The 2011 Transat Jacques Vabre (TJV), which is traditionally dominated by the French, featured standout performances by sailors from the United States, New Zealand, the UK and Northern Europe in the 16-boat Class 40 fleet. Among the nine teams that finished were American Jesse Naimark-Rowse and British sailor Hannah Jenner.
The ARC, which starts each November in the Canary Islands, is very much a European event and the Americans who run it are often a bit out of the ordinary. Without doubt, the least ordinary American boat in this last edition of the rally was the Gunboat 66 Phaedo.
It used to be that sailors looking to keep their boats moving in light air had fairly limited options. A big overlapping genoa flown from a fixed headstay was the weapon of choice when trying to get upwind in a zephyr. Turning downwind, it was a question of setting a balky hard-to-handle symmetric spinnaker on a pole.
Small-boat sailors strike it rich in the Marquesas
After prudently waiting the better part of a week for Sean to go away and then for a cold front to pass through, the rally organizers finally launched their ducklings on Friday, November 11, into the heart of a big high-pressure cell.
AFTER TWO BOATS HAD BEEN ABANDONED, after people had been hospitalized, after we finally (and gratefully) reached the safety of Virgin Gorda, Steve Black, who had organized the rally, held a “debriefing” session.”This is not something anyone would go through willingly,” he explained to the crowd. “It’s important that sailors have short memories.”
On our Allied Seawind ketch we fly the national ensign from our mizzen topping lift, rather than flying it from a short staff on the rail under the mizzen boom where it would be at odds with the mizzen sheet.
Perfect O-shaped coils of rope look mighty nice when done up properly, and in many cases this is a fine way to make up and stow an idle line on a sailboat. But in some instances lines trained to coil down in ovals develop problems when working. This happens most often with lines that run through a multi-part tackle. If you coil the tail of a line that runs through a tackle in perfect ovals, you’ll soon find the line twists up in the tackle when you’re using it. Eventually you must unreeve the line from the tackle, untwist it so it runs fair again and then re-reeve it. To avoid this, you should coil the line in a figure-eight pattern when stowing it.
Inflatable dinghies are rough and tough, but their skin is thin. If your rubber duck leads a hard life, adding some protective padding in key spots will reduce chafe and help prevent the little boat from developing an odd list when least expected.
I lost at least 25 percent of the storage space in my galley when we installed our watermaker, because the only place it could fit aboard our cramped 37-foot sailboat was directly under the galley sink. Now I’m constantly looking for ways to save space in the galley. Here are a few of my favorites.
After last week’s dramatic rescue, Kevin Escoffier returned to dry land yesterday in good spirits. “I have no regrets about my race… The boat was
Famed bluewater cruiser Jimmy Cornell has been forced to abandon his latest circumnavigation due to power-generation problems aboard his carbon-neutral catamaran. “In my long life
Quiet. That’s what you hear as you back away from the mooring. No chug, chug, chug from the diesel as water cascades out of the
On Thursday, December 10, at 7:30EST, US Sailing’s Leadership Forum is hosting a town hall-style conversation with the Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s TIDE panel. TIDE (the
In the early afternoon of November 30, Kevin Escoffier was dashing through the Southern Ocean aboard his IMOCA 60, PRB, one of 33 skippers competing
To activate English subtitles in the above video, click the button “CC After this week’s dramatic rescue, French President Emmanuel Macron called Jean Le Cam
Around 1345 UTC on Monday afternoon, Vendee Globe competitor Kevin Escoffier (PRB) activated his EPIRB 840 miles southeast of The Cape of Good Hope, in
Never chartered? No worries. A vacation under sail can be the most memorable time of your life. That said, it also pays to be prepared
It’s been a rocky road of late for the charter industry, especially here in the Western Hemisphere. First came hurricanes Irma and Maria in the
In recent months, US Sailing, like many organizations, has been taking a closer look at diversity to ensure it’s doing the best job it can
