I Sail Away

Last weekend, our J-105 crew raced in the Silver Eagle race. This was our course….

No explanation needed . . . .

l’Hydroptere is still speeding along on their race to Hawaii. So far, they have had to tack to avoid the garbage patch, and apparently, haven’t found the wind they were hoping for.

For the play-at-home version of this game, here is the Live Tracker for l’Hydroptere.

The french-made foiling trimaran, l’Hydroptere, is at this very moment racing to Hawaii in an attempt to break the current Los Angeles-to-Hawaii record of 4 days, 19 hours, 31 minutes (set by Olivier de Kersauson in 2005).

Full article in Japan Times >

If you haven’t seen l’Hydroptere before . . . they were flying around San Francisco for a couple of months and I got a chance to see them on the water.  See for yourself.

Out for a night sail with Nathan on his Maramu 46.  The night was uncharacteristically warm with extremely mellow conditions . . . so, we sailed over to Richardson Bay for a look at San Francisco from the other direction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrcQAVVXlKE

After waiting outside of the breaking waves for nearly a day–waiting for a break in the sets, a skipper decides to risk it and push through.

I can’t imagine the amount of adrenaline and sleep deprivation contributed to the this decision.

Sir Ben Ainslie took some time out of his racing schedule at the Argo Gold Cup in Bermuda to speak with the Independent reporter about the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation, some misconceptions about Team Oracle, and the possibility of him leading a British entry into the next America’s Cup.

The racing of the Argo Gold Cup is raising funds for the foundation created in honor of Andrew “Bart” Simpson who died of an accident during training for the 2013 America’s Cup. Because he continually supported and encouraged beginning sailors, Sir Ben Ainslie, Ian Percy OBE, and Bart Simpson’s wife, Leah, created the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation to carry on his efforts of supporting youth sailing and racers. For the Argo Cup, Sir Ainslie is leading the same crew that followed Bart Simpson in the 2008 Argo Group Gold Cup.

When asked about Team Oracle, Ainslie quickly dispelled many of the rumors about teams of designers, magical “Herbie” devices, and incredible egos. He argued that much of the speculation comes from the unimaginable wealth of Larry Ellison, but that the team was actually fairly grounded—and, that their design team was actually smaller than Team New Zealand’s.

Sir Ben Ainslie promised a firm announcement of a British team for the next America’s Cup in the next month—if there is going to be one.

Read the full interview at the Independent.

A great presentation by the designer of a canting keel monohull that actually flys it to reduce the drag caused by friction. In the video, we have footage of their firs sea trials, and the presentation (TED talk) is given by the lead designer, Vlad Mumikov.

Uhmmm, yeah. This is some pretty incredible stuff. There is a separation between the two carbon skins in the sandwich part of the core–and, what do they do? Drill holes in the bottom and reinforce it, of course.