Sailing Ship A on trials
In August we wrote about Dream Symphony, which, for a brief period, looked as if it would be the largest sailing sailing in the world at 463 feet (141m) long. Now a slightly larger sailing yacht at 147 meters has emerged from the Nobiskrug yard in Northern Germany. The yacht, built for Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, has three of the tallest freestanding carbon-fiber masts ever built, each over 100 meters tall and weighing 50 tonnes each. When completed sometime this year, the yacht will have 8 decks and will feature a glass underwater observation area. The cost of the new yacht is estimated to be more than $400 million.
While the vessel may be the largest sailing yacht ever built, it is by no means the most attractive and may just possibly have the worst name. While under construction the code name used was White Pearl. It appears that the actual name will be Sailing Yacht A. Melnichenko’s current 394 foot long motor yacht was originally named simply A, but is now designated Motor Yacht A. The name is said to be from the initials of its owner Andrey and his wife Aleksandra.
This is one of those great “only in New York” events. Next Thursday, 
The coastal cargo ketch 
In the summer of 1995, a group of lovers of the music of the sea got together on the deck of the windjammer 
For several years we have followed; virtually, if not literally; the travels of 
I have a definite love-hate relationship with 
When Matt Brooks and his wife Pam Rorke Levy bought the 52ft yawl 
This morning was overcast and threatening rain on the West bank of the Hudson River. Fourteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, it was a sunny, clear day. A Nor’westerly wind was blowing and the air was cool and crisp. That morning, I got a frantic call from my wife who had left for work not too long before. Something terrible had happened in the World Trade Center. She had been on the mezzanine of One World Trade Center when the first plane hit. I left our house and walked literally around the corner to see an ugly black plume of smoke streaming almost horizontally from the North Tower. A few minutes later, while walking with neighbors toward the waterfront, I saw the second plane hit the South tower followed by a billowing orange plume of flame erupting from the opposite side of the building an instant later.
Last Sunday, a 
In her long and varied career, the historic cutter