Random musings about safety and the Artemis tragedy

The Aegean and Low-Speed Chase losses and deaths were the result of tragic errors of prudent navigation and judgment, with no implications for yacht design and with little at all in common with this week's Artemis crash and Bart Simpson's death. This week's boat failure and violent capsize tragedy has perhaps more in common with last year's loss of Wingnuts and two of her crew in the Chicago Mackinac race or the entangled drowning death of Olivia Constants in the Severn River off Annapolis.

Some speculation can reasonably be made as to whether it might be possible to tame the AC's giant cats a bit to bring them back from the very edge of what the fittest and most skilled humans can possibly sail. Could the bows be altered or rudder and foil designs changed so that bows are less likely to dig into the water and trip the boat during a gybe or bear-away? Should the hulls be instrumented so that designers better understand the actual forces acting upon the boats? Should the rigs be reduced or re-designed so as to be able to shed some power?

Or, perhaps there might be better ways to protect and rescue the crew. For example, is it possible that an automatically activated personal locator device would have helped rescuers find Bart Simpson more quickly? Can the crew positions be "hardened" for when the crew aren't moving across the boat?

Perhaps none of these or other ideas would have saved Bart Simpson, but it would seem certain that the America's Cup authority and investigators will want to show that they have looked at all of the possibilities for making the event safer and avoiding an unnecessary race to destruction.

The trophy dilemma for small sailing clubs

For smaller sailing and yacht clubs, traditional metal pickle dish and cup have become so expensive as to just not make sense for racing awards. Some traditional trophy items have more than doubled from 2007 catalog prices. That makes it much more challenging for race committees to find prizes that people can be proud to receive, and don't look too cheesy, without breaking the RC budget.

So, do we get things that look like traditional trophies, but are made of less expensive materials, or do we adapt all sorts of non-traditional items as trophies?

Thoughts?

Here's a letter I sent out to my race committee this week:

In the past week, it's been an interesting experience learning about the trophy racket.

One challenge is that traditional old-style yacht "heavy metal" trophies have become breathtakingly expensive. A very small pewter cup that was $35 in the 2007 Prize Possessions catalog for example, now is $80 -- more than double the prize in just six years. These sorts of trophies are pretty much beyond the reach of a small club such as the RGYC for any sort of routine use.

There are less-expensive trophies that are marketed more for youth sports and less upscale groups. These are pretty much all plastic or resin and can be a bit cheesy. But, at a glance they look decent and some of them may not be too awful. I'll be trying some of these and see how people react.

Another option is improvising trophies from hobby and craft stores. Unfortunately, most have very limited selection and the better sorts of things that they have and not cheap, unless you happen to catch just the right thing when it goes on sale. They do have some things that might be fun, so long as people are a bit open-minded about getting things other than pewter/silver traditional pickle dishes and cups. One disappointment was that I was looking for shadow-box sorts of items like we'd gotten before, and wasn't finding them... only one little bitty knot box with a cracked glass that I passed over.

I did find an on-line seller of model yachts that had relatively reasonable prices for some of their items. Unfortunately, their flat-per-item shipping charges made it impractical to order their less expensive models, so I only got a few of their fairly nice models for top-end series trophies.

Engraved glassware like what Stras did with wine glasses may be something we try more of in the fall -- it would be available from sources other than high-markup trophy dealers. I think you can even get a bottle full of wine that's engraved.

The Fiesta Regatta last weekend at Chatfield, by the way, went with three sizes of engraved glass beer mugs... nothing too fancy or traditional.

I still need to buy about five trophies... mostly second/third places for spring series and third and fourth for the Anniversary Cup; should be able to find something interesting and not terribly costly.

A Little Too Late... We miss an opportunity to taste a local tradition

While driving to Colorado to do race management for the Fiesta Regatta at Chatfield, Carol Anne and I decided to stop in Las Vegas, NM, for a bite of lunch. Carol Anne particularly wanted to try something local and non-national-chain-cookie-cutter, and was excited to find good reviews on-line for a little hole-in-the-wall sort of local institution of a small New Mexican restaurant in the historic part of Las Vegas. Reviewers, including some from this spring, were enthusiastic about a completely unpretentious but reliable eatery called Estella's. We arrived, parked, and got to the restaurant well before their scheduled closing time of 3:00 p.m. But we were still too late.



Perhaps a couple of weeks or several weeks too late. The restaurant was closed up, with auction notices posted on the windows. Sigh. After 63 years in business, we'd missed the opportunity to eat there by perhaps a month or less. Now, that's a pity. Probably local folks can fill us in on just what happened.

We wound up trying another local place across the street, but found it closed to the public because they were having a private funeral banquet... and yes, they had posted the name of the dearly deceased guest of honor.

So we then went to an Italian pasta and pizza place, still in part of the historic district... and did have a good meal. But, it didn't have chile verde. Oh well.

Star boat "Stargazer" enjoys a breeze at Elephant Butte Lake, 20 April 2013


Columbia 26 "Imagine" with Spirit 65 and O'Day 22 "Starshine"


O'Day 22 "Starshine" portrait on the lake.


Columbia 26 with boats and scenery at Elephant Butte Lake.

Safefy Reminders/Recordatorios de Seguridad y Salud

To the tips from the Ute Lake sign, I would add at least
Reminders/Recordatorios:

Keep your speed and wake safe
Mantenga velocidad y estela seguro.

Obey no-wake zones
Mantenga zonas sin estela/sin rastro.

Watch for danger!
Mire por peligros! or Mantenga un buen mirador por peligros!

Got drain plug?
¿Hay tapón de drenaje?

Keep sailboats away from power lines.
Mantenga veleros fuera de las líneas eléctricas.

Elephant Butte Lake Race Area

This is a current example of the course/race area map we use for sailboat racing at Elephant Butte Lake.

Some people have suggested the idea of attaching a dinghy astern of a race committee signal boat in order to give it some protection from racing sailboats running into the RC boat, especially over-aggressive barging racers. Another suggestion is adding to the pin-line bias, to try to get people away from the boat end of the line. There is a problem with the dinghy-drop idea, however, in that the dinghy would count as part of the RC boat, increasing the area that racers have to avoid while approaching the line. Assuming a windward start on starboard tack, this narrows the approach lanes to the line, effectively making the line shorter. This is perhaps best shown by a drawing an example picture.

In this example, the effective length of the starting line is reduced by 20%. With more congestion and crowded comes less freedom of maneuver, less reaction time, and more chance of collision. If you drop the dinghy further astern of the RC boat, the problem becomes even worse.


While it is true that the effect would be less on a longer starting line, too-long of a line also has its problems. A long line magnifies the effect of line bias, providing a bigger incentive for boats to crowd the favored end. That brings the poor race officer back to the original problem of increased congestion, potential for collisions, etc.

Mid-winter visit to the Heron Lake Marina

Last Sunday morning, 3 February 2013, I visited the marina at Heron Lake in the mountain country of northern New Mexico. The marina was floating in about four inches of ice atop six feet of water. The main body of the lake is significantly deeper in many places, of course.

Water is still being taken from the lake, with about three weeks to go until the ice breaks up and several more weeks until significant spring runoff is likely.

I measured the water depth at a break in the ice and chopped a small hole in the ice to check minimum depth at a point closer to the shore.

Heron Lake is the home of the New Mexico Sailing Club and is owned and operated by the members. The marina is seasonally open, subject to weather and water levels, and rents overnight slips to the public as well as providing seasonal slips to members. Membership is open to all boat owners and includes some power boaters. Heron is a no-wake lake however, so the lake is primarily of interest to sailors, kayakers, and anglers who travel and fish at trolling or no-wake speed.

Rio Grande Yacht Club Race Committee thoughts for 2013

For racing, the duties of the race committee are to run a fair and fun race program:
Schedule races, get permits, write instructions, schedule and lead skipper/crew meetings, schedule race committee boat crews, train racers and RC crews, buy and maintain equipment, order prizes, handle protests and disputes, administer handicaps, score and publish results.

Races are more fair and fun when the courses are unbiased, do-able and suitable for the racers, and when the racers and race committee all know and follow the rules, and when the race committee is on hand to serve, help, and educate racers.

— Racing and cruising are vital to the health of the club, make the club visible in the area, and attract new members.
— Racing and cruising should be supported by the club, and at least partially subsidized.
Ideally, race fees would pay for prizes but the club would pay for equipment, training, and other costs.
— This is a good year to do safety and training. We have new and relatively new racers and are being met with a revised set of Racing Rules of Sailing for 2013-2016. Using the racing and safety rules and educating sailors about safety and racing is good because it will

• Make racing more fair and predictable;
• Reward good sailing;
• Help people get better at sailing;
• Reduce the danger of collision, damage, or injury;
• Meet the requirements for being allowed to run races by the State Parks;
• Reduce the chance of the club, leaders, and volunteers being found negligent and held liable in a legal action;
• Protect our reputation in the community;
• Put the club and our sailors in synch with how sailing is done throughout the world of sailing;
• Help US Sailing, SAIL Denver, and our insurance company support us in case of a problem.

To do this, we can
• Spread the race committee’s work among several people, with roles that meet all the RC’s jobs;
• Commit the club to support following the rules, running races properly to the best of our ability, providing training, supporting safety, and making a safety policy;
• Write Notices of Race, Sailing Instructions, and sign-ups that are clear, suited to our racing, and in harmony with the Racing Rules of Sailing;
• Teach racers the rules and how to use them via short talks at skipper/crew meetings, race committee training, the Foghorn and website, and being there to answer questions; focus on making the basic rules clear and on teaching “old hands” the changes to the rules;
• Train RC volunteers to set good courses that make the best of our conditions;
• Make sure volunteers have good equipment and information to run the races;
• Offer arbitration as a tool to teach the rules and prepare racers to use the protest system in a positive, low-key, less stressful way;
• Teach racers and the club to use the protest system as a teaching tool and offer alternative penalties where appropriate, and make protests less painful and more productive.

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Cruising
For cruising, the race committee chairman is tasked by our club’s rules to support cruising.
In years past we had raft-ups, as well as the “Got Water?” cruises during drought years. Cruising is also supported by good relations with the marinas and other sailing groups, including adding support for the yacht club tradition of reciprocal hospitality. Safety and seamanship training and cruising programs also help cruisers. Cruising activities such as raft-ups are a good way to reach out to sailors who are most active in the summer, when our racing program hasn’t been active.

This would be a good year to revive the RGYC’s cruising program by having cruiser events such as:

• Warm-weather raft-ups, where the club provides some food and supplies for gatherings in a cove or marina;
• Cruiser events such as a treasure hunt/pirate cruise, poker run, cruise to a marina/restaurant, predicted time race, handicapped start, or creative handicap race;
• Volunteering to do on-water events with groups such as the Parrotheads, power boaters, CG Aux, Hobie fleet, Windriders, etc.;
• Hosting an open-house for prospective sailors in conjunction with a marina; • Hands-on and interesting safety demonstrations working with the state parks, volunteers fire depts., CG AUX, or similar;
• Work with marinas, other clubs, and our cruising sailors to give us a welcome when traveling;
• Host “trailer cruises” to other lakes or to the ocean, especially if water issues limit what we can do during part of the year at the Butte.

Issues for both racing and cruising are the fun factor, and helping grow the club and keep members. Ideas:
• Publicize race results, and regattas and cruises to area news media;
• Consider alternative prizes to traditional trophies, especially for cruiser-oriented classes or events;
• Find ways to add value to memberships;
• Get more pictures of events on the web site and Foghorn, and more reliably; • Your idea here….

Thoughts for the Race Committee, Racers, Cruisers, and RGYC board:
• We should stick with Portsmouth; PHRF has more potential for arguments/fights and is much harder (and more expensive) to do right, especially the time-on-distance flavor of PHRF;
• Offering arbitration as a protest alternative could defuse some issues;
• Modifying penalties/handling for the new trash rule (and alternative penalties in general) might be a very good idea;
• We need to inventory, organize, and replace equipment – and do it again and again;
• Also needed will be new rule books, plus rule summary cards and maps to give out to racers;

• We should have good ramp use and water for the spring, but fall events may need changes depending on spring runoff and summer irrigation. We may not be able to have a full-scale Sunrise Regatta 50/25-miler in the fall and might want to make the “Sunset Regatta” into something fun for people who don’t usually race.

Notice to Mariners: More penalties for trash dumping

Environmental restrictions for boaters will tighten up with the coming of the New Year 2013, and from two different directions.

Racing sailors will be governed by the new Racing Rules of Sailing 2013-2016 which introduce a new Fundamental Environmental Principle and a new Rule 55, which prohibits intentional dumping of trash overboard. Someone who casually throws a water bottle or lunch sack overboard could face being protested and disqualified from a race -- or such penalty as a group organizing a regatta might wish to impose.

Organizing authorities -- i.e., yacht and sailing clubs who run sailboat races -- will need to think about how they handle this new change. This is one of the rules that can be changed by sailing instructions, so a club could choose to use alternative penalties or limit who can protest a boat under the new rule.

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In addition, the actual laws that regulate offshore dumping of garbage are being changed, and made more restrictive. It used to be the case that dumping was allowed except where prohibited; now the new presumption is that dumping is prohibited, except when allowed.

Some sailors have been discussing changes in the MARPOL ANNEX V limitations on offshore disposal of waste that will take effect with this new year because of implementation of new international treaties.

One question I've asked to people who may know more:

Will these changes have an effect upon how NASBLA-trained instructors (National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, who set standards for boating safety classes) teach boaters to comply with environmental responsibilities when offshore and will this require changes in the content of NASBLA-approved boater safety courses and the dumping restriction placards that some boats display?

I'm sorry not to have more authoritative links, but here's what I've seen:

http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/PollutionPrevention/Garbage/Documents/Annex%20V%20discharge%20requirements%20for%20website%203.pdf

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f57/marpol-annex-v-changes-94779.html


http://www.antiguamarine.com/Circulars%20MARPOL/2012_circular%2003-002-2012%20MARPOL%20Changes%20Garbage.pdf

Highlights from the Antigua letter that I've tried to glean are as follows:
The latter says that the new definition of garbage "considerably extends the scope of what comes under the requirements in Annex V. "

Also:
" “Discharge of all garbage into the sea is prohibited, except as provided otherwise in regulations 4,5,6 and 7 of this Annex”. (Regulation 3(1)).

This is a different approach from the previous version of the Annex which took a more permissive approach listing what could be discharged and assuming that discharge was normal."

And: Regulation 4 "adds new limits on the disposal of food wastes and includes restrictions on discharge of cargo residues." as well as adding some very large "Special Areas" have been defined where rules are even tighter.

More (mostly commercial) vessels will have to have garbage management plans.

New placards might look something like:

(begin quote)
The placards previously required in Regulation 9 are still required but a new approved format is included in the Guidelines for Implementation. The sample placards in the guidelines are the following for most applications:

For fixed or floating platforms and ships operating within 500 m of them the following format is approved.
Discharge of all garbage into the sea is prohibited except provided otherwise

The MARPOL Convention and domestic law prohibit the discharge of most garbage from ships. Only the following garbage types are allowed to be discharged and under the specified conditions.

Outside Special Areas designated under MARPOL Annex V:

* Comminuted or ground food wastes (capable of passing through a screen with openings no larger than 25 millimetres) may be discharged not less than 3 nautical miles from the nearest land.
* Other food wastes may be discharged not less than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land.
* Cargo residues classified as not harmful to the marine environment may be discharged not less than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land.
* Cleaning agents or additives in cargo hold, deck and external surfaces washing water may be discharged only if they are not harmful to the marine environment.
* With the exception of discharging cleaning agents in washing water, the ship must be en route and as far as practicable from the nearest land.

Inside Special Areas designated under MARPOL Annex V
* More stringent discharge requirements apply for the discharges of food wastes and cargo residues; AND
* Consult Annex V and the shipboard garbage management plan for details.

For all areas of the sea, ships carrying specialized cargos such as live animals or solid bulk cargoes should consult Annex V and the associated Guidelines for the implementation of Annex V.

Discharge of any type of garbage must be entered in the Garbage Record Book
Violation of these requirements may result in penalties.
(end quote)

South Monticello Point -- where Elephant Butte Lake ends

Elephant Butte Lake in southern New Mexico was once the state's largest lake, with a capacity of more than two million acre feet and several dozen square miles of surface area. Years of drought have taken their toll, however, as is seen in this view of the South Monticello Point boat ramp, and looking beyond to where the lake has retreated.

Mountains on the east side of Elephant Butte Lake, and wet lands where once was a deep and broad basin of the lake.

View forward as we head down Elephant Butte Lake on Saturday afternoon.

View aft back toward Rock Canyon.

We enjoyed a nice variety of wind conditions and managed to keep from getting too cool with kindly weather for our sail.
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Panoramic view of part of Marina del Sur not long before the evening's holiday Parade of Lights.

Lake Pleasant FS Regatta 3, Saturday Oct. 20, 2012, I. Beautiful Boats

4176. Thistles 1347 and 3761 with J/80 221 Sloop Dogg.

4177. Fleet start information rail on starboard bow of race committee boat; Thistle in background.

4178. Fireball Queso Suiza.

4179. Viper and Thistle.

4180. Race mark with two boats in the sun.

4181. Portrait of Monsoon (Corsair F27).

4182. Monsoon and her wake

4183. Santana 2023 Theresa Lynn and PHRF boats.

4184. PHRF spinnaker fleet beating upwind after their race start, Arizona Yacht Club fall series day 3 at Lake Pleasant.

4185. Monsoon in lighter air.

4186. 43625 Santana 2023 Teresa Lynn followed by Merit 25 8486 Kirsten Marie.

4188. Teresa Lynn taking off toward the sun.

4190. Teresa Lynn sunstruck at Lake Pleasant.

4502. Mark set boat and Catalina 22 9873 Frayed Not.

4192. Blue-hulled Catalina 22 3627 Elena Lis.

4193. Catalina 22 15092 (Pinon)

4195. Two Thistles flying their chutes.

4196. Melges no. 533, Flashpoint by the mark set boat.

4197. J/80 sloops 54 Kicks and 221 Sloop Dogg with Open 6.50 mini-transat in background.

4198. Merit with chutes and more.

Lake Pleasant FS Regatta 3, Saturday, Oct. 20, II: Sport & PHRF Boat Miscelleny

4200. A picture-pretty portrait of the Hobie 33 "Rolling in the Deep". These are more photos from October 20's race weekend at Lake Pleasant; I was too busy this past weekend to get pictures from on the water.

4201. J/80 Melissa Kay and her amigas from the sport boat fleet at Arizona's Lake Pleasant.

4202. Melges 24 no. 533 "Flashpoint" in the sportboat start.

4203. Sportboat start during Arizona Yacht Club fall series racing.

4204. Panoramic view of the PHRF fleet start, including Merit sloops.

4205. Flip board on the race committee boat showing PHRF spinnaker and multihull (CAT) fleets in sequence on an "X" course (windward-leeward with the leeward mark in front of the RC boat and slightly offset to the right), using the "S" (south) and "C" marks. Lake Pleasant, Arizona, Saturday, 20 October 2012 (third day of fall series racing).

4206. Pretty day on the water with Melges 69935 "TGIF" and Merit 841 "Blue Streak" among the PHRF fleet

4207. Hobie 33 "Rolling in the Deep"

4208. Evelyn 26 "Bitchen"

4209. The Lake Pleasant scene.