27 February 2011

So Our Favorite Band and Favorite Tall Ship Reporter Team Up

And start a video contest- so of course I threw together some KP sailing footage, and a great Sharks Come Cruisin song. Great idea Jack Tar. The most views on YouTube by the end of March wins something...


21 February 2011

Tough Day For Genuine Risk



It was a beautiful day on the water off Antigua today, but not for the Genuine Risk crew. While warming up upwind under reefed main and #3 jib we came through one of the classic Caribbean swells and heard a crack from the vang gooseneck. Upon inspection discovered some hairline cracks, and did a lashing repair. This held for us into our starting sequence, but while coming up the upper gooseneck fitting exploded, shearing the gooseneck pin as well. So a disappointed crew of young Swedish and American sailors (and us old guys as well) headed back to the dock with preliminary repair plans underway, and ready to get the rig fixed before St. Maarten. One of those tough days that we have all had on the water, and all the crew would much rather be out in what's shaping up as a great race, but the gang is hitting the ground running on the dock to get her sorted.

16 February 2011

Great Day for the KP Waterfront


Many of our Staffing issues of the last few years were resolved- first day of Dinghy Practice - and a great fiberglass repair seminar by Marine Foreman John Casey. Spring is in the air! More Pics and Video here.

15 February 2011

Meet the Freshmen-


Check out this new feature on the new USMMA Intercollegiate Sailing Team Blog. This is a great spot for the die hard dinghy fans to keep track of the Mariners on the Water- but keep tuned here for all the big Dinghy events and all the rest of the action as we start to get closer to Spring at the KP Waterfront!

For the Record-

Last Wednesday I posted a picture and report of some of the Genuine Risk crew holding the Pineapple Cup, at the time mistakenly thinking that we had somehow met the criteria for winning it and that the committee had sanctioned the photo's. While we did end up winning the Cup (see the criteria from the committee below) it was unproffessional of me to post this prior to the committee's deliberations and formal awarding. My apologies to those who understood my post to equate an official communication from the Race Committee, as it certainly was not.

SORC Sailing- For the race competitors and fans that would like to know the process by which the Race Committee arrives at the decision on who to award the overall trophy - the Pineapple Cup - to, please read on.

Judging the comparative performance of boa...ts in IRC and PHRF fleets is difficult, but not impossible, but even if the overall winners of both the PHRF and IRC divisions had valid ratings in both systems, using each ratings schemes' "Corrected Time" to determine an overall winner would never be valid, because each system creates Corrected Time in fundamentally different ways. For comparison's sake, while Donnybrook beats Genuine Risk based on each system's Corrected Time figure, Genuine Risk destroys Donnybrook on IRC using their existing TCC of 1.434 - by about a day - and Donnybrook would end up in sixth place in IRC under that system.

Because these ratings systems create irreconcilably different results, the Race Committee must necessarily look at the competition each division-winning competitor faced.

Genuine Risk faced three other maxi boats in IRC 1, the 100' Rambler100 (well represented with most of the Puma Ocean Racing Volvo 80 team), Beau Geste (a gorgeous new design with Gavin Brady running the show), and Bella Pita, a Tripp 75. Genuine Risk pushed these three all-star carbon rockets to their limit, and beat them all. Risk beat all of IRC-2 as well, including the IRC East Coast Champion and a Ker 46 from Holland that completely embarrassed her IRC competition a few weeks ago at KWRW with a skipper that has been winning major IRC events in Europe for more than a decade, and who recently won Seahorse's "Sailor of the Month" award at something like 90 years of age.

Donnybrook dominated the four boats from the PHRF fleet that also finished before the time limit expired. Those competitors included three 40-footers and a Santa Cruz 52 that rated more than a minute per mile slower than Donnybrook. So while Genuine Risk won a class that included a larger, newer, faster boat and several other similarly sized boats - all loaded with talent from the upper echelon of the sailing world - Donnybrook faced an extremely talented PHRF fleet, but no boats similar in size or performance.

Objectively, the Race Committee decided that a boat that defeated a stacked class of newer boats with similar performance expectations turned in a more outstanding performance than a boat that beat four boats to the finish, none of which were remotely close to her speed, and a handful of boats that could not complete the course within the time limit for doing so.

We want to congratulate EVERYONE who completed an exceptionally challenging Pineapple Cup. There are people throughout the competing fleet who exemplify the best traits our sport has to offer; people who are humble in victory and gracious in defeat, and have accomplished more than their share of both victory and defeat.

But there was only one team that delivered the best overall performance on a monohull, and that team was Genuine Risk.

09 February 2011

Genuine Risk Wins 2011 Pineapple Cup

Sailing Master Chris Gasiorek KP'95, Foundation President Ralf Steitz, Jeff Miller KP'04,Jared Reeves KP '12, Brian Giorgio KP'08

King's Point's Genuine Risk has won the prestigious Pineapple Cup for best performance by a monohull boat in the 50th Anniversary of one of the world's classic yacht races.

08 February 2011

Genuine Risk and Rambler at Montego Bay Yacht Club

Day 4 Update from Genuine Risk

68 Miles to go to Montego Bay, and Rambler is in sight! Pretty exciting for
the crew to pull back the 65 mile lead they had on us a few days ago.
Staying deep around the tip of Cuba and heading south has brought us much
better breeze than we expected, though some grey clouds in the area have us
worried. Making 10 knots to the west now with the A2 spinnaker up, and
looking forward to finishing soon.

06 February 2011

Another Starry Night Aboard Genuine Risk Enroute to Montego Bay

After a day of light air beating we are now back up to 13-14 knots of
boatspeed in an 11 knot SE'ly breeze. We'll be passing between San Salvador
and Rum Cay soon, with 260 miles to go till the turn at Cuba. Freeze dried
teryaki chicken for dinner hit the spot. Some of the folks on board include
Kings Pointer's Jared Reeves '12 who is between sea year ships and flew to
Florida from an ore carrier on the Great Lakes, Brian Giorgio '08 a 2nd
Engineer with MEBA, Jeff Miller '04 a 1st Engineer with MEBA, Ralf Steitz
USMMA Sailing Foundation President, and CDR Chris Gasiorek '95 USMMA Sailing
Master. Also aboard as bowman is Matt Noble, one of the leadership team of
the newly formed All-American Offshore team- details at
allamericanoffshoreteam.blogspot.com

Day 2 Update from Genuine Risk

Yesterday's fast reaching has changed to light beating heading east off of
Eleuthera Island. Windspeed 6-10, boatspeed 10-11. A few hours of rain
this morning, but and otherwise clear and starry night. Beau Geste is about
a half mile to leeward of us, and Rambler quite a ways ahead. Looking for a
shift to take us south toward Cuba. Follow the race at
www.montegobayrace.com

05 February 2011

Update from Genuine Risk in Montego Bay Race

Just rounding the top of Great Isaac Shoal, entering the Northwest
Providence Channel. Had a great reach across the Gulf Stream, with wind
speeds from 12-16 at 85 degree wind angle and boatspeeds from 15-17. We
were neck and neck with Beau Geste for a while, but in the heavier air
reaching she has some speed on us- hope to make some distance back on her
and Rambler 100 in the forecasted lighter wind ahead. 60 miles down in 4
hours- 751 to go!