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With Cape Horn still nearly two weeks away the IMOCA teams are now consolidating their positions and working through job lists to keep the boats in racing condition….
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Smuggling
Over the weekend, two migrant smuggling vessels capsized off San Diego’s coast, killing multiple occupants in one of the region’s worst maritime migration accidents in years.
Late Saturday, San Diego’s 911 center received a call for assistance from a woman aboard a migrant smuggling boat. She described a distress situation off Black’s Beach, a popular surfing destination just north of La Jolla, involving two pangas. Her own boat was safe at the time of the call, but the other boat had capsized with 15 people aboard.
At about 2330 hours, San Diego Fire-Rescue’s responders found two boats capsized within about 150 yards of each other, and they recovered eight bodies from the beach. No survivors were found nearby, and heavy fog hampered SAR efforts overnight. The U.S. Coast Guard launched a search with a small boat, a cutter and a SAR helicopter on Sunday morning, but suspended its participation that afternoon. More here.
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The Andoo team of John Winning Jr, Seve Jarvin and Sam Newton won Race 7 to take a five point lead at the Winning Group JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour…
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So here it is, I don’t have the funds to do the Mini Transat. I’m still looking for a main co-sponsor, interested? contact me: caroline.boule1@gmail.com
If you want to have your name written on the boat, you can donate (any small sum helps) here. If you want to sail on the boat: enter the drawing:
– follow my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
– Share this in your story.
– Tag 3 friends in the comments.
– Donate something!
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All four teams are sailing deep into the Roaring 40s. The leader, Team Holcim-PRB, has made a dive to become the boat furthest to the south…
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After four races Noakesailing (2, 1) of Sean Langman, Ed Powys and Rhys Mara are tied for the lead with Smeg (1, 6) of Michael Coxon, James Dorron and Tom Anderson…
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It’s probably the first world history lesson that U.S. kids get in elementary school: In 1492 America was “discovered” by Christopher Columbus in the Niña, Pinta, and the flagship Santa María. He was lost and would never set foot in America, but to his dying day believed that the indigenous people of the Bahamas, Caribbean, and Central America were residents of India. He spent several months exploring the New World on that first voyage, but the Santa María was never to see Spain again, as it ran onto a reef near Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, and sank on Christmas morning.
But a version of the Santa María is sailing again. In 2018, the Fundación Nao Victoria in Huelva, Spain, launched a 200-ton, full-scale replica of the Santa María, which has spent the last few years touring North and Central America and the Caribbean, acting as a floating museum and goodwill ambassador. During 12 months of construction, the shipwrights, carpenters, ropemakers, and mechanics were faithful to the design and dimensions of the original wherever possible—a painstakingly difficult task, as the Santa María was never found and its plans lost to history.
When I first see her resting at the pier in Jacksonville, Florida, the sight is equal parts breathtaking and unsettling. Nothing outwardly betrays the ship’s 21st-century construction, right down to the whip staff at the ship’s helm and the bridge where Columbus wrote his log. There it rests in front of the Hyatt Hotel—a time traveler from the Age of Discovery.
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In less than 30 days, we’ve had around 100,000 downloads for the new Sailing Anarchy podcasts. Seems like a decent start, and well, I think I’ll keep doing them! Thanks to y’all. – ed.
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The ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix 18-19 March will be the platform for launching reZHIKle, a program created by Zhik to recycle all makes of old wetsuits.
Working with UPPAREL, leaders in textile recovery and garment recycling, SailGP’s long-awaited New Zealand debut will act as the pilot for the new reZHIKle scheme, where people can drop off any brand of used wetsuits or skiff suits to be recycled or repurposed and used again.
Anyone who plans to attend ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix is encouraged to dig through your kit bags and bring your old wetsuits for recycling. Visit either of the Zhik booths located in the Race Village at Naval Point, or at the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix Live Site, powered by Enable, situated opposite Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre in the city center. ..
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The Environment
Japanese authorities are preparing to release treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, nearly 12 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This will relieve pressure on more than 1,000 storage tanks, creating much-needed space for other vital remediation works. But the plan has attracted controversy.
At first glance, releasing radioactive water into the ocean does sound like a terrible idea. Greenpeace feared the radioactivity released might change human DNA, China and South Korea expressed disquiet, while Pacific Island nations were concerned about further nuclear contamination of the Blue Pacific. One academic publication claimed the total global social welfare cost could exceed US$200 billion. Read on.
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The Ocean Race – 11th Hour Racing Team posted a 544.63 nautical mile run over the 24 hours ending in a period ending just after midnight Saturday night…
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Researchers have announced the discovery of the wreck of the schooner barge Ironton in Lake Huron, sitting upright with masts and rigging still intact and with the lifeboat that could have saved her crew still lashed to the ship’s stern. It was this mistake—failing to untie the painter in time—that led to five men’s deaths on September 26, 1894, as the ship sank so quickly it dragged the lifeboat down as it plunged hundreds of feet into the frigid water.
The Ironton is the latest discovery in the maritime archaeology treasure trove of NOAA’s 4,300-square-mile Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, whose cold, fresh water has made its hundreds of shipwrecks among the best preserved in the world. Taken as a whole, the schooners, steamboats, steel freighters, and other vessels that rest in the sanctuary represent a singular, otherworldly museum of maritime history.
The images of the Ironton are beautiful and haunting, and coupled with illustrations rendered with sonar imaging, they reveal a ship whose primary features—hull, three masts, rigging, bowsprit, and anchor still on deck—are so intact, she could be sitting pier side, ready to take on the 48,500 bushels of grain or 1,250 tons of coal she was built to carry.
“The discovery illustrates how we can use the past to create a better future,” said Jeff Gray, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary superintendent. “Using this cutting-edge technology, we have not only located a pristine shipwreck lost for over a century, we are also learning more about one of our nation’s most important natural resources—the Great Lakes. This research will help protect Lake Huron and its rich history.”
On the night of September 26, 1894, Ironton and another schooner barge were in tow behind the steamer Charles J. Kershaw—a typical arrangement for these vessels—empty and en route to Marquette, Michigan, on Lake Superior. The Kershaw lost power, and as the wind pushed the schooners toward it, Kershaw cut them loose. The captain and crew of the Ironton struggled to quickly fire up her steam engine and set sails, but in the darkness, she drifted into the path of the Ohio, a 203-foot wooden freighter loaded with 1,000 tons of grain.
The collision proved fatal to both ships. As the Ohio sank more quickly, nearby ships helped rescue her 16 crew. Meanwhile, the Ironton drifted away from the rescuing vessels, and by the time she went down, she was alone. As the captain and crew raced to get into the lifeboat, they failed to untie the painter in time; all seven went under with the ship, and only two surfaced to survive the wreck and be rescued several hours later by a passing steamer.
Ironton’s precise location was a mystery for more than 120 years until researchers from the sanctuary, the state of Michigan, and Ocean Exploration Trust used cutting-edge oceanographic technology to discover and document the shipwreck.
Initially, researchers had found the wreck of the Ohio in about 300 feet of water, after surveying 100 square miles of unmapped seafloor in the sanctuary in 2017.
Using the Ohio’s position and extrapolating weather information from the night of the sinking, sanctuary researchers in 2019 refined the search area. They partnered with Ocean Exploration Trust’s world-renowned oceanographers and latest technologies, including BEN (Bathymetric Explorer and Navigator), a 12-foot, diesel-powered, autonomous vessel carrying high-resolution multibeam sonar.
Working with the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab’s RV Storm, a 50-foot research vessel equipped with multibeam sonar, they finally located what they believed to be the wreck. It took further months of research—teaming with the University of North Carolina’s Undersea Vehicle Program and using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed from the USCG cutter Mobile Bay—to positively identify it.
The delay in announcing the discovery publicly was due in part to Covid-19 field work restrictions during all of 2020 and some of 2021 that put much of the work on hold, says Stephanie Gandulla, the sanctuary’s resource protection coordinator. And, mounting expeditions to return to the wreck’s location and depth requires a great deal of time, planning, and coordination.
For more images, history, and information about the Ironton and Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, visit thunderbay.noaa.gov/
March 2023
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Heading to the South Pacific is always a big adventure. The pandemic closed most island nations to incoming cruisers, and the variety of national responses only made it more challenging and uncertain. All the signals from the South Pacific indicate normalization continues. and the chart below shows that the first few early starters in the 2023 Pacific Puddle Jump are underway.
Shawna and Kevin Walker aboard their Transpac 49 Meraki 2 from Victoria, BC, started heading west from the Galápagos, and on February 26 reported their latitude as 0 as they crossed the equator! They broke their self-imposed no-alcohol rule aboard to toast the moment with champagne. They’re now continuing on their way south and west toward the Marquesas.
Rob and Nancy Novak left their Oyster 485 Shindig buried in a hole at Vuda Point Marina in Fiji for 30 months before they could return in spring 2022. They’re finally sailing again in Fiji, and many more are again moving freely around the South Pacific. You can read their story on page 96 of the March issue being delivered to our magazine distributors today.
March and April are the peak months for Pacific crossings, so these first few starters will have many more cruisers following in their wake…
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Day 6, the final day of the 2023 ILCA 7 Masters World Championships, hosted by Royal Varuna YC, Pattaya, Thailand…
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February’s episode of the World Sailing Show leads with an update from The Ocean Race…
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Holcim-PRB shows some serious get-up-and-go at the start of Leg 3 of the Ocean Race, an easy 13,000 miles or so to Brazil. Track em. Photo © Marin Le Roux | PolaRYSE | Holcim-PRB…
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Paul Cayard has announced his resignation as executive director of the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team…
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It was an unusual Friday in the port of Cape Town, South Africa. On February 24, the five IMOCA boats racing in The Ocean Race faced each other for the first time in the Mother City’s bay, for an In-Port Race (short race in the bay). Holcim-PRB won the race after a fantastic one-and-a-half-hour show!
Launched at full speed, the IMOCA, which welcomed on board the mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, took advantage of variable conditions between 15 and 18 knots to fly several times. The magic worked at the bottom of Table Mountain and the spectators massed on the V&A Waterfront were able to discover for the first time, at home, the formidable machines that are the IMOCAs. More here.
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Not sure how this could be any closer! The MOD70 Zoulou sailed by Erik Maris (FRA) has taken Multihull Line Honours in the 2023 RORC Caribbean 600 in an elapsed time of 30 hours 55 mins 45 secs. Zoulou’s time was under two hours outside the Multihull Race Record.
Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi70 (ITA) was the second multihull to finish the race just 11 SECONDS behind Zoulou! Photographed by James Tomlinson…
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Got the winter blues? Join Managing Editor Lydia Mullan for a day on Dream Yacht Charters’ Lagoon 45 Panui during this month’s Caribbean Multihull Challenge Rally, complete with the perfect mix of island views, a great breeze, and just a dash of adventure in the form of a few classic Caribbean squalls. Watch now…
February 2023
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Sailing cargo ships are making a genuine comeback. Japanese bulk carrier MOL is operating a wind-assisted ship. American food giant Cargill is working with Olympic sailor Ben Ainslie to deploy WindWings on its routes. Swedish shipping company Wallenius is aiming for Oceanbird to cut emissions by up to 90%. The French start-up Zephyr & Borée has built the Canopée, which will transport parts of European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket this year.
I researched the decarbonisation of the shipping industry. While doing fieldwork aboard the Avontuur, a wind-propelled cargo ship, I even got stuck at sea for five months – because of the pandemic, not because the winds failed.
Like every other sector, the shipping industry needs to decarbonise in line with the Paris Agreement, but its emissions continue to grow. In 2018 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) set a first-ever target of halving shipping emissions between 2008 and 2050.
It was an important, but inadequate, first step. Climate Action Tracker calculates that halving emissions is not nearly enough to keep global warming below 1.5? Read on.
Title inspiration thanks to LL Cool J.
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CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT, Wash. — Metal clinked on metal as three small groups of U.S. Coast Guard students and their instructors clipped canvas waist belts to both sides of their 47-foot rescue boats, vital lifelines for staying onboard when the big waves come.
And on these waters, they always come.
The Columbia River, the fourth largest in America by volume, surges into the turbulent tides and currents of the Pacific Ocean here at a spot called the Columbia River Bar, where two far-west corners of Oregon and Washington meet at the river’s mouth to form a pincer. Waves 30 to 40 feet high are common in winter as river energy and ocean energy collide and then perversely recombine, swirling in complex patterns driven by tidal surges, winds and storms. Read on, thanks to the NY Times.
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Leg 2 is 3D chess according to Managing Editor Lydia Mullan. Relive the constantly changing fleet order, weather highs and lows, and tactical angst of the Mindelo, Cabo Verde to Cape Town, South Africa leg in this episode of Racing Recaps…
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Day 2 at Lanzarote International Regatta for the Nacra 17 multihull and the men and women’s iQFOIL foiling boards…
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I wonder if any of you may be interested in my 7.5 m foiling trailer sailer project. I know strictly speaking it is not a sport boat but it does have twin trapezes!! And headroom for short people! And I could use some help sourcing a 150-175 kg keel bulb and a 9.5 m carbon mast.
7.5 m long plus 350 mm boarding platform 2.5 m wide, draft 2.0 headroom 1.75m sleeps 4 nominally light displacement 850 kg sailing 1100 with 2 crew 115 kg !!! 2 Invert T hydrofoils with 35% flaps and 2 t rudders with variable AoA like a moth or maybe like an A class. Sail area main 20 m2 jib 13.2 m2 Fro and kite to be determined.
Construction is 6 and 9 mm ply over stringers with 100 gm carbon biaxial inside and 300 gm carbon biaxial outside with 100 gm glass cloth on the outside. Plywood 1.5 to 4 mm with high-density styrofoam 60 psi and carbon for the bulkheads and berth tops and sides. galley and loo similar construction .cabin top is carbon styrofoam 60 psi carbon with Foam replaced with shear webs and uni carbon caps.I only wish Julian B had started his 89er sooner and I would have reduced a lot of my laminates and used more Basalt and pet foam. However, I got the carbon really cheaply. Currently weighs 520 kg with all interior in place and most of the fairing done.
I have been working on this for 2.3 yrs so this is slow going for me after building the NZ tris Dragon and Timber Wolf much faster . Guess I am getting old, but it is taking longer than building Free Radical 10.5 m cat .
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The Environment
New Zealand declared a national state of emergency for only the third time in its history on Tuesday as Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread flooding, landslides and huge ocean swells, forcing evacuations and stranding people on roof tops.
“It has been a big night for New Zealanders across the country, but particularly in the upper North Island … a lot of families displaced, a lot of homes without power, extensive damage done across the country,” Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters after the declaration. Gabrielle is 100 km (60 mile…
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Jeff Bezos’s 127m/417ft sailing yacht Koru left Rotterdam for the North Sea for a first day of sea trials…
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See the Rescue Swimmer nearly get to the boat before seeing the wave. Duck diving deep under the wave.
See the black dot of a man being thrown from the boat.
Not visible is the next stages.
Final aftermath. A successful rescue…
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The Golden Globe Race leaders face the biggest low pressure encountered by the fleet so far is crossing their path en route to Cape Horn…
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We’ve known Tom Hirsch for quite a few years, mostly through Flying Tigers. We wish him well.
Tom Hirsh has spent his life on the ocean, competing in sailing races and running Harbor Sailboats out of Shelter Island. But at 68 years old, Hirsh’s days on the open water are over after a February 2022 cataract surgery forced him to abandon ship and left him delegated to a dark window-tinted room, unable to cope with even a minor amount of light.
Hirsh says that during the surgery an infection known as toxic anterior segment syndrome (TASS) likely from dirty instruments or polluted eyewash entered both eyes, permanently preventing him from dilating his pupils to adjust to the light, essentially rendering him blind. More here.
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The world’s oldest surviving Olympian, Felix Sienra, died peacefully in his sleep 30 January 2023 at the age of 107…
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Features include: • Daggerboards for upwind performance • Option for Integrel power generation • Versa-Helm serving upper and protected lower helm
When you do multiple boat tests in a short period of time the experiences can blur, so when a design sticks out, you know it’s notable. And the robust little sister to last year’s Balance 482—the newly launched 442—stands out for a multitude of reasons, not least because sailing her on a breezy autumn Chesapeake Bay day left me fantasizing about taking one to the horizon and back, lacking for nothing, and having a helluva lot of fun.
The smallest sibling in the Balance Catamarans family, this 44-footer is the work of designer Anton du Toit, built in Cape Town, South Africa. The design borrows heavily from her bigger sisters (the 482 and the 526) with features like a sleek cabintop and slightly reversed bows. The hulls, deck, and coachroof are a foam-cored, vacuum-bagged construction with polyester inner and vinylester outer skins. E-Glass and carbon fiber reinforcement are used in high-load and structural areas, and crash boxes are in the bows. The model is available with fixed keels as well as with tapered daggerboards. Most owners spec the boards for better upwind performance…
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It might just be a coincidence, but the release last Thursday by the Rating Office of the Royal Ocean Racing Club of its “updated” Measurement Manual for IRC handicaps brought the protracted debate over the rating of Sydney-Hobart winner Celestial immediately to mind.
Maybe that was their intention. The notion that the RORC could now feel the need to bolster its own credentials as a rating agency is difficult to avoid. The wording of the manual is a curious mixture. Some sentences read as self-congratulation; others more like attempts by the RORC to relieve themselves of direct responsibility for the veracity of the ratings they themselves finally determine.
Thus, on the one hand, we have this:
“The IRC Rating Authority takes great care in checking the data supplied, even for standard certificates … The measurer’s responsibility is to achieve a fair and accurate result, rather than the optimum result for the particular owner.”
But, on the other:
“The international IRC rating rule has always been a self-measurement system, and official measurement is not a rule requirement unless the boat needs an Endorsed IRC certificate.”
The Notice of Race for the Sydney-Hobart does require, at 3.3 (a) (i)), that IRC boats may only enter if they have “a current, valid Endorsed IRC Certificate”. That compulsory endorsement is…
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The leading pack of Team Malizia, Team Holcim and 11th Hour Racing are battling for leader bragging rights…
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I understand the appeal of sailing; it’s one of my earliest memories. In a way, my…
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It appears that long-time sailing and Vendée Globe sponsor Banque Populaire has dropped its sponsorship of female IMOCA skipper Clarisse Cremer. Having just purchased arguably the best current boat in the fleet for her – Charlie Dalin’s APIVIA – Clarisse looked poised to turn in a better result than in her first Vendée Globe where she finished a somewhat underwhelming 12th place on a non-foiling two-generation old boat.
Now, however, it looks like she won’t get that shot, at least not with Banque Pop. The reason? Motherhood, of all things, at least according to an Instagram post where the new mother shared her anger and frustrations with the world. Having missed the Route du Rhum, and also the Vendée Arctique (in which Nico Lunven replaced her), Clarisse had sacrificed a couple of valuable opportunities to gain qualification miles in the IMOCA Globe Series to start a family.
Despite having nearly two full seasons and a handful of opportunities left to potentially qualify for the next Vendée Globe, the top brass at Banque Populaire have now dropped the popular female skipper due to it being too risky that she may not qualify for the next Vendée Globe; a risk that the company was reportedly unwilling to take.
Whether this is the real reason for Banque Pop dropping Clarisse, or merely just a convenient cop-out with abysmal optics is up for debate. As always, our forums were on it within minutes. What do you think? Nothing to see here, or is misogyny on full display?
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Convention says it takes five or six editions before a new 600-miler can join the ‘Classics Club’. The Aegean 600 did it in two years…
Offshore racers are always looking for new challenges to test their boat and themselves, this is a fundamental driving force for our sport. While this challenge is inherent to the game due to the inevitable changes in wind and sea even on the same race course sailed at the same time of year, sometimes new venues will be attractive for teams seeking to enhance this challenge and their enjoyment of the sport to further hone their offshore skills. The Aegean 600 offers this challenge.
Building on the success of the second edition of the race in 2022, the third edition coming in July 2023 (7-15) will offer both returning and new teams an opportunity to experience what has been called “the perfect 600-mile race”. This is a bold claim of course, but one borne out from the race’s format, its setting, and the exuberant feedback from those who participated in 2022. Read on.
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