World’s Top-ranked Claire Leroy from France will head a list of elite sailors vying for the cup this year.  She returns along with Sally Barkow from the USA who won last year’s inaugural cup by defeating Leroy in the finals 3-0.

Also coming back is Liz Baylis, president of the Women’s International Match Racing Association (WIMRA).  She will also conduct the WIMRA North U Match Racing Clinic which will be held from October twenty-sixth to the twenty-eighth.

Due to the resounding success of the 2008 race, this year’s version was able to attract the best teams in the sport today.  Other confirmed participants in the world ranking top ten include Lucy Macgregor from the GBR, Anne-Claire Le Berre of France, and Lotte Meldgaard Pederson from Denmark.

Representing the Asian region, Japan’s Urara Fujii, the Japan’s reining Match Race champion, and hometown girl Hye-won Park will return after doing well in the 2008 race. 

The race will also include up-and-comers Susanne Ward from Denmark and Annelies Thies of the Netherlands, as well as match racing veteran Martina Kalemo of Finland.  Tylinska Katarzyna of Poland will also return to round out the field of 12 teams.  To find out more about this event, visit the website at www.busanmatch.com

It's international match race time again in Busan.  The dates are from October 31st to November 4th.  The venue is right off Haeundae beach.  There will be plenty to see and do.  Free sailboat rides will be offer all day every day, so make sure you make it at least one of the days.  This is truely a world class event that you don't want to miss.

http://www.busanmatch.com

 http://web.kma.go.kr/eng/wea/wea_02_01.jsp?code1=11H20201

You may want to convert the meters/sec to Knots/sec here:

 http://www.calculateme.com/Speed/MetersperSecond/ToKnots.htm

After months of closing it's doors to new members, BESA will be accepting members again starting July 1st.  Classes will also be available to the general public.

 We are temporarily not allowing any new members.  We have had so many new members join over the last couple months, that we definately need to hold off on accepting any new members.  We will also have to hold off on lessons as well.  The main problem we have is a lack of available boats.  We will definately get 2 new boats in June, and hope to get 5 or 6 additional boats by July.  Once we have more boats, or as members leave, we will re-open membership.  While I can't give a definate date at this time, I hope to start accepting members again around July 1st.  Hopefully, we can also start up classes again at that time. 

Many of you have already seen the changes I’ve made to the lessons.  Last year, I talked the Busan Yachting Federation about the ISSA certification.  They had no problems with us using their certification.  However, this year, the head of the sailing school, is giving me problems with not only the ISSA log book, but also about using their boats.  Now I could make an issue about it by going over his head to the vice presidents and directors, whom many are friends of mine, but I’ve decided it’s not important enough to cause a stir over.

Instead, I’m going to make our own log book.  It will be just as effective as the ISSA log book when it comes to chartering boats in the future.  Basically, charter companies are businesses and they need customer.  They do, however, need to be assured that you can take out their expensive property and bring it back safely.  They normally do this by requiring a certificate or logbook.  Even though you show these items, they will still test you by seeing how you set up the boat and they may even watch you handle it with an observer on board.  Sometimes they charge a small fee to observe you.  So the most important thing is that you can sail.  Having all the fancy certificates that cost hundreds and thousands of dollars means nothing if you can skipper a boat properly.

When I originally set up the classes, I made them so it would go with the ISSA log book.  However, I think the system I have in place makes more sense, both for effective learning as well as availability of boats.

So if you’ve completed Basic Dinghy, and I think you’re ready, you can move on to Dinghy Master.  If you haven’t completed Basic Dinghy, you will finish up Dinghy Basic.  If you have any further questions, contact me.

May Schedule

You may have also noticed that May is for members only.  We had almost 20 new members join in a matter of less than a month.  That’s about the same number as we had all of last year.  So in order to maintain quality in the club, May has been closed off to members only.  I’ve stopped advertising as well, so hopefully demand slows a bit.  If we sign just a few more members, I will have to probably take additional steps to close off the monthly membership and only allow annual.  The current monthly members will be allowed to continue their monthly payments.

 markchi@busansailing.com or call 010-2858-9470

Teh Arirang Cup will start in Gwangali Bay on May 3rd.  This is an annual challenge between Korean and Japanese boats.  Last year a korean boat, Snark, won the event; the first time ever for a Korean boat to win this event.  The starting line for the race is Gwangan Bridge and the race finishes in Fukouka, Japan.

These races are being arranged by the Busan Yacht Club, Busan Youth Dingy School, Busan Expat Sailing Association, and the Busan Sailing Federation.

The championship will be a point system with competitors earning points for each finish in the top 10.  Racers will be ranked and the one with the most points at the end of the year will be crowned the champion in each class.

 If you want to participate, contact Mark Chi of BESA for more details.

Come to Haeundae beach to watch world class match racing with some of the best women's teams from all over the world.  The venue is right off Haeundae beach so anyone can watch all the fun action.  The races start October 28th and ends November 2nd.  BESA members are encouraged to come and participate.  To find out more please visit the official website at:

http://www.busanyacht.co.kr/event_eng/event_01.htm

Schedule

The schedule has been updated.  Please check to see the additions and changes.

Members Meeting

See the Members section of the website for details about he meeting to be held this Sunday.

Lessons

Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer lesson for the rest of the year (2008).  We will continue lessons in the spring.  We apologize to those who have been waiting. 

The trip started with the skipper, Mark, arriving in Fukuoka early in the afternoon to take care of the ugly customs work which was barely finished at the 11th hour.  Soon after, Jason and Andy, his trusty but a bit green crew arrived... very drunk and determined to drink even more.  Unfortunately for the skipper, their determination proved unstoppable and was contageous.

So what do you do with three drunken sailors?  Well, we were fortunately dropped off safely back in our boat to slumber off the spirits from the all-night-affair.  Unfortunately, it was too great of a task for any liver to burn away the huge quantity of alcohol in the limited time.

Our passports had been stamped by immigration to leave by 6am.  At 8:30am, 10 minutes after we awoke, we finally started our 8 horsepower yamaha outboard and left the harbor.  The original plan was to motor out for a few minutes, raise the sails and let the wind do the rest.  However, our plan did require wind, and we could see clearly from the glass like appearance of the sea, there was no wind.

So we continued to motor out untill our little primary gas tank ran completely dry.  Fortunately we did have a secondary tank that was double the size of the primary.  Unfortunately, we could not locate the pump to get the gas from gas tank A to B.  Pouring directly from one to the other meant a few drops would make it into the other tank and the rest would end up on our cockpit floor.  We knew a pump existed because it had been seen the night before, but after almost taking the boat apart, no gas pump could be found.  We did, however, have a water pump.  Not exactly made to handle gas, but with a little impovising, we were able to get the primary take about half full.  Finally, after being in the hot sun for over an hour, we were underway again.

And of course, shortly after the whole pump ordeal, the wind picked up and we didn't need the gas after all.  From that point on we had a pretty smooth sail.  The winds were a steady 8 to 12 knots with waves about 1 to 2 meter high.  Seemed ideal until the skipper realized that the wind was coming from the wrong direction.  For weeks the winds had been coming from the south.  Now the wind was from the north or north-north easterly.  This would make a direct line over Daema Island (Tsushima to the Japanese) almost impossible. 

As it turned out, we missed our planned aproach to the island by quite a bit.  This forced us to take up the shoreline of an unfamiliar island at night.  Not the best scenario by any means.  This also meant that our arrival would be delayed by 5 or 6 hours.  The only bright moment to all of this was that we came upon some really cool phosfluorescent plankton.  It was the first time for Mark and Jason to see this brillian show of nature.  The boat was completely surrounded by bright sparks of green which left a glowing trail behind our stern.

As we made the turn over the northern tip of Daema Island, the seas became increadibly rough.  The wind picked up past 20 knots with gust over 30.  The seas double with the occasional 4 or 5 meter wave bearing down on us.  The crew furled the jib until only a fraction of it remained.  The boat started to take on water with every wave that crashed over the deck.  Then a very scary moment occured.  The port side top shroud, one of the wires that keeps the mast from tumbling over came loose.  Ambitious had been on a starboard tack for the majority of the trip which left the port shrouds quite slack.  The shaking eventually loosened the turnbuckles that held the shroud to the bolt attached to the ship.  Normally a cotter ring or pin is in place as a safeguard from the turnbuckle coming completely apart, but we didn't have them in and of course, the one time your don't take to proper precautions... well you all know Murphy's laws.  Because the boat was still on a starboard take, the shroud was not bearing any load so the crew simply screwed the shroud back in place and disaster was averted. . . for the moment anyway.

We continued on our couse knowing that the seas could indead turn very ugly.  We also knew that land was only a few more hours away.  Just as we started peering out for the land we knew was straight ahead, a crack was heard.  With the sound of the waves and wind, the break was more felt than anthing else.  Mark was on helm at the time and immediately look over the stern to see a small crack had formed on the back edge of the rudder blade.  He quickly had Jason take over the helm and jump to the mast to take down the sails when. . . a much bigger cracking sound was heard, this time the wind and waves had no chance of drowning out the unmistakable sound of a rudder tearing apart.  Disaster had finally struck.  But fate was not finished with the crew yet.  The crew quicly took down all the sails.  Not an easy task when waves were pitching the boat way past the rail-down mark.

After some trouble, the engine started and we were under power again.  However, the engine would completely submerge with every wave so confidance wasn't high.  The crew members tried to get the attention of some boats that were passing by but no one seemed to care or pay attention.  Mark made some calculations and figured they had plenty of gas, but would the engine hold... that was the question on their minds.  An emergency rudder was fashioned out of a spinnaker pole, floor board and some old line.  It would be used in case the engine became flooded by water. 

Finally, a lighthouse beacon could be seen.  Never had a lighthouse looked so good.  The crew was almost home.  The little engine slowly took them into the Haeundae marina where loved ones along with customs officials were waiting.

The opening ceremoney for the Busan Cup will be held this Saturday, August 2, at the Aripina Youth Hostel.  All members and race entrants are encouraged to come.  The dinner is free and you can bring guests.  Please let me know if you wish to join us.