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Sailing News
Leukemia Cup Regatta
Chairman Gary Jobson,
World-Renowned Sailor and
ESPN Commentator,
Coming To White Bear
Lake, MN on June 3, 2010
Legendary America's Cup Winner
Urges Others to Sail for a Good
Cause. More than 30 years after winning
the America's Cup - the pinnacle of
awards for ocean sailing - Gary Jobson
remains as passionate about the sport as
ever. And for the past 14 years Jobson,
an ESPN commentator and author, has
used that passion to champion the cause
of curing leukemia, lymphoma and
myeloma as chairman of The Leukemia
Cup Regatta, a sailing fundraiser of The
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).
Jobson will be making a special
appearance in White Bear Lake, MN to
speak to boaters on Thursday, June 3 at
7:00 p.m. He will speak about his personal
experiences at the Beijing Olympic
Games, the Volvo Ocean Race, the
Transatlantic Challenge, and America's
Cup. In addition to sailing highlights,
Jobson will also be urging attendees to
participate in Minnesota's Leukemia Cup
Regatta on September 10-12, 2010.
Tickets to the evenings presentation will
cost $10 per person, or are free to skippers
registered for the 2010 Regatta.
Jobson first got involved with the
Leukemia Cup Regatta in 1994, helping
it grow to 42 races throughout the country
and raising $32 million to help find
cures and to provide information and
support to patients and their families. He
took his passion for sailing and turned it
into something to benefit others. Nine
years later he was diagnosed with lymphoma.
“I had no personal connection to the
cause when I took on the Leukemia Cup
Regatta,” he says. “I just saw it as a way
to get sailors involved in a good cause. I
never dreamed that nearly a decade later
I would be on the receiving end of the
very research I'd been supporting all
those years. It was a humbling experience.”
Each sailor in the Regatta series is
eligible to win prizes including the
opportunity to sail in Charleston, SC
with Jobson, from December 3-5, 2010.
“The Leukemia Cup Regatta is a
great way for these boat enthusiasts to
do what they love while also helping the
more than 894,000 people suffering
from blood cancers who need our help,”
said Murray Schmidt, Executive
Director.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society's Leukemia Cup Regatta is one
of the ways to help blood cancer patients
and their families. Visit www.leukemiacup.
org/mn to learn more about the
Regatta and Kickoff Celebration featuring
Gary Jobson. To learn about other
LLS fundraising programs, visit
www.lls.org.
Schooner ROSEWAY will
participate in Great Lakes
United Challenge
ROSEWAY schedule for 2010
June 25-27: Oswego, NY
June 30-July 4: Toronto
July 8-11: Cleveland, OH
July 16-18: Bay City, MI
July 30-August 1: Duluth, MN
August 13-15: Green Bay, WI
August 20-22:Port Washington, WI
August 24-29: Chicago, IL
September 10-12: Erie, PA
September 17-19 : Montreal
For more information on ROSEWAY
and her schedule, contact Abby Kidder
at: wos@worldoceanschool.org
Or go to :
http://tallshipsinternational.net/
ROSEWAY.html
Are Airplane Transponders
Needed for Recreational
Boats?
BoatU.S. Questions Need for Marine
Automatic Identification System
Airplane transponders allow air traffic
controllers to “see” who is in
the sky. Yesterday, in speaking before
the U.S. House of Representatives Coast
Guard Subcommittee, BoatU.S. testified
that any potential requirement for this
type of technology on boats is not practical,
nor would it reduce the threat of a
waterborne attack. “Contrary to what
Hollywood has portrayed, the average
boat in this country is 16-feet. Requiring
some type of transponder on recreational
boats -- many of whom don't even
have a battery to power it -- would only
be window dressing for a potential
homeland security problem that will not
be reduced, despite the outlay of billions
of dollars,” said BoatU.S.Vice President
of Government Affairs Margaret
Podlich.
Marine Automatic Identification
Systems (AIS) have long been used as a
collision avoidance tool for commercial
ships and provides important vessel
identification, position, speed and
course information to fellow mariners as
well as land-based vessel traffic control
systems. Since 9/11, the Coast Guard
has been tasked by the Dept. of
Homeland Security to develop a small-
boat threat assessment and strategy to
reduce the possibility of small watercraft
being used by terrorists.
“The challenge with AIS is that it
does not provide the ability to reduce the
small boat threat,” said Podlich. “For
starters, the AIS unit on a small boat can
simply be turned off. And more importantly,
how could the U.S. Coast Guard
monitor the millions of new vessel traffic
movements? The monitoring would
be overwhelming, on-the-water force
response inadequate, and it would be
costly to taxpayers to build and operate
the system,” said Podlich. She also mentioned
boaters would be forced to pick
up the tab for the AIS units, which currently
starts at about $600.
“Even if a would-be terrorist would
go to the trouble of complying with an
AIS requirement, they would merely
have to pull the AIS unit's electrical plug
moments before the attack,” Podlich testified.
She also mentioned a terrorist
could simply steal a boat. “AIS does not
recognize if people aboard a vessel are
on a watch list.” In addition, AIS can be
easily “spoofed,” or manipulated to
make every AIS transponder in a certain
area report inaccurate data.
The Better Solution: America's
Waterway Watch
BoatU.S. believes the U.S. Coast
Guard would have better results addressing
the small boat threat if the agency's
own America's Waterway Watch program(
AWW) had better funding and
infrastructure support. Similar to a
neighborhood watch program, America's
Waterway Watch treats boaters as part of
the solution rather than part of the problem.
“Several government reports have
concluded that working with recreational
and commercial vessel operators is a
key to increasing our domestic maritime
security. Boaters need to know they have
the ability to report to the US Coast
Guard when they see something looks
suspicious on the water by calling
1-877-24WATCH. We hope Congress
will bolster this program since it's so
critical in reducing the small boat
threat,” added Podlich. Additional funding
for AWW was written into the Coast
Guard Authorization Act (HR 3619)
which passed out of the House last
month and is now awaiting action by the
Senate.
To review Podlich's testimony, go
to www.BoatUS.com/gov. To learn more
about America's Waterway Watch program,
go to
www.AmericasWaterwayWatch.com
“Bail Out” Makes Annual
List of Top Ten Boat Names
Boat names can reveal much about
the personality of a boat owner. Or,
they can also serve as signposts of the
modern era. With the release of the
annual Top Ten List of Most Popular
Boat Names by Boat Owners
Association of The United States
(BoatU.S.), one newcomer to the list
stands out. “Bail Out, the number five
pick, clearly speaks volumes about
what's on boaters' minds,” said BoatU.S.
President Nancy Michelman. “With
today's economic uncertainty, naming a
boat Bail Out could indicate that boating
is a survival mechanism for the family
that will keep them afloat,” she added.
The list is assembled each year by
the BoatU.S. Boat Graphics service
which offers a free library of over 8,500
boat names and also allows boaters to
easily select, custom design and preview
boat names online - without having to
pay up front. For more information or to
view videos on how to install a vinyl
boat name, visit the online service at
www.BoatUS.com/boatgraphics . A list
with the annual top ten boat names --
starting from 1991 -- can also be found
at the Web site.
Here is the Top Ten List of Most
Popular Boat Names :
1. Second Wind
2. Seas the Day
3. Lazy Daze
4. Jolly Roger
5. Bail Out
6. On the Rocks
7. Pegasus
8. Serenity Now
9. Namaste
10. Comfortably Numb
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