The Environment

Spanish renewables developer Avangrid has announced that it is seeking to walk away from the current contracts for the Commonwealth Wind project planned for Massachusetts, saying that after months of negotiations the project is not economically viable in its current form. After two months of back and forth with the state and regulators, the company made a filing on December 16 proposing that the project be rebid in a competitive solicitation scheduled for April 2023.

“Despite unprecedented challenges in the global economy in the form of supply chain disruptions, historic levels of inflation, and rising interest rates, Avangrid has engaged in good-faith and productive discussions with Massachusetts state officials regarding these challenges and the need to restore the project to economic viability,” the company wrote in its public statement. “To advance this project as expeditiously as possible, Avangrid filed a motion with the DPU (Department of Public Utilities) to dismiss its review of the Commonwealth Wind contracts, which will allow all parties an opportunity to pursue an expedient path forward.” Read on.

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It’s been a long five years since the conclusion of the 2018 Volvo Ocean Race, and a lot more than the event’s name has changed. Here’s everything you need to know about this season’s premier ocean race before it kicks off on January 8.

The Route

Throughout every iteration of this event since 1973, The Ocean Race’s route has followed the same basic parameters: a circuit of the globe starting and finishing in Europe with stopovers scattered throughout. However, the route itself changes for every edition, and the stopover ports vary. This year, Alicante, Spain; Cabo Verde; Cape Town, South Africa; Itajaí, Brazil; Newport, Rhode Island; Aarhus, Denmark; The Hague, Netherlands; and Genova, Italy, are scheduled to host, and a “fly-by” in Kiel, Germany, creates an additional opportunity for fans to see the boats in race-mode while underway.

A discerning eye will note that this route is somewhat of a deviation from the typical Volvo Ocean Race routes of the past decade, which incorporated the Indian Ocean via stopovers in the Middle East, India, and Asia. It’s not clear whether this decision stems from a lack of willing host cities in the region, or the race organizer’s reluctance to put sailors back in waters that proved problematic in recent editions—including a fatal nighttime collision with a fishing vessel, the marooning of one team on a reef, and one memorable leg cancellation during which the boats had to be shipped from one port to the next due to piracy concerns. Instead, the teams will face off against a monstrous Southern Ocean leg, bypassing Oceania and stretching three-quarters of the way around the globe, south of the five Great Capes and through some of the planet’s most treacherous waters.

The Boats

The Ocean Race’s primary class is now the IMOCA 60, a box-rule class that’s been in production since the early ’90s, primarily used for elite shorthanded ocean racing such as in the Vendée Globe. According to 11th Hour Racing Team CEO Mark Towill, this means that sailors will have to be more in tune with their boats than ever. “When all the boats were identical, you pushed the boat as hard as you could. But with different designs in the race, you need to be more aware of your own boat’s limitations and strengths,” he says.

This approach has pros and cons—on one hand, winning a race in the design office doesn’t make for exciting spectating; on the other, different strengths call for more strategic racing—not to mention the introduction of technological innovations like foils. The IMOCA 60s will sail with five crew on board, including one on-board reporter and at least one female crew member. Since the 2018 edition, the race has mandated that every team include female sailors.

For the past few editions, the Volvo Ocean Race has been sailed in VO65s, a one-design class with a race-operated boatyard maintaining all the hulls, hardware, and sails to identical standards. Though VO65s will still race in the 2023 edition, they will be used as a training class, with all boats required to have at least three of their 10 crew members (plus an on-board reporter) be under 30 years old. The VO65 teams will also have at least three women as part of their crew and be allowed one additional crew member for the Southern Ocean leg.

Another interesting addition for this fleet is the VO65 Sprint Cup, which will add VO65 teams not competing in the full round-the-world race to some of the shorter legs and in-port series. Presumably, this has been done to provide more opportunities for underfunded teams and rookie sailors to get experience. But given how exhausted Volvo Ocean Race sailors typically are when they arrive at stopovers, it’s hard to say whether experienced teams will have the upper hand on these green short-course teams or not…

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We don’t know the science behind that transom (if there is any), but we both love it and hate it.  That ass may not age very well, but the boat looks pretty damn cool. More here.

Title inspiration thanks to the Happy Mondays.

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Not Sailing

Last week, the crew of the Royal Dutch Navy patrol vessel HNLMS Holland lucked out with a particularly easy drug bust. No pursuits, warning shots or boardings were required: all they had to do was pull 5,000 kilos of cocaine out of the water.

A Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard (DCCG) patrol aircraft spotted a floating field of bales in international waters of the Caribbean, and the Holland diverted to the scene to investigate, along with a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. The Holland dispatched her small interceptor boat, and the crew discovered that they had stumbled upon a vast cargo of cocaine, afloat on the high seas and waiting for pickup.

No suspects were present, so there were no arrests to make. The drugs were hauled aboard and passed off to the U.S. Coast Guard for destruction. Read on.

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Anarchist David wrote that the recent Cabbage Tree Island Race podium was indeed filled by small boats and as any experienced offshore sailor knows there are times when the conditions favour the small boats just as equally there are times when conditions favour the big boats. When at the ‘corner’ of rating size there is always the possibility of conditions suiting one size boat but equally quite the opposite.

This Cabbage Tree island Race lasted 24 hours, was in light primarily reaching conditions, and covered 172Nm AND goes nowhere near the Bass Strait. In other words, less than one-third of the race distance of the Sydney Hobart which is over 600 Nautical Miles long and a much greater difference than the ‘tiredness’ or lack thereof of the smaller shorthanded boats is that the Sydney Hobart is highly unlikely to have the same weather conditions (relatively light reaching) for the 600 miles and the three days or more it takes to complete the race…

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This is the winner from the  Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award 2022.  It is from theTP52 regatta in Cascais, Portugal © Nico Martinez/52SS.

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If you can sell more than 150 catamarans off-plan before the resin has even hit the fiberglass, you must be doing something right. Despite costing around $1.1 million once fitted out and on the water, Fountaine-Pajot’s new 51 has done just that.

The French yard has been at it since 1986 and has built up an enviable reputation for soundly designed bluewater catamarans. Buoyed by the recent purchase of Dufour, the business is booming. It hangs its hat on the rigor of its industrial processes and the consideration that goes into every detail of the design. Not for nothing is Fountaine-Pajot a multiple winner of SAIL’s Best Boats awards.

Design and Construction

A towering mast allied to her principle dimensions of 51 feet LOA and 26 feet 6 inches in the beam make the Aura 51 an imposing boat. Sleek, harmonious lines with some reverse sheer to the deck and the athletic aft sweep of the slim coach roof give her the unmistakable Fountaine-Pajot look. There’s the long-term design input of Berret-Racoupeau to thank for that.

Hulls are built in high-quality vinylester and fiberglass with foam and balsa cores for strength and rigidity. Smaller parts are injection molded (including the coachroof), and vacuum infusion is used everywhere else. This system is expensive but guarantees a more consistent finish with fewer air gaps while using fewer raw materials…

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When Abigail Danian walked into her kitchen and saw the empty packaging of a burner cell phone on the counter, she knew Isaac had gone. It was Sept. 7, 2020, and she had been out of town for Labor Day.

All weekend, her 20-year-old son, Isaac, had been calling her from the family home in Grand Rapids, Mich. He needed money for a “great opportunity” in Hawaii, but that was all he would say.

Read on.

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The first boat Thomas Tangvald ever owned was just 22 feet long. She was an odd craft, a narrow plywood scow with a flat bottom, leeboards on either side, and square ends—little more than a daysailer with a rotting deck and tiny cabinhouse tacked on. Thomas paid just $200 for her. He proudly named her Spartan and immediately moved aboard. He was but 14 years old at the time, a skinny lad with a tousled mop of blond hair, an earnest smile, and a sharp mind.

Thomas’s home prior to this had been his father’s much larger 50-foot cutter, L’Artemis de Pytheas, a primitive, home-built teak vessel. Thomas was born on this boat, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and had lived on it his entire life as his father roamed the planet under sail. In moving aboard Spartan, he was for the first time asserting some measure of independence, physically separating himself from his father, Peter Tangvald, and his 7-year-old sister, Carmen.

Peter Tangvald was a renowned, somewhat notorious bluewater cruiser. He had been married several times, having famously lost one wife in a pirate attack and another one overboard. Some wondered if he had murdered these women. Now he was a single dad in his mid-60s, with two kids to look after. Recently he had suffered two heart attacks and was palpably weaker than before.

In July 1991, nine months after Thomas moved aboard Spartan, Peter decreed his family should sail from the Puerto Rican island of Culebra south to Bonaire to stay clear of hurricanes. He also decided he would tow Spartan behind L’Artemis some 400 miles across the breadth of the Caribbean to get there.

It was a pretty crazy plan. For one engineless sailboat to tow another all that distance was in itself challenging. But Peter also decided to split up his crew. Spartan had a large open cockpit, and to keep her from being swamped en route to Bonaire, he decided Thomas should stay aboard to repeatedly bail her out. That left Peter and his weak heart to mind both L’Artemis and young Carmen on his own.

No one knows exactly what went wrong, but on the fourth night of their voyage, both L’Artemis and Spartan were wrecked on the windward shore of Bonaire. Thomas had just gotten up to bail out his boat and witnessed the tragedy in full. In the dark night he sensed first they were much too close to shore, but saw no sign of his father on deck aboard L’Artemis. Then Thomas saw a white line of breakers ahead. He saw L’Artemis lurch up into a shelf of mercilessly sharp coral. Then he saw the towline to his boat go slack. Half naked with no pants on, he grabbed his surfboard and jumped overboard in the nick of time.

Thomas spent six hours paddling around before he finally struggled ashore the next morning. His father’s boat, he found, had been ground into “millions of little bits of teak.” Thomas’ body was covered with friction burns, and by the end of that day he was lying in a bed in the local hospital. Over the next two days he was taken back to the wreck site to identify bodies. His sister was found afloat near shore. His father was found on shore with his face smashed in.

Not long afterward, Thomas had two dreams. In the first, his father came to him looking very different than before, but Thomas still recognized him.

“Yes, it’s amazing, isn’t it?” said his father. “I’m all better now.”

In the second dream, Thomas was studying a huge map, trying to decide where to search for his father. But then he remembered he didn’t have to look for him, because he was already dead.

The second boat Thomas owned was as small as the first, just 22 feet on deck. But she was also much more seaworthy. This was a traditional Itchen Ferry cutter named Melody. Where Spartan had been little more than a flat, hard-cornered box, Melody had a deep hull, a long keel, and sinuous curves that yielded to passing waves rather than resisting them…

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The Environment

Greenpeace activists from Mexico and New Zealand renewed their protests over deep-sea mining again targeting the drill ship Hidden Gem, as it returned from its first test mission in the Pacific. The vessel has been the target of past previous environmentalists’ protests over the controversial practice of extracting precious minerals from the deep sea.

The Hidden Gem (61,000 dwt) is a converted drill ship, operated by Swiss company Allseas and commissioned by Canadian miner The Metals Company. While the vessel was undergoing its conversion in Rotterdam in preparation for the new role it was targeted, and again at the end of last week as it arrived off the coast of Manzanillo, México after eight weeks of test mining.

Activists from Greenpeace protested in kayaks holding banners that read “Stop Deep Sea Mining,” as the vessel reached Mexico. Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner James Hita, onboard a small vessel off the Manzanillo coast, also delivered a message of protest to the captain of the Hidden Gem via radio. The protest was mostly symbolic to draw attention to their cause. Read on.

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For more than a century the lure of sailing to paradise has inspired thousands of offshore sailors to take on the 2225-mile challenge of racing to Hawaii. Since 1906 the Los Angeles to Honolulu Transpacific Yacht Race (more commonly known as Transpac) has been organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club to give offshore sailors the opportunity to realize this dream.

The 52nd edition of this classic ocean race will have its first starting gun fired on 27 June 2023. On this date and two successive dates – 29 June and 1 July – waves of monohulls and multihulls will set off from the start, off Los Angeles’ Point Fermin. From here they will sail upwind 26 miles west to clear the first mark of the course at the west end of Catalina Island with the next mark being the finish line buoy off Honolulu’s famous volcanic crater at Diamond Head – 2,200 miles to the southwest…

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