Finally a beautiful day weather wise, so we took a side trip to the Blue Spring to see the Manatees, who congregate in the warmer waters of the spring. Because of the good weather, many had gone to feed in the St. Johns river. There had apparently been more than 240 Manatees in the quarter-mile creek from the spring during the cold snaps up until a week or so ago. Very pretty – a few photos in the album. Direct Link
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Wandering in Tehani: Side trip to Blue Spring @ Sail Blogs
The third post in this series is about the red flag on SUI and the penalty they received in the prestart. To explain the latter I will have to show you a diagram of the start area.? But first a few words on Match Racing. Because of the special nature of a match race – being one on one – its is not important to finish as fast as possible, as in a fleet race, it is only important to finish first. Finish first is key, however long that may take! Match race is about control. If you control your opponent, you can win. A controlling position is therefore paramount. In the AC 33 dogfight we see little of this because the boats are all about speed. But – yes – if you are ahead far enough, you control the race. And in Match 1 USA managed to control SUI for a couple of minutes in the prestart. To get that control you need to engage your opponent. And that engagement begins well before the start. Now if we do anything like a conventional start as in fleet racing, the two boats in a match race will never know when to begin looking for each other to gain that control. Therefore in match racing there’s a special procedure in the rules which allows a controlled beginning of the pre start manoeuvres. We have a sort of ‘start’ before the actual start line crossing. To get there, each boats is assigned to a side. The Yellow side next to the RC-boat and a Blue side next to the pin end of the start line Picture from a presentation by Henk Plaatje; http://www.plaatje.info/ ?In the AC33 Match 2, SUI was assigned the Yellow boat and USA the Blue boat. From the Rulebook: At her preparatory signal (five minutes in AC33) each boat shall be outside the line that is at a 90 degrees angle to the starting line through the starting mark at her assigned end. …. (C4.1) Within the two minute period following her preparatory signal, a boat shall cross and clear the starting line, the first time from the course side to the pre-start side. (C4.2) To check that precise line the umpire boat and the wing boat each place themselves on that line, one below and one above the starting line. If a boat is anywhere else then in its “boxâ€? when the preparatory signal is given, she gets a penalty. Be it still sailing to get there or be it sailing too soon over the line to get to the other boat. Outside your box equals penalty. In match 2 of AC 33, SUI was still sailing below the starting line towards her assigned end, when the five minute preparatory signal was given. That is the reason SUI was given a penalty. The wing boat signalled this to the umpire boat and they switched on the yellow light. Why, you might ask? Why was SUI not there? Remember … Direct Link
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AC 33 | Rules and explanations – part (3) @ Look To Windward
Valencia, Spain – (2010-02-08) Alinghi 5, the 33rd America’s Cup defending yacht, left the Alinghi base this morning for Race 1 of the 33rd America’s Cup amid a cacophony of Swiss bells and cheers from Alinghi fans, friends and families. This moment has been long awaited. ”We have been looking forward to this moment for a long time,” said Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi team president and principal helmsman. ”It is good to be going racing at last. The designers have done an amazing job in creating this boat for us and the shore team have done a phenomenal job in building it. It’s time to go racing.” Race 1 of the America’s Cup is a 40 nautical mile windward/leeward course (20nm upwind and 20nm down) and is due to start at 10:06 this morning, weather permitting. Defender vs. Challenger Alinghi 5, Soci?t? Nautique de Gen?ve (SUI) vs. BMW Oracle Racing, Golden Gate Yacht Club (USA) Alinghi, the Defender of the America’s Cup, has the blue flag, which means port entry in to the … continua … Direct Link
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The 33rd America’s Cup starts at last @ Vela for Fun
EcoMotors OPOC Two Stroke Engines – Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder – Original article from: TheKneeslider.com – The Kneeslider –
EcoMotors OPOC Two Stroke Engines – Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder – Original article from: TheKneeslider.com – The Kneeslider –
Two stroke engines are favorites of everyone who wants a really compact engine with lots of power, there are fewer parts and power delivery on every stroke. Of course, the blue haze from the exhaust didn’t [...]
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EcoMotors OPOC Two Stroke Engines – Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder
photo © Matias Capizzano / capizzano.com Our team of bloggers had a very mixed day at the Laser World Championships in Canada on Saturday.Best performance of the team came from Australian blogger Ashley Brunning who was charging to new heights. His dramatic account of the first race of the day tells us how he “exploded out to leeward of the fleet”, “hiked like a demon to cross the fleet”, and “made a huge gain downwind.” He crossed the finish line 50 meters ahead of his nearest rival to score his first ever Laser World Championship win. Well done Ash!In between races he munched on bananas and blueberry bread and then sailed another excellent race for a 4th place finish. Maybe if he had stuck to the Clif Bars from Day 2 he would have won the second race too?In any case, Ashley’s results were good enough to pull him up to 6th place overall, and tied on points with two other guys for 4th. Wow! These bloggers are getting damn good.Dominican blogger Raul Aguayo tells us in AHI VIENE BILL! how he achieved two more solid finishes, but unfortunately not quite good enough to make the cut for the gold fleet. However Raul is still pleased with his progress and looking forward to some close competitive racing in the silver fleet.American blogger Clay Johnson had the most disappointing day of all the members of Team Blogger, a Crazy Day Three indeed. He arrived at the yacht club on Saturday morning to discover that some members of his Blue fleet had filed for redress for the race committee’s failure to abandon Friday’s sole qualifying race, in which Clay came third. (I am assuming that the redress request was based on the foggy conditions.) The protest committee agreed that the Blue fleet race was indeed an unfair test of skill and called for it to be resailed on Saturday. In the resail Clay was black flagged so his score for the race went from 3 to BFD!And then to make things worse Clay chose what turned out to be the wrong side of the first beat in the next race and scored a 32nd. He did a lot better in the final race with a 6th place but with only one discard allowed at this stage he has slipped a long way down the rankings.After three tough races, finding his way back to the club in fog, helping to pack all the Lasers away in the clubhouse in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Bill, Clay and a few other bluefleeters filed for redress for the decision to throw out Friday’s race. But then the protest committee refused to hear their protest because they were five minutes late turning in the form!Geeze, what a day! Clay admits to being “really upset” but is trying to put what happened behind him and have a good Gold series.Wait a minute. We haven’t heard lately from Team Blogger member Colin Cheng. Has anyone seen him?Oh … Direct Link
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Team Blogger Has Mixed Day at Laser Worlds @ Proper Course
