COMING EVENTS by Ben Fussenegger

Welcome to the 13th annual Strictly Sail® Chicago Boat Show. The Midwest’s only and the nation’s largest indoor all-sail boat show has become a must do event for all sailors.  Chicago’s favorite boat show sails in to Navy Pier January 31-February 3, 2008 with more boats, more gear, more seminars and more fun than ever before. Celebrating 13 years at Chicago's famous Navy Pier, the 2008 show has promise to be unlike any other show in the US!
www.strictlysail.com/shows/chicago.asp

What will be Punxsutawny Phil's prognostication be for 2008.  Shadow or no shadow??  If spring comes early, this will give us more time to prepare our sailing season.  If you can't make it to Gobblers Knob for Groundhog Day, you can watch Phil's prediction live beginning at 7:00 a.m. (EST).
Go to www.groundhog.org to watch.
Yes! Punxsutawney Phil is the only true weather forecasting groundhog. The others are just impostors.

Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the day before Ash Wednesday and is also called “Shrove Tuesday” or “Pancake Day”. Mardi Gras is the final day of Carnival, though the term is often used incorrectly to describe the days and weeks preceding Fat Tuesday.

Go to: www.mardigras.com to learn more.

Come join your local sailors for February’s happy hour and dinner.
Join us at the Knights of Columbus on River Road.
Reservations required. Contact your Calling Committee to sign up or e-mail to: Blueanchor[at]SailLouisville.org
6:30 pm – Happy Hour begins (full bar)
7:00 pm – Dinner is served (salad, 2 meats, 3 veggies, bread, dessert)
8:00 pm – Guest Speaker
9:00 pm – Meeting adjourned

I know that Hallmark invented the day, but go ahead and buy her something nice so that she will be waiting for you when you return back to the dock.

Find your Olive Oyl and tell her you love her.

National Offshore One Design Regatta
St. Petersburg Yacht Club – Florida, USA
To learn more, go to:
www.sailingworld.com/nood_regatta.jsp?location=597
We wish great luck to the following teams from Louisville:
Team Greggarious – Mickey Gregg, Gary Mellinger, George Lucas
Team Toy Tiger –Al Wolczyk, Kent Picknell, David Hobbs, Trevor Picknell, Wayne Cassidy, Chip
Team Volcano – Marc Crutcher

CCL Commodore’s Day.  Local sailor’s appreciate you taking your time to help build the club to where it is today.  A big THANK YOU goes out to: Steve Cruce, Leonard Kik, Bob Early, Frank Sharp, Donald Barker, Bob Bailey, Mitch Hobbs, Bob Steger, Jim Shaughnessy, Fred Klapheke, Tom Binzer, Jim Milliman, Gary Mellinger, Frank Duerr, Randy Oates, Dave Butke, Bob Jackman, Gary Hughes, Mike Parrino, Mickey Gregg, Joe Venhoff, David Hobbs, George Sims, Al Wolczyk, John Kiesel, and our new Commodore, John Emmerich.

SAILING INTO HISTORY by Manuel Hurtado

Bigger elephants in all our zoos.

All the buzz around the presidential race over recent weeks brought to mind a very famous sailor from history. He ran for president back in 1956 on a truly winning platform.
Bigger elephants in all our zoos.
Do you know who? Of course, I am taking about Popeye the Sailorman.

Popeye the Sailor was a comic strip character later featured in popular animated cartoons. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar, and first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929.  Would you believe that’s almost 80 years ago!

In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and the Fleischers - and later Paramount's own Famous Studios - continued production through 1957.  In all, there were a whopping 234 Popeye the Sailor cartoons produced for theatrical release by Paramount Pictures between 1933 and 1957.

You decide, but Popeye gets my vote for President!

Click on the link below to see video from Popeye’s presidential race.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnDBoaqtxHI

TIPS from the FOREDECK by Marc Crutcher

Bluegrass Backcountry Sailing
MCrutcher[at]BluegrassBackcountry.com

Consistency

Consistency is a word commonly heard from skippers and owners, and for good reason.  If you were to look any winning grand prix program in competition today, you could apply the rule of consistency to many aspects of their program.  Grand prix racing aside, these lessons can be brought to the Ohio River to help our programs gain confidence and win more races.

 
Above:  Notice all of the mastmen and foredeck crew doing just their jobs.  
Notice all of the pitmen doing their jobs faithfully at the companion-way. 
(Beneteau First 36.7  NA’s 2007)

The first rule of consistency is to show up.  Be it crew or skipper, you have to be there to win.  As many skippers know, training new crew to do a job is tough and time-consuming.  Once you have learned the basics and feel confident, simply showing up for the races consistently will alone make you valuable crew.  Getting the boat to show up for every race will let you be competitive for an entire series and give you a shot at hanging some pickle dishes on the mantle.

Above:  Notice these AC (America’s Cup) racers keeping their heads down and concentrating on their specific jobs.  They are so into it, they don’t even know which way they are going.  The third photo shows how difficult it can be for a skipper to see the course if all crew members don’t focus on their job and stay in their position.  Although, the uniforms and attendance are signs of consistency.

The next rule of consistency is how you do your job on the boat.  If on a simple maneuver like a tack, you get someone different to tail and sheet every time, you will end up with a skipper who yells and a crew mess in the cockpit.  Giving people very specific jobs to perform allows the boat to get around the course more efficiently. Now don’t get me wrong about performing jobs -- having a rockstar do all of the jobs and keeping someone as railmeat is NOT the answer.  Try giving someone who is not so experienced one or two simple tasks, such as making sure to let the downhaul off for a gybe.  By doing this, that person understands the role they play and the roles of others, thus demystifying some aspects of sailboat racing.  Letting more people get involved is the point anyway.

Left:  Be it large or small, having crew consistency will improve teamwork, camaraderie, and let your boat win some races. 1936 crew of the Endeavour Credit: www.ViewImages.com

Consistently assigning tasks allows everyone to get better at each job, and that makes the boat go faster, tack and gybe quicker, and win some races. It makes better sense to allow the skipper to concentrate on such things as tactics and not on whether the foredeck is clear to tack. It not only helps the skipper’s blood pressure, it helps the crew to do what matters so the boat will win.

SAILOR TALK by Julie Leyden

Ship-shape and Bristol fashion

Meaning
In first-class order. Everything neat and tidy.

Origin
'Ship-shape and Bristol fashion' isn't widely used outside the UK. For any of us geographically challenged, here is a little background on how the phrase supposedly came about.

Bristol has been an important English seaport for more than a thousand years. The city is actually several miles from the sea and stands on the estuary of the River Avon. Bristol's habour has one of the most variable tidal flows anywhere in the world and the water level can vary by more than 30 feet between tides. Ships that were moored there were beached at each low tide. Consequently they had to be of sturdy construction and the goods in their holds needed to be securely stowed. The problem was resolved in 1803 with the construction of the Floating Harbour.

'Ship-shape and Bristol fashion' is actually two phrases merged into one. Ship-shape came first and has been used since the 17th century. It is recorded in Sir Henry Manwayring's, The sea-mans dictionary, 1644:
"It [the rake] being of no use for the Ship, but only for to make her Ship shapen, as they call it."

Bristol fashion was added later and is first seen in print during Bristol's heyday as a trading port, in Richard Dana Jr's, Two years before the mast, 1840:

"Everything on board 'ship-shape and Bristol fashion'."

INSIDE THE LENS by Laurel Fuson

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

“Old Fashion Duel”
You move. No, you move.
Green Grabber vs. XQSME II
(Tyler Kmetz and John Wolzyck)

Irish Moth barrels through the water as if Dublin is at stake.
(Doug Vanmeter and Steve Lennon)

Orion trying to out do Athena in the distance.  Who has a smoother bottom?
(Cliff Vatter and crew)

Team Parino always seems to have a leg up on the competition.
(Mike and Mike Parino)

The gang on Ms. Becca is truly having a splash of a time.
(Dennis Shade, Jennifer Currin, and skipper Chris Adams)

Athena in the middle.
A well trained crew in the mix.
(John Bright, Andrea Bright)

THE TOOLBOX by Allen Alt

Adding water to batteries

When you charge a battery, the electrolyte (battery acid) expands and will overflow if you have added too much water.  To avoid this problem, charge the batteries before topping off the water.

Sunscreen

Use Chapstick with SPF 15 sun block on your nose as well as your lips to prevent sunburn.  Chapstick tends to stay where you put it and it resists perspiration better than sunscreens.

Seasickness Prevention

• Eat and drink moderately the night before a voyage, and have normal sleep

• Eat a light breakfast such as cereal and fruit.  Don’t eat anything greasy.

• Stay Outdoors.

• Stay as close to water level as possible.

• Drink carbonated soda and eat dry crackers.

• Know that no matter how bad it might get, you will feel better back on land.

TRIVIA by Chris Naber

S.O.S.

Contrary to popular belief, the letters S.O.S. do not stand for “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls”.  They were selected to indicate a distress because, in Morse code, these letters and their combination create an unmistakable sound pattern that is easy and quick to repeat: dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot.

Log Book

In the early days of sailing ships, the ship’s records were written on shingles cut from logs.  These shingles were hinged and opened like a book.  The record was called the “log book”.  Later on, when paper was readily available and bound into books, the record maintained its name.

The Pirate Flag - Jolly Roger

The name Jolly Roger is thought to have derived from the French name for the red flag - Jolie Rouge.  The Jolly Roger was designed to encourage a hasty surrender and strike fear into victims.  Although the black Jolly Roger often depicted symbols of death such as skull and cross-bones, it was not as greatly feared as the red flag, which meant that no mercy would be shown in battle.

WEB CORNER by Joe Burch

NAVIGATING THE WEBSITE

This issue will cover the SailLouisville Classifieds or "how to get rid of your ship". It's a real pleasure knowing that a boat found a new home by way of the website not only because it means that somewhere out there there's a happy boat owner and a happy boat, but it also indicates that the classified ads, and SailLouisville, work. So how to get started?

First go to www.SailLouisville.org/ads and set up an account by clicking the "register" button. Your email address in the registration form is where inquiries will be sent and, before you ask, yes your email address will be kept private (unless you choose later when making an ad that you want to make it public).

As soon as you hit "ok" you're in business, no approval required. You'll be redirected to the classifieds home page but now you'll see some extra links at the top like My Profile, My Ads, etc. But how to post an ad? Pick a category like "Gear" and you'll be presented with yet another link: Submit Ad. Click it and you'll have a web form asking for the specifics. Pretty straight forward but here are some tips. Add a photo...it'll really make a difference. Check "hide the private fields" if you want to avoid spam...they can still email you through the contact form that will be at the bottom of your ad. Though not required, listing a price helps short-cut the process and qualify your buyer.

Once done you can further update your ad or delete it at any time. Navigate to your ad within the category or under the My Ads link. Once you have the ad pulled up you'll find secret "modify" and "delete" links in the upper right that no one but you have access to. Click one or the other and you're on your way to swapping pictures, changing price, whatever.

So there you have it. And you can have it all for free!

TREASURE CHEST by Tanya Tuell

THE LITTLE SWAN

When we find out the location of this treasure known as “The Little Swan” we will give you more information and possibly a map to find a ticket and climb aboard.  Where is this treasure?

As promised:
Little Swan skipper Toni Straub will be departing Australia the end of May to begin his second world circumnavigation – “the other way around”.  August and September should prove especially interesting as The Little Swan sails to the Kimberly’s of North Western Australia complete with waterfalls and crocodiles.  Straub’s prior circumnavigation destinations included Greenland, Sicily, Greece, Kenya, India, the Galapagos, and Bora Bora.  A complete history with stories and photos along with the new itinerary and crewing opportunities can be found at: www.adventure-yachting.com

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.”
- Mark Twain

BLUE ANCHOR CREW

Where can you find these folks??

Alan Alt – skipper on Popeye, crew on Kauai Dream
Joe Burch – skipper on Red Rum
Marc Crutcher – skipper on Unbridled, crew on Legacy
Laurel Fuson – crew on Sirius
Ben Fussenegger – skipper on Bluegrass Belle
Manuel Hurtado – crew on Sunset
Julie Leyden – crew on Sunset
Chris Naber – crew on Sea Nymph
Tanya Tuell – skipper on Wahine Interlude

Editor’s Note

All ideas and thoughts are welcomed in order to help make The Blue Anchor
a great source of entertainment and information for the local sailing community.
Please send all comments, suggestions, & stories to BlueAnchor[at]SailLouisville.org
Fair Winds!!
Ben Fussenegger

Copyright: © 2008 Blue Anchor

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