Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Mike Rehe joins Ender Racing

I am please to announce that my good friend Mike Rehe has decided to join the Ender Racing Team. Mike is one of the finest individual sailors in the midwest, and one of the best teammates I have been able to sail with. If you have had any experience sailing with or against him you would know that he is tremedously professional both on and off the water.

Mike and I started racing with each other at the 2006 US Match Racing Championship and went on to win the first annual BYC invitational match race. Aside from match racing with me, Mike has been able to sail with some top professionals from around the world and has been a part of two Grade 2 Match Race winning teams, first with CVT at the Knickerbocker Cup and later with Simon Minoprio at the 2008 Detroit Cup. Mike and I have done a lot of sailing together over the years. For all the things that need to happen to get a winning team to the finish line, the actual sailing part is where the rubber meets the road.....Mike is the engine that drives the vehicle. His professionalism, focus, and talent will be a great base from which to build a team around.

Mike signs on at a very exciting time for the team. Big things are in the works, goals are being set, and schedules are being made. If you have not heard, Don Wilson has decided to start the "Midwest Match Racing Center" in Belmont Harbor, Chicago. By the start of next summer there will be a floating boathouse on the north side of the harbor and ten Tom28's. Don plans to hold multiple practices per week throughout the summer and try to attract talent from around the country and around the world. With Bill Hardesty signed on as the center's coordinator, and pleanty of support for umpire boats, marks, and everything else this should turn out to be one of the premier match racing venues in the country....if they can get the wind to cooperate.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Berfore I go on....

...with this sailing blog, I just read something very disturbing that I think needs to be addressed. Here is a quote from our speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi...I have done my best to NOT take this out of context.

"We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income, (didn't Marx say something like this), in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest......We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long way to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as 'Americans'. (Read that quote again and again and let it sink in. 'Lower your retirement, give it to others who have not worked as you have for it'."

This chick is off the reservation.

Before I could have just turned a blind eye to it, but now with Obama leading in the polls it looks like a perfect storm is brewing. That means this NAZI can push her socialist agenda while there's no one around to Veto it. Too much of anything is bad...and there are too many democrats driving the bus right now. I hate to think what this country will look like after four years of democratic retaliation to Bush. Higher corporate taxes means less jobs, higher taxes means less money for EVERYONE, socialized health care means poorer quality (and slower)....the Democrats are going to make their own bed, unfortunately we have to lie in it too.

They dont give blind people drivers licenses for a reason. These democrats seem to have their heads burried so deep in the sand, unable to see the big picture. So quick to point the finger, and blame anyone but themselves, so quick to save their own ass rather than save the country. These ideas are not what we signed up for, this is the greatest country on Earth, ...and if I wanted to be poor and lazy I would go live in France. The fact is that if Obama wins this election the democrats are going to be the only ones driving the bus.....and no matter what this country's problems are in four years, they can only look at themselves to blame. Unfortunately, we can only blame ourselves for allowing such ideas into our government...where is McCarthy when we need him?

Friday, October 10, 2008

Things up to this point

Wow. So the last several months have had their fare share of ups and downs. A big win, a big loss, lots of good friends, lots of new friends, some great places and some great sailing. I used to write letters to the BOTG for everyone to read but I felt like creating this site would be easier for everyone. The last time I wrote to the BOTG I was in Palma, Spain calling tactics at the Copa Del Rey Regatta on Yasha (Swan 45). That was several months ago, since that time I have focused almost entirely on match racing.

About a month ago I hooked up with the Albatross Match Race Team from Tokyo, Japan. They were coming over for the Knickerbocker Cup and were in need of a tactician...I had nothing better to do. It seemed to be a good fit as we only lost one race through the entire match race regatta...yes, ....our only loss was to Chris Vantol due to a blown lee-bow that allowed him to get to the right of us and into the shift first.....a bad mistake but easily fixed. All in all it was a great experience, the people at the Knickerbocker YC were great and the Umpires did a fantastic job. For our team it was a pretty big deal, I had never competed in a grade 2 match race before, and my Japannese friends had never won anything that big before. That win got us an invitation to the Bermuda Gold Cup; a World Tour Event against the top sailors from all over the world.
Shortly after the Knickerbocker I called tactics for "Flash Gordon" in the Windy City Match race, and then followed that immediately with the US Match Race Championships. The US champs didnt go well for us as I had not driven a boat in almost two years, so the majority of my time was spent with my head in the boat...and because of that our tactics suffered. Still though, we finished with a record of 11-11 and were leading the race in eight of our losses.

So now I am in Bermuda for the Gold Cup and it has been a tremendous experience so far. We had a training session in Newport RI the weekend before with a couple AC friends of ours and they were able to introduce some new concepts and ways of thinking about match racing, especially for larger, slower boats than we are used to sailing at Bayview. Anyway, Im hoping to be able to post more soon and get some pictures up as well. Until then, just TRYNA.

Ender Racing begins!

"There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will teach you what he is going to do. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy shows you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him, or what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. ....... From now on I am your teacher."