Updates on what’s going on in the sport of sailing generally (most usually, but not always, relating to cruising under sail) and in the sailing industry, plus news nuggets and personal views on all manner of nautical subjects.
Jan. 8/2021: I feel a bit invested in this situation, as I sailed Lunacy past the overturned hull of the 656-foot car carrier Golden Ray in the fall of 2019, not long after she capsized in St. Simons Sound in Georgia. It was… and still is… a very impressive sight as the St. Simons Sound...
Dec. 28/2020: I am sure I wasn’t the only one who noted with raised eyebrows that Tim Severin, aged 80, passed away in Ireland earlier this month. When I was much younger, I was fairly blown away by his first successful book and the great adventure that made him famous. The Brendan Voyage, first published...
Dec. 5/2020: Dang. You know I’ve been slacking in this blogging game when the Wall Street Journal gets around to running an obit like this before I do. That link there is a couple of days old. The print version ran today. I met Frank Butler a few times in passing over the years, but...
Nov. 28/2020: I was really hoping this was going to happen. That after coming second in the last Vendée Globe, and third in the one before that, that this time Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss would finally finish first and so become the first not-French person to win this singlehanded non-stop race around the world,...
Nov. 19/2020: Hokey smokes! Can this be a coincidence? That the first aligning in 20 years of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, the two biggest in our solar system, and their closest conjunction since the year 1623, will occur next month, just as the two biggest races in sailing, the Vendée Globe and the America’s...
Oct. 9/2020: Oh dear. I’ve seen this one coming for some months now, and it does not mitigate the loss. For it is my sad duty to report that my good friend, co-conspirator, and stalwart shipmate Charles Lassen passed away yesterday, a victim of prostate cancer run amok. Charles has often been lionized, ridiculed, referenced,...
Sept. 14/2020: I’m surprised it has taken this long. The species Orcinus orca, popularly known as killer whales, the largest of oceanic dolphins, have decided they are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore. Since July orcas have made a number of organized attacks against sailing vessels off the Spanish coast, repeatedly...
August 8/2020: One nice thing about modern computers: you can create really vivid, realistic images of yacht design concepts before the yacht in question is ever built. Or even if the yacht is never built. Take these images of a design concept, ICE Kite, being developed by Red Yachts and Dystra Naval Architects for an...
July 30/2020: Man, I’ve been writing too many of these lately. This is a huge one. Larry Pardey, who died at age 81 on Sunday, after years of struggling with Parkinson’s disease, and after suffering through a stroke last year, was an enormously talented man. He was a consummate sailor, both on a race course...
July 15,2020: Even though my dear boat Lunacy is no longer in Brunswick, Georgia, I’ve been keeping tabs on a couple of ongoing news items down there. Exhibit A: the wreck of the car carrier Golden Ray, which capsized in St. Simon’s Sound last September. Earlier this month the enormous double-sided barge crane, dubbed VB...
