Declan McKinney wrote:

Andrew Bailey wrote:

As we are an increasingly international brigade, it will be interesting to see whether this will enable and attract enthusiasts' dialogue, 

Andrew,

I had been toying about using Twitter for another forum I contribute to. I'll try to explain where I was coming from ...

On websites/fora for boat owners, there are generally boat registries, galleries and the like which are a great reference. It's even better when these include links to owners' blogs or contact details. However, these databases are often difficult to keep up to date, for example removing old entries when boats change hands, and they don't give a sense of whether the boats are being actively sailed. 

I was wondering about some mechanism for presenting as much real-time information as possible on members and their boats. When I look at the boat registries, I wonder 'is this boat being sailed regularly? How? Where? How much joy is she giving? Has she just had an adventure or mishap (hopefully not)? Any innovations or interesting projects? Voyages planned?' Or to put it another way, I'd like to be able to say "Well I'm off for a chowder run in Galway. I see Bob over in Sussex is channel hopping, while Fred up in Scotland is rigging his new mainsail, etc ..."

Any tool would have to be extremely easy to use, and would generate a searchable database over time that would make for interesting reading. Hopefully owners would be sufficiently intrigued to contribute regularly, and would want to share this info without worrying about privacy issues.

I still haven't found such a tool, but I did wonder about Twitter. If all members had an account, they could tweet their movements and prefix them with an agreed hash-tag, then one could easily follow all tweets for that group. It doesn't have all the functionality I described, but it's a start. On the downside, I'm a slightly reluctant Twit myself and I'm not sure the takeup would be huge.

I'd be interested in any suggestions or examples, and whether others would be interesting in playing a little more with Twitter in this regard.

I guess we need to go to the Yacht Club Bar. That should be the perfect place for bragging, tall stories, and gossiping. We could even use "slightly clouded" as an excuse if seriousity should bring us down, ikke sant?

Annie Hill wrote:Oh really!  What fun.  'My mind's made up - don't confuse me with facts.'  There's a lot of it about and really, one almost has a moral obligation to wind them up.

To the perennial question, 'and how does it go to windward?' I answer 'Fine', with a bland smile and no further amplification.  Somehow that always seems to fluster folk.
Do they really expect me to say, 'well actually, it's spectacularly awful'?  If they do go further and say, 'no, but how well do you compare with other boats?' I usually answer, quite correctly, that it's very hard to tell because most of those super-efficient, pointy-sail rigs motor to windward! 

Hi Annie,

If they asked the racing fraternity in Stavanger/ Karmøy district, their answer would be too bloody fast. That I pray for 5 degrees higher into the wind, and that is all I need to outsail them, They dont know. When the pointy brigade have sails of more than 5 years age, they struggle to keep up against the wind. On a close reach, 90 degrees relative, Edmond Dantes outsail a lot of faster boats. If they choose not to deploy their spinnaker, they loose on a dead run too. To say that I have had a few good races this summer would not be bragging. The biggest problem is having a slow IOR hull. I get a good handicap, and that shows on the result sheet, but does not leave people gobsmacked because of sheer boat speed. To give an example: Winner in the class with no spinnaker, an X-412, sailed time 3:12:10 corrected time 4:00:13, 2nd: Edmond Dantes, sailed time 3:51:33, corrected time 4:00:49. I even hauled a lady out of the drink after she decided to take a bath trying to set a spinnaker. There where 3 other boats in the class, Outsailed by corrected times of 14, 17 and 29 minutes. They are at least 3 hardworking people. I sail single handed. This sail have a great potential and should be used by 90% of all the cruising yachts. Period.