This is a wonderful half-hour documentary hosted by Tom Cunliffe about Jolie Brise. Jolie Brise is a gaff-rigged pilot cutter/racing yacht built and launched by the Albert Paumelle Yard in Le Havre in 1913 to a design by Alexandre Pâris. … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has reached a coal transport deal with Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc., which will use a new 99,000 DWT collier equipped with a retractable wing sail propulsion system, known as the Wind Challenger. Construction of … Continue reading
The US Navy has selected Captain Amy Bauernschmidt as the first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Capt. Bauernschmidt was selected for the position by the fiscal year 2022 aviation major command screen board. It has not been announced … Continue reading
Yesterday afternoon saw unusual traffic on the Hudson River in New York’s inner harbor. A humpback whale was seen swimming in the Hudson, off Pier 84, on Monday afternoon. The whale is no stranger to New York waters. Gotham Whale‘s … Continue reading
Last week, the container ship ONE Apus lost or had damaged over 1,900 containers in a storm in the Pacific. The lost or damaged containers representing close to 25% of the ship’s cargo. The casualty represents more containers than are … Continue reading
An interrupted broadcast of a football game, a newsbreak during a performance by the New York Philharmonic, a weather report followed by an announcement from President Roosevelt that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Reports of attacks on the Philippines. Here … Continue reading
The one-year-old, 14,000 TEU capacity container ship, ONE Apus, has set a dubious new record. It encountered severe weather about 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii while sailing from Yantian in China to Long Beach, California. In the violent storm, … Continue reading
On December 2, Initiatives-Coeur, being sailed by Sam Davies off South Africa in the Vendee Globe Race, came to a crashing halt. Davies describes the collision: “ It was as if I had run aground on a rock at the … Continue reading
Of the 33 IMOCAs which started the Vendee Globe Race, four have officially abandoned. Two, Hugo Boss and Arkea Paprec, were damaged after striking Unidentified Floating Objects (UFOs). A third boat, Sam Davies’ Initiatives Coeur was also damaged by a … Continue reading
Unidentified Floating Objects (UFOs) continue to take their toll on the Vendee Globe Race fleet. Yesterday, Sam Davies, sailing Initiatives Coeur, and Sébastien Simon, sailing Arkea Paprec, each hit UFOs which seriously damaged their boats. Davies reports: “I was sailing … Continue reading
The US Navy has decided to scrap the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, which burned for more than four days this summer in San Diego. The cost and time required to rebuild the gutted ship would be simply too great to … Continue reading
High drama on the high seas. Kevin Escoffier was in third place in the Vendee Globe Race, sailing in the “Roaring Forties” about 840 miles south of Cape Town, when his boat PRB broke in half. He sent a brief … Continue reading
For the last four years, the “Lost Colony” replica 16th-century ship Elizabeth II has been stuck in Manteo, NC. The ship, with a draft of 8 feet, has not been able to leave the harbor because the channel has not … Continue reading
After leading the fleet in the early days of the race, Alex Thomson, sailing on the IMCO 60 Hugo Boss, has withdrawn from the Vendee Globe single-handed around the world race. Thomson has diverted to Cape Town, South Africa after … Continue reading
Yesterday, we posted about a head to head race between trimarans Sodebo and Maxi Edmond de Rothschild/Gitana 17 attempting to win the Jules Verne Trophy. While the race for the trophy is against the clock, the two boats that sailed within hours … Continue reading
Early Wednesday, two 100′ long foiling maxi-trimarans, Sodebo and Maxi Edmond de Rothschild/Gitana 17 set out to race around the globe to attempt to win the Jules Verne Trophy. Sailing within hours of each other, Sodebo crossed the starting line, which … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving for those on this side of the pond and below the 49th parallel. (The Canadians celebrated the holiday in October.) Here is a repost of a story I think is well worth retelling. Thanksgiving is one of the … Continue reading
After being delayed by hurricanes, the pandemic, and a broken link in the cutting chain, the heavy-lift catamaran VB-10,000, nicknamed the “Golden Arches” is now making good progress on the first cut to slice the stricken car carrier, Golden Ray … Continue reading
Will Van Dorp, host of the Tugster blog, recently saw an odd craft on the Hudson River, heading up into the Morris Canal Big Basin toward Liberty Landing Marina. It appeared to be a catamaran with a rather blocky deckhouse … Continue reading
Communication technology these days is an absolute marvel. Alex Thomson, who led the fleet for most of the first two weeks of the Vendee Globe race, is now slowing down to make repairs to the damaged longitudinal structure in the … Continue reading