Mike Zuteck US Sailor of the Week

Mike Zuteck is the US SAILOR of the Week, and he is one of us, Tornado sailor. See http://mailcenter3.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/...1570&sid=c0

Also in this Email report, 2008 Championship Schedule including the Alter Cup.

Caleb Tarleton

How about this link . . .

US SAILING Sailor of the Week

Thanks Matt. Just about to post a correction.

Am I getting senile? I don't remember New Zealand having a catamaran in the America's Cup. I thought it was the United States. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Anybody use Harken Magic Blocks?

Mike invented those and they were perfected by Greg Scace and then bought by Harken...

They are a really cool single line 6 to 1 then 12 to 1 block set. The idea is that you can grind a lot of sheet in with the 6 to 1 and then when you are going up wind mostly trimmed in... you have a 12 to 1 system in hand.

They fell out of favor when the wild thing technique was perfected... You were just on the edge of the 6 or 12 range and you could go swiming if you were not careful.

It takes me an hour to figure the damn thing out if you have to redo them.

Congrats!

Hey, someone tell Wouter he has competition on the Wind Turbine thing!


I met Mike Z. the first time I went to the US Tornado Nats in Houston. Was setting up the boat and some dude rode up on a mountain bike with a helmet & goggles...all the standard bikiing gear. Got to chatting about T's for a bit...I of course didn't know who this guy was so started spouting all the really basic sutff about the boat. He let me go for a while before offering his hand to shake & his name.

DUH! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Mike is a really interesting fellow. He was involved in the Apollo program at Nasa, and also tells an interesting tale of a speed record attempt sail boat called "The slingshot" which was developed by some Texans back in the day. I think this was a proa - once the crew got it going they would scamper out along a long pylon and the story was if it ever flipped it would slingshot the crew. I believe it was sailed at the Texas City Dike and Lake Buchanan but was ultimately not fast enough to break any records.

Chris Green

No i have not used Harken Magic Blocks.

I sailed with Mike for 4 years at M.I.T. As I recall the only problem was his insistence on driving his ancient Studebaker Lark to regattas. Mean time between failures was something like 2 days so Mike's timely arrival was frequently an issue. I only hope he's keeping that car in better repair now.

Regards
Chet

I would rather designate him a fellow traveller or something to that extend.

The more guys who work in it the better !

Wouter

Was Mike Z. involved with the Gougeon brothers during the time they did the Adrenalin project? If so, he probably was involved in their wood/carbon windmill foils.

Reading trough the link mbounds posted, I am very confused about the New Zealand catamaran they are refering to. Surely they are talking about the New Zealand giant "skiff" which they challenged the US catamaran with?