May 26th, 2008 — News
The beach just south of Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast in South East Queensland seemed to have a magnetic attraction for boats on Thursday night.
First the 65′ Tuna boat “Magnus” ended up stranded on the beach. It is understood the boat was heading north towards Mooloolaba when the incident happened. A report in the Sunshine Coast Daily says that the crew were asleep at the time!
May 2nd, 2008 — News
Vittorio Malingri has just sailed 2,545 miles from Senegal on the west coast of Africa to Guadaloupe in the Caribbean in just 13 days, 17 hours and 48 minutes.
Not so remarkable except that Malingri was sailing on an open 20 foot catamaran in a singlehanded, non stop, unassisted crossing. Malingri has now set the record for this route in a single handed open catamaran.
Unfortunately due to the weather patterns it was not a particularly fast passage but he has set the mark for the next person who attempts this voyage.
Malingri experienced some difficulties with his solar panels and had to hand steer the boat a lot of the time. This also prevented him from communicating with his onshore support team to report his position and receive weather routing information. However Malingri, a veteran around the world racer, remarked that it wasn’t the most difficult voyage he had undertaken.
Have a look at his website for more information.
April 28th, 2008 — News
The 2008 Sanctuary Cove Boat Show in nearly upon us once again and this year is also the 20th anniversary of the show.
Commencing on 22nd May and running for four days the organisers are anticipating visitor numbers to surpass last years record attendance.
April 21st, 2008 — News
An overnight drama in Queensland saw the crew of a 24m yacht rescued after the yacht sank. The Challenge of Outward Bound was south east of Townsville heading for Sydney when it reportedly hit a large log shortly after 2 am this morning.
With the vessel taking in water the 6 crew radioed for help. As the yacht sank they were forced to take to the liferaft. They were picked up by the volunteer rescue boat at 2.45 am and were later transferred to the Water Police boat. They are now safely back in Townsville.
Only a few hours earlier but on the other side of the world, the crew of the 29′ racing yacht Jezebel II were having a few dramas of their own. The seven experienced crew members were enjoying a Sunday afternoon sail on the new yacht at Queensferry in Scotland.
Around 3pm the boat ran aground on rocks reportedly due to equipment failure. They were so close to shore that the spinaker got wrapped around the roof of a house. At what point this happened it’s not clear. Six of the crew were able to get ashore whilst the owner stayed on board waiting for the lifeboat. The lifeboat arrived and towed the yacht off at which point it promptly sank. They were however on hand to rescue the owner.
April 14th, 2008 — Cruising Stories, News
American stuntman Robert McDonald is due to set off from the Netherlands to London on a shake down cruise for his 50′ viking ship replica. McDonald then intends to recreate earlier viking voyages across the Atlantic to North America via Iceland and Greenland.
Unusually McDonald chose to build his boat out of 15,000,000 recycled ice-cream sticks with the help of his son and more than 5,000 school children. The ship took four years to build using the ice-cream sticks which were sent in by children from around the world.
April 8th, 2008 — News
Many people will recall the tragic collision of the Sydney ferry Pam Burridge and the private boat Merinda just over a year ago in March 2007. The collision killed four of the twelve people on board the Merinda.
The collision took place under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the dark. This is a very busy area close to Circular Quay where the harbour narrows considerably.
March 20th, 2008 — News
As if a 335 nautical mile yacht race isn’t going to be tough enough at times. How about throwing in 133 km of running up and down mountains into the equation.
That’s what will happening this Easter Weekend in Tasmania in the 20th Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks Race hosted by Port Dalrymple Yacht Club.
In actual fact each yacht has a crew of five, three sailors and two runners. The sailors get to rest and socialise while runners do their stuff. However it is not difficult to imagine that the runners may not get much resting and socialising in on the sailing legs if the weather is uncooperative. Despite this there are apparently more runners available than boats.
The race starts in Launceston on Friday afternoon with a 90 nm sail to Lady Barron where the runners do a 65 km run up Mount Strzelecki whether it’s dark or not. Then it’s off to Coles Bay 145 nm away and a quick 35 km jog up Mt Freycinet. The last sailing leg is a 100 nm run down to Hobart and then a real run of 33 kms up Mt Wellington which, at 1270 m, is nearly twice as high as the other two. Hopefully by the time the runners get back the sailors will have the drinks lined up at the bar.
March 19th, 2008 — News
Japanese adventurer and environmentalist Kenichi Horie set out this week on his latest expedition. Horie is sailing the wave powered catamaran “Suntory Mermaid II” 6000 km from Hawaii to Japan. Horie expects to to take 2 to 3 months to complete the voyage. Suntory Mermaid II has an expected top speed of 5 knots, but when I looked at his website he was only managing 1.5 knots.
The voyage is an experiment in using wave powered propulsion to prove the technology and also set a record for the longest distance travelled by a wave powered boat. Waves coming from any direction make twin fins mounted from the bow move up and down which in turn propels the boat forward. Whilst any attempt to harness naturally occurring energy is worthwhile I can’t help thinking this arrangement seems a bit fragile and exposed.
March 15th, 2008 — News
At the end of January Russian sailor and adventurer Fedor Konyukhoz set out on his 86′ yacht ‘Trading Network Alye Parusa’ to set the record for the Antarctica Cup.
Konyukhoz has passed the halfway mark and has rounded Cape Horn. This is his fourth rounding of Cape Horn but the first time he has actually set eyes on it. Every other time he has passed during the night.
He is currently heading Northwest in the direction of the Falkland Islands. This will hopefully bring him milder warmer weather and avoid an “iceberg alley” which stretches East from South Georgia Island.
Konyukhov had been experiencing wild weather, wild seas and snow as well as sailing through scattered ice bergs as he dipped South to get round the horn. Progress has been slower than he would have liked and he is behind his anticipated schedule but as he has now passed the 62deg West halfway mark. He is on the home run as it were.
Read our earlier report here.
March 10th, 2008 — News
Kathy McKenzie at BoatingOz has done a really good analysis of the events caused by the storm which hit the Whitsunday Islands at the beginning of February.
The storm damaged about 55 boats in Airlie Beach and passengers on a 3 day cruise had to be rescued by helicopter when their boat ran aground on Hook Island during the night.
Kathy’s article highlights several areas that contributed to the high number of vessels damaged by the storm:-
Click here to read the full report.
As some people were onboard their boats or nearby it seems amazing that more boats hadn’t taken refuge in the marina. Easy to comment with hindsight but that anchorage is notorious in any Northerly wind. What do you think?
