Favored End

The Sunshine Open

2011-05-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

It was a dark and stormy night....

The laser fleet sat around on shore on Saturday as a major low pressure system moved up the east coast spawning tornados, heavy winds and rain then reconvened at SSA for an evening of good food, massages, and music.

Outside, we all watched the lightening and thunder over the bay, the strong southerly sending waves crashing high above the USNA seawall and the rising tide pushing the water over our seawall and into our boat storage lot.

At about 7 PM, Dave Sliom, our fleet captain, took the mike and offered an emotional toast to his father who passed away recently. He talked about his father's love of sailing and how Dave learned to appreciate the beauty of our sport through his shared experiences racing with his father. He said he always called his Dad after racing to talk about how it went and what he could have done better.

At the instant we raised our glasses to Dave's dad's memory, the sun came out and flooded the clubhouse with light. We looked out across the harbor filled with whitecaps and saw this view, captured forever by Jon Deutch:

The next day dawned bright and sunny, but with a promise of lots of wind, this time from the west. A few hardy souls led by Dave, ventured out for 4 good races. Dave, undoubtedly with a little more help from his dad, came away with the win in the Radial fleet. I sailed the best series of my laser career to finish right behind Dave.

A weekend to remember. Here's to Dave's dad!

My friend and one of my heros

2011-05-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

I first met Stuart Walker shortly after Judy and I moved to Annapolis in the fall of 1968. We had been racing a Rhodes Bantam actively and those International 14s on the floats at SSA looked a little like our boat so we started asking about them. This led to a long and lasting friendship with Stuart and Francis and some of my fondest sailing memories as a member of the International 14 class.

I crewed for Stuart many times over the years on both International 14s and Solings and competed against him in 14s. He is indeed a legend in the sport I love and he inspires me to keep trying to get better and compete harder in my Laser.

Click here to read more about this great man and his career and watch a short video interview.

Sailing with Bob Verdugo

2010-10-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

My good friend Bob Verdugo passed away suddenly and tragically last weekend.

We worked together and sailed together for many years. Here we are double-handing my J22 in a good breeze off Annapolis. We were "in-the-zone" together that day, hardly talking, just sailing, picking the shifts, focused intensly on what we were doing and planning silently what each of us had to do next, knowing that any little mishap would probably lead to disaster. A true team. I can't remember how we finished that day, but we beat a lot of boats and were extremely pleased at the way we sailed.

Bob and I haven't sailed together recently as I sold the J22 when he changed careers and went into real estate, effectively ending his ability to take weekends off, and my other regular, Dan Buan, needed to spend weekends with his growing family.

I miss those days on the water with good friends working as a team and I can't believe any of us will never get to sail or do anything else with Bob again.

Bob was a very good man, a good friend, and a great crew. Our sympathies go out to his family in this difficult time.

It's Almost All Good

2010-10-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

The Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championships at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville, VA easily made my all-time top ten regatta list. The venue, hospitality, the gourmet dinner, and the weather made for a memorable autumn weekend.

A big, shifty breeze (20-30 knots) on Saturday made the radial/full rig decision easy for all but a few of us. Peter Seidenberg, the iron man of Laser sailing put up his radial only to discover it had no numbers. His only option was to race with his full rig. He is small in stature and 72 years old, but he sure knows how to sail a Laser in a breeze. With many of us struggling to keep upright and moving in the right direction, he finished third in the first race out in the open river in survival conditions. When the RC mercifully moved us into the more sheltered Fishing Bay for the next three races on Saturday, he went 7, 4, 5 in extremly gusty, shifty conditions. He went on to edge out James Jacob for second overall. Amazing performance! Also amazing was John Bertrand. Seven bullets in challanging conditions. Always goiing fast in the right direction. Too good!

My perfomance was not so amazing. First race out in the river I managed to finish and remain upright, thanks to a couple chicken gybes. I was pleased with my 15th. I and a lot of other folks would have been happy to stay on the beach, enjoying the sunshine, but the New England contigent, led the charge to go back on the water.

The RC moved the course in close to shore where those who chose to battled 30 degree shifts and 30 knot blasts for three more races. JR Futcher wanted to go, but the RC wouldn't let her, as she had broken her outhaul, capsized, and couldn't rescue herself as the boat was unmanagable with the sail bunched up near the mast. Moral of the story, alway check everything before you leave the dock and take a spare bit of line with you, especially in a breeze.
Another moral. Before you forbid someone to race, the RC should make sure they know all the facts. JR was in an untenable situation and needed to be recsued, but after a simple repair was clearly able to race safely.

I had a miserable time inshore, autotacking and capsizing way too many times. But I finished all three races, against my better judgement, a small victory.

Sunday was a spectaular day to race. Wind had gone left to SW, 8-14 knots. Four races in full-hiking conditions. My first race of the day, an 18th, was not memorable. The next race, I battled Roger Link, a good friend and former 14er, who I can never seem to beat, all around the course. Coming up the last beat to the finish I was on port, on his weather hip, about even but slowly gaining, when a righty put him ahead coming back on starboard. I again finished behind him in a bang-bang finish. At least I'm getting closer!

Third race I caught the damn mainsheet over the transom on my tack into my spot on the line, lost control and rammed into the poor boat to leeward. There went my hole and my race. After starting I waited too long to do turns, so sailed the race out of harms way and withdrew after finishing. So much for my goal of avoiding the big mistake. One more race to make amends.

In the last race of the day, I got a good mid-line start, blew off the guy to weather, caught the first shift, a header, and found myself up with the leaders at the first weather mark. Finally ahead of Roger and more amazingly, ahead of Peter the Great. I stayed with the top four and ahead of Peter, who was really fast downwind. So quiet in the boat, picking his way through the waves, sheeting in and out with every wave. A beautiful thing to watch. Held my 4th upwind by catching a few shifts, staying in the pressure, and nailing the starboard tack layline.

Got downwind in third, just ahead of Mike Schmidt, made a pretty good turn but not as good as Mike's. Meanwhile, Nick Place and Peter have gained a bunch and are close behind.

Coming to the finish on port, not yet on the layline, I see Peter coming out of the right corner. We approach each other, bow to bow. I decide to take his stern and take my chances coming back on starboard. I make a nice duck at high speed, get to the layline and tack. Peter has to tack to leeward, I finish about a half boat length ahead. It is every GGM's dream to beat the iron man and I finally did it!

Day 6 (Finally) and more

2010-10-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my absence.

Day 6 of the 2009 Laser Masters Worlds in Halifax was totally frustrating, especially for Kim Couranz, Ted Morgan's wife. They both sailed in the same radial division and Kim couldn't seem to get her nose in front of Ted the entire regatta. Now she was not only ahead of Ted, but ahead of everybody! On the last leg of a very shifty, up and down race which found our division (and the other 3 that started ahead of us) turned inside out several times and we weren't even close to finishing.

The RC abandoned all 4 races, much to our glee and Kim's disappointment.

Bottom line for me was that my first Laser Masters Worlds exceeded my expectations. Beautiful venue, great sailing for the most part, and a lot of very fit old guys and gals which inspires me to keep going. I finished better than I thought I would, with a couple of top 10s.

The 2010 season has not been much to write about. A painful abcess on my back kept me off the water for a while, then the dreaded back spasms cost me another month. But things are looking up.

The Crab Claw Regatta a couple of weeks ago at SSA was a lot of fun. Due to great RC work, we got in 7 races, with Brady White dominating the fleet. He said he was constantly changing gears, sailing with his cunningham control in his hand. How many hands does he have? I finished barely in the top half, but had pretty good speed most of the time.

Looking back, I made at least 4 major mistakes that kept me in my usual spot in the standings:

With an ebb tide pushing us up the weather leg, I sailed out to the right too far and badly overstood. We were moving up the leg a lot faster that I thought, and it is getting harder and harder to look over my shoulder at the mark, so I didn't until it was too late.

I again misjudged the tide at a leeward mark and got spept into it among a large bunch of boats. The turn was very costly, as I lost at least 10 boats.

After finally getting my nose in front of Roger Link, I tried to lee bow him as he approached the weather mark on starboard. I blew the tack, he rolled me, then we both had to tack to make the mark anyway, losing several more boats. Moral, never trust that your competitor on starboard is on the layline. Figure it out for yourself. A simple duck, and I would have beaten Roger and several others to the mark easily.

So I thought I could cross Mike Heffernan on port approaching the starboard tack layline. Misjudged it badly, and had to do my turns. Lost gobs of boats. I had a good finish going, too. I guess Stuart Walker is right. We always find ways to finish where we think we deserve to finish.

Now we're off to the Chesapeake Bay Masters Championship in Fishing Bay, VA. My goal is to avoid major mistakes and to sail more like a "true competitor" and not so much like a "code competitor" as Stuart Walker defines the terms in his recent book "The Code of Competition". I recommend this book highly if you want to learn why you do many of the things you do on the race course.

Day 5

2009-09-05T03:59:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day on St. Margerets Bay. I'm getting spoiled. Seabreeze at 185, 14-18 kt. Temp about 70 F.

Tried the boat end again but there was a pack of boats there so got a mediocre start. Went right, but not much happening in the way of shifts. Made sure I stayed in the middle of the course and that I didn't overstand. Rounded OK, maybe 10th.

Downwind, I went to the right to get a lane. Turned out to be really slow sailing on a broad reach rather than by the lee, and I dropped a few boats. Didn't do much more than survive the rest of the race to finish 20th.

Second race, sailed my best race of the regatta. Rounded the top mark 4th after picking a couple shifts near the top, lost my usual few boats including Peter Seidenberg downwind when he came across my stern on port going REALLY FAST! Got everyone I lost back on the 2nd beat to round 4th again, then managed to hold on for a 10th.

Need to find a way to go faster downwind on the final day tomorrow.

Day 4

2009-09-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

This was my best day of Laser sailing ever!
A 15-20 kt sea breeze greeted us for our early 12:00 start.
In the first race, I got a good boat end start when the early arrivals accelerated and left me a nice hole to sneak into. A shout out to my friend Bill Miles for giving the boat end tip. Going fast and high I sailed over a couple of boats before tacking away to the right. When I tacked back I was all alone and saw the top mark at about 2 o'clock, but still a long way away. I thiught I was looking good until I happened to see the fleet rounding a mark well to leeward. My top mark was the bottom mark of the full rig course set up well to weather of ours. Damn!

Bore off and rounded 2nd from last. Worked my butt off to get back to 30th, my worst finish so far.

Second race I watched Ted Morgan in the AM fleet bang the left corner and not pass many boats when he came back on port. Also, the breeze was at about 190 and the local scuttlebutt said the seabreeze was usually from the southwest. Seemed to me that there was a possibility for a righty. So I did another boat end start, this time a German boat wouldn't let me in so I was behind him and had to tack immediately to clear my air. I kept going until I was well to the right side, all alone. When I tacked, the compass showed I was lifted 10 degrees and the entire fleet was behind me! I rounded first (what a kick!) and was able to keep my lead to the leeward mark. After a mediocre rounding and a so so weather leg I lost a few boats. Had trouble holding off the to guys downwind, and faded to 7th. Got my top 10! Whooeee!

The blast reach back to the club was fabulous. What a day on the water! Radials rock!

Lay Day

2009-09-05T03:16:00.000-07:00

Spent the day with Judy wandering around Halifax.

Learned a few things about Halifax during a ride around the city and the port in an amphibious LARK (the amphibious landing ships we built for the Viet Nam war to ferry cargo ashore -- at least something good came out of it) called the Harbor Hopper:

Halifax is the 2nd deepest port in North America
Halifax was the center of the the search and resue effort when the Titaanic sank. Over 200 victims are buried here and the whole town turned out for the funerals
The British used Halifax as a base of operations for the War of 1812 and brought many captured ships, including one called the The Chesapeake to Halifax.
Downtown Halifax was obliterated in 1917 in the worst man-made explosion in the world (before Hiroshima) when a French ship carrying explosives for the war collided with another ship in the fog. When the French ship caught fire, lots of people came out to watch it burn. It did more than burn! It exploded with a fury that was heard 200 miles away. Over 4000 people died, and countless were injured. All the buildings in the city were flattened!

The Maritime Museum was worth a lot more time than we could give it. Great displays on Tugboats, the Titanic, and the explosion of 1917.

In the evening, we drove south to Lunenberg, the center of the Fishing Schooner operations in the late 1800s and the Balsam Fir Christmas Tree Capital of the world. Bluenose 2 was built here, a World Heritage Site. A must see, if you ever get up this way.

Third Day

2009-09-04T04:12:00.000-07:00

Better late than never.

The day dawned bright and cool as a cold front moved throught the area bringing a brisk and gusty northerly breeze to the bay.

The RC set up shop as far away from the north shore as they could get and still anchor their boats. St. Margarets Bay is pretty deep. The wind was pretty shifty so our the very particular PRO waited for the breeze to settle in while we got colder and colder.

He finally got the AMs off and abandoned their race at the weather mark when the wind went left 20 degrees.

About an hour later we got going. I got a pretty good boat end start and went right, expecting the ficle breeze to go back right. Wrong. Almost everyone else got a big lefty late in the leg. Had to fight back for my 20th place.

Determined to get some of the big lefty near the shore (if it was still there) I go a mediocre pin end start in bad air, but hung in there for a while until a lane opened up to tack. A bad pin end start is about the worst. There is nowhere to go as you are trapped by the fleet above you with no escape routes.

I managed to get to the left side of the course again and lo and behold, as soon as I got to the layline, a blast from the left came in and planed into the mark, passing gobs of boats.

Did the same thing again the second time up and again planed to the mark. Despite the poor start managed a 13th, best finish so far. Maybe I can reach my goal of a top ten finish!

Great reach back to the harbor. Lasers are such cool boats!

Second Day

2009-09-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

Seven hours is a long time to spend on a Laser!

When we left the club at 11:40 it looked promising. A little breeze out of the SW which could turn into a real sea breeze. The cloud cover was not encouraging. Turns out the cloud cover hung around until mid-afternoon and the breeze wouldn't settle down long enough to get the racing going. When the clouds went away and the sea finally settled in, it was about 3:30.

The frustrated RC got the AM, M, and GM fleets off with only one general recall. We had to suffer through 2 general recalls and a postponement for a 20 degree lefty. We finally got a start off. I had a clean start on boat late at the boat end in 12-15knots. To my amazement, I was sailing high and fast and blew by the 2 boats immediately ahead. When Peter Seidenberg just barely crossed me by inches halfway up the beat, I was pumped!

It all went down hill after that. I dropped half the fleet on the upper part of the long beat, heald my own downwind, sailed OK on the second beat, made a couple of nice mark roundings, and sailed a good final beat to finish 22nd.

When I asked Peter if he was confident of his crossing, he said "I knew I could cross you". How did he know? I couldn't tell! He went on to win his third straight race. If you are looking at the results, he withdrew from the first race because he didn't honor the offet mark. What an amazing sailor!

Lessons learned-- check for weeds often, and work really hard, all the time.

First Day of Racing

2009-08-31T04:32:00.000-07:00

Finally got on the water today. A 10-15 knot westerly tried to get going put poope out on the way to the race course. We finally got to the starting area under postponment and waited for some wind. Finalyy the seabreeze made its appearance from the south and built to 15-18. We got our scheduled 2 races in in sparkling conditions.

I had a mediocre first race but made no major mistakes. Wound up 19th. The second race I nailed the pin and led the fleet to the favored left. Unfortunately I went a little to far and overstood. Still rounded in top 10. Sweet. Held it around the downwind, next upwind, and fist reach. Then, a puff caught me napping on the short downwind leg, and I wound up upside down. Wound up with another 19th. Currently standing 16th but ahead of Seidengerg and Tillman. Sweet.

Ready to Race

2009-08-30T04:26:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning yesterday getting registered and measured. After a successful Senior Worlds last week, St. Margerets Sailing Club has everything down pat and running like clockwork. It took about 5 minutes to measure in my boat. Another great thing about Lasers. If you don't scew it up yourself, there isn't much that can go wrong.

Danny came through Saturday afternoon. lots of rain and some wind, but it was pretty much out of gas by the time it got to Halifax. He did wash out the opening ceremonies and dinner which was to feature the RCMP band. The dinner is rescheduled for Tuesday, but the RCMP are riding off to save the day somewhere else and won't be able to play for us.

We had to turn our boats upside down in preparation for Danny. Strange site to see 300 Lasers upside down on the grass. They looked dead.

We old guys got the primo parking spots down by the water and launching areas thanks to David Hartman who told me he threatened to have a heart attack and others might as well if they made him haul his boat up and down the hill every day. I guess they listened. Thanks David.

The GGMs have a very tough 42 boat fleet with lots and lots of experience and skill represented. As a relative newbie to the Laser, I am looking forward to learning a lot.

On to Halifax!

2009-08-28T04:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. My only excuse is that have been working on "fleshing out" my couch potato fitness program in preparation for the upcoming Laser Masters Worlds in Halifax.

See http://can09.laserinternational.org/

I got out the bike, and bought 15 feet of heavy shock cord. So after several months of neighborhood bike rides, shock cord stretching (they now sell this stuff on TV as the the new way to get fit at home!) and the old standby, crunches on the couch during commercials, I feel fitter and stronger and ready for Halifax.

My wife and I are in Maine visiting friends and will arrive in Halifax tonight. Measure the boat in tomorrow and be ready for action just as Danny arrives on Sunday.

Hard to believe that bothe Masters and the Open World's (held in the same place last week) will have been affected by hurricanes.

Congratulations to Paul Goodison on his win in the Senior Worlds. He sailed really consistently with no finish lower than 7th and 2 bullets.

My New Hero

2008-09-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Marcy Kaptur, democratic congresswoman from Ohio, understands exactly how the people of this country are feeling about the bailout legislation that was defeated yesterday. She bucked her own party and voted no on the proposed plan.

She also has what I think is a better solution to the problem. Here is a link to her short speech in which she explains the problem and her solution in terms anyone, even aging laser sailors, can understand. I urge everyone to take a few minutes to watch and listen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S27yitK32ds&eurl=http://redstaterebels.org/2008/09/wall-streets-greed-game/

Thanks, Wall Street

2008-09-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Boy, just when I thought I could see the end of the tunnel and look forward to more quality time in my Laser, Wall Street's greed has sucked much of the value out of the few eggs I have managed to collect in my little nest.

Worse yet, the Bush administration wants me to help rescue the outfits that got us into this mess in the first place as they played their high risk games in their sandbox with little supervision.

Unfortunately, we have to do something or they might drag everything down with them.

Rather than panic and start tacking on every lift, we need to take a deep breath and buy the economy some time to sort itself out.

Seems to me that if the real problem is the mortgages and other bad loans, then Congress ought to directly address the problem by decreeing fixed upper limits on interest rates for consumer debt for a period of 10 years.

Everyone who has a mortgage or credit card debt or a car loan with a rate hiher than the maximum would have their interest rates immediately adjusted to the gov't decreed rates.

Depending on the type of loan, the term could also be adjusted to suit the borrower's situation. For example, mortgages could be extended to 40 years in some cases.

The rates should be set reasonably low so the majority of folks saddled with unpayable debt can survive this crisis. Some won't, but they probably shouldn't have been given a loan in the first place

The financial sector will have to bear the brunt of lower revenues as they won't be able to gouge their customers. They also probably won't be able to afford their rediculous executive compensation packages anymore. The upside for them is that they will have a simplified, stable pricing structure on which to rebuild their ailing businesses.

This will give the system time to stabilize and for asset values to recover so I can retire someday and spend more time learning how to get down wind faster.

Couch Potato, Part 2

2008-07-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

In the middle of the big game yesterday (Justin Verlander, the best pitcher in baseball, and his Tigers were beating my Orioles), I had to get up and pee. I didn't have to go very badly, so I thought this might be another fitness opportunity.

Instead of just standing up and walking to the bathroom, I stretched my arms out in front of me (for balance) stood up and then slowly sat back down on the couch. When my butt touched the couch, I stood back up again. After repeating this "deep knee bend" a couple of times, my thighs were burning just like they do when I hike properly on my Laser.

Hmm...

So now when I get up from the couch, I don't stay up, but do a few "get ups" before walking away. It, too is starting to make a difference.

Training Pants

2008-07-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

My wife got me some new hiking pants for my birthday. The first time I wore them and sat out to hike the boat down, I wanted to take them back as the battens weren't in the right place. The edge of the boat cut into my butt just above the battens.

After cursing the pants for a few minutes I thought I'd better experiment a little so I loosened the hiking strap and pushed myself out over the edge of the boat until the battens in the pants were over the edge of the boat.

After a few seconds my thighs began to burn and my stomach muscles began to quiver.

So that's what hiking hard means!

I did seem to go faster.

Couch Potato

2008-07-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

One of the things that was painfully apparent when I started racing a Laser is that I needed to be fit, the fitter the better. The harder you hike, the faster you go.

I naively thought that because I am heavier than most of the Laser sailors in my local fleet that I could make up for my lack of fitness with my sheer bulk. I found that upwind in a very narrow set of conditions, my strategy would occasionally seem to work, although I would always get killed downwind.

I realized, after sailing in the Master’s Nationals in Buzzards Bay a few weeks ago where it blew 10-20 each day, that I must get fitter.

But how?

I am addicted to two things, watching the “Big Game”, and eating regularly and well.

The conventional wisdom says “get off the couch, turn off the TV and go get some exercise while you eat healthier and less”.

Bah, humbug! I don’t want to give up the “Big Game” and my wife is a terrific cook.

So here is my “Couch Potato Fitness Program”.

1. Position your couch in such a way that you can see the big game while laying on the couch (you’ve probably done this already)

2. Every 10 minutes or so, put your hands behind your head and raise your head and shoulders off the pillow. Lower your head back to the pillow. In order to keep your feet from rising off the couch, you may have to tuck them under a pillow. Repeat until your tummy starts to hurt.

3. Every 30 minutes or so, raise both legs off the couch and hold them there as long as you can.
If you are like me, you will find the big game goes by more quickly and you see more of it as you are not napping as much. The big thing is that you will quickly get those hiking muscles in much better shape.

I’ve been doing this now for only 2-3 weeks and I can already feel a major difference. I can now do 50 crunches without stopping and keep my legs in the air for at least a minute compared with 10 crunches and 10 seconds when I started. I’ve still got a long way to go before I can hike hard for the entire weather leg, but it is a good start.

I haven’t done much on the eating part yet, although my wife has a great idea. She said I should make a hiking bench with a tray on either side to hold my dinner plate and drink. The deal is that I can only eat for as long as I can hike. Stop hiking, stop eating.

It was a dark and windy night

2008-07-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

The cold north wind on our port quarter had been blowing 20 plus all day, helping us on our sleigh-ride toward the Abacos. It was our first night at sea and we had just entered the Gulf Stream.

DIMITRI, Thanos’ Omega 36 was enjoying herself immensely, surfing the steep, breaking waves.
Her crew, not so much. It was early December, 2002 when Thanos, Bill and I left the quiet confines of the ICW at Beaufort, North Carolina, and went to sea just after major storm passed us on its way north and after a major refit of DIMITRI – new sails, new standing and running rigging, plus lots of new gear. Who knew if everything was all going to work and if the forecast strong northerlies were going to hold. We had checked everything as best we could and it all looked fine. It worked OK in the ICW, but still…

As DIMITRI zoomed down the face of a wave I sneaked a glance astern. The flattened wake was ablaze with phosphorescence, little stars twinkling into the depths of the black ocean. As I turned back to see the abyss into which we were certainly plunging, the breaking crest lit up in a blaze of white light far off to port. When my eyes finally focused on the bow again, DIMITRI had found the bottom of the wave and had smashed her bow into the back of the wave ahead. Glistening sheets of spray flew skyward as she struggled to climb the back of the wave ahead. The running lights reflected off the bow wave on either side of the racing boat with an eerie red and green glow. The cold wind tumbled around the new main and genoa, throwing off big billowing clouds of white steam ahead, rising from the warm water, illuminated by the blinking sea creatures all around us. A glance upward to check the sail trim revealed a star-filled sky that only a few get to see.

The night went on like this, a spectacular light show, wave after wave after wave.

The luminous sea and sky showed DIMITRI and her anxious crew the way south that night. By morning we knew that we were going to be fine and that DIMITRI was sound. We sailed into the Abaco Sound a few days later.

Making China safe for sport

2008-07-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

I am fascinated by China's efforts to make itself safe for the Olympic games. They are restricting vehicle traffic, shutting down factories, and now are having to clean up a massive algae bloom in Qingdao, the site of the upcoming Olympic sailing events. Maybe their costly efforts will spur them to clean up up their act.

It is unconscionable that they allow themselves to so pollute their land and water and air that they can’t safely hold athletic competitions. I suspect that if they controlled their pollution as they should and their industries bore their fair share of the costs of doing so, they would no longer be the dominant economic force they are.

In the photo to the right, courtesy of ABC News, Australia's 470 men's crew, Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page, try to sail through immense algae bloom covering 30% of the sailing courses at Qingdao.

We used to try to sail International 14s up the Severn River on New Year’s day. If it was cold enough, a little slush would form near the edges of the river. If you didn’t see it and sailed into the slush, you slowed to a crawl. I’ll bet this Chinese stuff is worse than slush. No way can they race if it is on the race course.

Good luck, China.