| Prime Numbers The picture we ran the other day of the owner of the Farr 60 Numbers flipping off a photo boat has caused a bit of a stir in our forum. Here is the story from Arne Larssen, the guy who took the infamous shot. Make that shots.  My
picture of Farr 60 Numbers’ helmsman flipping the bird created some
strong reactions on your forum. I think there is need for an explanation
what happened out there at the Key West waters. Hissar and Numbers were
involved in a tough match in that race. They met several times, Hissar
sailing starboard, forcing Numbers to tack, ending far out to the right
side. At last Numbers was outside the lay-line. You can see one of their
meetings at the first photo. This photo was taken 33 minutes after one
o’clock. (See picture SA3).
The next photo (SA4) was taken 42 minutes after one o’clock, 9 minutes after the first photo. Numbers’ helmsman seems to be upset with our nearness. Maybe we were too close, maybe not. I was using a long lens so you can see from the photo that we were not very close. On the other hand, since Hissar and Numbers were fighting so close it’s no surprise that Numbers’ helmsman wanted to get rid of any disturbance. The question is, were we too close? In my opinion we were not. The next photo (SA1) was also taken 42 minutes past one o’clock. The crew, except for the helmsman, does not seem to pay us much attention. Photo SA2 is a detail from the photo above, and shows a quite happy guy with a red cap. He does not seem to be very upset. So, were we too close? I have been sail racing since 1980, racing now with four different boats. In my opinion we were close, but not too close. Best regards, Arne
K Larssen, |
