I don’t know who came up with the idea about these go-cart, dragsters. I think the only rules were that it had to be powered by a washing machine engine and you could only have a certain length extension cord. The one that I was on was some sort of PVC dragster. You’d plug it in, put your foot on the gas and when you got so far down the shop, the cord would pull out and you’d coast. They picked me because I was so light; I think I was 7 or 8. My mom was out of town and it was the first time my dad had the reins. It was the party and my dad probably had a couple beers and a joint or two in him. I was told to just put my foot on the gas, point the wheels straight ahead, and don’t let go. The cart went further than they thought it would go, and the guys that were supposed to catch it at the end, didn’t. My face went into the steel wall. I was in bad shape. I think it was chicken noodle soup through a straw for a couple of weeks. It was good times up there.
SCR:
Thanks for the interview Morgan!
ML:
My Pleasure.
America’s Cup Unloaded
The USA 17 unloading saga continued, as mechanical breakdowns and looming weather dictated the time frame. It was now or never. The port of SF doesn’t get a chance to use their kit that often, and the morning dragged on as one of the cranes and a forklift crapped-out. We were in a holding pattern for hours until the giant machine was working, and finally came to life with a belch of thick, black smoke. Finally around noon, the bridles attached to the wing tensioned, and the wing elevated and hovered over the deck of the Star Isfjord.
Once the wing was free, and an expert maneuver by the crane operator to clear several containers was executed, the entire operation to lower it to the deck took about 15 minutes. They made it look simple and very controlled. After the cradles were assembled and the wing was secure, it was wheeled into the cavernous warehouse for storage. It’s really difficult to appreciate the size of the wing until you’re standing next to it, and the size of the warehouse where they wheeled it is mind-boggling.
After their union lunch break, the time came to unload to boat. It was an all hands on deck affair, and the media wasn’t able to gain access like we had all morning. From the distance we could see a bunch of little orange, reflective vests scurrying around on deck like fluorescent orange ants. From my vantage point, everything was going very smoothly. The radio chatter that we could hear coming from the guard shack was revealing however, and you could tell that the workers were dealing with something out of the ordinary. It sounded like there might be some rattled nerves up on deck, but the photo of smashed carbon on the asphalt that the photogs were talking about all morning luckily, never happened. The boat nestled down, softly, cradle and all.
On an interesting historical note, the working class neighborhood that starts about 2 blocks north of Pier 80 is known as Dogpatch. Friends, welcome Dogzilla to DoGpatch.
Pete Melvin on the AC72
Who do you call if you want to design a state of the art, carbon fiber multihull with the intent of bringing back a serious piece of America’s Cup bling to your yacht club? My first call would be to Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin of Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering in Huntington Beach, CA. Their names are associated with some of the fastest, most high tech multis on the water. You remember that 105′ Catamaran PlayStation? Well, that was one of their designs. With Gino on board they set a 24-hour distance record of 580.23 nautical miles back in 1999. Added to the list of the accomplishments where their designs have reigned supreme are a handful of ‘A’ Class Worlds, a Little America’s Cup win, trans-Atlantic records, a Trans-Pac win, and too many regional event trophies to count. In a 2010 commencement speech at The Landing School in Maine, Gino Morrelli listed a whole, diverse slew of multihulls that their company has designed. Finishing up the list was their one monohull: a boat designed for Disney for their Jungle Book ride. These guys have multihulls sailing through their veins!
Morrelli and Melvin have their names on a wide and diverse swath of successful boats all the way from the Hobie Wave to the impressive Gunboat 90 and all sorts of incredible boats above, below, and in between. One of the most recent boats that the company conjured up, the Nacra Carbon 20, has been getting a lot of attention lately. It’s curved, foiling dagger boards and ultra-light carbon hulls make for one fast, cutting edge machine. When placed side by side with an AC 45 Catamaran, one can definitely see commonalities in hull design as well as all of the appendages.
Recently, Andrew MacPherson from Nacra, one of the top catamaran racers in the world, had the opportunity to show off the similarities between his Carbon 20 against the brand new AC 45, in New Zealand. Needless to say, the C20 is fast, just not quite as fast as the AC45! The BMO Racing Team used a matched set of Hobie Wild Cats to train for AC 33, showing that the smaller cats are getting out to play with the same ball of yarn as the big cats. Pretty cool stuff.
A Morrelli/ Melvin multihull design that can be seen currently ripping around the San Francisco Bay, the venue for the next Cup, is the Prosail 40. The ProSail 40 is the closest thing that we have sailing around The Bay today that even resembles the AC45, let alone the AC 72. The ProSail 40 was a One-Design concept in the late 80s, that was very similar to the Extreme Sailing Series that has gained so much popularity in Europe. The ProSail 40 concept was an idea that came before its time, and perhaps happened on the wrong continent, as obviously illustrated by the success of the Extreme 40s. Very similar in ideology to NASCAR: fast boats, spectator-friendly venues, logos all over the place, strict class rules and some hard green cash winnings, the Series unfortunately never really took off. The ProSail Series teamed up with Hobie Cat, and the Hobie 21 was raced in conjunction with the 40s, adding a more attainable element to the racing for the common sailor. One similar idea being worked on right now is to have the Hobie 16 Worlds off of the City Front as a precursor to the America’s Cup. We’ll see if the Hobie Class Association and the AC’s Race Management Team can come together on that one.
Morrelli and Melvin were part of the design team that built the BMWO 90 trimaran that crushed Alinghi in the 33rd America’s Cup, and after the event, everyone thought that the use of multihulls for Match Racing, and for the America’s Cup in particular, was an anomaly, a fad. Not so! Shortly after Ellison and his team at BMWO Racing won the cup, Gino and Pete got a call inviting their company to come up with the next generation concept for the boat that would be used in the 34th America’s Cup. Out of this process, and after months of work, the AC 72 was born.
Luckily for all of us that admire the design work of Morrelli and Melvin, Pete wasn’t turned off from designing and building boats when the boat that he built when he was 6 years old, sunk. With an Olympic campaign aboard the Tornado in 1988, multiple time ‘A’ class world champ, Alter Cup winner, and almost 30 National Championships under his belt, Pete obviously has a few things figured out when it comes to making boats go fast through the water. Here in California, Pete can be seen racing, and placing in well, aboard his light blue Nacra Infusion F18 or his ‘A’ class cat, both designed by his company. Oftentimes, Pete will sail his F18 with his young son James, and place well in the top of the fleet. It’s a family gig for Pete, as it should be.
I had a chance to catch up with Pete in probably what was the most interesting over-the-phone interview that I’ve ever done. Pete and his crew were doing sea-trials off of the Eastern Seaboard on the way to Bristol, RI aboard the New Gunboat 90, I could hear the wind blowing and the hull slicing through the water in the background as we chatted. He had to interrupt the interview several times to ask skipper Randy Smythe to slow down a bit. Classic!
SCR:
Let’s jump right in, Pete. Are there many similarities between the AC 72s Design and smaller catamarans like the Nacra C20?
PM:
The dynamics between how the AC 72s will sail versus the Nacra 20, there are a lot of things to learn from, really, any small cat, but certainly the Nacra 20 with the curved foils and the dynamics of how that boat reacts, there’s a lot of correlation there. Certainly we’ll learn some things about the characteristics of the foils.
SCR:
How did the design team come up with the 72’ length?
PM:
After the cup, in Valencia in February we were contacted by BMW Oracle team and asked to be a part of the conceptual design for an America’s Cup multihull. At that point we looked at a wide range of sizes and configurations from 60 to 90, catamarans and trimarans, and what we call hybrids, kind of like Alinghi was, a wide cat, you know a tri without a center hull. So we looked at the full spectrum. We looked at cost performance, loads and so on, culminating in a designer’s meeting in May in Valencia. And that’s when we were tasked with coming up with an America’s Cup Multihull. So working with the Oracle Team and some industry multihull experts to come up with the concept.
What we came up with in Valencia in May were two trimarans. One was about 70’ long. The characteristics of that were that its righting moment was about the same as the ORMA 60. Since people have a lot of experience with those boats, and the loads on the sheets are down to a level where you can sail that boat fairly aggressively with human power, you know, using pedestals.
Then another boat around 80’ had more righting moment, but to sail it aggressively would require powered winches. Those are the two concepts that we presented in May.
One factor about the trimaran is that it doesn’t disassemble quite as easily as a cat, but at that time there ws no real benefit being associated with being able to transport those boats on an airplane, so we presented those concepts.
A monohull concept was presented by Bruce Nelson, and there was several days of discussion about the merits of mono vs. multis. Then we expected a decision to be made whither the cup would be raced on multis or monos and what size, etc. No one was sure what was going on, and about mid-June we got a call from the Oracle Team asking if we could work on the rule. At that point they we still didn’t know if it was going to be a multi or mono.
SCR:
So, what were they assessing?
PM:
They wanted to do more research, but they knew there wasn’t enough time to do their research and then wright a rule, so they wanted us to write the rule, for both the mono and the multihull. Then we dug back in and took a look at the parameters They’d gotten more feedback from the teams, and also doing their research on venues and the event format, and so on.
So, it was determined that it was in fact desirable to have the boats transportable by aircraft, so we started researching different freighter aircraft, and what we came up with was that the Antonov, which has huge doors, and you can get something up to about six meters wide through the door, which is quite large, but there’s only something like 20 of those in service around the world, so they’re really not that available. Then there’s a plane called the 747 Freighter, with a hinged nose cone. You don’t have the limitation of having to deal with a side door, you can just slide long pieces onto the main deck. So we were looking at that and there are a couple hundred of those around, and it’s a lot less expensive to ship something on a 747 than an Antonov. We thought that if we design these boats so that they fit on a 747 Freighter, you can actually transport these things at a, well, moderate cost, it’s not cheap by any standard. I don’t recall exactly, but it was well over a million dollars to ship a boat from New Zealand to Europe aboard an Antonov. I don’t remember for the 747 Freighter, but it was a fraction.
SCR: Did you meet up with the design team after you figured that out?
PM:
Yes. We went back in with the other industry consultants and decided that it should be a catamaran for transportability, and our previous research told us that from about 90 feet to around 70 feet you weren’t going to give up that much performance, by going that direction, and about that time is when the wing sail option came in, and Russel Coutts decided that we should have a wing sail on the boat. They’re ultra-modern, and the team had had good luck with it on the trimaran. Then it turned into a catamaran with a wing sail.
Another main parameter of the event is to have exciting races in 5 knots, yet be able to sail in about 30 knots, and with a wing sail you can’t reef it, so that put a lot of pressure on us to come up with a rig size and the beam, and the overall dimensions of the boat so you actually could race in heavy winds. To be able to fly a hull in 5 knots, and also be able to survive in 30; you know, it’s not an easy task.
SCR:
What about the venue, SF Bay? Did you design for Bay conditions?
PM:
Yes! We always kept it in the back of our minds, we did some research into typical wind strengths in the summer. The idea that the cup would be in September sometime, and some of the trials would be all through the summer, you know, you’re right in the peak wind season. What we found from existing data was something like 12% to 14% of the days, you were likely to get 25 plus during mid summer. We figured that at least a few races would be run in 25, but the intent was that you could still race these boats in 30.
Wings are a bit different too. You know, we have some tried and true methods for looking at rig sizes for soft sails, but wings are a different animal. We put a ton of work into our PPT, our Performance Prediction Software that we use, so we can adjust the aerodynamic qualities of the wing. The first month or so was very technical so we had to basically design a boat for the rule, in order to make sure that the rule was going to work; that there was going to be a practical solution, not just words on paper and throwing it out there. We wanted it to be a fairly tight box rule, so that the boats perform similarly, and they’re around the same cost. The idea is, of course that they want close racing. If you made it super open, and one or two teams were light-years ahead of everyone else, it really doesn’t make for a good event. We really did our homework well, and made sure that the rule worked.
SCR:
How did you design for the potentially extreme SF Bay chop?
The concept boat that we came up with, has enough, we believe, freeboard and volume in the hulls to be able to be pushed pretty hard, whether it’s on the bay or wherever. In the rule there are some minimum freeboard and volume dimensions. You can’t build a super low freeboard hull, some light-air speed machine.
(Pauses)
Can you hear that we’re pounding through waves? We’re sailing off of Block Island and it’s blowing 15 to 20 kts.
(Resumes)
SCR: SF Bay chop?
PM:
So it’s up to the teams to design a boat that’s going to work. With this rule, there are fewer restrictions with the dimensions of the hull, materials, panel weights and all of that kind of stuff. So it’s really pretty open that way. Basically, you have to design a boat that’s not going to break. It’s totally up to you, it’s not up to some measurer to determine whether some little part measures to spec.
SCR:
What would you like to see the course look like in The Bay?
PM:
We’re so used to sailing windward/ leeward, so that’s what you think about. I know that the ACRM (America’s Race Management Team) are doing a lot of research into the courses…
(Pauses. Asks Randy to slow down a bit.)
(Laughs) He’s in race mode. It’s pitch black and like 40 degrees. (Laughs)
SCR:
The racecourse?
PM:
It would be great to have some reaching. I remember back in the days when I was sailing Tornados, and Olympic stuff, we had reaching. It was pretty hairy sometimes; it was good fun. I think that would help the spectacle. You know, you never really reach the top speeds going upwind downwind. Any geographic thing that they can use to keep the boats racing close would be a good thing. Racing in the bay, as you know, it forces you to go one way or another, so hopefully the boats stay together. With reaching marks we’re just going to have to start racing in those conditions and see how it turns out. (Laughs)
SCR:
Do you think wing sails will ever have any practical use, say, on a commercial or a cruising boat?
PM:
Yeah. You know there are different types of wing sails. We’ve been working with a company called Harbor Wing Technologies and the U.S. Navy for about four years now, on a wing sail that’s on a mast that can rotate 360 degrees. You can tie it up and feather the wing if you’re at dock, or do the same if you’re in big wind. We’ve had a prototype sailing in Hawaii for about three years, and the Navy was so impressed with it, that they funded another round, and we have a 50 foot trimaran version of it now.
SCR:
Great stuff, Pete! Thanks for the interview.
PM:
My pleasure. Thank you.