Beautiful Practice Day at KP

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Sonar Match Racing- New Freshman on the Water

Kings Point brought 5 of 8 boats to a new Manhasset Bay match racing event. 35 members of the class of 2012 got thier first taste of one on one match racing. The wind was light, but with enough breeze to sail, and to practice the intricate manuevers involved in match racing.

Genuine Risk Arrives at Kings Point

Geniune Risk's Route in Red

Genuine Risk arrived in Hague Basin this morning after a 2500 nm trip from Holland, MI. Check out her route and a pic in her new home.

The Last Bridge for Genuine Risk- and a Front Row Seat for Quebec City's 400th Anniversary

Here is the last and tightest of the bridges that had to be passed by Genuine Risk to exit the St. Lawrence Seaway. Only a few meters clearance in each direction.

And after another 150 miles of river, arrival at the Marina du Port de Quebec. Right in the heart of the beautiful city and center stage for their 400th Birthday Celebration- including an amazing visual display on the mile long Bunge Grain Elevator-

Genuine Risk Delivery- 4 Lakes, two Rivers, and one Canal down.....

Thirty Degrees of Cant in the Welland Canal

Yesterday was an exciting day aboard the Genuine Risk, our 5th day of the trip. After a windy upwind trip on Lake Michigan, a windy downwind trip on Lake Huron, and a rainy trip through the Detroit river (I did get to wave to Grandma though!) and a rainy trip across Lake Erie we were ready to test our math and cant the keel to fit the 125 foot mast under the 116 foot bridges of the Welland Canal. Success. It was a great trip through the Welland Canal, and we are now in the wonderfully friendly town of Kingston, Ontario, ready to start the rest of our trip through the St. Lawrence Seaway tomorrow.

Pictures

About Face Crew Finds the Fish

Waterfront Team members made a trip offshore to the Hudson Canyon this weekend aboard About Face. Not a bad weekend of fishing! Here's the story from Jordan Musselman KP '10-

The seven man crew of the About Face left Kings Point at 1600 Friday afternoon for the 135 mile cruise the Southwest corner of the Hudson Canyon. We arrived at 445 and had 11 rods on the troll by 0500. It was a slow couple of hours before the crew had their first knockdown which was a 35lb yellow fin tuna. Immediately after putting the rods back in the water a school of yellow fin tuna was spotted racing towards the spread from the port side. Within 10 seconds the crew had 7 knockdowns and 6 lines came tight. The crew boated all 6 fish, 5 of which were yellow fin tuna and the 6th was a skipjack. After icing down the fish we continued to work the same area hoping to hook up a nice marlin after a boat nearby released a 400lb blue. Being unable to locate any larger fish we began trolling east looking for deeper water. Around 1500 a large pod of whales was spotted and we hooked a 60lb yellow fin beneath them. An hour later we had a triple knockdown hooking one fish and breaking off the other two. It was an hour and forty five minute battle before we were able to bring the fish on board which turned out to be a 150lb big eye tuna. The rest of the evening was slow until the night bite where we released a 140lb brown shark but were unable to locate more tuna. The crew put their Kings Point education to practical use while U/W for the 330nm round trip dealing with an overheating generator, and electrical difficulties restricting the use of all modern navigation equipment which eventually caused us to leave the grounds at 0500 Sunday morning. The About Face Crew did an excellent job of dealing with the problems and included, Scott McCormick 10’, Jordan Musselman 10’, Pat Lowe 09’, Kyle Setta 10’, Joshua Jordan 10’, Mike Burbelo 10’, and graduate Adam Shannahan 08’. Overall it was a great first trip of the year and hope to make many more.

First Day or Practice for Waterfront Teams

Today started practice for our Waterfront Varsity Sports, and the introductions to some new sports for lots of the class of 2012. Learning the right way to carry a crew shell, how to pack a spinnaker, and the daily rigors of Dinghy Practice......welcome to the team.

M/N Casey Penney KP'11 Talks about the Chicago to Mackinac Race

Boat Prep in Chicago

For the KP sailors; Phil Ientile, Mike Dybvik, Jeff Miller, and me; the week before the Mackinac race was spent in South Chicago putting Defiance back together. We had to put the keel on, fare the hull, step the mast, etc. It was a lot of work. We started most mornings at 6:30 and didn’t stop until it was near dark outside. Needless to say, putting a maxi boat together in 3 days is a great feat.

If you were to ask a sailor about the 100th Chicago to Mackinac Race, they’d pretty much say light wind and dense fog as both were experienced quite a bit in this race. At the start there were hundreds of boats waiting for their start with the Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw and the magnificent skyscrapers of Chicago looming in the fog. The start for the turbo class was very light, but the breeze picked up a bit directly afterwards. The weather kept us on our toes and we frequently switched between our wind seeker, light and medium jibs, and a variety of spinnakers and staysails. On the second and final night of the race, about 90 miles from Mackinac Island, we hit a squall which brought heavier winds, rain and lots of lightening. It seemed like the lightning was all around us. It made me wonder just what it’s like to get struck while on a boat.

The next morning we sighted the Mackinaw Bridge; we knew we were getting close. The finish of the race was signified by a cannon blast from Mackinac Island. Everybody on the boat was glad to be finished. Then it was time to go out and have a good time on the Island. Mackinac is really unique because nearly the entire island is a state park, and no cars are allowed. Transportation is by bicycle and horse and buggy. It’s a really cool historic island, and the downtown area is awesome. I’ve been going up there to visit my grandmother every summer for the past 19 years. I remember watching the yacht races finish and the marina workers trying to cram all the boats into the marina. I never dreamed that I would actually be part of the race. The race is 333 miles, making it the longest freshwater race in the world. This year was the largest race with over 4,000 sailors.

Waterfront Competition Day

The Waterfront Competition is the last event of Indoc, and is a test of many of the seamanship skills that the new Plebes have learned at the Waterfront during Indoc. The final monomoy race had to be cancelled this year due to thunderstorms, however the rest of the competions including knot-tying, boyancy challenge, survival suit relay, heaving line toss, and life-raft boarding and survival swimming took place.

Defiance and Genuine Risk finish Chicago to Mackinac Race

Genuine Risk was took Line Honors as the first boat to finish this years 100th Chicago to Mackinac Race. Crew by a combination of Kings Pointers and professional sailors the boat beat the next finisher by nearly an hour. Defiance finished a few hours later.

VIDEO OF GENUINE RISK SAIL CHANGE

New Candidates jump right into Waterfront Training

One of the first and most important task of any merchant mariner is water survival. Candidates received a "sneak peak" of how to properly don lifejackets and immersion suits during one of their many waterfront classes. During this particular class they learned how to enter a liferaft while wearing a lifejacket and how to proper enter the water while wearing an immersion suit.

Kings Pointers Preparing for 100th Chicago to Mackinac

Kings Point Brothers Jeff and Dan Miller

The Kings Point Offshore Sailing Team is in Chicago with two fast boats getting ready for tomorrows start of the 100th Chicago to Mackinac race. Defiance and Genuine Risk are both in the fastest class of the 450 boats entered in the race. With good wind the boats should arrive Sunday evening. RACE DETAILS AND TRACKING HERE

Offshore Sailing Director Ralf Steitz Racing to Hawaii

Ralf Steitz will be sailing in this year's Pacific Cup Regatta from San Francisco to Hawaii starting this week. He will be sailing aboard Holua Girl, Paul Cayards Santa Cruz 52. News and position tracking for the race is HERE and HERE.

Indoc Training on the Schooner Lettie G. Howard

Each Candidate in the class of 2012 gets to spend three hours aboard the Gloucester Fishing Schooner Lettie G. Howard learning the ropes of traditional sailing and seamanship while practicing the roles they will learn as part of the emergency team aboard ship. The ship was built in 1893 and is home ported at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City. Topics learned include seamanship, helming, station bill, sail handling, and working as a team to raise the 2000 pound mainsail.

MORE PICS HERE

Water Survival Training for Class of 2012

The Class of 2012 started their waterfront training this morning with 4th Company getting an introduction to exposure suits, life jackets, and life rafts in Eldridge Pool.