Algoa Bay Yacht Club

ABYC - Port Elizabeth's Friendly Sailing Club

the mountain and muhammed

Big Pimpin’

For many years they have been fastidiously creating some of the world’s finest yachts. One small drawback is that for many clients Baltic Yachts has always been rather a long way away geographically. Not any more…

There are big advantages to building yachts on the west coast of Finland. For the last 50 years, it has been a centre of excellence where a talented workforce of shipwrights, joiners, composite builders, and many other specialists produce some of the finest sailing yachts in the world, accumulating a vast pool of knowledge, experience and skills. There’s just one snag with the location – it’s a very long way, especially by sea, from the places where most owners choose to sail and keep their yachts. The solution for Baltic Yachts was to set up a service and refit hub in the epicenter of the Mediterranean yachting scene.

‘We started down here with warranty projects,’ says Matthew Lester, Baltic Yachts’ head of aftersales service who leads their steadily growing operation in Palma, Mallorca which is based in and around the STP shipyard in the heart of the city’s old harbour. ‘We were always coming here and we opened a workshop so we didn’t have to work out of our suitcases all of the time. And we were increasingly being asked to work on other boats. In 2014 we decided to staff the company here and we’ve never looked back.’ More here.

Don’t know a jibe from a jib? Check out The Sailing Museum in Newport – The Boston Globe

NEWPORT, R.I. — “Good choice! You stole some wind,” the screen read on the race simulator at The Sailing Museum. “Woo-hoo!” hooted participant (and non-sailor) Paul Kelley of Marstons Mills, as he maneuvered the tiller and sailed his 12-meter avatar/boat, “Resolute Jewel,” into third place in the virtual race on Montana’s Flathead Lake. Kelley also proved to be an ace grinder, a crew member on a racing yacht who hand-cranks the winches that raise and trim the sails and move the boom. “Everyone loves this exhibit,” says Heather Ruhsam, executive director of the Sailing Museum. It takes some muscle to grind the winches, as you compete against a fellow museum-goer, or a virtual sailor, to raise the sails first.

The high-tech grinder gizmo is just one of about a dozen interactive elements here. Opened on May 10, the nonprofit museum occupies two levels of Newport’s historic c.1894 Armory building. (The city owns Newport Maritime Center at the basement level, which fronts the harbor shoreline, the beach, and the Ann Street Pier.) The Sailing Museum is a fitting addition to Newport’s Thames Street. “When you come over that bridge, you can tell that Newport is a sailing town,” Ruhsam says, thanks to the vessels dotting the harbor. The city known as the Yachting Capital of the US isn’t just about big, fancy vessels, though. “We have super motor yachts, off-shore racing, in-shore racing, the power yacht contingent, big boats and little boats in Newport,” she says. There’s a public dock behind The Sailing Museum so you can take a boat into town, and hop on and off the Newport Harbor shuttle, she notes.

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Don’t have a boat, big or little? You’ll be in good company here. “We did a demographic study in 2019 that revealed about three-quarters of the people coming through the doors would be non-sailors,” Ruhsam says. Although the sport’s rock stars visit and share their sailing stories, those who’ve never hoisted a sail can have a good time, too, in this 8,000-square-foot space. You enter the self-guided museum and immediately face a larger-than-life video screen of a sailing race, produced by America’s Cup champion and National Sailing Hall of Fame founder Gary Jobson. You can almost feel the spray in your face as you watch. In another dome-like exhibit, you’ll get a sense of what it’s like to capsize. A virtual regatta experience, on a big screen, is coming soon, designed to capture the thrill of the sport. Jobson’s vision helped bring this museum to life, Ruhsam says, with involvement from industry partners who donated the gear and boats that dominate this space.

After answering a series of personality questions, you select a boat that becomes your avatar. Along the way, in no particular order, you undertake sailing challenges that will help you collect digital awards, deposited into your sailing locker. “Yesterday, we had a family here from the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, and they got very competitive with each other,” Ruhsam notes. Other guests have no sailing experience whatsoever, and the idea is, they’ll learn about wind and water, the anatomy of a sailboat, points of sail, and more as they tour the museum. “We try to tie sailing into everyday life and demystify the sport,” she says. There’s always a staff member on the floor who can answer questions, and the majority of the employees are sailors.

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Trophies, foul weather gear, even the Jimmy Buffett album, “Son of a Sailor,” and a pair of Sperry Topsider shoes, crop up here. Exhibits highlight the National Sailing and America’s Cup halls of fame. One of the most affecting exhibits is a touch-screen video monitor featuring “Great Sailing Stories,” in which top sailors discuss aspects of the sport that are meaningful to them. Bill Pinkney, the first African-American to sail around the world solo via the Capes, on his 44-foot cutter, The Commitment, said, “The sea treats us all the same. That should be a lesson to us.”

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And that’s really the point of all this, says Ruhsam, noting that the museum will work with local schools to open up the world of sailing to young people. To underscore the point, an Optimist pram is on display, a bathtub-sized vessel that offers the first sailing experience to many kiddie sailors. “There are so many life lessons that come from sailing — everything from STEM concepts to teamwork — that can be so valuable to kids.” One of the last exhibits you encounter — by design — is a touch screen that shows you where to sail, and learn to sail, by state. “Our hope is that people will leave here wanting to sail, or wanting to know more about the sport,” she says.

“Your age, race, gender — none of that matters when it comes to sailing.”

The Sailing Museum, 365 Thames St., Newport, R.I.; 401-324-5761; www.thesailingmuseum.org. Currently open daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fall and winter hours TBD. Adults, $18; age 11-18, $12; age 10 and under, free.

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Diane Bair and Pamela Wright can be reached at bairwright@gmail.com

SSL Gold Cup – D5 – Australia versus Switzerland

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Club 420 season long competition >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News – Scuttlebutt Sailing News

After six months, two countries, and 44 individual races at four major events, the Club 420 Association’s Triple Crown Award came down to the last races of the last regatta for the 2022 season.

This is the ninth season of the series championship which recognizes the top teams and the top individual athletes, both skippers and crew, who accumulate the most points throughout the series of four high-level competitions:

• Club 420 Association Midwinter Championship for the John V. Hanson Trophy held annually at the US Sailing Center of Martin County (Jensen Beach, FL)
• Club 420 Nationals hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club (Long Beach, CA)
• Club 420 North Americans at Buffalo Canoe Club (Fort Erie, ON)
• South Shore Championship at Sayville Yacht Club (Blue Point, NY)

Thirty-seven teams registered for the series representing all regions of the Association including the US, Canada, and the US Virgin Islands. Scoring for the series in 2022 is a high point system with each team receiving one drop.

The 2022 winners were Griggs and Emery Diemar (Miami, FL) with 120 total points; in second place, the team of Peter Busch and Cam Spriggs (San Diego, CA) won the tiebreaker with 112 points with third place to Read Decker and Sophia Mulvania (Newport Beach, CA). Click here for full results.

“We are excited to have had so many excellent youth sailors participate,” noted Association Executive Director Dillon Paiva. “The quality of the competition is quite high and I think that this has made this season long competition quite exciting. The point spread throughout the season was very close and the top 3 wasn’t determined until the final regatta.”

The Club 420 Association was established in 1980 to promote, foster, encourage and sponsor one-design sailing for youth sailors. Individuals who will be twenty two years old in the year of an event may not compete in Club 420 regattas.

Starcross Solo Open

Solo Open at Starcross Yacht Club

by Starcross Solo Fleet 12 Aug 03:04 AEST 6 August 2022

Starcross Solo Open © Garnet Showell

Once again, this year’s Starcross Open was a resounding success, with 19 boats enjoying, what turned out to be, very very close racing throughout the entire fleet.

The forecast was for a light and very variable wind from the NE backing to the SE and pre launching, the predicated conditions were looking spot on. However, with the briefing over and with the fleet launching their boats and setting sail, into what could only be described as semi-windless conditions. Miraculously out of the blue, a sea breeze filled in, reaching a strength of around 10 knots, which was an enormously welcome sight for this armada of Solos – not to mention, Russ Gibbs as the OOD and his excellent team.

The fleet got away first time in the first race, completing a three round upwind – downwind course. With the fleet trying to dodge the flooding tide, everyone endured a lot of short-tacking up the West shore of the Exe. First round the top mark was our class Membership Secretary, John Steels, hotly pursued by Olly Turner and Paul Kelley, Steve Mitchell and Simon Greenslade. There was quite a bit of place swapping through the race but after three laps, Olly just managed to creep ahead of John by the finish to take the win, from John and Paul, with these three boats fishing bow-to-transom. Steve took fourth closely chased Malcolm Davies in fifth.

For the second race the OOD set a sausage, triangle course. Again, helped by a very strong flooding tide, the fleet got away first time for a four lap race this time. With the wind strength and direction unaltered, the fleet practised their tacking up the shore again, in what was another closely fort race. This time it was Olly around the top mark first, hotly followed by the rest of the fleet. Olly led all the way round to take the win and the open event but it was Steve Mitchell, who took second place in the race, very closely followed by Simon Greenslade in third. Shaun Welsh took fourth from Bill Chard in fifth.

The final race was essentially a repeat of the previous races but the tide starting to ebb. The OOD was having an easy day with getting the fleet away, with the fleet behaving themselves for the third and final time, starting cleanly across the line. This time it was Paul Kelley who rounded the fleet the top mark in first, very closely followed by Simon Greenslade, John Steels and Olly Turner. Very close racing ensued once again, with a small error or bad tack, giving away a place. Paul Kelley managed to lead the way in this race for three rounds but miss-counted the number of rounds competed and at the bottom mark on lap three, headed for the committee boat, thinking it was the finish, which was incorrect and feel back to fifth. This allowed Turner to take the lead on the last round, which he held onto to seal the open meeting title in convincing style. As with the other races, this was another closely fort race all the way round. Kelley managed to fight his way back up to second place on the beat by the final top mark, with Simon Greenslade on his transom in third. On the final run, it was Garry Moulton who sailed into second place, a rudder stock ahead of Malcolm Davies in third and a equally distanced, Kelley in fourth, with Greenslade taking fifth place just behind Kelley.

Thus it was that the fleet headed for shore, having enjoyed what was an absolutely fabulous day of sailing and racing on the beautiful River Exe, in near perfect conditions, other than the lack of a bit spray over the decks. Olly Turner took a decisive and well deserved top podium from Steve Mitchell in second and Paul Kelley in third, both separated by a single point. Fourth spot was taken by Malcom Davies from Simon Greenslade in fifth, who both finished with 8 points but it was Davies who took fourth by virtue of beating Greenslade in this, the last race. Garry Molton took sixth overall with his excellent, last race second place.

To round up, the day was a resounding success, with the ODD and team doing a fantastic and efficient job of running the days racing. The racing was really tight and close with only feet and a boat length separating some of the finishing positions. The SYC fleet were delighted to have welcomed thirteen visiting Solos from around the South West, seven of whom where from Torpoint, with whom we enjoyed fantastic and very close racing. We very much hope all our visitors enjoyed the day as much as the Starcross fleet did. We are already planning next years event and are looking forward to welcoming you back and to seeing you all out out on the waters of the River Exe again next year.