JPOR 2004

It seems like preparing for JPOR takes months. And it does. Then on those two wonderful days of racing, the effort seems worth it and time flies by. When conditions are favorable, there's just nothing more fulfilling that racing on the ocean. It's the freedom of the water, a place without boundaries to limit either changes or enjoyment. Let's all home this continues for another 30 years for JPOR.

I thank Mike Nulf for space and positioning on his chase boat so I could take photos. Mike, it was an enjoyable couple of days.

The Oops Files

We'll probably never know with certainty which adventure video Mark watched the night before JPOR. But valuable clues would accrue if we could figure which action hero he dressed like on Saturday. Konan the Barbarian? Any other ideas?

Where is that Harken boat up righter when you really need it?

When interviewing for assistance to right a catamaran, it's a safe bet always to accept help from the largest offerer (left). Jerry could wait for Conner to graduate from high school (right). But by then, Conner may lose interest in sailing, at least sailing sideways.

Experts say it is impossible to raise something you're standing on. Those contacted for this article cite some 'expert' (probably a liberal academic intellectual) who lived a long time ago, and say no one else has done it, like that's proof. So, just to prove those college guys don't have a handle on all knowledge, Chuck and Paul show that if you stand on top of a turtled Blade, you can still lift it out of the bottom mud and right it. So there! These miracles do not necessarily qualify Chuck and Paul for sainthood. The pipe line to sainthood is full of dead popes. Miracles are generally much more remunerative in the physical world if Chuck and Paul find a venture capitalist or a government research contract to develop and implement antigravity miracles at will. Imagine an antigravity 'miracle' that, say Dick Cheney or Karl Rove, could direct at a terrorist or a liberal like Molly Ivens, causing them to just lift off the face of the earth into outer space . . .How much more blessed could one be?)

That little thud that Chuck and Charlie felt during a collision with another catamaran at the start of the last race was more that it initially seemed. The sound was actually a crash. The resulting 'hairline fracture' was really a portal between the waterworld and the hull world. Waterworld illegal aliens completely filled the hull and the boat experienced a terminal turtle maneuver at the C mark. It was curtains for our team's racing career (at least for the weekend). Amazingly, Chuck found that by tying the tow line to the forward stanchion on the submerged hull, the tow boat lifted the boat to the surface. They sailor boys rode the intact hull. This Hobie 16 was on the shore in about 10 minutes. It was at least another hour before the water drained from the hull so the catamaran could be put on its trailer. This was not an antigravity miracle, but was pretty impressive anyway.