A new Pierce favorite.

Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
Today we’ll have a fun time!
Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
Girl, tuck your arm into mine.
Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
Let’s go boys, 1,2,3!
Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
We gotta have some fun!
Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
Today we’ll have a fun time!
Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
Girl, tuck your arm into mine!
Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
Let’s go boys 1,2,3!
Schei-wi-dei-wi-du-wi-dei
We gotta have some fun!

When the music plays, when the music plays.
All people are happy.
When the music plays, when the music plays
from Hamburg all the way to Mexico!
When the music plays, the music plays no one will leave.

Because music, yes the music always has the last word.

Robert Jr. exceeded expectations at the Totally Dinghy Regatta on Saturday. He didn’t get lost on the course even once and he never ever cried. 12th place! Woo Hoo!  Better luck next time, Ernest Galvan!

Also, for you sailing buffs, taken from the day’s action, a Racing Rules of Sailing quiz below (easy one?) Hint: See Rules 14-17.

For reference:

SECTION A
RIGHT OF WAY

A boat has right of way over another boat when the other boat is required to keep clear of her. However, some rules in Sections B, C and D limit the actions of a right-of-way boat.

10. ON OPPOSITE TACK. When boats are on opposite tacks, a port-tack boat shall keep clear of a starboard-tack boat.

11 ON THE SAME TACK, OVERLAPPED.
When boats are on the same tack and overlapped, a wind ward boat shall keep clear of a leeward boat.

12 ON THE SAME TACK, NOT OVERLAPPED. When boats are on the same tack and not overlapped, a boat clear astern shall keep clear of a boat clear ahead.

13 WHILE TACKING.
After a boat passes head to wind, she shall keep clear of other boats until she is on a close-hauled course. During that time rules 10, 11and 12 do not apply. If two boats are subject to this rule at the same time, the one on the other’s port side or the one astern shall keep clear.

SECTION B
GENERAL LIMITATIONS

14 AVOIDING CONTACT.
A boat shall avoid contact with another boat if reasonably possible. However, a right-of-way boat or one entitled to room or mark-room(a) need not act to avoid contact until it is clear that the other boat is not keeping clear or giving room or mark-room, and (b) shall be exonerated if she breaks this rule and the contact does not cause damage or injury.

15 ACQUIRING RIGHT OF WAY. When a boat acquires right of way, she shall initially give the other boat room to keep clear, unless she acquires right of way because of the other boat’s actions.

16 CHANGING COURSE

16.1 When a right-of-way boat changes course, she shall give the other boat room to keep clear.

16.2 In addition, when after the starting signal a port-tack boat is keeping clear by sailing to pass astern of a starboard-tack boat, the star-board-tack boat shall not change course if as a result the port-tack boat would immediately need to change course to continue keeping clear.

17 ON THE SAME TACK; PROPER COURSE
If a boat clear astern becomes overlapped within two of her hull lengths to leeward of a boat on the same tack, she shall not sail above her proper course while they remain on the same tack and overlapped within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of the other boat. This rule does not apply if the overlap begins while the windward boat is required by rule 13 to keep clear.

Sixth Grade Personal Brochures are due this week!  Excellent training in personal narrative and self marketing.  Very 21st Century!

Robert can watch these videos all day.

2019 Clip of the Day

Race to Alaska Explained

Stage 1 Race start: 0500 June 8th, Port Townsend, Washington
Stage 2 Race start: 1200 June 11th, Victoria, BC
Application deadline: Tax Day baby! April 15th

The inside passage to Alaska has been paddled by native canoes since time immemorial, sailing craft for centuries, and after someone found gold in the Klondike the route was jammed with steamboats full of prospectors elbowing each other out of the way for the promise of fortune.

It’s in the spirit of tradition, exploration, and the lawless self-reliance of the gold rush that Race to Alaska was born. R2AK is the first of its kind and North America’s longest human and wind powered race, and currently the largest cash prize for a race of its kind.

This isn’t for everyone

It’s like the Iditarod, on a boat, with a chance of drowning, being run down by a freighter, or eaten by a grizzly bear. There are squalls, killer whales, tidal currents that run upwards of 20 miles an hour, and some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.

R2AK is based on the hardest kind of simplicity

You, a boat, a starting gun. $10,000 if you finish first, a set of steak knives if you’re second. Cathartic elation if you can simply complete the course. R2AK is a self-supported race with no supply drops and no safety net. Any boat without an engine can enter.

Last year 45 teams were accepted and 25 finished.

“It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.”

Margaret Mead

Yesterday Robert took Monkeyshine out for its first voyage underneath the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and beyond. He’s lucky to be alive . . .

Very nice photo of recent sailboat racing in Kaneohe Bay, site of the 2019 El Toro North American Championships.  Congratulations to Chase Engelhardt for winning the Junior Division for Richmond Yacht Club.  Hoping to visit our friend Tony Hoff and have Rory and Cadie in the junior program at KYC next summer.  At this point, a bit of a dream.  But trying!

The Pierces have returned from a hike in the Eastern Sierra, along with some Shakespeare in Mammoth Lakes (Much Ado) and visit to the ghost town of Bodie and Jolly Kone of Bridgeport. The Pierces were joined on the hike by the Trautschs, Nicole, Bryan, and Emmet. Hope they had a good time!

Further evidence that an average 11-year-old boy can, and will, make a gun out of just about anything.

This time, a carbon fiber mast top.

Dad sprayed it with paint because it was looking a little too much like a real gun . . .

Rory and Cadie in sail camp this week and next at RYC.  Today some gusty wind, so time for Optiball. The point of which is to get the ball into the opponents boat guarded by “goalies.”  Lots of bumper boats.

Also, who’s that in the painting in the RYC dining room?  Saill No. 11318, that’s who!