Messing About In Sailboats

Storm Sailing - Skip Novak on Shortening Sail In A Blow

Storm Sail Vs Fourth Reef -- Interesting! Read more →

A Great Act Of Seamanship

Congratulations Conrad Colman for being awarded the Berrimilla Seamanship Trophy for an Outstanding Act of Seamanship. From RORC "Last presented in 2005 to Berrimilla, the Seamanship Trophy is not annually awarded but earned by those who perform outstanding acts of seamanship. This year the winner is one who stood up and faced the situation that nightmares are made of. A Two-Handed entry in the Global Ocean Race, Cessna Citation was leading the fleet in Leg Two when Sam Goodchild went forward to complete a sail change in rapidly deteriorating conditions, unclipped to save time. By the time he saw the wave coming it was too late for him to do anything to save himself and in seconds he was swept into the water. To make the crisis yet more critical Sam was also not wearing a lifejacket and his layers of foul weather gear and boots started to fill with... Read more →

My Favorite App - Marine Traffic AIS on iPhone

My favorite new app is Marine Traffic. (Actually it's not that new just new for me). Basically it gives you AIS on your iPhone or iPad. So long as you are within range of a cell tower you can get full details of vessels within range. It's good on the iPhone and awesome on the iPad. Here are some screen shots. Basically, you use the map to see ships in your area, touch the icon to see detailed information about the vessel. It's availble for iPhone and Droid. Read more →

News From The Bow - Great Perspective on the Costa Concordia

This month's News From The Bow is a good one including reviews of the NY Boat Showand the Sea Joule solar-powered bilge pump, how to "un-document a vessel", an outlook on this season, last but not least an especially thoughtful article by good mate, Stu Hochron, on the Costa Concordia. Here is an excerpt: Crisis at sea, like most disasters, is the result of not one, but many poor decisions. One or more of these poor decisions in and of themselves, may go unnoticed for years aboard a ship. Unfortunately, once ignored, poor management choices often become standard operating procedures. At the current time, without the benefit of a formal inquiry, we know the following about bridge resource management aboard the Costa Concordia: Prior successful “fly-by’s” in the same waters provided the Captain with a false sense of security No passenger safety briefing took place A proper alert to the... Read more →

Costa Concordia - One week later

Photos by Carlo Borlenghi taken from Giglio Island, one week after the accident. Read more →