America's Cup boat strikes whale

[capitalcity]

I think this belongs here, it's sports related.

Must of been a big ass whale...
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A South African crew training for the America's Cup apparently got the worst of a collision with a whale.

One crewman was thrown overboard, the skipper and navigator were injured and Team Shosholoza's sloop was damaged when it hit the whale Monday during a training session on Table Bay near Cape Town.

Shosholoza RSA 48 was sailing at 10 knots under spinnaker when it hit the whale, bringing the boat to a dead stop. The impact knocked crewman Charles Nankin off the yacht; he was picked up by the team's chase boat.

Navigator Marc Lagesse, who was checking the compass reading on the starboard steering wheel, fell forward, breaking the wheel and injuring his collar bone. Skipper Geoff Meek was flung forward, injuring his knee on the crossbar linking the two steering wheels.

Olympic sailor Ian Ainslie, who was at the helm, fell forward over the port steering wheel, breaking the wheel off its mount.

"The guys saw the whale surface close to me soon afterwards. That's how we know it was a Southern Right," Nankin said.

"We came to such an abrupt stop and the sound of the carbon steering wheels snapping were like rifle shots," sailing manager Paul Standbridge said. "The entire crew is pretty shaken up and a number of them have minor arm injuries from bracing themselves and whiplash from the sudden impact."

The yacht is expected to be out of action for at least three days. The keel was damaged, and the shore crew was checking the rigging for damage. The keel hangs about 13 feet below the surface, and Standbridge thinks the whale hit it head-on.

"We saw some whales in the distance today," Standbridge said. "We are always vigilant, both about them and other objects in the water, but the keel has a four-meter draft and this whale must have been deep in the water below us."

Team Shosholoza is the first African challenge for the America's Cup. The next America's Cup will be held in 2007 in Valencia, Spain. Team Shosholoza participated in two warmup regattas last fall in Europe.

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[GP]

I've always wanted to know this. Exactly how fast is a knot? I'd look it up but I really don't care that much.

[capitalcity]

a knot is based off a nautical mile -

methinks something like: 1 nautical mile = 1.25 land mile

so 45 knots per hour is like over 50 mph

[sike]

whales make me laugh

[capitalcity]

sperm whales make me laugh

[sike]

humpback whales who slam into sperm whales really make me laugh

[Ninkobei]

I can't remember where I got this picture, probably from this site but Ithink it fits the topic so here goes..

[sike]

I am uncomfortable....

[Drbio]

Dear goodness.....




Regarding the title fo the thread....I was wondering why Roseanne Barr was swimming near a sail boat anyways.

[Phil Helmuth]

Uh...

[Drbio]

Since several peopole have asked me.....

The animal in that picture is a Whale Shark not a Blue Whale The Whale Shark is a lethargic marine animal (the water equivalent of a sloth). It is not a whale but rather a member of the shark family. Whale sharks can grow to be 45 feet long and can weigh up to 15 tons. On average, they reach about 25 feet in length.

In contrast, blue whales can grow to be 94 feet long and weigh up to 174 tons. An average one will be about 80 feet long and weigh about 120 tons.

The whale shark (like all sharks and most dimocrats) lacks a penis, so the circled item in the photo above is obviously not that, no matter what it looks like. (Male sharks perform their part of the mating process with the aid of their two claspers, rod-like appendages of their pelvic fins that are rotated and inserted into the female's cloaca at mating time.)

As to what the item hanging down is, the best guess from folks who study sharks has it that part of a female shark's intestines extruded through her cloaca, probably because of the ropes cutting into her.

Regarding how much sperm a blue whale ejaculates, aren't you just a little disturbed by someone who would claim to know how much load the Whale shark has? The claim that the ejaculatory habits of this creature (400 gallons of sperm per emission, 360 of which ends up in the ocean) can make the ocean salty is a bunch of bunk.

It's now safe to return to the water.

[sike]

lesson of the day: democrats have no penis.