Messing About In Sailboats

Support the Beagle

Link: The Beagle Project Blog. Whether you are an "evolutionist", "creationist" or "don't-have-a-strong-point-of-viewist", Charles Darwin's voyage in the Beagle to the Galapagos is one of the most important sailing voyages in history. A British group Called Project Beagle aims to re-create the voyage of the Beagle by building a replica and sailing it to the Galapagos with a group of young students. They plan to do it in 2009, to celebrate the bicentennial of Darwin's birth. You can keep tabs on them at their blog. Most importantly you can donate to the fund through Peter McGrath's paypal account one of the organizers. I have made a donation and if you feel as passionate about what they are trying to do as I do, I encourage you to make donation too. They need the help! Read more →

Fish on Tuesdays for Horse's Mouth

It can happen to the best of us

My wife and I recently had dinner with some sailing friends who own a Feeling 36, made by Kirie in France. A really beautiful boat that they cruise out of New Jersey. They used to race her and the skipper, Ted, is a veteran of several Round The Island races (The Long one next to the Big Apple that is not the small one southwest of Pompey). It's a 2-3 day race involving offshore racing in the Atlantic, some tricky currents and long reach back down Long Island Sound (here is a map). Over dinner, he told us a great story from one of his Round the Island adventures. For this race, he had lined up a 8 other crew including 4-5 guys who could helm. Unfortunately 2 of the more experienced crew were no-shows so they started the race with skipper + 6. The initial sailing down the south... Read more →

Cap'n Zizou

As seen on Capn' JP's blog, the former skipper of the French soccer team, Zinedine Zidane is now becoming a sailor. Can we look forward to him headbutting Larry Ellison in the the chest? We can only hope. c/o Yachting World "France's most famous sportsman sprinkled some celebrity stardust on a new solo yacht yesterday and promised to get his feet wet. Zinedine Zidane unveiled a new Open 60 being built for the Vendée Globe race for Breton sailor Yann Elies and 'Zizou', as he's known in France, vowed to be back for the baptism of the boat in May and spend a night at sea on board. The boat, sponsored by French insurance company Groupe Generali, is one of 16 new Open 60s destined for the next solo round the world race. Her designers, Groupe Finot, fell out of fashion during the last race cycle but they boast four... Read more →

Loch Etive towards Ben Cruachan

c/o bbc.co.uk Read more →