Beginning to See the Light
SAIL WEST
- 19 hours ago
Upon noting the failure of the WSSRC to ratify certain anticipated speed records of the kiting persuasion:Dear Göran PETERSSON,Perhaps in your role as President of the International Sailing Federation, it would interest you to know that around my yacht club (ahem, I did say YACHT CLUB) we took a fancy to these kiting types. No, that's not quite right. Try this. Upon further investigation, we decided that they are us. You might have considered the same, given the numbers of high-end sailors...
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Blind Card Bluff
SAIL WEST
- Oct 31, 2008
I’ve been doing some hard traveling (well, nothin’ on Woodie Guthrie), and it’s not over, so nowsabout I stick my head up for a breath of air down by the tracks and low and behold the whistle tells of Alinghi and a passle of the other AC players confabbing in Geneva and petitioning Larry Ellison to dive into the pool. I turn my back for one minute and this happens. And before I disappear again . . .It’s been a fascinating play on the part of Alinghi/Ernesto Bertarelli to leverage...
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Changed My Mind
SAIL WEST
- Oct 24, 2008
 So I was going to write about the current state or nonstate of the America's Cup—playing chicken, something like that—but I just can't get the words out. Is it possible that what I hear coming back at me is a collective, "Oh thank gawd!"Far more rewarding to note that the Challenger of Record du Jour's former team had a breakthrough in the long race of the TP52 Worlds at Lanzarote. That would be Desafío under Paul Cayard winning a 53-mile race in under five hours. Add twelve seconds,...
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Let There Be Light
SAIL WEST
- Oct 17, 2008
 It's release day for Morning Light, time to gather up friends and neighbors and kids—and nonsailors—and take Roy Disney's Transpac movie for a test tide. I saw the premiere last week, at the El Capitan on Hollywood Boulevard, where Roy and Leslie Disney introduced the film with a waving Mickey Mouse ("the family crest") beside them onstage. People see the start of an ocean race, Roy said, and they see the finish: "We wanted to fill in the gap in between."Try it. You'll like it. So...
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One Sofa, One TV
SAIL WEST
- Oct 9, 2008
A couple of weeks ago I was banging around the yacht club and my homie Matt Gregory grabbed me and I could see he was excited. The conversation went about like this:"Hey Kimball. I just signed on to navigate Delta Lloyd in the Volvo Ocean Race."(!)"Do you, maybe, have room to store a sofa and a TV?"Wait, there goes my phone. "Just a sec."It's my dad. "He probably wants to take out more insurance on me . . . "Thus it begins. Matt is planning a blog that will run on sailmagazine.com beginning...
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Ordinary Not Applicable
SAIL WEST
- Oct 6, 2008
 Tom Perkins took me for a ride last weekend, on that boat of his. He stood at the control station, played with his touchscreen options, and sailed us around San Francisco Bay. He said, "You can learn to sail this boat in five minutes." Maybe. It would take little old me longer than that to get over being surprised by it, even though I've known the details for a couple of years . . . Photo by Dick Enersen, Staff Commodore, SINSMaltese Falcon had a wheel when it was launched, Perkins said, but...
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Story
SAIL WEST
- Oct 1, 2008
 I interviewed Tom Perkins while Maltese Falcon was still in build, and it was like talking to a 13-year-old boy who had just seen—really seen—a girl for the first time. We're talking enthusiasm. Perkins had owned big sailing yachts and found them addictive but difficult and here was this concept, the Dynarig, that promised to go them one better. The concept had been around for decades but no one had paid it off. That would require someone who thinks big, lives large, and has a sense...
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More Speed
SAIL WEST
- Sep 24, 2008
It's quite a show we've seeing over in Namibia where Rob Douglas kite-sailed to his new world speed record of 49.84 knots. This just in from all-time American windsurfer, Mike "Gebi" Gebhardt, who is also Douglas's coach:Rob Douglas's world record run was done on Lüderitz's second lagoon, a small bay that is effectively a tidal lagoon. The cool thing about the record was that it was done with an average wind of 30 knots and "only" gusting to 39 knots. The efficiency of the kitesurfing speed...
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Going Like Fifty
SAIL WEST
- Sep 22, 2008
"It may well turn out that the timing of the last failure was perfect." Paul Larsen, pilot, SailrocketWow. Summer is officially gone and nobody has broken 50 knots and the inching closer has all been in the muscle category. Remember when everybody thought big ole l'Hydroptere would have done the deed by now? Instead Rob Douglas shows up in Namibia with a kite and gets the breeze and ever-so slightly ratchets up the speedsailing record to 49.84 knots.Though I imagine while it was happening...
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Welcome Home
SAIL WEST
- Sep 18, 2008
 The US Paralympic Sailing Team returns from China today, and no doubt there will be special greetings for all. The greeting that I know about is set for the return of Nick Scandone to John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Southern California. Anticipating that he will be fatigued after his travels—including a connection through San Francisco, where I imagine that team members will go their separate ways—Nick's supporters and friends from Balboa Yacht Club and around decided that the airport is...
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