jesus can drive?
Needs more downforce
the slow death of a one ton
Formerly a one tonner named Kelea. It is now Nannymo as a live-aboard......
Needs more downforce
Again, how did we miss this?
Don’t know why we never saw this, but good lord, is it a beauty. And they actually made it! Video here.
Pretty good stuff.
Make the father’s day with the ultimate gift & mother of them all – ’The Horse’ – performance sailing’s magazine…
Seahorse Magazine is on a Special Father’s Day Gift promo from Sailing Anarchy. Select the print and or digital package that suits you best. If you would like a personalized letter from Andrew Hurst (the editor) to pass on with the first issue in the subscription, please just drop a note in the “any other information” box and they will email it out to you.
For your Father’s day gift, please click here.
Oh look, another quick-cut promo video for another regatta you will not be attending.
We are at one of those occasional moments when the sport of sailing needs to take stock, and make some significant decisions about its future.
Our two most influential contests – the Olympics and the America’s Cup – are both at the crossroads. How they deal with their respective challenges will soon have serious consequences for sailing at the elite level. Inevitably, many of those changes will then exert a more gradual influence on the sport as a whole.
Let’s consider a few of the key questions.
The combined mishandling by the IOC and World Sailing of the mixed gender two-handed offshore race for the 2024 Paris Olympics (and beyond) was an embarrassment for both authorities. The intrinsic merits or weaknesses of the proposal are no longer a matter for debate. The real failures were World Sailing’s tardiness in tackling – and solving – the detail issues of their proposed event, and, for their part, the IOC’s transparently political maneuvering to dump a discipline they had previously endorsed.
Both sides emerge from this dispute with little credit. Instead of progress, they have [...]
When the pandemic hit last year, the Lightning fleet at the Buffalo Canoe Club was displaced from their home, because the club isn’t in Buffalo, it’s located in Point Abino, Ontario. The border closed so the American members couldn’t go sail in the magical waters of Abino Bay.
A solution was found when Sandy Beach YC, which is located one mile south of Niagara Falls on the Niagara River, opened their doors to the displaced Lightning sailors and offered their club and Race Committee to the fleet. The US-Canadian border remains closed and so the scenario is being repeated this summer.
While the fleet of 11 boats is smaller by more than half than most summers at the BCC, because some boats and sailors are stuck in Canada, it remains ultra competitive. There are several World and North American and champs like David Starck and his wife, Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Jody Starck, excellent just post-college sailors like Connor Godfrey and Katherine Moloney, along with multiple rising young sailors who get the benefit of sailing against world-class competition. Even the outstanding RC is staffed by Chair Fritz Dusel, who was a crew on a Lightning North American Championship boat, and markset Paul Grenauer who won a J22 Worlds as crew. Talent abounds everywhere on the course.
But perhaps one of the most notable sailors in the fleet is 81 year old Ed Roseberry, otherwise known as “The Berry”, who has been part of the Lightning Class for 67 years. I’ve known Ed since I was a little kid and sailed with him on and off over the years. Fate put us together again this evening along with Monica Jones, who has won her share of regattas. While we didn’t win a race, we were plenty competitive and most importantly had an awesome time.
What other sport is there where organizations just open the doors freely so those who are displaced can still play the game? What other sport is there where kids four-times younger than the oldest competitor, world and north American champs, a Rolex Yachtswoman of the year and an 81-year-old dude can mix it up in competition, with no one having a clear edge, and all of whom support and learn from each other?
The pandemic has sucked in so many ways, but in others, it has helped to highlight the fundamental goodness of the sailing community. Isn’t this the real reason the vast majority of us – whether 18 or 81 years old – play this game? I know it’s why I do. Title thanks to the Crystal Method.
Peter Huston
Ya just gotta love this shot by Dan Phelps from the 80 boat Sunfish NA’s that are going on at Lake Norman, NC. A little reminder to any of us (me) that you’re never too old to rock n’ roll!
A key area of work provided for in the Green Pact voted by Europe in early 2020 to achieve carbon neutrality in 2030, the hydrogen plan is also available on water.
A Phoenix 24 sailboat is about to sail around Italy, equipped with the first Energy Pack developed by the Italian company h2boat. (Gee, that looks practical – ed.) Read on.
We see what they did here – they carry their fuselage on the top, instead of the bottom! Or are those hydrogen tanks? Outboard torpedoes? “Take that, Somalian pirates!”
Rob Doyle is the designer.
Bruno Bich, the son of Baron Bic, passed away on May 30, 2021. It is an opportunity to recall what the Bic family has done for sailing in France.
For many, Bic is, above all, a brand of pens. For others, a brand of lighter. The older ones also know a brand of perfumes. The enthusiasts hear France when the name of Bic is pronounced. Read on.
As I sit up here on lofty perch and watch the America’s Cup and sailing evolve, I wonder about a lot of what has gone in the name of technology, but which is really just about a paycheck. Nothing wrong with getting paid for doing things around the AC, we paid designers and builders (though not much, because they were mostly slaves, but whatevs) and sailors who took time off from their day job as fishermen. We wanted to crush the foreigners, and we did, until that hack DC didn’t cover downwind.
The boats have gotten wild since my time, though we always just wanted the fastest boat, so this foiling stuff makes sense. The Deed of Gift has served the event well, and made a couple of lawyers a lot of money in the process.
What we never contemplated was mandating a certain type of support boat. The latest announcement about hydrogen-powered foil assisted support boats is interesting in some respects. However, talking about being carbon neutral and green technology this and that….oh please, just stop. Please provide a calculation about the carbon belched into the air through the creation of all these boats and get back to us when you can demonstrate true carbon neutrality. You know, sustainable…
Sustainability you say? What on god’s green earth does sustainability mean? A rich owner with an unlimited checkbook to keep paying semi-pro’s, is that the sort of sustainability you are talking about?
Does the sport really need $1 million chase boats? Do we need chase boats at all? We seemed to live just fine without them when the likes of Reliance graced the waters.
Hydrogen power technology is cool. Ironically, if Ellison was still racing in the AC, he could go back to BMW and get their hydrogen power technology from the cars they had roaming around the US for a while.
Instead of focusing on chase boat power technology, why not employ this energy system, or electric, or whatever, in the boats that actually are racing? Why is the sport stuck in the 18th century and only wants to glorify human power? The AC is really nothing but the World Grinding Championships. Make it easier to sail faster, and put obligatory girl, like Aly Di Nas/Harbor Hotness on the bow and watch the TV ratings increase.
The Kiwi’s and the fracker Brit can try to greenwash the AC all they want. Dudes, nice try, but instead keep the focus on sailing and fun. We see right through your hypocrisy to get a paycheck.
The Ghost of George Schuyler
What is it with these guys?
Now in the Ocean Race Europe, 11th Hour Racing runs up the back of another boat in light winds when they really shouldn’t have gone in when there was no way out in leg 1.
I thought a friend was winding me up when I was told Charlie had done it again but on watching the Leg 2 start replay, in beautiful crystal clear conditions, once again, clearly no proper lookout (shades of the Hong Kong incident) they hit, I was told, the anchor line. Note the anchor line which meant they had a stationary target that obviously cannot be accused of hitting them this time around.
I know they are sailing with just 5 people but you would think that with 10 eyeballs, one of them would be pointing in the direction of travel. 11th Hour sailed straight into the anchored vessel and that’s just poor seamanship. A closer look at 11th Hour shows that no one seems to be even looking forward at all.
Sally actually said there was a huge blind spot – sorry, no excuse, a boat has a duty to keep a proper lookout and nobody apparently bothered.
Check it out here, just as the commentator says “if you want to talk about stability and smooth riding height” around 24:35 minutes into the video 11th Hour Racing almost t-bones the anchored boat, catches the anchor line and spins it like a top. Weak.
– SS.
Featuring subtle intricacies and perfectly proportioned style, the Makara sailing superyacht series is designed to glide with the lightest of breeze, delivering the highest levels of sailing performance with minimal effort and maximum comfort.
Benefitting from the full scope of McConaghy’s experience in the build of high-performance carbon fibre race boats, the Makara is a lightweight luxury yacht series, which brings the superyacht lifestyle to the racecourse in a way never seen before.
The Makara series, designed by Malcolm McKeon, comprises the Makara 85, Makara 105 and the Makara 120.
Call me bitter, but without question, I find this and all videos like it to be worthless, (especially the idiot on Sailing Doodles. Just saying that makes me want to punch him). They are obnoxious “look at me” vanity plays, incredibly annoying, not nearly as funny or interesting as they think they are, and to me, a complete and total waste of time. The once-hot girl in these videos is mostly the only reason people (dudes) watch. It surely isn’t because of her intellect.
Now, these sailing bums have managed to convince Rapido into (borrowing? lending? giving?) them a trimaran. The dude obviously called a bunch of builders to give them a boat to sail, and now they have one. Great promotion, I reckon, but what are the odds that this dope will tip this thing over?
The fawning over these two annoying Aussies is little more than the same slavish idiocy heaped on dumb “reality tv” shows, which is essentially what this is. Here’s a perfect example of the idolization, lifted from the comments from this video: “Riley drumming on the pots absolutely SENT me!”
Really? It “sent” you? A half-wit performing with the skill set of a monkey, banging on pots”sent” you? The only place you should be “sent” to is a mental institution. JFC.
However, props to these two for hacking the system to gain a ridiculously large following of idiots, and in the process, get a free boat. If douchebags like Jake Paul can be rich and famous, I suppose almost anyone can. What a world.
Title inspiration thanks to Primus.
From PR Newswire…
Building on 10 years of philanthropic work in ocean restoration, 11th Hour Racing announced today $1.92 million in grants, funded by The Schmidt Family Foundation, to support 23 projects in Argentina, Dominican Republic, the U.K., and the U.S.
This round of grantees includes three organizations that are new to 11th Hour Racing: Azul, working with the Latinx community and leadership to protect our ocean and coastal communities; Sustainable Coastlines Hawai’i, inspiring better consumer behaviors and coastal stewardship; and The Outlaw Ocean Project, producing investigative stories about environmental and human rights issues occurring offshore around the world.
“The issues facing the ocean and coastal communities are connected to every part of our society, and this is reflected by the work of our new grantees focused on ocean conservation, investigative journalism, and coastal sustainability,” said Michelle Carnevale, grants program director and vice president of programming of 11th Hour Racing. “Since 2010, we have awarded 175 grants to a wide range of projects all over the world. New for 2021, we have dedicated a portion of our funding to organizations that are new to the grant program and led by people of color. This is due to the lack of diversity and equitable access to funding in ocean science and conservation globally.” More here.
The 2021 Women’s Open Keelboat Championship run by the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble, UK. Close racing and amazing conditions! Photo thanks to Bertrand Malas.
Our sport needs more creativity when it comes to running races. Here’s a good example
The inaugural Narragansett Bay Yachting Association ‘Round the Bay Regatta –with an innovative and exciting new format – will debut Saturday, July 24. This is the first regatta that starts and finishes in every Narragansett Bay sailor’s back yard!
Why travel hours to get to and from the starting area for a race? You won’t have to if you come out for this one.
There will be four different starting areas, so one will be within 20 minutes of your home port. The race will start simultaneously near East Greenwich, Barrington/Bristol, Wickford, and Newport, RI.
You finish where you started after sailing through all the starting areas. All boats will sail the same 32-mile CRAZY EIGHT course. If you prefer, you can also choose from two 18-mile courses – one around Conanicut Island and one around Prudence Island. More here.
As we said here earlier, the 2021 SoCal 300 was a light-air mess: 22 out of 33 boats dropped out, with only the most determined remaining.
Of those, the modded Hobie 33 Captain Sluggo owned by SoCal OG Rick Yabsley, was awarded first in class, and first overall, a very impressive win. Here is Rick along with crew Jeffrey Barteet, Gary Burke and Brian Zimmerman getting the first overall perpetual trophy at SDYC.
But while putting the 33 away, they were approached by Race Director Jeff Johnson who informed them that there had been a mistake – they didn’t win first overall, and could they have the trophy back?!!
The Captain Sluggo team was like, WTF?? As we understand it, the last remaining boat on the course, the Cal 40 Nalu IV, had not yet finished when the awards were handed out, but when they did, some 8 hours after Sluggo, they were determined to have won overall, not Sluggo. Said Johnson: “Mea Culpa. I didn’t calculate the amount of time Nalu could spend on the course and not be first before getting the delayed awards ceremony done. I’m terrible at math.”
We totally understand that mistakes do happen, but SDYC should have known not to award overall with a boat still to finish, and you can see why. Team Sluggo was super bummed – who wouldn’t be??
As it turns out, under ORR (time on time), Sluggo owed the 40 nearly 9 hours on corrected time, which seems like a hell of a lot of time. It is worth noting that the longer the race takes, the more it favors slower boats, and this was a very slow race.
Under PHRF (time on distance), the time owed would have been more like 6 hours. We aren’t judging (yes we are), and full props to Nalu for the win, but Cal 40’s aren’t exactly light air rockets. Seems a bit weird for them to get the win, but again, full respect for them getting it done under the variations of ORR.
Perhaps a Hobbie 33 beating a TP 52, and in turn getting beat by a Cal 40 is poetic justice?
We all remember, as kids, that rush of disappointment when our favourite firework refused to ignite. The blue touch-paper was lit, we stood well back in delighted anticipation, and then…. nothing. A complete fizzer.
There was much the same feeling about Round 2 of the SailGP, just concluded off Taranto. Despite some moments of good, close racing the event somehow lacked the spark of genuine, sustained excitement.
SailGP seems to be the unlucky victim of its own hype. Their slick promotional build-up always promises us a weekend of spectacular, hi-tech racing between the world’s best sailors. What we have had, so far, in this COVID-interrupted second season has been, well, a bit of a fizzer.
In the preceding round in Bermuda the first day of racing was brought forward to the Friday to ensure some wind. The host broadcast television coverage was taped, and the networks then initially tried to pretend their replays in the scheduled Saturday timeslots were ‘live’. That deception was quickly uncovered.
Two months later the weather still wouldn’t cooperate. Light winds and overcast skies in Southern Italy didn’t make for very engaging TV pictures.
The SailGP race management team was so worried the F50 cats wouldn’t get up onto their foils for the first scheduled day of racing that they reduced the crews to just skipper+2. These boats aren’t designed for short-handed sailing. The three-man teams did an outstanding job, but changing the format in such a drastic way was disruptive, and smacked of desperation.
The boat in Australian livery skippered by Tom Slingsby had hydraulic problems on Day 1 and spluttered around the course like an old Dodge pickup firing on three cylinders. So much for SailGP’s “Powered by Nature” slogan.
Indeed, it is the extreme fragility of the F50s and their dependence on non-human power that makes it so difficult for fans of conventional sailing to relate to this extreme event.
That emphasis on technology – and the risks it entails – was underlined in Race 3 when the broadcasters lost their helicopter camera coverage. The commentators were reduced to making on-the-fly guesses as to which boat was leading. Without Stan Honey’s brilliant ‘live’ computer graphics grid superimposed over a high overview sailboat racing at this speed on television becomes close to unintelligible, especially on a narrow course.
In the final race, when the US boat had a comfortable lead with just two legs to sail, one of its carbon rudders was damaged or broken, presumably after hitting a submerged object. The boat stopped dead in the water and the event was robbed of its proper result.
Bad luck can strike anywhere, but there is a more fundamental issue in SailGP’s hyped-up charade of international competition.
In Taranto we had an Australian steering the US boat, another Australian steering for Japan, Phil Robertson (a New Zealander) driving for Spain, and Arnaud Psarofaghis (a Swiss) at the helm of the NZ boat. This type of professional sailing has now eroded whatever was left of national pride and allegiances in the sport.
Yet the breathless media release from Sail GP at the conclusion of the series still tried to beat the nationalist drum. It trumpeted Japan’s win as “a home victory for Italian sailor Francesco Bruni” despite Bruni himself not even being on the F50 for the final race (he’d been offloaded onto the chase boat when the crew was reduced to three.)
The continued commitment of SailGP to their event is admirable. The cost in time, effort and dollars must be huge. But it is difficult to escape the suspicion that as this series grinds on for another nine months, over six venues, they might eventually come to the realization that they could be flogging a dead seahorse.
– anarchist David
As if people don’t already know, racing offshore in Southern Cali is often very treacherous – treacherously light. This year’s So Cal 300 provides no greater example of just of sucky it can be here. A quick look at the results proves that misery loves company – 21 of the 33 starters have quit, and we bet that that number will continue to grow.
Oh there are some guys sticking to their guns, notably Rick Yabsley and crew on his modded Hobie 33 Cap’n Sluggo. Rick was kind enough to ask me to go, but after talking to weather router guru Mark Michaelsen (who essentially said it will be so light that the boats shouldn’t even bother starting), I declined. Sluggo is currently 70 miles from the finish, and easily winning ORR D.
The Kernan 68 Pelegroso is on track to be first to finish., which is excellent. Excellent, but painful!
Here’s some long-form video for ya.
Five centuries ago, the Age of Exploration and Europe’s imperial colonization of far-off lands was launched by a revolution in ship design that made long-distance ocean voyages practical. But exactly how this momentous innovation happened eludes historians. Now, the excavation of a rare intact wreck discovered off the coast of Sweden offers vital new clues to a maritime mystery. (Premiered June 2, 2021) View here.
The burnout-out containership X-Press Pearl is continuing to slowly settle to the bottom off Sri Lanka with the salvage and firefighting teams continuing to monitor the situation while the investigation into the disaster continues. The owners of their vessel also apologized for the disaster while defending the actions of the ship and its crew.
A day after the stern of the X-Press Pearl came to rest on the seabed, the bow section of the vessel remains above water but also continues to slowly settle. Divers from the Sri Lanka Navy working with the salvage team from SMIT attempted to inspect the ship but they were forced to call off their efforts due to poor visibility underwater.
More.
There is no doubt in my mind that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will go ahead, there is too much at stake. Too much money that is. TV rights were sold (probably) years ago, and the venues have been built and tickets sold.
The competitors have their flights booked and Olympic Committees around the world are probably already working out how much government support they will get dependent on how many medals (and of which color) the team members they send to Japan will return with.
The Olympics have changed almost out of all recognition from the vision of Pierre de Couberon or the early games where, when one athlete refused to compete in heats on a Sunday for religious reasons, it was eventually made into an Oscar winning film. Now the whole thing is one huge show.
So much fuss for a sporting event that only runs every four years with so much fuss made of ‘Olympic Gold’.
Take for example Simone Biles, an extraordinarily talented female gymnast who won 4 Gold medals (plus a bronze) at the Rio Games. Hell of a result but little is ever mentioned of the 19 Golds, 3 Silvers and [...]
At wind speeds of more than 50kts, everything should still work. That’s the self-imposed standard of safety, reliability and durability Reckmann builds into its products, which is why you’ll find Reckmann sail control systems – headsail and mainsail furling gears, rigging hydraulics and more – on so many of the world’s finest (and largest) sailing yachts. Three quarters of the superyachts competing in the St Barth’s Bucket last year had Reckmann furling gear and hydraulics, for example, and a similar proportion of the fleet at the Superyacht Cup.
‘The most important thing for us is that our clients can rely on us and our products,’ says Reckmann’s chief executive, Marcus Schuldt. ‘We have been in business now for 129 years and our focus is on quality, reliability and function.
It’s not unusual for us to receive a furling gear back for its first service after 20 years of troublefree use, which demonstrates the exceptional quality of these products.’ It might not be unusual for Reckmann but it is remarkable for a yacht rigging systems manufacturer, given that nearly all other components of a large yacht’s rig (except perhaps the spars themselves) aren’t expected to last even half that long, even with regular and diligent servicing. Read on.
We snagged this from Forbes. What a kook.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, American designer Steve Kozloff has surprised the world with his wild concept boats. Released in drips and drabs through his Goliath Series, the designs have become increasingly unusual. Onlookers thought the pinnacle had been reached with the Arctic Owl superyacht (pictured below) but the new Galleon gigayacht might be the most bonkers of them all. Title inspiration thanks to The Byrds.
From our Fabulous Forums, brought to you by Marlow Ropes
Yesterday at the Santa Cruz Harbor hoist, a gathering of the Tribe celebrated the Pi-24 NELLYBELLE’s relaunch after Alan Wirtanen and Melanie Kett rescued her from sure demise in a Texas junkyard. Alan had built NELLY in 1971 to a design by Steve Fennell called PI. PI was fast, but her 250 pound keel was too light, and she capsized and turtled in a gale in the Santa Barbara Race, June 27-28, 1975 off the Big Sur Coast with the loss of the Fennell brothers.
NELLYBELLE’s only other surviving sister is LOOSE. Alan has deepened NELLY’s keel to a design by Larry Tuttle and increased its weight to 750 pounds. As well, the rig has been shortened slightly so Moore-24 sails fit.
Shortly after NELLYBELLE’s christening and relaunch, Alan and crew of Morgan, Mario, and Dennis set sail and flew the spinnaker off the dock. Welcome home, NELLYBELLE!
These are really good. Go to 4:55 in the video and ask yourself, “What in the fuck was 11th Hour thinking?”
Good piece on sea sickness from the Global Solo Challenge…
Seasickness is caused by the interaction between the organs of balance, the visual and tactile systems and the brain. While being thrown around a boat, our brain cannot reconcile the messages it receives. It is over-stimulated by conflicting information caused by the continuous acceleration and deceleration.
The result is that the brain comes to the conclusion that you have been poisoned! It therefore induces the body to vomit to get rid of the harmful substances that it imagines have been ingested. It is therefore an instinctive survival reflex, unfortunately useless, because obviously vomiting does not solve the situation in any way.
No one is totally immune, but surely some suffer seasickness more than others. Especially different people react totally differently which is a significant risk factor when sailing with short-handed. Read on.
For the past two weeks, Ocean Fifty boats have clocked up a number of outings as part of the brand new Pro Sailing Tour. During the first two episodes – Brest and La Rochelle -, performing their very first tacks in competition, the new Arkema 4 and its crew skippered by Quentin Vlamynck, clearly demonstrated their potential, winning several legs over the two weeks of regattas. The Ocean Fifty Arkema 4 photo:
Copyright : Vincent Olivaud / Arkema Sailing
They have taken 2nd place in the provisional general ranking of this brand new circuit. Back in Verdon-sur-Mer this past Monday, happy and with his head filled with new lessons learnt, the skipper and his boat will now be able to calmly prepare for the 3rd episode, due to take place in the Canary Islands from 30 June to 4 July. More here.
Damn, that’s a lot of blades in the water. We’re guessing it likes a breeze. Check it.
Singapore-based China Navigation, the shipping arm of the Swire group, confirmed Tuesday that it will be entering the small sail freighter sector with an initial order for one vessel.
In a statement, China Navigation said that it would be buying a motor-sailing freighter – a traditional design which would have been familiar in the early 20th century but is only found in niche use today. A handful of Western owner-operators still run sail freighters like the Kwai, Tres Hombres and Nordlys in coasting trades, but the business has not attracted well-capitalized shipping companies since the end of the Age of Sail.
Yesterday the New Zealand media reported that the defenders have rejected a combined offer of about $75m US from the NZ Government and Auckland Council for the right to remain as the venue for the next challenge. They want more, and are shopping the event around the world.
However, it It’s likely that the media report about the defenders rejecting the initial combined offer from the NZ government and Auckland City Council was a strategic leak to lever up the bid. The government and Council have “first best offer” rights to bid for the venue until mid-June, then it’s open slather. But who else, seriously, would want to take it on?
The locals are also in a bit of a financial bind. They – privately – admit that what they paid for the last America’s Cup could only really be recovered (if that) over two defense cycles. Then the COVID restrictions punched a huge whole in their estimated receipts for the first series just concluded. So now they’re in a position of having to throw good money after half-bad in the hope of somehow breaking even.
And there’s another twist. What if Emirates Team NZ accepts the Deed of Gift challenge from the UK team – and lose? Who would then own the rights? The whole thing is incredibly murky – and has nothing to do with sailing. Money has an awful way of corrupting sport.
The blame for all this goes back to when Alinghi won for the Swiss. Without an appropriate stretch of water in Switzerland, the defenders did a deal with Valencia. That started the rot that lead to Bermuda, etc.
The Olympics have been corrupted by the same process. Cities bid against each other to host the Games, make extravagant promises, and then waste billions of taxpayer dollars on a two-week event. I believe this whole, crazy situation could be fixed by building a permanent Olympic venue somewhere – maybe Athens – and holding the Games there every four years.
Ditto the AC. Everyone back to Newport! (It is called the America’s Cup, after all.) Title inspiration thanks to The Style Council.
You know it’s a bad weekend when you finish last in class, and then notice that you forgot to check the tide charts…
As designers of fine custom yachts we pour our knowledge, experience, creativity, and our love for the work into each project with which we are involved. Sometimes it’s a brand-new sailing yacht built to a style of sailing from a bygone era. Sometimes, it’s revisiting that design a decade or more after launch to review what is working well and even improve upon the original. Such is the case with Zemphira. Built as Goshawk in 2005, Zemphira will launch in the Spring of 2021 after a substantial re-fit, ready to take on all-comers in Classic Yacht Spirit of Tradition racing throughout New England.
Paul and I designed Goshawk while the in-house design team at Brooklin Boat Yard. Construction was a collaboration with the hull built by Rockport Marine and then towed across Penobscot Bay to be completed with us at Brooklin Boat Yard. This design features a long, narrow hull with long classic overhangs, a deep but rather conservative fin keel with bulb, and a spade rudder. Her rig appears small for her length, but that’s because she is so light that little sail area is required to drive her to max speed. The combination produces a stiletto-like sailboat, sleek and easy to maneuver, with speed and power. Read on.
The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Active returned to Port Angeles, Washington after a successful 58-day counter-smuggling patrol in the Eastern Pacific. The 55-year-old cutter and crew patrolled international waters off Central America and Mexico as part of the long-running U.S. effort to suppress cocaine smuggling.
With the assistance of a helicopter-borne HITRON sharpshooter detachment, the Active intercepted two vessels over the course of her patrol, seizing about 5,650 pounds of cocaine with an estimated value of $107 million. One of the two smuggling vessels was a low-profile vessel – a purpose-built boat designed to ride low in the water to evade detection, typically painted blue to reduce their visual profile.
Restoring the eco-sustainable and naturally environmentally friendly character of wind-powered sailing, regardless of size: the NL 285 “Vento” project, presented by Nuvolari Lenard at the Venice Boat Show 2021 (29 May – 6 June), is a manifesto for environmental protection and an appeal to designers and owners to develop, with full awareness and at 360°, authentically green large yachts.
One of the all-time coolest boats is on the market! We’ve long had a crush on this weapon (see here and here. Fresh off a complete refit in San Diego and sporting a new suit of sails, the Irens designed/Marsaudon built trimaran Shockwave (ex-Paradox) is ready to go.
Based on the hulls of the ORMA 60 Fujicolor, Shockwave has won heaps of inshore and offshore trophies. Capable of 500+ mile days offshore and speeds in excess of 35 knots, she’ll blow the doors of even the sexiest carbon cats on the race circuit. The list of monohulls faster is short…routinely beating all but ex-Comanche.
Don’t let the chrome finish and sharks mouth fool you, though. While Shockwave is built for speed on the outside (and on the racecourse), she’s built for comfort on the inside. With her interior featuring two queen cabins, aircon, hot water, fridge, and a watermaker Shockwave has the comfort and interior volume needed for long trips. (And if you’ve ever been on a MOD70 you’ll appreciate Shockwave’s enclosed head with sit down toilet. LUXURY!).
Whether you want to do the Transpac or cruise the Greek Islands, Shockwave can do it in comfort. With a MOCRA rating of 1.6, Shockwave is the closest you can get to the Ultimes and MOD70’s yet still be able to enjoy a cruising and gentlemanly lifestyle.
You might think this performance comes at the cost of safety but that couldn’t be more wrong. While her (slower) carbon cat competitors fly a hull in 10-12 knots of TWS, and her bigger and badder older sisters (ORMA and MODs) fly a hull in 7-8 knots TWS, Shockwave stays on two feet with full sails in up to 24 knots TWS. With her electric winches and powered hydraulics sailing her is a piece of cake. With all sails on furlers shifting gears is easy. All of that translates to less race crew (5-6 max), less stress, and more fun. A wicked-up, wicked tri that can be sailed in comfort by mere mortals.
Get in touch with Nils Erickson (soma in the forums) for details. [email protected].
