Last Friday, 19 schooners sailed from the starting line near the Breakwater Lighthouse in Rockland, Me out into Penobscott, Bay and then into Camden, Me, for the 36th annual Great Windjammer Race. After the breakneck speeds of America’s Cup catamarans, the stately pace of the old schooners is almost soothing. The race is sponsored yearly by the Maine Windjammer Association. Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing along the article.
Great Windjammer Race: A perfect day on the bay
After fifteen years of work, the replica of the frigate L’Hermione was launched yesterday into the Charente River in Rochefort, France. The original frigate L’Hermione, on March 21, 1780, carried the the 23 year old Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, to America with the then secret news that France was committing 5,500 men and five frigates to help George Washington and his forces in the revolution against Great Britain.
To say that this will be a busy weekend on the New England waterfront may be an understatement. Following the 4th of July festivities in Boston, OpSail 2012 CT starts today in New London, CT, with an impressive fleet of ships. Only about 50 miles away, the Ocean State Tall Ships Festival 2012 in Newport, Rhode Island, also starts today. The Newport festival also has an impressive fleet attending. Both festivals run today through Monday. Exactly why anyone though that it was a good idea to schedule two tall ship festivals on the same weekend, 50 miles apart is not clear. Fortunately either festival is a good choice.
Silverton 34, a similar motor yacht to the Kandi Won which capsized on July 4th
We have blogged too often about the loss of life after overcrowded boats capsized off Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Papau New Guinea. This week was sad reminder that the problem of overloaded boats is not limited to the developing world. On Wednesday evening a group of 27 people went out in the the Kandi Won, a 34 foot long Silverton motor yacht, to watch the Fourth of July fireworks over Long Island Sound, near Oyster Bay. Shortly after the fireworks were over, at around 10PM, the yacht was hit by a wave and capsized. Twenty four people were pulled from the water, but three children; a 12-year-old boy, his 11-year-old cousin and an 8-year-old girl; were drowned in the boat’s cabin.
The motor yacht is being raised today from where it sank off the mouth of Oyster Bay, in 60′ feet of water. The investigation into the cause of f the tragedy is ongoing.
Three kids drowned trapped inside the cabin when their yacht capsized on July 4 in Oyster Bay
The Navy’s Floating Instrument Platform, better known as FLIP, went into service fifty years ago, in 1962. The 355-foot research vessel is capable of operating horizontally as a conventional, if somewhat odd-looking, ship. When on station, however, it “flips” vertically 90 degrees and becomes the equivalent of a massive spar buoy. Because the hydrodynamic forces act primarily on the bottom of the vessel, which is far below the surface waves, the ship is highly stable in heavy seas and up to 80′ waves.
In a previous Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for 2009-2013, the U.S. Navy estimated that 150,000 marine mammals could be harmed in sonar training and testing exercises. Now in the EIS for 2014-2018, Navy estimates have soared, suggesting that sonar training and testing might unintentionally harm marine mammals 2.8 million times a year over five years, including deafening 15,900 whales and dolphins and killing 1,800 more over the next five years, in testing in Hawaii, off the California and Atlantic Coasts, and in the Gulf of Mexico.
To sign a petition opposing the Navy’s plans, click here. Time is short. All comments are due by July 10, 2012, so please sign the petition today
Happy 4th of July! Those of us in the United States celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776. Immediately after declaring independence from Great Britain, the representatives in the Continental Congress drank a toast with glasses of Madeira wine.
Why Madiera? It was virtually the only wine available in the American colonies at the time. Wine carried by sailing ship was often spoiled in transit by the constant jostling of the ship and the wide variations of heat and cold. Wine from the island of Madeira, however, was fortified with a small amount of sugar cane brandy to help it survive the ocean voyage. Not only did the fortified wine survive the voyage but it was found that the heat and motion of the ship actually improved the quality of the wine.
For several years now cruise ships fans have been concerned that the 2008 debt crunch in Dubai would result in the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 being sold for scrap instead of being converted to a luxury hotel, as had been the plan when she was purchased by Dubai investment company Istithmar for $100 million. On Monday, it was announced that the ship would be converted to a more modest 300 room hotel. Originally a 1,000 room facility had been planned. The ship will also not be moored at Nakheel’s Palm Jumeirah, the emirate’s famous palm-shaped island, but instead would be tied up at the Port Rashid cruise terminal in a commercial district a considerable distance from the more tourist-friendly neighbourhoods. For classic cruise ship fans, the good news is that large portion of the ship will remain unrenovated.
Dubai unveils more modest plans for QE2 hotel
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We recently posted about OpSail 2012 and Boston’s weeklong celebration of the USS Constitution and the bicentennial of the War of 1812. The USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides” after British round shot bounced off her oak planks, is the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat. In honor of the grand old ship, here is a wonderful newsreel from the 1950s about USS Constitution.
Extremely disturbing news coming out of Italy regarding the Costa Concordia, which ran aground and sank off the island of Giglio on January 13, 2012 with the deaths of at least 30 passengers. If the reports prove to be true, the ship was sailing with open watertight doors, doors which were required to be closed prior to sailing, when she ran aground. There are also reports that the ship’s so called “black box” had not been functioning for days prior to the collision, that this was not the first time that the black box had failed and that the company was aware that the device required repair.
About a year ago, we posted Towing Icebergs – an Idea Whose Time is Still Coming?, where we pointed out that the latest proposal to tow icebergs from the Arctic or Antarctic to supply fresh water, was similar to plans that dated from the late 1970s. We should have gone much father back. Alexis Madrigal, writing in the Atlantic Monthly, describes the various schemes and dreams of moving bergs at least through 1825. Most of these schemes were failures, but not all. My favorite was an apparently successful venture towing small icebergs from southern Chile to Valparaiso to provide refrigeration to local breweries. “Sometimes the icebergs were supplied with sails to utilize the prevailing winds.” Thanks to Phil Leon for pointing out the article.
The Many Failures and Few Successes of Zany Iceberg Towing Schemes
Mississippi lawyer John Arthur Eaves is supposed to be good at his job and is, by reputation, a pretty smart fellow. He recently filed a law suit claiming that the Costa Concordia was “defectively designed,” a ” floating coffin,” had a “propensity … to roll and list” and was dangerous “because of the maze-effect within the vessel…” I am not a lawyer, but as a naval architect, I can say with a fair degree of confidence that Mr. Eaves does not know the first thing about ship stability.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken the bold step of announcing that “no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.” In other words, mermaids aren’t real! Something is fishy here. On the other hand, the government has also denied the existence of space aliens, yet how else can one explain Donald Trump?
All joking aside, why did NOAA, a government agency with presumably better things to do, find it necessary to make such an announcement?
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Arthur Sewall, a shipbuilder, shipowner and industrialist from Bath Maine, is quoted near the turn of the 20th century, saying, “As long as the wind blows and water flows there will be sailing ships built and business to keep them busy.” Is the great age of commercial sail now just part of history, or are we merely passing through a short-lived era of fossil fuels, which will be brought to a close by scarcity and concerns about pollution and climate change?
This question was brought to mind by a series of articles last month (see also here and here) about the sailing ship design being developed by B9 Shipping. In many respects the information in the articles is not new. We posted about the B9 Project in October of 2010. Nevertheless, new publicity for the modern sailing ship design is all for the good.
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A fascinating short film dating from 1935. From the notes: This film is tricky to describe: is it a boat study, a film-poem, an experiment, a picture postcard? One thing is certain: it’s a rare colour snapshot of the Thames and London in the 1930s – and it looks quite magical.
For those in trouble at sea, technology has dramatically increased the chances of survival. Satellite phones, GPS transducers, EPIRBs and the like have made it possible to call for help across the vastness of the world’s oceans. Some things haven’t changed however. When help arrives, chances are, it will be a merchant seafarer who comes to the rescue.
This Wednesday, when a distress call went out from a boat overloaded with asylum seekers bound for Australia’s Christmas Island, the first vessel on the scene was the Bison Express, a cattle carrier. Within a few hours, two other merchant vessels also arrived. Four of the refugees died, but 134 were saved by the crews of the merchant ships.
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We posted yesterday about Sailing for Couch Potatoes, or how to watch the America’s Cup Races without leaving your couch. NBC, for example, is broadcasting the America’s Cup World Series Finale on Sunday.
The New York Times this morning featured an article describing briefly how the Cup Races are receiving the “television treatment” including the electronic placement of racing information, including starting lines and way points, live on the televised image of the race itself. This is similar to how the line of scrimmage and first-down line magically appear on the televised field during football games. Indeed, Stan Honey, who developed the technology for football, has been hired by the America’s Cup organization.
Ville D’Aquarius
The story began around 3AM Wednesday morning, when a US Coast Guard boarding team, conducting a random sweep on the container ship Ville D’Aquarius, near Sandy Hook, just outside New York harbor, heard a knocking sound which appeared to be coming from somewhere in the ship’s containerized cargo. The Ville D’Aquarius is a 1996 built CMA-CGM container ship with a 2,807 TEU capacity. When she was boarded she was reported to have had aboard 2,039 containers.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Fannie Wilks reported that the officers tapped in a container area of the ship. “They heard tapping back and it continued for six hours, but it became weaker and weaker, the sound, until it went away,” Wilks said. The tapping began to fade, she said, as the boat came into the Port of Newark. “That’s when the tapping finally went away, and they didn’t hear anything back,” she said. Coast Guard spokesman Charles Rowe said, “They heard sounds that were consistent with people being inside a container.”
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Another in the series from Seafarers UK in observation of Seafarers Awareness Week. If world trade is going to continue to grow, we will more well trained seafarers. Seafarers UK is a major supporter of Sea Cadets.
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Back in the old days, the America’s Cup was sailed in 12 Meter yachts in the often misty light air of Rhode Island Sound. It was a competition more suited to still photography than video. How times have changed. Now elimination matches are being sailed in AC 45s in the East Passage, directly off Newport, Rhode Island. Click here for the program. And if you cannot make it to Newport for the races that start today, you can watch the action from the comfort of your couch. NBC will be broadcasting the finale of the series at 14.30 EDT on Sunday, July 1st. In California, Comcast Sports will also boradcast live racing each day, as well as a full replay at 2100 PDT. Globally, the coverage is available on more than 35 networks including Mediaset in Italy, Canal+ in France, SkySports in the UK, Supersport in South Africa, Rogers Sportsnet in Canada, OSN across the Middle-East, Fox Sports in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand. Live webcasts will also available on the internet. Would someone please pass the potato chips?
AMERICA’S CUP WORLD SERIES FINALE COMES TO NBC
America’s Cup World Series 2011-2012: Television and Internet Schedule