With the 34th America’s Cup now concluded, sailors with the need for speed can be expected to go into depression. As a partial antidote we offer a series of videos available online. OK, not the real thing, but certainly better than watching Sunday football.
- Ultimate freaks will cotton to the Vestes Sail Rocket. Paul Larsen and crew have been chasing this holy grail for years. Watch this video to witness an unbelievable record.
- Hydroptere at 51 knots: Watch here
- Banque Populaire: here
- Our favorite monomaran, the 78-foot ketch Beowulf, is shown strutting her stuff in this video crossing the South Pacific, with just Linda and Steve aboard as crew.
- If this short caught your fancy, a much longer compilation is here.
- There is a huge amount of video on the 34thh AC. This is a recap of the racing:
- Here is a fascinating look at the technical details of the most modern of sailing vehicles, C-Class catamarans. If you wonder how they do it on the stunning AC 72s, some secrets will be found here.
- Transatlantic in Speedboat – amazing monohull transatlantic!
- Windsurfing world champion Jason Polakow has been on a search for the biggest, most gnarly waves until he found JAWS – which has shaped his life and become his sole obsession for the past 20 years. Watch here.
- Volvo Ocean Race-Spanish Castle to White Night 2hrs35 minutes, 2008-09: Open 70s
- Volvo ocean race – first 40 years
We admit to being speed freaks. Fast is fun, typically more comfortable, and in the right boat, is safer offshore.
The photo above was taken during the Yachting One of a Kind Regatta in April 1974, Newport Beach, California, during which, we re-learned some difficult but nonetheless important life lessons. For a detailed account of that experience, see the accompanying article which appeared in Sports Illustrated.
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 8, 2013)
November 10th, 2013 at 6:55 pm
For a full antidote it would be hard to ignore the extraordinary foiling Moth.Few believe that AC34 would have seen any foiling without these critters blazing the trail.
November 10th, 2013 at 11:36 pm
You are 100% right, Mark:
The foiling Moth is a wonder to behold, albeit reputed to the most difficult of vehicles to employ correctly. Our hat is off to anyone who can stay upright. A close second would be the 49ers.
November 12th, 2013 at 11:03 am
The Sports Illustrated article brought back fond memories of reading about the One Design regatta long before I met you. Stories about the cats were always interesting.
Paul Tara who was the co-winner in his 505 was a friend and formidable competitor in Northern California.
November 12th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
No fond memories here Mike, but a hard learned lesson about being too certain about things. We dropped out of a race we could have finished (first on elapsed time) because of a samll glitch which cost us our throw out race. I wanted to get back to the dock to re rig the mainsail outhaul – and forgot the old dictum about finishing every race! So when re really needed the throwout… 40 years later that stupidity still irritates!