Wipeout Wednesday!
WW’s been on hiatus for a while, but let’s bring it back! This wipeout is from the Raid Revenge and the style is called the “Pitchpole to Pinata.” We all know a pinata is a Spanish paper machet likeness of usually a donkey filled with candy that’s strung from a tree and beat with a stick by Pavlovian drooling youngsters until it explodes and the horde rushes in for the candy kill. In beachcats it’s a little different. We have the popular ‘chicken line’ which is a line from the transom of the boat usually led to a cleat on our harness which keeps us from going forward if the bow pitches in. The term ‘chicken line’ really means the crew is scared of pitchpoling so they’re strapping their pansy ass to the back of the boat. Calling someone a chicken means you think they’re scared thus derived the term ‘chicken line.’ If you’ve chicken lined in, you’ve probably ended up in the familiar pinata pose, needing help from your trusty teammate to get down. I know I’m missing the accent on the ‘n’ in pinata like the crew is missing a stick to beat the strung up driver who pitched him in the water. Hey, they were rocking it before the stick. It’s tough steering in waves so on edge for sure.
Wipeout Wednesday!
Well, leave it to the kids to bring back an old classic, Wipeout Wednesday! Joseph Bello and Shelby Brown stood it up pretty good at the finish of one of the races of the Tradewinds Regatta in Islamorada. They did spend most of the time under control though since they finished third in the junior rankings for the regatta!
Thanks Bert Rice for the photo.
Joseph also made a video of the event:
Wipppeout Wedddnesday!!
I’m sticking to the flow of not posting on Wednesdays.
“I believe I can fly…I believe I can touch the sky-y-y”
“Oh crap, I can’t fly.”
“I can’t swim either…………..!!”
Wipeout Wednesday…….Almost
It’s almost Wipeout Wednesday, so here’s an almost wipeout half hull style.
“Nice, flat water boys! Let’s letter rip!! We’ll skip right over those little waves!!”
“Oh, crap! Close the hatch!!! and hike off the backstay!!”
Tactician: “Nah, no lifeline. I’ll just watch to see how far the bow goes in and talk about it later at the bar.”
WWWipeout Wedddnesday!
Here is one of the drawbacks of the curved foils in waves. If you have too much board in and get too much of the boat out of the water, when there isn’t enough foil in the water, the pressure of the rig puts the boat in a bow down position. When the angle of attack is too far bow down, there is ‘negative lift’ in which the foil will hold the bows down until there is not enough flow for the foil to keep the bouyancy of the bow underwater. What results is such a massive amount of drag the boat quickly stops….but usually the crew doesn’t. This one ended up with the crew doing a perfect backspin high kick into the spin pole. Enjoy
We’re heading back out the the course on our curved foil M20 this weekend for the world’s biggest river race, the Mug Race from Polatka to Jacksonville, FL. It’s 30something miles of flat water fun.
Wipeout Wednesday!!! Ok, a Bit Early
I have a feeling the AC teams will provide plenty of Wipeout Wednesday action. Spitty is a cat sailor, but a lot of these guys aren’t. Add the wing, and maybe it’s a bit much for some teams right now. Would having more cat sailors on the teams help? I’ve heard some of the syndicate heads say something along the lines of, “It’s easier to teach America’s Cup sailors how to sail cats than teach cat sailors how to be on an America’s Cup team.” They underestimate us and how difficult it is to keep a cat in one piece raging down the falls at 30+ knots.
Wiiipeout Wednesday! (Multifall Edition)
The water is frozen over so no sailing. The land is as flat as Florida so no snowboarding. How the hell do the natives stay entertained then?…..Flowboarding! Here is a vid the Hobie crew shot and I edited it up a bit. I think I kept the good parts, haha. We’re planning to go in a couple weeks. I caught so much deserved crap for skipping out on this action. Looking at the video, even though I should feel really smart for not going, I’m looking forward to giving it a go. NOFX rocks, and guy at the end of the vid rips it up too. Enjoy!!!!!
Merry X-Mas!
In the spirit of Christmas, here is a small present from me to you. This was from a serious puff outta nowhere by the rocks during the Catacup. Enrique Figueroa and Victor Aponte earned a second for the regatta on their Tiger.
It’s Almost Wednesday
So, I’m more behind from the last month or so, but I’m early for this Wednesday! You guessed it, it’s cold and I’m inside a little more often. Here is a vid of Jorden Veenman and Mischa de Munck last winter on their Hobie Tiger with a little dip with the bow!
WWWipeoout Wedneesddaay!!
In a couple ways, I’m a traditional guy. In keeping with tradition, I don’t actually post Wipeout Wednesday on Wednesday. Here is a sequence shot by Philip Mumm (205-870-8800, mummp@bellsouth.net) on a slightly breezy day during the US Multihull Championship. Before I take the piss out on these guys, I’ve got to say that the crew, young Taylor Reiss. is one of those juniors that make sailing fun with his great attitude and enthusiasm for the sport. He did a great job crewing for Chris Batchelor as well during the championships. Well, that’s enough of being nice for today. Right after I write these captions I’m gonna push an old lady into the street.
Helm: “I got this mark rounding. It’s only a 16 and I don’t have to be on the wire.”
Crew: “All my work is in order, and when he says go..I’m pullin like hell.”
Helm: “I feel so relaxed on this sunny day.”
Crew: “I’m pretty sure something just aint right here.”
Helm: “Maybe I should let some traveler out……nah.”
Crew: “Step one daggerboard. Step two spot the landing.”
Helm: Coming to terms with the screw up.
Crew: Doing everything he can for leverage and a way out.
Helm: “Maybe if I STAND on the foot strap it’ll gain me extra time to spot my landing.”
Crew: “I’m way ahead of you on this one.”
Helm: Classic “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” maneuver. Notice the hiking strap tweeked out from him standing on it for later reference.
Crew: “Okay, I’ll land then think righting line”
Helm: “I’m just gonna sit here for a second and think about how I can get redress for this screw up…..”
Crew: “What are you doing down there, man, we’re racing!”
On the way to the beach after the race, he came up with what I call “The Broken Footstrap Theory.” He asked the judges for redress. You be the judge.
Another Wipeout
I can’t call it Wipeout Wednesday omdat it happens to be Sunday, but here is a small wipeout
HELM: “Hey, look…a cameraman. Let’s do a little High Trappin Highlight Reel!”
CREW: “Sweet”
HELM: “Wait, loose the sheet! I’ll head up real hard that will help”
CREW: “Shit, it’s stuck to my hand!”
HELM: “Wait, there’s a smudge on the boom that the camera will definately see.”
CREW: I’ll get it
HELM: “Damn, there’s a smudge on the sail too, I’ll get it”
CREW: “Wait……we’re screwed”
I am proud of these boys for missing the sails. If a good flip is in order, the Miss the Sail Dive is the only way to go.
Since I’m planning to do Nacra 20 North Americans next month, this one made the cut. I’m teaming up with my longtime friend and excellent sailor Kenny “Monster” Pierce. He’s not a very good bettor though, as this pic below shows.
Wipeoout Wednesday!!!
And now on to the entertainment!
Mr. Z is so cordial and polite he bows to his crew and competitors before the moment of impact.
I like the crew in the background pointing like, “Whatch out, he’s gonna eat it!”
Uh Oh, Wippeout Weddnesday!!!
Wednesday really snuck up on me today. I do have some pretty good material though. Wanna read about it? Here it goes….
There is actually quite a bit of talent here. The helm is doing a Saturday Night Fever split and the crew is doing the “chicken dance.” Dance party meets southern barn dancing, South American style.
The transition here is incredible. From the chicken dance to a hang ten! He’s even giving the sign. I take away points for holding the mainsheet though. A true hang ten is only with the feet.
Nice finish for the crew with a pose on the spinnaker pole. We have a lot of pole dancing in The States, but this is an original. Is he wearing Chuck Taylors?
The helm’s transition from the split to the running man is really something special. And to balance on the tight mainsheet like that is an unheralded talent!
Really, I know when this happened. It was a reach from the gate to the finish in a race that was completely nukin! We ate it so hard Claske and I both ended up around the forestay. When we cam up I said, “Oh, that was a good one,” while laughing of course. What else can you do?
Wipeout Wednesdayyyy!!
I feel a little guilty for making fun of sailors every Wednesday. Well, maybe not, but to prove that absolutely nobody is safe from Wipeout Wednesday, I’ve have a little action from the Tybee, when I was a complete tourist on the boat.
Well, not much right is going on in this picture.
Things do happen quickly out there. Here’s the Video.
Only five boats made it out that day. This stretch of Florida’s southeastern coast has claimed many cats in the past.
In 2001 during the Worrell, at Jensen beach we had an epic battle with the conditions. It was a kickin onshore with a break that went out as far as I wanted to look. With the punchline “We Gotta Go,” the horn went off and some of us pushed off while others pulled their boats back off the line. As a bonus today, I have Jay Sonnenklar and I trying to get out when we were Castrol. I’m pretty sure Walter Cooper took this photo. (who also has some excellent Tybee 500 shots from this year).
On this day, only five boats made it out, and we weren’t one of them. I was in front of the crossbeam looking out for the next big one to hit us, when it did.. We were flipped over backwards quick with the sterns submerged and the powerful wave taking over. When she layed over on her side, I was climbing through the rigging when another wave came straight away and broke on the boat. I heard a loud crack and immediately communicated with Jay to get away from the boat. The carbon mast had snapped. Since we didn’t want to be shish kabobs, we ended up body surfing and waiting for the beaten boat to wash ashore.
I remember right after I started swimming from the boat, Tommy Bahama (Alex Shafer and Nigel Pitt) went by me. As I swam, I put my fist in the air and shouted to them to make it out. They gave a nod and three waves later they had met the same fate as us. They were gobbled up by whitewater and pushed over so hard their mast snapped intantly. All I saw from my water level view was two yellow half-way-down daggerboards pointing straight up to the sky.
Down the beach all I saw was broken boats, teams on the beach with dacron jibs flailing, numerous miscellaneous cat parts washing in and out with the wave rush, and frantic people who didn’t know which way to go or how to help.
Thanks to our excellent groundcrew, we were able to piece out another boat from our backup, since we had two Nacra 20s. We did have to trailer the boats to Cocoa though. On the way, I stared out the car window searching for every time I could see the water. It was a long ride when we’d rather be sailing. Plus I think we recieved an 8 hour penalty. Crazy times. This makes me think of some night leg stories….
Wipeout Wednesday
This is the Captain Jack sponsored Hobie 16. Man, there is so much material for 16s it’s sick. Maybe drinking Jack before you captain is a bad idea? Thanks sailshoot.com again!
Wipeout Wednesday!!
It’s that time again! I’ve been counting down the hours until now. a
The Place: Hollywood, FL USA
The Time: Time to Flip Out
The Sailor: He goes by many names. The most fitting is Foghorn, from Foghorn Leghorn fame. The similarities are striking. The walk, the talk, chicken legs, wow! Lately, on the Internet he’s been Todd “The Hitman” Hart because of his pro wrestler mentality. Maybe he shoud be called “superfly” though from his last move in the surf in Hollywood.
“Oh, I do this all the time. I’m fully in control.”
“Wait, something’s not quite right.”
“I just need to lean out a little bit and she’ll settle right down. Now, where’s that foot strap?
Showing how thorough I am, I’ve got that last shot from a different angle. It kinda tells a different story too.
What’s that saying “Ass over elbows?”
What an excellent job of spotting his landing.
“Mental Checklist, no daggerboard, no rudder, stay away from hull, let go of mainsheet. Oops forgot that last one.”
He lands right in position. He disappoints me though because he didn’t do enough of a Magic Man.
“Ok, shake off the dizziness…………..um…..finish, finish, finish!”
I’ve got to give Todd a lot of credit for immediately pushing the boat across the finish line sideways. Well done.
Photos courtesy of Wendy Daunheimer from Caught In The Frame Photography. Her husband, Alec, raced the Tybee for Team Pirates of the Chesapeake. One photo taken by Thanks!
WWWIPEOUT WEDNESDAY!!!!
I know, you woke up this morning with only one thing on your mind. No, not that it’s hump day, but it’s Wipeout Wednesday. I didn’t put it up for a couple weeks so you know you just can’t live without it.
Showing that nobody is safe, here is one of our Wepro boats putting on the breaks, with the old Magic Man trick by the crew, “now you see me, now you don’t.” Nice one Fred! Keep ‘em coming.
Wipeout Wednesday!
I’m not saying that Capricorns tend to pitchpole or anything. The helmsman was showing off and moonwalking on the front of the hull when the crew was so excited he fell off and started this small mess.
Wipeout Wednesday!
There has been a new style developed! This is how you sail the boat directly upwind by using the main as an actual wing. These guys look like they have it fully under control. The crew is in the aerodynamic pose and everything.
Wipeout Wednesday!
It’s time for my second installment of Wipeout Wednesday. I can’t believe I’m already doing a two-parter. I’m breaking out the good stuff too early! What would your caption be? Yes, there are two boats in this pic. Check out the ramming boat’s crew peering through the rip in the sail. This is a bad one!
And next the disappearing helmsman! His nickname is now the Magic Man…from Talladega Nights, “Cuz, now you see me…..now you don’t.”
Wipeout Wednesday!
This is the first installment of Wipeout Wednesday! Hey, It’s Wednesday where I’m at. Coutesty of my good friends Brian and “The Chuck.” I don’t think it’s very nice of It Chuck to show his ass like this.
These guys are really good sailors, just caught at a bad moment. Some cat sailors brag about stuffing it up to the beam, these guys have the proof!
