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The Viper 640 Class Association held an informal test sail in Annapolis this past weekend and the event drew nearly 20 interested sailors. The sailors enjoyed a sunny 10- to 15-knot breeze and rides on one of the three 20-foot sportboats now making a play for the US market (the others being the Laser SB3 and the Melges 20). The Vipers have a jump on the others as there are now 73 boats sailing in five fleets around the United States.
The December 2007 issue of PropTalk Magazine is on the docks. It is available (for free!) at more than 800 locations throughout the mid-Atlantic. The issue includes a wrap up of the U.S. Powerboat Show, a special feature on the Wye Island Electric Boat Marathon, and a look-ahead to the upcoming winter boat show season.
With an eye on the approaching holiday season, the issue includes a guide to Chesapeake Light Parades as well as a section highlighting gift ideas for boaters.
The issue's Dreamboat is Xanadu, a Horizon 86 that visited the Bay earlier this year. The December destination is Cape Charles, VA.
The issue includes a feature detailing the story of two Bay boaters and their restoration efforts involving a classic Trumpy.
Fans of Bay-built boats will turn, as always, to the Chesapeake Boatshop Reports (sponsored by Interlux).
All of this--plus a Chesapeake Calendar, race news, tides and currents for November 15 to December 14, fishing forecasts, and a boatload of applicable and valuable ads--are in a FREE 68-page package. Nice!
We've made a slight change to the PropTalk''s tag line starting with this issue: it had been "Celebrating The Chesapeake in Powerboats" and the new tagline is "Chesapeake Bay Powerboating." It's a subtle difference but an important one. Thanks for supporting PropTalk!
Fishing Bay Yacht Club (Deltaville) has been named as recipient of the 2007 US SAILING National One Design Regatta Award. FBYC was named for the outstanding job they did in hosting and administering the 2007 Flying Scot North American Championships. The US SAILING One Design Council gives a national award in five different categories each year. One-hundred twenty Flying Scots raced at FBYC in late June; it was the largest regatta in the Flying Scot class history. Noel Clinard was the Event Chairman and John McCarthy was Principal Race Officer.
Fishing Bay YC website
- Report from Lin McCarthy
- Photo from the Flying Scot North Americans by Renny J. Diloreto
Last month, PropTalk magazine editor Joe Evans was walking across the Eastport Bridge when he spotted a pair of classic Tiffany Cockrell-built creations nestled between more ordinary yachts at the Annapolis Yacht Basin. He reports: 
The oldest was a 1962, 40-foot sedan cruiser belonging to Cockrell’s son Randy, who runs the family’s boatyard on Virginia’s Northern Neck. This boat is pictured above.
The other was a 1973 44-foot sportfishing boat owned by Randy’s sister Becky, who is most often the voice on the line when you call the marina. Alliz, the cruiser, was built using mahogany planks on white oak frames. She entertained three or four owners before returning to the Northern Neck and the Cockrell family. She is powered by a brace of 464 Chrysler gas engines. Not Mine, the 44-footer, was originally built as a demo boat. However, Becky and her husband couldn’t let her get away and arranged to acquire her for their own use. She’s also double-planked mahogany on oak but with cedar inner planking and powered by twin Cummins diesels.
Tiffany Cockrell has built boats on the family’s shoreside spread since the day the business was handed to him by his father Odis in 1949. The early boats were based on the classic lines and function of Deltaville deadrise workboats—carvel planked over frames with double planked bottoms, deep forward V-sections, and a flat run aft for form stability and workability for those who made their livings hauling nets and tonging oysters. As the postwar prosperity found its way to the Northern Neck, pleasure boat projects became more common at the Cockrell yard...
Learn more in the December, 2007 issue of PropTalk Magazine, on the docks November 13.
We are putting together the January 2008 issue of PropTalk Magazine. Reserve advertising space, suggest a story, or simply check in with the team at (410) 216-9309 or via e-mail.
Tight Saturday finish at the J/80 North Americans. Thirty-three boats were on hand this past weekend as the regatta was sailed off Annapolis and run by the Eastport YC. Kerry Klinger and team rolled out bullets in the final four races and took home the overall win.
J/80 North Americans: Homepage - Results - Additional photos from Dan Phelps
In Baltimore, Terry Hutchinson won the Senator's Cup match racing event.
Aloft in Baltimore's Inner Harbor this morning aboard Statsraad Lehmkuhl, a 323-foot three-masted barque from Norway. Photo by Dan Phelps / SpinSheet
Statsraad Lehmkuhl, Chungmugong Yisunshin, a 493-foot destroyer from the Republic of Korea's Navy, and Hwacheon, a 442-foot Korean Navy supply ship, are all docked in Baltimore over the weekend.
The Chungmugong Yisunshin will be docked at Fells Point’s Broadway Pier and will be open for free, public tours this coming Sunday, November 11 from 9 to 11 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m.
The 92-year old Statsraad Lehmkuhl, one of the world’s oldest and largest tall ships, arrived at the Inner Harbor this morning as part of a training mission for the Norwegian Naval Academy. Sail Baltimore will host the ship, docking at the Inner Harbor West Wall in front of Phillips Harborplace Restaurant, through Thursday, November 15. The Statsraad Lehmkuhl will be open to the public for free tours on Saturday, November 10 from noon through 4 p.m. and on Sunday, November 11 from noon to 4 p.m.
Learn more about these and other visiting ships via Sail Baltimore.
Also in Baltimore this weekend... Late season racing action at the Senator's Cup match racing event. The Senator's Cup is being sailed in J/105s and skippers include Gavin Brady, Terry Hutchinson, John Bertrand, Cameron Appleton, Chris Larson, Dave Perry, and David Dellenbaugh. Yesterday's opening day of racing was abandoned due to lack of wind. Stay tuned at the event's website.
In a scene straight out of an Al Gore slideshow, low water levels on North Carolina's Lake Norman have led to the relocation of the 2007 J/80 North Americans from that venue to Annapolis, where the Eastport YC hosts this weekend's racing. This is the latest in a string of major events to be contested on the Bay in recent weeks. Jeff Borland will serve as Principal Race Officer.
The fleet includes 33 entries from eight states. Among them will be Church Key, sailed by 2006 J/80 World Champion Glenn Darden (TX), #1001, a new boat sailed by 2006 North American champion and 2007 Key West winner Kerry Klinger (NY), FKA, sailed by Les Beckwith (NH), who has won the J/80 East Coasts two of the last three years, and Emotional Rescue, sailed by J/World Annapolis honcho Jahn Tihansky (MD), who also serves as varsity offshore sailing coach at the Naval Academy.
Annapolis sailors Brian and Kristen Robinson have been leading the shoreside organization of the regatta (not a simple task given the late developing changes) and will be in contention on the water aboard their Angry Chameleon. According to regatta website, the Robinsons have had valuable assistance "from Chris Johnson and Kerry Klinger as well as many volunteers fro the Eastport YC."
It will be chilly, no doubt, with forecast highs around 50 degrees. The Bay water is still in the upper 50s.
Racing:
Thursday November 8 - Practice race at 1600
Friday November 9 - First warning signal at 1000
Saturday November 10 - First warning signal at 1000
Sunday November 11 - First warning signal at 1000
Wind Forecast via NOAA:
Thursday: NW 5-10 knots
Friday: SE 5-10 knots
Saturday: N 15-20 knots
Sunday: NW 5-10 knots
Closest Buoy Report to Racing Area:
Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse
Keep Track of the Geography:
AnnapolisLocalKnowledge.com
Linkage:
Regatta Site
Entry List
Notice of Race (PDF)
Stay tuned to Floatline for photos and updates. Please drop us a line if you have any contributions!
We are working up previews of the J/80 North Americans and the Senator's Cup and should have them posted shortly. In the meantime, check out a new video wrapping up the J/105, IRC, and Kennedy Cup weekend in Annapolis at T2P.TV.
Sunday morning chores aboard the skipjack Stanley Norman. Stanley Norman was built in 1904 and is based in Annapolis where she is owned and sailed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She was part of the fleet in Chestertown this past weekend celebrating the annual Downrigging Weekend with the schooner Sultana. Photo by Mark Talbott / SpinSheet
As mentioned yesterday, the Caribbean 1500 Rally is underway from Hampton, bound for Tortola. Check out this supercool Google Earth mash-up featuring the fleet and weather layers. It is amazing to see how far the fleet tracking tools have advanced in a very short period of time.
Caribbean 1500 honcho Steve Black explains, "Starting now, we will provide free real time tracking of all the boats in our rallies. A self-contained, sealed AXTracker miniature transmitter will be placed on each boat. Every four hours it will send a new position to a Globalstar simplex data satellite which will forward the message to the Magnalox software interface to our web page at www.carib1500.com. In this way the positions of all 70 boats in the rally will be updated six times a day without need for human intervention. It will add to the interest in the event for the families and friends of our ralliers, but more importantly it will allow the race committee to arrange rendezvous with boats with problems and to anticipate night time arrivals. The Magnalox software provides user friendly tools that allow viewers to superimpose boat tracks and positions on both graphic and satellite image maps. Helping us pull the whole system together with product and technical support was Fleet Analytics' President (and fellow boater), Mark Eklund."
