Jan. 29/2021: I swear, I really did. Some 20 years ago, after I bought a Celesticomp nav calculator to save me from the misery of pawing through sight reduction tables when I used my sextant, I had a really cool idea. Why not install a celestial nav calculator and an accurate quartz clock in the...
March 3/2020: This is such a cool boat! I have seen and admired her for many years, crossing paths with her both in Bermuda and in Nevis, and last spring at last had a chance to spend some quality time with her owners, Steve and Irene Macek. Now comes word that the famous schooner Star...
Feb. 14/2020: Here’s an unlikely tidbit from the Where Are They Now Department. The old maxi racing cat known variously since its 1983 launch as Formula TAG, Enza New Zealand, and Daedulus (among others) has more recently been transformed into a unique high-tech hydrogen-powered vessel that looks to push the envelope on carbon-free marine transport....
Dec. 2/2019: Accept no substitutes. This is the ultimate low-budget high-latitudes expedition yacht right here. Tried and tested! Believed to be the only boat anywhere to have spent unsupported winters frozen into ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic. A Wylo II cutter, 35 feet on deck, designed by Nick Skeates (who we have discussed...
Oct. 12/2019: Just back from Phase One of my annual boat show dive in Nap Town. The most interesting new boat I saw there by far is the Eagle Class 53 (see image up top), a foiling (there’s that word again) all-carbon catamaran with a “hybrid” wing-sail rig. Coincidentally, I saw this very same boat...
Seen at Maine Yacht Services in Portland while fixing stuff on my boat: Vendée Globe two-timer Rich Wilson’s new ride from France. A step down from an Open 60 perhaps, but still a very interesting boat. I’ve seen a number of these RM boats in France; they seem to be quite popular there. Never seen...
This is the most interesting new cruising sailboat design I’ve seen in a long time. Currently in build at Berkeley Marine Center, as conceived by a notable client, Barry Spanier, and drawn by a notable designer, Jim Antrim. It is significant, I think, that Spanier, a lifelong sailmaker who in his heyday designed and built...
I wrote about this in my regular column in the current issue of SAIL (the February issue, which of course comes out in mid-January), but it’s something EVERYONE should know about, so I’m pimping it here too. This is a new system for managing electrical power on sailboats that Nigel Calder has been helping to...
Dang it. I was going to write a post about the boats I test-sailed after the show in Annapolis, as has been my custom these past years, but I lost my freaking camera and have no pix for it. Ah, well. This gives me a chance to change the subject and point you at a...
Here’s an interesting item my neighbor and erstwhile shipmate Jeff Bolster recently pointed me at. You may recall his Valiant 40, Chanticleer, was unfortunately parked last summer in Road Town, Tortola, and was dismasted in Hurricane Irma last September. He now has the boat in Kittery, Maine, for a refit (she motored on her own...
