Seminars
Beth Sailing
Beth sailing on Lake Champlain

Beth will be available to give presentations fall of 2009. Contact her at evansstarzinger@yahoo.com if you are interested in organizing an event with her.

The currently scheduled events are:

November 20, 7:00 PM, Madison, Wisconsin. West Marine and Hoofers, the University of Wisconsin sailing club, will sponsor a free presentation at the Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin campus

December 5, 8:00 PM, Severna Park, Maryland. Windjammers of the Chesapeake: http://www.windjammers-chesapeake.org/bin/main.php

December 12, 1:00 PM EST. Seven Seas University webinar: http://sevenseasu.com/7seasu/index.php

December 12, 4:00 PM EST. Seven Seas University webinar: http://sevenseasu.com/7seasu/index.php

2009 PRESENTATIONS DETAILS


November 20, 2009
7:00-8:30 PM
University of Wisconsin Memorial Union (check “Today in the Union” for room location)
Madison, WI

Glacier Island: The Magic of South Georgia

 West Marine and Hoofers, the University of Wisconsin sailing club, are teaming up to sponsor this free presentation. Join Beth Leonard for a voyage south of the Antarctic Convergence into the ice-strewn waters of South Georgia Island. Share with her the challenges of anchoring in storm-force winds and hurricane-strength williwaws, of navigating through bergy bits and growlers, of enduring blizzards and ice-cold water. Meet the island’s inhabitants: elegant king penguins, comical elephant seals, aggressive sea lions, majestic albatrosses, and the dedicated researchers who spend months at a time studying these endangered species. Witness the breathtaking beauty of the dramatic scenery, and come to appreciate both the challenges and rewards of sailing to a still-wild place to experience firsthand nature’s abundance and splendor, savagery and indifference.

December 5, 2009
8:00-10:00 PM
Windjammers of the Chesapeake
Severna Park, MD
http://www.windjammers-chesapeake.org/bin/main.php

The Great Capes

 When the only route from Europe to the Spice Islands and China lay through the Southern Ocean, most sailors passed beneath the Great Southern Capes - Horn, Hope and Leeuwin.  Today, very few cruising sailors brave the tempestuous Southern Ocean to double these infamous capes.  Over the course of a ten-year circumnavigation aboard their 47-foot aluminum Van de Stadt Samoa, Hawk, Beth Leonard and her partner, Evans Starzinger, passed under the three great capes as well as the two 'lesser' capes at the bottom of Tasmania and New Zealand.  On the way, they faced storm-force winds, dangerous seas, freezing temperatures and broken equipment, but they also came up against what they had believed to be their own limits and were forced to pass beyond them.  Beth will share the story of both voyages – their physical passage through the Southern Ocean following in the wakes of the great sailing vessels of bygone days and their personal journey that strengthened them as individuals while challenging and then tempering their relationship.

December 12, 2009
1:00-3:00 PM EST
Live webinar http://sevenseasu.com/7seasu/index.php

Dollars and Sense: Getting the most out of your cruising budget

 Don’t let your cruising plans become a casualty of the economic meltdown. Find out how much it will cost you to go cruising and how you can minimize your budget and control expenses. The detailed budgets of three boats – Simplicity, Moderation and Highlife – will be used to illustrate today’s range of cruising budgets and allow you to build a realistic estimate of your costs category by category. See how overall costs depend on the size and complexity of the boat and the luxuriousness of the liveaboard lifestyle, and how a cruising dream can still be realized even on a shoestring budget. Beth will be available to registered participants to answer specific questions in the weeks following the webinar.

December 12, 2009
4:00-6:00 PM
EST Live webinar http://sevenseasu.com/7seasu/index.php

Heavy Weather Management: Techniques and tools from two different boats

 One of the best things about heavy weather is how seldom cruisers encounter it. But that means that very few people ever get the chance to compare the heavy weather performance of different boats or evaluate different tactics. Over the course of 110,000 nautical miles aboard two very different boats, we have used a variety of tactics. I will show how boat size and design impacted the choice of tactics in gale and storm conditions and describe in detail the equipment and techniques for the weather tactics we have employed most often including heaving-to, forereaching and towing a drogue. I will share what we think we know about ultimate storm conditions, and what techniques we would try if ever faced with those conditions. All of this will help you to determine what techniques and equipment are most likely to be of value on your boat, and help you prepare by setting up your boat before the fact.
 
Beth Leonard and her husband, Evans Starzinger, have completed two circumnavigations and logged more than 110,000 nautical miles. Between 1992 and 1995, they sailed westabout by way of the Panama Canal, Torres Straits and the Cape of Good Hope aboard their Shannon 37, Silk. They spent four years ashore building their 47-foot aluminum Van de Stadt Samoa sloop, Hawk, before leaving again in 1999. They have just completed a ten-year, eastabout circumnavigation by way of all of the Great Capes that took them as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as Cape Horn. Beth and Evans both write for the sailing magazines and have recently had articles appear in Cruising World, Practical Sailor, Good Old Boat and Yachting World. Beth is the author of three books: The Voyager’s Handbook, Following Seas and the award-winning Blue Horizons.


Once by the Pacific

The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last Put out the Light was spoken.

Robert Frost