Photo by Drew Harper/Spinnaker Sailing

A statement from Artemis Racing

Artemis Racing today held a private ceremony commemorating the memory of our friend and teammate Andrew “Bart” Simpson. After eight bells, a wreath was cast upon the water by representatives of the four teams of the 34th America’s Cup. Then the morning’s rain parted and sunshine spread across San Francisco Bay. The Artemis Racing team thanks everyone for their support. Bart, may you rest in peace.

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Written by Ben Ellison on May 17, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

One problem with cruising north early during a late spring was that Gizmo's open fly bridge was usually too cold to work with electronics like the Furuno TZT14 that I'd installed there just before finishing the trip south (as seen in this photo). I look forward to much more testing here in Maine but this I already know: For me, there is no other MFD or PC navigation program that does underway chart plotting so well. TimeZero software from MaxSea and Nobeltec are obviously excepted -- and note that TZ for iPad is on its way -- because Furuno essentially built the NavNet3D and TZT series as very specialized marine computers that run TZ with tight integration to their radars, sounders, etc. as well as to NMEA 2000, Ethernet and analog cameras, and more. Let's look at some screens that illustrate what TZT does so well...

Following the first meeting of the America’s Cup Review Committee on Thursday in San Francisco, teams have been asked to suspend all sailing in AC72 and AC45 catamarans until the middle of next week.

The Review Committee is scheduled to meet with the teams for the first time on Friday morning.

I just looked through my notes and was astounded to find that we are only ten days into this trip! It seems like so much longer. In that ten days we've already covered about 450 (nautical) miles, developing a rhythm of passages and rests which seems to suit us well. Our first leg, the shakedown so to speak, took us about two hundred miles from New Orleans to Choctawhatchee Bay, near Destin FL and was about as close as you come to a perfect sail. We had two days of reaching so comfortably at six knots  that we were preparing full meals at least twice a day. After a weekend with friends our next leg of 250 miles to Tarpon Springs was more of a shakedown. Again we were doing mostly six knots but this was in a blustery front, skipping along in unpredictable twenty and thirty knot winds and ponderous swells. Nothing too serious, but after a couple of slightly hairy late-night sail changes I have plenty of notes on ways to rework the foresails! We like to take a good wind and run with it but even with four of us aboard we have all been getting a bit tired of handling what is often a rather heavy helm. To this end I've begun experimenting with sheet to tiller steering.

We have previously discussed both form stability and ballast stability as concepts, and these certainly are useful when thinking about sailboat design in the abstract. They are less useful, however, when you are trying to evaluate individual boats that you might be interested in actually buying. Certainly you can look at any given boat, ponder its shape, beam, draft, and ballast, and make an intuitive guess as to how stable it is, but what's really wanted is a simple reductive factor--similar to the displacement/length ratio, sail-area/displacement ratio, or Brewer comfort ratio--that allows you to effectively compare one boat to another.

Here is a response submitted to SailingScuttlebutt.com in response to the pickup of The Prototype blog. I would note that it was not “submitted.”

From Dan Meyers – Newport, RI:
As I get older I figure that I have seen all of the foolishness in the world, but this week the nonsense submitted to Scuttlebutt is appalling.

Mr. Clark, I disagree with your assertion (in Scuttlebutt 3838) that Andrew Simpson “died well”. That he was a wonderful guy and a champion professional racer seems incontrovertible. But athletes are not gladiators to be thrown to the lions. They want to compete, enjoy the sport, the people they sail with and against, be fairly compensated, and then at the end of the day go home, hug the wife and kids, have dinner and go on. This is a tragedy, nothing less.

By my reckoning, the Dad-Kid Humour Index peaks when the kids are about ages 3-6.  Dad specializes in Kindergarten funny.  Puns, bodily functions, and even the odd dubious word are used to hilarious effect.  When I opened this photo of Erik yesterday, Indy laughed until she almost cried.  Dad with a blue head?  Comedy genius.