Six degrees of sailing, again

This week had another of those business meetings that seem to be doing a lot of recently. Afterwards went for lunch and the conversation just happened to turn to sailing (again).

Turned out my client had a rather good six degrees of sailing story. He had once worked for the New Zealand office of a multi-national company during the time that it was one of the sponsors of the American's Cup, and had made very good use of that opportunity, having sailed as the 17th man along with the likes of Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth.

Now that must have been fun!

Might be worth mentionin here - in a suitably, quiet, modest and British way - my best claim to 6 degrees fame, namely how sailed once with Emma Richards.

World Rivers Day 2009

It's World Rivers Day 2009, and so far found the following blog posts for the group writing competition:

• A celebration of the river Sakonnet over on Proper Course which turns out to be a good place to sail Lasers
• Mean while on O Dock its the turn of the river American, together with the gold rush and blue jeans
• As a special guest, Bonnie on Frogma is celebrating National Estuary Day by opening up her blog to the ferret Paprika, who I'm hoping to hearing more from
• On My 2 Fish there's a nice post about drifting down the Platte River on an inflatable with three young children
• On DoryMan there's a description of what sounds like in parts at least a wonderfully unspoilt river, the Yaquina that winds its way to the Pacific in Oregan
• Finally there's my post about the little Nailbourne.

Two more!

• Pat's written about a river with a historic, evocative name, the Rio Grande, with stories about searching for rum, romance with a lass from upriver, and sailing or rafting on its waters
• Greg and Chris have been up the Wenatchee for the Oktoberfest (er, heh guys, don't want to be anal or anything but isn't still September?) which sounds like a lot of fun

Thanks everyone who blogged: the rivers of the world deserve to be recognised and I've really enjoyed reading every post.

Any more out there?

World Rivers Day: The Nailbourne

The Nailbourne is a very little river but it played a very big part of my childhood.

I was lucky enough to grow up in one of the small villages of Kent that have been at the foot of the chalk hills for over a thousand years, and through which flows the small river called the Nailbourne.

Or for some of the time, because the Nailbourne would sometimes dry up, leaving initially some puddles full of struggling minnows until they too went and the river bed would become thick with tall grasses.

There were a number of legends about what this meant, but the generally accepted one that it was a sign of national disaster, and those with left wing views noted it stopped running when Mrs Thatcher was elected.

It was very exciting when it started again, with village gossip about how it had got as far as the next village. And then you'd wake up the next day to have a full flow of a foot deep water rushing by.

Of course we kids treated it as our playground, paddling, swimming, and making dams. It wasn't really navigatable for adults but we made a number of rafts. An old tin bath proved to be very unstable, almost always resulting in a dunking, but a lorry tyre inner-tube with plank roped on top proved very reliable, and the basis of many a "Swallows and Amazons" style expedition.

As the Nailbourne flowed through the Kentish villages it was crossed by pedestrian bridges but cars just had to ford it (see pictures). This of course was great fun on a bike, though it occasionally got very slippery leading to a number of accidents.

One glorious summer day a police car tried to go through the river when particularly high and got stuck, and had to be pushed out so it could dry out. We thought that very amusing!

We were little water rats and there were indeed real water rats in the river. I remember one swim between my legs, though a friend freaked at that point and jumped out of the water.

I'm sure its no co-incidence that now I kayak and sail, and live again in sight of a river, and though the Thames is indeed a mighty river, the little Nailbourne is as special to me.

ps ....and if anyone asks about the date of this post - its using Australian time!

Eco debt day and Team Origin

Sometimes when reading the news about the environment I get this knot in my stomach, the sort you get before an exam or key presentation.

And its not that excitement when you're confident and feel sure of acing it, but rather when fearing its all going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Today was one of those days, as it is "Eco debt day", when we have used all the Earth's resources our planet can give us in one year and from now on we're in destruction mode, reducing what is left to hand on to our children, nephews, nieces, and one day grand-nephews and neices.

In December there will be the big Copenhagen climate change conference, and a quick look at their web site here didn't help my mood with the banner "Climate change surpases worst-case scenario". Less high on the agenda but equally important is the ongoing habitat loss.

But there are many things we can do, as the destruction can be stopped, and we should encourage all those that do their bit.

So its good to see that the UK team working towards the next America's Cup, Team Origin, has joined up with the Carbon Trust to highlight what can be done to reduce CO2 emissions.

Now if only they could find a way to reduce the role of lawyers in the cup.

But I guess we should only try to tackle the solvable problems!

Six degrees of sailing

I was at a meeting this afternoon, and after we had finished the discussion about business plans, NDAs, and other MBA worthy topics, I finally got round to asking this business development manager the key question - "so what was the World Laser Masters like?"

It is, as many have said before, a very small world. In the world of showbiz there is a game that everyone who is anyone is no more than six steps away from Kevin Bacon. However even he is not the most connected point, which is currently Dennis Hopper.

And so with sailing there is no doubt a 6 degrees game you could play with everyone from Russell Coutts to Ben Ainslie, or indeed sailing bloggers.

So who would be Kevin Bacon and who Dennis Hopper? Would (say - and feel to disagree) O Docker be Bacon and Tillerman be Hopper?

But then who would be Bonnie, Adam, Greg and Chris, Pat and Carol Anne and all the others? And OMG who would I be?

And, in case you were wondering, this particular Bus Dev Manager sailed in Australia in 2008 and Nova Scotia this year, is currently preparing for Hayling Island, and, yes, he did remember someone called Tillerman.

It is a small world indeed.

Yachting World and the rug salesman

I've mentioned earlier how found the article in this month's Yachting World about sailing apps for the iPhone interesting - well it wasn't the only one.

Having previously met the ex-Star sailing rug salesman it was interesting to read more about the class. And as was about to order the selected rug from the ex-Star sailing rug salesman it was helpful to be able to say something sensible about the class - such as the ability to tune the mast rake.

Or maybe not, because he immediately went into details of checkstays which woosh! went over my head.

But one bit did make sense: the three stages of Star sailing learning curve:

1) Sail as normal, ignoring all the additional tweaky bits. Go pretty well most of the time

2) Start playing with all the other controls around, forget to look around at the fleet, mess up positioning, get tuning all wrong, and end up slipping down the ladder.

3) Finally work out when to tune what when and have time to look around - hurrah!

Getting to step 3 seems a lot of work - particularly as it seems physically a very demanding boat.

Anyone who sails at that level that must be a pretty good sailor and deserved this little sale.

(groan, that was pretty bad wasn't it? To make up for it here's an interesting article in The Independent about Olympic Gold medal Star sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson who have been doing rather well in Weymouth & Portland the last week)

High Water on Putney Embankment

Yesterday went for an afternoon run jog along the Thames path, but when I got to Putney Embankment (above) found that my way was barred by about a foot of water.

Alas having come out in running shoes not wellie boots had the choice of getting very wet feet or a diversion up to the higher ground of Lower Richmond Road.

It clearly was the wrong form of exercise to be taking at high water during springs: these kayakers had no trouble at all!

One Week to World Rivers Day

It's one week to go until World Rivers Day, and a reminder that its the topic for a group writing project.

World Rivers Day is a global celebration of the world's waterways held on the last Sunday of September, which this year will be the 27th.

The group writing project is to post about a river of your choice - and it can any bit of it from its source high in the mountains to the swollen estuary where it meets the sea.

It can be any river, from the little Piddle to the mighty Mississippi, the choice is yours. Just say why you've selected it, what it means to you, and why it should be celebrated.

And rumour has it that O'Docker has something already drafted to post for his all new blog - and the expectations are high about that!

I write a lot about the Thames so have already decided it;s not going to be my choice, so I'll mention a rather sad story about it now rather than next week.

A humpback whale was recently spotted in the Thames, but alas the excitement was short lived as sadly it died last weekend near the Dartford Bridge.

Maybe a reminder that we are messing up our planet big time and its time to take care of it a lot better.

More on the humpback whale story here.

Pop Quiz

Bit zonked this evening so just a simple pop quiz (and I mean really simple as in shouldn't need Google for this one) though no sailing or kayaking involved.

I spent yesterday evening with some rather loud girls, Beyonce's hubbie, Gwyneth Paltrow's hubbie, and about 70,000 other Londoners, but where?

Update: a review in the FT of all places

iPhone Apps in Yachting World

This month's Yachting World has an interesting article about sailing applications for the iPhone.

It lists a couple of the most useful ones, some of which don't have yet, like tide information and wind meter apps. Other's have already installed and tried out, like the Immray Rules and Signals which blogged earlier.

Unsurprisingly the Navionics Charts get a starring role - and their summary is something can quite agree with "the usefulness of the waypoints is compromised by the lack of VMG, COG, and SOG".

So listen up Navionics and add some of these features!

Boris Recovers Lost Thames!

Its a victory for common sense and old Father Thames!

Earlier this week Transport for London unveiled their latest tube map (above). Apparently feedback had come in that it was too complicated so they removed the zones and the route of the river Thames.

Cue huge storm and outcry - how can you have London without the Thames?

Into battle went the Mayor of London, the flamboyant and now furious Boris Johnson, and soon with overwelming public support behind him TfL caved in.

Hurrah!

Paddling problem update

So went paddling, looking out for Greg (or Chris)'s logs, but it wasn't that bad. Ok the slipway was more slimy than usual but there wasn't a smell or anything.

The email that went round before hand had a comment at the end about watching out for the bad water quality, which one of the newbies didn't understand. So I did my bit for paddler education and explained all about the bubbler and CSO, which I'm sure he appreciated ;)

Apparently though it was really bad on the rainy day itself: there were some hardy folk out there and in particular above Hammersmith Bridge everything you could think of was seen floating by.

However if there is a gap in posts you will know that the worst has happened!

A Paddling Problem

Yesterday it rained and rained and rained. Not just the odd shower, or a little drizzle, but an all day downpour.

And that's not good news for London's elderly water management system that can cope with sewage or rain but not both.

There was rather an unpleasant to watch episode of the documentary series Panorama about it last week. It looked not just in London but across the UK, particularly how it effects the water on popular beaches. There is even a phrase for it - Combined Sewer Overflow or CSO. And in some beaches the wet summer the CSO was so bad that there was a 1 in 7 chance of getting a stomach upset by swimming after heavy rain.

In London there is a special boat called the Bubbler that goes out after a CSO and pumps oxygen into the Thames to counter the way the bugs eating sewage suck all the air out of the water, killing wildlife like fish.

So after yesterdays washout I've been wondering if it would be out on the river again, and yes it has. And what's more its just gone by at past 10 pm (see above) when no doubt the crew is on double pay overtime, so it must be a really bad CSO.

Which brings me to my problem: Thursday is evening paddling day so tomorrow am planning to be out on the water, water that is currently in the midst of a major sewage overflow problem.

Hmmm.......

Mermaid of the day

This elegant dolphin and mermaid can be found between Tower Bridge and St Katharine's dock, where there were the classic boats during the Thames Festival. There was probably some plaque with information about the artist and symbolism, but was distracted by, er, the dolphin.

So yesterday's blog entry took a leaf out of tugster's book by posting a working boat of the Thames, today its a mermaid picture.

That makes this blog a bit like Never Sea Land which is a bit like The Horse's Mouth used to be.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Update: its called "Girl with dolphin" and its by David Wynne.

Thames Festival 2009 - Steam Tug

As posted yesterday the Thames Festival 2009 River Pageant was a bit disappointing. It might be because I missed some of the boats or because living by the river you get to see a lot of boats, including most of those in the pageant.

But the steam tug above was kinda cool - the last coal fired steam tug in the UK. It's called Portwey and you can find more about of it here.

Golly, is this blog turning into tugster?

Whatever might this blog become tomorrow...

Thames Festival 2009

Yesterday went along to sample a little of the Thames Festival.

First there was the Feast on the Bridge (below): Southwark Bridge was closed to traffic, with buses and black cabs replaced by communal dining tables and food stalls. You could get a burger or tandori chicken, though my fiver went on a hog roast sandwich (which went the wrong way, causing all sorts of embarrassing coughing and spluttering).

Towards Tower Bridge (below) there were moored Thames Barges and along the river bank a line of stalls from the RNLI, the PLA, Thames 21, Wandle Trust, Thames Water, and many others. Had a useful chat to someone from the PLA about mooring rights and the Wandle Trust about the horrors of developers and then crossed Tower Bridge to get to St Katharines Dock.

Here were an array of lovely classic wooden boats (top). My favourite was the beauty below called Katrine (bel0w), which is a Whitstable Smack from 1910. Sailed as a gentleman's yacht rather than working boat she was once dismasted by the Cutty Sark!

Then there was a river pageant which was a bit disappointing, a final walk by the Tower of London, which is pretty impressive if you forget the crowds of tourists swarming all over it, before heading home.

100 Years of the Port of London Authority

The Port of London Authority (PLA), responsible for the Thames between Teddington Lock to way out in estuary, is 100 years old this year.

It's been a eventful century - from the bustling docks of the British Empire, to the devastation of the Blitz, to the collapse of shipping thirty odd years ago. Now the PLA's remit covers everything from leisure craft to environmental duties.

Their web site, here, is a storehouse of information about the goings on on the Thames, including:

• History of the PLA
• Ship arrivals and departures (and a reasuringly number of them too)
• Predicted tide tables and live tide heights
• Downloadable PDF of Guide for recreational users
• Notices for Mariners

And this weekend this centenary is a central part of the Thames Festival, with fireworks, feast on the bridge, river pageant, and classic yachts rally.

If you're in London its definitely worth checking out.

Last days of Summer

The last couple of days in London have been fine, with blue skies, warm sun, and stunning sunsets (above).

But it won't be long before Autumn is officially here, and a sign of that the instructions from the PLA for kayakers on the Thames is you won't be allowed out without lights.

Best make the most of these days of fine weather, as who knows when it will be this nice again.

British Boy joins Bligh's Bounty Boat

Mike Perham, the British boy who holds the record for the youngest circumnavigation is joining the crew attempting to re-enact Captain Blighs voyage after the mutiny on the Bounty.

More on the story here and below is an interview on Channel 4 News (you have to jump to just after the item on Chavez)

Following the Great River Race on the web

Forgot to mention earlier but the GRR web site was great in that it had real time update of each of the boat's positions. This was very useful for those spectators wondering how far the fleet had got to, and how long it would take to get to where they are waiting.

If you clicked on a boat you could then find out information about it including current speed, which for some of the trailing boats was discouragingly low

For those that were in the race and so didn't see it you can now re-live the experience and re-run the race at their web site here.

Navionics iPhone Charts 4 wish list

I've still not got round to mock-ups of how the Navionics iPhone App should look in an ideal work. Something to do with too much work I guess, but here's a few ideas.

1) The screen is getting a bit complex: it might be an idea to have separate views for different tasks

2) Example of different views:

a) Chart all screen

b) Chart half screen, other half four numbers (configurable)

c) Numbers eight numbers (configurable)

d) Route editor

e) Way point editor

f) General settings

3) Lower control area: at the bottom rather than lots of buttons have just a few, e.g.

a) arrow button to previous view

b) button to bring up configuration options (show / hide ruler, waypoints etc)

c) user configurable / multi-mode button

d) arrow button to next view

4) Numbers in views b) and c) should be selectable from:

a) latitude

b) longitude

c) predicted depth

d) predicted tide rate

e) predicted tide direction

f) course over ground

g) speed over ground

h) distance to next waypoint

i) velocity made good to next waypoint

j) predicted time to next waypoint

k) distance to end of route

l) predicted time to end of route (you will not believe how long people will spend looking at this particular entry, particularly at 3 in the morning)

m) current waypoint number

5) Route screen used to create, modify, select, delete a route, with action button to select next active waypoint and setting option to specify distance to waypoint that counts as reaching it

6) Waypoints screen should allow a database of waypoints to be managed i.e. added, modified, deleted, with configuration options including latitude, longitude, name

7) When entering latitude / longitude it could be ok to use the standard keyboard but it would be nice to pre-select that its in number mode not character.

8) Actually, do what most software developers do and "borrow". Go buy a yacht racing GPS unit, see what functionality it offers and how its interface works, then try to make it better.

Great River Race Results

You can find the provisional results here.

What I found interesting was the range of different rowing boats involved - for example from just from the top three in each class there were examples of:

• A.S.C.
• Bursledon Gig
• Celtic Longboat
• Cornish Pilot Gig
• Dinghy
• Dragonboat
• Felixstowe Clayton Skiff
• Gravesend Clayton Skiff
• Hawaiian Outrigger
• Home Counties Gig
• King Alfred
• Lifeboat
• Montagu Whaler
• Naval Cutter
• Norfolk Mussel Boat
• Pembrokeshire Longboat
• River Teign Seine Boat
• Salter Skiff
• Scarborough Gig
• Shackleton Ship's Boat
• Ship's Lifeboat
• Skiff
• Sloop (8 oared)
• Teifi Skiff
• Thames Double Skiff
• Thames Racing Skiff
• Thames Rosalind Skiff
• Thames Waterman Cutter
• Whaler
• Whitby Gig
• Working Naomhóg (4hd)

The "Shackleton Ship's Boat" caught my eye - its a replica of the boat the James Caird that Shackleton managed that amazing voyage across the Antarctic Sea that led to the rescue of him and all his men.

The Great River Race 2009

Had a lot of fun watching the Great River Race yesterday.

It was particularly good timing as was having a family get together and my niece wasn't feeling at all good but watching the boats race by was a good distraction,

Congrats to all those who participated and if, like me, you want to find out the results, then click on their web site here.

Video in HD on YouTube here - apologies for all the camera shake and panning!

Buff Staysail & The Laser Experience

Over here on this side of the Atlantic we were all very impressed to hear about the highly structured and well throught out Proper Course training program, "The Laser Experience".

Alas due to a manic work schedule have been unable to sign up and pay the charge of $3,995 (very reasonable given the priceless nature of what is on offer)

However our roving reporter Buff Staysail is mysteriously still without paying employment since being retired by the Queensland Community TV channel, and we managed to get him a last minute bucket flight stateside and discount from Mr Tillerman in return for a review.

So take it away Buff!

G'day all! Buff Staysail here, Buff by name and Buff by nature!

Well I'm more of a grown up, yacht, style of boater than a dinghy sailor, but in my youth I was a right tearaway in a Wayfarer! So for once I was happy to give the AC (as we insiders call the America's Cup) circuit a miss and give the Laser the benefit of my laser light insights (laser - Laser - gedditt??)

Day 1: Rigging and boat handling

So it's the first day, right, and we all got together down by the slipway where some buffer with shades and hat (see above) was hanging around by what look like a giant white thong (that's flip flops for you poms). Turns out that a) the buffer was a Mr Tillerman and b) the white thong thing was the hull of the Laser.

Cricky it was small! I mean, in a proper boat there are cup holders and things, and this only had the one. Mr Tillerman was a bit slow and hadn't spotted it (even though it was pretty obvious) so to show him it I jammed my water bottler right in it.

It worked like magic! Only was bit of a tight squeeze and it got stuck, and then Mr Tillerman said that hole isn't a cup holder but where the mast should go. He got a bit angy at this point, saying I'd messed up his boat, and there wasn't a spare.

Well I let him get on with it, and without a boat headed off to the bar for a quick one.

Day 2: Physical fitness

This is more like it! They don't call me Buff for nothing! (or B.S, but you know all about that - get your t-shirt here).

So it's day 2 and Tillerman (fair due to him) had borrowed the brand new Laser of his club's commodore himself for me to make up for the one that still had my water bottle in it (they never returned it - can you believe that?)

And I'd heard all about these Bic boats where kids climb masts and wanted to try some tricks. The new boat was all rigged and so I flipped its on its side to demonstrate how I'd shown Alex Thomson the fine art of keel walking.

And guess what? This so called commodore's Laser was faulty 'cos the centre board snapped and the mast ended with a permanent kink!

Mr Tillerman started talking very loudly at this point, something about my weight and what was I thinking, but that was just rude so I retired to the bar again.

3. Starting Style and Technique

Well finally got on the water for the first time - day 3!!!! - and in this really old crummy excuse of a Laser. Mr Tillerman said that was all that was available but I saw for myself several new ones on the racks in the club house, so make of that what you will.

I was keen to try out my B.S. knee protectors and as all real sailors know, the way to sail is on your knees, and there were this great hand hold straps either side of the centre board.

But Tillerman was going on and on and on about something called "hiking" - I mean what is that all about? Hiking is what poms call walking right?

Anyhow was something wrong with that Laser as it couldn't stay upright and ended up in the drink you can't drink (geddit???). Tillerman refused to let me stand on the centre board again, suggesting instead a trip ashore in the safety boat.

For once I agreed with Mr T and soon had a hot toddie (for medical purposes).

4. Mental Health Day

No need to talk to me about this quack stuff, and Tillerman agreed saying it could be a free day, so went into town and found this great joint where met a Mr O'Docker who said it was very important to keep posts short, so that's all you'll hear about Day 4.

5. Putting it all Together

Last day was race day and time to show these losers what a sailing legend like Buff Staysail can do when he puts his mind to it.

So I concentrated and focussed and ignored this terrible headache which for some strange reason had and used those knee pads like they were meant to be used!

Success! Buff Staysail wins again! And with that it was off to the bar for a well deserved drink!

There was some talk of a committee protest about how I hadn't gone round the course enough times but - hey - if they are small minded I'm not going to stoop to their level.

Conclusion: Despite sailing a boat that is too small and has the only cup holder concealed under the mast, managed to yet again pull off some magic B.S. and win the regatta. Was some of that success due to Tillerman? Who can say......

The Great River Race - Backwards

This coming Saturday is one of the great annual events of the Thames - The Great River Race.

A river marathon for rowers, it is a race over 22 miles of the Thames through central London, usually from Richmond to Docklands.

There can be up to 300 entries, from traditional skiffs to ocean crossing craft to dragon boats, thousands of competitors on the river.

It is also a reminder of the history of the Thames as a working river, and the centuries in which the Company of Watermen & Lightermen was responsible for not just carrying passenger and cargos, but also training the next generation as apprentices. So each entry must carry at least one passenger.

And this year they are doing it backwards! Because of the tides it will be starting in Docklands and heading up river rather than the other way round.

If you are in London look out for it, as it should be a great spectacle: the video above gives a feel to what it looked like last year.

Update: it looks like there will be wind against tide conditions for the race - could get a bit bumpy out there!

The Buff Staysail Experience!

After writing up the Captain JP's Blog Experience it wasn't long before our favourite roving sailing report Buff Staysail was nagging me to give him a slot too.

Buff is of course a legend in the industry with his fearless predictions, including "No Swiss team will ever win the American's Cup", "Ellen McWho?" and "2008 is America's Cup year!" - to say nothing of scoops for this blog such as the US Election Candidates views on sailing and that James Blunt / Dita Von Teese sensation in the 2007 Celebrity Yacht Race!

I was of course slightly concerned ever since Buff got kicked out of that press reception at the San Francisco Yacht Club, but I need not have worried as it is his own line of clothing that is on ol' B.S.'s mind.

Take it away Buff!

Howdy folks! Buff Staysail here, Buff by name and Buff by nature!

Life's been a bit slow waiting for the AC (as we insiders call it) to get going again, and that bar bills not going to go away, but then over a mojito or three it came to me.

Buff, I says to myself, you're a legend. You have created a writing style that is unique, which other scribblers can only aspire - it is the real thing, it is pure Buff Staysail, it is known simply as B.S.

And those initials are my route to fortune and yours to a short hand for sailing style and elegance, to be embossed on my own brand of leisure wear.

The core of the range is the sailing t-shirt, available with choice of either "Pure BS!" or "Total BS!" on the front and "This is..." on the back.

So rush, rush, rush and put in your order!

And why stop at getting one for yourself - for example:

• if you have a row with your partner give her/him one of these classic shirts! You will be amazed by their reaction!!
• skippers, show your crew you care by giving them matching t-shirts for the next regatta!
• crew, show your appreciation and club together to buy your skipper one!

For an extra $50 we will add the name of your yacht to a special print run.

So come on regatta organisers - can't you imagine the scene! 100 Lasers on the start line, each competitor with a "2010 Laser Regatta: Total BS!" t-shirt on!!!!

So hurry hurry hurry! and send your cheque with order form to the Cayman Amalgamated Sailing Holdings Company made payable to "C.A.S.H."

And coming soon! The perfect Christmas gift!!! Get your B.S. knee protectors or cuff links!!!