Kings Point Waterfront

Sunset from Liberator, enroute to Newport, RI for the Tall Ships America Sail Training Conference

2012-01-27T17:27:00.002-05:00

They're Not All Beautiful Days......

2012-01-21T14:37:00.001-05:00

Shiphandling and Piloting in the Snow today aboard Liberator.

Bill Hardesty '98 Named Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year

2012-01-15T15:37:00.001-05:00

2011 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year: Bill Hardesty (San Diego, Calif.) has been named the 2011 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. First shortlisted for the award in 2008 – when he won the Etchells World Championship – Hardesty reclaimed that class’ top title in 2011 after a dominating performance in an 81-strong fleet. He had several other class wins, including the Etchells Midwinters West Championship, and transitioned from skipper to tactician and translated his skills into wins in a number of additional classes which led the selection panel to commend the diversity of his achievements during the year. Hardesty’s notable performances as tactician included winning the 47th Congressional Cup in Catalina 37s and the CMRC Grade 2 Invitational in Tom 28s, along with top finishes at the Rolex Big Boat Series in Express 37s (second) and the Farr 40 World Championships (fourth).

From a personal standpoint, however, Hardesty is most proud of winning the ISAF (International Sailing Federation) Match Racing World Championship as tactician for skipper Ian Williams (GBR). The world championship series title was earned through wins of the Portimão Portugal Match Cup in Portugal, the Stena Match Cup in Sweden, and the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia.

“This is a huge honor,” said Hardesty after receiving word that he had been named the 2011 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. “The long list of past winners is very impressive and includes people who I have always considered to be the best in the world. I would first like to thank Rolex for making sailing what it is today. Without their sponsorship of sailing, the sport would be a lot different.”

“A lot of credit goes to the teams I raced with this past year,” Hardesty continued. “Sailing is truly a group effort and winning this award would never have been possible without great teammates: the Etchells World Championship team of Steve Hunt, Mandi Markee and Craig Leweck, and Team GAC Pindar skippered by Ian Williams.

Hardesty graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1998, the same year he received College Sailor of the Year honors from the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association. A native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Hardesty grew up sailing in San Diego and learned to sail with his father on Hobie beach cats prior to joining the junior sailing program at Mission Bay Yacht Club and subsequently San Diego Yacht Club.

After college graduation and a brief Laser campaign for the Olympics, Hardesty worked for a power plant in Los Angeles and then a solar tube company in San Diego. Now a professional sailor, he spends more than half the year living aboard a Wauquiez Hood 38 on which he is currently cruising Central America.

Wizard in West Palm Beach for next weeks race to Key West

2012-01-08T08:21:00.001-05:00

Winter Towing Training

2012-01-05T20:28:00.001-05:00

TugTrainingJan2012

Just because it's January doesn't mean we have to stop the training!

Steer the Well, Kings Pointer

2012-01-05T10:59:00.002-05:00

Kings Pointer departing New York Harbor, bound for Texas Maritime. Following in a line of training ships, she served the Academy from 1992-2012, following other vessels such as the Emory Rice, American Mariner, Kings Pointer I- what comes next? A replacement vessel is in the works.

Sea Year

2012-01-03T12:44:00.002-05:00

Winter at KP means that most of our 2nd and 3rd class sailors are out to sea for thier Sea-Year where they get great hands-on experience in all aspects of the maritime industry- including important topics such as dealing with other cultures- Not sure who is winning this particular encounter, but it seams that M/N Minnick is having a great time!

Happy Holidays From the Kings Point Waterfront

2011-12-23T20:56:00.003-05:00

Looks like no snow this year- so here's one from last year- Happy Holidays to all of our Sailors and Supporters.

2011 Holiday Hidden Harbor / City Tour

2011-12-18T12:00:00.004-05:00

We had a great turnout and weather for our Annual Hidden Harbor Tour and City Walk aboard Liberator this year. More Pics here.

Holiday

2011-12-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

Name and Hailing Port on the new Offshore Team Flagship

2011-11-29T08:39:00.003-05:00

The R/P 74' ex-Bella Mente. Her first race as a Kings Pointer will be the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race in January.

Dinghy Team Sailing at the Atlantic Coast Championship Regatta in Boston on a Beautiful fall day

2011-11-13T19:31:00.003-05:00

More Pics

2012 Waterfront Calendars On Sale

2011-11-07T12:55:00.004-05:00

Beleive it or not the 36 photo's in this years calendar show just a small part of what our Sailors do at the KP Waterfront. The USMMA Sailing Foudation will be sending out copies to supporters in December- but you can order either the Large or Small versions online today- proceeds support our KP Sailors!

MAISA Sloops Match Racing

2011-11-07T10:55:00.004-05:00

Waterfront teams pulled together this weekend to host the 2011 MAISA Sloops Match Racing Championship. While our team didn't qualify for the National Championship Regatta this year, they performed well during the season and will be strong next year. Congrats to Navy for winning the regatta.

Kings Pointer in Sports Illustrated

2011-11-03T13:49:00.003-04:00

M/N Evan Siepert was included in this week's Faces in the Crowd for leading his team to victory at the 2011 MacMillan Cup Regatta. I'm sure he joins a small list of sailors to make a spot in SI!!

SummerWind Celebrating the 125th Birthday of the Statue of Liberty

2011-10-28T20:46:00.001-04:00

KP Wins MacMillan Cup at USNA!

2011-10-24T16:15:00.001-04:00

Manhasset Bay Fall Series at its Best!

2011-10-16T18:39:00.002-04:00

An amazing windy weekend on Long Island Sound for the Offshore Team on Tiburon and Decision. More pics and video here...

"Cadet" Vanquish Headed to Sea on a Ro/Ro

2011-10-12T12:36:00.001-04:00

The USMMA Sailing Foundation Yacht Vanquish boards ship in England

Block Island Sunrise

2011-10-10T09:10:00.002-04:00

Great weekend of training aboard Liberator- More Pics Here

Liberator with the New Bedford Fishing Fleet

2011-10-09T11:04:00.001-04:00

Fall Practice

2011-10-06T10:48:00.001-04:00

Brilliant Visits Kings Point

2011-10-04T07:41:00.004-04:00

Mystic Seaport has been a great supporter of our Waterfront Training program, hosting many KP vessels on training trips for years, and it is a great honor to return the favor, with Brilliant making a stopover at KP on her way to the Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. I hope to repost this picture next week with a different caption- "The 2010 and 2011 Winners of the GCBSR together at Kings Point!"

Some of the 317' of KP Fleet in Greenport, NY

2011-10-02T10:59:00.001-04:00

Sirina Fishing in Plum Gut on a Beautiful Fall Day

2011-10-02T10:24:00.001-04:00

Varsity Rowing / Power Squadron to Mystic Coastweeks Regatta

2011-09-22T08:11:00.001-04:00

Mystic Coastweeks Regatta – September 16-19, 2011
This was the Rowing Team’s first regatta of the 2011 fall season. Twenty-nine rowers got underway Friday evening aboard Liberator, Growler and Summerwind with the crews of each vessel. The convoy arrived in Mystic at 0930 on Saturday morning. Saturday activities included touring the Mystic Seaport Museum, watching the Olympic team competition, and a training session in preparation for the regatta on Sunday.
This year was the largest competitive team that Kings Point has had in it’s seven year attendance at the regatta. Twenty-nine athletes competed with seven crews and brought home medals in two of the three race categories. The Coastweeks regatta is the first race of the fall “Head Style” season. Crews raced the distance of a mile-and-quarter in alternating fashion and do not know who won until the individual crew’s times are calculated following the race.
The women’s Double of Brooke Mueller 2014 and Brannon Niblock 2015 had a tremendous first race as they raced to a second place finish in what was a close race with Coast Guard. Coast Guard had a twenty-five second margin over Kings Point who had a three second lead over another Coast Guard entry. “Niblock is new to the sport and is still learning how to row and race. This is a great first result since the crew had only six practices as a crew” commented Coach Derek Hartwick. The crew will have two weeks to prepare for its’ next contest when it competes in the Textile River Regatta in Massachusetts on October 2.
The Men’s team launched an armada of five crews for the Men’s Open Four race. While Coast Guard captured the top spot in the race, the top Kings Point crew was only ten seconds off the lead. The men’s team showed great depth with both the top two crews placing ahead of Coast Guard’s second best crew and the additional three crews performing well despite their inexperience. The top crew of Coxswain Giuseppe Niosi ‘14, Stroke-John Dohring ‘14, 3-Connan Ingham ‘12, 2-Sean Welsh ’14 and Bow-Austin Boonyachai ‘15 kept a pace of thirty-six stokes per minute for the mile-and-quarter. This slight deficit off first place was nearly overshadowed by the even smaller three second margin between the two top Kings Point crews.
The relatively inexperienced women’s crew of Stroke-Diane Ormond ‘15, 3-Brannon Niblock ‘15, 2-Leena Yi ‘15 and Bow-Mo’ana Kawatachi ‘15 rowed well for their first race but came up short in the women’s open four event. Placing 6th behind some seasoned varsity crews did not deter the crew form promising that they would be competitive in the Novice Women’s event in two weeks. “They are going to do very well in the novice race at the Textile Regatta on October 2.” commented Coach Hartwick.
With two weeks to train, the team will then prepare for the next regatta in Lowell Massachusetts. The Textile River Regatta is the 2nd largest fall regatta and includes over 30 colleges from the northeast states. The Kings Point team has traditionally performed well at this regatta and hopes to do the same this year.

Hurricane Report

2011-09-01T08:16:00.000-04:00

RWO Weekly Update

Week Ending Monday 29 August 2011

This week, without a doubt was one of the most interesting and eventful weekends any of the present waterfront members can remember. On Sunday, CDR Gasiorek, the waterfront staff and officers, as well as the rest of the waterfront members started toying with the idea that Hurricane Irene could in fact impact Kings Point. On Tuesday morning at the officers meeting we decided that this possibility was more of a reality and began our preparations. Our initial intention was to conduct a drill for hurricane preparedness. The plan was to take every vessel possible and 70 midshipmen up the Hudson River just as we would in the event of a serious hurricane situation. Everyone scrambled Tuesday morning to put this plan in action and by noon time we had the TM's in, the crew lists together, and the food order placed.

Thursday morning rolled around and the computer models for Hurricane Irene had come to a consensus of a direct hit on Long Island. This put all of us into immediate action. We shifted our focus from that of a drill to that of real action. The waterfront staff began working Thursday morning to empty the basin. The waterfront officers put together a plan of action for the storm and set up watches and work teams to get everything accomplished. We minimized the crews on all vessels and set up a watch system to tour the waterfront during the storm. On Thursday afternoon all the waterfront teams were down at the waterfront working incredibly hard to prepare for the impending weather. The dinghy team de-rigged and moved all the dinghies up the hill. The offshore team was busy de-rigging boats and getting them ready to come out of the water. The crew team pulled out all the equipment from Prosser boat house. The powersquad assisted the staff in pulling out their vessels and preparing them for the weather.

After the all hands meeting in Delano on Thursday night where everyone was excused to go home the major concern was losing the assigned hands that would be necessary for the storm. In an incredible display of pride in the waterfront and the vessels we ended up with more help than we anticipated. Waterfront members from all teams were coming up to me after the meeting Thursday evening to volunteer their services in whatever way possible to make sure the waterfront made it through the storm without any problems. By Friday at noon we had the final crew lists put together for all the vessels that would go up the river to take refuge. We also had the entire watch system put together for the weekend at KP. On top of this at 0800 Friday morning all the people assigned to the KP storm team reported to the waterfront and put in a full day working until 1800 Friday night to ready the waterfront for the storm. What was accomplished was nothing short of incredible. From Thursday afternoon through Friday night the entire basin was emptied, a feat that normally takes a month at the end of the season, the docks were secured, watch shacks moved, Yocum sailing center had everything moved off the decks to higher shelves and every other precaution possible was taken.

Following a full nights rest Friday the storm team members reported aboard their respective vessels Saturday morning. The watch teams also reported to the waterfront to finish up any last minute details and help the waterfront staff with whatever they needed. By 1000 Saturday morning 11 vessels including the Kings Pointer were under way for refuge in the Hudson River crewed by 50 midshipmen and members of the faculty and waterfront staff. The waterfront members aboard displayed some of the best seamanship I have seen since I have been at this school. All the vessels road out the hurricane in the Hudson River off Indian Point. Vigilant watches were stood by all the vessels to make sure their vessel and crew was safe through the storm. The vessel skippers did an incredible job of taking on this responsibility and making sure their crews were safe at all times. Everyone involved took on responsibility for the vessels and each other by doing simple things like making sure PFD's were being worn while on anchor watch in the storm. Not only was this done by a great group of midshipmen but there were sailors on power boats, powersquad members on sailboats, and plenty of people crewing vessels they have never been on before. This didn't stop the plan from going off without a hitch. The waterfront made it through the weekend without damage to a single vessel, zero personal injuries and no damage to the waterfront facilities. This is without a doubt attributed to the hard work and dedication of the midshipmen and waterfront staff.

On Sunday evening the vessels made it back to Long Island Sound and dropped anchor in Manhasset Bay to ride out the rest of the wind. By Monday all the vessels and midshipmen were safe and sound back in the Basin. The work however didn't stop here. The entire KP storm team, after a long weekend of watch standing worked all day Monday to undo everything that was done. By Monday afternoon the waterfront was 90% put back together and all the vessels were back in the water. Never have I been so proud to claim to be part of this thing we all call the Waterfront Family.

Putting it all back together

2011-08-29T12:33:00.000-04:00

The fleet made it back to Kings Point this morning and the Midshipmen are putting it all back together. 11 Vessels with 61 crew- 8 vessels commanded and crewed solely by Midshipmen, successfully weathered the storm with no incidents, injuries, or breakdowns. Bravo Zulu to our team for showing the "Acta" in Acta non Verba"

Irene Anchor Watch aboard Liberator

2011-08-28T09:10:00.001-04:00

Power Squadron Towing Ops Class

2011-08-24T08:37:00.001-04:00

TowingOps

Great day on the water with Rob Asma teaching towing operations with Growler and "142"

Admiral Greene at the Helm of Decision

2011-08-18T21:29:00.001-04:00

More pics of the first sailing days aboard the new TP52 here.

New Name for Decision

2011-08-17T12:49:00.002-04:00

Kings Point is the new home for the TP 52 Decision- the team is excited, and her first race will be this years Vineyard Race. We will be keeping the name Decision for the fall, but are choosing a new name and would like your help. As the family that donated Decision is in the legal field, we'd like to keep that them. Check out the voting on our Facebook page, and let us know if you have any other suggestions!

Busy Weekend on the Kings Point Waterfront

2011-08-07T16:02:00.000-04:00

M/N Noonan KP'15 at the Con of Liberator during Power Squadron Convoy Ops

2011-08-06T16:44:00.001-04:00

Power Squadron Convoy Ops Day

2011-07-30T16:43:00.001-04:00

Hmmm- Just Graduated, what should I do before I start my job at MSC?

2011-07-30T09:38:00.003-04:00

How about sail Bella Mente, KP's newest race boat Across the Pacific? Looks like Logan Kolterman and Ben Reavis are having a great trip from Hawaii to San Francisco!

Waterfront Indoc Competition- Bringing all the skills together!

2011-07-28T08:59:00.001-04:00

Waterfront Indoc Day 13

2011-07-19T19:11:00.001-04:00

Indoc 2011 Day 13

Busy Day on the Waterfront

2011-07-12T18:38:00.000-04:00

Idoc 2011 Day 5

2011-07-11T18:23:00.001-04:00

Indoc 2011 Day 3 Seamanship Class

2011-07-09T12:20:00.002-04:00

More Pics Here!

Sea Patrol KP Style....

2011-07-08T19:42:00.000-04:00

Waterfront Classes Start - Water Safety

2011-07-08T10:49:00.001-04:00

Indoc 2011 Day 2

Platoons 302 and 102

Indoc 2011 Waterfront Welcome BBQ

2011-07-08T10:46:00.001-04:00

Indoc 2011 Waterfront Welcome BBQ

Welcome Class of 2015 Sailors

2011-07-07T17:00:00.001-04:00

A great day for the start of Indoc today at Kings Point.

Indoc2011 Day 1

Have to Share this Great Shot from Vanquish

2011-07-05T20:06:00.004-04:00

Chris Branning KP'09 showing the July 4th Spirit in the Mid-Atlantic

Amory Ross photo

Waterfront Trainers Prep for Class of 2015

2011-07-05T08:52:00.003-04:00

More Pics Here

Waterfront Trainers meet the Big Dogs from Rozalia Project

2011-07-03T15:25:00.000-04:00

Waterfront Indoc Trainers for the Class of 2011

2011-07-03T15:22:00.001-04:00

Next Stop England- Vanquish on her way in the Trans-Atlantic Race

2011-07-03T15:19:00.001-04:00

Renegade Passing Block Island North Light at BIRW

2011-06-23T16:50:00.000-04:00

Tiburon In a Tight Pack of NY 42's on her way to a Third in the Around the Island Race at BIRW

2011-06-23T16:47:00.000-04:00

Summer Solstice Sun Line On T/V Liberator in the Gulf Of Maine

2011-06-21T15:25:00.001-04:00

T/V Liberator at Hurricane Island Maine

2011-06-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

First Classmen from SummerWind being "Shown the Ropes" of Deepsea Moorings at Woods Hole Oceanographic

2011-06-07T15:28:00.000-04:00

Class of 2011 Sailors Take on Menemsha, Martha's Vineyard on Post-License Training Cruise

2011-06-06T17:36:00.000-04:00

Congrats 3/M's and 3 A/E's!

2011-06-04T09:53:00.002-04:00

Bell Ringing Photos

Tiburon Crew at the Start of the 2011 Around Block Island Race

2011-05-28T09:21:00.002-04:00

Tiburon had a great start- last report has them in thick fog off Block Island. Here's the latest report from Skipper Karl Sergojan-

" We had a good night with our approach and arrival to rounding block. We met the other Swan 42 in our class while we were rounding at the north end and made huge gains and passed them as we went around. There has been heavy fog all morning with visibility at roughly 300 feet. It has been very hard to see other boats as they approach very close to us. We could also hear the waves crashing on shore without being able to see it. We also saw many sharks on the eastern shore of block. Overall doing well and practicing our navigation in restricted visibility."

More Pics Here-

USMMA Keelboat Team places third at Tappan Zee Challenge

2011-05-23T13:42:00.001-04:00

The Tappan Zee Challenge is the season opener for Sonar racing in the Northeast, and Midshipman Joe Hoffman ‘11 and his crew started the season with guns blazing, placing third at the Tappan Zee Challenge regatta this weekend, sailing in light winds and strong current. Hoffman’s crew of Evan Siepert ’13, Chris Maloney ’14 and Ashley Markey ’14 improved on their sixth-place standing on Saturday with a third-place standing on Sunday for third overall. In the fleet of 21 boats, Hoffman’s finishes were 8-4-6-3-6 for 27 points, just two behind their coach, Rick Dominique. “Joe has been improving dramatically over the past three seasons. He, Maloney and Markey have really been coming together as a crew, and the addition of dinghy team member Evan Siepert’s tactical ability launched the team into the top ranks of the class. I’m so happy for Joe, he’s worked really hard for this.”

Also competing at the event was Kirk Wetzel ’14 with crew James Ytreeide ’14, Ashleigh Phillips ’14 and Casey Cannon ’13. This young team struggled early, but moved from 18^th on Saturday to 13^th overall with better finishes on Sunday. Their coach praised their progress, “On Kirk’s boat, only Casey has been to a championship event such as this. These young team members are showing great progress, and with continued hard work will see similar success to Joe (Hoffman).”

The Keelboat Team will be out in stronger numbers, registering at least four boats for the Sonar Long Island Sound Championship on June 4-5, 2011. You can follow the USMMA Keelboat Team on Facebook.

Results

Tiburon Wins Stratford Shoal Race

2011-05-22T13:12:00.001-04:00

Stradford Shoal Race Writeup

The Stradford Shoal Distance race was not looking too promising late Friday, as well as Saturday morning with the water looking like glass and no prospects of having anyimprovements in the wind conditions. As we motored out to the start of the race we went over positions and our watch system, as well as what the current and wind was supposed to be doing for the day.

Once we arrived at the start line just off the execution lighthouse we were informed that the course had been shortened due to the dying wind. We were the first start on the 32 mile long course and arrived at the start line a little bit late as well as almost all of the other boats. We decided to go to the Long Island side of the course while the other boats decided to go way out to the Connecticut side of the course. The wind was coming out of the Northeast so it was an upwind beat all the way to the Cable and Anchor reef mark (R "28C" F4s Bell). Since we decided to go south after the start, we were the first boat to get out of the current, which as any Kings Point sailor has learned, this is a crucial part in distance racing on Long Island Sound.

As we weaved through channel marks and hugged the shore, we used our Navigation skills to avoid any hazards along the coast. Everyone in the crew did an outstanding job at keeping the boat going fast with superb crew work, trimming, and driving. As we got closer to the Cable and Anchor reef mark we started to realize that we were doing much better than many of the other boats in our division. We attributed this to the fact that we were out of the current as it was flooding in toward the west end of the island.

We were the first boat to round the mark by 13 minutes, beating all boats in our division including a Kerr 50 which is a much faster boat. The wind conditions by this time were about 7 knots out of the Northeast. As we went back towards the finish we were slowly being reeled in by the Kerr 50 behind us, so we decided to change our Spinnaker from the 1.5 to the 1. Which mad a significant improvement in our boat speed, which by this time was reaching about 9.5 knots. This however did not make enough of a difference with the other boat trying to catch up to us.

As we were going downwind the wind was filling in very well and was roughly blowing about 13 knots from the North. The crew work improved a great deal as we reacted to the change in breeze and had to do several Gybes toward the finish, where we finished within a few minutes of the Kerr 50 and a good deal in front of the other boats.

This was a good learning experience for all of the members of the boat as we have just turned the boat over from the seniors to the third class incoming skippers and crew. We are doing a good job at getting ready for the upcoming Around Block Island Race next weekend, and these past two distance races that we have done have been pivotal in the planning for Around Block. This was a great day of sailing and we are hoping for these same type of conditions for other races that we will be having in the future.

Respectfully Submitted,

Karl Sergojan

Crew

Kevan Stoeckler: Driver/Tactics

Karl Sergojan: Driver/Tactics

Ben Carbone: Bow

Kate O'Connor: Bow

James Pilliod: Main Trim

PJ Connolly: Main Trim

Jesse Penney: Spinnaker Trim

Shannen Dunn: Jib Trim

Ben Baur: Jib Trim

Rick Morgan: Pit

Coaching/Tactics: Jon Singsen

Close Race for the Novice Four Team

2011-05-15T10:52:00.003-04:00

KP missed 3rd place by seconds, but a great race by our KP Rowers!

More Pics Here

KP Novice 4 Fourth in Dad Vail final, beats Army

2011-05-14T14:11:00.000-04:00

Great job Freshmen 4!

KP Novice 4 Headed for the finals at the Dad Vail Regatta

2011-05-14T12:49:00.000-04:00

Watch the final live at 1353 on www.dadvail.org

Growler in Mystic

2011-05-10T08:08:00.000-04:00

Skipper Andrew Conroy was joined by his father, CDR Phil Conroy, USNR, and the Growler crew for a training trip to Mystic, CT this weekend- Sounds like they had a great voyage.

From M/N Conroy- The trip went amazing. My father REALLY enjoyed everything. I wish I could have recorded all of the comments he made about the Kings Point Waterfront and the things we do. As a recently retired CDR in the navy, he appreciated the way things are run on the boat and here at the Kings Point waterfront. He should be sending some photos shortly. On Saturday afternoon, we were gathering crowds at Mystic showing off the boat. It was amazing to watch people show up at the boat.

Spotted! GROWLER heading to Kings Point using Ship Finder! http://bit.ly/ShipNET

2011-05-08T11:35:00.001-04:00

Spotted! GROWLER heading to unknown using Ship Finder! http://bit.ly/ShipNET

Wounded Warriors on SummerWind

2011-05-08T09:31:00.003-04:00

MARAD Administrator David Matsuda and his wife Cat joined the crew of SummerWind yesterday to participate in the DC Patiots Picnic, taking three trips of Wounded Warriors and Residents of the Armed Forced Retirement Home sailing on the Potomac.

The Best Way to Learn? Teach!

2011-05-06T09:28:00.003-04:00

Had a great morning aboard SummerWind with the 8th Graders from Thomas Jefferson Junior High School- the Mids taught them about navigation, marlinespike seamanship, line throwing, and boyancy.

Look Who Flew by to Check Out SummerWind

2011-05-06T09:24:00.001-04:00

MSC Commander Admiral Mark "Buz" KP'79 and Gina Buzby joining the Sailors of SummerWind for Dinner aboard on the Potomac

2011-05-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

SummerWind and the Washington Monument

2011-05-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

Stop by and see SummerWind and the Kings Point Sailors this week at Gangplank Marina.

SummerWind Stopping Traffic on I-95.....Passing Through the Woodrow Wilson Bridge

2011-04-30T20:14:00.000-04:00

SummerWind Anchored in Carthagena Creek, St. Mary's, Maryland

2011-04-29T20:43:00.001-04:00

M/N Ian Holtzworth at the Helm, Sailing out of Annapolis on SummerWind

2011-04-29T11:09:00.001-04:00

Alumni on the C&D Canal

2011-04-27T13:47:00.000-04:00

Met the Neil Mcallister in the C&D Canal last evening with former Growler Skipper Kyle Stearns '08 aboard as Mate.

Growler and the Lady

2011-04-17T08:55:00.001-04:00

Growler crew on a drier day in the Harbor.

Lumpy Day in New York Harbor

2011-04-16T14:18:00.001-04:00

Growler underway for training in New York Habor.

Spring at the Waterfront

2011-04-09T17:32:00.003-04:00

Spring is here- Finally! Here's a bunch of things we've been up to-

Greater New York Dinghy Regatta, KP-SUNY MC Monomoy Race, Port Security Drill with USCG, Generator change out on Growler.......

Kings Point Falls Again in SUNY Monomoy Race

2011-04-08T14:47:00.002-04:00

The teams on the course

Admirals Greene and Caine with the Monomoy Race Teams, Trophy and NY Marine Society President Tim Ferrie

Genuine Risk Hits 30 Knots Racing in St. Barts

2011-04-05T20:45:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit-Christophe Jouanny

T/V Kings Pointer Headed to Japan for Salvage Project

2011-04-01T06:44:00.004-04:00

Ship sails today- 01 April 2011 for Northeast Japan to lead the effort to remove the many stranded vessels resulting from the recent tsunami. "When I signed up for the Introduction to Salvage class I never thought our first project would be to remove a 200' fishing boat from a highway, but I think we've got a good plan" said Midshipman Peter Kaple. "I was really surprised yesterday when during lunch the RC announced that all Shipyard Management Majors had been graduated early, and while I figured I would be building ships rather than disassembling them, I think this will be a great opportunity" said senior Joe Hoffman. When asked how they planned to return some of the giant vessels back to sea, Midshipman Jake Barker replied "The T/V Kings Pointer has 1600 horses under the hood and a shallow draft- we're just going to pull them back to the water." Concerns about the continued radiation release were quelled by Chief Mate Terwedow- "The Kings Pointer was built in 1984, and we still have cases of unused NBC gear that have never been opened- we plan to suit up as soon as we pass Hawaii."

Sea Partner?

2011-03-31T19:13:00.003-04:00

M/N Jeff Musselman sent me some great sea year pics from Operation Deep Freeze in Antartica. He is now off to join a ship in the Great Lakes, which still has some ice, but probably no penguins!

Windy and Cold Regatta at KP

2011-03-27T12:13:00.002-04:00

Old Guard / Owen Trophy Saturday at KP.

All-American Alumni Day for Dinghy Team Practice

2011-03-23T07:38:00.001-04:00

All-American and College Sailor of the Year Alex Smigelski '79 and All-American Crew Greer Ferguson '06 joined the team for practice yesterday, including some busy team racing drills-

New Stem Mounted on Liberator

2011-03-22T11:50:00.003-04:00

Boothbay Harbor Shipyard has installed a beautiful new stem on Liberator- now the re-planking starts. More Pics.

Kings Point Midshipmen and NY Harbor School Students aboard T/V Growler in Newtown Creek

2011-03-17T13:06:00.000-04:00

Southbound slowly in the Hudson

2011-03-09T09:52:00.003-05:00

We had a clear trip to West Point Yesterday, but the ice filled in on the ebb. Good day for Ice navigation class. More Pics!

Kings Pointer Spring Break Trip

2011-03-08T18:11:00.000-05:00

So Our Favorite Band and Favorite Tall Ship Reporter Team Up

2011-02-27T18:09:00.003-05:00

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...

More Pics from the Jamaica Race

2011-02-25T08:13:00.002-05:00

Including the High-Tech Motivational Instrument System

Tough Day For Genuine Risk

2011-02-21T12:06:00.001-05:00

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.

Great View on the way to Jamaica

2011-02-19T10:12:00.000-05:00

Great Day for the KP Waterfront

2011-02-16T18:22:00.002-05:00

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.

Meet the Freshmen-

2011-02-15T16:38:00.004-05:00

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!

2011-02-15T16:38:00.001-05:00

For the Record-

2011-02-15T16:32:00.002-05:00

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.

Genuine Risk Wins 2011 Pineapple Cup

2011-02-09T17:45:00.003-05:00

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.

Genuine Risk and Rambler at Montego Bay Yacht Club

2011-02-08T18:14:00.000-05:00

Day 4 Update from Genuine Risk

2011-02-08T09:54:00.000-05:00

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.

Another Starry Night Aboard Genuine Risk Enroute to Montego Bay

2011-02-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

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

2011-02-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

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