Category Archives: Sailing

Sailing

2007 A-Class Catamaran World Championships

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PRESS RELEASE

The United States A-Class Catamaran Association is pleased to announce the 2007 A-Class Catamaran World Championships to be held on Islamorada Key, in the beautiful Florida Keys from November 10th through November 16th, 2007.

This prestigious event will include the most accomplished catamaran sailors in the World. Olympic Medalists, World and Continental champions will gather from every continent to compete in the newest and most exciting sailing venue in North America – The Islander Resort. The A-Class catamaran is one of the most technically advanced racing catamarans in the World. These 18 foot cats are built of state-of-the-art carbon fiber and weigh a mere 165 pounds, making sailing fast and exciting even in the lightest breeze.

Competition will be held on the Atlantic Ocean, above some of the most pristine coral reefs and beautiful water in the tropical USA. Onshore facilities at the Islander Resort include fresh and saltwater pools, beachside tiki bar, restaurant, and ocean front rooms with competitor boat storage at their doorstep.

Race officiating will be directed by members of the St. Petersburg Trophy winning Houston Yacht Club, and other well-known volunteers from yacht clubs throughout the USA.

Competitor registration and press coverage information will be found at http://usaca.info/

Food, History, Sailing

Forêt Organic Saison

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I was eyeing a Brasserie Dupont ale the other day at the market. Next to their reknowned Saison Dupont was something called the Forêt Organic Saison (750ml and 7.5% abv), which appeared to be the same concept but with 100% certified organic malt and hops.

Wow! That is all I can say to describe this fine beverage. I shared it with some friends after a long day racing A-Cats and everyone was pleasantly surprised by the spicy yet light taste of the amber colored ale. We drank it at room temperature because it just tasted so good. Saisons usually seem to like a little chill (55°F?) but I figured why mess with a good thing. A crowd soon formed around the bottle and people were begging me for instructions on where to find another.

I gave away my source and the next time I was in the store I bought the last two remaining bottles for myself. This is a superb ale, a real find, and I suspect it will age nicely for the next three or four years and become the perfect thing for a special summer occasion.

The Forêt Organic Saison by Brasserie Dupont, Tourpes, Hainault, Belgium was also reviewed on the Beer Advocate site, where most people seem to worship the Trappist Westvleteren 12 (yellow cap) available only at the entrance of the Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren:

During World Wars I and II, the Westvleteren brewery continued to operate, albeit at a lower capacity. The brewery was the only Trappist one to retain the copper vessels throughout the wars – the other breweries had the copper salvaged by the Germans for their war efforts. In WWI this was primarily due to the abbey not being occupied by the Germans, but instead was caring for wounded allied troops.

[…]

Buyers of the beer receive a receipt with Niet verder verkopen (“Do not resell”) printed on it. The abbey is very much against resale of their beer, and it is their wish that the beer is only commercially available at the two official sale points. To this end, any Westvleteren beer which is sold anywhere else in the world is grey market beer, as no wholesalers or pubs are supplied with the beer, and the abbey is actively working to eliminate the illicit sales.

I wonder how much of the excitement by the beer tasters has to do with its exclusivity? Probably most of it, as the unusual Forêt bottle was half the fun/excitement at the gathering.

Energy, Sailing, Security

Cruising with diesel-hybrid boats

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While researching sailboats with the latest diesel-hybrid technology, I noticed an interesting question on a Magnet DC manufacturer’s message board:

Do you produce motors, and systems large enough to provide power for a catamaran boat of 40 X 28 foot, and what speed could this achieve.

Looking for a Diesel electric propulsion system to achive +- 12 knots to sruise the Indonesian Islands

The answer was not only yes, but they gave a suggestion to check out the current MW Line boats, which are solar-electric:

The running costs are 20 to 45 times less important than for the equivalent powered motor boat.

Add a sail and you have some incredible speed/comfort/sustainability. I suspect that these advances also make a navy nervous, given the applicability of the technology (silent, odorless, less supply required) to everything from submarines to zodiacs.

History, Poetry, Sailing, Security

Nine Million Bicycles

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I was listening to a song called Nine Million Bicycles by Katie Melua and wondering why it reminded me so much of riding in dusty old buses in the country…and then I suddenly realized the melody was a near exact match of the ballads I used to hear when travelling around asia many years ago.

The bridge of the tune, rather ironically, doesn’t fit and I am skeptical every time I hear her beckoning me to cross it with her. Warm by the fire? Just believe everything that she says? She offers hope in her words, yet her soothing voice is a haunting reminder of the lonliness that can often take a seat right next to you on a late night journey down empty roads. Have you ever leaned your head against a cold rattling window, unable to point the way home, and pulled your jacket tighter to try and shut out a chill?

And while I find myself wondering about the trust implied in her lyrics, perhaps in a similar way that Ulysses lashed himself to his mast near the Island of Sirens, others have apparently taken up a more literal issue with the lyrics of the song:

I suspect that Katie took some poetic licence in order to make her lyrics scan. She replaced the bisyllabic number “14” with the nearest monosyllabic number, namely 12″. This alteration is just about acceptable, but the next line in the song is unforgivable. To say that the age of the universe is “a guess” is an insult to a century of astronomical progress. The age of the universe is not just “a guess”, but rather it is a carefully measured number that is now known to a high degree of accuracy.

While Simon Singh is technically correct, I feel he is missing the point of her expressing a “fact” in the face of the number of bicycles in Beijing and age of the universe. Although we may feel small, and we may feel lost and insignificant, she tells us not to worry because there are boundaries in time and a real significance to our relationships. Perhaps the fire she sings of is something I was wishing for on all those long nights. A sad yet joyful ballad, about trust, love and…leaps of faith.

Now if I could just stop playing the song over and over again.