Search results

Maybe... ;-) It's tough to get away with my new business responsibilities....

Sounds like fun, Gust. Good luck to the Pen Bay team!

In light of this thread, it will be interesting to see how the next iteration of the Volvo Ocean Race makes out, given that all of the boats are supplied by the race organization -- thus tightly controlling the equipment and (presumably) taking some of the pressures off in the...

So what are you saying? It should be cat 4 because the lake doesn't qualify as open water, or maybe cat 2 because when you are half-way across, 33 miles from either shore, you are not protected or close (enough) to the shore? I think one of the problems with the categories is that there are no...

Take with you whatever the official courtesy flag is, and then once you get there buy from the locals whatever they think the appropriate flag is (e.g. "Saltires in Scotland, Welsh flags in Wales and St Piran's crosses in Cornwal").

Indeed! Good Job, BJ (&K)

Did someone say thread drift?

Agreed. Evans, one thing about the published mountaineering death rates is that they are comparing the number of climbers who died in the attempt only to the number of climbers who successfully reached the summit (and came back down), not to the total number of climbers who started out from base...

Nice to see the death ratio down from 10% to only 3.6% on Everest (and only 1.2% for 2013!) -- which means only 1 person has died in the attempt for every 28 people that made it to the summit (on average). I wonder what the death ratio is for non-stop solo round-the-world sailors, or for...

I wonder if maybe we are not looking back far enough in history? Not to say they are an anachronism, but the relative value of flares as an emergency signalling device was probably much higher before the advent of things like portable radios....

I know it's not exactly what the OP was asking for, but I found Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing had a lot of good stuff that's just as applicable to distance racing as to shorter races, and includes a chapter that's specific to distance racing.

One of the comments: "....it sounds like a nautical twist on a family living homeless in their car."

On Everest, on average one climber dies for every ten that make it to the summit and back down again (still). Maybe a better comparison might be that the Newport-Bermuda race is like the Mount Monadnock of sailing....?

Ooh, ooh! That sounds like fun! I am going to use a blue poly tarp for my sails. Either that or some tyvek housewrap. I'll be sure to pack plenty of pop-tarts, too.

For short-handed crews, the self-steering systems (and everything that supports them) would be at the top of my list. In my limited experience, crew fatigue leading to bad decision making is a major source of problems. Getting wet and cold can be a big contributor to fatigue, so another thing I...

Hodgdon Yachts and Boothbay Region Boatyard set to merge

Hey CL, what-ever you do, have fun!

Budget offshore singlehanded racer/cruiser -- how about a Peterson 34?

I did replace my chain plates, but not due to a problem in the way in which they attach to the boat -- that is pretty robust, at least on my boat (and the other Island Yacht one's that I've seen).

Hard to imagine chainplate attachment problems from my limited experience (my boat, of course mine was one of the later ones so maybe fixed). I heard the problem with rigs had to do with a lack of compression bars between the spreaders.