Newsletter of the United States Albacore Association

Albacore Speed Record – Or NotBy Doug Marsh

As reported by Peter Duncan in the previous Albacourier, several Veloci-tek GPS systems were used for recording data during the Internationals. A 22.2 knot maximum was reported on Thursday, even though the winds were heavier on Friday and even though people were attempting to obtain a maxi-mum speed on Friday. Much blogging ensued on Sailing Anarchy. Peter gave a web URL of the Thursday data. The attached plot shows the longitude and latitude of each time step when the “maximum” Thursday speed was recorded. Several people analyzed the data and said the claim of 22 knots was bogus. One blogger, “Mr. Swordfi sh,” noted that entering and leaving the “max” zone there was a massive change in both direction and speed, and he suggested this was not reasonable. While someone might try to argue that in a huge gust, the acceleration could happen, coupling it with the course change is most unlikely; the necessary deceleration simply would not happen that fast.

The boat is moving in a generally northerly direction. You’ll notice that there are actually TWO massive changes. The fi rst one is between time stamps 15:11:44 and 15:11:52 and the second, where the maximum speed was reported, is between time stamps 15:12:11 and 15:12:19. Most time stamps are at 2 or 3 second intervals, but here the intervals are 8 seconds! Scanning the data shows many other such oddball intervals. Clearly, some-time is amiss. Also, notice that, except for the large (roughly 60-70 meter) almost equal and opposite steps in longitude, the boat is traveling more or less northerly shifting to northwesterly. On either side of the two jumps, the speeds are 7 knots or less.

The question is can a GPS incorrectly record data? I have a Magellan 330 which I use for tracking ski runs. On any given day, I’ll occasionally record points that are clearly hundreds of meters in error (e.g., jumps from one side of a mountain to the other and then back, sometimes well outside the ski area boundary where we never ski). Although I don’t get time step information, I know these jumps do not last long because, upon returning to the real location, the position is within tens of meters downhill of where the track left reality. On the other hand, I’ve compared my GPS with the dual navigation systems on a small cruise ship in the Aegean Sea, and the three agree within just a few meters. But I have only done this for a minute or two. Based on these experiences, I know my hand held GPS is accurate overall but big errors can occur for time periods measured in tens of seconds. I conclude this is what is happening in that

Continued on page 10

February 2008

More Great Photos from Natls & Int’ls Pgs. 2, 11

Results from Nationals Pg. 4

Graham Allaway Wins - “Against All Odds” Pg. 5

Results from Internationals Pgs 6, 7

CBYRA High Point Award Pg. 7

History Corner Pg. 8

Sailor Profi les Pg. 9

USAA News - Schedules Pg. 12

In This Issue

bacourier

Coordinates

Tim

e

Peter and Ian Duncan Mary Neumann and Lianna Giovando

Jim and Susan Graham

Bob and Diane Goebes

Henry Pedro and Chris GortonChris Turner and Simon Maguire

Neville Herbert and Stephen Penfold

MORE AMAZING MOMENTS FROM

NAT’LS AND INT’LS 2007, CHESAPEAKE

BAY

Photos by

Wilda Heiss

2

Letter from the PresidentIt is February - Happy Valentines Day! - and concern

about skiing is a thought much closer to my daily routine than sailing, especially when one of those dreaded ice storms, or whatever the weather people call it, is about to paralyze the region again. But wait, there are others who come out in the middle of winter and bring sailing to the forefront. The February issue of Physics Today (www.physicstoday.org) features an article by Bryan D. Anderson “The physics of sailing”. If you ever wanted to know all of what keeps your boat moving (or not) aside from the crew’s determination, fitness, and harmony with wind and sea, this explains it. And I am glad to know that there are other scientist types who may get impatient with the winter weather and think about their favorite topic.

And just to let you know that the winter season is not hibernation time for the USAA leadership, you will find all kinds of useful information on our sailing season in this Albacourier issue. In the front is our regatta schedule with the first event, the USAA Mid-Winters in Sarasota just a few weeks away. While the preparation for this is in the able hands of the Sarasota Sailing Squadron with Bob Robinson acting as the point person here in the north, other events for the 2008 season are taking shape with our initiatives. Bob Bear has finalized the framework for the North American Championship, which we will be sailing in Rock Hall just across the Bay from my home. Please register early and take care of your accommodations right away. We are opti-mistic to see a sizable fleet at the starting line in May.

Please take also note of the other events listed on the North American Albacore schedule. Next to the regattas sailed north of the Mason Dixon Line, we have included in this schedule the major CBYRA sanctioned regattas in which Albacores regularly participate, sometimes as the largest fleet as in last year’s Albacore win (again) of the Virginia Governor’s Cup at Ware River. Note that we have selected the Admiral Byrd Regatta in Cambridge as the venue for the 2008 Mid Atlantic Championship. This should enhance our participation in that event and at the same time we are not as much straining our Association resources. Some long range planning is every member’s high priority task if we want to enhance our pleasure in sailing together. Look at the Canadian East Coast Albocore Championship, Shel-burne, Nova Scotia, in August. That may need some early vacation planning.

This early in the season I wish to challenge each of you to identify and bring out on your boat at least one novice sailor for a day sail and for a race to offer this candidate new member of our Association all aspects of the Albacore. Make her or him a more permanent offer for Albacore sail-ing, and in the process we may just double the number of Albacore enthusiasts. Be assured, I will be asking each of you about your progress!

Meanwhile, enjoy reading about all these upcoming events, cherish the pleasure of planning, and then savor the regattas as they line up for the season.

Ahoy, Rolf

2008 Executive Committee

President – Rolf Zeisler 8103 Ventnor Road, Pasedena, MD 21122 443.770.0775 rolf.zeisler@verizon.net Past President – Joanna Beaver 12765 Yacht Club Circle Fort Meyers, FL 33919 239.481.9753 703.276.3867 us8026@yahoo.com

Vice-President – Bob Bear 313 Gruenther Aveue Rockville, MD 20851 240.731.3971 morewind@comcast.net

Treasurer - Becky Craig 8170 Forest Glen Drive Pasedena, MD 21122 410.437.5242 becky.craig6@verizon.net

Secretary – Kay Marsh 1031 Graham Street Bethlehem, PA 18015 610.865.0844 klmarsh@rcn.com

Albacourier Editor – Sylvi Duncan 550 Ritchie Hwy #144 Severna, MD 21146-2925 410.431.5478 vtpiglet@aol.com

Specifications Chairman – Doug Marsh 1031 Graham Street Bethlehem, PA 18015 610.865.0844 dgmarsh1@rcn.com

International Albacore Association Representatives – Peter Duncan, Past President 550 Ritchie Hwy #144 Severna, MD 21146-2925 410.431.5478 410.431.5480 sailfaster@aol.com

Barney Harris 2624 South Ives Street Arlington, VA 22202 703.838.0644 703.927.0281 teamspot@hotmail.com

Lloyd Leonard 3509 Rodman Street NW 202.364.0565 202.263.1302 elm3@starpower.net

Website – www.albacore.org

3

Rank Sail No

Helm Crew Cntry Bow Number

Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Total Net

1st 8122 Barney Harris David Byron USA 60 1 3 2 6 6

2nd 8094 Teresa Miolla George Carter CAN 55 3 8 7 18 18

3rd 7970 Jasper Craig Becky Craig USA 37 6 6 6 18 18

4th 8018 Allan Measor Richard Piercey CAN 22 14 5 3 22 22

5th 7126 Erich Hesse Jillian Decker USA 61 15 2 11 28 28

6th 6434 Peter Duncan Ian Duncan USA 30 10 4 14 28 28

7th 6403 Norman Halstead Ruth Birkett UK 9 20 1 13 34 34

8th 8112 Mary Neumann Lianna Giovando CAN 15 13 16 5 34 34

9th 8037 Razvan Chris Maslowski CAN 5 5 10 21 36 36

10th 8057 Khin Thein Wint Aye USA 35 8 13 15 36 36

11th 7162 Warner Monteiro Sonja McAuley CAN 21 19 11 12 42 42

12th 7141 Ian Brayshaw Jeff Beitz CAN 29 17 21 8 46 46

13th 7992 Jeremy Rook Tim Rook UK 39 18 9 19 46 46

14th 7960 Matthew Hobss Deanna August CAN 34 12 18 16 46 46

15th 7414 Ann White Jean Paul Bureaud CAN 14 4 44.0 OCS 1 49 49

16th 6731 Adam Nicholson Jennifer Yap CAN 12 28 15 9 52 52

17th 6857 Marek Balinski Tomasz Balinski CAN 10 16 12 25 53 53

18th 7919 Raines Koby Abby MacInnes CAN 19 7 44.0 OCS 4 55 55

19th 7112 Jude Brown Christine Short USA 44 23 14 18 55 55

20th 6825 Neville Herbert Steve Penfold UK 7 2 44.0 OCS 10 56 56

21st 8120 Pasquale Leone Sarah Bury CAN 65 9 7 42.0 OCS 58 58

22nd 7700 Chris Gorton Henry Pedro CAN 23 21 22 22 65 65

23rd 7966 Robert Robinson Jill Robinson USA 51 24 25 17 66 66

24th 7371 Marty Minot Jordan Minot USA 24 27 20 20 67 67

25th 7944 Heather MacNaughton

David Dunphy CAN 70 11 17 42.0 OCS 70 70

26th 6660 Alan Humphreys John Morgan CAN 11 22 23 26 71 71

27th 8027 Daphne Byron Nate Bokil USA 31 32 19 23 74 74

28th 8021 Jim Graham Susan Graham USA 26 26 26 28 80 80

29th 8008 Jean Simmons Liz Hassall UK 25 30 31 24 85 85

30th 8095 Robert Bear Andrew Shuermann USA 43 25 30 30 85 85

31st 8121 Milutin Adjacic Maxim Newby CAN 20 31 28 32 91 91

32nd 7943 Dan Miller Jill Williams/TBD USA 38 36 29 29 94 94

33rd 7493 Jason Ipe Ernest Ayukawa USA 56 33 27 35 95 95

34th 7971 David Wallerstein Jon Stanger/ Robbie Blackburn

USA 80 41 24 31 96 96

35th 7378 Rolf Zeisler Sue/Doug Foord USA 58 34 35 27 96 96

36th 7124 Michael Sarabeth Patch USA 46 29 32 42.0 DNC 103 103

37th 7455 Doug Howson David Odell USA 33 38 36 37 111 111

38th 7492 Greg Jordan USA 40 35 44.0 OCS 33 112 112

39th 7994 Steven Brown Frank Guthrie UK 42 37 33 42.0 DNC 112 112

40th 7380 John Wilson Jonathan Wilson UK 66 40 38 34 112 112

41st 8096 Graham Allaway Guy Montgomery USA 50 43 34 38 115 115

42nd 7129 Dave Yemc Peter Yemc USA 57 39 37 39 115 115

43rd 7964 Scott Snyder Ann Savege USA 47 42 39 36 117 117

44th 6900 Raheel Khan Dean Adi USA 67 44.0 DNC 44.0 DNC 42.0 DNC 130 130

44th 8083 Lloyd Leonard TBD USA 75 44.0 DNC 44.0 DNC 42.0 DNC 130 130

U.S. Nationals 2007, Presidential Fleet

For Results of U.S. Nationals 2007, Challenger Fleet, See Page 11

4

Graham Allaway Wins “Against All Odds”By Peter Duncan

In a very tight series at the US Nationals last October, Graham Allaway and Guy Montgomery finished one point ahead of the teams of Jason Ipe/Earnest Ayukawa and Peter/Ian Duncan to take the “Against All Odds” award for 2007. Graham was presented with a new Velocitek GPS tracking devices donated by sponsors Veloci-tek and Hapco. The SC-1 unit can be used in practice sessions to learn how to make your boat go faster. Graham and Guy may not be at the front of the fleet when scored based on who crosses the line first, but they were the ones who showed the most improvement and beat their average time by the most to win the award.

Most sailing racers score a regatta according to “line honors”- that is according to the order in which boats cross the finish line. The “Against All Odds” award is based on a rescoring of the entire regatta using “personal” handicaps. Much like a golf event, each skipper is given a handicap rating based on performance against the rest of the fleet over several years of sailing. Since it is a “performance” based handicap, each person is judged against how they perform against the average time of the entire fleet racing in that event. Over the past four years the Albacore class has been collecting data from the fleet at major regattas and keeping track of what is the aver-age time to finish a race, and how particular sailors do against that average. Sailors who have not participated in any of these timed events are assigned a provisional handicap based on where they might have finished in a recent event relative to a skipper with an established handicap.

Details of how the handicap scoring and the current rankings can be found on the web at http://www.albacore.org/USA/results/handicap_info.asp.

The thing that makes this award so difficult to win is that each time you improve by sailing above your average, your handicap is recalculated, effectively raising the bar. This year the helms who improved the most over their average were:

1) Graham Allaway2) Jason Ipe3) Peter Duncan4) Teresa Miolla5) Barney Harris

It is interesting to note that Barney, one of the best sailors in the class, continues to rank in this list indicating that he just never lets up…he just keeps figuring out how to make an Albacore go faster all the time.

At the end of the 2007 season, the top ranked helms in the class are:

Boat Skipper Handicap # Races8122 Harris 107.7573 597512 Turner 105.9127 67970 Craig 105.4986 537126 Hesse 105.1056 14

Average sailors have a handicap of about 100. Go on line to see where you stack up among all Albacore sail-ors who have participated in races where we have collected data.

Many interesting observations can be made from this handicap information. Ranking all boats at the end of the year by handicap gives you an indication of where you stack up on average in the fleet. You can also see how much you have to improve to get to the top levels of the fleet. Marty Minot can get to the top of the fleet with an 7% improvement where as Jude Brown needs only a 4% improvement his performance to be challenging for top honors in the class. Looking whether your handicap went up or down over the course of a regatta or the course of a season lets you know if you are sailing better or worse than your average.

Using the handicap scores gives an extra dimension to the racing. It gives those who may not be at the front of the fleet a benchmark for improvement and another way for sailors to learn how to refine their skills. And it is one more reason that everyone should come to the big regattas so we can collect data and enter you into the run-ning for the 2008 Against All Odds Award.

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6

CBYRA HIGH POINT AWARD

By Daphne ByronHere are the results of the 2007 CBYRA High Point

trophy calculations:

Boat # First Name

Last Name

High Point Score

Place

6434 Peter Duncan 1.0722 17456 Bob Bear 0.6583 28027 Daphne B. Byron 0.5876 38021 Jim Graham 0.5248 47378 Rolf Zeisler 0.3780 5

As always, you have to get out there and race in a mini-mum of 5 races to qualify. So despite having ten Albacore

sailors as members of CBYRA, only half of them qualified.

And, perhaps a less well known factor, is that you get bonus points for racing “out of area”. For us, Cambridge is the only club located ourside our area. If you raced there,

your total score is multiplied by 1.25.

So, last year’s winner is PETER DUNCAN! Followed by Bob Bear in second. Congratulations!

CBYRA Sanctioned Events for Albacores 2008

May 17 - 18 USAA North American Champs Rock HallMay 24 - 25 PRSA Memorial Day Regatta PRSAJune 7 - 8 Dave Irey Regatta West River SCJuly 19 - 20 USAA Mid Atlantics Cambridge YCAug 2 - 3 Governor’s Cup Ware RiverAug 9 10 Fishing Bay Annual FBYCAug 30 - 31 West River Annual Regatta West River SCSep 6 - 7 Presidents Cup PRSAOct 11 - 13 USAA Nationals Ware River SC

For complete 2008 USAA Regatta schedule, see back

cover - page 1236th

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7

Think Spring, Think Sailing!Winter is the perfect time to get you and your boat

set for the springtime season ahead.We’ve got parts for your boat and the clothes to keep

you warm and dry.

Rely on HAPCO MARINE for all your boat rigging needs as well as lifejackets, wet-

suits, spray tops, gloves, boots, and sunglasses. For more information on products, availability, and

ordering, contact:

Peter Duncan, HAPCO MARINE, sailfaster@aol.com, 410-431-5480

±±±±

USAAHistoryCorner

15 AND 30 YEARS AGOWinter 1993

Regatta Announcements and Fleet NewsRehoboth Bay Sailing Association was selected as the site for the US and international championships

in October. Mid-Atlantics are schedule for Tred Avon in May. Hunterdon fl eet had a good winter of semi-nars, interest from prospects and is making plans to purchase a fl eet boat to attract new sailors. PRAF fl eet

captain, Joanna Byron, announced that the fl eet grew by 18 members and they are kicking off a membership drive to get old and unsailed boats back out on the water. Monmouth Boat Club survived a 100-year fl ood with

white caps across the parking lot and Fleet Captain Doug Howson announced his move west to start a San Fran-cisco Bay Albacore fl eet, and a family with his new wife to be, Bonnie Hines.

Build a Dolly From Old SparsDoug Howson of the Monmouth fl eet provided a detailed article of how to build a light weight dolly from old spars. We’ll get a copy posted to the web.

Winter 1978Class RulesAlbacourier included detailed discussion of a proposed new rule to better control hull shape. It had been recog-nized that fi berglass hulls were fl exible and just because one boat from a mold measured in spec, the next might not. Chief Measurer, Randy Graves provided an article on how each fl eet could make a tool to check boats for the “rise of fl oor” measurement, and Specifi cations Chair, John Luard explained the need to better control the Albacore hulls shape to keep racing fair and fun.

PRSA NewsOver 20 boats participated during the previous summer in the “Wednesday Night” B-fl eet training “It gives the new Albacore sailor an introduction to sailboat racing in a casual relaxed atmosphere with more experienced sailors serving as crew and coach, “ according to Fleet Lieutenant Bill Fry who was in charge of the program. The training ended with a race series during the month of August. Jon Waynick was 1st, Joe Boyer 2nd and Pat and Peter Kuch were 3rd.

Eighteen Albacores qualifi ed for the PRSA fall series by sailing more than half of the races. Bob Harwood, Dave Wallerstein, Roger Thomas and Parker Jayne took top honors. Bill Buck was 8th.

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Originally developed by Storer Sails in the 1970’s, this proven design has won numerous World, North American and National events over three decades. Recent results include:

- 2007 US Nationals 3rd, 5th, 6th, Canadians 5th - - 2007 Mid-Atlantics, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, places- 2006 US Nationals, 2nd, 3rd, 5th places- 2005 North Americans 2nd

For information and pricing in USA contact:Peter Duncan, USA Sobstad Representative, 410-431-5480, sailfaster@aol.com Sobstad was a proud sponsor of 2007 Internationals

New “Old” Name,Same Fast Sails Sobstad

Alicija BulotaThis next profile highlights a young sailor and

member of USAA. Just to be clear how young she is, let me start by saying that Alicija is only a Sophomore at Broadneck High School near Annapolis.

Alicija grew up in Houston, Texas riding horses and swimming. The closest she got to sailing was hearing saililng tales from her dad. After her family moved to the Annapolis area about two years ago, her father tried hard to convince her to check out the Broad-neck sailing team. Familiarity prevailed, so during her Freshman year at Broadneck High, Alicija stuck with the Varsity Swim Team. A recurring knee injuring forced her to reevaluate her commitment to swimming, and so she finally decided to give sailing a try. That next summer, she attended a local sailing program. The instructor for that program turned out to be none other than the sailing coach for her high school’s sail-ing team. She loved the camp, and now loves sailing on the team. In her own words, Alicija describes her new found passion as follows: “Stepping onto a boat is like stepping into an alternate reality. Suddenly you can control only one object in the middle of nothing, leaving everything to be imagined.”

When asked how she became involved with Alba-cores, Alicija best describes this occurrence herself, “My interest in Albacores was not something that was chosen, but instead something that just chose us. My father and I had been talking about buying a boat that wasn’t too fancy or too expensive, and that he would feel comfortable having me sail with another friend. We were driving around our neighborhood one day and found this old beat-up boat on someone’s lot. It looked like it hadn’t been moved in years. Just as we had pulled over to look at it, the family that owned the property pulled up the driveway. My dad and the gentleman started talking and it turns out that when the family bought the house, the boat kinda ‘came with it’. My dad said he would take it off his hands and the man said ‘Great, my wife’s been yelling at me to get it out of the yard since we moved here!’ And thus the sanding and painting and re-rigging began. This was in Febru-ary 2007…we have yet to sail it.”

So far Alicija has no Albacore racing experience, but she’s been racing with Severn Sailing Association for a season, and claims it’s the most fun she’s ever had. She says she’s made a “boat load” of friends.

For all her youth, Alicija’s wisdom shines through when she states emphatically, “Just keep on sailin!” You go girl!

John DuncanThe following profile comes straight from the pen

of John Duncan. It is so full of passion and pride for a lifetime of sailing, that I would do it a disservice to rewrite this in the third person. John alone says it best:

I grew up, from 2 yrs to 13 yrs in Petersburg, Vir-ginia, with my summers spent in Muskoka, Ontario.

We did not have a sailboat but my Uncle George and Dr. Hincks, next door, did and were avid racing sailors. Their favorite boat was a gaff-rigged scow type boat with bilge boards and twin rudders. She was the fastest boat on our lakes and had to give a 9-1/2 min-ute handicap to the other boats. With the right breeze, she could do this and win. Dr. Hincks and his son, Bill, taught me the fundamentals of sailing in a fourteen foot cat-rigged Akryod dinghy. Later, in our teen years, my best friend, Don Grant, and I would borrow fourteen and sixteen foot sloop-rigged boats from friends. In these days, we had not heard about tell-tail threads on the luff of jibs, so we learned to sail upwind with the jib “on the ragged edge.” (Don, in 1967 became Albacore North American Champ and was second in the US Championships.)

In the 1960s the Albacore was selected as the boat of choice on our lake in Muskoka and I acquired Gram-pian #775, Tattle Tale.

About this time, in the autumn of 1965 I attended the Canadian Albacore Championship Regatta. My sailing was a disaster, finishing somewhere near the bottom of the “A” Fleet. Otherwise, it proved to be a success for all of us in the Class. A group of the lead-ers in the Canadian Albacore Association, asked me to a get-together in the Windermere House, headquarters for the regatta. There, they proposed to me, as the only American at the regatta, that I start a US Albacore Association. They offered to help by giving me the names of a number of Americans who were known to own Albacore. I was sucked in and that fall got together a group of sailors from the Potomac River who had re-cently purchased Albacore from Grampian and Whitby dealers in the area. Enthusiasm carried us a long way and before a year was over we were asked by the Potomac River Sailing Association to remove our-selves from the Handicap Fleet and start a fleet of our own. By the end of that year we were the largest and best organized fleet in PRSA. Charlie Loutrel, a Tufts Engineering graduate and former member of the Tufts collegiate championship sailing team, whose father had brought the first group of Fairey Marine Albacore to Cape Cod, joined our fleet and, with some urging, agreed to enter the 1968 North American Champion-

Continued on page 109

Sailor Profi les

ships to be held in Hamilton, Ontario. To everyone’s amazement, this youngster, Charlie, representing the Potomac River Fleet, won the regatta.

In 1969 I heard of a ten-year old Fairey Marine Albacore in Hyannis Port that was for sale, so sight unseen two of my sons and I drove 400 miles to Cape Cod and purchased #342. I sanded it down to bare wood and each evening would come in for dinner, saying to Carol, “Never Again will I buy a wooden boat.” But all those hours spent communing with the boat paid off and when Peter and I went to the North American Championship Regatta at Buffalo Canoe Club in August, I sailed the best regatta I have ever had, placing seventh out of about fifty boats. With winds up in the mid-20s, I took Milton Roth as crew, leaving 11 year-old Peter on shore. (Milton was the owner of US #1 Albacore.) As we sailed late out to the start area, seeing signal flags flying, and then coming down, I started on the gun and split with the fleet, to arrive at the weather mark in first place, then holding first all the way to finish well in the lead. That night I developed second thoughts and the next morning, went to the RC Chairman and asked him if his start was at the scheduled time. He said, “No, it was five minutes late.” Much to Milton’s dismay, I asked to be with-drawn from the first race, realizing that I had started on the five-minute gun. No wonder we had such a good lead! Peter sailed the next two races with me and then Milton came back on board for Race #4 with the South-erly winds in excess of thirty miles per hour. The Lake Erie swells were so large that sitting in a trough one could only see the AL on the sail of a boat two troughs away. Have you ever sailed across the wind, on the face of a huge roller, planing faster than you’ve ever gone before? This time Milton was pleased that we got a fair and square first place.

My wife, Carol, having been a world-class ice skat-ing competitor, was great in our early days of owning and racing our Albacore. She would hike with her whole body outboard and her forward leg upward, wrapped around the shroud. As the five children got old enough to sail, Carol bowed out. The pressure was on by family members for use of the boat and as time went on various Albacore came into the family. Some-times we have had as many as four or five Albacores on the start line, all skippered by family members. My personal boat now is Gidget, #267, and one of our sons, Chris sails his Bertha, #627. As Peter, our eldest son, got better and we would often crew for one an-other, I pointed out to him that the reason he seemed to win more races than I was because he always had the better crew!

Sailing has been a wonderful teaching medium within the family, learning to play hard but fair, as it is

one of the few sports in which the participants are also the rule-enforcers.

attached plot and therefore the speed claims are bogus.

As to why the GPS temporarily screws up, I do not know. Magellan support has never responded to my questions on this, and the theory does not seem to allow this. Velocitek did not respond to my question as to the cause of the time step change. Les Crane and I both speculated this could be due to temporary loss of the WAAS correction satellite. I’d expect the processor analyzing the data to hold the last WAAS information, but maybe it doesn’t. Furthermore, the co-ordinate shifts in the data seem outside the tolerance for a non-WAAS system. Another guess is that this is figment of only a few satellites being captured. When we ski, one might assume that the surrounding moun-tains would result in only a couple of satellites being seen, but some of the big jumps have been on trails where there is a lot of sky. Furthermore, although loss or gain of satellites over open water as satellites move occurs, there should be sufficient satellites in view that loosing or gaining one should not have a significant effect. Nevertheless, the fact that the time steps jump from the 2-3 seconds to 8 seconds implies something serious has occurred, and it isn’t just acceleration or deceleration.

How fast were boats really traveling? Several blog-gers made various claims. My son Nathan, who has done very extensive data analysis in his professional work, calculated 16 knots. Nathan sent me the data already sorted and ready for analysis, and he directed me to a time interval at 14:07:45. After reviewing the data, I agree with him. The data is smooth, the time steps are all 2 or 3 seconds, and the acceleration up to and deceleration down from the maximum seems reasonable.

If you buy a Velocitek and use it for tuning, you’ll surely be looking over minutes of time so these glitch-es won’t be of concern; just don’t use them to claim a maximum speed without careful analysis! Also, you probably want to avoid trying to land an airplane using a hand held GPS (I’ve heard that the next generation of air traffic control will use GPS. If this includes using GPS for landing, we should all hope those systems are not using the same algorithms!) Oh, and if you still believe the 22 knot, I have a bridge to sell you.

But even 16 knots is impressive. However, it is probably not the maximum since Friday was windier. I have the Friday raw data; I’ll report on my findings in a future Albacourier.

Speed, continued from page 1:

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Profile: John Duncan cont.

U.S. Nationals 2007, Challenger Fleet

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Greg and Kesshi Jordan

Adam Nicholson

Lars Rathjen

Pauline and Jeremy Rook

Chris Gorton

Jean Simmons and Liz Hassall

MORE GREAT

FACES ON THE BAY, OCTOBER

2007

Photos by

Sylvi Duncan

Rank Sail No

Helm Crew Cntry Bow Number

Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Total Net

1st 8016 Ralph Glass Cathyann White CAN 13 3 1 1 5 5

2nd 7979 Diane Goebes Bob Goebes USA 36 2 3 2 7 7

3rd 8019 John Hudson Sarah Stuart CAN 45 4 2 3 9 9

4th 6894 David Tator John Liang USA 17 1 4 5 10 10

5th 7753 Paul Gimson Clive Gimson UK 16 5 5 4 14 14

6th 8026 Jim Hyatt Carolyn Long USA 32 7.0 DNC 6 6 19 19

7th 7000 Matthew Edwards

TBD USA 27 7.0 DNS 7.0 DNC 7.0 DNC 21 21

2008 U.S. Albacore Association Tentative Schedule Mar 28-30 Mid Winters Sarasota Sailing Squadron Sarasota, FL May 17-18 North Americans Rock Hall Rock Hall, MD May 24-25 PRSA Spring Potomac River Sailing Assoc. Alexandria, VA June 7-8 Dave Irey Regatta West River Sailing Club Galesville, MD June 14 Spring Fling Monmouth Boat Club Monmouth, NJ June 14-15 Fun Daze Kerr Dam Kerr Dam, NC June 14-15 Nepean One Design Reg. Nepean Sailing Club Ottawa, ON July 19-20 Mid Atlantics Cambridge Yacht Club Cambridge, MD Aug 2-3 Virginia Governor’s Cup Ware River Yacht Club Gloucester, VA Aug 9-10 Fishing Bay Fishing Bay Yacht Club Deltaville, VA Aug 22-24 CAN East Cst Chmpnship Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club Shelburne, Nova Scotia Aug 24 Junior Regatta West River Sailing Club Galesville, MD Aug 29 Long Dist. Race West River Sailing Club Galesville, MD Aug 30-Aug 31 Labor Day Regatta West River Sailing Club Galesville, MD Sept 6-7 Pres/Leukemia Cup Potomac River Sailing Assoc. Alexandria, VA Sept 20 Tuna Bowl Monmouth Boat Club Monmouth, NJ Sept 26-28 Canadian Nationals CORK (Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Kingston, ON Oct 11-13 U.S.Nationals Ware River Yacht Club Gloucester, VA see website for schedule updates: albacore.org/USA/schedule.asp

USAA 2008 Schedule Highlights

By Bob Bear, USAA Vice-PresidentI’m starting to feel really good about 2008. And it’s not just because we will have a new president come January 20 of the following year -- I’m talking about the presidency of the country -- not USAA, but USAA has a great regatta schedule lined up too.Mid-Winters at Sarasota got pushed back to the last weekend in March because Easter comes so early this year. (My priest tells me that no-one now alive will see such an early Easter again in their lifetime.) So, this year we shouldn’t quite have to plan on chipping ice off the boat and trailer before heading south. (Well, probably some Canadians will.) The NOR and registration form can be downloaded at this site: http://www.sarasotasailingsquad.com/2008ODMNOR.jpg. It looks like they managed to hook Jim Barr into working this event for another year. I don’t know if they’re holding his wife and kids hostage, but if they are I had nothing to with it. Bob Robinson is coor-dinating travel / transportation arrangements, so get in touch with him for more information. Get your registration in the mail by March 17 for the discounted early registration fee.We are hosting North Americans this year at Rock Hall Yacht Club May 17-18. The camping there is great. For those of you looking to rent a motel room, make your reservations as soon as possible. Although there are many motels in Chestertown, Queenstown and Kent Island, they are likely to be booked because of a college graduation and some other events that weekend. We have some rooms block booked right in Rock Hall. (See the NOR). But if those fill up and you cannot locate a room, give me a call with as much advance notice as possible. I will help you find a room or arrange to billet you. The event is shaping up really nicely. There is a wide sailing area with more than enough room for a one mile diameter circle. We have both crane and beach launch options; if you have a dolly bring it to avoid the crane line. Dinner is included in the registration fee ($70 for USS members), and the meal I had there a few weeks ago was incredible. Plan on coming out the evening before the regatta; the town of Rock Hall has restaurants in all price ranges worth exploring.And, while you’re coming to North Americans, why not take an extra day to hone up your racing skills? We will con-duct an on-the-water race clinic the day before on Friday, May 16, also at Rock Hall. We will be shooting video so that evening you can see yourself perform the techniques that might use some improvement. We are charging just $15 to defray the cost of this.Looking ahead, Mid-Atlantics will be run as part of the Annual Cambridge Regatta this year. Please note the change of schedule to July 19-20 rather than the prior weekend as previously announced. And Rolf is putting to-gether the U.S. Nationals on our traditional Columbus Day weekend in October at Ware River.

2008 USAA Junior Regatta August 24, West River Sailing Club Galesville, MD

USAA News