DEFI WIND 2019

Amazing video! Makes me want to go windsurfing!

Memorial Day

I thought it was only fitting I supply you with this article about honoring those that have fallen in war to keep us free. See Article Below!

And I personally would like to thank those of you that have served in the military or have family members who have or are serving for your/their service and commitment to help keep us free. Any of you who have lost loved ones in a military conflict I give you my sincere condolences... There is no greater love than to give your life for another!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Skipper Miles Moore, President

US Sailing & Safe Boating Instructor

FunToSail

ON MEMORIAL DAY!

What we owe to the fallen, and to those now serving.

By 

MARK HELPRIN

Updated May 29, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

In American military cemeteries all over the world, seemingly endless rows of whitened grave markers stand largely unvisited and in silence. The gardeners tend the lawns, one section at a time. Even at the famous sites, tourism is inconstant. Sunsets and dawns, winter nights, softly falling snow, and gorgeous summer mornings mainly find the graves and those who lie within them protected in eternal tranquility. Now and then a visitor linked by love, blood, or both will come to make that connection with the dead that only love can sustain.

Sometimes you see them, quiet in some neglected corner beneath the trees or on a field above the sea, but numbers and time make this the exception. If not completely forgotten, the vast ranks of Civil War dead are now primarily the object of genealogy and historians, as the fathers and mothers, women, children, and brothers who loved them are now long gone. As it is for everyone else it is for the dead of all the wars, and neither proclamations nor holidays nor children innocently placing flags can cure it.

Nonetheless, a universal connection links every living American with those who have fallen or will fall in American wars and overrides the lapses in sustaining and honoring their memories. We are and shall be connected to them by debt and obligation. Though if by and large we ignore the debt we owe to those who fell at Saratoga, Antietam, the Marne, the Pointe du Hoc, and a thousand other places and more, our lives and everything we value are the ledger in which it is indelibly recorded. And even if we fail in the obligation, it is clear and it remains.

What do we owe soldiers on the battlefields of the present or—do not doubt it—the future? How does one honor the inexpressibly difficult decision to walk toward annihilation, in some instances guaranteed, for the sake of the imperfect strategies of war, their confused execution, and their uncertain result? What can we offer the soldiers who will not know the outcome of their struggle, or ever again see those left behind?

We owe them a decision to go to war ratified unambiguously by the American people through their constitutional and republican institutions. Except where instantaneous response is necessitated by a clear and present danger, this means a declaration of war issued by a Congress that will fully support its own carefully determined decision and those it sends to carry it out—nothing less, nothing hedged, nothing ducked.

This requires in turn the kind of extraordinary, penetrating debate that can occur only among those wise enough to understand mortality and weigh it against principles that cannot be left undefended. It requires a president who can argue for his decision not merely with eloquence but substantively and tenaciously—guided only by the long-term interests of the United States, not fatuous slogans, political imperatives, and easily impeachable ideological notions of the right, left, or center.

Look ahead, not back. If we commit soldiers to battle, we must support them unstintingly. There are many ways to pay for war: taxing, borrowing, cutting other expenditures, sharing the burden with allies, adjusting war aims, and starving the means to fight. The only unacceptable one is the last. If the general population must do with less, so be it, for the problem is only imagined. Better than feckless politicians who think it lives by bread alone, the American people has always known that its enlisted sacrifices are hardly commensurate with those of the maimed and the dead.

A soldier's destiny must rest, rather than with careerists, in the hands of grave and responsible officials and commanders, those who experience what Churchill called the statesman's "stress of soul." He should never have to die for the sake of an academic theory once the doctoral thesis of an Ivy League idealist working his way up through the bureaucracies and think tanks.

And yet the commander who does not labor to educate himself unceasingly is likely no better than his opposite number in the seminar room. Above all, he must have a genius for war, an inherent quality that cannot be manufactured and is usually crowded out by that part of the brain that makes for a brilliant career, and punished by the higher ranks for having what they do not. Such people deserve the protection and promotion that mostly they do not receive, for when they do they become Grant, Churchill, Marshall, Eisenhower, and Patton.

The debt we owe, and in regard to which we are at present deeply in arrears, may be difficult to pay but it is easy to see. To grasp its conspicuous clarity one need only walk among the graves and pause to give proper thought to even just one life among the many. Read slowly the name, the dates, the place where everything came to an end.

I have seen lonely people of advancing age, yet as constant as angels, keeping faith to those they loved who fell in wars that current generations, not having known them, cannot even forget. The sight of them moving hesitantly among the tablets and crosses is enough to break your heart. Let that break be the father to a profound resolution to fulfill our obligation to the endless chain of the mourning and the dead. Shall we not sacrifice where required? Shall we not prove more responsible, courageous, honest, and assiduous? Shall we not illuminate our decisions with the light that comes from the stress of soul, and ever keep faith with the fallen by embracing the soldiers who fight in our name? The answer must be that we shall.

Mr. Helprin, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, is the author of, among other works, "Winter's Tale" (Harcourt), "A Soldier of the Great War" (Harcourt) and, most recently, "Digital Barbarism" (HarperCollins). Link to original article at http://on.wsj.com/1IVB9G2

Hobie 16 North America Championships

2019 Hobie 16 North American Championships, Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia, Canada September 16-20, 2019

Very seldom is the Hobie 16 National Championships so close to the Inland NW (421 miles from Hayden, Idaho). If you want to experience the competition, comradery, and fun of Hobie 16 racing at its finest then this regatta is for you. My wife and I (owners of funtoSail) will be attending this regatta. Please join us, and if you our planning on attending please let us know by emailing us at funtosailgroup@gmail.com

I might add Harrison Lake, BC is absolutely a gorgeous place to sail and vacation. See video blow.

Cost $375 if you sign up before Aug 15. After it costs $425.

To sign up please visit the Notice of Race (NOR) at this link https://bit.ly/2Jn1ap8
Official regatta website https://hobiediv4.org/event/2019-1620-nas/

This event is also the Hobie 20 North American Championship.

SailGP Racing Highlights

If you missed the racing in San Francisco on May 3-4, 2019, plus do not have time to watch all the full races in full here is a video with highlights of major portions of the races compacting all two days of racing into under 1 hour video.

SailGP San Francisco

I had the opportunity to experience the F50 (50 feet long) foiling catamarans up close and personal at the recent Sail Grand Prix (SailGP) in San Francisco on May 3rd. Watching the racing online is great to behold but seeing the racing up close in person was exhilarating. The speeds they were hitting from 40 to 45 knots (46-51 mph) was insan. These boats while racing are literally only feets apart particularly at the start of each race, during marke roundings, or when crossing each other when heading up wind at 50 mph. Incredible boat handling skills.

See full race videos at the bottom of this page!

I was on one of the official SailGP cruise boats, right on the edge of the course where no other spectator boats were allowed. So the view was great. I talked to a lot of people on the cruise boat and was surprised how many on board have never sailed, or were new to sailing. For me this was exciting to realize so many were interested in sailing that otherwise may not have been. Most indicated they had seen the boats racing on youtube and were very interested in seeing them in person. Not a single person I talked to was disappointed they had come. You could hear people wooing and owing at the sight of these high speed F50's racing. Besides having food included in the price of the ticket to be on board, the boat had live video on several TV's and persons on board giving racing/sailing commentary as the races were taking place. Very well run I might add.

I was rooting for Team USA to improve since the last series that took place in Australia. The whole team is new to foiling and all are the youngest sailors in the series, all are American. The goal is for each team from each country to only have sailors from that country, currently  that is not the case as some countries do not have enough sailors trained to sail these boats, but eventually it will happen. So for the Americans it has been a big learning curve for them. In Australia they finished in last place but after all the racing in San Francisco they are now in 4th place. Team Australia and Team Japan (7 team members, 4 from Aus, one from NZ, 2 from Japan, skipper is Aus) are the big guns with with the most experience foiling and are older. So Team USA has their work cut out for them but based on this race series results it appears they are up to the task.

My evaluation of Team USA in Australia before the San Francisco regatta is that they did not have the pace and seemed to not be using the course to their advantage, tacking to much, etc. This time they looked well oiled and not making big mistakes. There only issue is that they just did not quite have the speed that Teams like Japan and Australia had. Being just a knot of speed slower is hugge disadvantage.

Another improved team was Team Great Britain (GBR), they were all that was in the way of Team USA from getting into 3rd place. My prediction is that Team GBR and USA will not only push each other in the next series but give the big guns a run for their money. Team China (skipper is from NZ, with 2 from Aus, 1 from France, 3 from China) and Team France were well back in the pack but had some good starts. China the day before the racing started damaged their wing sail in a nose dive, so that may have had an affect on their performance (maybe the wing sail was not perfect) and confidence. I certainly expect both teams to step it up a lot with the next races to take place in New York Harbor on June 21.

Many sailors who seem to not be fans of multihulls and these F50's have expressed their doubts that these sailboats will put on an exciting and tactical races, and only be a drag race. What has been shown is the opposite with close racing, many position changes, including a high level of athleticism not required of other slower sailing disciplines. See the following videos and visit sailgp.com website for continuous updates and news, etc.

The following is a video and pics from my cell phone, along with sailgp videos

For some reason I lost most of my videos on my phone but here is one short 14 sec. video

Here is a video taken from a ferry in San Fran showing Team China blasting past

Here is an official race video you can watch to see races from start to finish

Foiling Boat Show

Here is a review of all the new small foilers in competition with Moth. Down side is high cost for all the boats other than the UFO which is the least expensive at $8000. As for taking the crown from the Moth it's highly likely the UFO will do that as it has the speed of the Moth, but is way less expensive and much more stable, etc.

The Future is Here!

So with all the foiling sailboats and boards is in the water sailboats dead. Not totally but when it comes to high end completion more and more are moving towards foiling. I think in the end one will only see a few non foiling classes survive such as the Hobie 16 and maybe a few monohull classes. If you have not heard the Laser is out of the Olympic's replaced by the RS Aero, which is a non foiling boat, but I predict in the near future it will be out also, replaced by a foiling boat such as the UFO.

Here are some videos of such classes of foiling sailboats...