星期一 [ 2010-1-11 9:50:54 | watches1013 ]   On duty or off, doctor loves being at sea Charlie Barr made history on the high seas in 1905 when he steered a 185-foot three-masted schooner, aptly named Atlantic, to the quickest-ever voyage across its ocean namesake for a monohull sailboat. Barr's record stood for a century until earher this year, when the schooner Mari-Cha IV set the current world's record of 9 days, 15 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds. While the Mari-Cha IV got most of the attention at the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, a local doctor on the crew of another participating sailboat says he still very much enjoyed taking part in the 2,925-nautical-mile race from New York to The Lizard, England. Dr. Charles L Starke, a Briarcliff Manor internist and primary-care physician, served as ship's doctor and crew member on the S/V Whisper, a 116-foot sloop. Whisper actually finished first in its performance class, crossing the Atlantic in 14 days and 11 hours. But time-scoring corrections pushed the sloop down to an official fourth place. "We probably could have finished a lot better, but we blew out two spinnakers. They completely ripped in little pieces and blew out the spinnaker pole. We used a carbon-fiber pole and epoxy. And that also blew out in little pieces from the strength of the wind," Starke recalled in an interview. "If we had had a spare spinnaker pole, we might have beaten the record. Six boats cheap Stamping Bangle beat that record. We just came in a little slower." After a day's delay due to weather, the race's 20 competing yachts set sail within view of the Statue of Liberty down the Eastern seaboard. As Whisper approached the Gulf Stream on the race's third day, winds picked up to 35 nautical miles or "knots" with gusts to 40, and 25-foot-high seas. Later on in the race, Whisper spent a week in 25 knots of wind and 10-foot seas, better, but hardly a calm voyage. "You just keep sailing, you shorten sails so you have the right amount of sail to keep going. When the winds lightened we raised more sail," Starke said. One of Starke's crew mates, noted sailing photographer Billy Black, shot video of the Whisper's voyage for a documentary on the race. It's set to air Sept. 28 on the Outdoor Life Network, both at 1 a.m. and 10 p.m. Aboard Whisper owned and captained by Hap Fauth, Starke took turns with seven of his crew mates standing watch. Daywatch shifts were six hours on duty, six hours off, followed by not shifts of four hours on, four off and four on again. 'SEE THE WORLD GO BY' "You see the world go by. The moon goes around. The sun goes around. The stars go around. The world sort of flows continuously for days," Starke said. "It's a beautiful way of seeing the world." Starke, who turns 59 on Aug. 13, has seen much of the world, including all of its oceans and most of its major seas, as a sailing enthusiast stretching back nearly four decades. He got interested in sailing at Princeton University, where he joined the sailing club and graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in physics. At Princeton, Starke met his wife Mary, now, a professor of psychology at Ramapo State College in Mahwah, N.J. The couple has two grown children. "I took my wife sailing on our honeymoon, and then we bought a boat," Starke said. The couple now owns five boats. Starke pursues his sailing during vacations from his practice and his position as senior attending physician at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow. He does "one or two" big races a year and has also practiced medicine at sea, having served as ship's doctor for some 30 cruises. The most recent cruise was on the luxury sailing shi Other articles: http://www.cnshanzhai.com/Blog/View/?904 http://www.qhdxx.cn/Blog/View/?652 浏览(165) | 回复(0)
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