What's the best way to improve your sailing skills?

The absolute best way to develop and improve your sailing skills is to go racing.  Even if you are less than thrilled with the competitive adenaline that racing can bring out in folks, there is absolutely no better way to become a better sailor.  Clear;ly I'm biased here.  But my bias is from a lifetime of sailing, racing, cruising, and teaching/coaching.  Because of my experience on the race course, my cruising skills are better than most.  Racing teaches boathandling, sail trim, awareness of wind, current, weather,...the list goes on.  So if you want to improve your skills as a sailor this year, no matter how good you think you are, you need to go racing.  Here's how:
Click here


Charlie

Great news for the Charles River!

The last couple of years I have learned more about algae in the Charles River than I really wanted.  While the Charles River has been getting dramatically cleaner over the past 10 to 15 years, in the last few years we have witnessed problems with algae blooms which raised concerns about human contact with the water. The algae can produce toxic stuff which may (NOTE THE WORD MAY) not be so great to come in contact with and certainly not to  ingest.   The science is incomplete and therefore lends itself to many, often conflicting, conclusions.  Simply put, add the right mix of nutrients in the water (I suspect we may want to have a word with the folks upstream who apply fertilizer to their lawns),  add sunlight, warm it up and algae has a feast. To be fair this algae may be responsible for giving our planet oxygen. For that I will always be grateful.  But all things in their proper time and place I say. At the risk of being one more NIMBY person, I say go make your oxygen somewhere else. 

So here is some great news.  Power plants create a lot of heat and have to constantly cool things down.  The Kendall power station in Cambridge is no different. As I understand it  in the past they would use river water to cool things off and then when done return it to the river. However, it would still be kind of warm, maybe 100 degrees Fahrenheit +/-.  So the really good news is that they are implementing new technology that will reduce the amount of  warm water returning by 95%....95%!!  That's a lot a percent.  Here is the link to the article about this great development for all of us who play on the Charles River.

Charlie

  http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/02/02/power_plant_plan_to_cut_discharge_send_heat_to_boston/?page=1

Dock project approaching completion!

On opening day (April 1) under snow and rain I espoused to the news cameras that it was really 80 degrees and sunny at Community Boating. I think I mentioned something about weather being a state of mind.  hmmm...I know I was feeling the fact that being open at all on April 1st was really quite remarkable.  To have seen, day to day,  the dock construction throughout the winter and perhaps understand better than most that there were many more reasons for the project to fall behind than push ahead, such as a brutal winter and materials coming from third world countries on slow boats, I am still pinching myself to see that we are open and coming close to completion.  Some of the areas still being worked on include the 420 floats, the high performance floats, the boat ramp by the crane, the fence around the facility, some areas of decking and bumpers along the edges of the entire structure.  There's also a "punch list" being worked through. I'm feeling pretty comfortable that we will see the entire facility 100% by mid May. Keep an eye out on this web site, blog, and Basin Breezes, for info about when windsurfing and Lasers will be "open".  They're coming soon!

Spending so much of my attention and energy focused on the construction project makes me miss paying more attention to sailing.  This is one reason why I really appreciate our great staff.  There's a reason why CBI received a lot of awards this past winter from the US Sailing Association. Thanks to the work of our program directors this winter we will see great programming again this summer.  Just today we have a group of kids from two Boy's and Girl's clubs embarking on a week long course of sailing instruction - a jump start to the summer junior program.  Last weekend CBI hosted an important high school qualifying regatta.  Sign-ups for the Accessible Sailing Program are underway and the adult program will see a continuing emphasis on on-the-water instruction and advanced classes such a sailboat racing (Look to our class schedules on the web site to see what's being offered).  While I honestly feel a little pride for all of us in the new facility, I am most excited about what we will do with it in the future.  It's no mystery - we're gonna turn more and more folks, young and old, into sailors.  Think of that song  " What the world needs now....(more sailors!)

Charlie

Opening Day is Here! Weather Forecast - Sunny, 80

Have you ever considered that weather is a state of mind?  I hope so.  Because I have for a long time now been boasting and bragging that it is always Sunny and 80 on the dock at CBI, ......which it is. In fact I even promised my boss (CBI's Board of Directors) that we would open on April 1 and I would personally deliver a sunny, gorgeous, and warm day. Recently a few naysayers have pointed out to me that the weather forecast for tomorrow includes snow.  What's your point I say?  Let's consider... Isn't weather as we generally know it something that we experience?  And haven't we all noticed how no two people can be counted on to recount in the same way experiences that they allegedly share?  Therefore we see that no experience is the same for any two individuals and therefore experience is an invalid basis for quantifying states of being and any related issues. So while it may appear to some that snow, rain and cold will be the dominant features of the weather tomorrow, the truth is that it will be warm, sunny, and windy.

Welcome to the 2011 sailing season!

Charlie

Opening Day Weather Forecast

Beautiful weather expected for Opening Day.  In fact the weather is going to be so brilliant that no matter what the weather actually is, it is going to be beautiful, brilliant, fantastic and generally wonderful. This is a fact. And I am willing to stand by this forecast no matter what.  So here are the plans we have made.

Thanks to a lot of hands helping out at the work party last Saturday (65 in total) we got a lot of the boathouse put back into order.  Starting tomorrow we will be launching, with the help of the contractor's crane, R19s, Sonars, and Launches.  The focus on Saturday will Mercuries in the slip - as many as possible.  That will give us all of next week to rig, tune, and tweak.  We invite everyone to take next Friday off from work, come lend a hand in the morning and go for a sail in the afternoon.  I have to confess that I am  so excited to get the 2011 sailing season off and running and do it on April 1.  A part of me really thought that we might not be able to sail until mid April.  So a big hats off to the management team at the DCR and the crew at CRC Contractors for pushing this project all the way through.  Remember what this winter was like?  The workers who built this dock never took a break even when the wind, snow, and cold  seemed unbearably harsh. 

Now onto a more worrying subject..  There are not many who sail at CBI who do not recognize the ebullient southern voice of Jim Johnson. I don't know if I've ever met a more enthusiastic sailor in my life.  One thing I've learned at CBI over many years is how easily enthusiasm in our adult members turns into a certain childishness. I am of course completely immune to this.  Jim on the other hand, is another story.  While purportedly visiting the boathouse to renew his membership for 2011, Jim was found to be preparing to rig a Mercury and go sailing.  Photos attached. 

Upon interrogation Jim explained "there is a pretty good wind today." Well, yes Jim there sure is but that doesn't make what you were doing right....does it?  .....mmmmmm........... there sure is a nice wind.......mmmmmmmm......   gotta go....

Charlie

So what's that dock made out of anyway?

As the dock moves toward completion I've been asked a few times about the materials used.  The piles are greenheart and the decking is purple heart.  They are both imported from South America.  This can raise concerns about whether the dock is being built out of eco friendly and sustainable materials or contributing to deforestation and global warming.

When the design work was started almost 4 years ago CBI and others raised the question/concern about what materials would be used and  advocated for the dock to be built out of sustainable resources.   For all of our information I have copied the relevent parts of the contract specs used by the DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation) .  

Charlie
(SECTION 02300-2):

6. Greenheart piles shall be supplied by a company that operations in the Guiana Shield countries are in
conformity with the International Conventions and National Forestry Regulations relating to the
management of forestry concessions. Company shall enforce the protection of the endangered species
listed by CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) and the bio-diversity of the ecosystems.
It respects the Intellectual Property Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, whose communities are the
beneficiaries of the Company’s field operation.
7. Greenheart piles are supplied by a company that stresses the need for low impact forestry operations,
ensuring that its forestry extraction is state of the art while constantly monitoring the effect of its
logistics systems on watershed management and its use of biodegradable wood preservatives.

(SECTION 06100-2):
3. Tropical hardwood shall conform with the International Conventions and National Forestry
Regulations relating to the management of forestry concessions.
6. Tropical hardwood shall be supplied by a company that operations in the Guiana Shield countries are in
conformity with the International Conventions and National Forestry Regulations relating to the
management of forestry concessions. Company shall enforce the protection of the endangered species
listed by CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) and the bio-diversity of the ecosystems.
It respects the Intellectual Property Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, whose communities are the
beneficiaries of the Company’s field operation.
7. Tropical hardwood shall be supplied by a company that stresses the need for low impact forestry
operations, ensuring that its forestry extraction is state of the art while constantly monitoring the effect
of its logistics systems on watershed management and its use of biodegradable wood preservatives.

Junior Instructors In Training complete complete winter projects

A few weeks back I made a promise to the world.  I said I would get rid of all the snow, at least in my neighborhood.  I just needed a little time.  I'm pleased to report that my work is now done, ahead of schedule and under budget! By next Monday all the ice left in the river will also be gone!  Boy does that feel good to get that out of the way. 


Last winter CBI  Director of Youth Programs, Amy Lyons, hosted a group of Junior Program Instructors In Training.  Amy worked with these CBI sailors to develop skills as future sailing instructors.  They taught classes, gave presentations, and worked on projects including  knot boards and man-over-board "dummies".  Amy's report follows along with a "class picture" 

CBI is many things. One thing  which many adult members may not be aware, is how much CBI is a youth training, development, and leadership program.  Sailing teaches many valuable skills and concepts.  But nothing compares to the experience of teaching sailing to others.  There is a good chance that one day you will be seeing some of these faces on our dock staff.  And when you do I predict that they will amaze you at their self confidence, responsibility, knowledge, and general where-with-all.  Congratulations IITs!
Charlie

Community Boating's first Winter Instructor In Training program was a great success!  The nine juniors who participated learned skills that will help them be excellent IITs, and they also made instructional aids that will be useful to all Community Boating members.  Over the course of seven meetings, these juniors lead team building exercises and learned how to construct lesson plans.  Each junior chose a topic, and wrote their own lesson plans which they presented to the rest of the group.  Their presentations were all excellent, and we are excited to have such enthusiastic and well-trained IITs on board for this summer!  The IITs also made four new "person overboard" buoys, and three traveling knotboards that will allow members to practice tying basic knots.  We would like to thank the following juniors for taking part in this program: Maria Condon, Tori Condon, Gregor Dieckow, Chris Dsida, Khalil Kaba, Andrew Lazaro, Fiona O'Connor, Sam White, and Ben Zheng.

Pictured (left to right) back row: Chris Dsida, Gregor Dieckow, Khalil Kaba, Maria Condon front row: Fiona O'Connor, Tori Condon.

Winter IIT participants show off their handiwork - three new knotboards for our members!

Amy Lyons