Several of our area sailors who are involved with Junior Sailing Programs on Manhasset Bay battled the cold weather and the unexpected snowstorm to be in Annapolis, MD on February 5-9 to attend the US Sailing's National Sailing Programs Symposium (NSPS), which was sponsored by Vanguard Sailboats. More than 230 people attended, a record number of sailing instructors, coaches and program directors, which is 20 percent more than the previous year, and more than half of the attendees were there for the first time. US Sailing organizes the annual event to encourage people involved in sailing programs at any level to share ideas and learn more about sailing programs and instruction through seminars, meetings and networking. Sessions covered a wide range of subjects, including how to encourage teenagers to stay in a sailing program, sailing opportunities for people with disabilities, and how to run a community sailing program. Thanks to those who spent their weekend in "Arctic Annapolis" so that our area's junior sailors receive the very best sailing instruction this summer.

Not too much is happening down in Auckland as the fourth race has been postponed four times. And with a forecast for southeast winds of 23 knots, with gusts approaching 30 knots for Tuesday, it doesn't look good for racing. Strong winds are predicted for Wednesday and Thursday also, but one can only hope that at least one of these days the Race Committee will be able to start a race. For those who like statistics, with this last cancellation, 23 out of 68 race days (including the Louis Vuitton Cup) have been lost to weather delays. The scoreboard shows Alinghi with a 3-0 lead over Team New Zealand. But once the racing gets started again, don't count NZ out just yet. In June 2002, Dean Barker won three races in a row after losing the two opening encounters against Alinghi in a match race in Italy. And he managed a five in a row win against Russell Coutts last July in Sweden. With the addition of the Frenchman Bertrand Pace to the afterguard in the role as tactician, the "come back kid" just may pull this off and keep the Cup in NZ. So it's not over yet, and we may see some very exciting racing in the next week or two. Let's hope the wind is favorable for racing soon!

On Monday, Feb. 17, The America's Cup Hall of Fame honored Malin Burnham, Sir Michael Fay and Stanley Rosenfeld as the 2002 Inductees into the Hall of Fame. The Induction Ceremony into the America's Cup Hall of Fame, hosted by Gary Jobson, was held during the America's Cup races at The Auckland Museum, Auckland, NZ. Ed du Moulin, from our bay, a close friend of Malin Burnham's from past America's Cup competitions, was in Auckland to introduce Burnham at the Induction Ceremony. He said of his friend, "Malin and I have been friends for over 30 years and have been involved in six America's Cups together. When Malin took over the leadership when the San Diego YC challenge in 1987 and 1995, I worked closely with him during those campaigns. We are close family friends also and with my late wife, Eleanor, have cruised with Malin and his wife, Roberta, in Corsica and elsewhere. Malin has ties to our community as he was, at the age of 17, the youngest sailor to win the Star World's Championship on Long Island Sound in 1945 with Lowell North, l5, as his crew."

Malin, a veteran of the l977 Enterprise Burnham, from San Diego, was praised for his nearly three decades of enthusiastic hands-on involvement in the America's Cup Competition. In 1977, he was tactician and then skipper of Enterprise in defender trials. In 1980, he sailed frequently as helmsman of the trial horse boat for Dennis Conner's winning Freedom Campaign. In 1983 he did likewise for the Liberty Campaign. In 1987 he founded and served as President/ CEO of the Sail America Foundation, which funded and provided logistical support for Dennis Conner's winning Stars & Stripes Campaign. In 1988 he chaired San Diego Yacht Club's successful defense.

Sir Michael Fay has played a pivotal role in New Zealand's extraordinary America's Cup success. With his involvement, leadership and support of many campaigns, the Kiwis have achieved victory in the remarkably short time span of 10 years. The late Stanley Zachary Rosenfeld, son of the renowned Morris Rosenfeld, worked tirelessly to assemble and preserve the family's photographic legacy of the America's Cup competition spanning a century. The remarkable history of the America's Cup competition owes a great debt of gratitude to the legendary Rosenfelds, whose zeal and passion for great photography of sailing vessels has produced some of the most remarkable photographic images of boats under sail, particularly those of the America's Cup.

The Knickerbocker YC Adult Sailing Group are hosting a Monthly Chat Series of instructional session on a number of topics of interest to beginner and intermediate level sailors. These organized discussions range from sailing basics to racing and they are free. The next one is scheduled for March 18 and the topic is "Basic Racing" and is described as an introduction to yacht racing, and will include rules, tactics, as well as race committee work. Please RSVP to the Club.

Information from the US Coast Guard: The print version of the Local Notice to Mariners that is issued by the US Coast Guard will no longer be available. Due to personnel reduction and budgetary constraints, the last issue was December 31, 2002. However, it can be accessed at www.navcen.uscg.gov, where it will be updated weekly and past editions will also be available. Boat owners are reminded that it is their responsibility to keep their charts up to date through the Local Notice to Mariners.

The Coast Guard also warns all mariners that certain marine television antennas may interfere with the performance of GPS receivers. The interference can result in inaccurate position signals. This a potential hazard to navigation is for both the operator of the vessel with the TV antenna and for nearby boaters. Vessels up to 2,000 feet away from an active antenna have reported interference. If you experience outages or degradation of GPS performance, you should perform an on-off test of the marine TV antenna. If turning off the power to the antenna results in improvement in GPS performance, the antenna may be the source of the interference. If this is the case, notify the manufacturer of the antenna and identify the symptoms.

For those of you who are looking for sailing-related activities during the cold winter months, there is a web site that may interest you. It's from the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 9 from Billings, Montana and is all about tying knots. It is a good review for "old salts" and great for those new to sailing. The site is animated, so the knots tie themselves right before your eyes. It's guaranteed to teach the viewer how to tie all those basic knots almost instantly. Go to www. uscg.mil/vtm/navrules/navrules.pdf.