Tag: New York

Shark Attack: and why you probably shouldn’t care

A recent shark attack in the Rockaways not far from where we teach you how to sail drives the point home, close to home.

IN THAT PIC: One video segueing to another from Scott Fairchild’s feed on Insta. That/those are great white sharks in California.

Last Monday evening at 6pm, a woman went in the water off Beach 59th Street in Far Rockaway. She was close to shore, but alone. She screamed, and lifeguards went to help. She’d been bitten by a shark and had a serious wound to her thigh. The New York Post took the sensational route, of course, and also published a lame account of the attack where someone claimed the woman lost approximately 20 pounds of flesh. That would have been her entire thigh and she would have been dead before she could have received treatment. Desapite that being debunked they have not corrected it. They also published close ups of the woman being treated on the beach. Not gory; shows some blood but mostly her being treated and also good samaritans holding her head and hand. Good shot from that perspective, but won’t reprint it here. Go find if you must.

She was brought ashore and a tourniquet was applied. She wound up in Jamaica hospital in serious but stable condition and was expected to not just survive but make a full recovery.

But, that was close! Had she been further out, and/or lifeguards weren’t nearby, she would have had a high risk of dying from loss of blood and shock.

“Yes, but…”

A large, perhaps overwhelming majority, of shark attacks are survived. Most bites are from small sharks and make minor injuries.

It’s scary nonetheless. It was a serious attack. And, there have been a rash of shark bites and all kinds of sightings in Long Island waters in the past year or so. Numbers of sharks seem to be on the rise.

“Yes, but…“

Same diff. Florida is historically the shark attack capital of the world, with a proportionally very large percentage of attacks. Vast majority are minor bites by small sharks feeding on fish.

But but… I don’t WANNA get bit by a shark!

“Yes, but…“

No one does. But the odds against it are insanely in your favor. Compare the number of attacks/bites documented each year to the incalculable number of times people go in the water with the sharks. Total documented attacks? Hovers around 100. (Undocumented attacks probably tip up the number incrementally, but there’s no reason to suspect multiplication is involved).

IN THAT CLIP: surfer paddling directly over a great white shark in Cali.

Also: think about when to get in the water, and when not to, etc…

  1. Don’t swim at night. Dumb and Dumber didn’t even do that.
  2. Don’t swim at dawn or dusk. At least as bad.
  3. Don’t swim in the mid to late afternoon. This is a trigger time for predatory fish to feed, in my lifelong experience as an angler, and it happens to be when many attacks happen (probably more because more people enter the water, but still…)
  4. Don’t swim alone in waters where sharks might be. Okay; they might be ANYWHERE. So, don’t swim alone where sharks have been seen recently, or where there’s any history of attacks and/or dangerous species being seen.
  5. Don’t swim out further than others.
  6. Don’t wear yellow. Divers call it “yum yum yellow.” High-contrast visual trigger.
  7. Don’t swim when small fish are being chased by birds or other fish, or where where gamefish like tuna have been coming close to shore, even if they’re not there when you go in.
  8. Don’t swim when there’s any chance you have a cut of any size that could bleed, or if you’re menstruating.
  9. Don’t swim when the water’s particularly murky.
  10. Don’t splash around frantically. If snorkeling, no need to smash your fins down on the surface with each kick. Super inefficient anyway; keep fins in water to push water!

Can you get through your natural life without being bitten by a shark if you break some or all of these rules? Yes! You probably won’t get attacked if you break them all.

“Yes, but…“

She did. She swam alone, and shortly before dusk. Don’t know if any of the other rules applied. But, it’s the first documented attack in NYC waters since at least the 1950’s. And, the near-ish attacks on Long Island were all minor.

IN THAT PIC: another video montage from Fairchild. Swimmer and surfer basically on top of great white sharks.

I consider the fear of attack to be both irrational and rational. I’ve been fascinated by sharks and shark attacks since I was a boy. My dad took me to the South Street Seaport once and, of course, no visit anywhere ends without a stop at the gift shop. I took home a book: Shark: Unpredictable Killer of the Sea, by Thomas Helm. Lost the original but replaced it on Amazon…

Great book. One man’s perspective on sharks, shark fishing, and attacks, with some personal anecdotes. One of them both reinforces and destroys the subtitle. He was stationed in the Pacific during WWII. Somewhere there was a lagoon encapsulated by a fringing reef. His unit was tasked with disposing of outdated grenades. They decided to fish with them. They went out in a rubber raft and started tossing grenades in to stun fish.

BOOM. Up floated many dead fish. BOOM. Again. he-he.

Eventually, sharks came to pick up the scraps. So, why not blow up the sharks? They started tying grenades to fish, pulling the pin, and tossing them so if a shark went to grab it, head blown off. Nasty; wrong. Dumb. But, the author knew it by the time of writing long after and was admitting, not bragging.

Then, they started tossing the fish in immediately after pulling the pin. One shark took the bait and swam toward the raft. Ooopsieee…..

BOOOOOOMMMMM!

Raft flipped and tossed them all in the water – with that much more fish blood in the water.

They all swam back to shore unscathed. So, the sharks didn’t see them as potential prey, despite what must have been some frantic flopping about and plenty of blood in the water already. Should have been… shark bait.

“Yes, but…“ No bites.

Unpredictable. Except, maybe, they’re not unpredictable, indiscriminate killers? Maybe they bite when they’ve rarely mistaken us for normal prey, or in more rare cases, when they’re simply desperate to feed or otherwise thrown off their games?

My own experiences with sharks…

  1. Seen a few while snorkeling. First was in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef. White tip reef shark. It was lying on the bottom breathing from the current without swimming. The snorkeling guide swam down toward it to spook it into moving. It grudgingly did so, and lazily went in a great circle while no one but I saw it plop down in the same exact spot to resume minding its own biz. Everyone else had swum away. My treat.
  2. Another time, found a decent sized lemon shark minding its own biz in the Tobago Cays of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Video’d it with underwater camera (point n shoot in a good case). It spooked and swam further away quickly, then resumed a lazy swim. I got good zoomed in footage. It’s up on our YouTube right now! What I DIDN’T see at the time was the other shark that was what spooked the lemon. THAT scared me! Different species. Never found out what.
  3. Saw others snorkeling in the BVI. One time, a guy was sitting on the bottom minding its own business. Wasn’t a nurse shark; didn’t match another species I could think of. Started approaching to ID it. Then, I thought better and went away.
  4. On our most recent BVI trip in spring of 2023, clients were snorkeling off the boat in an anchorage. They got my attention: wanted a ride back in the dinghy. They’d seen a relatively large shark and didn’t want to fool around and find out. At least one of them didn’t. The other, when advised and asked, wanted to stay in and try to see it. Only problem is it had seemingly spooked when the first guy saw it and disappeared. How large? Around the size of the dinghy. 10-11 feet.

Drones are the new rage, and they reveal how often we’re actually swimming or surfing with dangerous sharks swimming amongst us. Enter Scott Fairchild, whose Insta account is so revealing. And, they’re being used to look for sharks by beach and park patrols to make swimming even safer.

And now for a few words and images from someone other than me!

Great montage in Scott Fairchild’s Instagram account…

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsbfJ5Pucnf/

Article in NY Times about the Rockaway attack with good perspective and info about drone patrols…

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/nyregion/rockaway-beach-shark-bite.html

Like Clockwork!

Actual clockwork – the works that solved the problem of how to sail across an ocean safely by keeping proper time for navigation. And, these clocks from the 1700’s are still ticking!

IN THAT CLIP: Harrison’s four timepieces that revolutionized navigation and long distance sea travel.

I visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England this month. Been on my list since I first read “Longitude” by Dava Sobel, about the English crafstman and inventor John Harrison. I’ve written about it before, but now I’ve seen it.

“You have to see it to understand. Now I’ve seen it.”

The Dragon Queen, Game of Thrones

(I also saw the dragon motifs in Wales, and got some great drag swag, but that’s another story from the same trip.)

Harrison’s clocks revolutionized sea travel and have withstood the test of time. It took him most of his adult lifetime, partially because he was a self-sabotaging perfectionist, but he solved the problem of his time: how to determine longitude at sea. His timepieces were the first chronometers, or very accurate time pieces that would work for extended sea voyages without adjustment or maintenance. And, he won the incentive prize offered by Parliament: 20,000 pounds. That translates into roughly $7 million when adjusted to today’s value.

IN THAT PIC: His first chronometer clock, H1. Kept good time near-coastal in Europe.

Why was this a problem to begin with?

  • To determine longitudinal position at sea (east/west), one needed to know the time at the home port of departure (now Greenwich, England, or GMT for all) and compare it to the local apparent noon (sun at its zenith).
  • To do that, one needed an accurate time piece.
  • They existed on land, but none of the day could keep time at sea due to the motion of the ocean, as well as changes in humidity and barometric pressure.
  • Until the problem was solved, vessels were constantly at risk of delayed or premature arrivals, getting lost, or worse, running aground. That last eventuality was the straw that broke the stiff upper lip of the land: a small armada was lost off the coat of England due to poor position reckoning.
IN THAT PIC: H2. Tried to sole some problems; he found another. NEXT!..

The detailed history is best left to Dava Sobel, but suffice it to say it that this wasn’t an easy affair. Here’s a super-short summary.

In 1714, Parliament created the Board of Longitude and offered the prize.

In the 1720’s, Harrison created his first clock. It was huge, unwieldy, and elegant a/f – so much so that a fancy-lad clockmaker in England makes stunning replicas.

It worked well enough on a proper sea trial, and it was duly recognized by the Board, but there was room for improvement. A small sum was paid with the promise that another improved clock would be built.

IN THAT PIC: H3 Not good enough. The can of worms, they squirms…

It took three more iterations, decades of time, and some political jockeying to get it done…. but the fourth time was the charm. From a large machine, to a large pocket watch, Harrison created a consistently reliable chronometer and safe navigation was possible. Sadly, despite this accomplishment and also winning the king’s ransom of a prize, he died a bitter and broken man.

IN THAT PIC: H4. DONE. Kept accurate time from England to the Caribbean.

But, I was a happy fan at the Royal Observatory. I highly recommend anyone traveling to London take a side trip to Greenwich, which also has the Maritime Museum and the Cutty Sark. Easy on tube + rail. Harrison’s clocks might be the best part about the Observatory but there’s plenty more, including the touristy thing: standing on the Prime Meridian!

Again: read Longitude by Dava Sobel. Get the illustrated version. Fascinating and revealing. There’s also a Nova episode about it, and despite being a little campy with reenactments, it’s great. Sobel is interviewed in it.

We teach the basics of latitude and longitude work in our Coastal Navigation course, Start Sailing (ASA 105), including how to use lat/lon coordinates from a GPS to plot position on a paper chart. Old school blended with new.

If You Build Them, You Will Sail Them!

Kids learn how to build, then how to sail, small sailing boats. STEM working for them!

I started sailing dinghies (little boats that can flip over) when it was almost ‘too late.’ From a development standpoint, kids should learn on dinghies. If they learn on keelboats (larger boats that basically don’t flip over), fine – but they must get on dinghies while they’re still young and developing themselves. By late teens or so, that ship has sailed. They’ll never develop their skills as well as they would have had they been on dinghies earlier.

In that pic: they built the boats, and now they’re sailing them. How kewl is that?!

These kids have a shot. True, they’re largely from less or disadvantaged backgrounds. Sailing has a deserved reputation as being lily-white. This student body isn’t. But, as with many other activities and institutions, things are changing. There are more opportunities. Sailing might be one of the slowest to come around, which is partially intrinsic due to the cost of boats and access to them, but it is coming around.

And, around came Brooklyn Boatworks:

BUILD A BOAT.

BUILD A DREAM.

Harnessing the unique craft of wooden boat building and maritime-centered exploration, we inspire young people to uncover the confidence, skills, and courage to chart pathways to success in and outside the classroom.

call-out on home page of Brooklyn Boatworks

Basically, they offer community programs and after-school activities that take a different tack toward preparing kids for both academic and life success. What better way to approach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) than to do something in real life that shows why a kid would want to do well with those subjects in school?

It reminds me of the public service TV ads from awhile back (a long way back) where they’d show someone doing an activity they liked, then, ask how that’s going to help them in life? They then explain why. “Joe likes shooting pool. How is that going to help him in the real world?” Well, I’ll tell you why. Angles. Physics. Geometry. Patiently learning physical techniques and manual dexterity that can apply to any number of potential future tasks – including surgical sutures. (Ed note: I made up the explanatory part, and re-created the quoted part which gives the gist of it but with different words.)

In that pic: dinks are done – lined up and ready for rigging and sailing!

Building a small wooden boat as a team lets kids work on…

  • team work
  • long-range planning
  • managing material resources
  • safe use of tools and glues/epoxies
  • setting and achieving goals
  • application of academic subjects to the real world
  • etc
  • etc

The mission has been around for a couple of years. Now, Brooklyn Boatworks has moved their most recent completed fleet of Optis (Optimist Prams) to the Sailing Center’s host facility, Miramar Yacht Club. Miramar’s mission is simply to promote sailing and get as many people from as many walks of life as possible into it. That dovetails well with Brooklyn Boatworks.

We saw it all in action last week. The school had a class of two (young) adult students out for their 3rd day of lessons. On the way out, the boats were lined up on the dock in preparation for rigging and sailing. On our way back, it was all happening.

latest YouTube clip we posted – self explanatory. Check it!

I wanted to hop in on one! But, of course, that wasn’t the point. They had everything under control as far as volunteer instructors, coordinators, and safety staff. The wind had been too strong, but then it moderated and conditions became ideal for this – wind aligned with dock, enough to sail but not enough to bail, no threat of squalls, etc. Perfect.

The Sailing Center is an unofficial, informal advisor to the program. We can’t wait to see what comes next!

For more:

https://www.brooklynboatworks.org/

https://www.miramaryc.com/

It’s Always Sunny in Brighton Beach!

Until it isn’t… or is that Brighton, Utah? The weather has been wild all over, but we’re starting to teach people how to sail in Brooklyn and ignoring the powder out yonder.

We started on April 4, did a few lessons, resume this week with a private on Wednesday, and take a break for our Virgin Islands Sailing Vacay (BVI). After that, our first full Start Sailing course of the season kicks off on May 6.

IN THAT PIC: sunny day for sailing some Sunnies! Sunfish class dinghies racing on Jamaica Bay, near New York Sailing Center’s home base on the other side of the Marine Parkway Bridge. Posted on behalf of the Sebago Canoe Club on the Facebook group Sailors of New York.

The little guys above are Sunnies! That’s a nickname for Sunfish, one of the world’s most well-know sailboat classes. There are a ridiculous number of them worldwide accumulating since they were born in… 1947!!! I most certainly did NOT know they went back that far. By the time the Sunfish turned 50, there were over 300,000 of them. They’re a competitive racing class with well attended world championships. I’ve sailed them once or twice, along with the similar Sailfish.

That shot was posted to promote the Sebago Canoe Club‘s spring regatta, which involves Sunnies and Lasers (which I’ve raced extensively). Sebago is in Jamaica Bay, a short ride away from our Sheepshead Bay location at Miramar Yacht Club. Like Miramar, Sebago is a cooperative and all members give service to the club to help run it and keep costs down.

So, the Sunnies will be out in force. How about us?

IN THAT PIC: seagull preparing to take off as we sail near Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The fog in the background appeared to emanate from the Coney Island Amusement Park and extend all the way out over the Atlantic (out of the frame to the left).

We’ve been sailing off Brighton Beach. That’s next to Manhattan Beach. But… it’s not in Manhattan. We don’t do Manhattan for sailing. Brighton is on Coney Island, facing south toward the Atlantic, and almost there. Directly across Rockaway Inlet is Breezy Point. If Montauk is “The End,” as the bumper stickers say, Breezy is the beginning. It’s the very start of continental Long Island, and where New York Bay meets the Atlantic.

Brighton was a bit cloudy and more than a bit foggy the last time we were out. It happens. There was enough wind to sail after being almost becalmed briefly. That’s super rare here. Remember… Breezy. The area has its own micro climate, with fair weather far more often than foul. Last season, we did five full learn to sail schedules there, spread out over the whole summer and early fall. We also did numerous private lessons. How many times did we cancel due to thunderstorms? Zero. Not so with our old digs at City Island. “It’s (almost) always sunny at Breezy and Brighton.”

How about Brighton, Utah? Still snowing!!! They just got some more, and have little more on the way. As of this writing, they’re still 100% open. Every. Single. Trail. And, all the glades. 65 big runs, at the little big mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

IN THAT PIC: yesterday, April 23, at Brighton Resort, Utah. Fully open, and still snowing. They, like all their neighbors in the Wasatch Range and a number of other resorts out west, broke their all-time recorded snowfall records. Brighton? Approaching 900 inches this season! This is a screenshot from their Insta.

Who cares? Anyone interested in both sailing and snowsports; anyone concerned about climate change. The Wild Winter that Was out West broke many records. We might not be glad that it did. Add in the drought we had on the East Coast this winter, and the spring tornados that have wrought havoc on the southeast, and who knows what to expect going forward.

Down around Breezy and Sheepshead Bay, for at least the foreseeable future, we can count on afternoon sea breezes most days, with virtually no risk of thunderstorms. It is known. We’ll take it, and take our chances with what happens when the next winter comes.

VIDEO CLIP:

IN THAT CLIP: my new riding buddy Jack spraying me on his way down a double- diamond bowl with a few trees mixed in. Powder day, Brighton Resort, early March. Click pic to play video on Insta!

In Full Spring

Our season for teaching people how to sail a boat, or get better at it, is underway.

Actually, it began on April 4, one of our earlier outings! We started off conservatively with a private lesson for an experienced student who has a new boat arriving soon. He’s been a regular private lesson client for awhile, and has come down to our new location in Sheepshead Bay a few times now despite plans to keep his boat on the Sound.

Due to the vagaries of spring weather, as exacerbated by global warming and climate change, we stopped our long standing tradition of kicking off learn to sail courses in mid April. Now, it’s early May, with an occasional advanced course starting earlier as well as private lessons.

CLICK TO PLAY! Insta clip from our first lesson of the season.

Next up after that lesson: I brought our Carolina Skiff down from City Island. I ran it down the East River, which is not necessarily for the faint of heart, and then NY Harbor (even less so) before getting through the Verrazzano Narrows and on to Rockaway Inlet and Sheepshead Bay. I knew I needed to not only time the current properly, but also the weather. Our skiff is very open, so spray can be an issue. It’s also more flat bottomed than deep-vee’d, so it has serious limits to how much of a pounding it can take in chop. That said, it’s super stable and can handle rolling/yawing extremely well.

I settled on a Sunday with a forecast for very light north winds, switching to light from the southwest late in the day. If all went well, I’d have a gentle wind at my back on the way down and no worse than a gentle one from on one side toward the end of the trip. The slack current at Hell Gate was predicted for exactly noon, and I love the ‘high noon’ thing. I assumed a 10-knot average speed, and based on the distance, figured it would take 2.5 hours non stop. Of course, I’d stop for various reasons a number of times, including potentially for a fuel top-off, so guesstimated 4 hours dock to dock.

CLICK TO PLAY! Insta clip of my run down to Sheepshead Bay from City Island, and then an orientation sail with new instructors the next day.

It was a milk run. Sunny most of the way to take the edge off the chill; flat calm due to light winds. There were occasional wakes, but I barely reacted to most of them and none were dramatic. I almost skipped the fuel stop, but heeded the advice of one our instructors who’s and ASA Instructor Evaluator, and super knowledgeable and experienced in that area. “You’re right there – how long a detour is it? 30 minutes? Just do it.” He was speaking from both experience and common sense. Most very experienced boaters have, at some point, had a fuel fiasco.

It was around 30 minutes. I also did numerous very short stops for grabbing a bite to eat, adding clothes, doing something on the phone, or taking pics. Total time dock to dock? 3:08. So, my 2.5 was damn close to exactly right. Score one up for the great navigator! Turns out… I didn’t need the extra fuel, but better to have to add stabilizer to that than wonder if a tow boat service could do a fuel drop half way between Hell Gate and Schitts Creek.

Next? A quick sail with two instructor candidates. Chilly and wet – but fun! See a sample in the clip above.

We did another private lesson for a City Islander soon afterward. She booked weeks in advance and didn’t realize we had moved to Sheepshead Bay! But, she decided to make the trek anyway. Her sister and she had taken lessons together previously, and wanted a better progression at a pace that suited them. They tried, we supplied, and they had nearly perfect conditions that helped that happen. They’ll be back.

IN THAT CLIP: sisters sailing together, per the paragraph above.

We also got out two students who had different backgrounds, but were both in need of a similar lesson. I grouped them and also brought along a new instructor we’re ‘onboarding’ for his second orientation session. We got becalmed just as we entered the Inlet, but then the wind picked up enough to fight the current. Soon, we didn’t need to consider the current.

Full courses begin on May 6, and our first Sailing Vacay Course of the year ends the day before down in the Virgin Islands (BVI). In the meantime, we’ll continue with privates as the weather allows. Spring weather up here is too volatile to plan on multi-day beginner courses for people with busy schedules. Some schools do it anyway and graduate people who haven’t learned to sail. We’ve paid attention to the weather trends and decided to start a little later, so students who Start SailingSM with us can get it done the first time.

IN THAT PIC: fog flowing from Coney Island on the right out over Rockaway inlet, and out past Breezy Point to the Atlantic (out of frame to the left). Bird about to take off for some drama. Foggy but beautiful sail on Sunday, April 16.

Product Review: Hangtime – Hold that phone!

Using your phone to take pics and clips while learning how to sail, or sliding down a mountain? Don’t do it without a leash.

Instagram is a boon and a bane. And, it’s incessant. It’s like the Terminator. It doesn’t stop; it doesn’t reason; it doesn’t care. It just does. Insta? It’s newer digital tech, but it uses an old school ad trick. It makes sure you see the ad enough times to have a chance that you’ll take the bait.

IN THAT PIC: Insta ad for the Hangtime Gear Koala phone holder.

I took it. Despite being leery of Insta ads, this one looked good and I needed something like it. I needed a leash for my iPhone for snowboarding, and potentially for on-water this sailing season. The closest thing I had in the past was a bulky foam protective wrap that went around the phone’s case, and would both cushion and float it. It came with both neck and wrist lanyards. I took the phone on chairlifts; I took it snorkeling (waterproof case). That was the Lifeproof case and Lifejacket accessory. But, their quality control eroded and I lost a phone to water intrusion, so was done with that.

Anywho, fast forward to early/mid winter. I was seeing ads like the one above for the Hangtime Koala. It’s a one-piece silicone leash and holster. It straps around the corners of various phone models and interferes little to not at all with functions. It attaches to ones clothing with a choice of carabiner or spring clip. I removed the clip and tried the carabiner, which isn’t perfect (I popped it off a few times but didn’t lose my phone). Upgrade the carabiner, add an extension to the short leash, and I should be good to go.

It works! Like everything, nothing’s perfect, but it’s a solid product. I’ve taken clips on the hill, and also while doing runs. I fell; I tumbled. The phone stayed with me (possibly because I had a death grip on it; can’t remember if I dropped it during any of my falls).

IN THAT PIC: Koala on a kitty. (That’s a 15-pounder for reference.) The blue color is a little darker / richer in real life.

The last time I used it was around 2 weeks ago at Stratton Mountain in Vermont. It was a true powder day; I’d driven up the previous afternoon to avoid driving as the snow fell that evening and through the next day. That was a good move – few people got to the mountain the next day due to the storm, so the overnight snow held up well and we were all treated to free refills all day. And, it kept snowing into the evening and next morning! Stratton reported a total of 41.” No one got to ride or ski 41″ of course as people started getting at it the first morning, but it was already 2+ feet by then and building. That’s almost as good as it gets for a Northeast powder day. (I had a better one once, with 2.5-3 feet overnight, and also at Stratton. Killington does get more snow, and better quality on average, but Stratton seems to get the bigger dumps albeit rarely.)

I posted that run in the previous Rant, but here’s one newly posted from a Utah trip two weeks beforehand using the Koala. Click pic to play…

CLICK THAT PIC! Play the clip on Instagram. Take a run down Snake Creek at Brighton Resort, Utah, filmed on iPhone as secured with Hangtime Koala, including a good tumble early on. Or click here…

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqNkAk1J_ZJ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

During a break in the mid mountain lodge, a guy approached me and asked what I was using to hold onto the phone. It was still attached to the Koala. I told and showed him. He said he owned the patent for it, and that the guy from Hangtime was knowingly violating it. His company? Smart Catch. Similar product; less expensive; patents shown on the web site. (And, yes – there are other similar products out there including one aimed at those who go fishing.)

His wife apparently came up with the idea while on a chairlift, and the idea became a reality. This fellow (very nice; didn’t get his name) actually said that the Hangtime product was very good – but also that it was a patent infringement. I felt bad, but what did I know. Hangtime’s Koala has “patent pending” printed on it. I reached out through their Insta ads but didn’t hear back. The Smart Catch products are sold directly on their site, and also on Amazon.

IN THAT PIC: gallery page for the Smart Catch

Anyway, I was an unsuspecting purchaser in good faith, and the guy who might have the intellectual property rights signed off on the quality of his competitor. I’m keeping it unless I find something significantly better, and who knows? I might very well try the Smart Catch for the lower price and out of pro curiosity.

For a few years in a row, we had at least one client each season lose a phone overboard. I cringe every time someone is about to step from dock to boat, or boat to boat, holding an unsecured phone in their hand. I warn them against it if I can do so without risking them dropping it right at the edge as they try to pocket it. I’ll be updating our “What to bring and wear” list that we send to everyone before their course, which we do seasonally. I’ll be adding a phone leash to this (and that we’ll laugh like Cartman if they lose their phone stepping off the boat with it formerly in hand).

LINKS…

Hangtime Gear Koala

The Smart Catch

Weather & Whether: Forecasting Basics

Climate change is affecting weather everywhere, but when we learn how to sail or cruise, new apps give old (and new) dogs kewl tricks

It’s all about the weather… whether we’re skiing, riding, or sailing.  And while the weather is more volatile, the apps to check it are more robust.

IN THAT PIC: screen grab from The Weather Channel (weather dot com). I often use that in conjunction with other sources when checking weather for sailing.

I was getting a bit of a rep for forecasting on City Island.  I’m no meteorologist.  My experience, history and insight (if any) range from “red sky at night; sailor’s delight” stuff from back in the day to “which app is that?”  Patterns have changed, and technology has taken strides. Anyway, I’m on the water a lot so there’s that.

With everyones smart phones come apps.  However, what’s included stock is sketchy.  We all have some kind of basic weather app.  But, how does it work?  What’s it good for?   Do we trust it for snowsports in the winter, sailing in the summer, or neither?

The answer is probably a little of both, and not neither.  But, those basic apps need to be used judiciously, and paired with something more robust and specific to the sport at hand.

First, a story…

As you probably know, I’m a snowboarder. I got tired of not getting fresh pow, even when traveling out west to do so. I used to think that out west, they didn’t get ice, and a ‘bad’ day there was like a packed powder/hardpack day on the Ice Coast (northeast). Not soooo… EVERYONE gets ice! Everywhere. It’s just a matter of how often. I learned the hard way: we booked a trip to Solitude (& Brighton) in Utah and not only got skunked (no fresh while there), but ICE. Crappy conditions. It hadn’t snowed in over a month!!!! I call it the Great Drought of ’22, and it affected much of the west in between great starts and finishes to the season.

IN THAT PIC: what was left of the snowpack on gate accessed terrain at Solitude Mountain Resort, early February ’22. This is either Here Be Dragons or Memorial Chutes – it was on the border. Lots of bare patches up top with better coverage further down. Some trees were bare nearby; others had plenty of snow to slide across… and enough to worry about tree well immersion if you were to land head first in them.

Short-term forecasting doesn’t help when you have to plan a trip months in advance. I’d done the right thing; I picked a place that’s hard to get a drought, and which gets a ton of snow each season (annual average of around 500,” as opposed to 175-250 in Southern Vermont). Plus, a ‘minus:’ subtract rain (and add that the snow is light and dry). While it didn’t work out on that trip, at least it didn’t rain. Plus, the trip was still very enjoyable. Just no fresh snow. Historically speaking, it was a not a gamble but a good idea.

Next trip? We still had to plan in advance, and decided that variety plus consistency were good ideas. ‘Variety’ was a totally different area with unusual terrain, scenery, etc: Revelstoke, B.C. Also, it’s known for good annual snowfall averages of good quality, and consistent smaller amounts of fresh snow (“free refills”). It delivered – sort of. Compared to their previous season, they were about 2 metres below when we arrived, and there hadn’t been much recent snow. Bottom of the mountain was icy. Top was zero ice and some soft powder to be found, but no bonanza. Fine; it was still a good trip and half way through, we got some fresh that fixed the lower mountain. Lesson: a little fresh goes a long way at Revelstoke!

IN THAT PIC: from near the top of Revelstoke Mountain Resort, looking way out over the mountain ranges and also all the way down to the Columbia River – which flows through BC all the way to the Oregon coast! This is in Separate Reality Bowl. Worth clicking on this pic to blow up a bit.

By then, I was looking around for better apps for the mountains. I had a new strategy in mind, and needed new last minute tactics. Strategy? “The Formula.” Basically, identify two, maybe 3 mountains or areas where the following conditions had a chance to all align at the same time…

  • Lots of fresh snow in the forecast (on top of good recent snowfall and no drought);
  • Good flight itineraries with low risk of weather delays;
  • Cheap, practical lodging
  • Safe, reliable and affordable transit to the mountain.

Lodging and transit could be figured well in advance. Snowfall was mid and short term dependent on weather. Same for flights. But, how to forecast the upcoming snow reliably? I had to do better than try to extrapolate from weather dot com (which I do use for some boating), and NOAA forecasts, neither of which are comprehensive enough at the local mountain scale.

I searched around and found two candidate apps to use and cross reference. If they were reasonably in agreement, and the trend looked good, I could pull the trigger.

They were; I did.

It worked. Third time’s the charm! I got 3 powder days in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah (Brighton and Snowbird). Conditions were anywhere from excellent to epic (heli-quality), with the exception of later in the day on one of the faces of Snowbird where it had been heavily trafficked and skied off with horrible visibility due to fog. Almost a problem! But, I took another route out through chopped up pow, another lift to top, and the tram back down to the base.

IN THAT PIC: I’m putting on the brakes throwing up snow while Jack, my new storm-chasing buddy, tears it up. Double diamond bowl area off the top of Great Western chair, Brighton Resort, Feb. ’23.

The apps?

Open Snow, primarily. It’s a paid app with a 2-week trial period. For $29/year, you get detailed conditions report, regional forecast narratives, and super detailed forecasts for snow, wind, temps, etc at just about any ski hill you’d care to go to. Turns out the guy I met on the UTA ski bus, who had the same “Formula” as I, had been using Open Snow for some time.

IN THAT PIC: On the Snow, open to the portrait view for Brighton Resort. This was a screen grab leading up to my epic trip. The view can go landscape as well with more data shown for each day.

Cross reference? On The Snow. Not as robust, but serves the double-check purpose. I also follow Powder Chasers, although there’s no app involved but the option of a paid concierge service (that could be well worth it in the context of the cost of an actual trip).

“What if I don’t ride or ski? What about on-water weather?”

First, let’s talk about some forecasting basics -what you’re looking for in evaluating weather for boating. Once you know that you can narrow down the app choices.

Marine forecast. It’s at least somewhat different from the standard weather forecast most people use on a day-to-day basis (including me). Marine forecasts focus on wind direction & strength, sea state (waves), and risk of precipitation – particularly thunderstorms. That’s what you really need. If you do nothing else, consult the NOAA / NWS Marine Forecast for the general area you’ll be boating, and also keep checking a radar app if there’s any risk of thunderstorms.

Radar. The greatest risk for most people boating inshore and along the coast is thunderstorms. In the northeast, for example, most people do most of their boating in the warmer months, which incurs risk of thunderstorms (especially mid afternoon and later). So, using some app to track potential approaching storms is critical. In the old days, we relied on the morning’s published forecast and our trained eye on the sky. Eventually, Marine VHF radio helped, but when it did, it was almost too last-minute. Radar can see what you can’t, and when real-time stuff changes, so does the radar imagery. It’s not perfect- it can’t always keep pace with small pop-up squalls at water’s edge, but large, seriously bad-ass systems don’t get missed.

History and trend. Don’t just open your iPhone, look at the included weather app, and see what the current temperature is. Look at what happened for at least a few hours prior, and what will happen into that evening/midnight. This applies to temperature, wind direction & strength, and if the area is exposed, the wave heights. Also, look at the forecast and the actual radar imagery for risk of precip and especially thunderstorms. If the forecast for later doesnt’ make sense in the context of the recent history/trend up to ‘now,’ the forecast could be stale or just plain wrong.

IN THAT PIC: example of an NDBC page. This one’s for Sandy Hook, the closest and most relevant station for the Sailing Center. It’s not “right there,” but it will closely match what we get and should expect. Note the reference to right whales!

Of course, there are many apps and sites to choose from. Personally, I have mostly used weather dot com, searching for stations that most closely reflect the area I plan on boating. Example: I cross reference Brooklyn and Long Beach when evaluating conditions for classes out of Sheepshead Bay. (See top photo in post for an example.) The reality is somewhere in between, but favoring Long Beach which is close and also most similarly situated: an Atlantic Ocean inlet. Weather dot com gives hourly breakdowns and, for the very short term, 15′ breakdowns. To get the full suite of features and skip adds, it costs around $30/year. Annoyingly, it logs one out too frequently so choose an easy, short password.

I also cross reference that with the NOAA NWS Marine forecast for the area. No app here – just find the right web site starting point, bookmark it, and return often. Important: to get the history/trend, one must go to the NDBC page (National Data Buoy Center). This is a list of stations on and off the water that give frequently updated live data feeds for wind direction, strength gusts, wave heights, etc, etc. This, plus the forecast for the area (linkable from the NDBC pages) gives a good overall picture. The history of the live feed remains up, revealing the trend up until the user checks it.

What else is popular?

Windy. This was recommended during our Croatia trip at the skippers meeting to go over weather for the week, itineraries, etc, etc. The First Mate of record for our trip, Dave, and I both downloaded it immediately. Personally, I find it counterintuitive and annoying, and seldom use it. Having said that, many if not most people disagree with me and it’s certainly a robust app. Plus, it’s supposed to be good for snowsports!

And… there are two. Yup; two Windy apps. A good friend and client of the school, who’s a United pilot by profession, uses Windy.com as opposed to Windy.app. the dot com is an app for mobile as well. (I have on rare occasions used the other one, so now I’ll play around with the one the Pilot uses.)

How about a Radar app? For the Northeast, I use not an app, but a bookmarked site few people know about. My dentist, who’s a sailor, turned me onto it. It’s called CT Precip, and more commonly just called PLUFF. (pluff dot com) A University, in conjunction with Accuweather, arranged a feed of images for the northeast and much of the continent, plus other evaluative feeds that I don’t understand and probably don’t need. The first two screens take care of all my local and regional needs. When I travel out of the range, and need radar, I figure that out in the moment.

IN THAT PIC: GO time! Monday morning, one week ago. Storm is approaching, and I’m going to get in the car in a few hours to drive up and arrive before it starts snowing heavily. Blue is snow; green is rain. This is a screen grab from CT Precip, or pluff.com. Excellent for seeing what’s really out there in the moment and tracking its movement.

Old school?

VHF Marine Radio. Apps aside, one should understand how to get weather updates that are broadcast on VHF radio, including ‘push’ severe weather alerts where available. If your smart phone dies or falls overboard, VHF could save the day proverbially – or literally.

On the water, the stories aren’t the same. We either get the green light to go, or we don’t. It’s not the same as a serious powder day at a mountain. But, it lets us go out when the sky looks doom n gloom, but nothing shows on the radar or in the forecast. And, more importantly, it lets us know when conditions favor the development of thunderstorms, or they’re strongly predicted – and lets us see them beyond the horizon when the weather looks just fine. For now…

And, now that you have more of an idea what to look for, start comparing history/trend with both forecasts and what actually happened for the local area you do most of your boating in. That will teach you how to forecast based on trends, and not totally rely on the apps. It will also show how reliable your choice of forecasting app is. And, it will make you a safer and more confident boater.

UPDATE: storm chasing with the app worked again… this time for Southern Vermont. This was a week ago. For the second time, I hit Stratton when it was likely to get the most snow in the region during a big storm. It did, and so did I. Car was socked in so deep I couldn’t see anything but the side view mirror. But, I was at the mountain snowboarding when most people couldn’t get there. It dumped overnight, and kept nuking as the day – and night – went. Free refills. And, it was Open Snow that made it a go, letting me see that I could safely drive up on Monday and get there before driving was not a good idea. 2-3 feet. Enough left over the next two days to keep hitting pow on side hits and in the trees, plus two incredible runs at Magic Mountain on Wednesday when they opened just because of the storm. Maybe they looked at Open Snow…

If you made it this far, here are links two a couple of Insta clips I posted. Come take part of a run with me down Brighton and Stratton Mountains from those recent trips! In the Brighton clip, I’m shooting Jack drop before I follow. It’s me, myself and I at Stratton.

Brighton: dropping into the double diamond bowl off the top of Great Western…

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpgK7hQPLF7/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Stratton: heading down Upper Standard from the peak…

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpyQhJMt_ke/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

App Links:

CT Precip (pluff): http://pluff.com/

NDBC (for data buoys/stations and marine forecast): use the map to gradually zero in on a region and find stations relevant to you… https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

Weather Channel: https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/5c587ec94779bcfe6616225e92289ce94424df07399952538d503ee6260592fb

Windy: there are two… windy.com and windy.app. You know what to do there.

And, to help decide and see some other apps, here’s an article I came across…

Where to look for the best wind forecasts for free

Happy hunting!

Which came first – the chicken, or the egg?

When learning how to navigate or sail a boat, currents and tides sometimes have something to say. Which causes the other – current, or tide?

We ask this in each schedule of Start NavigatingSM, our ASA 105 Coastal Navigation course. I have a strong opinion on this. Apparently, it agreed with NOAA and NOS. They had a “Did you know?..” posted on one page, and it said what I thought already: one causes the other, despite the conventional wisdom being otherwise.

IN THAT PIC: a visualization of the Gulf Stream, spanning the vast areas from the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of Western Europe! It’s shown here with different colors reflecting sea surface temperatures. Courtesy of NASA. The Gulf Stream is a prevailing, steady-ish current (not a ‘tidal’ current).

Of course, when this topic arose again recently, due to ASA sending an e-blast concurring with the conventional wisdom, I was ready to sink my chops into it. Here’s what they said…

Tides are the vertical movement of water caused by the gravitational fields of the sun and the moon acting on bodies of water. Tidal Currents are the result of water moving between high and low tides.

Zeke Quezada, “TIPS FROM THE TEXT ‘TIDES & CURRENTS,'” on ASA’s site and in their January 27 e-blast.

So… celestial gravity raises earth’s waters, forming currents that fill in the gap? Nahhh…. Hard no, IMHO. Where was that NOAA page? I went looking for it.

Two weeks later: still looking. They seem to have deleted that page, and / or edited it and others. And, they have mixed statements about how this all interrelates. That got me thinking again about the topic, and further researching it. Most explanations I came across seemed somewhere between lame and oversimplified. But, most of them shared a common assumption of facts that were supported by an astrophysicist who I’ll cite below. He sought to debunk the common explanations of those facts. As did I.

I wrote him but haven’t heard back yet. I also reached out to a good friend who’s a PHD candidate in climate science at Columbia. She supported my explanation, and also noted that it’s a tricky topic to teach and that her students usually have trouble with it.

Let’s try to decipher this. What are currents and tides generally? What’s the difference between them? That part is simple.

CURRENT is any horizontal motion of earth’s waters across the face of it (back and forth; in and out).

TIDE is any vertical motion of earth’s waters (up and down).

What causes this to happen? Let’s limit this to interrelated current and tide, and leave out anything about wind driven currents or those caused the the rotation of earth (both of which are separate phenomena from tide and tidal current). Back to cause and effect:

The gravity of the moon mostly, with a little less than half of the forces caused by the sun.

Yup. “It is known.”

But, that’s both the beginning and the end of what people pretty much agree on. So let’s flesh out what the author here – me – thinks. Methinks. (Yes, grammatically incorrect x 2. So sue.)

What causes the “motion of the ocean?”

The gravitational pull of the moon, mostly, with less than half the total force being from the more powerful but far more distant sun. Their combined gravity pulls the earth’s waters around, causing cycles every day. We have two high tides and two low tides each day as the waters bunch up in response to celestial gravity. Because the tides are based on the moon much more than the sun, it takes a little over one “day” for the completion of all the cycles – around 50 minutes or so. (The moon rises later each night, in case you hadn’t noticed. That’s due to the moon’s orbit around earth.)

As the water chases the gravity, it flows horizontally across the earth’s surface, which is what we call current. As water leaves one area, it drops vertically, and as it bunches up in another, it rises. Therefore, current flow causes the rise and fall we call tide.

The Motion of the Ocean, excerpt from “Navigation for Numbskulls,” or How to get from A to B Without Hitting C. Captain Stephen Glenn Card (I authored the text in 2002, updating occasionally, and it’s the companion textbook we use for the ASA 105 Coastal Navigation course, Start Navigating. )

When people say that tide causes current, it implies that the moon stretches or lifts earth’s waters vertically, and pulls in water from other areas in the form of current. Neither the moon nor the sun has the gravitational force to actually lift earth’s waters.

Analogy, for those who like them: imagine the force required to push a boat through the water at a dock with one hand on a calm, still day. It’s pretty easy. Then, imagine lifting that boat out of the water and up into the air. That requires a multi-ton hoist. The concept is the same for cosmic gravity moving earth’s waters. It’s easy to pull them across earth, and impossible to lift them up and away from it.

But, don’t take my word for it… here are two videos and a pulled paragraph that sort of resonate with what I’m saying…

Neil deGrasse Tyson, a man who needs no introduction, speaking on Star Talk.

Gabe Perez-Giz, an astronomer and astrophysicist at NYU, on PBS’ Space Time

And, here’s a quote pulled from NOAA’s site (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)…

TIDES

If you live near the coast or have ever visited the beach, you are probably aware of tides. But did you know that tides are really big waves that move through the ocean in response to the forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun? Tides start in the ocean and move towards the coast, where they appear as the regular rise and fall of the sea surface. How much the water level changes over the day varies depending on where you are and what day it is.

NOAA, in their abstract / synopsis of tides and currents. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/navigation/tidesandcurrents/

Here’s another… also NOAA: Physical Oceanographer Greg Dusek, a senior scientist at NOAA’s Tides and Currents Office…

…And that affects water levels too, because you’re pushing either water away from shore so you have a little bit of a decrease in water level, or you’re pushing water towards shore and you have an increase in water level.

…When the Gulf Stream slows down, you can see increases of water level along the Southeast coast by several inches to maybe a foot. In some cases, it happens pretty regularly. So in North and South Carolina, you get a regular increase in water level in the fall because the Gulf Stream tends to be a little bit slower during those time periods.

Greg Dusek, NOAA Ocean Podcast Episode 15, “Tides and Currents: the Motion of the Ocean” (not to be confused with this author’s identical section title from his book, as I came up with the phrase on my own. So there.) Dusek’s topic here was mostly ocean currents like the Gulf Stream as caused and influenced by earth’s rotational force.

I repeat: “tides start in the ocean and move towards the coast” (translation: current)

…where they appear as the regular rise and fall of the sea surface.” (translation: tide.)

So, on a simply descriptive basis, with or without the terms current &/or tide, NOAA’s explanations agree with mine. And, everyone agrees that current is horizontal and tide vertical.

Add all this up…

Tyson: earth revolves through the tidal bulge caused by the moon (horizontal motions of earths surface and/or waters)

Perez-Giz: the moon does not lift or stretch the earth’s waters.

NOAA: ocean waters travel toward the coasts, where they rise and fall.

Card’s Conclusion: current causes tide.

Hopefully, this clears it up more than clouding it. What do you think? Weigh in!

New Maps for Work and Play

We moved the sailing school, and skied a new hill, so we updated one map and checked out another!

It’s official: New York Sailing Center has moved to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. We are no longer on City Island. We’ve given out some snippets about that, but thought we’d wait to make the full announcement until Google believed it too and updated our listing and map pin.

IN THAT PIC: an MTA subway map with black stars on both our former City Island location and our new Sheepshead Bay one.

I tried to update that while on vacation last week in Revelstoke, British Columbia. I’ve wanted to snowboard there for awhile. Many people haven’t heard of it; many more have heard of Whistler-Blackcomb, which is also in B.C. and is larger. And, more crowded. Less Ikonic. (No; not misspelled – at least not in the sense of multi-mountain access passes that many of you know and use.)

While up there, I got the expected text: a photo of the postcard that Google sent to the new location. It had a code I needed to enter when logged in. Forgot the password, of course, so instead of risking loss of our Google account messing around, I just waited until I got back to a device Google associated us with. And, in minutes, Google believed what I’d been saying for awhile: we moved to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn! And, it updated the map.

IN THAT PIC: red balloon marks the spot. We’re almost surrounded by parts of Gateway National Recreation Area parks and beaches. The Rockaway Peninsula and Breezy Point block ocean swells, yet the Atlantic is right around the corner if we want it.

Why the move?

We tried out a satellite branch there last season on a limited basis. Still NYC; still sailing off moorings; still not worried about commercial traffic and strong currents. They wanted a school presence; we wanted to experiment.

Weather has become worse for sailing in much of the Tri-State region over the last few years, and City Island was no exception. More volatility in wind speeds (too little or too much, and more often the former). More consistent risk and occurrence of thunderstorms.

City Island is a great place to visit, but painful on the B 2 B side of things. We had some hope that our new hosts at Sheepshead Bay would be a welcome change of pace.

One season sold us, and that was that with that. Sailing in Sheepshead Bay, and Rockaway Inlet, with the Atlantic Ocean just beyond Breezy Point, was a game changer. Zero low-wind cancellations. One late afternoon cut slightly short when a building sea breeze became a little too much for day 2 students who’d already been put through their paces. One early evening when everyone started heading back to port when it looked like a thunderstorm was approaching. It missed – and hit the north shores of Queens/Long Island and the Sound. Other than that, no weather delays. Incredible record in this time of climate change.

Add to that a great host facility with all the parts, easy access by car or public transit, and a welcoming and super inclusive sailing environment. And, add dolphins. Yup; it’s hard to sail there a few times and NOT see some. Whales? Not uncommon further out or around the corner. All this makes us almost not want to wait for the new season to begin.

But first, another map, and another experiment! Off to Revelstoke, B.C, for a mostly ski/ride trip with a side hit to friends in Seattle on the way back.

IN THAT PIC: Small scale map section of the area, meaning large area in less detail. Just for perspective. We flew to Seattle from NY, connected to Kelowna (about an hour), and drove 2.5 hours the next morning to Revy.

Revelstoke has a history of timber and rail. They do go hand in hand. What many people don’t realize, even if they’re aware of Revelstoke Mountain Resort, is that skiing has a long history there… about a century of it. You can look it all up on your own. The current resort only started up in 2007, after a troubled history of trying to keep a ski hill open in that area. The new investors got permits to operate a resort on a large tract of Mount McKenzie. (There’s a Mount Revelstoke, and park named after it, nearby.)

IN THAT PIC: large scale (larger detail) map section. Revelstoke Mountain Resort owns Selkirk Tangiers heli, which is just outside town – as is Mount McKenzie with Revy on it. The map shows many of the trails and the handful of lifts (missing one shorty). That’s the Columbia River flowing down and the views of it can be spectacular from the top (or even the gondola much of the way down). It’s the largest in the PAC Northwest of the US. running down to the Pacific via Oregon.

Revelstoke Mountain Resort (hereinafter just Revy) occupies a little over 3,100 acres, which is large if not gigantic. But it has the longest vertical descent of any ski resort in North America, and also the longest trail: 5,600 in round figures, and 9.5 miles in actual ones. The 9.5 one winds back and forth a lot to be that long. But some of the straight top to bottom runs are quite long as well, especially compared to other mountains with less vertical.

it also has a lot of snow, and ridiculously stunning views and scenery (considered a rival to Telluride – or is it the other way around?). Endless rows of conifers create spectacular glades to ski or ride, and also delineate most trails Three bowls with various degrees of difficulty to access and/or ski make for excellent terrain variety. And, from the highest lift-served areas, anyone can get down. Beginners and true experts, and in between, have choices. But, not crowds. Probably due to the hassle of getting there, it just doesn’t get crowded.

Revelstoke’s trail map. Off of all three major lifts, one can find green to black terrain.

I did a heli day. Had to; rare opportunity as BC in general has so much heli territory, and Revelstoke might be the capital of BC heli skiing. We almost got tired of turning corners in town and seeing yet another heli operation represented. My day was not the best example, as poor visibility severely restricted terrain options and later shut down heli ops early. But, I got blower smoke powder for a run and a half before getting into trees that started off great and became too difficult for most of my group (yes, including me) as we progressed. Taking a helicopter to two different areas to drop in and snowboard was good enough for me.

IN THAT PIC: moon rising during the day over the top of Revelstoke, as seen from the Stoke Chair during my lesson.

Also, in the spirit of trying new things, I figured I’d set my sight on dropping cliffs. I booked a private lesson with a highly certified and recommended instructor there (Level 3 Snowboard; Level 4 Alpine). Mike M is an excellent instructor. He knew from observation that I wasn’t ready to drop any serious cliffs (I suspected as much myself, rather than expecting to drop one.) We worked on the skill sets that I’d need on various natural terrain features, and a few in the park. I did do one steep drop that wasn’t too long and ran out nicely, despite often failing at getting off the ground for small hits. My body doesn’t do well at the motions needed, especially when locked onto a board.

IN THAT PIC: random skier in glades fringing cliff drops into a bowl. I stuck to the trees that round; plenty of moving for me there.

But, a good instructor can also just work on fixing bad habits or techniques observed in the student. I know; I was a Level I Snowboard Instructor for a few years, pursuing my Level II before I ran out of time to commit to teaching. I did it part time for a variety of reasons, one of which was some instructional cross training for the sailing school, and which paid large dividends in how we operate courses. Mike saw something and got me to fix it, and it was another game changer. (I was having trouble with heelside edge-hold on steep, icy trails. He fixed my problem; I’d made strides on my own in the past, but he really fixed it. That alone was worth it, yet I got so much more out of the lesson. And yes – an older dog with an open, motivated mind CAN learn new tricks!

And, I found some small cliff drops where I least expected to later in the trip – mid mountain, on a blue, under their shortest chair ride. First drop perfect! Second, not so much… but down safe. Part of the fun is looking at the trail map, poking around, and exploring a large mountain from both the chairlifts and on the snow.. You’ll find stuff you didn’t know you were looking for.

IN THAT PIC: everything -bowl, glades, groomer, and if you expand the pic and look center left above the trees and below the distant mountains, you’ll see the Columbia River! Shot on a bluebird day before back to back powder days.

Maps new to us to look at; old maps updated for others. Still learning the areas out of Sheepshead Bay by using the new charts. Will still need the trail map at Revy to know how to get to the next glades on the next trip (yes, I’ll go back). Sailing from Sheepshead Bay, and riding & skiing at Revelstoke? Two scenarios that we can honestly recommend you bust out maps for.

Want more on NY Sailing Center and our new location? Follow our menu links from the side or bottom of this post and every other page.

Want to learn and see more about Revelstoke? Here you go!..

https://www.revelstokemountainresort.com/

Fly an Ensign!

No, not the yacht ensign flag – the little yacht called an Ensign, on which we teach people how to sail a boat properly in Brooklyn, NYC.

ASA recently rolled out an on-line study course for learning to sail. It’s intended to help people get ready for on-water lessons by previewing the concepts and terminology. Schools pay a monthly fee to have access for their students; students pay whatever, if anything, schools charge them. Or, anyone can just purchase and peruse (see link at bottom of post).

Maybe it cuts down classroom time and reduces hours/costs for schools. Maybe it lets those whose learning preference is to read up and study in advance do so. Maybe it competes with other online educational materials such as ASA’s arch rival, NauticEd. Any which way you slice it, it’s here.

An Ensign class sloop, out for family fun. Note the large cockpit with deep bench seats; swallows families whole!

And, when they did their e-blasts about it, they chose a photo of an Ensign. Why do we care? Because that’s what we teach on for learn to sail (ASA 101)! We didn’t in the past – it’s a new thing for us, although some schools have been using them for a long time. We tried them last season at our Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn branch and decided they were at least as good, and maybe slightly better, than what we’d been using since 1997 – the Beneteau First 21.0.

A Beneteau First 21.0 sloop, in City Island Harbor, where we had our school for most of its existence. Great boat; great location… but sometimes even ‘great’ can be improved upon.

What’s odd is that ASA used an Ensign in this promo campaign. They actually endorse the Beneteau First 21.0. They have no relationship with the Ensign beyond the photo you see above. Sure, it’s a great shot, and ASA undoubtedly is aware of the history and pedigree of the design. But, they really got a hard on for the Beneteau when they did a collab with them- the world’s oldest and largest sailboat manufacturer. ASA thought the industry needed a new, sexier boat, and the “ASA First Trainer” as it was first named was born.

The ASA First 22, formerly called the First Trainer. Same hull, keel, twin rudders, mast/boom, and sail plan. Just has a longer cockpit, shorter cabin, and graphics that cry out “Glass Patriot.”

Beneteau took their First 20 (same damn boat as 21) and made a version with a longer cockpit and smaller cabin. That’s it. Same hull; same rig; same keel and rudders. True, the longer cockpit was an advantage for daysailing and teaching, but only because most sailing schools put 4 students into a boat for learn to sail. 4 plus an instructor = one too many people on average to get around when doing maneuvers. ASA has featured the First Trainer (now “22” and same damn length) in other promo stuff so it’s funny that they show an Ensign here.

But, they do!

So, why the Ensign?

THIS is why! Click the pic to see the action. Two of our students on an Ensign this summer out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. They were new to sailing. And now, they’re going on our BVI (Virgin Islands) trip in this late April/early May!

Well, when we started doing a ‘sea trial’ of a satellite branch in Sheepshead Bay, we felt it was a good idea to use what was already down there to get started. Both the Miramar Yacht Club, and the boats they had (Ensigns), had reputations that preceded them. Very good ones. We were only going to try a narrow scope: teach learn to sail a few times and see how it all went. I was quite confident it would work well, based on the boat, the location, the facilities, and the weather. All of it met or exceeded my expectations. As this is about the boat, I’ll focus on the Ensign here:

STABLE. It has a full keel, meaning it’s large and heavy. (The ‘keel’ is the fin underneath the boat that stops it from flipping over and also helps it track straight and pivot evenly during turns.)

MANEUVERABLE. Surprisingly so for a full-keel design, with arguably an inefficient rudder design. In a crowded mooring field (Sheepshead Bay owns that description), the Ensign can maneuver handily through it all, which means it can handle anything.

FAST. Surprisingly fast in light winds with its large genoa jib, and with mass that keeps it moving through lulls to the next puff. When the wind picks up, switch to a basic working jib and eventually reef (shorten) the main. The Ensign can handle more wind than most people who sail them can – and it hauls ASS!

ROOMY. Super long bench seats with high backrests allow the boat to swallow up passengers, so 3 students plus and instructor can get around each other easily. (No, not 4; remember, “we give you more!”).

SAFE. Despite not having lifelines, which we were a little concerned about beforehand, the boat is super safe. As it’s very stable, it simply doesn’t heel as far over, nor as quickly. That, plus high backed benches, mean people aren’t at significant risk of falling overboard.* No need to leave the cockpit and go forward except to pick up the mooring – when we’re back inside super protected Sheepshead Bay, and the boat is level as it makes its approach. (*Lifelines can help in that regard, but people can still fall overboard despite them.)

Happy Halloween from the Irish Riviera! We’re aboard an Ensign, in between Breezy Point and Coney Island here, just off the entrance to Sheepshead Bay. Halloween, 2022. Breezy is nicknamed the Irish Riviera, but its real name was for a good and obvious reason! nb: the engine is not used by us for classes – ever. The Miramar Yacht Club owns this boat and the engine is on rare occasions, if ever, used by their members. Everyone just sails these boats in and out. There are around 20 at the Club!

I used to personally have a penchant for light, racy boat designs. Over time, I developed more of an appreciation than I’d had for some classic, more traditional boat designs. And now, we teach people how to sail on one.

And, for anyone interested in doing a little on-line learning before they come to us to do it for real on an actual boat, here’s the link to ASA’s online prep course!..

Intro to Sailing: Online Course