Home Sweet Home

Congrats to (Leslie's youngest sister) Jonalee and her husband Scott who have just moved into their new house in northern California.

Top of the Rock

Wish I could claim this photo, but found it online. We can highly recommend the small price of admission for the "Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Plaza -- see recent posts on the BMWOR Blog) for anyone headed to NYC who has never been up. As usual, click to enlarge.

In Defense of Isreal

Guest editorial in today's NY Daily News by Ambassador Arye Mekel, Isreal's consul general in New York....


Israel fights only to defend its people
BY ARYE MEKEL

Some analysts have questioned the proportionality of Israel's response to kidnapped soldiers and the barrage of missiles from Lebanon.

Israel did what any other state would. It took measures to protect its citizens. Why not ask how forcefully America would respond to missile attacks from Mexico? Or France, to bombardment from Italy?

Israel has no territorial dispute with Lebanon. There have been no Israeli troops in Lebanon since 2000. We left Gaza completely a year ago.

The period following Israel's withdrawal should have been a time when the nascent Palestinian government focused on internal politics, promoting development and investment. Gaza could have been the seedling for a Palestinian state. But terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas do not voluntarily surrender their weapons.

So Hezbollah, with strong encouragement from Iran and Syria, continued - and continues - to operate. Lebanon has failed to control them and so violates UN Resolution 1559, calling for the deployment of the Lebanese Army in the south to disarm and control Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is firing rockets and missiles at unprecedented levels, and targeting major cities like Safed, Tiberias and Haifa, Israel's third-largest city.

Israel has responded with restraint. This cannot be said strongly enough. Unlike the terrorists Hamas and Hezbollah, who aim to perpetrate a maximum of harm upon civilians, Israel has directed far less than the full power of her arsenal at these provocations.

Since Hezbollah missiles are usually stored and launched from family homes (who receive "rent" from Hezbollah), Israel drops flyers over areas it plans to target, warning residents to leave. It sees civilian casualties as a tragic and unavoidable cost of war, not as its purpose.

Seeing as there is no territorial dispute between Israel and Lebanon, why has Hezbollah launched its assault? Because Iran hopes to divert attention from its own activities. Because the Syrians hope to keep the region in a state of conflict.

It's time for the Lebanese government to step in, deploy troops and take control of the southern border. The Israeli Defense Force's operations have weakened Hezbollah and made way for the Lebanese government to act like the independent and sovereign country it hopes to be.

The international community also must act. Leaders at the recent G-8 summit made a good beginning, calling for the return of the Israeli soldiers in Gaza and Lebanon unharmed and an end to the shelling of Israeli territory.

Now, the UN should push for the immediate implementation of Resolution 1559. At the same time, it must demand the release of the hostage soldiers.

Once our goals are achieved, Israel will search once more for a partner in dialogue. We want to live in peace with our neighbors, but we cannot allow terrorists to endanger our citizens and way of life.

Historical Photo

Happened across the photo, below, today when googling for a photo of the schooner yacht America for a post on the BMW ORACLE Blog, or "the BOB" as many now call it.

The photo resides in the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives/Digital Library Program. The caption said it was taken in the St. Francis YC marina looking back into San Francisco on 4 July 1940.

One friend who saw the pictures today (see the picture of the yacht America taken in the same year that is now posted on the BOB) said he did not realize they had color photos before the War, let alone of such good quality. I reminded him that the Wizard of Oz had been shot in 1939, and of course in full color of course -- at least after Dorothy arrived in Oz. Regardless, it is remarkable how modern the photos look considering their age.

Having said all that, this morning I emailed a link to this St Francis photo to several members of the Club, including longtime friend Staff (past) Commodore R C Keefe. This evening Bob emailed back a remarkably vivid and detailed description of this 66-year old photo, which follows the picture as its caption (remember, you can click on the photo to enlarge)....



Thanks very much for the photograph; it always surprises me just how much they can contain. The black schooner on the left is the Zaca safely in her permanent berth. She was the flagship (1940) of the club at the time, and owned by Templeton Crocker. He had her designed and built (118' loa) in 1930, and made a circumnavigation in her in 1932. I believe she is in near perfect condition, and sailing in the Mediterranean; you may have come accross her. She is often known as "Earl Flynn's boat." On the right is the 75' gaff rigged ketch, Shawnee. She was designed by Arthur Binney, and built by George Lawley in South Boston in 1919. For what ever the reason her mizzen is out of her. She was one of the four entries that raced to Tahiti in 1925. In the white house through her starboard lower backstay with the red roof over on Marina Blvd. is where I am writing to you from; [Bob's partner] Mary has lived here for almost 40 years. The red sloop is one of our 23' Bear class; she is Trigger, no. 20, and was brand new in 1940. My father had her built by the Nunes brothers for my brother, Jack, on his 16th birthday. The same Nunes brothers designed and built the Zaca mentioned above. I am afraid that is all I can come up with; whenever you send me a picture, you can be assured that it will get proper scrutiny.


Thanks, Bob -- proper scrutiny, indeed!

Photo Dump

With a bit of a break between events, there was time to clean off the digi- and phone-cams of accumulated miscellaneous pics from the past few months. Some of our favorites are below in no particular order....



As many times as one sees photos of this classic piece of "modern art," had never seen it first hand until we stumbled across it while in NYC for the AC exhibit at Rockefeller Center in June. In fact, I had no idea it was in NYC (6th Avenue, in Midtown).



Relaxing with friends and family at the Team Base after racing one evening last month during Act 12: (from left) Sue Dickson (NZL), Ian "Fresh" Burns (AUS), Dr Hugh Clarkson (NZL), sister Cristine Ehman Arnold (GER), Stephanie Walz (GER) and her partner Mirko Groeschner (GER).



Some of the gang made their way back to the "Round Table" on the porch at Casa Ehman for a late-night BBQ. As you can see, Meg, too, was having a blast.



Cristine, Meg and Leslie on the bridge of the MY Zurga, one of our team's VIP spetactor boats and from which I do the VIP commentary, in late June during Louis Vuitton Act 12 here in Valencia. Captain Sophocles (between Meg and Leslie) and his crew were great hosts.



Brooke Nicholas, daughter of our San Diego friends Jim and Linda Nicholas, stayed with us for a few days last week. Brooke was doing a little advance work in and around VLC (to say nothing of some shopping) for her Mom and Dad, who both say they hope to get over here for some of the AC racing next year. Brooke said that her t-shirt did not mean she was an Alinghi fan!



Leslie looks on as AC Regatta Director Dyer Jones (USA) uses one of our serving trays, with a chart of the waters off Newport, RI, to help explain a historical point to Alinghi General Counsel Hamish Ross (NZL). The Ross family (Hamish, his wife, Sally, and two boys) are neighbors. Hamish is nearing completion of a book on the history of the Cup. At our home in Valencia, last Saturday.


Finally, if you really want to know why we live in the suburbs and drive 25 mins into and out of town each workday, it should become, er, clear in this next photo....



The morning drive in on the V21 (before "commuting chaos" took hold last week) with Valencia not-so-clearly in the background, about 15km hence. On many days VLC has an air quality problem a la Los Angeles in the 1960's. In the 'burb north of the city where many of us live we are far enough out, and high enough up in the hills, to enjoy clear, blue skies -- and clean air -- most days of the year.

Camper Bearing Gifts

[Update 19 July: No surprise, Grandma Jan was the first to write in with the correct answer, "It's a head-scratcher" -- beating to the punch our normally prescient and prompt pundit, and friend, Peter Huston.]


Meg has returned from camp with the item pictured below, indeed two of them, as gifts for her mother and father. And they really work, its name notwithstanding. Who knows what it's for? Hint: not a cooking utensil.



Gifts for mom and dad: the "Orgasmatron."



Meg at the airport in VLC Sunday
evening after being away from home
without her parents for a record two
weeks. Both Meg and Leslie survived,
though Meg's ears returned with a
second piercing.

Saturday in the Park

From the 3 July Beloit (WI) Daily News....

George Seurat had a “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte,” and Beloit, Wisconsin now has “Saturday in the Park with Friends.”

Beloiters brought to life the famous painting by the French artist Saturday afternoon in an effort to promote an August event planned by Friends of Riverfront. And while people were positioned similarly along the Rock River, Beloit's version of Seurat's work had its own flair.

Full story.



When I came across this article last week the yellow sailboat
in the re-creation photo, top, caught my eye. Does Beloit have
a Flying Scot fleet? Is that a yellow 'Scot? Reminds me of my
first Flying Scot (#1159, in what 1969?) which was yellow, and
of the long-gone weekend afternoons on Portage Lake in the
lakeside "park" at what then was Newport Beach Club, now PYC.

Anchored in the 60's?

The person who sent us this black and white photo said it looks like Frank Sinatra circa 1965, LOL! Well, it was actually snapped at a VIP reception in NYC at the Rockefeller Center America's Cup exhibition three weeks ago. Not sure whether to be flattered or insulted. Maybe it's time to update the, er, classic haircut.



New York, New York: either side of "Frank" is Mr Tom Madden (NYC), the Managing Director of Tishman Speyer (the company that manages Rockefeller Center and dozens of other properties in and around NYC), and Ms Christine Belanger (Paris), an executive with LVMH and director of the Louis Vuitton Cup. More about the hugely successful Rock Center gig below on the EFB, and on the BMW ORACLE Racing Blog.

Tragedy in Valencia

Jesus Station here in VLC, scene of yesterday's tragic subway accident that killed 41. Please see this post on the BMW ORACLE Racing team blog.