May 2013 - Evans Bay Yacht & Motor Boat Club

The Spinnakerpicked up by a repossession firm, and on another occasion with the aid of a recently qualified lawyermember, a Writ was nailed to the offender’s mast until payment was made.Jim enjoyed his time as club manager, and has a keen interest in the club’s progress and history.He has recently returned from New Caledonia as part of the New Zealand delegation of WWIIservicemen commemorating the war in the Pacific.John SeggieWanted: One Rear CommodoreI suggest that all members give some consideration as to whom is going to stand for the position of RearCommodore at the AGM.Whilst I have enjoyed the position, and I hope I have increased the profits, participation by club membersis the only way to improve takings.The meals on Friday nights seem to be enjoyed by all that attended and we can cater for more.It should be noted that a bar person is now listed, if they are not behind the bar please ask for them.DavidAmerica’s Cup Update, rampantly plagiarised from The Internet by AnonymousIt’s hard to believe, but after so many years ofcourt cases & bickering & he-said-she-said, it’sfinally here. The America’s Cup, the actualcup, the one where the Auld Mug is given outat the end & ticker tape parades result, is on, inless than two months.Having said that, it’s likely to be a bit of an anticlimax.There are just three challenging teams& one defender, but they’re not going to let asilly thing like lack of boats stop them. Thethree Louis Vuitton challengers race sevenRound Robin events, & then somehow manageto go on to race both a semi-final series (bestof 7) and a final series (best of 13 races). Allthis happens between July 7 th & August 30 th , with lots of rest & reserve days in the mix. Then there’s a YouthAmerica’s Cup for four days –“ young, talented sailors have a clear pathway towards competing for one of themost prestigious trophies in sport”. And then the Challenger vs Defender series begins…interspersed with somesuper yacht regattas, possibly to fill the gaping tv ratings hole created by having only three challengers. The finalcup races run from September 7 th to possibly the 21 st , a best of 17 series.The event is being held in San Francisco, hosted by the Golden Gate Yacht Club. But even that decision wasfraught with indecision. Although San Fran was originally expected to be the host city, there was so much faffingaround on their part that with only weeks to go to make a announcement, Newport, Rhode Island was asked torun the idea up their flagpole, but presumably only as a tactic to get the other guys to get their act together. AnItalian port near Rome, & a couple of other US wanna-be’s had also been considered, but it seems one of theprime deciding factors was reliability of weather, don’t want any of those ugly postponements messing with tvschedules.All the other stuff about America’s Cup racing that’s been going on for the last year or so, has just been warm upraces. Presumably it was originally expected that the boats entering the AC(45) World Series in August & October2012 & April this year, (not to mention six other series in the 12 months prior) would use this as a training groundfor the big event, but one by one they dropped out, until only the three challengers remained to play with the bigboys toys, the AC72. These monsters come out of the box at 22m long, 14m wide & with a mast 40m high. Theyhave a combined sail area of 660 2 m, which is nowhere near as big as a rugby field, but way way bigger than aduvet cover. Given all the technology involved with a new design of this size, it probably doesn’t come as any- 10 -