The NOOD is not dead, and Clean is okay.

A post after St. Pete, in response to the exaggerated reports of the death of the NOOD, and defending Mr. Clean:


"As to Sailing World: Much like a certain website I've been known to peruse on occasion, I know ahead of time that Sailing World is mostly crap, but it's better than reading about gardening.

As to the recent furor about the NOOD: even if participation is down, I would rather spend a couple of days bobbing around in 0.4 knots of wind in 75 degree Tampa Bay than be at work. This is the case even if the B course Race Committee is apparently run by that lady from The Weakest Link.

To those of you who are fired up about the way Clean talks to people: Let's get some perspective on this issue. I realize the effect of verbal abuse on the fragile cognition of developing infants and billionaires is still being debated by the medical community. But while we await their findings, I say this: Deserved or no, we're talking about two grown men here. My guess is that both Ernesto and Sperry-Boy Stu or whatever his name is will likely abide Clean's harangues without serious bodily injury.

To those of you who have direly predicted the iminent demise of our bellweather racing series the NOOD: Using the official name per earlier request, I'll predict that the "Sperry-Top-Sider-Land's-End-Quaker-State-Pillsbury-BC-Headache-Powder-Regattas-as-Jointly Presented-by-Enzyte-and -your-local-AA-chapter® NOOD" regattas will probably not go the way of the square rig, either. My god, some of y'all act like we're Kansas City Royals fans or something here--news flash: the owner of sailboat racing is not going to pick up your local boat race and move to Alabama if the fans don't purchase enough Budweiser and cheap hats. So we're down a few boats...maybe I'll actually crack the top 30 next year, and I could even get the boat out of the water before the start of the following year's regatta.

As to Clean personally: Whatever his motives, and I don't pretend to know them, I say keep stirring shit up. I disagree with the comment that opinion has no place in journalism--that's crazy. All news is to one extent or the other editorial. As long as one doesn't pretend to be unbiased, (*cough* fair and balanced) and I don't think Clean makes that claim, opinion of whatsoever character is a good thing. And, furthermore, it has absolutely zero relevance how accomplished a sailor he is--we don't make Erin Andrews or Stuart Scott put on shoulder pads and play defense, so what the fuck difference does it make how good a sailor he is? Sure, it'd be great to have a Terry Hutchinson providing insightful color commentary at your monthly excuse to get out of the house, but last I checked, most professionals and other really good sailors would rather, I dunno, ^&*^ING SAIL!?

Everyone knows that generally, the people that are always telling you how good a sailor they are usually aren't. This situation is probably similar. I find that those who feel the need to be critical of another's ability on the racecourse are compensating for their own ineptitude.

I learned the bottom line to this argument in 10th grade civics: Free speech is a beautiful thing. More content is always better. More points of view add to the debate. If you don't like Clean, or disagree with him, don't read/watch his stuff, yada yada yada, someone hand me a flag...




Enough Kum-Bay-Yah. I will say this, and this is not just about Clean, but about anyone who gets paid to put words to paper/screen/podcast/what-the-&*^*ever... As the readers, and the people who allow this site to make money, we have the right to know about even potential conflicts of interest, so that we can make an educated evaluation of the content. I'm not saying those conflicts can't exist--capitalism is a good thing, and sponsors pay the bills. But, just like on CNBC, anyone posting who is on SA payroll should come Clean disclose all of his or hers' potential conflicts of interest, even if they do not exist in fact. The nature of SA's relationship with its sponsors and how that may color its reporting should be out in the open. I'm not saying it's not, I'm just making a point.

To me, Clean is like one of those daytime spanish telenovelas on Univision--I can't really understand what the fuck he's talking about 90% of the time, but I still watch, because 1) he's marginally more entertaining (and ostensibly less biased) than Fox News, and 2). his tits are kinda big."


BTW, Speaking of VHF, I thouroughly enjoyed watching an entire 45-boat melges fleet tack at the same time and book it back to the course like as some wiseass radioed "5 minutes to warning signal for the Melges 24 Class" as the entire fleet was headed back to the dock before the N over A flags went up.