Congratulations to all the racers in this year’s Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. In last year’s race, Woodwind, Heron and Prom Queen, the top three Class A schooners (from 40′ to less than 50′) all beat the elapsed and corrected time of the … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
“All is Lost” a new film by J. C. Chandor, starring Robert Redford is about a solo sailor whose 39-foot sail boat is struck by a floating shipping container while 1,700 miles off the Sunda Strait and which later sinks in … Continue reading
The composite clipper ship, City of Adelaide, which had been renamed HMS Carrick, was officially renamed the City of Adelaide once at a ceremony on the River Thames at Greenwich near London. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was accidentally … Continue reading
Toward the end of September, we posted about Matson’s molasses spill in Hawaii and then the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. We would be remiss if we did not also post about the London Beer Flood which occurred on … Continue reading
The Parade of Sail in the 2013 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race starts in a few minutes from Canton, MD in Baltimore harbor. The race begins tomorrow at 1330 just south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis and ends 127 nautical miles … Continue reading
Oar fish are real “sea serpents.” They can grow to be 50′ long and are the longest bony fish in the world. As they live in deep water, they are rarely seen on the surface. Nevertheless, over the weekend, Jasmine Santana, … Continue reading
Monitor HMS M33, only surviving warship from the Gallipoli campaign of World War I, has received £1.79m from the UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund to allow the ship to be restored in time for the 100th anniversary of the campaign. GALLIPOLI … Continue reading
This sounds like the title of a made-for-TV movie from the SyFy channel. JEROS, Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm, are jellyfish-shredding semi-autonomous robots designed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to round up jellyfish in nets and shred thousands … Continue reading
How far can you sail in a straight line without hitting land? The answer appears to be an almost 20,000 mile voyage from Pakistan to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The red line on the map, above, shows the voyage. OK, … Continue reading
For the second time in roughly a week, a smuggler’s boat overloaded with migrants from Africa has capsized in the Mediterranean off Sicily, near the island of Lampedusa. At least 27 died, but 221 were rescued from the water. The … Continue reading
For anyone in the New York Area I will be speaking at the New York Shiplore and Model-makers Club on Tuesday night at 7:30 PM on the “AC72 and the Evolution of the America’s Cup.” The AC72 catamarans which raced in … Continue reading
Two years ago during Cowes Race Week, the skipper of a 33′ sailboat cut across the bow of the 120,000 dwt tanker, Hanne Knutson, traveling down channel. It did not end well. The boat was dismasted. Fortunately, no one died, … Continue reading
We recently posted Pedaling on the Water which featured various versions of frames with inflatable pontoons on which one could bolt a bicycle and pedal across the water. I recently came across a very different take on traveling by boat … Continue reading
The schooner American Eagle is for sale. I have long been an admirer of the American Eagle from afar. She was the the last fishing schooner built in Gloucester in 1930. After a long career, the old and tired … Continue reading
According to the folks at the National Aquarium, today is the tenth annual celebration of World Octopus Day. Strange that I didn’t have it marked on my calendar. In honor of this auspicious eight-legged holiday we are reposting a a … Continue reading
John F. Lehman and Christopher M. Lehman have a new plan to save the historic but endangered USS Olympia in Philadelphia. John John F. Lehman served as secretary of the Navy and Christopher M. Lehman served as special assistant for national … Continue reading
A intriguing time lapse of the construction of a Maersk 18,000 TEU 400 meter long container ship. Building the Triple-E … Continue reading
In April, we posted about the Vermont Sail Freight Project, a plan to build a sailing cargo barge to carry non-perishable produce down Lake Champlain to the Hudson River and onward to markets along the river and in New York City. … Continue reading
Recently, a young designer, Judah Schiller, generated considerable attention by riding his bike first across San Francisco Bay and then across the Hudson River in New York City. He didn’t sink during either trip because his bike was clamped to … Continue reading
At least 130 African refugees have died and 200 are still missing after an overloaded boat caught fire and sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. More than 150 of the migrants have been rescued. Most of those on board were … Continue reading