New Etchells World Champ

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Jud Smith, the three times North American Etchells champion and four times Worlds runner up took the gun in the eighth and final race to win the 2006 Audi Etchells World Championship off Freemantle West Australia today. Smith and his crew of Canadian Dirk Kneulman and New Zealanders Andrew Wills and Thomas Saunders, crossed the finish line as the Star Spangled Banner boomed from the Black Swan, the very same tender that boomed out Men at Work back in 1983.

Reasons this is so interesting to me are:

1) Handsome Jack is an Etchells
2) Crewman Dirk Kneulman is Canadian
3) Dirk owns Ontario Yachts and builds Etchells
4) Handsome Jack was built at Ontario Yachts
5) We raced against Dirk this summer while he was practicing for Worlds
6) Dirk is also an Etchells World Champion
7) Jud's boat is called Feng Shui

*The note about the “Star Spangled Banner” means, of course, that Jud Smith is an American.
*The note about “Men at Work” is in reference to the Australians winning the America’s Cup – the first time the Americans ever lost.

Mi Casa

Cape Breton

Spring 2006

Front yard, facing the road. Bras d'Or Lakes in the background.

Spring 2005

Back yard facing the lake. 4" of snow May 15th.

Other Cats (Other than Other Cat)

In addition to the original Handsome Jack, there are two "other" cats at my house, Barry and Freddie Choo. This is not the best photo of either of them but it does give you some idea of their relative size. Freddie (orange) is a regular sized cat, weighing in at about 11.5 pounds. Barry (black) weighs 33 pounds. Both are refugees from the Humane Society. Both were half price because they had "problems".

Freddie tends to worry a lot and frets when he can't find the other two, or the bowl is empty, or he's lonesome, or whatever. He has one bad eye and so is also known as Dead Eye Dick, but is more frequently referred to as Freddie the Prick.

Barry is a sweetheart. He never gets off the bed unless it's something really important like supper time. He has a beautiful baritone singing voice. His full name is Barrymore Joseph Bunt.

Freddie is also a clean freak so is constantly trying to bath the other two. Barry tends to view this as a nuisance. When he gets fed up, he does a "walk on" right on top of Freddie and then sits down. This usually puts an end to the aggravation.

The Cherub

Look at this little boat go! The crew is riding piggy back to get the weight far enough back to keep the rudder in the water.

See the little heart on the sail - that's the logo for the Cherub. The sail number indicates how many boats have been built and is used by the Race Committee to help identify boats in a race.

Stress Management

A lecturer explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, “And, that's the way it is with stress management … "

"If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.
Don't carry it home.
You can pick it up tomorrow.
Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.
Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.
Life is short, enjoy it."

Team Bush

Cradle Ride

While, Other is excited about going to see a Cuban Jazz Band, I'm excited about this. We just bought a trailer for Handsome Jack.

Check out how cool this rig is. Because the Etchells is so long - 30+ feet - it's really awkward for towing on a conventional trailer. Solution - turn the boat around and carry stern first. That way the trailer can be reduced to a more reasonable size and you don't need a 20 foot tounge on the thing to be able to turn corners.

And those nice fibreglass boxes on the sides, they're for carrying sails, and tools, and other necessary boat stuff. Cool. Now that we're mobile, we can take Jack anywhere we want. We're "away to the races."