Stormvogel (“The Stormbird”) is the ketch used in the Australian film White Calm. Before being a movie star, this sailboat was the first very light maxi, ushering in a new era. It was built in 1961 in South Africa…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

Gildwen and Jean-Pierre arrived on the quays of La Grande Motte on the night of February 19, after almost a month at sea from Martinique, the end of a “return from Transat Jacques Vabre” conveyance in Class 40.

For Gildwen, nicknamed “the kid” and who is preparing the next Mini Transat, what could be better than this transatlantic navigation in the company of an experienced sailor…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

I’m sure many readers have heard of the dinghy test, in which it’s considered important you be able to admire your own boat as you’re dinghying ashore. Taking things up a notch, I’d say there’s also a kind of vanity test underway, whereby it ain’t half bad finding yourself sailing around on a boat so cool you can’t help thinking you’re pretty cool as well. Case in point, the new South African-built Balance 482 catamaran.

Design & Construction

A collaboration between Balance president Phillip Berman and naval architect Anton du Toit, the Balance 482 features a pair of narrow, slippery hulls that include either high-performance fixed keels or dual daggerboards (the latter far and away the more popular of the two); wave-piercing bows, to reduce hobby-horsing; a nicely drawn reverse sheer to maximize living space while keeping weight out of the ends; a low cabintrunk to minimize windage; and a powerful easily handled rig with a square-top main and self-taking headsail. Reaching sails can be flow from a centerline longeron sprit fabricated out of aluminum…

Read more on Sail Magazine

Jack Macartney, skipper of Tech2, became only the fifth skipper in the 87-year history of the Australian 18 Footers League to win three consecutive Club Championship titles when he teamed with Charlie Wyatt and Lewis Brake to win the 2022 series, despite being disqualified for an OCS in today’s final race of the 17-race championship. More here.

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

As many readers may have noticed, last year SAIL’s annual Pittman Awards were one of the many things that had to be cancelled as a result of Covid-19. Due to the complete lack of boat shows, trying to gauge the state of the industry with so little opportunity to see what it was up to simply didn’t make sense. Fortunately, even as the world continues to battle the pandemic, we were able to get in a pair of stunningly successful boat shows in the United States this past fall, which meant it was game-on! Better still, as was also evident in the latest class of Best Boat winners the pandemic didn’t stop the marine business from doing what it does best—innovate. Not surprisingly, things continue to race ahead in the area of digital tech. However, there remain those fun little analog advances to remind us there will also always be a place for good-old common sense. As always, we think SAIL’s late products editor Freeman K. Pittman, for whom these annual awards are named, would be impressed…

Read more on Sail Magazine

We love to hear your stories. Got one? Send it on in.

This is what it looks like beginning to sled down a North Atlantic big wave. A Swan 38 does boogie down a big wave. The Swan 38 rises, being pushed by the wave, it bangs along the surface of the wave at high speed. People have told me that this is cool. OK.

Some said it’s like sliding down the snow on a sled. The cool thing here is the rudder. I slowed down to be on the giant face of the wave. Yahoo! Sledding. The big waves fall behind, erupting in the wave behind.

The Swan 38, a beautiful S&S design, was built in the 70s. What a sexy battle wagon she is. The hull is massively thick, a lot of resin…. What amazed me was how the leeward shrouds barely slacked off when it was blowing stink. As we arrived in Horta, everyone whistled when they spotted her. It was like Brigitte Bardot caught their eye. I do love her lines.

I built and raced a Tornado and loved to go wave hunting under the Golden Gate Bridge. I‘m sure I…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

Read more on Sailing Anarchy

Pre-cook your meals for the first two days. Reef early. Don’t drink too much the night before departure. Don’t expect to poop until the third day at sea. Don’t sail to a schedule. Some lessons are ubiquitous and obvious (including the pooping one, though it might not be as readily apparent at first). Here are a few more I’ve learned in 15 years of ocean sailing.

The 3-day rule:

Any passage shorter than five days is too short. Even during the best of passages, it takes three days for my body and mind to adapt to life at sea. Prior to that third day, I don’t have my sea legs yet, I’m not getting deep sleep, and if the passage is any sort of uncomfortable—upwind, wet, cold, you name it—I question my career choices and wish I was on the couch watching a movie. This never fails.

And yet, by the beginning of day three, I remember why I do this. I’m well-rested. Well-fed. I’ve gotten my sea legs, and I feel inspired again to do “optional” things on deck, like get out the sextant, or make hurricane eggs in the galley. I find myself waking up before my watch starts because I’ve gotten enough sleep.

I read more off-watch, instead of just sleep. I get more creative. In fact, as I write this column, I’m about halfway between the Canary Islands and the Azores, and guess what—it’s day three.

“The more you know, the less you need”

If I could distill my philosophy on seamanship into one bite-sized quote, it would be the one above from famed mountaineer and businessman Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. He was talking about climbing, but it doesn’t take much imagination to apply it to sailing…

Read more on Sail Magazine

Energy Observer is a multi-partner project that gathers companies involved in all sectors of the eco-energy transition. Among the Odyssey’s new supporters: Qair, an independent producer of renewable energy, and GUYOT Environnement, a regional leader in waste recovery in Brittany.

That is the strength of this technological, innovative, and human project: cooperating with players who act on all the vectors of the ecological and energy transition, with a wide range of skills, which include hydrogen, green financing, climate risk insurance, hospitality, training for the professions of tomorrow, sustainable mobility, software intelligence, the circular economy, renewable energies, etc…

Read more on Sailing Anarchy