I notice I have followers
Ooops.
Maybe I should start posting again.
A tremendous amount has happened since the last post.
I plan to start to addressing that with the next post.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Pay It Forward
One of the things I did as part of my 70th sail was to walk into the Oakland Yacht Club. It is next door to where Gokuraku (the Tartan 4600 I sailed on) is located.
Most yacht clubs have a tradition of displaying photographs of the past commodores. Today was the first time I'd set foot in the Oakland Yacht Club.
I'd heard that my grandfather had been the commodore of the yacht club.
There his picture was, he was commodore of the Oakland Yacht Club in 1948. It was an interesting mix of emotions for me to stand there on the staircase and seek his picture out among all those who served in that position before and after.
This blog, and my efforts in the Got Wind and Water Meetup Group are about Paying It Forward.
I can't pay him back for introducing me to sailing. He's gone. I can only Pay It Forward, by introducing others to this life long passion of mine.
Most yacht clubs have a tradition of displaying photographs of the past commodores. Today was the first time I'd set foot in the Oakland Yacht Club.
I'd heard that my grandfather had been the commodore of the yacht club.
There his picture was, he was commodore of the Oakland Yacht Club in 1948. It was an interesting mix of emotions for me to stand there on the staircase and seek his picture out among all those who served in that position before and after.
This blog, and my efforts in the Got Wind and Water Meetup Group are about Paying It Forward.
I can't pay him back for introducing me to sailing. He's gone. I can only Pay It Forward, by introducing others to this life long passion of mine.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Cost / Fun Ratio
To Sail is to Seek.
To be a Sailor, one must have this pull to step away from all that is permanent, to cast off and exist in a world where the forces are set against each other and at no time do they completely balance each other and provide rest. Since the forces are not in balance, motion is the only constant.
Even at anchor, the vessel swings with the motions of wind and water, straining against the hook buried or caught on the bottom.
It is a world that consumes the sailor and nothing on land matters. It is a freedom from landlocked stress and concern.
There is cost associated with it. There is fun.
For the Sailor, that fun glistens like a pot of gold sitting at the end of a rainbow.
I've always been aware of the cost/fun ratio. It looms like a taskmaster, and my goal is to minimize it.
"A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money" is the tale of woe of the typical boat owner.
The advice that "the two happiest days of a boat owner are the day they purchase the boat and the day they sell it" is prophetic to most.
I've found that the cost/fun ratio approaches zero when one becomes a member of the crew of a race boat. Unfortunately, one of the prized attributes of a race crew to the owner is willingness and loyalty. The cost/fun ratio taskmaster is cast away, only to be replaced with the owner/racer as taskmaster.
I've reached my 70th sailing day of the year. I'm dropping by JWorldsf on this day to meet with the General Manager. He and I have been trading emails and phone calls to discuss the participation of the Got Wind and Water group and J World in the Sarcoma Cup. We've yet to meet face to face, and I want to get that out of the way.
I've struggled (struggling is a cost) over the last 3 days to decide what to do on this 70th sail of the year. To sail 70 times in just a wee bit over 6 months is a lot. I set out to see what the cost/fun ratio would be like to sail 100 times in a year and I'm past the halfway mark.
You can't put a number on 'fun'. You can't put a number on 'cost', if you include the personal effort into the equation. While 'Work' can be defined in engineering units, so can 'Strain'. Certainly you can put a number on 'cash'. 'Value'? what's that? can you put a number on that?
A ratio can be thought of as a way to balance something. If cost were '1' and fun were '1', then the cost/fun ratio would be 1/1, which would equal '1' and things would balance out.
But sailing is a sport that intrinsically does not balance out.
I can put a number on the times I've sailed so far. I can't put a number on the fun I've had. I can't put a number on the cost, because the monetary cost is not the only cost. The effort, the struggle, the strain, the hours writing emails, the minutes on the phone working out the details of each and every sail . . . those things all contribute to the cost.
There are some boat owners for whom the cost associated with owning their boat, belonging to their club, finding their crew for some of the days spent sailing is infinitesimal when compared to the fun they get back.
Nat, the founder of the Beat Sarcoma effort, is, I think one of those owners. She would probably scoff at the suggestion that her boat is a hole in the water into which she pours cash. She keeps it on a trailer . . . at a very expensive Yacht Club . . . and sailed it to Hawaii with Nathan in the Pac Cup.
Cost . . . Fun?
I'm guessing she pays attention to the fun and totally ignores the cost. The cost/fun ratio is so out of balance, that it does not resemble a taskmaster. The fun genie beats the *#$%#^&* out of the cost taskmaster
But all you have to do is look at any marina on any day to figure out that Nat is a part of the 20% of boat owners who have managed to ignore the cost and focus on the fun. Otherwise, the 80% of the boats you see would be out sailing, not sitting there.
I considered three options for the 70th day:
The first was to arrange a $250 check out ride with J World, and become a member of their club, something I expect I'll do within the next month, a prerequisite for me to get their J120 - "J World" entered into the Sarcoma Cup as a Got Wind and Water entry. Why not do it . . . today?
Hmmm, wading through their website, there seem to be a host of other requirements . . . and restrictions . . . the cost/fun ratio is starting to glare at me like a task master. Where is the genie when I need him?
I've calculated the dollar cost associated with my 70 sails this year, and came up with $6.73 per sail. The other non-monetary 'costs' have at times made the cost/fun ratio resemble a task master. The fun however . . .
After the solstice weekend, it took 3 days to come off the high. The '70' picture is from that sunset spinnaker run back . . . The cost/fun ratio resembled cavorting with the genie in the bottle.
The second option was to charter a J105 from the club I pay a monthly membership fee to, get a couple of Got Wind and Water members together to share the cost, and the fun, and go talk to the General Manager at J World today - by sailing there. My cost would be minimal, would not tilt the average cost above $7 like $250 would, I'd have the boat for 23 hrs . . . I'm past all the paperwork and tests involved . . . getting Got Wind and Water members to go along is soooo easy, there really isn't much *cost* there.
With a full day charter, we could sail to the Golden Gate Bridge for the sunset and fly the chute all the way back to Berkeley at night - - - super cool. But I"m under doctor's orders to 'take it easy' for at least a week after straining a muscle in my back, so this very, very, attractive option has an element of risk associated with it.
On this 70th day, I've decided on the third option - going sailing with a member of the Got Wind and Water Group who is also a boat owner. We are not racing, we are cruising, I'll be a passenger, not really a member of the crew. This will help me follow the doctors orders. There will be zero cost for me, and the fun will be there . . . and I'll stop by the J World office, next door to where the large sailing yacht I'll be on is berthed. It is an easy, no cost, no risk option, with no hint of a taskmaster involved.
To be a Sailor, one must have this pull to step away from all that is permanent, to cast off and exist in a world where the forces are set against each other and at no time do they completely balance each other and provide rest. Since the forces are not in balance, motion is the only constant.
Even at anchor, the vessel swings with the motions of wind and water, straining against the hook buried or caught on the bottom.
It is a world that consumes the sailor and nothing on land matters. It is a freedom from landlocked stress and concern.
There is cost associated with it. There is fun.
For the Sailor, that fun glistens like a pot of gold sitting at the end of a rainbow.
I've always been aware of the cost/fun ratio. It looms like a taskmaster, and my goal is to minimize it.
"A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money" is the tale of woe of the typical boat owner.
The advice that "the two happiest days of a boat owner are the day they purchase the boat and the day they sell it" is prophetic to most.
I've found that the cost/fun ratio approaches zero when one becomes a member of the crew of a race boat. Unfortunately, one of the prized attributes of a race crew to the owner is willingness and loyalty. The cost/fun ratio taskmaster is cast away, only to be replaced with the owner/racer as taskmaster.
I've reached my 70th sailing day of the year. I'm dropping by JWorldsf on this day to meet with the General Manager. He and I have been trading emails and phone calls to discuss the participation of the Got Wind and Water group and J World in the Sarcoma Cup. We've yet to meet face to face, and I want to get that out of the way.
I've struggled (struggling is a cost) over the last 3 days to decide what to do on this 70th sail of the year. To sail 70 times in just a wee bit over 6 months is a lot. I set out to see what the cost/fun ratio would be like to sail 100 times in a year and I'm past the halfway mark.
You can't put a number on 'fun'. You can't put a number on 'cost', if you include the personal effort into the equation. While 'Work' can be defined in engineering units, so can 'Strain'. Certainly you can put a number on 'cash'. 'Value'? what's that? can you put a number on that?
A ratio can be thought of as a way to balance something. If cost were '1' and fun were '1', then the cost/fun ratio would be 1/1, which would equal '1' and things would balance out.
But sailing is a sport that intrinsically does not balance out.
I can put a number on the times I've sailed so far. I can't put a number on the fun I've had. I can't put a number on the cost, because the monetary cost is not the only cost. The effort, the struggle, the strain, the hours writing emails, the minutes on the phone working out the details of each and every sail . . . those things all contribute to the cost.
There are some boat owners for whom the cost associated with owning their boat, belonging to their club, finding their crew for some of the days spent sailing is infinitesimal when compared to the fun they get back.
Nat, the founder of the Beat Sarcoma effort, is, I think one of those owners. She would probably scoff at the suggestion that her boat is a hole in the water into which she pours cash. She keeps it on a trailer . . . at a very expensive Yacht Club . . . and sailed it to Hawaii with Nathan in the Pac Cup.
Cost . . . Fun?
I'm guessing she pays attention to the fun and totally ignores the cost. The cost/fun ratio is so out of balance, that it does not resemble a taskmaster. The fun genie beats the *#$%#^&* out of the cost taskmaster
But all you have to do is look at any marina on any day to figure out that Nat is a part of the 20% of boat owners who have managed to ignore the cost and focus on the fun. Otherwise, the 80% of the boats you see would be out sailing, not sitting there.
I considered three options for the 70th day:
The first was to arrange a $250 check out ride with J World, and become a member of their club, something I expect I'll do within the next month, a prerequisite for me to get their J120 - "J World" entered into the Sarcoma Cup as a Got Wind and Water entry. Why not do it . . . today?
Hmmm, wading through their website, there seem to be a host of other requirements . . . and restrictions . . . the cost/fun ratio is starting to glare at me like a task master. Where is the genie when I need him?
I've calculated the dollar cost associated with my 70 sails this year, and came up with $6.73 per sail. The other non-monetary 'costs' have at times made the cost/fun ratio resemble a task master. The fun however . . .
After the solstice weekend, it took 3 days to come off the high. The '70' picture is from that sunset spinnaker run back . . . The cost/fun ratio resembled cavorting with the genie in the bottle.
The second option was to charter a J105 from the club I pay a monthly membership fee to, get a couple of Got Wind and Water members together to share the cost, and the fun, and go talk to the General Manager at J World today - by sailing there. My cost would be minimal, would not tilt the average cost above $7 like $250 would, I'd have the boat for 23 hrs . . . I'm past all the paperwork and tests involved . . . getting Got Wind and Water members to go along is soooo easy, there really isn't much *cost* there.
With a full day charter, we could sail to the Golden Gate Bridge for the sunset and fly the chute all the way back to Berkeley at night - - - super cool. But I"m under doctor's orders to 'take it easy' for at least a week after straining a muscle in my back, so this very, very, attractive option has an element of risk associated with it.
On this 70th day, I've decided on the third option - going sailing with a member of the Got Wind and Water Group who is also a boat owner. We are not racing, we are cruising, I'll be a passenger, not really a member of the crew. This will help me follow the doctors orders. There will be zero cost for me, and the fun will be there . . . and I'll stop by the J World office, next door to where the large sailing yacht I'll be on is berthed. It is an easy, no cost, no risk option, with no hint of a taskmaster involved.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
I'm not back
It is May 30th and I'm not back. For some strange reason, the obsession with counting the number of times that one has gone sailing in each year has infected me like some strange disease. Tillerman reflected on his failed attempt at sailing 100 times in 2008.
In that post he described where the idea came from, an article in the laser class magazine about how top laser sailors sail at least that many days a year. He considered it a commitment.
Bah Humbug, I say. What is the point of sailing if it is a commitment?
Why do we sail? Because we are committed?
That is a strange way to look at it.
I sail because it is a taste of freedom unlike no other.
I want to taste it all the time.
It is an addiction.
During one sail, someone asked me:
"What do you do when you aren't sailing?"
"Thinking about sailing" - duh
It was from this obsession that the Got Wind and Water meetup group was born.
EVK4 has moved on to being the SF Sailing Examiner.
I've gone from writing about sailing (when I wasn't sailing) to counting how many times I've gone sailing, to just sailing as much as I can. So it's been a while since I've posted on this blog.
Since I can't sail 100% of the time, and I can't stop thinking about sailing 100% of the time, I'm focused on sharing my obsession with as many other people as I can. Not through blogging, but by getting them to go sailing with me.
I mean, why read a blog about sailing when it is so easy to just go do it.
I've been rather successful at this. It isn't even June yet and I've gone sailing 54 times this year.
And I've gotten 37 people to go sailing with me on a regular basis.
Maryam, one of the Got Wind and Water junkies, understands this. There is a picture of her at the helm of Xpression, a C&C 110, that says it all. The boat has a large wheel, but what I love about the picture is that the smile on her face can't hide behind that wheel.
Tracy, another regular among the folks sailing with me on the Got Wind and Water site has started to call me 'Captain Crack'.
I'm not back, I'm just out supplying my group of junkies with their sailing fix.
In that post he described where the idea came from, an article in the laser class magazine about how top laser sailors sail at least that many days a year. He considered it a commitment.
Bah Humbug, I say. What is the point of sailing if it is a commitment?
Why do we sail? Because we are committed?
That is a strange way to look at it.
I sail because it is a taste of freedom unlike no other.
I want to taste it all the time.
It is an addiction.
During one sail, someone asked me:
"What do you do when you aren't sailing?"
"Thinking about sailing" - duh
It was from this obsession that the Got Wind and Water meetup group was born.
EVK4 has moved on to being the SF Sailing Examiner.
I've gone from writing about sailing (when I wasn't sailing) to counting how many times I've gone sailing, to just sailing as much as I can. So it's been a while since I've posted on this blog.
Since I can't sail 100% of the time, and I can't stop thinking about sailing 100% of the time, I'm focused on sharing my obsession with as many other people as I can. Not through blogging, but by getting them to go sailing with me.
I mean, why read a blog about sailing when it is so easy to just go do it.
I've been rather successful at this. It isn't even June yet and I've gone sailing 54 times this year.
And I've gotten 37 people to go sailing with me on a regular basis.
Maryam, one of the Got Wind and Water junkies, understands this. There is a picture of her at the helm of Xpression, a C&C 110, that says it all. The boat has a large wheel, but what I love about the picture is that the smile on her face can't hide behind that wheel.
Tracy, another regular among the folks sailing with me on the Got Wind and Water site has started to call me 'Captain Crack'.I'm not back, I'm just out supplying my group of junkies with their sailing fix.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Lightship
It's been about 15 years since I've done the OYRA Crewed Lightship Race. Thanks to Team Kuai, I've experienced it again. This time with the honor of trimming the chute (with someone else grinding) on the long ride back.
Kuai is a Sabre 386
Quite a different sort of ride than my very first Lightship experience aboard Moonshadow, an 31' flush deck ultralight that was campaigned heavily back in the 70s during the MORA craze. I was a young lad then. Back then the phrase 'sandwich and a bucket' completely defined the onboard amenities.
The bucket was used to dispose of the sandwich after it's nutritional value had been transferred to the sailor . . . well, sometimes before.
But no matter which end it came out of, capturing it in the waste bucket was essential for ocean racing. Lightweight, the bucket stayed on board, even when the engine cover was left on land for the sake of a few pounds.
After the race I inquired if there were any more Cokes on board, and the lady of the boat replied:
"I think there are cold ones in the refrigerator"
"WHAT! this boat has a refrigerator?!!!" I gasped, stunned.
Whoa, I mean, I've been 'yacht racing' for a long time, but this is my first actual Yacht Race. It didn't take long to figure out that those buttons in the head had the same utility as the bucket. With much more class.
Press the button and whooosssh! The holding tank is holding just a little more.
I digress. A quality you, the reader of this blog, must be used to by now.
A debt of gratitude to Admiral Anne, who has taken mercy on this poor Captain and introduced him to actual Yacht racing.
Back to the really important stuff.
The lovely Sonya need not go to the gym this week. She got an upper body work out on Saturday that she didn't have to pay a personal trainer for.
As the crow flies, the Lightship buoy is 12.6 nautical miles from the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. Most people think of everything West of the bridge as the ocean. Well, the real ocean is out where the Lightship buoy is. It's a long way out there when you are rail meat and anticipating the joy of a downwind ride on big waves. It's a long way back bent over a winch handle grinding for the trimmer.
"Grind, Sonya, Grind!"
"Hold"
"Testing!", "Grind!" "Hold!" "More, More, almost there, Hold!"
Rinse and repeat, repeat, repeat, All the way home.
And if by chance the helmsman and trimmer screw up, resulting in the need for 'blowing the sheet'. The grinder has a lot of sheet to haul in, inch by inch, with the boat on it's ear and the rush of water inches from her legs. With the hope that the trimmer and helm can balance the chaos before the white water reaches her waist.
For me, perched against the stern quarter as we went around the lightship, it was a lovely time.
We transferred the bitter end of the spin sheet to the weather side after the hoist, bent it around the after winch drum and I leaned back to get a better view of the luff. Warm in my foulies, with the yellow hood pulled over my hat, I was snug as a bug in a rug as a gentle rain drifted down on the fleet. We were lost in the weather and I didn't care. With a good view of the instrument cluster, I had the perfect place on the boat to enjoy the ride.
We knew land was to the east, the bridge out there somewhere ahead of us. Lost in the gray sky.
So we played with the GPS and struck a course to Pt. Bonita (it was out there somewhere) to find some favored current. Not like taking bearings and drawing lines on a chart, and staring at a compass until your eyes crossed.
It was still magical, at least for me, the beauty of the wind and waves, the reason I started this blog in the first place.
Friday, March 20, 2009
A Quick Post Before I Go
This is just a quick post before I go . . . sailing, of course.
Yesterday (Thursday) was a Team Kuai practice sail in the South Bay, today is the first SFBS Meetup, a TCR event that has a sunset photo shoot tacked onto the end of it.
And tomorrow, the YRA Lightship Race on Kuai.
I'll update this post as soon as I can (perhaps Sunday?) and explain what all these events are.
Yesterday (Thursday) was a Team Kuai practice sail in the South Bay, today is the first SFBS Meetup, a TCR event that has a sunset photo shoot tacked onto the end of it.
And tomorrow, the YRA Lightship Race on Kuai.
I'll update this post as soon as I can (perhaps Sunday?) and explain what all these events are.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Following Publicly
Hey Andy and Gerry!
Thanks for publicly following my blog
I’m hoping that your example will inspire some of the lurkers to come out and follow it publicly as well. It’s all about connecting people with the love of the wind and water.
This blog started as a way for me to connect in spirit with the passion that my grandfather instilled in me for sailing.
Through that passion, Blogger, Reader, OCSC, and now SFBSG, I've begun to connect with other people who share my love of the wind and water.
If people who stumble on this don’t step forward and follow publicly, they don’t connect with me or others. They just sit in front of their computer screen and dream. They don't take the first step to getting out and doing it.
Thanks for publicly following my blog
I’m hoping that your example will inspire some of the lurkers to come out and follow it publicly as well. It’s all about connecting people with the love of the wind and water.
This blog started as a way for me to connect in spirit with the passion that my grandfather instilled in me for sailing.
Through that passion, Blogger, Reader, OCSC, and now SFBSG, I've begun to connect with other people who share my love of the wind and water.
If people who stumble on this don’t step forward and follow publicly, they don’t connect with me or others. They just sit in front of their computer screen and dream. They don't take the first step to getting out and doing it.
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