Maritime News and Events

Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee welcomes Tall Ship

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | February 7, 2012

It has recently been announced that the tall ship “Tenacious”, will be taking part in the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee on the 3^rd June on the River Thames in London. The ship is quite unusual as it has been specially designed and constructed to be operated and sailed by a mixed gender crew of physically able and disabled individuals, including those who are users of wheelchairs.

The Jubilee Sailing Trust which operates “Tenacious” will be amongst a flotilla of 1000 vessels making up the biggest assembly of boats on the river Thames in recent times. The “Tenacious” will be accompanied by rowing boats, work boats and recreational craft of all makes, forms, and sizes. They will all be brilliantly attired with flowing, colourful bunting and Union Jacks. The contingent will be spread out over approximately twenty five kilometres.

“Tenacious” is 65 metres in length and will be one of the biggest vessels to take part and will make up part of an avenue of sails that the smaller boats will pass through, as they make their way up the Thames.

Big Ben in London © Gary - Fotolia.com

All the people who have a relationship with the Jubilee Sailing Trust are extremely happy that “Tenacious” has been chosen to be a part of the Diamond Jubilee. CEO Alex Lochrane commented that the trust came into being in 1978 and was partly financed by money from funds provided by the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and so the trust was eager for “Tenacious” to be a representative of this heritage and become a part of the Diamond Jubilee festivities some thirty four years later. It signified a lot to them to be given the opportunity to provide support for this royal occasion with this stunning tall ship.

“Tenacious” and “”Lord Nelson”, the second ship administered by the trust, are just two tall ships from around the world that have been designed and built for both physically able and disabled individuals to be given the opportunity to experience sailing alongside one another as equals.

Throughout the thirty four years of existence, the Trust has been able to take more than 35,000 people out to sea to engage in a life altering experience. More than 13,000 were classified as disabled, which included 5,000 who needed the assistance of a wheelchair.

One of the crew members, who will be on board throughout the spectacle, is Nick Pilgrim who is forty years old. Nick was unfortunate to contract meningitis when he was at nautical school learning to take up a maritime career. He thought he may never have the opportunity to go out to sea ever again. However, twenty five years ago he was initiated into the Jubilee Sailing Trust.

As the years have passed he has completed nearly 60 sailing voyages with the assistance of the Trust, which has included crossings of the Atlantic, and he has sailed a total number of nautical miles that would be equivalent to circumnavigating the world twice.

Nick, alongside other disabled and physically able members of the crew will humbly take their position aboard Tenacious in the fleet next to the Queen and members of the her family who will be seated on the “Spirit of Chartwell”, a barge assigned to the Royal Family.

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Dutch Teenager Breaks World Single Handed Sailing Record

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events, Travel and Cruising | January 24, 2012

Dutch teen Laura Dekker has just become the youngest sailor ever to undertake and complete a single handed circumnavigation of the globe.

The sixteen year old finished her single handed round-the-globe voyage when she finally sailed into the harbour of St Maarten in the Caribbean, which is jointly administered by the French and Dutch governments.

It looked at first that she would not be allowed to start the intrepid voyage at such an early age when the Dutch social affairs department considered that she was far too young to take on the challenge. The court case that involved her and her family, who were behind the project, reached world attention two years ago.

Dekker sailed from the island less than a year ago, beating the last record by 8 months.

Laura Decker © Savyasachi Creative Commons Wikipedia

As she reaches the age of 17 on the 20th September, she had to finish her voyage before the 16th September in order to claim the record for the youngest sailor to complete a world trip without any assistance.

Miss Dekker’s ketch, named Guppy, arrived in St Maarten almost a year after her voyage started.

“I can’t really absorb what I have just done,” she said to journalists once she had her feet firmly planted on dry land.

“The sailing was at all times really good and I often viewed dolphins along the way” she said when interviewed at the dockside after arrival.

She said that she would be spending the coming days on the island cleaning up the 12 metre boat before she returns to school.

Her parents, of course, were there amidst a crowd of 450 onlookers who were there to welcome the teenager. Scores of people cheered as Dekker waved her arms to them, cried and then went across the dock along with her mum, dad, sister and grandparents, who had met her out at sea earlier in the day.

Dekker finally made her arrival in St. Maarten after fighting high seas and strong winds on the last, 40-day section from Cape Town in South Africa.

The starting point of her trip became St Maarten instead of the original plan of Gibraltar.

The previous holder of the record was Australian teenager Jessica Watson, who gained this achievement in May 2010, just 3 days before she reached her 17th birthday.

But the Dutch girl’s achievement and challenge was not quite the same as Jessica’s, who went around the world non-stop while Laura sailed from one port to another and was not at sea for longer than 3 weeks.

Dekker was born in the port of Whangarei in New Zealand to sea going parents while they were completing a six year circumnavigation of their own, and said she did her first solo sail at the age of 6. By the age of 10 years old she said, she started to dream about sailing around the world. She celebrated her sixteenth birthday while at sea, consuming doughnuts for breakfast after having spent a bit of time in port with her father and some friends the previous night in Darwin on the north coast of Australia.

The teen sailed more than 26,000 miles on a journey that included places that sound like a scan through an online travel brochure: the Canary Islands, the Galapagos, Panama, Fiji, Tonga, Bora Bora, Australia, South Africa and St. Maarten.

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SV Egret, Rudderless, arrives safely in St Lucia

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | January 13, 2012

There are many ordinary people who go to sea and do brave and amazing things, which the world never gets to hear about. This is a story of two such quiet heroes that ended safely and happily only two weeks ago.

The couple, on an adventure of a lifetime, had set off on what is often only a routine 2000 mile crossing of the Atlantic from the Cape Verde islands to the Caribbean but soon they became confronted with a situation that all sailors hope would never happen to them. Their rudder snapped clean off the stern of their 12 metre yacht, slap bang in the middle of the ocean.

If you have ever seriously imagined how hard it would be to steer a car without a steering wheel then perhaps you could try to imagine steering a rudderless yacht on an ocean, with thirty knot winds and four metre waves, a thousand miles from the nearest “garage”. Amanda and Patrick on the “Egret” certainly did not have any instructions hidden away in their emergency grab bag, but they were quietly determined not to abandon their yacht.

Sunset in Marigot Bay, St Lucia © Fanny Reno Fotolia.com

The morning after the disaster, as their yacht rolled and yawed helplessly in the Atlantic swells, kindly voices on the morning’s regular yacht to yacht high frequency radio sked soon had them sorted out. An old sea dog-cum-author called Fatty Goedlander, who had been sailing the seas for almost 60 years, was quick to relay down the radio detailed instructions on how to make and deploy an emergency rudder that would, at least, get them underway and moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction.

Amanda and Patrick quickly got to work using a long rope, their second anchor and some additional long mooring lines. The anchor was thrown off the stern attached to some chain and a thick long rope which they attached to a stern mooring cleat. Two more lines had been attached to the anchor as well which were led down each side of the deck and through some blocks and back to the steering wheel area and these would then be used as steering lines.

Of course, now the sails had to be set in such a way that they would be filled by the wind that was coming from behind. This, with some trial and error, they managed successfully.

This amazing feat was accomplished, it seems, with a minimum of fuss. After all, no one wants to finish their voyage of a lifetime, let alone their adopted, floating home at the mercy of the great Atlantic.

Just to brighten things up, they certainly weren’t alone on the high seas as there were some nearby yachts – meaning 50 odd miles away – that immediately diverted to give moral support and sail along with them. One tailed them in rough conditions for almost a week before bravely launching their yacht’s tender and rowing alongside the stricken “Egret” to deliver 50 litres of diesel in conditions that a surfer might only appreciate. Not only that but some freshly baked bread and other culinary goodies were tossed in to their cockpit, but the Good Samaritan apparently decided against hopping aboard for a friendly swig of whisky.

With more than a thousand miles to go to St Lucia and an electronic auto pilot somehow managing to steer the jury steering rig, they happily arrived on the shores of St Lucia to welcome in the New Year.

There is no moral to this report or even lessons to be learned, it was just one of those unavoidable incidents that ended happily aided by initiative, skill and determination.

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Sea Shepherd’s New Anti-Whaling Vessel Damaged in the Southern Ocean

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | January 6, 2012

The Southern Hemisphere summer heralds the annual confrontations in the Antarctic of the Japanese whaling fleet and the anti whaling organisation Sea Shepherd, but last week disaster struck in bad weather.

The recently launched state-of-the-art vessel the “Brigitte Bardot” was damaged by a rogue wave while pursuing a Japanese whaling vessel in 6 metre seas 1500 miles from Fremantle in Western Australia.

Fortunately, the lead vessel “Steve Irwin” only took eighteen hours to reach the crippled vessel. Despite the damage both boats managed to maintain a speed of more than 7 knots on their way to Fremantle.

The Sea Shepherd fleet depends on volunteers and the 10 member crew hail from America, Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Belgium. They are well aware of the conditions that could be encountered in the Southern Ocean. It is not only the Japanese whaling fleet but the weather conditions that create havoc for ships plying these waters.

Two Humpback whales and a shark swim among ancient city ruins © Catmando - Fotolia.com

It took about five days to escort the distressed ship back to Fremantle and seven of the crew were evacuated onto the “Steve Irwin” for the journey.

Fortunately, the “Brigitte Bardot” was constructed so that it is virtually unsinkable but any damage could prevent successful motoring.

This is the eighth mission that Sea Shepherd has undertaken in its quest to stop the whaling industry forever.

This incident did not stall Sea Shepherd’s activities, as while the ships were making their way to Fremantle, a third vessel the “Bob Barker” was tailing the Japanese whaling ship called the “Nisshin Maru”.

In February 2011, Japan shortened its whale pursuit one month early after only securing a third of its normal catch. They put the blame on Sea Shepherd for their action.

Meanwhile, less than a month ago Japanese whaling overseers were in the process of attempting to sue the environmental group for obstructing the yearly whale hunt.

The process of commercial whaling was halted under a 1986 international agreement, unless done for research purposes only. Some nations, and a number of environmental groups, claim that Japanese “scientific whaling” is simply concealed commercial whaling and not research. There is no secret that whale meat can be sourced in restaurants throughout Japan.

The Sea Shepherd environmental organisation is not short of money for its activities as might be guessed from the names of its vessels. TV and film stars from “Star Trek” and The “James Bond” series are regular sponsors amongst others from the film industry.

Furthermore, the Southern Ocean is not the only place in the world where whale hunting still exists. The village of Lamahera on Lembata island in the Indonesian archipelago conducts its annual whale hunt off its own doorstep but only small traditional sailing boats and hand crafted tools are used and the carcass has to be hacked to pieces in the water as it is too big to fit in the tiny boats. This is an age old activity but it is slowly coming into the limelight as concerned organisations have been alerted to its continued existence.

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Filipino Mariners Caught Up in Piracy

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | December 26, 2011

Recent news reports have revealed that there are many Filipinos caught up in ship piracy in the Indian Ocean. A Captain of a ship registered in Liberia and crewed entirely by Filipinos was kept in captivity by Somali pirates for four months this year while his wife and newly born child waited in earnest back in the Philippines.

The ship had been hijacked by Somali pirates as it entered the Gulf of Aden, even though the ship is substantial in size there was no way it could overpower the Somali speedboat which was heavily armed.

This particular captain and his crew are not the only Filipinos affected by piracy. As they commonly crew ships for big companies, they inevitably form parts of the crew.

Statistics reveal that since 2006, almost 750 Filipinos, working on more than 60 freighters, have been captured in this way.

Tug boat taking out the ship from the harbor © Grecaud Paul Fotolia.com

Filipinos are not being particularly singled out by the pirates; it is just that so many people from the Philippines work in the maritime industry.

Capt Caniete’s torment started on a tranquil clear day in the middle of December. He first spotted the pirate boat when it was a long way off from his own ship, and stared with fear as it gathered speed and became close.

“I was extremely nervous and my total body was trembling,” he recollects. “They were continually shooting at the ship. They got on the radio and said Captain, you have not stopped so you will be killed.”

After more than five hours of a cat and mouse pursuit, the pirates then hauled themselves up onto the ship, and holding up their AK-47’s they soon overcame the captain and crew, making them take the ship to the coast of Somalia.

The Filipinos on the vessel were held on board, with hardly any food, while dialogue was underway.

Capt Caniete was forced to make a phone call to his company to inform them that he would be shot if a ransom was not paid.

He was severely beaten by the pirates as they were suspicious that a coffee pot he had brought along with him onto the ship was really a satellite telephone. But it was a present from his wife that he cherished.

In the end and after four months, the pirates departed without a word. And Capt Caniete assumed a solution had been found enabling their release.

With this increase in involvement of Filipinos as pirate fodder, The Philippines does not have the money for extra security for their crews but they are conducting anti piracy exercises. Every Filipino seafarer goes through compulsory anti-piracy lessons before they go out to sea.

Several hundred Filipinos have been held by Somali pirates in recent years and in spite of the increasing danger of piracy, there never seems to be any lack in the number of Filipinos wishing to enlist in a crewing job in the maritime trade.

The wages paid out by the shipping corporations offer a favourable quality of living, and offer one of a small number of paths out of poverty for numerous Filipino families. In the last year, Filipino seagoing workers were able to send nearly two and a half billion pounds back to their homes which make up a crucial component of the country’s economy.

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Narrow Gap Separates Yachts in the World’s Toughest Ocean Race

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | December 13, 2011

The six competitors in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011 / 2012 are only eighteen nautical miles apart just off the South African coast tacking in light head winds on the second leg of what is arguably the world’s toughest and longest ocean sailing race. Camper / Emirates Team New Zealand is in the lead, although Team Telefonica holds a slender, overall, leading margin on points.

This year’s race started in the Spanish Mediterranean port city of Alicante and ends in Galway, Ireland, next year. The route this year has taken them via Cape Town and will lead to Abu Dhabi, Sanya in China, Auckland, New Zealand, Itajai on the Brazilian coast, then back across the Atlantic to France and finally Ireland.

The second leg is just over ten thousand kilometers long and will, for the first time put the Volvo fleet in potential pirate waters. Special measures are being taken to protect the six boats from pirate attack as they cross the Arabian Sea after rounding Madagascar and head for Abu Dhabi in the Arabian Gulf.

Sailing Regatta © Rey Kamensky - Fotolia.com

The Volvo Ocean race has a long history. It all started with a whimsical race called the Golden Globe, created by Britain’s Sunday Times which was a challenge for the fastest single handed non stop round the world race under sail alone at a time when hardly anybody was sailing across the world’s oceans slowly, let alone racing. This was the race that was won by Robin Knox-Johnston in a 10 metre leaky wooden ketch built in India and the same race that Bernard Moitessier, in the lead across the Pacific, famously gave up and sailed to Tahiti instead. The interest and fascination that this pioneering race garnered gave rise to the first of the Whitbread races in 1973, so called because of its sponsorship by Whitbread breweries. In those early races, yachts were more modified cruising boats than racing boats with keen amateur sailor / adventurers paying for the privilege of racing around the world. Accommodation was in comparatively comfortable cabins, food and alcohol was not in short supply and only the skipper got paid while navigation was by dead reckoning, compass and sextant.

The races were designed to follow the old square rigger ship routes around the capes leaving from Europe, round South Africa’s notorious Cape of Storms and then through the Southern Ocean to Cape Horn and back to Europe via the Atlantic.

This, the 11th Volvo Ocean race is a direct descendent of the Whitbread series. The boats themselves are a far cry from those of the Whitbread era, however – they are all of the same design – Volvo Open 70’s with 11 crew apiece from 15 diverse nations. The boats are sleeker, faster and are crewed by professional athletes, many of them Olympic gold medalists and veterans from the America’s Cup. Accommodation on board is sparser and more spartan with an emphasis on the desire to win.

One of the boats in this race, Team Sanya, is the first time a Chinese yacht has been entered and is named after the Chinese port city that is one of the staging posts of the race while Abu Dhabi Racing is the first entry from the United Arab Emirates.

The race has changed over the years from one that has favoured yachts that can move fast down wind to one that requires much more tactical skills. The race now crosses the equator not less than four times requiring the crews and their skippers to sail in all types of conditions from the steady trade winds of the North and South Atlantic to the fluky equatorial doldrums and the tempestuous and stormy waters of the Southern Ocean.

As the yachts make their way up into the Southern Indian Ocean and the dangers of the southern hemisphere’s cyclone season, they will be watched by TV satellite hook up by an estimated 60 million spectators.

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Atlantic Rally for Cruisers 2011 Experience near Perfect Weather

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | December 8, 2011

The traditional Atlantic sailing rally (the ARC) from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to Rodney Bay on the Caribbean Island of St Lucia, some 2800 nautical miles, has experienced near perfect sailing conditions as the first yachts arrive in Rodney Bay. Last year was dogged with unfavourable and light winds but this year the classic north east trades pushed the yachts in record times towards the finish line. December 2nd saw the arrival of the first yacht in the racing division. The twelve metre “Vaquita” ploughed its way across the Atlantic arriving in less than twelve days. The owner had engaged an experienced mixed gender crew to make the passage and it was completed five days earlier than in 2010.

ARC departure from Las Palmas, Canary Islands. November 2005

The crew reported that Vaquita attained speeds of 23 knots at times as she surfed down the backs of waves and she regularly marched along at speeds between 18 and 20 knots. The crew admitted that the fast speeds made living conditions down below somewhat uncomfortable as the sound of the water rushing by was at times phenomenal.

The ARC rally is not just the domain for racers and winners but the cruising division also includes at least twenty or more children under the age of sixteen who are not skippering, crewing or sailing solo but are part of family groups that make this transatlantic voyage every year, many of whom go on to complete a circumnavigation.

This years rally has attracted twenty one children from nine different nationalities. The ARC rally committee did not leave these children at limbo while in Las Palmas, but organized outings and social activities so that they could get to know each other. It seems they were all pretty smart at communicating with each other despite the language barriers.

The oldest sailor in the rally is 78 years old and is the owner of the Peruvian registered yacht “Nandina”. He is not only the oldest sailor but it is the first time there has been an entry from Peru. The 78 year old was so keen on taking part in the rally that he had Nandina shipped over the Atlantic especially for the event.

Meanwhile as at the time of writing this article the ARC rally events in St Lucia officially get under way commencing with a welcome beach cocktail party. Yachts are still arriving one by one into St. Lucia, even though the wind has died in the Caribbean for a while. Forty five yachts have officially crossed the finish line, with a further eight more expected to arrive today, and twenty one more have radioed to say they will arrive tomorrow. This is quite a contrast to last year’s ARC rally which was one of the slowest on record and only two boats made landfall in St. Lucia within sixteen days. The first was the motor yacht “Wind Horse”, which simply motored across the Atlantic in just over ten days. “Berenice”, a large Swan design, was the only sailing yacht last year to complete the passage in less than sixteen days.

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Satellite Communication saves French Yachtsmen in Mid Atlantic

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | October 6, 2011

Being stranded out in the mid Atlantic is not everyone’s cup of tea but in more than 45 knots of wind and with seas reaching eight metres the aluminum ketch Roule la Billie was savagely knocked down by these enormous seas and as a result lost its mast and rigging. This occurred more than fourteen hundred miles out in the Atlantic in September. The group of four was on their way home to Europe, in the thirty six foot ketch, from the Caribbean when this misfortune occurred.

In the past if such an incident had taken place so far from land, the occupants of any stricken vessel could only hope that if they jumped into a life raft or even a dinghy with a bunch of flares they might have had the faintest possibility of being spotted and rescued. But more likely they would have been recorded as another statistic of sailors lost at sea.

In this era of satellite communication and the waterproof gadgets that go with it, there is a great chance that sailors being capsized far away from land will be saved even though it might be a costly exercise requiring a quick response from the closest country.

In this case, the first indication of the yacht’s predicament was a phone call that the captain made to his father using his satellite phone. This message was then relayed to the US coastguard and the Rescue Coordination Centre in Canada. The tricky situation now is that the stricken yacht will not stay in the same place but will drift with wind action and currents. This is when the 406 MHz Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon (EPIRB), once deployed and activated, comes in handy as it relays a distress message via satellite to the closest emergency command centre. In the case of Roule La Billie they did just that and 10 minutes after the command centre in Boston had received the message from the skipper’s dad, they received the EPIRB signal. This confirmed the location with the exact position of the stricken yacht. This signal from the EPIRB will continue relaying the position of the yacht up to forty eight hours after activation, giving hope that rescue authorities will be able to physically locate and monitor the yacht while a rescue vessel is dispatched to the position.

Once the actual location had been established The U.S. Coast Guard along with the Canadian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre dispatched, a Canadian Hercules and two merchant ships, and they managed to co operate to bring about the successful retrieval of the French sailors.

The commercial ships were members of Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System (AMVER) so they were both prepared and well trained in diverting from their original course to help out in maritime incidents such as this one. AMVER is a vital link in aiding coastguards from around the world as it means the ship closest to the incident simply diverts preventing the need to deploy a specialist emergency vessel. In this situation while awaiting the ships the crew of the stricken yacht were dropped a life raft and other supplies from the Hercules, to ensure their survival. while the ships were making their way in unfavourable sea conditions to take the sailors on board.

Mission accomplished with the minimum of fuss with the great assistance of satellite communication. Not all yachts carry satellite phones due to the costly airtime rates but most trans ocean yachts carry the 406mhz EPIRB and now the SPOT commercial locator is being marketed which, as a convenient palm sized device, when activated sends a signal to a commercial station who then interpret the message and inform the local search and rescue authority. This device transmits the exact position of the boat in distress and even has the ability to send text messages as well.

All these pieces of technology mean that large tracts of ocean do, no longer, need to be flown over by fleets of planes with the faint hope of finding the speck of a stricken yacht on an enormous blue expanse. As long as sailors keep their devices well maintained, well charged and protected from inadvertent submersion in water then the ocean can seem an almost safe place to transit.

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MS Türanor Chases the Sun

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | October 1, 2011

The world’s largest and most successful solar powered motor vessel has powered in to dock in Singapore recently its round the world voyage strangely receiving almost as quiet a reception by the world’s press as the noise from its electric engine.

The 31 metre long MS Türanor is certainly a strange sight, looking more like a gigantic glistening spider from outer space or a UFO than a conventional motor vessel – but conventional it certainly is not.

Built in Germany and launched in 2010, the boat is entirely powered by the sun via its over five hundred square metres of photovoltaic cells – solar panels to the non technically minded. The project was designed to use technology that was already readily available and to demonstrate the feasibility of a solar powered marine transportation system in these days of fossil fuel induced global warming and the steady and seemingly inexorable decline in the environmental health of the world’s oceans.

The boat is a catamaran that is designed to slip through the water with minimum effort and is part of the Planet Solar project that is the brainchild of Swiss former ambulance driver and solar inventor Raphaël Domjan and built by a yacht club in Kiel, Germany at a cost of around 15 million euros. It is owned and operated by a joint Swiss and French company.

The boat’s rather weird shape is due to the fact that it needs as much horizontal space as possible dedicated to exposing its hundreds of solar panels. The boat actually has two huge side flaps or wings that have additional panels that can be slid out of the way when the sea is particularly rough. The total maximum power capability of the panels is around 120 kilowatts, which are captured in the day time only by a massive lithium ion battery system which can power the 20 kilowatt electric engine day and night.

The voyage so far has taken the Türanor and its six permanent crew three quarters of the way around the world taking them across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean to Australia then up through Indonesia to Singapore. The last leg of the trip will see them motor across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and up into the Mediterranean.

Because of the need for good levels of sunlight the Türanor’s navigators are in constant touch with weather forecasters in France who advise of the best routing taking into account areas of clear skies and maximum solar energy.

The boat is capable of a cruising speed of around 7 to 8 knots – the speed of an oil tanker and can motor for three days and nights at that speed in the absence of any solar recharging or for much longer at slower speeds.

As part of PlanetSolar’s stated desire to spread the message of alternative technology and pollution free marine transportation the Türanor has docked in many ports along its route. At each place the boat has captured the attention of the local inhabitants and has been used for educational and promotional trips in the vicinity for which it is able to carry up to 40 additional passengers for a short time.

The name of the solar powered craft is taken from a term used in Tolkien’s epic “Lord of the Rings” meaning “Power of the Sun”. To sum up the peculiar needs of this possible transport option of the future, the Türanor was christened at its launching by a young girl who, when smashing the traditional bottle of champagne against its hull, commented that she hoped that it would always have enough water under its keel and sunshine on its deck!

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America’s Cup World Series faces Strong Winds in Plymouth

Alison Williams | Maritime News and Events | September 17, 2011

The supersize 45 foot multi hulls, in the America’s Cup World Series challenges, gave the massive crowd in Plymouth a great surprise as several of these flyers capsized in the gusty 35 knot winds that swept in front of Plymouth Hoe last Sunday. It is not the sort of thing any owner would want to happen to their yacht if it is worth in excess of three quarters of a million dollars as these are.

Of the three that capsized only one of them actually managed to complete the course. It was the Team Korea yacht that after an incredible nosedive managed to right itself and sail to the finish line. Green Comm was not quite so lucky as it was pushed so hard that even attempting to get some wind into the sails, it flew upright at such a force that it simply crashed over again on the other side losing their chance of completing the race in the ten minutes of time they were given to get underway again.

Fortunately, in both cases there were no serious injuries to crew members just injured feelings for not completing the race successfully even though they were initially doing well. Righting lines to assist with getting the boat the right way up are not compulsory but Team Korea had them in place which most likely saved the day for them.

The series is nearing the semi finals stage after the spectacular event last Sunday and there were a couple of surprises in store when both the two Oracle yachts were beaten by contenders today. Oracle Racing Spithill was to see its last day on the water when Team Korea grabbed the opportunity to take the lead when one of the crew members was attempting to release a jammed jib. Once passing Spithill there was no turning back as they raced to the finish line to take a position in the coming semi final round where they will perform in three races against Artemis Racing. Team Korea had earlier in the day scored three straight wins against the China Team so things are certainly looking good for them

Team New Zealand and Oracle Racing Coutts brought two team captains, who have a long history as former team mates, into the limelight as they raced in the first of the semi finals. This was another knock out for Oracle as Team New Zealand in the third race broke the tie to win outright.

These massive multihull racing yachts are certainly putting on an interesting show for spectators as they line the Hoe in Plymouth to gain good vantage points to watch the yachts going through their paces.

The experience that the yachts and crews are getting in the unpredictable seas that the North Atlantic can brew up is helping to prepare them for the larger million dollar multihull versions that will be sailing in the Louis Vuitton knock out and the final in San Francisco in 2013.

America’s Cup lead up races and challenges are becoming a very popular spectator sport attracting such large crowds that it is providing a much needed boost to host cities’ economies. Hundreds of jobs are expected to be created around the America’s Cup when the challenging boat will meet the defending boat in San Francisco in 2013. More strong winds are expected this weekend and the race organizers are contemplating a course change so that the multi hulls can make the most out of the conditions out on the water,

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by Alison Williams on January 24, 2012 - 0 Comments

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