Ray Tries Catching a Ride

America's Cup 34 - 9 and Done? Korea & Venezia Onboard

Ggggrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

Although there hasn't been any official word on the America's Cup website, Cupinfo.com and North American Sailor via Yachting World, are reporting that the 9th challenger is from Korea; the White Tiger Challenge - the White Tiger being the symbol of Korea.

White Tiger Challenge

The 10th challenger (?) is a company called Venice Challenge Srl, evidently also called Venezia Challenge. They have just filed their official Notice of Challenge so I don't know if that makes them #10 or #11.

Tomorrow is the last day for registration. I wonder if any other teams are deadline pushers, such as myself, and sign up tomorrow.

America's Cup 34 - 在中国加入美洲杯！

China signs up as a Challenger for the America's Cup!

Officially, they are called China Team but they are the 8th team to formally announce themselves as Challengers.

Background Notes: 
This will be the second time China has participated in the America's Cup, the other time being for the 32nd America's Cup where they finished last in the Louis Vitton Cup in 2007. China Team apparently has the full support of the Chinese government (that's what Americascup.com tells me) which I presume means that the Chinese government is funding the team. No news sources has really mentioned that but I think its important and something to think about.

Now that you have the lowdown on China Team, I have included, for your visual delight, a lovely video of Hong Kong Harbor circa 2007 set to Jimmy Buffett's version of Slow Boat to China.

America's Cup 34 - Video of AC45

Ready for some sweet video of the AC45's on the water?

Yeah, me too.

Funky Friday - Hangover Edition

My weekend got off to an early start last night and so while I nurse this hangover, please feel free to make yourself feel better (as I did) by watching the below video and being glad you are not responsible for the mishaps that occur.

Speaking of Racing...

I have recently signed up for a bunch of races for this upcoming season!

I'm pretty stoked since Tango Too, the boat I sail with on Wednesdays, only does a few races here and there; mostly due to lack of crew.  Now I'll get to do some more intense, and longer races.

So far, I've signed up to crew in the Coast Guard Cup, the Governors Cup, Annapolis to Solomons Race, and the Screwpile.

The Coast Guard Cup is supposed to be 80 nautical miles (nm) depending on the forecast and is scheduled to be around 24-30 hours of straight sailing. It'll definitely be the longest race I'll have ever been a part of. That'll be another notch on the ole sailing belt.

The Governor's Cup goes from Annapolis down to St. Mary's and as an Asst. Harbor Master (in Annapolis), I got to talk to a bunch of people who sailed it and most of them had a pretty good time. Except the year when it was almost dead-downwind without the wind part. A bunch of boats grabbed moorings on their way back up the Bay and bitched about the sun and lack of wind. Fingers crossed, that doesn't happen this year.

The Annapolis to Solomons Race is pretty similar to the Governor's Cup (course wise) except its a little bit shorter, finishing at Solomons Island instead of St. Mary's.

I don't know much about the Screwpile but I've always heard its a bunch of fun from the people that have sailed it. It takes place in Southern MD but I think it'll be worth the drive.

Side note: I also got into law school and tonight is Poker Night so things have been going alright lately...

America's Cup 34 - Two More Teams Signed Up!

Picture Source: americascup.com

With only 1 week to go before the deadline for entries is up, two additional teams have signed up as challengers in the  34th America's Cup!
With Emirates Team New Zealand having also officially signed on, this brings the total number of competitors to 10.

This means that the current list of teams for America's Cup 34 is as follows; Aleph (France), Artemis Racing (Sweden), Emirates Team New Zealand (New Zealand), Energy Team (France), Mascalzone Latino (Italy), Team Australia, three undisclosed teams and the defender of the cup, BMW ORACLE Racing.

Sweet! 
I enjoy seeing more teams because frankly, I think its more exciting.

America's Cup 34 - New Zealand, Don't Break My Heart!

Team New Zealand has finally shored up the support of Emirates Airline, marking a substantial step towards becoming a legitimate challenger in the 34th America's Cup!

Finally...

The Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) have committed to participating in the America's Cup World Series (the AC45 catamaran which they got to sail on today) while they secure additional funding for their AC72 campaign.

I suppose that makes sense. It's not like racing 72 ft catamarans is expensive or anything.

ETNZ Managing Director Grant Dalton said the team will be making an announcement about their involvement in the AC72 in a few months.

First time out on the AC45 for ETNZ. Photo: ©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Borrowed from CupInfo.com

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

"I find your lack of Guinness disturbing"

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's time to order a Guinness, sit back, and enjoy some Irish tunes!

Source

GODHATESJAPAN.COM

Check out http://godhatesjapan.com if you haven't already. Someone beat Westboro Baptist Church to the punch and I'm so very glad that they did. He/She really shut down an avenue for hate in a really cool and positive way and I think that isn't common enough.

Donate if you can. Good karma is never a bad thing.


Don't forget who helped us after Hurricane Katrina...

Mission - Almost Accomplished!

1 more letter of recommendation needs to show up soon so I can finish my law school applications!

Luck of the Irish

I love St. Patrick's Day.

I have for as long as I can remember but I really developed a fondness for it when I could drink on St. Patrick's Day.

The problem is that not everyone is really up for going out on St. Patrick's Day since it tends to fall in the middle of the week; or at least has for the past few years. This ranks pretty high on the lame scale so, in response, I tend to enjoy St. Patrick's Week. This runs from Mardi Gras (today - Fat Tuesday) to the weekend after March 17th (more like 2 weeks but still...). This allows me plenty of time to get any neceesacry work done, and still hang out still signing Irish folk songs like Black Velvet Band and Wild Rover at the bar.

So this year, the plan is to have all my law school applications in by the end of this week; I'm hoping for Thursday. In honor of Mardi Gras, tonight, I'm going to 9:30 Club here in DC with a friend of mine to see the Pogues on their farewell tour. Should be some pretty good stuff. One of their songs is a personal favorite that is on my current sailing mix and I thought you all would enjoy.



After I get all the applications turned in, I'll be making some noise this weekend at the Shamrock Fest '11 where one of my all-time favorite Irish bands, The Dropkick Murphys, will be playing. With any luck, I'll also be making it up to see This The Rescue, a friend's band playing up in Towson that same night.


And on St. Patrick's Day, I'll probably try to get to our neighborhood Irish pub before it gets packed and enjoy me some Guinness.

So wish me luck on these applications! Its going to be a long couple of nights.

PS: Beware the Ides of March.

Blogoversary - 1 Yr!

One year ago, I put up my first post.


It was a bit frightening but kind of a relief at the same time. I'd spent several weeks going back and forth about wether I should even start a blog. Once I'd decided to do it, then the questions became whether I should use wordpress, blogger, typepad or any of other blogging options...


And what was I going to write about? I never get to sail as much as I want to and my writing is lacking in the compelling department.



But, I pulled up Blogger, and I started anyway.


Everyone from Adam Turinas, my2fish, Baydog, Craig of H2uh0 - Bonehead Moves on the Water,  Conjuminando and many others, have all been very supportive and its certainly been nice to have some readers. So a shout out to all of you for reading my every now-and-again posts and I hope I can give you a lot more to read and look forward to in the coming years.
 
Special shout-out to Dave for a much appreciated and well timed Thanksgiving email that I never returned. Thanks for reading!


I know my posts have sometimes strayed to things less than nautical but I suppose that is what winter does to a sailor; at least to me. I focus on other things so I don't have to think about missing sailing. The holidays pass by and there's just that moment where it hits you; and in an instant, the sailing itch is back. You're ready for the breeze and spray and you can't wait to hit the water.  Maybe its not the same when you have sailing weather all year round [coughCaliforniacough].  I don't know. Over here on the East Coast however, I'm very ready to start sailing this year. Hopefully work and my foray into law school aren't too demanding this season. Still trying to buy a boat as well. If only I could get my dad to upgrade to the Vagabond 42' he's been lusting after...hhmmmm.....