It's OK to Stay at Home

"Travel is not compulsory. 

Great minds have been fostered entirely by staying close to home. 

Moses never got further than the Promised Land. 

Da Vinci and Beethoven never left Europe. 

Shakespeare hardly went anywhere at all - 

certainly not to Elsinore or the coast of Bohemia."

 - Jan Morris

Discuss. 

Do not on any account attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once. 

Protractors may not be used.

Top 5 Father's Day Gifts for the Laser Sailing Dad

It's that time of year again. It's Father's Day on Sunday. So, just in case you happen to know a father who sails a Laser, here are some gift suggestions.


1. An island in the Grenadines.

The Grenadines is one of the best sailing areas in the world. What better to buy your sailing Dad than his very own island sailing base in the Grenadines? I see that Baliceaux Island is up for sale.

Located just five miles from Mustique and Bequia, this gentle oasis is approximately 320 acres and is uninhabited and unspoiled. Look upon it as an investment for the future of the whole family. And your Dad will really appreciate being able sail his Laser off those pristine beaches.

Price: $30,000,000

2. Mar Mostro

I hear that after the Volvo Ocean Race is over, PUMA Ocean Racing plans to put Mar Mostro up for sale. What a great present for Dad! He could take the whole family out sailing on this. He could even take all his grandkids to Europe every summer. On a VO70! What a great gift for all the family. It's just a big Laser, really.

Price: $2,000,000

What's that you say? You think those are a bit expensive for Father's Day gifts? Maybe you plan to surprise him with one of those for his birthday instead?

Well how about something a little more modest? Such as...

3. RS100

You know your Dad will have fun in an RS100.  Much more fun than that boring old Laser he has now. This is a boat designed THIS century. It has a spinnaker. It's faster than a Laser. It's more fun than a Laser downwind. And it was Sailing World's Boat of the Year in 2011. The only problem is that there probably aren't many of them around yet where your Dad lives so you had probably better buy six of them so that he can invite all his friends over and do some racing with them. Maybe he'll even let you play with one?

Price: (for 6 boats) $84,000

What? Still too pricey you say?

Well how about...

4. Laser

If you just want to buy your father a small token gift for Father's Day this year, you could always buy him a new Laser. I'm sure he would appreciate it. Really. It's the thought that counts. You can always buy him an island next year.

Price: (Laser XD) $6,545

Oh dear. Still too much? Well I guess there's only one thing left...



5. Go Laser sailing with Dad on Father's Day

Priceless

Sock it to me, PUMA

Steam and Spray

Steam and Spray - a great article by Ned Hepburn (one of the Puma Ten) on The Classical. He does a terrific job of capturing the excitement of racing in Abu Dhabi on Mar Mostro in the pro-am race.

Here is one extract to give you the flavor...

Ken Read asks you to grab the steering wheel for a while and you feel how surprisingly mallable the thing is; it's not unlike steering a Cadillac. It's a giant fucking thing; wide as a card table and as tempermental as one too... you can barely keep the thing from going haywire. "Hands at 10 and 2!" you hear in your head, some distant driving instructor from a decade ago tells you. You pull hard to the right. The boat makes the sound a camel might while achieving sexual climax except LOUD and INCREDIBLY FUCKING CLOSE to you – everyone lurches in the opposite direction as the team swerves to avoid the fucking French boat; those Gallic bastards not knowing the havoc they caused on the American boat.

Check out Steam and Spray for the full article.

Bloggers Go Sailing

The Puma Ten got to go out sailing on Mar Mostro in Abu Dhabi today. Looks like they had a wonderful time.

Here's Brian DiFeo at the helm of Mar Mostro.

photo taken by takingyerphoto

And Yimmyayo posted this picture with the comment, "Steering a 6 million dollar boat. No Biggie."

Yimmyayo also tweeted, "Easily one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done in my life."

And Jamie Beck of From Me To You tweeted, "I think I have a new hobby after today."

I think they get it!

Just Cruisin' Around The Harbor

Originally posted by frommetoyou, one of the Puma Ten bloggers in Abu Dhabi this week.

From Me To You

Check out more stunning photos of the Volvo Ocean Race Village in Abu Dhabi posted by Jamie on her blog From Me To You. Jamie is one of the ten bloggers sent by Puma to cover the VOR in Abu Dhabi.

And see more work of the Puma Ten at PUMA Sailing.

Friggin' in the Riggin'

I'm going to be watching with interest the work of the ten bloggers sent by Puma to Abu Dhabi to report on the Volvo Ocean Race. They look like a talented bunch and they certainly have a different style from your average sailing blogger.

The above picture was posted by Ned Hepburn of http://nedhepburn.tumblr.com/ with the caption friggin' in the riggin'.

Puma Loves Bloggers

Dear blogging friends, you have probably heard the news by now that Puma are sending ten bloggers on an expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi to cover the Volvo Ocean Race. These lucky bloggers will "photograph and post updates as the competing sailors rest and recharge while participating in short sprints before departing on Jan. 15 for the race’s next stop in Sanya, China."

Woo hoo! Sailing bloggers finally get the recognition they deserve. What a sweet trip that would be!

But who are these top ten sailing bloggers chosen by Puma for the bloggy trip of a lifetime?

Are any of them winners of the prestigious Tilley Award as one of the Top 9 Sailing Blogs of 2011? Is O Docker going? Is Tweezerman? Surely they will be sending Buff Staysail?

Well, I don't know for sure, but I suspect not. Apparently the ten bloggers going to Abu Dhabi don't hang out in the stuffy old yacht clubs of Blogger and Wordpress and Typepad. They inhabit the lively waterfront bars of Tumblr and Instagram. They are the new generation of bloggers. They are the cool kids.

One of the lucky ten is Sean Sullivan who has a tumblr blog called The Impossible Cool. How cool is that possum?

And we have Ned Hepburn who writes real cool stuff on his blog like "fucking tweens. Hey, could you tween assholes NOT strip the attribution from my fucking posts and pass it off as your own? Don’t fucking steal my work." (Above work is attributed to Ned Hepburn.)

Then there is James Nord who writes a tumblr blog called HIGHLIGHTED LIFE on which he reported that he picked up two new bathing suits for his trip to Abu Dhabi. Here he is...

And Ashley Simko and Frommetoyou are going too. As far as I can gather, Ashley is a graphic and interactive designer who is occasionally asked to write about fashion, and Frommetoyou is Jamie who is a photographer in NYC who collects old typewriters.

I don't know who the other five lucky bloggers are, but I wish them all well on this fantastic assignment. I admit I am a little jealous that Puma didn't invite me but I couldn't possibly have gone to the Middle East for a week in the middle of the Newport Laser Fleet frostbiting season anyway. I shall be following the blogs of Sean, Ned, James, Ashley and Jamie over the next few days with great interest.

Update Mon 9 Jan 10:51am: Just tracked down two more of the Talented Ten. Also going to Abu Dhabi are Brian DiFeo the founder of Instagram NYC and Anthony D. of takingyerphoto.

Update Mon 9 Jan 1:09pm: Shortly after arriving in Abu Dhabi, one of the lucky bloggers tweeted, "My site is blocked in the UAE due to questionable / prohibited content." (You can probably guess which one from what I wrote above. Which probably means Proper Course is now blocked in the UAE too.) Oops! I wonder if Puma knew about Internet censorship in the UAE?

Update Mon 9 Jan 5:15pm: Just spotted another of the Puma bloggers in Abu Dhabi. It's Yimmyayo who apparently offers "visual crack for the ocular fiend." Some of the other bloggers on the Puma Ten are obviously talented photographers. Now the Yimmyayo blog is a striking series of photos, but the author says, "The images hosted on this blog have been hunted, culled and collected from the world wide web to be presented as visual stimulus for those viewing. This imagery is not being presented as my own, unless noted under the specific work." Hmmm. A bit like Proper Course without words!

And They Are Off!

Woo hoo! Spanish shoe company leads German shoe company and Spanish telecommunications company as the fleet heads for the Straits of Gibraltar.