International Financial Transaction

Helping to bolster the Australian economy (or at least John Ilett's pockets) I've committed to buy a Generation 3 Fastacraft centreboard. Transfer of funds will get me in the queue for the newest iteration. I expect delivery in early June. In the meantime I hope to layup a new rudder using the "JZ" strut section (and a yet to be decided foil section.) So my sailing will stay in hiatus until then. I can only be consoled by the fact that once school ends (June 9th) I will have effectively unlimited time to sail, build, sail, re-build, and sail. The grand plan is to leave for Oregon in mid-July, practice for a few days at Cascade Locks, participate in the North Americans (pre-worlds) and then the '09 Gorge Worlds.

I've added a new poll to this blog: How many home-builds will be competing? Will I be the only one?

Enjoy Men at Work



Down Under (1982)

Traveling in a fried-out combie
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said,

Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Cant you hear, cant you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.

Buying bread from a man in brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, do you speak-a my language?
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said,

I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Cant you hear, cant you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.

Lying in a den in bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?
And he said,

Oh! do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder?
Cant you hear, cant you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.

Video from the Pacific Rim Champs

Scores and write up are here courtesy of Scuttlebutt.

Hawaii Champs

Second-hand news, I know, (posted on SA on the 26th) but I thought all would like to see some action of Bora in paradise. I don't know who to credit the pic to, but with the Naval Air Station in the background, it might have been Maverick shooting at his wingman.

The write up is from the race committee:

"Yesterday I ran a few practice races for some of the guys that came out for the Hawaii state moth champs. Morgan Larson showed perfect timing on most the starts, Kevin Hall also showed good form and was fast in the Breeze. Bora has had the most time in the Moth and seems to have a top speed a notch above the rest, but don't count out Charlie McKee recent winner of the SIRS regatta down under. Dalton Bergan, Hans Henken and George Peet are other very talented Moth sailors that have arrived on Oahu for the event. The forecast is for 15 to 20 knot trade winds and 80 degree temps. This of course is what can happen to anyone!"

The "this" is shown below. I can't exactly say "been there," but I can certainly say "done that!"



Tori Amos sings Upside Down (1991)



Upside Down, by Tori Amos (1991)

God I love to turn my little blue world Upside down God I love to turn my little blue world Upside down Inside my head the noise Chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter You see I'm afraid I'll ...
God I love to turn my little blue world
Upside down
God I love to turn my little blue world
Upside down
Inside my head the noise
Chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter
You see I'm afraid I'll always be
Still coming out of my mother upside down

Don't you love to turn this little blue girl
Upside down
Oh I know you love to turn this little blue girl baby
Upside down
But my heart it says
You been shatter, shatter, shatter, shatter, shattered
And I know you're still a boy
Still coming out of your mother

But when you gonna stand on your own
I say the world is sick
You say "Tell me what that makes us darlin'"
You see, you always find my faults
Faster than you find your own
You say the world is getting rid of her demons
I say "Baby what have you been smoking?"
Well I dreamed, I dreamed, I dreamed
I loved a black boy
My daddy would scream
Oh yeah

Don't you love to turn this little blue girl
Upside down
Any kind of touch I think is better than none
Even upside down
But you see I'm tangled up
Got a kitten, kitten, kitten, kitten in my hair
Cincinnati, I like the word
It's the only thing we can seem to turn
Upside down

Feeling Lucky?

The vendor Annapolis Performance Sailing (APS) has a website with a rotating front page picture, one of which is my mirror image Doppleganger. Since there're nine images, here's a fun game of chance: Click on the link above to access the APS website. Score points according to this table of values: The three lead-mine pics (Spin pole guy guy, Foredeck awash, J-boat rail meat) score 1 point each; the three racing pics (FS start, Laser stb tack parade, Lightning start) score 3 points each; the Opti queue scores 5 points, the Planing Snipe scores 7 points and my Hotdog Moth pic scores 20 (hey, I'm making up the rules of this game...) Refresh the front page five times and total your points.

Who will beat my score of 30?

Enjoy the Canuck Brad Johner




I'd rather be Lucky, by Brad Johner (2006)

My old man worked hard all his life
Never had that much to show
Next door neighbour bought a lottery ticket
Now he's rolling in that powerball dough

Our home town queen had the guys all line up
With diamonds, Devilles and degrees
We'll who'd have ever thought that she'd run off
With a guitar player like me

Hard work never hurt nobody
But I'd rather be lucky
Hard work never hurt nobody
But I'd rather be lucky

I never had nothing turn out like I planned
Fate deals the cards and I play the hand

Well it's a good day when your buddy buys lunch
And every light you hit turns green
And your girlfriend cant keep her hands off you
If you know what I mean

Hard work never hurt nobody
But I'd rather be lucky
Hard work never hurt nobody
But I'd rather be lucky

The waiting game

Way back in October Doug commented "However buying foils off the shelf is not very easy, so it is great that you are able to get them. I hope you get them more than a couple of weeks before the worlds as that seems to be standard...." Yeah, right, I thought at the time. Well, I'm here to admit maybe Doug was right. After over four months of waiting I'm now looking at a different vendor for my replacement foil. The only upside is that I really don't like cold water so wouldn't have been sailing these past four months. I did, however, hope to get back out in May. Now even that date looks suspect. I'll probably repair the old strut and make do with that set-up while awaiting (again) for delivery of a quality foil and strut.

Thinking about the tank data that Bill and John collected convinces me that excessive foil drag was slowing me down. I'm not a quality craftsman capable of producing slick foils like the production builders. My foils worked, just not as efficiently as they might have. So it's back to the waiting game.

On the aerodrag front, the tow data showed that areo drag of hull, racks, and helmsman is not insignificant. I'm wondering if the whole rig was measured, how much more the total drag would increase. My gut says that since the sails are generally designed as a low drag aerofoil, with lift producing characteristics (or possibly as a lifting aerofoil with low drag characteristics) the increase might be less than the measured parasitic drag of the stuff below the rig. I do remember seeing somwhere (Marchaj??) that a wire with a circular cross section (a typical stay) has the same drag as an airfoil section with ten times the max thickness. That is, a 1/8" shroud wire could have a foil section snapped over it up to 1.25" thick (and probably 3-4 inches long downstream) without an increase in drag. Maybe the unstayed mast approach really has significant benefits, especially at foiling speeds (resistance going up as the square of the velocity, right?) So skinny masts, finely aligned prodders, maybe plastic snap-on foil sections for shrouds and racks may all be a major line of development. The skinsuits I alluded to also cover the head, a necessity that some of us aren't concerned about...



Enjoy the waiting. I haven't.



The Waiting, by Tom Petty (1981)

Oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now
Don't it feel like somethin' from a dream
Yeah I've never known nothing quite like this
Dont it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one could have ever told me 'bout this

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Well yeah I might have chased a couple of women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I feel right now
Baby you're the only one that's ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more ca rd
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Dont let it kill you baby, don't let it get to you
Dont let em kill you baby, don't let em get to you
I'll be your breathin' heart, I'll be your cryin fool
Don't let this go to far, don't let it get to you

It's all academic

My spring has been more hectic than normal. I'm coaching the high school crew team for three hours every afternoon, I'm taking an evening class two nights a week (for purposes of recertification), and I'm still teaching full time (five classes.) I am also the high school's senior class moderator responsible for graduation & baccalaureate.

So I've been a little remiss in my blogging. I can only hope that the esteemed Moth world blog championship judges will cut me a bit of slack. Only a prop from Paul: "Joe, you're the Robert Pirsig of the class, but with Moths instead of Motorcycles" has nudged me back to the computer keyboard where I'm pecking out this entry. My actual sailing is still waiting on a production foil from OZ (more on that snafu tomorrow.)

So, anyway, last night I printed out the analysis Bill and John have published for the Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium. Really cool stuff for an academician. One conclusion might be that skin tight windsuits (a la speedskaters?) are in our future as a means of cutting aerodrag.

Enjoy some academic rockin' from the Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars




Travelling Riverside Blues, by Robert Johnson (1937)

Asked sweet mama, Let me be her kid
She said, "You might get hurt if you don't keep it hid"

Well I know my baby, If I see her in the dark
I said I know my rider, If I see her in the dark

Now, I goin' to Rosedale, Take my rider by my side
Still barrelhouse, If it's on the riverside, yeah
I know my baby, Lord, I said, "is really sloppy drunk"
I know my mama, Lord, a brownskin, but she ain't no plum

See my baby, tell her, Tell her hurry home
Had no lovin', since my baby been gone
See my baby, Tell hurry on home
I ain't had, Lord, my right mind, Since my rider's been gone

Hey, she promises, She's my rider
I wanna tell you, She's my rider
I know you're mine, She's my rider
She ain't but sixteen, But she's my rider

I'm goin' to Rosedale, Take my rider by side
Anybody argue with me man, I'll keep them satisfied
Well, see my baby, tell her, Tell her the shape I'm in
Ain't had no lovin', Lord, since you know when

Spoken: Why don't you come into my kitchen

She's a kindhearted lady. She studies evil all the time
She's a kindhearted woman. She studies evil all the time

Squeeze my lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg
Squeeze it so hard, I'll fall right out of bed
Squeeze my lemon, 'til the juice runs down my leg

Spoken: I wonder if you know what I'm talkin' about

Oh, but the way that you squeeze it girl
I swear I'm gonna fall right out of bed

She's a good rider
She's my kindhearted lady
I'm gonna take my rider by my side
I said her front teeth are lined with gold
She's gotta mortgage on my body, got a lien on my soul
She's my brownskin sugar plum...

Record low high

Norfolk broke a record temperature yesterday. The high for the day was 29F, the lowest high temperature every recorded for the 3rd of March. Spring is only 17 days away and yet we're still in the grip of winter.

On the Moth front, preliminary reports from New Orleans have Chris winning with Dalton in 2nd. Bear must have had some problems, since he recorded all lettered scores. Still awaiting a report of what happened to Bora. Evidently the breeze came in big time with 25+ knots and short steep chop on Lake Pontchartrain. Results from the club website.

Here in Virginia I'm still foiless. I'm hoping for the strut and mainfoil to arrive from OZ before the first of May.

Enjoy Jimmy B.



Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On. by Jimmy Buffett and Matt Betton

I bought a cheap watch from the crazy man
Floating down canal
It doesn't use numbers or moving hands
It always just says now
Now you may be thinking that I was had
But this watch is never wrong
And If I have trouble the warranty said
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On

And it rained, It was nothing really new
And it blew, we've seen all that before
And it poured, the Earth began to strain
Pontchartrain leaking through the door, tides at war

If a hurricane doesn't leave you dead
It will make you strong
Don't try to explain it just nod your head
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On

And it rained, It was nothing really new
And it blew, seen all that before
And it poured, the Earth began to strain
Pontchartrain buried the 9th Ward to the 2nd floor

According to my watch the time is now
Past is dead and gone
Don't try to shake it just nod your head
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On

Don't try to explain it just bow your head
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On