Listing Details
| ID: | 221 |
| Title: | Proper Course |
| URL: | http://propercourse.blogspot.com/ |
| Category: | Recreation: Hobbies |
| Description: | Blog of a grandfather who sails a Laser, and his endless quest to become a better sailor. |
| Ben Paton - 2012-02-04 12:32:00 |
To make up for yesterday's story about (what is apparently) an International Moth sailor being rescued by a lifeboat, here is a video of Ben Paton sailing his foiling Moth in the Nordea Moth Europeans at Travemünde in 2011.  |
| Rescued! - 2012-02-03 10:21:00 |
 There but for the grace of the Flying Spaghetti Monster go I. Good news - but a sobering reminder - from England. On Friday 27 January a lone dinghy sailor was plucked from the sea west of Hurst Castle as he was being swept out through the Needles Channel. The Yarmouth RNLI lifeboat had been called by the coastguard following a radio call from a passing yacht. As someone who likes to go sailing my Laser on my own this is my nightmare scenario. I am sailing somewhere that seems relatively safe and familiar (in this case the entrance to a river), I suffer some kind of breakdown like a dismasting (as here), and without any way to sail the boat I am swept out by currents into more dangerous and unprotected waters. According tothe report on the RNLI website, this particular sailor was "carrying no form of communication" and "was very fortunate to have been spotted before dark." Would he have ever been found if not for that radio call from a passing yacht? I must admit I have been guilty of the same sin myself, as I have regularly been sailing the bays around Rhode Island on my own without carrying any form of communication. I continued to do that even after writing that mammoth post last April onsafety for a solo Laser sailorwhich recommended that I should be carrying a "portable, floating, waterproof VHF radio." Thankfully Santa (in the form of son #1) was reading that post and he gave me for Xmas a Standard Horizon HX290 floating handheld VHF radio.  I feel much better now about sailing on my own, knowing that if something really bad does happen I do have a way to call for assistance. Given the mild weather we have been having lately I'm even tempted to go for a bit of a solo yot someday soon. By the way, can anybody identify what kind of dinghy that is in the picture of the rescue?  |
| New England Boat Show - Free Tickets - 2012-02-02 10:12:00 |
 I have complimentary tickets for theNew England Boat Showto give away to some lucky readers. The New England Boat Show is at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center from February 11-19. I wrote about the show a few days ago atBoat Shows. All you have to do to have a chance to win two complimentary tickets to the show (valid for any day of the show) is to leave a short comment on this post telling me why you want to go to the New England Boat Show. Is there a particular exhibit you want to see? Are you shopping for a new yacht? Do you want to do some comparison shopping and need to quiz a number of vendors about their products? Are you aiming to check out one or more of the seminars? Or are you just looking for somewhere interesting to go on a cold winter afternoon in Boston? Whatever the aim of your visit, just explain it in a few words in the comments. If you're currently not sure what you want to see at the show then check outFeatures at a Glanceor browse the list ofExhibitors and Productsor peruse the list ofSeminars. You are sure to find something to give you a reason to visit the show. I will randomly pick three winners from all the entries received by 6pm EST on Monday 6th Feb and announce the winners shortly thereafter on Monday evening. So come back on Monday evening or Tuesday morning to see if you have won. If you are a winner I will need your snail mail address (via email) ASAP after that so I can mail you the tickets to arrive in time for the first day of the show, Saturday 11 Feb. Each winner will receive two tickets to the show. Go for it! PS. Don't leave an Anonymous comment. You won't win that way! Contest not open to relatives of mine. Only one entry per person please. Decision of the judges (me) is final.  |