Category Archives: Sailing

Sailing

Olympic Sailing

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NBC has a nice page dedicated to the sailing events at the 2008 Olympics. I almost never see any coverage or even mention of the sailing events:

Up to 3,000 categories of sailboats reportedly exist around the world, each class with its own set of rules and specifications. At the Olympics, 11 events are contested in nine different types of boats. Boats compete in fleet races, with each regatta lasting a series of days.

Good luck to my fellow A-Class catamaran sailors Charlie and Johnny! You can donate to their campaign if you want to give support to today’s top American sailors.

The Tornado is my favorite Olympic boat by far. It remains on the forefront of wind-power technology, even though it was introduced in the late 1960s.

Appropriately named, the Tornado responds immediately to wind and waves, and is all about speed. The only multi-hull in the Games, its light weight and large sail area make it the fastest Olympic boat, reaching 30-knots. The Tornado is highly susceptible to capsizing and the crew must have quick reflexes in order to keep the boat afloat.

The Tornado is the only open class boat at the Games, meaning both men and women compete in the event. It was designed in Great Britain in 1966 specifically for Olympic competition, and first appeared at the Games ten years later. Its design has been revised over the years to optimize speed and technology.

After a vote among national governing bodies, the International Sailing Federation decided in late 2007 that the Tornado would make its last appearance at the 2008 regatta, and would not be on the roster for the 2012 Games in London.

Oh, well. Who knows what the stodgy old white men in blue blazers of the ISAF were thinking when they decided to cancel the Tornado program. They probably did not want men and women sailing together on a team. Or maybe they just thought sail boats should not be exciting machines in and of themselves. The London races will be sailed in oak barrels and bathtubs.

The US Tornado team is using radical a new sail design specifically meant to enhance efficiency in the conditions in China. Should be fun to watch.

Sailing, Security

Loopholes in Indian Maritime Regs

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LiveMint of The Wall Street Journal points out that a shipping firm in India is finding ways to evade regulators and taxes:

Mercator Lines Ltd, India’s second biggest private shipping firm, has registered more vessels outside the country in a bid to skirt tight local regulations while trying to reap the benefits of tonnage tax, a levy based on the cargo capacity of ships that reduces maritime companies’ tax burden.

The Mumbai-based firm has registered four dredgers, which it purchased in the past year, in the Comoros, an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa, said an official at the directorate general of shipping, the maritime regulator.

I always wonder when I see ships that have city names on them whether there is really any actual association. What is needed to authenticate a ship as genuinely from a port-of-call? Nothing, apparently.

All the ships have been registered outside India directly, without opening a subsidiary in either Marshall Islands or the Comoros.

By doing this, Mercator can hire officers and crew from any part of the world, unlike ships registered in India, which have had to employ only Indian nationals. Last week, the regulator eased the clause on hiring only Indian nationals, but ship owners say strict conditions still apply to employment of foreigners.

Easy to see why the loophole is so attractive, and the irony now of course is that Mercator has to request the authorities treat these non-Indian ships as equal to Indian ships. The question is how a regulatory body should respond when a Mercator ship arrives with an international crew and “Domoni” stenciled on its stern. Their identity profile is different, so should they be authorized?

This seems similar to the debate over yacht tax loopholes in America these days. A typical story runs like this:

Jack Darcy of Redmond paid cash for a $2.2 million yacht through a Lake Union dealership last April, but he didn’t pay a dime in Washington sales taxes.

Instead, the retired corporate executive saved $200,000 by signing papers to buy his snazzy new 73-foot yacht three miles off Washington’s coast, in international waters.

[…]

Before California state law changed last month, resident boat owners needed only to keep their craft away from California for 90 days after purchase. Then they could sail home and never pay a sales tax. Most went to Mexico and were dubbed the 90-day yacht club.

In California the regulators then passed a rule called Chapter 226 that extended the time away from 90 days to a full year. Reports showed closing the so-called “sloophole” had little negative impact.

The state’s official Legislative Analyst’s Report concluded that the temporary one-year law had not resulted “in the sharp reduction in vessel-related sales that some had feared.” According to the report, the law resulted in a $20 million increase in state and local tax revenues from yacht sales made to California residents.

Strangely enough, even though the Republican Governor called on the state to close the gap permanently, he found little support from his party. An LA Times editorial painted a disturbing picture:

Like the characters in some hippie-era pop song, many Republican lawmakers in Sacramento have decided to let this troubled world fend for itself while they sail away to some imaginary shore. On yachts. After dodging their taxes

…or like characters in maritime law who like to ply the International waters as a path to alter their identity just long enough to escape a duty before returning “home” to lay claim to local privileges.

Energy, Sailing, Security

Algae and China’s Olympics

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The AP reports that competitors in Beijing may face environmental challenges:

To host the Olympic sailing events, the Chinese port city of Qingdao moved a massive boat yard, relocated industries and spent about $850 million on transport links, parks, pollution controls and coastal green belts.
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But with little more than a month to go until the Games, a different challenge is cropping up: A forest of blue-green algae is choking the coastal waters, suffocating beaches and lying in thick layers along sailing routes.

The Olympic committee should bar any country from applying to host the games if they can not achieve environmental guidelines such as air and water quality.

The New York Times had an interesting look at cause:

Water quality has been a concern for the Olympic sailing events, given that many coastal Chinese cities dump untreated sewage into the sea. At the same time, rivers and tributaries emptying into coastal waters are often contaminated with high levels of nitrates from agricultural and industrial runoff. These nitrates contribute to the red tides of algae that often bloom along sections of China’s coastline.

But officials in Qingdao this week said pollution and poor water quality did not have a “substantial link” to the current outbreak, according to Xinhua. Instead, scientists blamed the bloom on increased rainfall and warmer waters in the Yellow Sea. Algae blooms now affect more than 5,000 square miles of sea water, according to Xinhua.

Regardless of cause, the real question is impact. I guess the 10,000 people who are cleaning up all the algae could be tested for ill effects, as well as all the animals fed the stuff:

Photographs in the Chinese media showed rickety wooden boats overflowing with green mounds of algae collected from the sea. One photo showed a young boy crouched on a beach beside piles of the leafy glop as a dump truck carried off a large load of algae. State media reported that 100,000 tons of the algae had already been taken out of the water. Much of it was being transported to farms as feed for pigs and other animals, according to news reports.

Maybe the Chinese could convert the Algae into biodiesel? It is great the Olympics are forcing China to clean up, but the clean up should come long before the games so these risky and questionable quick-fix solutions would not be necessary.

Sailing, Security

Questions about Gulf sailboat race death

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The Star Tribune brings to light some interesting facts surrounding the death of a sailboat racer:

Development tycoon George Mitchell donated the Cynthia Woods and an identical boat to Texas A&M University in 2006, the Galveston County Daily News and Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.

The university has taken the other boat, the George Phydias, out of commission until officials can determine whether a design defect caused the keel failure.

The company that built the boats, North Carolina-based Cape Fear Yacht Works, said in a statement Wednesday it stands by its products. The company is owned by George Mitchell’s son, Keith.

“We believe in the design, construction and safety of our vessels,” the company said.

It also said it was not responsible for maintenance or repair work after the vessel left the factory. ha

The “ha” at the end is in the original article. Strange, no? But more to the point, the fact that the father was buying boats from his son’s boat manufacturing company and donating them to a University raises some interesting questions. Those questions are compounded by suspected safety defects in construction.

All boat owners realize sooner or later that boats, like any vehicle, require regular maintenance and care to maintain safety. It is the father-son relationship of the donation and “tycoon” status of the donor, as well as the time-line, that make this story seem like more than just a simple tragedy.

A recent edition of Sailing Magazine mentions that the tycoon’s son was entirely new to the boat-building business:

The Cape Fear 38 is built in Wilmington, North Carolina, not far from its infamous namesake. Kent Mitchell, owner of Cape Fear Yacht Works, spent years racing and cruising the Carolina sounds and coasts before deciding to build his own version of the perfect racer-cruiser. While many of us fantasize about building boats, Mitchell jumped into the business with both feet. And he is enthusiastic about his product. “If racing is in your blood but you also want some creature comforts, then this is a boat you need to consider,” he said as we test-sailed hull No. 1 on a crisp Chesapeake Bay afternoon.

Hull number one? Jumped into the business? The father of the builder purchased and then donated not one but two $300K 38 foot boats when they were only two years old? I also noted that the base price went from $199K to $295K in just two years. Maybe the cost rise suggests that early versions were under-built? Prone to failure?