The CBC’s program “Land and Sea” broadcast their documentary “Concordia: Tall Ship Down” today, focusing on the knockdown and sinking of the SV Concordia. It can be watched on-line at the link below. The documentary doesn’t answer the outstanding questions about the sinking, but is a fascinating account by those onboard when the ship was hit by what many believe was a microburst.
In September, we posted that the Gipsy Moth IV, the famous yacht sailed by Sir Francis Chichester singlehanded around the world was for sale. Last week, it was reported that two anonymous donors donated more than £250,000 to the United Kingdom Sailing Academy (UKSA), the charity that owns the yacht, to allow it to continue to sail the Gipsy Moth IV to help train young sailors.
The 150 windowless inside staterooms on the new 4,000 passenger cruise ship, Disney Dream, will have something unusual – virtual portholes. High def cameras pointing port, starboard, fore and aft will transmit the appropriate view to the cabin “port holes” which is actually a 42 inch video monitor. Sounds like a great idea. What I am not sure about is the addition of “Disney magic” which will added composited images of various Disney characters flying by the port hole from time to time. Personally a view of the ocean is just fine without Goofy, Peter Pan or Dumbo floating by. But that is just me. The Disney Dream goes into service in January 2011.
MV Samho Dream
The MV Samho Dream, a Korean VLCC, and its crew of five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos, was ransomed for $9.5 million dollars. It had by hijacked by Somali pirates last April. The MV Golden Blessing, a Singaporean chemical tanker, with its 23 Chinese crew, was also ransomed for a report $2.8 million.
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The 36 meter steel schooner Noorderlicht celebrates her one hundredth birthday this year. With ten double cabins for passengers, she cruises along the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the summer and coastal Norway in the Autumn. Her winter employment is what makes her remarkable, however. In February, the Noorderlicht is allowed to freeze in the ice of the Tempelfjorden, a fjord on the island of Spitzberg. Here she serves as a hotel on the ice for hearty travelers who arrive by dog sled. The trips are organized by Base Camp Explorer.
Kevin Rushby writes about a visit to the Noorderlicht in this morning’s Guardian. Thanks to Tom Russell of the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-In group for pointing out the article.
The Penobscot Marine Museum is seeking submissions from artists in all visual media for a juried art exhibit entitled “The Art of the Boat.” The show will examine the artistic aspects of boat design and construction, and will run from May through October 2011.
From the Museum press release:
“This exhibit will explore the boat as art and the boatbuilder as artist,” said the museum’s curator, Ben Fuller. “We will look for the artist’s interpretation of the boatbuilder’s art through studies of shape, form, structure and details.”
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Modern technology has revolutionized single handled ocean racing in so many ways for both sailors and spectators. The five sailors in the Velux Five Oceans race not only face all the hazards of the sea as they sail singlehanded around the world, but are also blogging, taking photographs and videotaping their exploits to entertain web-potatoes around the world. (A web-potato is similar to a couch-potato except that a web-potato sits in front of a computer rather than a television.)
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Photo: Newspix/Rex Features
Andy Irons, three time world champion surfer, was found dead in his hotel room in Dallas on Tuesday. He had been scheduled to compete in the Rip Curl Pro Search in Puerto Rico but became ill, reportedly with a bout of dengue fever, which he had contracted at an earlier event. He was on his way back to his home in Hawaii. On Wednesday, the Association of Surfing Professionals, Rip Curl event organizers and pro surfers unanimously decided to postpone competition until Friday out of respect for his memory.
Andy Irons – Top Hawaiian surfer and three times world champion
Julien Berthier is a sculptor and a conceptual artist. His work titled “Love, Love” is not in fact a sinking sailboat, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. Bertheir started with a 6.5 meter yacht which he cut in half and added a new keel to allow the boat to remain upright while appearing to be sinking. The modified vessel/sculpture also has a motor, so it can move around, no doubt startling everyone everywhere it goes. There is a photograph of “Love, Love” out of the water as well as a video of the craft after the jump.
Carter Fish Company by N. Rauam
A wonderful show by Naima Rauam. It captures everything about the old market with the possible exception of the smell of fish.
Fifth Annual Remembering Fulton Fish Market Art Exhibit 2010
The Boston Globe has an interesting interview with Geoffrey Wolff, who has written a new biography of Joshua Slocum, The Hard Way Around: The Passages of Joshua Slocum. The book also got a rave review by Nathaniel Phibrick in the New York Times Sunday Book Section.
While the biography sounds intiguing, reading the interview made me want to go back to reread Slocum’s classic Sailing Alone Around the World. Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone in1897 in his 37-foot sloop, the Spray. He wrote Sailing Alone Around the World, a masterpiece of nautical literature, in 1900 on the return from his epic voyage.
From the Boston Globe interview:
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Photo: Shaun O'Boyle
The Witte boneyard, often referred to as New York’s graveyard of ships, usually sits unnoticed on the shore of Staten Island on the Arthur Kill in a far corner of New York harbor. In the last week, however, it has appeared in the media twice – as a set on a network crime show and as a podcast on a local radio station. On this week’s CSI:NY (Do Not Pass Go – Season 7, Edisode 6) , a television show about crime scene investigators in New York City, a murderer hid a body on an abandoned ship in the Witte Boneyard on Staten Island. Through the wonder of editing, the scene inside the ship was shot on the windjammer Peking, tied up at South Street Seaport. Sadly, the interior of the Peking looks no better than the exterior shots of the ship graveyard, which is obviously why the ship was chosen as a set. (This takes place at about the 38 minute mark of the episode.)
Then a local radio station, WNYC, featured the salvage yard in a pre-Halloween podcast. Click on the red arrow below to listen.
The Witte Boneyard: A Different Kind of Graveyard
Along the lower part of Staten Island’s Arthur Kill waterway, historic ships rot and rust in the mud.
This is satire, though given the rather drastic cuts in the Royal Navy budget, it doesn’t feel too far off the mark. From News Biscuit:
HMS Victory to replace Trident and Ark Royal
HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, is to be brought back into service, replacing Trident and the Ark Royal.
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4th Mumbai International Match Race Begins Today
The city of Mumbai with its great maritime history adds an exciting new event – the West Coast Marine 4th Mumbai International Match Race 2010.
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The Thames sailing barge Cambria was built in Greenhithe, Kent in 1906. Remarkably, she kept sailing and carrying commercial cargo under sail alone until 1970. She is now undergoing a complete restoration by the Cambria Trust with major funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. They are still, however, in need of sponsors to ensure a complete and full restoration.
The British Maritime And Coastguard Agency has reported that the sail-training vessel, Fryderyk Chopin, has been secured to a buoy in Falmouth harbour, Cornwall, and the crew of 47, including 36 cadets, aged between 14 and 16, has been taken ashore.
The calendar has been out since July, but I only got around to ordering mine yesterday.
Thad Koza’s Tall Ships 2011 calendar features SAGRESs II, JOLIE BRISE, PICTON CASTLE, WESTWARD, BOUNTY, EUROPA, the schooner THOMAS E LANNON, and five other tall ships. Beautiful photogaphy of glorious ships.
Last Thursday, Bulgaria’s defence ministry lifted the ban on women serving aboard Bulgarian submarines. Also on Thursday, the Bulgarian parliament voted to moth-ball the only Bulgarian submarine.
The Falls of Clyde, built in 1878, is the only surviving iron-hulled four-masted full rigged ship and the only surviving sail-driven oil tanker in the world. After years of neglect by the Bishop Museum, the ship has been taken over by Friends of the Falls of Clyde, a wonderfully dedicated group of volunteers, who are working hard maintaining the ship and struggling to raise the money needed to restore her. Fortunately, the ship is good structural condition and an excellent candidate for restoration.
The Friends of the Falls of Clyde have been nominated to receive a grant from Hampton Hotels “Save-A-Landmark” program. The project which receives the most votes gets the funding. The voting will continue through the end of November. Please vote now for the Falls of Clyde. Click here to vote . It costs nothing and could do a world of good. The Falls of Clyde is truly a ship worth saving.
Brig Fryderyk Chopin
Update: UK coast guard: Polish teen sailors safe after their ship loses both masts
A group of teenage sailors whose ship was drifting at sea after it lost both masts in gale-force winds is safe from harm, coast guards said Friday, and the vessel was to be towed to a British port for repairs.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said that the Fryderyk Chopin, a tall ship used to train young Polish sailors, is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Britain’s Isles of Scilly. The crew of 47 is mostly made up of 14-year-old cadets.
There have been no injuries reported and the Royal Navy has stood down their search and rescue helicopters, which are returning to base.
The brig Fryderyk Chopin, a Polish sail training ship with 47 aboard, lost one of its two masts during a severe gale this morning off the Isles of Scilly.
Fryderyk Chopin, Polish Training Vessel, loses mast
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