PTSA Members In The News | Port Townsend Sailing Association

America’s Cup Live Broadcasts This Weekend

If you have the time and interest you can tune in to the live broadcasts of the America's Cup series races from Venice this weekend. Quite a treat to hear the familiar "Guys, we got a cluster f**k here" spoken by a highly paid athlete in an Australian accent.

It's an amazing sight with the Cup catamarans racing in the narrow confines of the bay in front of lovely and historic Venice.

You can find the races at http://www.youtube.com/AmericasCup.

Dan Newland Reports in From the Bleeding Edge

http://project.kiteboat.com/

After helping finish up one of the first GP 26s with Brook Dees, and Jim Antrim’s Class 40 built at Berkeley Marine, Dan is again in the Bay area working on the Kiteboat Project, a foiler trimaran that is powered by a kite. Here’s a short report from the always entertaining Mr. Newland.

“The boat is a kick. The hulls are 25′ long and weigh about 90 lbs each and (I’m not kidding), overbuilt. We could take probably 20 lbs out of them. Everything is carbon and the core is Nomex. VERY stiff but you can litereally put a half-hull under your arm and carry it off.”

“The systems are interesting and fairly complex. The foils are “J” shaped and tied to the bow “sensors” i.e. paddle like deals that move when waves hit them to keep the boat from porpoising. The “T” foil rudder has a swiveling box with electric trim to adjust height. Then there are the kite launching poles, reels, controls…the list goes on. Anyway, it’s fun and great working with these guys. Most came from BMW/Oracle and built the trimaran so they are used to this stuff. Good guys, all. OH! and Tom George is good friends with one guy, Gabe Murphy. He grew up on Guemes Island in the SJ’s and ferried to school in Anacortes.”

continue reading » Dan Newland Reports in From the Bleeding Edge

Pics from the Sloop John B

Sym Sebastian sent in some pictures from the September 17th PLYC race on Frank Lawson’s J/105, JOHN B, with Chris, Kathy and Sym crewing. Sym mentioned that it was blowing a steady 20 with gusts to 28.

Got some pictures? Send them in.

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Mike Berman Photographs at Center for Wooden Boats

Michael Berman will be showing images and talking about his 2007 transatlantic trip at the Center for Wooden Boats on Friday, Sept. 16.

Another nice post from Three Sheets NW by Deborah Bach, this one on PTSA member Mike Berman’s photography show at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle.

To Michael Berman, [...]

Stig at the Etchells Worlds

Sparkle and Escapade

From the archive of the Balboa Yacht Club, a shot of Sparkle and Escapade racing for the Santana Trophy. Check out Sparkle’s aft mainsheet trimmer’s cockpit.

Photo from the archives of the BYC