Away for the holidays

Gone skiing this week... Park City, UT.

Color wheel

Marine photographers spend their life seeking the perfect moment to capture, but some images stand out better than others because of the colors of the subject. So Scuttlebutt asked a few of the top shooters what they thought were the best colors for boats and crew gear. Here were there responses:

* Gilles Martin-Raget: Definitely red for the hull, a bit flashy. Get the Ferrari paint code. For the crew, I like white, but I know it’s a nightmare for the crews to keep it really white along the days. Also, plain white spinnakers/gennakers should be banned! We want colours and funny graphics!

* Onne van der Wal: I think my favorite color hull is a light grey blue...



Then please dress the crew with a yellow faded color shirt...



Also, red deck shoes and no socks. Yellow or red spinnaker too. So there you go! That's my dream color combo! Call me when its ready I will come and shoot it! Oh and it should be blowing 15-20 knots with a deep blue color water like you get off Hawaii or in the gulfstream off Miami and lots of sun.

* Daniel Forster: I know what we don’t like: Dark hulls with black gear, like Team NZL. Also, first crew gear rule: Every crew member should wear the same outfit!

There is no standard of my preference. I like blue hulls with either blue or red dressed crew, or a mix of it as you can see on Barking Mad...



When it blows, I find the cleanest, classic view is the white hull with yellow foul weather gear as in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race photo...



The classic racing look is still a white boat with a blue dressed crew. They stand out from all the white dressed crews. Like US 40101 at the Rolex Farr 40 worlds start...



But do not forget: There is only one color for crew gear on a classic yacht: Virgin white, with blue shorts, like Bill Koch’s KZ 7...

Foredeck

If you have never seen this shirt, now you have.

Piercings

This is Elaine Davidson, who holds the Guinness Record for having the most body piercings - all 5,920 of them. So how does she get past the airport medal detector?



Thanks to The Valencia Life Network for the photo.

Holiday greetings

The number of things done well by postal mail is decreasing, but the one area it is dominant in is deliverying holiday greetings. To receive a holiday card by mail is soooo much better than to receive it by email. However, the email version is appreciated too, and here are a few to decorate the blog.

Photographer Christophe Favreau:


Dick Enersen:


Don Allen:


To mail your holiday greetings to Scuttlebutt:
4104 Eagle Street
San Diego, CA 92103

Lower case

I contend that we all deal with varying degrees of laziness in writing online comms. Whether it be email, text, IM... most english teachers should be stunned. I am not saying it is right, just that it is a fact.

However, there still should be a miminal standard that we remain above. So what should be the minimal standard? Capitalization.

Whenever I receive an email completely in lower case, it creeps me out. Like I am a witness to someone's psychosis. Sentences end with a period and begin with an uppercase letter. There is some wiggle room, but when I see no capitaliztion, that's rambling.

Comments?

Vintage sailing films

Dick Enersen is a friend of Scuttlebutt, and thankfully his company, Offshore Productions, has finally got its act together to be able to offer some of their vintage films on DVD. Here is an update from Dick:

* Heavy Weather Slalom: We shot the first, he thinks, Laser slalom in front of St Francis Yacht Club in 1973.Competitors included John Bertrand (US), Commodore Tompkins, Ed Bennett, Charlie Morgan, Don Trask and the late Carl van Duyne. "HWS" - 12 Minutes. Discount price = $ 9.00 plus shipping.

* The Best Defense: Ted Turner's splendid America's Cup victory in Newport, 1977. "BD" - 50 Minutes. Discount price = $ 15.00 plus shipping.

* Kilroy Was There: Three films include "KIALOA to Jamaica," shot on K3 in 1975; "Big Boats," shot on the Bay in 1978, with cameos by Kenny Keefe, David Vietor, Robbie Vaughan, The Flying Nun, and the late Don Vaughn; "Maximum Effort," the workup and first races of K4 in 1981, staring the usual suspects, plus Ron Holland, Jack Sutphen, and David Pedrick. "KTJ" - total of 88 Minutes. Discount price = $ 15.00 plus shipping.

Shipping is $ 2.50 (per order, not per DVD) within the US. Shipping elsewhere by arrangement. Note that the Offshore website is not fully functional, so use my e-mail address for questions and to place orders. Payment can be by check, or something called PayPal to Dick Enersen's account.

A portion of the proceeds will go to The Enersen Foundation, which supports youth sailing and other worthwhile activities.

Happy story

There have been plenty of relationships that have faultered on long passages. Here is one that didn't:



Jim Brockett, 42, and Gerardine McNulty, 35, were just friends when they decided to leave their jobs to embark on the life-changing adventure in January 2006. They used their combined life savings to buy a £100,000 yacht, Albert II, and visited 42 countries during 1,029 days at sea.

As they swam with dolphins in New Zealand, fed sharks in the Pacific and enjoyed some of the world's most romantic sunsets together love began to blossom. The couple got engaged in December 2007 when, dressed in a Father Christmas suit, Mr Brockett proposed to his travel companion – known as Ged – on the island of Phuket, Thailand. -- Telegraph, read on

America's Cup filter

There’s a private grade school a few blocks from my house where the tuition for kindergarten is $18,000. I am sure it is a great school, but I always thought that the fee was pretty high, and was intended more so to keep some people out than to cover the costs of teaching their kids. Call it a filter.

The America’s Cup has a filter too, as it should. I mean, who wants a bunch of marketing people with business cards and a box of stationary pretending to be actual teams. It takes a lot to be a team, and while money is a primary requirement, the type of people involved is vital. The America’s Cup is not just a means to earn a living, or to market a product. The America’s Cup is a regatta of the highest order, and only teams ready to play at this level should apply.

The challenging club requirements has been the focus of the legal dispute between defending team Alinghi and American team BMW Oracle Racing. Per the entry form, a club must supply:

1. An original notarized certified copy of the Yacht Club's certificate of incorporation
2. An original notarized certified copy of the Yacht Club's trade register extract
3. A Notice of Race (NOR) of the Yacht Club's annual regatta
4. The By-Laws of the yacht club
5. The organisation rules of the Yacht Club

It was Item #3 that caught our attention, so Scuttlebutt asked Ana Gil-Robles, legal counsel for the event, about this issue. Knowing that Alinghi’s Challenger of Record Club Nautico Español de Vela (CNEV) had not hosted an event prior to their entry, we wondered if this applied to others. To this, Ana instructed, “Please send us the Notice of Race of annual regatta of the yacht club in accordance with the Deed of Gift and the Protocol for the 33rd America's Cup.”

The only problem is that some people think the Deed of Gift means that you need to have hosted an annual regatta before submitting entry, and others - like the Alinghi team - do not read it that way. As for the Protocol for the 33rd America's Cup, it is not available for viewing, with Alinghi stating that the revised version will be published later this week. With such helpful legal counsel, is it any wonder that the America’s Cup is in such a mess?

* The entry deadline for the 33rd America’s Cup was December 15th, with the Alinghi team planning to announce the entry list later this week after the necessary validation process. Of course, if the New York Court of Appeals finds in favor of BMW Oracle Racing in their litigation against Alinghi, the event for which the teams have entered will be cancelled.

Jaws of death

The Valencia Life Network News has some pretty neat photos. Regarding this image, they are calling it "A real-life drama - no montage this time, as a British sailor is literally snatched from the jaws of death in a training exercise off South Africa."

'Butthead economics

Might be time to analyze your investments:

* If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left.

* With AIG, you would have less than $15 left.

* With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $195 cash.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink.

Why we do it

This email today best defines why we publish the Scuttlebutt newsletter:

Thank you very much for sending me your newsletters each day. I really look forward to reading them in the evening. I have been sailing and racing for over 40 yrs now, and in the past two years I have been dealing with medical problems that don't allow me to sail as much as I used to. Its painful and disheartening. But, I do get to sail about once a month on a couple of different boats. Hopefully I will get my hip replaced by the end of next year and start to race alot more. It really helps to read your newsletters and would like to thank you for great job you do on them. You work really hard to bring the latest news and results from the different sailing disciplines and i really enjoy that.

Thank you again and keep up the great work.

God stories

Karma, religion, or something as simple as asking for a miracle. Here is a story that was included in a newly published book called “God stories”:

“A fair wind and a miracle.” That’s what Alan Bond, the self-made Australian billionaire who financed Australia’s America’s Cup win over the United States in 1983, prayed for in the second-to-last-leg of the final race. By then, Bond’s Australia II was hopelessly behind Dennis Conner’s Liberty off Newport, R.I.

Ten minutes later, Bond says his prayer was answered when the calm winds suddenly picked up and drove the Aussies’ innovative wing-keeled yacht into the lead, propelling it to win the great race unexpectedly and break America’s winning streak of 132 years. The day after its victory, Australia II’s mainsail came down after the headboard broke during a photo shoot at sea.

“Not only had a miracle been performed in winning the race, but the boat had held together to get us across the finish line,” Bond recalled. “From this experience, I learned that prayers are answered.”

Bond, a British-born former sign painter, is one of 100 people who gave testimonials or “God stories” in a newly published book by the same name. -- Read on

Cooler light

How have we gotten by without this one:

Hi Craig,

Modeled after your typical fridge light, Coghlan's introduces their new Cooler Light for boating and fishing enthusiasts.

Coghlan’s Cooler Light is a single LED light reflected through an acrylic lens and secures to the underside of any cooler lid with double side adhesive tape. The light is designed to shine automatically when the lid is raised and to turn off when the cooler is closed. Unlike the typical refrigerator, the Cooler Light will shut off automatically after 20 seconds regardless if the lid is shut completely.

Bringing convenience outdoors! Please let me know if you would like more info on the Cooler Light or a sample.

Katie Wagner
BLASToutdoors
415.489.2012*203
www.coghlans.com

Urban Legend

A story included in Scuttlebutt 2731 described how Ted Turner, upon winning the 1977 America’s Cup, arrived at his victory press conference, and after have accepted an astonishing variety of alcoholic beverages since reaching the dock, slid blissfully beneath the table as the world watched. Hmm, not so says Dick Enersen, who was there filming the whole thing for his documentary film, "The Best Defense," now available on DVD. Recalls Dick:

“Ted was, indeed, pretty snockered, but he didn't pass out, or slide blissfully anywhere. The facts of the matter are these: Having won the fourth straight race over AUSTRALIA, and therefore defending the Cup, COURAGEOUS picked up her tow and headed for Bannister's Wharf. A small boat, full of Swedes, came alongside and passed up a six pack of beer and a bottle of aquavit to the happy US26 crew. A great deal of celebration and consumption of spirits took place at the dock, including all the crew, and many supporters, taking a dip in the harbor.

“The press conference took place later, a little way down Thames Street. Ted entered, with Gary Jobson and his crew, carrying what was left of the aquavit and another bottle, which I think was Jim Beam. Ted took his seat next to Bill Ficker, the moderator of the conference, and put the bottles on the table in front of him. Bill, the victorious skipper of INTREPID in 1970 and a stalwart bastion of decorum reached over and removed the booze, placing the bottles under the table. Ted, without skipping a beat, reached down and retrieved the bottles, returning them to the table. Bill repeated the removal, and so forth. The "slid under the table" legend is simply an exaggeration of the hide and seek game with the hooch.

“At any rate, Ted made some remarks, including, "I'm glad to be alive...," and left under his own power, albeit with the help of his shipmates. I decided to leave the press conference out of the movie, ending it, instead, with Ted hurling himself off the transom of COURAGEOUS, wildly waving the ensign.”