Five expert tips for the perfect start

 

Five expert tips for the perfect start

Whether you’re foiling into a start line at 30 knots or lining up in a keelboat, SailGP champion Dylan Fletcher shares key rules for getting off the line cleanly with Andy Rice in Yachting World:

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Starting has always played a disproportionate part in the outcome of a race. The shorter the duration of the race, the more this is true. Dylan Fletcher knows this very well from his experience competing in SailGP, where the races often last less than 10 minutes.

Even though a reaching start against eleven 50ft foiling catamarans appears to bear little resemblance to a conventional upwind start for a large fleet of keelboats, Fletcher argues there are some fundamental principles that apply to any scenario.

“Time and distance judgement is key to any kind of start and the more you do of it the better you get,” he says. “I think that doing a lot of Moth sailing during the summer really helped my SailGP starting because in the Moth you have to eyeball it.”

Fletcher explains that in the Moth, you have no technology to tell you where the line is. Judging that approach to the line and doing it multiple times helps with any other starting, whether it’s SailGP, on a Cape 31, or an RC44. In the following five tips, Fletcher shares not only how to give yourself the best shot at a winning start, but one that puts you in the best place for your overall race strategy. – Full report

Elon Musk’s Grok under scrutiny for generating sexualized images

 

VCG/Getty Images

Grok under scrutiny for generating sexualized images of women and children. Regulators in the UK, France, India, and other countries are looking into reports that Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, allowed X users to request and share deepfakes of people—including children—in bikinis. Several US lawmakers also condemned X, while the Justice Department said it will “aggressively prosecute any producer or possessor” of child sex abuse materials. Grok posted an apology last week for generating images that “violated ethical standards and potentially US laws,” but has continued to provide them in response to users’ prompts. X says that it removes illegal content and permanently suspends accounts associated with it. Yesterday, xAI, the company that owns both Grok and X, announced it raised $20 billion in a Series E funding round

Ashley MacIsaac concert cancelled after AI wrongly accuses him of being sex offender | CBC News

Ashley MacIsaac concert cancelled after AI wrongly accuses him of being sex offender | CBC News

Ashley MacIsaac concert cancelled after AI wrongly accuses him of being sex offender
'I'm telling you, this is not a nice place to be,' he told CBC News
The Canadian Press · Posted: Dec 23, 2025 1:39 PM PST | Last Updated: December 24


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Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac said 'I'm not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last,' after a Google AI-generated summary mistakenly confused him with someone else with the same last name. (Kelly Clark/The Canadian Press)

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Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac says he may have been defamed by Google after it recently produced an AI-generated summary falsely identifying him as a sex offender.

The Juno Award-winning musician said he learned of the online misinformation last week after a First Nation north of Halifax confronted him with the summary and cancelled a concert planned for Dec. 19.

"You are being put into a less secure situation because of a media company — that's what defamation is," MacIsaac said in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press, adding he was worried about what might have happened had the erroneous content surfaced while he was trying to cross an international border.


"If a lawyer wants to take this on (for free) ... I would stand up because I'm not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last."

MacIsaac said the summary falsely asserted he had been convicted of a series of offences including sexual assault, internet luring, assaulting a woman and attempting to assault a minor. As well, he said the Google entry accused him of being listed on the national sex offender registry, which is also untrue.

"I could have been at a border and put in jail," he said. "So something has to be figured out as far as what the AI companies are responsible for ... and what they can prevent."

MacIsaac performed at the 2013 East Coast Music Awards in Halifax. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
First Nation apologizes

The 50-year-old virtuoso fiddler said he later learned the inaccurate claims were taken from online articles regarding a man in Atlantic Canada with the same last name.

Google Canada spokesperson Wendy Manton issued a statement saying Google's "AI overviews" are frequently changing to show what she described as the most "helpful" information.
With gigs dried up, Cape Breton's Ashley MacIsaac wants to play in your living roomFamed fiddler Ashley MacIsaac first to buy legal marijuana in Cape Breton

"When issues arise — like if our features misinterpret web content or miss some context — we use those examples to improve our systems, and may take action under our policies."

Meanwhile, the Sipekne'katik First Nation issued a public apology to MacIsaac, saying in an online post that the cancellation was based on incorrect information.

"We deeply regret the harm this caused to your reputation and livelihood," the message says. "Chief and council value your artistry, contribution to the cultural life of the Maritimes, and your commitment to reconciliation."

As for the cancelled concert, MacIsaac says he's looking forward to rescheduling the event. But he said he wanted things to settle down before setting a date.
People reading AI summaries on Google search instead of news stories, media experts warnTop AI assistants misrepresent news content, study finds

"I don't feel comfortable about going there right now because I don't think the proper information can be disseminated within a week. It's seen so many shares," he said. "I didn't want to bring any attention negatively to the community."


He speculated about how the misinformation might have prompted the cancellation of a concert scheduled for earlier this year in Mexico.

MacIsaac said he doesn't have the money to pay for a lawsuit that could take years to settle.

But when CBC News reached him by phone on Christmas Eve, he said he'd already received queries from law firms across the country interested in taking it on pro bono.

He says he's considering his options in the hopes that he can prevent other people from experiencing something similar in the future.

“I'm telling you, this is not a nice place to be," he said. "I'm sitting outside my grandmother's going in for Christmas. This isn’t a conversation I want to have today — 'Oh, yeah, somebody called me a sex offender.'”
No stranger to controversy

MacIsaac burst onto the music scene in the 1990s as a wildly talented teenager who blended traditional Celtic music with a high-energy, rocking style.

To be sure, he is no stranger to controversy.

During a 1999 concert in Halifax, he launched into a profanity-laced rant that ended the show and resulted in widespread cancellations of his gigs. And in early 1997, he attracted attention for discussing his sexual proclivities with a reporter and flashing his private parts during an appearance on a late-night U.S. talk show.
WATCH | MacIsaac buying pot in 2018:




First to buy 'in God's country': Ashley MacIsaac talks his pot purchase
October 17, 2018|
Duration0:57Fiddler Ashley MacIsaac was the first to buy legal cannabis in Cape Breton on Wednesday. He discusses what he bought.

But he hasn't had any real run-ins with the law, aside from receiving an absolute discharge and no fine in 2001 for possessing marijuana in Saskatchewan. When Judge Linton Smith granted the discharge, he told MacIsaac's lawyer, "The only condition I'd like to attach is if you could get my wife an autograph."

When cannabis was legalized in Canada in October 2018, MacIsaac was the first in line at a Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. branch in Cape Breton, which was about to become the only legal place to buy recreational cannabis on the island.


"I don't need to be a criminal anymore, and that's a great feeling," he said at the time. "And my new dealer is the prime minister!"

xAI faces backlash after Grok generates sexualized images of minors

xAI faces backlash after Grok generates sexualized images of minors

Elon Musk’s xAI saw user backlash after its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok generated sexualized pictures of children in response to user prompts.

A Grok reply to one user on X on Friday stated that it was “urgently fixing” the issue and called child sexual abuse material “illegal and prohibited.”

In replies to users, the bot also posted that a company could face criminal or civil penalties if it knowingly facilitates or fails to prevent this type of content after being alerted.

Grok posts are AI-generated messages and do not stand in for official company statements.

Musk’s xAI, which created Grok and merged with X last year, sent an autoreply to a request for comment: “Legacy Media Lies.”

Users on X raised concerns in recent days over explicit content of minors, including children wearing minimal clothing, being generated using the Grok tool.

The social media site added an “Edit Image” button to photos that allows any user to alter it using text prompts and without the original poster’s consent.

Evicting Scout camp for 2028 Olympics >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News: Providing sailing news for sailors

Evicting Scout camp for 2028 Olympics >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News: Providing sailing news for sailors

Evicting Scout camp for 2028 Olympics

Published on December 5th, 2025

Sailing for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics was expected to be held in Long Beach, as it had been for the 1984 Olympics, but politics moved some of the events to the Port of Los Angeles. Now they are stealing from the poor and giving to the rich:

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A Scout camp and training facility that has operated for decades at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro is being evicted at the end of this month, according to Greater Los Angeles Scouting, the umbrella organization for local troops and Cub Scout packs.

The Port of Los Angeles is terminating Scouting’s lease at the beachfront complex so that the site can be repurposed as a training center for national and international sailing teams in the 2028 Olympics, the Port said.

Tim Lebetsamer, who leads a Cub Scout pack in San Pedro, learned of the news on Wednesday night (Dec. 3) via email. “It came out of the blue,” he said.

80th ROLEX Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

80th ROLEX Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

Min River’s historic Rolex Sydney Hobart Overall victory


Home2025Min River’s historic Rolex Sydney Hobart Overall victory



Min River has been declared the Overall winner of the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, making her owner, Jiang Lin, the first woman to ever win the race and together with her co-skipper Alexis Loison they also became the first double handed crew to lay claim to the famous Tattersall Cup – a day of historic significance in the race.
news—
31 December 2025 at 2:53 pm


After a protracted battle with seven other double-handed boats and two fully crewed yachts, Love & War and Midnight Rambler in the last 36 hours of Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s famous race, it became apparent that it was between BNC - my::Net/LEON and Min River.

Lin and Loison were originally sitting in second place Overall. However, following a protest by the Race Committee against the double handed crew on BNC - my::Net/LEON (Michel Quintin/Yann Rigal) for a rule infringement, the latter was penalised one hour and five minutes by the International Jury. That result delivered the Overall victory to Min River.

BNC - my::Net/LEON’s time penalty dropped her to second place.

Sixty-year-old Jiang Lin admitted this afternoon, “I did not have hopes of winning. You think about all the 100-something boats, all the big boats and superb sailors out there. Not in my wildest dreams did I think this would come true for me. So no, I didn’t think about it. The best would be winning our division.” Which they did.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. Maybe I wake up and say, ‘oh that was a dream.’”



Lin and Louison on their way to the finish - Credit: CYCA | Salty Dingo

“It is special for me definitely, so I am very happy.”

Loison added: “No, I did not expect to win, but we had a good strategy of pushing very hard. We had a lot of sail changes.”

“Many times,” Jiang Lin added.



Min River on her way to claim the first ever double-handed Overall Victory - Credit: ROLEX | Kurt Arrigo

Loison: “We forgot to sleep. It’s crazy to win, we are proud of ourselves.”

On displacing BNC - my::Net/LEON as the Overall winner, did Jiang and Loison have mixed feelings? “No. It is what it is – we are still the winners,” Jiang Lin said.

“We are having dinner together as a group tomorrow (with all the double-handed competitors). I already have confirmed I am coming. So we will have a good drink and celebrations.”

Like all other competitors in the race, the double handed duo found parts of the race quite difficult. Loison said, “Very hard first two days and last night. And a lot of good memories at the end. At the finish, we knew we were very close to very good results.”

Jiang Lin had been racing in the twilight and Sunday summer series at Balmain Sailing Club, which in 2015 named her ‘Most Improved Keelboat Sailor’, just three years after she began sailing – as a 47-year-old.

Jiang Lin has always chosen top co-skippers, French and Australians to race with, in Australia and overseas. Asked if she had already signed Loison up for the 2026 Rolex Sydney Hobart, Jiang Lin laughed and said, “Umm, maybe.”



Min River moored in Constitution Dock - Credit: CYCA | Salty Dingo



Di Pearson/RSHYR media

How the Brits won SailGP: Dylan Fletcher’s full debrief - Yachting World

How the Brits won SailGP: Dylan Fletcher’s full debrief - Yachting World



How the Brits won SailGP: Dylan Fletcher’s full debrief


Yachting World · a day ago
by Helen Fretter · Races


Last weekend the Emirates GBR Team became SailGP season champions. Helmsman Dylan Fletcher talks exclusively to Helen Fretter to explain how

“If someone gave you a lottery ticket with a 33 % chance of winning $2m, you’d snap their hand off!” said Dylan Fletcher, helmsman of the Emirates Great Britain Team during last weekend’s SailGP Grand Finale in Abu Dhabi.

And certainly for a lot of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final – an event title which took almost as long to say as it took the F50s to get to the top mark – luck seemed to be playing a significant part in results, with zephyr-light winds and exceptionally short course plunging the season’s most consistent performers down the leaderboard.

At first watch even the final looked to come down to a ‘Hail Mary’ decision when the British team, who were third – or last – off the line split from the leading duo of Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand Black Foils to hook into a convenient shift and come out on top.

But, as Fletcher explains, that’s not quite how it happened.