Vendee Globe Race 2012 starting today and for the next 3 months.

- My favorite race in the whole wide world. The most challenging event for a solo person to accomplish in a lifetime; the Vendee Globe Ocean Race.

- Macif, the last Vendee Globe winner. I reconstituted the lines to offer views of what the 2012 winner looks like. You can follow her track under her new name SMA

Time of the year.

Exodus will start soon. The first of November is the date when the yacht migration to the South is beginning. The date is the cut off when the Hurricane season is officially over and when expensive insurance will actually insure you.
The video of Adix leaving Newport in advance, has a stop over in Charleston, South Carolina. This is considered coastal navigation and not offshore when the B.V.I, Antigua, St. Marteen are the destination for many of the yachts via or not Bermuda.

The second video is about the J8 Topaz, leaving Newport for Antigua. The day before her departure, I had the pleasure to be aboard for a sea trial. First time on a J since Shamrock 5 so many years ago.

Walking the Docks.

                                          After breakfast at Belle's, Sunday morning walk at the Newport Shipyard.

Saphaedra by K.Aage Nielsen Design and Bounty a replica of an L.Francis Herreshoff creation.

1926-2016

 

 Details.                                                                                                        A carbon fiber ladder.

Porto Cervo 2016.

Photo by Dominique Tanton.
Shore crew and logistics.

Hosting the Maxi Yachts Rolex Cup.
Bella Mente in a repeat' retained her Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship.
Proteus came in second, with a late sprint to beat MoMo.

From the Costa Smeralda report. Also winners are;
Open Season (Wally), WinWin.
Leopard 3 (Maxi racing).
My Song (Maxi Racing Cruising).
Atalanta 11 ( MiniMaxi racing).

Boat of the Month. August 2016. "Black Soo".

- With only one prior Boat of the Month (March 2016) which featured a rendition of William Garden's own personal yacht, the mighty Oceanus; I came up with Gardenia, the inspiration and my interpretation of the concept for a long, lean sailing machine; a very personal thing for me.
But now we are moving on to the following project.
A light displacement sailboat, and for the source like for the Garden, based on a long past of studying yacht design. In this edition, the van de Stadt legacy. 'Black Soo".

Lunacy (ex Star Cruiser) is for sale.

Just happened that the weekend of my Birthday July 17th, I was visiting Handy Boat, in nearby Falmouth Foreside. We took a ride on Merle's Duffy 54 and we stumbled upon Lunacy on her mooring in Portland.


To connect directly to Charles Doane the owner, please follow the link: www.wavetrain.net/the-lunacy-report
- All information about the boat is on the site.
Below is a compilation of photos taken from the same site.

Note: The boat has been sold to a couple of Frenchmen for long-distance sailing. That figures!

B&R Rigging System.

- On Sailing Anarchy, the topic about B&R rig surfaced. The following is what I wrote about it many moons ago.

Bermuda Race 2016

                                                     

This Race is all about Comanche. But in the diversified fleet many more interesting boats.

 America

 Black Watch below.

Spirit of Bermuda.

Looking at sterns!

Walking the Docks at Newport Shipyard.

  

Swing Keel; Centerboard;Daggerboard; Keel Centerboard; Lifting keel.

- A while ago, I wrote on Tanton's Blog about keels called Keel, keel, and keels. (3/10/15. A modest overview over the appendage fitted to sailboats to achieve stability, direction and to fight the force going sideways.

- My latest commission for an aluminum 48' with a ballasted - keel- centerboard.
- Very popular in France, and built by a few shipyards in aluminum, the model is known as "deriveur integral". True center boarder often ballasted, the raised board is totally integrated within the shape of the hull.

- This is still work in progress, and the above preliminary drawings have been upgraded and I have another version with a different interior, necessitating to review the lines, the board, and the displacement. Some of the revisited changes will be applied to the earlier version as above. See further down the updated version as of May 12, 2020

Built it, and they will come!

- As a destination, Newport and the Shipyard are hard to beat. 

- Yachting Hub, the yard facility attracts the most beautiful and famous boats in the world. And they are starting to arrive, most of them from the Caribbean after a busy season.

- The land when 100' sailboats look small.

                                                                                                                

- Talking about a busy season. Events like The Newport Yacht Charter Show, Newport Bermuda Race, Candy Store Cup, Newport Brokerage Boat Show based at the Shipyard, without forgetting all other activities brought by the New York Yacht Club, Ida Lewis, and so many others venues.

- One week later.

And they are coming. They are here!.

The sky is the limit.

Invasion of the right kind.

Les Voiles de St Barth. The latest.

Another job well done.
After Key West; the RORC 600; win overall IRC zero class. The St Barth Bucket with Axia.
And winner of Les Voiles de St. Barth.

Dominique: Chef/Shore support and logistics.

And for something entirely different.

I entered a Design Competition with the Theme: a Houseboat. Sponsored by Offcenterharbor, a media attention getter  with videos and tit bits about boat stuff. I did not win and that is ok. Being published  was important and good. A few of the entrants had been built, most of the competitors presented personal visions. I had a live customer for this project and that is a very different thing. I guess I could resume by copying what someone wrote to me. " Your entry is the most complete set of plans in the whole bunch, and the easiest to build". Gratifying my goal.

IMOCA. Moustache ou pas? Clip hélico - Mono 60 Edmond de Rothschild dans la brise (30 noeuds) - VI

IMOCA. Moustache ou pas?

That is the question? At least for the way it's presented, or with something else?

Origami. Imagiro Boats. Inquiring Minds need to know.

- January 12, 2018. 

Up to date. Sending a set of drawings to Turkey. The customer first contacted me in 2012. So, he is serious about actually doing her. Building a boat; any boats is a serious business. You place your life on a trajectory equivalent to go into space Time. The moment for this design started in 1998; I believe enough time to go to Mars with a return ticket. Forget the last part.

This is all about Origami/ Imagiro boats via Rhino.

I look at it as a brain exercise.

Window dressing.

The Ides of March.
Sun on Sunset sets West. Surprise, surprise!
A few times when I can catch it from the office before it is to late, until tomorrow.
Sun is down, life goes on.

Boat Design of the Month. March 2016.

Regularly or not, I will introduce boats that have been very influential in my life. Having studied 55 years of yacht designs since a very young age as you can imagine, I have been all over the place and like to these days to R& D's the source and for sure coming with my own, very own interpretation and hopefully improvements that I have learnt, it seems for ever as a Professional Yacht Designer. The first one is Oceanus.
If you do not know this sailboat, you have not dug out one of the Masters; William Garden, who passed away a few years ago. A long life, a multitude of projects built in all kind of shapes and forms,
in all forms of material and with a flair attained over a life time.
Garden designed Oceanus for his own use, designed on the floor of a house he was building on his private island. The drawings developed into a  sailboat 60' long x 12' in the beam x 6'-8" draft and with a sail area of 1000 sq/ft.

Below is what I believe the first write-up about the boat inside the 1955 Yachting Magazine, with well defined intention, method and execution.

And there is a Start.

Dominique's "Office" for a week. Chef/ shore support and logistics. Team Proteus.

The RORC 600-2016.

I have to do this race!