A song in memory of Claudene Christian, Captain Robin Walbridge, and H.M.S. Bounty with lyrics by Mark Skinner, performed by Mike Whitehead and Tom Harrison.
About a month ago, we posted about the Fireboat John J. Harvey – 2012 Fall Benefit which was originally scheduled for October 22nd. Superstorm Sandy’s arrival the next day, however made rescheduling necessary. It is on again, this Sunday, December 2nd, and it sounds like a great time. The full day benefit for the historic Fireboat John J. Harvey will be held aboard the Historic Lightship Frying Pan on Pier 66 (26th and the Hudson River) in New York.
Special guests include Rosanne Cash and the Queen of the Meatpacking District, Florent Morellet.
There is a ‘family fun’ segment from 3pm to 5pm, and the cocktail party is from 5pm to 7pm. Bid on silent auction items, including 2 gorgeous museum quality prints of Harvey engine room artifacts from esteemed photographer Jean Miele, unique mosaics by artist Judy Negron, gift certificates from a host of wonderful restaurants including the extraordinary ’2nd Floor on Clinton’, a Diane Von Furstenberg bag favored by Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, and Jennifer Beal and more – come to the benefit and help the Harvey win the matching Federal Grant!!
Click here to learn more and buy tickets: John J Harvey Fundraiser
Photo: Mark Hoffman
The SS Badger is a 410-foot long coal-fired passenger and vehicle ferry operating in Lake Michigan on a four hour shuttle service between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She began sailing in 1953 and is the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes. To her admirers, she is a national treasure, while to her detractors, she is an environmental menace that dumps more than 4 tons of toxic coal ash into Lake Michigan daily. The Badger has been operating on an EPA waiver since 2008 that allows it to continue dumping ash. That waiver runs out on December 19, 2012.
As reported by the New York Times, the supporters of the Badger have managed to get language to allow her to continue operation indefinitely included in a bill to continue funding the US Coast Guard.
Here is a wonderful story from Cruising World’s Editor’s Log about the very strange voyage of the 31-foot cruising sailboat, Bela Bartok.
Derk Wolmuth was sailing Bela Bartok in last summer’s Singlehanded TransPac race between San Francisco and Kaua’i, Hawaii when he suffered a life-threatening bout of septic shock and couldn’t continue in the race. He deployed his EPIRB and was rescued by a passing ship, bound for California, about 450 miles short of the finish line. Remarkably, he had the presence of mind to lower the main sail, trim the boat’s jib and set wind-vane self-steering to hold a course for Hawaii, so as Derk was carried east on the cargo ship, the Bela Bartok continued sailing south-west.
An unexpected rescue in the salvage of the Costa Concordia. Scientists discovered rare pinna nobilis mussels at the wreck site and are relocating them so that they are not destroyed by the salvage work. Thanks to Phil Leon for pointing it out.
No one aboard the Titanic took a photograph of the iceberg that sank the famous ship in 1912, but two sailors made sketches of the berg, which had a distinctly elliptical shape. It so happens that two days before, what appears to be the same iceberg was photographed by Captain W.F. Wood of S.S. Etonian as they, unlike the Titanic, passed the berg without hitting it. That photograph is coming up for auction, along with 400 articles of Titanic memorabilia by RR Auction. Bidding opens Dec. 13. The photo of the iceberg is expected to go for $8,000 to $10,000. Thanks to Dave Shirlaw on the Marine History list for pointing it out.
At the end of last September, the New York Times quoted un-named “Chinese and other military experts” regarding the Liaoning, the first Chinese aircraft carrier to go into service, that “China does not have planes capable of landing on the carrier and so far training for such landings has been carried out on land.” That is no longer the case, as the Chinese released video over the weekend of a J-15, Flying Shark, fighter jet landing and taking off on the carrier. Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to the post.
Vincent Riou was forced to retire from the Vendee Globe over the weekend after his boat, PRG, struck a drifting steel buoy, off the coast of South America. Riou had been in third place in the race and was considered a favorite. Riou came in first in the 2004-2005 Vendee Globe. Seven sailors of the orginal fleet of twenty have retired from the race.
Striking floating or partially submerged objects in the water appears to be an increasingly dangerous hazard for sailors. In February 2011, the max-trimaran Banque Populaire V ended an attempt to win the Jules Verne Trophy by sailing the fastest around the world non-stop, when it struck an “unidentifed floating object” and seriously damaged a dagger board while sailing in the South Atlantic. (On its second attempt, Banque Populaire V succeeded in capturing the Cup in January of 2012.)
Far more serious was the sinking of the Irish sail-training brigantine, the Asgard II, off Brittany in 2008. A report by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board determined that a collision with an underwater object, such as a submerged container was the likely cause of the ship sinking. By some estimates, 10,000 shipping containers are lost at sea yearly. Most, though unfortunately no all, sink to the bottom. Some, depending on the cargo can float at or near the surface.
Just six days after Paul Larsen in the Vestas Sailrocket 2 broke the world speed record in Walvis Bay, Namibia, subject to confirmation by WSSRC, he has now sailed a 500 meter course at an average speed of 65.42 knots! This is close to ten knots faster than the previous record set by kiteboarder Rob Douglas of 55.65 knots – a record that stood for two years. In just over a week, the Sailrocket 2 has broken that record three times. The Sailrocket 2 peaked at 68 knots during the record breaking run, sailing in winds of 27 to 32 knots. Yesterday, we posted about the attempt to by the kiteboarding community to reclaim the record. The Sailrocket team has now set the bar very, very high. Thanks to Nunzio for passing on the news.
Sailrocket runs 65.45 knots (75 mph) to smash World Speed Sailing Record
When thinking of sailing speed records, the first vessels that come to mind are Alain Thébault’s hydrofoil trimaran, l’Hydroptere or the aptly named VESTAS Sailrocket 2. Both are highly engineered high tech craft which have been under developement for years. I tend to forget kite sailors, even though, Robert Douglas held the 500M world record for two years, for sailing his kite surfer at 55.65 knots. Now that the Sailrocket appears to have captured the record, the kite sailors are back to try to regain it.
Scientists from Australia have just returned from a voyage of un-discovery. They have proven that Sandy Island, which appears on many nautical charts and on Google Earth and Google Maps, does no exist. The island which is depicted on Google Earth as a dark oval, roughly 14 nautical miles long by 3 miles wide in the Coral Sea between New Caledonia and Australia, simply isn’t there. Instead they found water over 4,600 feet deep. Sany Islad has apparently appeared with some regularity on marine charts since at least 2000. The un-discovery took place onboard the RV Southern Surveyor, Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel, during a 25-day research trip in the eastern Coral Sea. Thanks to Alaric Bond, Phil Leon and Erik Abranson for pointing the storyout.
In the United States, today is celebrated as Thanksgiving, commermorating a 1621 feast of thanks-giving at the Plymouth colony in present-day Massachusetts. The year before in November of 1620 the ship Mayflower had carried a group of just over 100 English and Dutch Separatists, known as Pilgrims, across the Atlantic to the new colony. Here is a short video about the Mayflower II, a replica of the original built in Devon, England, in a collaboration between Warwick Charlton and the Plimoth Plantation. On April 20, 1957, Mayflower II recreated the original voyage, sailing across the Atlantic under the command of Alan Villiers.
Zbigniew Gutikowski
The six boats leading in the Vendée Globe non-stop round-the-world single-handed yacht race have all crossed the equator and are heading for the Southern Ocean. The leaders are, respectively – Armel Le Cléac´h, François Gabart, Bernard Stamm, Vincent Riou, Jean-Pierre Dick, and Alex Thomson. Meanwhile, Zbigniew Gutikowski, known as ‘Gutek,’ has retired from the race after facing repeated autopilot failures. ‘Gutek’ is the sixth of the original 20 racers to have retired from the race in the first eleven days of sailing. ‘Gutek’ came in second overall in the 2010-2011 Velux Five Oceans singlehanded around the world race.
HMS Astute, the first of seven new submarines, was delivered two years late, was well over budget and thus far is not yet in service, despite being delivered in 2009. Her career has been marked by elements of both comedy and tragedy. In October 2010, the Astute was practicing dropping off commandos when it ran aground off Skye in full view of the Skye Bridge. Embarrassing and not very stealthy. When it was towed off, it collided with a tug boat. Then on her first day back at sea following repairs, she broke down and had to be towed back to port. In April of 2011, a sailor aboard the Astute killed on officer and wounder another in a shooting rampage during a goodwill visit to Southhampton. Only a month later, the sub was gain under tow back to port after a major hydraulic failure.
It s now being reported that the submarine cannot maintain design speed and could have trouble keeping up with the fleet that it is supposed to protect. There have also been reports of flooding during a routine dive, corrosion in equipment, nuclear reaction monitoring instruments of the wrong type and concerns that the periscope is flawed.
HMS Astute: nuclear submarine beset by design problems and construction failures
Update: On Sunday, the VESTAS Sailrocket 2 set a new speed record for 500M of 59.38 knots and a new one nautical mile record of an average of 55.32 knots. Both records are subject to confirmed by the WSSRC. The current holder of the nautical mile record is Alain Thébault on l’Hydroptère at 51.36 knots in Hyères, France, set in September 4, 2009. If confirmed, the Sailrocket 2 will have beaten that record by almost 4 knots.
Vestas Sailrocket 2 Blitzes 500 Metre Record
Last year, we posted about the attempts by the VESTAS Sailrocket to break the sailing speed record. On Friday off Ludertiz, Namibia, they did just that over a 500M course, averaging 59.23 knots (109.69 Kmh, 68 Mph) with a peak speed of over 63 knots (116 Kph, 71 Mph). The record is still subject to World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC) ratification. The previous kiteboard record was 55.65 knots set by Rob Douglas in 2010. A video of the record speed run:
VESTAS Sailrocket 2 Outright world speed sailing record holder. (subject to WSSRC ratification)