Rule 69 Podcast #5. Carlo Borlenghi.

Today I am my usual long-winded self, but I think the topics are good. The passing of legendary sailboat photographer/artist Carlo Borlenghi; I watched the most recent SailGP and...I liked it! I mock Ben Ainslie for suing to have ownership of the Brits last AC boat too.

I spent probably too much time talking about how I think the flailing US economy under Trump is going to really affect the middle class center of much of the racing in this country. Enjoy!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Yeah. Everybody tells me that. I don't listen. Scott Tempesta here.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Rule69.com is the website. As I hear it's the happening website. The new hot hip and happening website. Rule69.com. Hey, it's better than that other fucking thing out there. In fact, it's better than any fucking thing out there. Already. Barely even got going. Just saying. I mean what what's better? Scuttle butt? Holy shit. He hasn't been well, he's never been relevant, but all of his posing really hasn't been relevant for like 20 years. You know what I'm saying? Just facts. What's that other place? Oh, I know. Nobody cares. Just kind of kind of keep trying to prop that corpse up. You're dead, you just don't know it yet. I'm not angry though. I'm not bitter. I just never forget. All you all who tried to do me dirty did do me dirty. I don't forget. You know, speaking of memories, one thing I'd like to talk about here, just to kind of start the shoe, is Carlo Borlenghi. I mean, I'm just going to assume that most of you have been in the sport for a while. And if you're like me, I mean, I hope mostly that you're not, but if you're like me in this way, which I suspect a lot of you are, that is, you love sailing photographs, right? You just sailing porn, as they used to call it. That lasted about a month. Um, and I think that there's been some great ones, right? And I'm I'm gonna leave out earlier people, I'm gonna leave out some contemporary people because I think the modern era, if you will, of superb artistic, virtually unmatched sailing photography was from Studio Borling. There's no question about it. The guy and his his team just did the most incredible stuff. And once he got on the map, and I don't have his timeline here um in front of me, but let's just say that he was unparalleled. And sure, there's you know, there's people around his, you know, maybe before him, like Sharon Green. I mean, she takes nice photographs, I guess. She's never once spoken to me ever in my, what is this now, rolling on 28 years in this in this business? Not once I ever hear anything from her. I reached out to her, but you know, you know me, and you know what I create, what I did at the other place that put it on the fucking map. Um, and now it's doing its best to take itself right off the map, which is just absolutely thrilling to me. You dumbasses. Um, okay, she was okay. Um and Carlo, though, just did you if you haven't, if you're not familiar with this stuff, just Google it. But I'm sure that you are. And I don't need to go into the depth and the detail, you know, of his photography. I wouldn't, I would just sound like a dope if I was talking about it. But we all know it was beautiful. And he passed away. Um, you know, earlier this week, I believe. Last week, I'm sorry. And I think we were probably the first ones to jump on the story, but but that's not relevant. What's relevant is his relevance to our sport and the imagery that he brought to us for free. I mean, you know, you gotta make sure, and I was really uneducated uh when I first started. So I'm just oh yeah, let's put their put their stuff up. They'll be glad that it's getting seen. Well, yeah, some okay and some aren't. And um, but I never never meant, never intended to steal anybody's work. I mean, that's not what we do here. There's a couple other places that steal everybody's work, you know, a lot of copy and pasting. Anyone come to mind on that? Hmm? No? Okay. Um, and Borling was great. Like we, you know, I think I reached out to him, and and you know, once we kind of got started using some of his stuff and make sure it was okay, and he was good with it, but I could also always tell there was like a little like maybe my gut instinct is to not let you publish my stuff, but you know, got so big um that, you know, a lot of people were seeing his stuff, and you know, I hope it helped. I mean, anytime I put anybody's anything up, you know, whether it's a a video or or pictures or articles, you know, or any sort of advertising stuff that we're about to get into here pretty quickly. Um, you know, I'm super appreciative of it all. And I'm I'm not I'm not looking for stuff to steal, you know. I just don't do that. But, you know, we had a nice semi-working relationship with him in that, you know, he was fine with us using his stuff. You know, he gave us the approval. There weren't any if, ands, or buts. Just yeah, sure, that's great. Um, and there's some others who are just been fabulous to work with. I mean, Rick Tomlinson and his kid. Uh Rick has always been so cool. And um, you know, I've always made sure, I didn't in the early days because I just didn't quite get how the game was played, but I always made sure, you know, like give a link um, you know, to these people uh below their picture. And maybe, hey, great shot by Rick Tomlinson, or hey, great shot by Max Ranchi. By the way, another great guy who, you know, really appreciate him. And I know he likes me, and he will send sometimes send me stuff that he knows I like, which your pictures that usually include collisions um or torn sails or you know, angry faces. Um you know, I I do have a little bit of a weird sort of bent towards that, but then again, I'm fairly bent. Um, you know, Andrea Francolini is another guy, you know. Good work, pretty protective of his work. And I appreciate that, right? I mean, I'm not I was in no position, and I'm certainly not now, to buy their their stuff. Um, I look at it this way, it's a little, it's symbiotic, right? Hopefully they they get more exposure. Maybe people want to buy the pictures that they see, you know. So it is tend to work out pretty nicely for both of us, but for most of us. But um, yeah, that I I just you know, Carlo was he's not going to be forgotten. I mean, he made his mark in this sport, and others have, I think, gone a ways towards emulating him, but man, you know, he was a true artist. And it's like, yeah, I'm gonna paint a Rembrandt. Okay. And it's, you know, five stick figures later, you know, there's my best efforts. So, you know, the great photographers, um, they they do their own thing. Um girl in Hawaii, Lolo Sea Biscuit, um, she sends me stuff, you know, from uh we, you know, we covered the pack cup, the race to from Frisco to Hawaii, pretty extensively on the front page of Sailing Anarchy, prime on the front page of Rule 69. Sailing Anarchy didn't cover shit. And they haven't had stuff up there for months. So let's just be clear about that. So um uh she sent me some nice stuff, and we, like I said, we covered a lot of the pack up because I've gotten to be friends with the owner, Tina Roberts of Ragtime. And um, she's a fabulous woman. I did a my last podcast was with her. If you haven't heard it, it's lengthy, but it's genius, and it's not me, that's genius. Uh, she's just a fascinating woman. I mean, I the more I could I could have talked to her, it was an hour and a half podcast, my longest ever. Not that I can't roll for that long or even longer, but you know, I need I need a good guest to really make it happen. You know, anytime I have, for example, one of my favorite guys in San Diego, Alex Comet on, you know, we can just talk forever because we're buddies. And, you know, we talk, we talk off the record and we talk on the record about lots of stuff. And Alex is a just a great guy and a great sailor. And so, you know, when I get people that I really hit it off with, um I really enjoy it. When I had Leo Goulden on, you know, the from the Samson Boat Company and the Tally Ho videos, um, I had him on as a as a guest. I can't access that file, but uh, I'm gonna redo another one. Oh, excuse me. I'm not drinking. Um, I'm gonna do one here at Rule 69 with Leo because he's great. And so um, so uh Lola though sent me some great pictures from the finish of of the of the packup, and she has a great eye. Like she really knows how to take just the right sort of shot. She's very, very good and she's always been very cool. I feel kind of guilty because I only talk to her like once a year. Hey, got any pack cup shots? I feel like such a douche, you know, like, oh great. This guy ignores me, you know, for the entire year. And then all of a sudden he wants some pack cup shots. And actually, she sent me some stuff this year for once I didn't go begging. Um, and so um I really liked her stuff too. Um, and there's a couple other photographers I'm I'm forgetting that I I quite like, and they're generous with their work. And I always ask if I if there's a good picture that pops up from them, you know. I always ask, hey, can we you mind if we put this up and put a link to you? And everybody says yes. There's a couple pricks, though, that have not said yes and have actually said no right from the jump. There's a guy I've never met him. I and I know I don't like him because I his my first interaction with him was, hey, he was, he gets work. He looks like a I don't know him, but he looks surly. He looks like a chump. I don't know that he is, but he looks like one. And he actually, his interactions with me are very, very chump-ish. Um, I mean, I think I asked him, hey man, do you mind if we No, you're we're not we're not having any of our stuff up on sailing anarchy. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, fuck you then. Like, seriously. What's your beef? And, you know, I can only imagine what it is, right? It's just, you know, it's just the the things I say and the topics that I go into. And, you know, my political leanings, which are not that prevalent. But boy, listen to some of you right-wingers, you think that's all I talk about. But the only time I ever talk about anything right wing is when it's related to what's happening in this country with the EPA under the satanic Lee Zeldon who runs it for his antichrist boss, Trump. And so Tim Wright would just say no, and I never bothered. I never after that one time, I'm like, I don't care. Not gonna ever use your stuff. Um, unless it was on a Regatta site, um, where it was owned by the Regatta had paid for it. And then I've used a couple, uh, not as a way to backdoor him, but he's, you know, he knows what he's doing when it comes to uh taking shots. And so, you know, I've used a couple, but never tried to undermine them. I mean, the site, the pictures were up there on the Regatta website. I think if his water mark wasn't on there, you know, I think I said photos thanks to Tim Wright. Um another guy who kind of turned out to be a chump. Um, and it's and I don't know why, because he too does brilliant work. I mean, I I would dare to put him in the category of Carlo Borlenghi. I I would because he's just masterful at what he does. And um and it's Jesus Reneto. And we had a good relationship. Um, you know, he would send me stuff, we'd chat, but I think when he found out about, you know, who I actually am in terms of where I stand on maybe some pretty critical social issues, you know, or political issues, he got he got just weird. And I asked him a couple of times and he never really gave me a straight answer. And I at this point, I don't care. Like, dude, fine. All right, you know, you lots of people put your stuff up and you're popular, and you know, I'm sure you get you make money, and I I think that's great. But um, boy, they just these guys just get strange. I mean, you knew exactly why. So you're you're printing my I'm letting you're giving me picture to print on that other place for years, and then suddenly I'm I'm a douche, and so you don't want to do anything anymore. Okay, fine. Um, there was a guy from uh from New Zealand. I forget his name, his first name was Chris. I I forget his last name, but this dude, so we I've we've we've we've put some of his stuff up before, always put a link to his stuff, never been a problem. So I put something up once, and he pulled the card on me, said, Hey, you get you owe me for that. And I go, Oh, bro, sorry. I mean, did I not link? I mean, I nope, you just you owe me for it. It's not your work. I'm like, no, I I know it's not, but no, it's not yours. You gotta pay. And I forget what he wanted. I for I forget. He wanted a lot of money, and I, you know, I did a little research and figured I didn't have to pay him exactly what he wanted. It wasn't much. But I'm like, wow. So I'm sending this to you, and it'll be the last time you hear from me, you chump. You didn't have to pull this card. You could have easily said, oh, hey, man, listen, I'm trying to get a little, you know, trying to be proactive on my stuff. And yeah, I know you put it up, but but you know, the next time could you ask me, or you know, maybe I'll send something to you if you ask for it. But no, it wasn't that at all. It was just hard ass. You know, and I tried to reason with him, but you know, it just it wasn't good. So anyway, that's kind of it on my photography stuff. You know, I'm I'm leaving out some some other people. I'm sorry, those of you who do contribute, those of you who I am friends with, um, I'm sorry if I'm I didn't want to do a comprehensive rundown on every single photographer um in the world, but you know, it's just kind of starting with the Carlo Berlenghi thing and uh and then where we are, you know, going through some of my relationships with some others. Some good, not some not so good. Um I watched the uh something I don't do very often. I watched the entire sale GP um last time. What was that? That was in it was in England, I think, right? I think so, I think so. And I watched it because like I've seen, you know, I've seen um uh races. Um I've I've seen I've seen um clips, but I I don't think I've actually watched an entire regatta, which I know is kind of lame. Um a lot of it doesn't that doesn't interest me. Um this one was these things are trippy. I mean, I think it's good that they split them into two fleets or two flights, I guess you would say, right? Um six boats each, I think. Aren't there 12 of these things total? Let's see, yeah, there's 12. And um, oh, but there's promises of 14 and 15 and 16 and 17 and 18 because the sponsorship dollars are rolling in and everybody wants a piece of this. And okay, we'll see it when it starts to happen. But uh one thing that did uh did make me very happy was to see that the the Palmies finished dead last. Certainly in their fleet. Uh I can look at the in their flight, I can look at the full, you know, uh, but it it doesn't matter. They just weren't very good. Um let's see, they weren't last, they were 11th, 11th out of uh 13. Okay, with uh zero points, if I if I've got that right. Um and it made me happy because you know it's hard to like Ben Ainsley. I mean, you can admire his accomplishments on the water. I don't know if one of those accomplishments was jumping off his boat and punching somebody. I think he's a pretty he's a pretty surly guy, let's be honest. He's quick, he's quick-tempered, and uh I wouldn't say he's the most outgoing friendly guy. You know, in a sport that's got a quite a number of guys, you know, who are good, good when the mic is shoved in their face or the camera is shoved in their face, right? Nathan Otteridge is is a guy who comes to mind, you know, Berling is pretty good. You know, these guys are are good. He's not good at it. And what's what's really doubly funny about him is the fact that he somehow thinks he owns the last AC boat that the that the challenge that they did with um the fracker, Jim Ratcliffe. Um, you know, Ineos, the the uh you know multi-level corporation that primarily is a fracking company. And I've bitched about this from day one. And I mean, I I don't need to go over it too much, but how is it possible? So this is a you know America's cup, oh, we're sustainable, and you know, but you've got a main sponsor that we care about the environment. You know, we pack our poop in plastic bags and you know ship it to recycling centers. You know what I mean. It's all good PR. How much of it actually you know rings true? I don't know. But I know what doesn't ring true when you have a fracker, one of the biggest polluters ever, one of the greatest abusers of water use ever, outside of data centers, of course. That's a whole nother topic, but I'm not getting into that because it's not relevant to our topic. But Ratcliffe is, and Ainsley is, and the legal battle, which I don't even know how it's still going on. I mean, I I maybe one of you could send me like the legal reasons why Ainsley think he owns that boat. I mean, I just who paid for it? Did you pay for it, dude? You did not. So guess what? It goes to the guy who paid for it. That you guys had a pissing contest, you know, makes me laugh. And um, because I don't like either of you. I don't like Ainsley and I don't like Ratcliffe just because of what he does. He's a fracker. God damn it. So I I think that's funny that that that carries on, and I don't know when it'll be resolved, but I I'm cheering to say it. I'm cheering for the fracker. I mean, I just kind of am. I something so fundamentally wrong about saying, no, that's my boat. Did you pay for it? No. Hmm. And why do you think it's yours again? Because I'm Sir Ben Ainsley, you know. Yeah, oh. But um, so watching this series was interesting. Breaking it into two flights of six, I I see that. I get that. It was pretty gnarly with all those boats trying to get it out of there at once. It's gnarly enough with six, uh, just in terms of, you know, how close it is. It's amazing to watch how some of these guys, not consistently, but they, you know, they'll just nail the start. Like there was a race that Germany won. I think the only race that they won, um, I could be wrong, but they nailed the start so frigging perfectly, it was just it was impressive. And some of the teams do that. You can't do it every time because it's that hard, obviously. And because if it wasn't, guess what? Everybody would do it. But and then I think the next race, they were no, they got buried and they were nowhere to be seen on the start line, and then you never saw them on the race course, really. And um, and so that part is is pretty interesting. The never seeing them on the race course is also another thing that's America's Cup-ish. Uh, although, granted, there's only two boats on the race course at America's Cup. But in this case, you get shot out the back pretty quick. And your opportunities to get back in this thing, these things, are tough. Some guys do it, some guys don't. I mean, what were the the great guys, were the the not the black foils, but yeah, Slingsby, right? Flying rules. I mean, they they finished seventh for Christ's sake, you know? And I think they're the Sunday kids or something. I don't know what they call them, but they did not, they weren't the Sunday kids that day. And there's some there's some really good sailors out there. I mean, they're really and truly are. And um, it was really, it was fun to watch, but you know, it's just a thing where the races are so frigging short. And uh, I know they're trying to fire these things off in in succession. Okay, all right, but take a breath, Charlie. Like, okay, slow up a little bit. Let's just not rush through this. It's not a big get them done, get them done, get them done. Like, I I think something should be done about like the the pacing uh on these a little bit. I know the races are are fast and furious, obviously, mostly. Um, but I came away with it going, okay, I'm Mean okay. I, you know, it was interesting to see the US team, you know, they were up and down. I know they're better than they were. Um, but I think they finished sixth in this regatta. They didn't make it to the to the final. And um, but you know, it's understandable, not everybody does. This is fairly difficult. So, you know, against my better instincts, which is just which is just not to like it for no reason other than I'm kind of surly, um, I I liked it. I I did. And I'll pay a little bit more attention as as we sort of go along here because I I think it's worth I think it's worth watching, right? You guys all watch it. I mean, I was bitching. YouTube was cool, and sure, of course, it was good. I mean, it's it's not as good as Formula One. Uh, it isn't as good as NASCAR, and before all you start to, you know, throw open your mouth a little bit by that statement. That just tells me you don't watch NASCAR. Um because if you did, you'd have an understanding, understanding of like it's a pretty amazing sport. Um, and I hated it, but it wasn't until I started to like pay attention to some of the subtleties that actually go on in within NASCAR, right? Everybody thinks it's a bunch of taxi cabs, you know, turning left. Yeah, it looks like that. But listen, I was a huge Kyle Bush fan, R.I.P. KB, and uh, you know, he was one of the best at driving and feedback as to what the cars needed. So I it's better, it's better than than sail GP, but sale GP is good. It is good. And I do hope they get more boats. Why, why wouldn't I? I mean, I think if anytime any aspect of the sport can can get good um and get popular, I mean, that's a good thing. You know, there's some things that are just never going to be. Forget Olympic sailing. It's not, it's not ever gonna happen uh in terms of viewer interest. It's just not. I mean, the boats are all the same, and they just you know, if they're in any sort of chop, you know, they're just bouncing along, going like three and a half knots, you know, and it's just like, oi, geez, it's it's brutal. Um, so you know, for this to be popular like it is, I think it's a really good thing. And um, so, you know, hell, even I'm on board. Um, before I get out of here today, though, I wanted to talk about something that's worrying me a little bit not only for the overall economy in this country under Trump, the president, but what the economy is doing and the directions that it's heading, the deficit that has been exploded for no real reason under this this asshole president, the inflation that was created for no real reason. Oh, that's right. Tariffs. Remember that? The cure-all, total disaster. That's what happens when you put an idiot, a con man, in charge, and he just he just does crazy shit, makes no sense. And because he's a king, thinks he is, because he's treated like one by some, he gets to do whatever he wants. And what he's doing is ruining the economy. And I don't give a shit if you're a Republican. I don't care. He is now but you know, I mean, there's a lot of problems. Costs are up for everything. Thank you. Inflation, how's gas working out? Do you think that's gonna get lower as long as we're fucking around in Iran, spending a billion dollars a day, growing the deficit just horribly? No, it's not gonna, it's not coming down anytime soon. I heard that asshole say just today that uh oil's coming down, and you know, we expect to get it down to $1.85 where it was. Well, it never was $1.85. It was $285 at one point, which seems dreamlike at this point. So that's that's a big part of the problem. Healthcare coverage being pulled back as medical costs go up, and and healthcare cut healthcare coverage is being cut. I mean, I have a good friend of mine. He needs, you know, uh treatments at a hospital. Medicare just now started refusing them. Whereas before they they just approved them, you know, automatically. It's a serious medicine for a serious ailment. Now they don't pay for them. Um, so we can't, job security's low. Don't think it's not. It is. Um, and a lot of us, you know, a lot of people who just can't afford things are just reluctant to spend money. Um, you know, the administration just rules by chaos. And on any given day, you know, of course it's market manipulation, you know. Oh, we're we're um the we're not going to war. We're pulling back. Okay, the oil prices go up or they drop, or so then he, you know, then he buys a bunch and oh, we're back to war. And so then he sells, you know, that's what he's doing, him and his cronies. So my my larger point is not to bitch about him, but let's be honest about what's going on in this country. The economy is horrific. It's getting worse, it's not getting better. Have you seen the jobs report? Gee, I mean, GDP, it's just like it all the numbers are insanely bad. And yet you have that bloviating turd up there, go on, numbers are never better. Stock market all-time high. Yeah, because that matters in people's lives. It doesn't. So here's my biggest concern about all of this is so I think that, you know, the um the one percenters, the two, three, four, five, ten percenters in this sport, I mean, I don't know where, I don't know where it it sort of ends. You know, people that do well, they can afford, you know, to play in this sport at a high level. And people who do pretty good, you know, can afford to be in the sport, right? And people that don't do well can't get in the sport unless it's on a really small level. And I'm I'm not talking dinghies and lasers and you know that kind of stuff, foils, kite foils, none of that. I'm talking about monoholes, you know, decent size, and even multi-hulls, right? Um, I'm worried that the middle of our sport is going to get gutted, it's going to slowly dissipate. Because I don't see this economy turning around anytime soon. Do you? No, you know the answer. No. It's gonna continue to denigrate, it's gonna continue to get worse, and we're gonna, people are gonna suffer. So those, let's just do the rank and file. I mean, look around any any marina, wherever in the country you are, what's the middle? What's the middle? And I'm not talking about your Etchell's fleet. We all know you don't win unless you got a lot of money at the top. You spend a lot of money on your boat, rigors, pros. We all know that. J70s. Okay. Now, how the guys in the middle of those fleets and the and the tail end of those fleets, how and why they come back, I just don't know. I mean, when you get hammered by pros, pros that are better than your pros. They the the top one 10%ers can afford better pros than you can, if you can afford any. And they're gonna beat you just because that's kind of the way it goes, right? So you go to Key West, you know, your big trip, and you get 27th. You know, oh, let's go to the south, and you, you know, you get you move up, you're 27th, you're 26th, 25th. Uh, what's your impetus to come back again? How much money it's costing you? I I say it's low. It'll be interesting to watch how those fleets do numerically, right? Especially as we start to get into the winter circuits and some of that stuff. You know, it's worth paying attention, you know, to how those go. The Melgus 24 fleet seems to be fairly resolute. You know, there's a because people have a passion about Melgus boats, and they really have a passion about the Melgus 24. People don't have a passion about J70s, they're not great boats. They're good for what they what they're used for in the one design arena, right? I mean, they're they're good, they're good for that. And um, but there's no real passion. Oh, I mean, you ask a typical Melgus 24 sailor, hey, how do you like your boat? Fucking love my Melgus 24, man. I love all the guys we sail against. You know, at the big regattas, the top end stuff, yeah, they're pro Cedric. But you know, I've been talking to guys that that sale Melgus 24s, guy, guys in Lake Laniers. Told me they got 10 Melgus 24s, you know. And um, in fact, he sold, we have a classified section. Let me digress for a second. We have a classified section on rule69.com. And it's, you know, it's slow building. I mean, I they're free, by the way. So if any of you want to buy or sell something, you're looking for something, you got something to sell, come on there. Just it's easy to find, it's easy to post. It you can do it all yourself, and there's no charge. So had a guy that listed his Melgas 24 and he sold it. So I said, Oh, what are you gonna do? And he goes, Well, I bought another one, I bought a newer one. He goes, and that, and now we're dog, we're dog slow in the new boat. And so I kind of laughed at him. I go, no. He goes, Yeah, I wish I could get the old one back. He goes, but we'll figure it out, you know, and and I'm sure that he will. But you know, so you need to have a passionate audience, right? Um, and so if you have that, and Melgus 24s have that, they've always had it. I mean, it's the OG Melgus, right? I raised them when they were brand new. I did Key West, I think their first or second year there, you know. And so um, so that's really cool. And I think on the local level, there's support for these, for the that class uh around the country. And I think it's cool. And there's good people over there at Melgus. They've always been the nicest ever to me. And I I do appreciate what they do. And the Jay Boltzeson, I love those guys. I love Stu Johnstone, I love Jeff Johnstone, I know I know those guys. Um, but I'm just kind of calling it for what it is because I think when we're gonna run into some economic problems, more so than we have, you're going to find people who, like I said, wherever you are, uh your PHRF fleet, right? Um find, give me an example. And of course, we don't have a PHRF fleet in San Diego anymore. Why you ask? Well, because the geniuses at something called the Cortez Race Racing Association, which did to their credit run almost every single PHRF race in San Diego. And let's face it, that's what people sell most of the time. Um, San Diego Yacht Club does a couple, uh, arguably the worst yacht club in the world, Southwestern Yacht Club does a couple, but they're yeah, they're not very good. If if they were running Regatta's in Oklahoma, people would still think that they suck. Um, so they, in their, in their greatest thinking, they ditched PHRF completely and they foisted ORC on everybody. If you want to race handicap in San Diego, you have one choice: PHRF non-Spinnaker, PHF cruising. They did throw those classes in. Uh I think as a fuck you to me, because I bitched heavily. Like, how can you do this? Like when I bought my Hobie 33, I thought I was racing PHRF. I was stoked. The boat's got a nice rating. I saw who had Hobi-33s in this town. I wasn't going to lose to any of them ever. And, you know, they they switched ponies on me and went to ORC. And we don't, that boat doesn't rate good in ORC. It rates terribly in ORC. But I and I said, hey, can we switch over in the nope? And so they added a couple of horseshit, half-assed PHRF classes. But the regular PHF racing is gone here. It's ORC. And I don't think the numbers are particularly good. I don't think people are stoked about this. It's it's a hard rule to figure out. Uh, and it's just why why both? Why can't you have both? Oh, hey, I'd like to race in PHRF or hey, I'd like to race in ORC. Great. We've got two flavors for you. Nope, now it's just one flavor. You do what we tell you, you don't race. I I find it horrifying. I've had a few conversations with um uh CEO at uh U.S. Sailing, who's a great guy. I really Charlie Enright, I like Charlie Enright. I've had a number of phone conversations with him, you know, in depth about a lot of stuff. And I they have the right guy there. Uh I don't know if they have the machinery or the funding to get things the way they need to be and probably should be. But listen, you got the right guy at the head. And I've told him about this, and uh, he's not too happy about it, but you know, sort of in typical U.S. sailing, you know, they uh, well, you know, gosh, gosh golly. I mean, what it should have been, it should have been to pick up the phone, go, what are you guys doing there? You know, you do know that PHRF is under the auspice of US sailing, don't you? Like, why would you take away a choice from people? I mean, that's what I would have done, but maybe that's why I'm not the CEO of US sailing. Um, but there does need to be more people like me who aren't afraid to pick up the phone, go, just what the fuck? It doesn't make sense. And I I don't, we don't approve of it. Um, but you know, those conversations are not had other than me yelling into my microphone. But so go find uh, for example, you know me, I've been PHRF forever. I mean, I bought my first flying tiger because there was a one design fleet, and we did that for a good couple of years, right? But then we also raced PHRF and all the other non-one design stuff. Um, and then I bought a you know, I bought a Melgus 24, uh I'm sorry, a Melgus 32, I bought a Santa Cruz 33, let's not talk about that. I bought another flying tiger, which actually was my best time ever owning a sailboat, just so fast, and we were so good and it was perfect. And then I bought an Ericsson 35 Mark II. And I don't need to go in the reasons why. If you know what an Ericsson 35 Mark II is, you know they're just a classic, just a bitchin' looking, always good boat from the jump. And maybe that boat represents middle, the middle of a lot of fleets, right? Like, okay, I can't afford a new um you know Benito, uh the new first 36. I can't. I can't record, I can't afford the new Benito 30. I can't. Uh I can't afford a J. I want to buy a J109, but I can't. I saw one advertise by the way, used one for over 200,000 bucks. Now they're cool boats. I should have bought one when I had the chance. I don't know why I didn't. I just I thought it would have been a good racer cruiser. Um, but you know, there's a lot of boats that are in that price range that, you know, maybe anything north of 100. That's it's hard for a lot of people to justify. Maybe an Ericsson 35, you find one for let's say 20. You know, you want to go racing, right? So you hook up with your favorite sale maker, and you know, you don't have to buy the you know, the entire store, but you get a main, you get a number one, you know, you get maybe I get a couple kites, maybe a two or a three, maybe, maybe, or maybe you just use an old three that's there in the inventory, depending upon where you sail. If you sale in a breezy place, you get a new three, plain and simple. But um, so those sales aren't cheap. I know I bought a lot bought a lot of them, bartered X amount of them as well. Um, but uh back when Quantum used to like me, they don't. Um and so I think the J105 deal that I had with them, I ended it pretty abruptly, and I think they felt burned. And truthfully, I should have gone to them with hat in hand, but there was some personal issues on the boat. Oh God, I just hate to tell these fucking stories over. But anyway, so I think that's why quantum is bent. Fine. There's other sailmakers. Um uh and so you're gonna do this, right? You bought the boat for 20, and yeah, yeah, you're gonna put, let's say you're putting five. If you're being realistic, let's be realistic. You're spending at least $5,000 on rigging. You just are. Maybe you can get standing rigging and running rigging if you do it on the cheap, right? But you're gonna have to do that. Maybe you don't have to replace the mass, but you gotta put standing and running rigging on. They just need it. So you're gonna have to spend that kind of money, right? You're gonna put a good bottom on it. Maybe you can get the crew to come down there in a in a DYI, DIY, D UI yard, and get your crew to help put a bottom on. But you're gonna have to buy sales and they're not cheap. And so now, now you're thinking about that in this economy, and let's say people that have boats now. Well, I don't think it's a buyer's market, I don't think it's a seller's market. I don't. Um, and so I think a lot of people are just sitting on their boats. They're not doing anything with them. Uh, geez, I don't have money for a couple new sales this year. I don't know. I mean, my jobs, I'm not making the money I was. My job might be in some trouble. Yikes. I'm gonna hold, I'm gonna hold off. How many people are making those decisions, sitting around the kitchen table with their their families, going, you know, we're gonna keep the boat, but we're just not gonna race it anymore. It's like, aww. Or the kids are like, yay, I'm tired of sailing with you, dad. You hack. But but you know, I think these conversations are happening because they have to happen. Because the middle is, well, it's like middle, it's the middle class in in general of sailing. Now there's an upper middle class of sailing too. You know what I'm talking about. Maybe the J109, maybe that's a good example. Maybe you can buy a J111. That's upper middle class for sure, upper, upper middle class. But how about the rest of y'all in the middle, you know, which is where I live? I didn't used to. I don't like it, but it, you know, it's a reality. Am I do you see me go out and buying boats? I look all the time to see what it is I'd like to get. I can't afford one. I mean, I just simply can't. And it pains me to say that. The guy who, you know, bought and sold 10 boats in like 18 years, you know, it pains me to sort of be in this position. But, you know, we're getting going with sailing anarchy and I'm Rule 69. Sorry, very Freudian. Um, and uh, you know, the advertising revenue is gonna come and we're gonna get there. And, you know, I think in a year we'll be we'll be doing really well in terms of getting advertisers on board. I don't think it's gonna be easy because again, the economy's shitty. But you know, you can't, the one thing if you're a company, you can't stop advertising. I mean, maybe you're gonna find some advertising is more effective than others, you know, for sure. Um, but you know, you can't. And so maybe you'll cut back. And I understand that. And I think the glory days of of, you know, sailing journalism, uh, you know, it's in trouble. I mean, you know, if you read uh Peter Swanson's stuff from The Loose Canon, you know, uh, and there's a couple other guys who were talking about, I think uh Magnus uh Wheatley does, you know, it's like, hey, these, you know, there's not as many sources, there's not many resources, you know, reporting on the sport, covering the sport. So I'm doing it on, you know, my experience, my guts, my gut instinct, and my knowledge and my shining personality and my, you know, inability to offend anybody ever. Um, so I'm worried that the middle is gonna fall out. And if the middle starts to stop coming out, what do you have? Well, you have the upper middle, okay, but a lot of these fleets, they're all racing together. I mean, there maybe there aren't enough entries to split, split enough classes. And if boats start dropping out of this, you know, they're going to, there's not going to be. And then you're going to find people, oh, shoot, you know, there's not that many boats in our class. Um, I will say that the J24 class, to their credit, uh, they in San Diego, they they putter right along. You know, they've got a solid 10 boats. You know, I'm not gonna address the quality. It's okay. Um, there's a couple guys that are decent at the top. Do you know? I almost bought one. I came damn near to buying a really good one. So, because I thought, oh, this fleet, this J24 fleet's getting going. I think I'll get one. But I did my research. You know, I talked to Mike Ingham, you know, from North, and I talked to a couple other guys, like, hey, what am I looking for? You know, and they pointed me to a couple of boats, and one boat in particular was just great. And I I, you know, I decided not to. In some ways, I wish I had, but let's face it, J24s are pain boxes. Um, I would have had the fastest boat. I know, I know I would have. It came with all a bunch of new sails. I would have won for sure. And um, but I but I didn't, but but to their credit, it it they sail around as a one design. You know, there's Beneto 36.7s, it's half-ass. There's not that many boats. And um J105s, again, I don't know what, eight boats? Maybe. Okay. All right. Well, there's a lot of people in the middle ground there on that, I think. That's a middle, that's a middle class boat now, unless you're gonna spend 100 grand on yours, which a lot of people do, right? Makes a difference. But I'm worried that we're gonna start to see, and guess what? If we see this, what what are we gonna see? Well, guess what? Sale makers who are already struggling. I have friends in the industry, they tell me just it's a battle out there. And you know, if you're selling top-end sales, you're gonna you're gonna be okay because those guys at the top are the last to fall. But at some point, everybody has to get to the point where, man, discretionary income. Like, what am I gonna? I can't, we can't, I'm not, I can't afford it, I gotta sell the boat, or we're just gonna quit racing, right? So, you know, without belaboring this point, this is something that concerns me. Um, the middle Class in a lot of ways built the sport, certainly on the West Coast, right? When you had all the Southern California fiberglass manufacturers, right? Columbia, Islander, Ericsson, Cal, Ranger, uh, who else am I leaving off there? It's pretty much it, all making race boats and, you know, nice little family cruisers, you know, that people could afford. Man, my dad had a Cal 20, he had a Yankee, we had a Mercury 18, we had a Yankee Dolphin 24, and then we had a Cal 29. And, you know, a fine boat and really fun racing it. But, you know, if those guys are going to get squeezed out, um, and those guys now would probably on the used market be considered sort of the bottom end of the market, but still, it's expensive to do this. Have you seen slip rates? I was looking for a, I was looking for a girl pal of mine. She didn't buy the boat, but she was looking for a 30-footer. I got a quote from a marina, 900 bucks a month to park it. 900 bucks to park it, just to park it. And then I found another marina, a buddy, a J24 guy said, hey, check this marina. And they were like 660. Like, okay, but man, still, 660 just to park it, right? And that's you haven't touched anything else. And we all know the cost. So it's a concern. Um, I know a lot of you are concerned about it from a number of standpoints, right? Not just sailing, but you know, putting food on the table, keeping your job. You want to get that car, you know. And I don't know, is now the time now the time? No, now is not the time. Now is not the time to buy a car, especially with an 84-month lease, which by the way, I just read yesterday 29% of all car loans are 84-month loans. 84 months. That's like 19 years. Like, what are you thinking? I mean, 60 months is like Jesus, you know. I mean, that's like a so I was looking at cars. I'm not doing it. You know, I'm not. I'm keeping my bitching little bends, my little 560 SL that's perfectly cherry. I'm perfectly happy with that. And I got a Fisker Ocean EV that I stole, and it's it's a wonderful car. So, you know, everybody's gonna be tightening their belts if they're not already. And what's one of the first things to go? The boat. It's just gonna be the friggin' boat. It just is. So, yeah, I'm paying attention to that. Oh, you know what that music means? Shut the fuck up. Means I got to go. All right, listen, thanks for tuning in. I really do appreciate you guys. If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, criticisms, love for the podcast, please send me an email. Scott S-C-O-T at R-U-L-E69.com. Guests, if you can think of some guests you'd like to hear from. I've had great guests. I sometimes get a little lazy getting guests, but I I'm I'm getting on it because I know you don't want to hear me ramble on forever. I mean, it's better than any of these other hay holes I hear. I mean, most of these podcasts are just so horribly done. People just don't know anything about broadcasting. You know, I was in talk radio for 10 years. I know a thing or two about the mic control. I know, I know, I know, I know how it's done. And you might not like some of my material. I don't it uh I'm a work in progress. So, anyway, if you have any thoughts, comments, questions, send them off to me. For Rule 69, I'm Scott Tempesta. We'll see ya.