Archive for the ‘Sailing’ Category

A morale-boost for beleaguered newsies: E&P lives

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Editor & Publisher – was shuttered in December by its owner, Nielsen Business Media – has been sold and will continue to publish, according to a report by Folio: magazine. E&P is more than 100 years old, and has been the leading trade publication of the newspaper industry for most, if not all, of its history. Its demise was a blow to the gut to journalists everywhere, who for the last few years have watched the apparent meltdown of their industry’s fundamental business model.

The new owner is Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc., based in Irvine, CA – a white knight that rides in, not on a horse but on a powerboat. Duncan McIntosh is a consumer marine media company whose properties include Sea Magazine, The Log newspaper and, most notably, Boating World.

There’s no deeper meaning to this. It’s just nice to write about  a company that sees the value in a storied brand, tradition and a franchise that serves the media industry. No surprise that the company isn’t one of the diversified media giants, for which earnings multiples are the only meaningful metric.

The largest wing ever built - and it’s not on a plane

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

The largest wing ever built was installed this morning on the next U.S. America’s Cup competitor – a 90′x90′ carbon-fiber trimaran built and raced by BMW Oracle Racing.

Photo by Gille Martin-Raget for BMW Oracle Racing. Copyright.

Photo by Gille Martin-Raget for BMW Oracle Racing. Copyright.

Replacing traditional fabric sails, the wing is the largest ever built. It’s 190 feet tall and 80 percent larger than the wing of a Boeing 747, according to the BMW Oracle Racing website.

BMW Oracle as it looked before the wing; Photo by Gille Martin-Raget

BMW Oracle as it looked before the wing; Photo by Gille Martin-Raget

Gentle trials (really on gentle) will begin immediately, culminating in a race against the Swiss defender Alinghi in February. The race is scheduled to be held in Dubai – though that, like so much else in this event, is being contested first in a court of law.

This is only the second time the America’s Cup races will be held using multihulls – though it will be the first where the racing is likely to be more interesting than the court contest.

The first was 1988, when New Zealander Michael Fay challenged the rightful defender, Dennis Connor of the U.S., to a match using a 120-foot sloop-rigged monohull. Connor responded by coming to the race on a 60-foot catamaran (which also had a solid-wing sail). It was an embarrassingly lopsided and unthrilling shellacking. The U.S. won and Connor delivered all the evidence that thousands of insufferable multihull sailors have ever needed to proudly declare their version of the sport to be superior to that played in slower but more maneuverable  monohulls.

In any case, the upcoming contest promises to be a race; both teams have at least agreed to sail in boats that should finish within the same time zone of each other.

Quote of the day

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

From Richard Mitchele, who just won a contest from Sailing Anarchy (without a doubt the best blog, forum and e-newsletter on earth devoted to racing sailboats). His prize was a ride-along on the Puma entrant in the Volvo Ocean Race during the closed-course races sailed in Boston as part of the round-the-world race’s only North American stopover.sailing-anarchy-swag

“You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out that I’d won the contest on SA. I was kind of thinking maybe I’d score a T-shirt or some other Puma swag. It was as if Jessica Alba called to say that the restraining order had been lifted, that she and Uma Thurman had talked it over and wanted to give my idea a try.”