Singlehanders Looking for More People

Since the latest running of Sloop Tavern’s Race To The Straits, the momentum behind shorthanded sailing in the Northwest has been up and down. Most recently we’ve seen a rise in interest online, after a discussion regarding starting a new series of singlehanded and doublehanded races for 2008.

I’ve taken up the baton left by the late Jim Tallet and am trying to capitalize on the recent energy we’ve been seeing to help build a healthy calendar of events for 2008. Thus far, I’ve restarted the website at www.nwsss.org. In addition, I have announced an initial general meeting for the reformed group to take place on January 9, 2008 at 7pm at the Sloop Tavern, and have started a newsletter list for those folks who are interested in shorthanded sailing in the Northwest.

I’m writing you today to find out how I can work with 48° North to best promote the new group and increase turn out for our meetings and events.

Please give the website a look and let me know what you think our next best steps are in promoting this group. Thanks much for your time and feedback.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season.

Jamie Reece Andiamo - C&C 34R
Edmonds, Washington
Ship’s Log at: www.svAndiamo.com

You’re off to a great start. We’ll be glad to include your announcements of meetings, races and events in the calendar, Lowtides or Race. One thing to remember; we need the info by the 10th of the month preceding the month it is to appear, i.e. for the April issue, we need info by March 10th. Too often we get announcements too late, so they’re not included. Of course this won’t be any trouble for you as singlehanders have to be incredibly organized.

Reactivating Lido 14 Fleet 80

I need the help of 48° North readers in finding Seattle area Lido 14 enthusiasts. A group of Seattle based sailors have reactivated Lido 14 Fleet 80. I personally got involved last year when I was looking for a moderately priced boat I could keep at Sail Sand Point. I saw the fun Lido 14 fleets in Anacortes, Portland and Eugene were having and joined in. My daughter and I have both had a lot of fun with our Lido 14 and want others to have a chance to join the fun. Winter is a great time to find under used boats and get them back sailing, with their current owners or with new enthusiasts. I would really appreciate help by encouraging those interested in Lido 14’s to check out the newly set up Seattle Fleet web page at http://lidofleet80.googlepages.com/home

Thank you
Matt Nolan
Mill Creek WA

New policy at West Marine?

A question for other mariners out there or perhaps Corporate West Marine might be able to enlighten me. Last Friday my husband was installing a new pump for our diesel furnace on our sailboat and discovered he needed a fuel hose. We drove over to West Marine at Delta Park in Portland, OR. As he headed off to the back to look at hoses, I went to the magazine rack to see if I could find the article my close friend had published in the November issue of Cruising World. She and I met in Turtle Bay in 1996 while cruising back from Mexico. Both of us are freelance writers and have been published in several magazines so we are always looking for the latest article that has come out in print.

While looking through the contents page of Cruising World, someone from West Marine peeked around the rack and asked if he could help me. I said, “no thanks - just looking while my husband picks up some parts.” I then wandered over and looked at a couple of coats and started to head to the back to find my husband. The gentleman then asked me for my backpack. I said, “what?” He repeated that he wanted my backpack to put behind the counter. I was incredulous and asked him “since when does West Marine require you to turn over a backpack when you enter the store?” He said, “since I took over management here.” I must admit, I was so shocked as I looked around the nearly empty store at that hour of the morning, that I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. I handed him my backpack - feeling like a thief in the night. Just that minute my husband showed up and the gentleman went to the counter and handed me my backpack. My husband looked at me curiously and as we walked out of the store I told him what had happened. We sat in the car trying to absorb the situation and respond in a diplomatic manner. I’ve been in stores that require you to leave your backpack at the door but there is usually a sign posted. The last place on earth I ever expected this requirement to be in place would be at a marine store.

My husband returned to the store to talk to the salesman. He told him that we have owned boats since the early 80’s and also lived aboard for many years. Between our sail to Mexico and back - and our sail to Alaska and back - we have spent thousands of dollars at West Marine stores up and down the Pacific Coast and never encountered such a rude request.

We’ve noticed the customer service at West Marine at Delta Park has gotten increasingly worse over the years but this is the last straw. After years of doing business with them, we will never again frequent a West Marine. Our business will go to Sexton’s Chandlery on Hayden Island - a family owned business - where customer service is exemplary, we are on a first name basis, and where I will never have anyone ask me to leave my backpack at the front counter.

Suzie Davis
Eugene, Oregon

The times they are a’changin’. Although, even when we worked in retail decades ago, we found snapshackes in coke cups and ACR Fireflys cut off the displays with wire cutters from the tools shelf, while only “good old” customers we all knew were in the store. I talked with John, the manager, who remembers the incident and regrets your having been offended. They’d had quite a few thefts lately and were shorthanded, so he made the request. We’re not dishonesty in the sailing world, but leaving backpacks at front counters is becoming more common in many stores. That’s why they have locked gates at marinas. Too bad.

Sailing Blind

It’s an overcast day in mid-August with a decent breeze on Lake Washington. My sighted companion and I are in one of the two-person Access Dinghies, on a southwesterly course with the wind from port. I can hear the traffic along I-90 and it helps me keep my bearings as I learn how to gauge the water and wind and how to respond with tiller and sail.

I am totally blind – or rather, as I’ve described to those who ask, have enough light perception to keep from walking into walls. I can identify objects as present, but not what they are. Could be person. Could be tree! I depend a lot on other contexts for information on what that vague blurry shape might be. These contexts can be anything from audio “shadows” to rapid deduction based on where I am and what I’m doing.

I lost my vision to retinal blastoma (a tumor of the retina) when I was 3, and have had quite a bit of time to learn how to figure things like that out and I started early. My mother tells me a story about when I’d just lost my vision and we were visiting her family in Videbeck, a small town in Denmark. I’d just gotten a tricycle and was happily tooling around the empty street in front of my grandparents house. Apparently, whoever was supposed to have been keeping an eye on me turned their back for a minute to find that I’d disappeared. As the story goes, they all panicked and began scouring the neighborhood, to find that I’d taken off around the corner “to go say hi to the birds” that one of their neighbors kept in a shed behind their house. I gather that the adults, besides being relieved, were also very surprised that I had been able to navigate that far and that quickly.

I don’t mean to brag, nor to imply that I’ve never gotten lost in these experiments, just that trying to figure out my surroundings by as many environmental cues as possible seems to come naturally. So it has been exciting to try it out on the water. But what little vision I have is of no use. By the time I spot any blurry object, the boat is too close to it to respond productively. Crash! Hmmmm, I guess that “thing” must have been a rock!

So, along with the guidance of my sighted companion, the sound of traffic on the I-90 bridge is useful to me. Likewise, as we move closer to shore I can judge relative distance to land by the sound cues I get – a car on Lake Washington Blvd., a dog barking in a yard, the clatter of buoys along the breakwater near the marina. With the wind from astern, one of the only indications I have for speed and movement is the sound of the water against the hull.

And then there’s the sense of touch. With the jib sheet in my hand instead of cleated down, I can get a quick sense of changes in the wind. As the sail begins to luff, I can feel a slight vibration in the line, not unlike the lithe shivering on a fishing line that indicates that what’s on the other end is more likely to be a fish than a shoe. This vibration is also more subtle and immediate than waiting until I can hear the sails flap. Once, with careful attention (and assistance from Liz) I was able to successfully sail wing on wing to parallel the shoreline while bringing the boat back to dock.

There are blind sailing associations around the country that have probably honed or refined many of these skills, and tools to make use of them easier. There are both tactile and audible compasses, for instance, when the convenience of a highly trafficked bridge isn’t available nearby.

I’m looking forward to the next sailing season to see what else we figure out!

Mia Lipner

Thank you for the letter. Organizations like Footloose are fantastic in introducing the joy of sailing to so many. Thank you also for reminding us all to really use our God given senses. With so many aids to navigation, helming, etc., it’s easy to lose touch with one’s surroundings – and being in touch, is what it’s all about.

A Song for the Gaffers

I am sure you’ll get a kick out of this song. It has been submitted by Harvey Nobe. He is a long time CWB member, volunteer and sailing instructor. He also owns Amie, the Friendship Sloop which has been an exhibit for about 12 years at our docks.

Vern Velez
Center for Wooden Boats
Lake Union

GAFFER’S SONG (tune: Wild Rover: Words by Claudia Myatt)

I’ve been an old gaffer for many a year
And I spent all my money on topsails and beer
Sailed all kinds of gaffers and I’ve loved them all
But I couldn’t get on with Bermudan at all

Chorus
And it’s no, ney, never, no ney never no more
Will I sail a Bermudan, no never no more

They’re tall and they’re pointy with thin pointed keels
With no grip on the water, the bloody thing heels
They’re skittish and light and they sail on their ear
And you can’t peg the tiller when you fancy a beer

And it’s no, ney, never….

Bermudans say gaffers have far too much rope
With more than two halyards they just couldn’t cope
Then up goes their kite with its miles of string
It’s got so many ropes you daren’t gybe the damn thing

And it’s no, ney, never….

They’re ok going upwind, but who wants to do that?
And that great big genoa keeps knocking you flat
That jib can’t be reefed without wrinkling the luff
So on goes the engine when the weather gets rough

And it’s no, ney, never……

Bermudan’s a gimmick, it’s not here to stay
I’d rather a gaffer to sail any day
It’s the past and the future all rolled into one
The glorious gaff cutter will sail on and on


And it’s no, ney, never………….

DDT Has Gotten a Bad Rap

In your November issue was an interesting article about Brown Pelicans by Larry Eifert. Larry is a great artist, his sketches captured those stately but comical birds spot-on. But I must take exception to his statements about DDT causing Pelicans to lay brittle shelled eggs. This idea was never scientifically proven and, in fact, Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, started the hue and cry about DDT, and her “research” has since been proven false. She didn’t actually go out into the field to check on wild birds or ducks, but instead, used chickens for her experiments. When feeding them large doses of DDT didn’t get the results she was hoping for, calcium was withheld from the diet of these birds so their eggs became brittle. Yes, I know, most people didn’t know about that little fact but it is out there if you look.

Larry, did you know that since DDT was banned, 35 million people have died from Malaria? A disease carried by the Anopheles mosquito, which DDT was very good at killing? One country in South America still uses DDT for this purpose and their malaria rate is less than half that of countries next to them who don’t use DDT.

I am not saying to bring DDT back to the U.S., we are rich enough as a country to be able to have other weapons in the fight against major diseases like malaria. But I do say, look at all the facts and don’t believe everything environmentalists say as true. Thirty-five million people versus a few Brown Pelicans, which is more important?

Environmentally yours,
Michael Nagy.

P.S. The chemist who invented DDT is in his middle 70’s, has been drinking DDT straight for years to prove it isn’t that harmful. Apparently it didn’t affect his eggs at all.

I haven’t the scientific knowledge to comment on the harm of DDT to humans and animals, nor do I know yours. There has always been what seemed like a preponderence of evidence that it was harmful to the enviroment, but over the past few years I know you’re right, there’s been some thinking that it’s not as harmful as first thought, although I doubt if anyone else has tried drinking it. Whatever the story, it’s good to see the Pelicans coming north just because they’re such a preposterous bird and a lot of fun to watch.

Pirate, an Uber-Cool Link to Seattle’s Sailing Heritage

I don’t see a link to Pirate’s uber-cool site;? www.R-boat.org

She belongs to the Center for Wooden Boats but has her own web site, only barely-linked to the Center’s. National R-boat Champion, 1929. Best, most original yacht restoration ever done on Puget Sound. You know the rest.

Cheers,
Scott

Okay, Scott, she’s all linked up. For those who haven’t seen her, she’s at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union. Once you see her online, you’ll want to see in up close and personal.