Netherlands Public Broadcasting system, reports that Dutch customs authorities have placed fourteen yachts of Russian ownershp at Dutch yacht builders under supervision…
clash of the titans
Nowhere is this more the case than in the constantly evolving world of superyacht racing but the Superyacht Cup in Palma maintains its position as Europe’s most successful and longest-running superyacht event of all
Superyacht Cup Palma (SYC) has always prided itself on being nimble and responsive in adapting itself to the ever-changing nature of the superyacht world, anticipating the expectations of owners, captains, and crews, and responding promptly to requests or suggestions. And so it is with the 2022 edition of Europe’s longest-running superyacht regatta which late last year – soon after celebrating its 25th anniversary – agreed to move the event to run from June 29 to July 2, a change of just a week from the original June 22-25 dates…
Noble Marine / Sailingfast ILCA 7 Qualifier 3
For the final qualifier of the back-to-back spring series, once again 180 ILCAs descended upon the dolphin hunting grounds of Portland Harbour to claim back their territory…
Hattie Rogers becomes Fastest Female F50 Helm!
From Royal Lymington’s Wednesday Junior Sailing to racing success in a foiling dinghy and helming a SailGP catamaran…
57th LBYC Congressional Cup preview
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia will help Long Beach Yacht Club kick off the 57th Congressional Cup regatta with a ribbon cutting and re-dedication of Congressional Cup Stadium…
reality cheque
It’s all very well to pontificate on the America’s Cup from the standpoint of a disinterested observer (say, one from Shanghai, just to pick a random location).
But try seeing the same issues through the eyes and heart of a New Zealand sailing supporter.
To most Kiwis, the ETNZ decision to hold the next Cup series in Barcelona – or indeed anywhere other than in New Zealand waters – must seem like a betrayal. No amount of slick PR spin will change that impression. Like Russell Coutts before him, Grant Dalton will now be seen as a turncoat ready to abandon his own country for a fistful of Spanish cash.
If that sounds harsh, consider this: the New Zealand public has willingly given hundreds of millions of dollars over decades to sustain their nation’s America’s Cup ambitions. ETNZ only exists because of that generous support. The Cup, when they won it, was theirs – the reward for such patient, long-term investment.
If Dalton believes he can walk away from all that with his reputation unscathed then he misjudges the strength of Kiwi patriotism and pride.
Meanwhile, what of the actual holders of the Cup, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron? Three decades of loyal commitment to the event are now brushed aside…
Dragon Europeans – Swiss / Dutch battle for lead in San Remo
The Dragon European Championship continues in San Remo with three races now completed
2.4 Meter Winter Series Finale – Can Am 4 and 5
With 25 boats on the line for CanAm 5, winter sailing was back with a vengeance in Port Charlotte. The US – Canada border reopened and our friends from North of the border showed up in force…
Full on at Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca
Palma, Spain (April 5, 2022) – The giant 51st Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca was up to full strength for the first time on a chilly and windy Bay of Palma today as all ten Olympic classes competed on the eight race course areas with 1015 athletes on 779 craft.
Formula Kite kitesurfing blasted into the Olympic classes arena for the first time with a barnstorming opening day amid the gusty conditions. France leads in two of the three qualifying groups of the Formula Kite Men, while Slovenia’s Toni Vodisek won Yellow Group with a clean sweep of four victories on the three-lap race track…
Another active tropical season expected
Predictions is part of sport, and it is never too soon to make them. The champagne in Kansas is still bubbly after their men’s college basketball national championship, but the predictions are out for the 2022-23 season. The long Major League Baseball season starts April 7, but the experts have already submitted their division winners and World Series Champion.
The Atlantic hurricane season also has experts eager to share predictions, with AccuWeather offering their assessment in this report:
The Atlantic hurricane season is two months away, with the official start arriving on June 1, but AccuWeather forecasters released predictions for the coming season, noting that there is a high chance for a preseason storm to develop and that another active tropical season is expected.
AccuWeather forecasters emphasized that now is the time to prepare, especially since some communities are still recovering from devastating storms over the last couple of years…
US Sailing issues guidance on athletes from Russia
The US Sailing Board of Directors last week approved an amendment to the US Sailing Prescription to RRS 76.1 – Exclusion of Boats or Competitors, providing a framework for organizing authorities to exclude sailors from Russia and Belarus…
First Wingfoil Open Race Event set for Hayling Island
Hayling Island SC is to run an Open Wingfoil event on Sunday 1 May 2022. Believed to be a first for the new Wingfoil class in the UK…
Switzerland SailGP Team unveils new crew recruits
In less than six weeks, Switzerland SailGP Team will make its racing debut at SailGP and today they announce four new recruits who will race under the Swiss flag in the global racing league…
NZL Sailing Team get a cold welcome on Day One
This week’s Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma represents the start of the new Olympic cycle but instead of warming into their work most sailors were left frigid after racing in freezing temperatures and strong winds overnight (NZ time)…
Hacking a trolling motor into a towed type generator
Might need a bigger prop, or one with a shallower angle, but I don’t see why this couldn’t work and if I’m right why more cheap sailors like myself haven’t done it. It’s even cheaper than solar if it works!
Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week returns
Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week is back! Benched for two years due to covid restrictions, the west coast’s favorite fun regatta returns with gusto June 24 to 26, 2022: co-hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club (ABYC) and Long Beach Yacht Club (LBYC)…
Bough Beech Finn Open
The 2022 Bough Beech Finn Open was to go ahead on Saturday 2nd April. This was the third event of the new BFA Spring Series. These events are intended to spread the Finn events around some of the clubs that haver smaller home fleets…
SoloInteractive Issues 5&6 Out Now
The Refurbishment of 4006. Solos at the Dinghy and Watersports Show. Hall of Fame. Steve Cockerill Audio File. Strictly Solo Video Vault…
BVI Spring Regatta – Final after five magnificent days of racing
The 49th BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival came to a close on Sunday 3 April after five magnificent days of racing…
cat class
When Jonathan Mckee is on your boat, you tend to win. Here he is on Fujin, the Bieker 53 racing in Offshore Multihull finished first in class, and showing fine form in the BVI Spring Regatta.
Eight Bells: Ralph Carlton
Ralph Carlton, age 89, of Marblehead, Massachusetts passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family on March 20th, after a courageous battle with cancer.
Ralph, a lifelong Marbleheader, was a Navy veteran, an avid sailor, a community leader and mentor, a skilled accountant and businessman, and most importantly a proud father and grandfather and a great friend to all. He loved recounting his adventures growing up in Marblehead, including selling flounder door-to-door, shipping muskrat pelts he trapped in Steer Swamp to Chicago to earn money for his first bike, and incurring a serious leg injury at 13 when he was accidentally shot with a cannonball fired by the Marblehead Fire Department during a town V-J Day celebration.
He served in the United States Navy in the Mediterranean during the Korean Conflict. After serving his country, Ralph continued working in the family business, Marblehead Laundry, while attending Bentley College at night to acquire his bachelor’s degree in accounting. Ralph loved the ocean and was a fierce sailing competitor, beginning his racing career in one design classes including Tempests, Lightnings, and his Shields which he raced with family and friends. He was a member of the Boston Yacht Club for more than 40 years and skippered his boat Corsair on Wednesday evenings, routinely treating his crew to burgers and beers after each race.
Highlights of his sailing career, beyond the many first-place finishes and trophies, include ocean racing in the Newport to Bermuda Race, participating in the 150th Anniversary of the America’s Cup race around the Isle of Wight, and sailing on Valiant in 12 Metre races in the Mediterranean as well as up and down the East Coast…
Fastest venue hiding in plain sight
When the America’s Cup and SailGP boast about boat speeds, there is a sector of the sport that snicker at the swiftness – land and ice sailors. While sailing on the hard can face more fickle conditions to get up to pace, when they do, they quickly eclipse those with the soggy dollars.
As the designers for the America’s Cup defender seek to create a weapon to break the current land sailing record of 126.2 mph set in 2009 by Richard Jenkins set on Ivanpah Dry Lake, Duncan Harrison takes the opportunity to promote this USA venue and his corner of the sport:
Ivanpah is not well known to most water sailors. The playa lies in eastern California, just west of Primm, Nevada and is bisected by Interstate 15, the highway linking Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
Yup, the world’s fastest sailing surface hiding in plain sight!
Ivanpah Dry Lake is around 3 hours drive time from all of the water sailors along the west coast between Santa Barbara and San Diego. Millions of people drive across Ivanpah Dry Lake annually, yet rarely do a handful of curious passersby stop and visit a landsailing event.
Even fewer brave souls ask for (and get) a ride in a dirtboat, but let’s imagine sailing at 90 mph in 30 mph of true wind.
It’s your first time landsailing – you’ve just begun rolling and the sail catches a puff. You’re acceleration shoves you into the seat as the boat speed skyrockets to over 40 mph. Continue sheeting in! The yacht accelerates to over 50 mph! Catch the next puff and accelerate to speeds you never imagined possible – this is extreme sailing!
Seatbelts and helmets are required…
• http://nalsa.org/
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/LandSailing
Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta day 1
The first race, Old Road, started with winds gusting up to 35 knots but all sailors returned back safely with smiles on their faces as everyone is so pleased to be back on the water after two years of postponements…
Clipper Race crew member in medical evacuation
Injured Clipper Race sailor Nick Whittle was safely transferred to a Japanese Coastguard vessel on Saturday 2 April…
America’s Cup: Michael Fay against shifting venue
“This should not have happened. This didn’t have to happen. From the club’s point of view it should never have happened.” Sir Michael says he is considering cutting ties with the club over the loss of the regatta to Spain…
Which is the right way to sail around the world?
“Sailing East and West are a bit like chalk and cheese. They are opposites both figuratively and literally” says Round the World Queen Dee Caffari*.
San Francisco to Impose “Sailing Toll” for People Driving to Boats; Funds Will Subsidize Luxury Bay Ferries
The “boundaries” of “tollable” miles, as laid out in a proposal from the City of San Francisco, which was obtained by Latitude 38.
In yet another attempt to both alleviate the Bay Area’s worsening traffic congestion and bolster public-transit alternatives, the City of San Francisco is considering imposing what is being called a “luxury driving toll” that would include all manner of nonessential, recreational activity — including people driving to go sailing. A copy of the proposal, which was obtained by Latitude 38, outlined the overarching philosophy of the plan, offered some details as to how the toll might be assessed and collected, and described a vision for expanded ferry service.
“We cannot ignore the fact that gridlocked traffic continues to worsen, and that strong measures are required to discourage driving,” the proposal read. In discouraging non-work-related trips, which were also classified as “luxury commuting,” the City of San Francisco’s Group on Traffic Congestion and Highway Authority said it can also shore up funds to increase non-road-based commuting infrastructures.
“Fees can be collected by tracking FasTrak toll tags, via GPS and other technology, to monitor driving,” the proposal read, detailing plans that would require drivers to list their work-related destinations, which would be considered essential. All nonessential or non-work-related driving would be “tollable” miles.
Perhaps the most ominous portent of the proposal was this passage toward the end of the document: “Other municipalities throughout the Bay Area have shown interest in this pilot plan, and are likely to impose some version of punitive measures on nonessential driving as populations increase, and some 50,000 cars are added to the road each year.”
The proposal said that ferry service was the most likely candidate to receive toll funds, and laid out an ambitious plan for a fleet of high-speed, high-volume ferries that would service the heart of the Bay Area’s shores. In describing the planned ferries, the proposal painted an opulent picture of what the vessels might entail, including full-service bars and grills; televisions playing sports, news, and CNN and Fox; high-end reclinable seats; massage therapists on staff (not included in the ticket price); and occasional live entertainment.
(To be fair, it sounds awesome.)
“Ferries are the most expensive form of transportation and require enormous public subsidies,” the proposal said, using a candor not often seen in government documents. “Even though there is an inherent romance associated with commuting on the water, there is an obvious need to further lure people with amenities to ensure sufficient ridership, and to justify the hefty investment in this particular public-transportation sector.”
We can only imagine that “monitored driving” and the relatively subjective application of behavior-based fees will, justifiably, stoke the ire of privacy advocates, and clearly we are headed for protracted, taxpayer-funded litigation to trudge through these issues and, in all likelihood, arrive at the same stalemate from which policy makers originally embarked…
everybody’s doing it!
I mean seriously, why the f#%* not? Read on.
European Dragon Championship – 60+ fleet to race at San Remo YC
Racing for the 2022 European Dragon Championship will open at San Remo YC, Italy, on Monday 4 April…
american moron
Vowing to come back in the next America’s Cup with a boat that is “virtually unchanged” from their last flop, American Magic plans to show “what we’re really made of”.
Sure, that sounds wonderful. Will they use clear sails again, too? Maybe pull Barker out of his cruising mode…
2023 Ocean Globe Race is reaching maturity
The 2023 Ocean Globe Race (OGR) launched in 2019, is entering its final phase of development, pushed along with pure passion and commitment from its 23 paid up entrants…
BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival day 2
A steady 18 knots+ which built to 24 throughout racing, greeted the fleet for another day of competition at the 49th BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival…
National 12 – Development of Results for 2022
The National 12 class has been at the forefront of dinghy development within the United Kingdom since 1936. It only seems right that the class have now explored an area often overlooked – results…
World Sailing is on the move again
World Sailing is finally moving to new London premises forecast to provide a saving of £420,000 per annum…
National Crime Authority seize 192-foot Superyacht in London
The UK National Crime Authority has seized a $50 million superyacht owned by an unnamed Russian…
America’s Cup: ETNZ launch ‘Chase Zero’
Emirates Team New Zealand launched their prototype hydrogen-powered foiling chase boat in Auckland today with ETNZ team member Andrea Joy christening her ‘Chase Zero’ in front of the wider team…
Sean Herbert wins Inspire WASZP Grand Final
Sean Herbert has returned to New Zealand with an extra puff in his sails after taking out the Inspire WASZP Grand Final sailed alongside the final round of SailGP in San Francisco…
Jimmy Spithill: Nearly got there
For the United States SailGP Team, it was one thing after another during Season 2. If they weren’t getting crashed into, they were crashing into submerged objects. They had to replace their wing trimmer when he snapped his fibula.
Yet, they still were in position to win it all, and while they fell short at the final hurdle in San Francisco on March 26-27, skipper Jimmy Spithill looks back at SailGP Season 2 and ahead to Season 3:
The final day of SailGP Season 2 pretty much summed up our whole year, in just a few crazy hours.
We knew going into the US$1m bucks, winner-takes-all final SailGP race in San Francisco, that there would be some unpredictable drama in store – but even I was surprised by what took place in the Bay this weekend.
In the first race on the final day, just an hour before the biggest showdown of the season, we were taken out by Spain SailGP Team, who crashed into us and it left a huge hole in the back of our boat.
It was a challenging situation for the Japanese, Aussies, and ourselves – we all wanted to race hard and push in preparation for the final in the lead-up races, but couldn’t afford a major incident… well, we were almost taken out and not able to race the final.
Another view of Team New Zealand’s exit
While New Zealanders feel abandoned by their America’s Cup team, this report by Duncan Johnstone and Todd Niall of STUFF media offers another view:
Kiwi team boss Grant Dalton has accused Kiwi rich-lister Mark Dunphy of “destroying” Auckland’s chances of hosting the 2024 America’s Cup.
Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron confirmed their long-held intentions of taking the next defense offshore by announcing the 37th edition would be sailed in Spain’s glamour city Barcelona.
Dunphy hoped to prevent that with his Kiwi Home Defense organization aimed at raising the funds to provide Team New Zealand with the finances to stay in Auckland.
But in a campaign that started by threatening to sack Dalton if his supposed consortium gained control, Dunphy quickly fell offside with Team New Zealand who refused to engage with the Auckland businessmen and his proposal of a $40m – half his original estimate – cash injection to boost the $31m on offer from the New Zealand government and Auckland council.
In a war of words Dunphy even served legal letters on Dalton and Team New Zealand, “requesting certain inaccurate statements be corrected and that apologies be given”.
The Cup defenders didn’t back down and accused Dunphy of an attempted act of intimidation…
Presumed dead, Found alive
It is a standard statement made by the U.S. Coast Guard when they have suspended search efforts:
“The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it’s only made after careful consideration of myriad factors. Our thoughts and condolences are with the families throughout this unimaginably challenging time.”
This is typically the end of a case, except on March 29 when the Coast Guard rescued two Cuban males at approximately 5:00 p.m. near Bimini, Bahamas.
Earlier that day, a good Samaritan reported to Sector Miami watchstanders that he spotted people on a homemade paddle board approximately 10 miles west of Bimini. These men were presumed missing at sea, after the Coast Guard suspended the active two-day search on March 27.
The survivors were brought aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk and are scheduled to be transferred to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force authorities.
Coast Guard Sector Key West watchstanders were notified by concerned family members on March 25 of the overdue venture which reportedly left Cuba March 22 en route to Key West.
“We are thankful to our fellow mariners,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jason Neiman. “Their actions helped save two lives from the sea. Both men are now safe, but we must highlight trips like this are incredibly dangerous and often turn tragic.”
Since October 1, 2021, Coast Guard crews interdicted 1,067 Cubans compared to:
5,396 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2016
1,468 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2017
259 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2018
313 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2019
49 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2020
838 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2021
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