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, is based on a long history 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, Maine.


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 www.sailinganarchy.com, the topic about B&R rig surfaced. The following is what I wrote about 

it, many moons ago.