On Thursday, July 17, 2008, Mark Rudiger passed away from lymphoma. He was 53 years old. Rudiger had battled the cancer for 4 years, and he had been doing well in his fight until the tide sadly changed a few months ago. Rudiger was a legend in offshore racing and navigating circles, having navigated 14 Transpac races and two Volvo Ocean Races, the later being the
Highland Spring HIHO 2008The Highland Spring HIHO brings sailing and windsurfing together for one amazing week every year in the British Virgin Islands, when windsurfers travel down to the islands from around the world, to join friends and family; others join the adventure solely for the experience. And its an experience like no other. The core of the event is the series of daily
Highland Spring HIHO 2008The Highland Spring HIHO brings sailing and windsurfing together for one amazing week every year in the British Virgin Islands, when windsurfers travel down to the islands from around the world, to join friends and family; others join the adventure solely for the experience. And its an experience like no other. The core of the event is the series of daily
Shell and NOAA team up to improve hurricane forecasting New thermal sensors are the keyBy Kate PiserchiaThere are deep pockets of warm water in the Gulf of Mexico where a passing hurricane, already a danger, can rapidly morph into a monster.How and why hurricanes intensify is not entirely clear, but a move by Shell Oil Co. to install new underwater thermal
MAKE A PLANNING SPREADSHEETI use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for my planning documents, and I use four different worksheets. The main sheet covers a full year of sailing (I know, that sounds llke a lot of planning but I have found that it is very helpful to me) while the other sheets detail my plans for a long trip in the spring, plus shorter weekend trips and another long trip
The UN Security Council, in an unprecedented move, voted unanimously to authorize states to enter Somalia’s territorial waters in the Indian Ocean to fight piracy. With 31 hijackings and attempted hijackings reported off the Somali coast last year, the UN finds that piracy in this area has become a threat to international and regional peace and security. States are authorized to use all
If youve ever been caught out Laser sailing in a serious squall, you have a taste of what its like to be completely self-sufficient in an over-canvassed boat, with the safety net of land feeling like an untrustworthy mirage. Now imagine that youre alone in the middle of the North Atlantic, with land nothing more than a week-old memory, on a wildly powerful IMOCA Open 60.
A recent court ruling about pollution dumped from the ballast water of commercial ships is written to also require all recreational boats to get permits by September 2008, even though 99 percent of recreational boats do not have ballast tanks.Boats and ships are different and should not be treated as the same. These costly permitsintended for commercial ships and supertankers that have
By Rebecca WatersOuch! Over 150 recreational boats are backed up on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal with wait times of up to 2 months for transit. Officially, the delays are due to the arrival of an unusually large number of commercial ships, about 50 a day, up from the 38 expected at this time of year. However, speculation is rife as cruisers worry about crossing the
I have not used and we do not carry either a drogue or sea anchor. This is not that we are opposed to these devices, it is just that when we started out cruising we didn’t know what we wanted, we didn’t have a budget for everything, and ‘these were not high priority. Plus, there is a storage issue; we don’t carry anything on deck or on the cabin sole and all the below deck lockers were full. For
The Danish builder X-Yachts, founded in 1979 by brothers Lars and Niels Jeppensen, has focused on creating high-quality cruiser-racers for many years now. Mixing lightweight
So, you’re going on a charter vacation. There’s so much to plan, pack and ponder, but who has the time when all you can think
Two separate racing fleets were streaming into the docks and a party was in full swing at the head of Marseille’s inner harbor. A group
Before setting out on the boat’s major refit, I sailed Passion for nearly five years. I wanted to learn all about her personality and identify
Are you really safer tethered to your boat? It’s something I’ve wondered about ever since I first started sailing offshore. The received wisdom is you
For Oskar Olausson and Lisa Lindeberg the plan had always been to buy a boat, quit their jobs and sail around the world. We are
Peter Nielsen looks at Beneteau’s latest entry-level boat and a new cruiser from Tartan Group Beneteau’s commitment to entry-level boats has been reaffirmed over the
It would be hard to imagine a more secure spot than the Sunsail base on the outskirts of the beachside community of Placencia, Belize. The
I found my sailing “dream boat” in the spring of 1979 while racing on Lake St. Clair in Michigan. Everyone had heard about the hot
In the second of a two-part series on light-air sails, Rupert Holmes looks at how today’s furling gear has revolutionized sail handling off the wind.
