The French Again; Transat Jaques Vabre

Give thanks to the French. As our sailing season in Northern US comes to a close (excepting the hardy frostbiters) the French launch two events to keep us Internet sailing junkies soaking up the sea spray. In the previous post we are watching Groupama's high speed jaunt around the World in quest of the Jules Verne record. And unknown to me, until the videos started popping up, the Open 60's and Multihull 50's are racing doublehanded across the Atlantic from Havre, France to Costa Rica. Having quite a time of it as conditions over the last two days have been horrific. Seb Josse and JF Curzon were airlifted off their Open 60 BT after the boat filled 2/3 with water through a damaged deck.

All videos narrated in French, of which I know not a lick of, but the video is enough.

Next the storm from www.lavela.tv on Vimeo.

Groupama 3

The French 100 foot trimaran, Groupama 3, is off in attempt to set a new World record for a nonstop Round the World (I guess, reading from the video title, it's called the Jules Verne trophy). I don't know where they are at this moment but wherever they are, they are going really, really fast. Insane! Just leaves me shaking my head.

Look Ma, No Rudder (No Paddle Either); Patin a Vela

Hobie Alter is most often credited with coming up with the beach catamaran. Amazingly, the Catalan sailors in the most North East province in Spain (bordering the Med) have been racing a beach cat, the "Patin a Vela" since the 1920's. This catamaran has no rudder, no paddle, no daggerboard........ you tack by running forward to the mast and steer by ooching the body. And these guys race in big waves and big breeze on the Mediterranean! You can make an on-the-fly adjustment on the rake of the rig (it does look like they are pulling on some string during a tack) but for the most part it's all where you put your body that makes the difference. You just have to watch the videos.

This one shows how you tack a Patin a Vela;



This one shows how athletic these catamarans are;



And even the Patin a Vela catamarans seem to attract those showoffs who love to fly a hull (nice beach babe tucked into the video as well).

Music for Friday: Takashi Kamide

Did I say, I love the accordion. Takashi Kamide does a bang up accordion cover of the Lennon/McCartney "Across the Universe"

Look Ma, No Rudder; the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe

So far we looked at two small singlehanders, steered by paddles on relatively flat water. But steering open ocean proas, crewed with seven paddlers, just using a "Steering Paddle"? What happens when the "Steering Paddle" just doesn't have enough oomph?

"I've been known to close my eyes and just hold on to my steering blade"

(I've sort of wished I could do that on some downwind rides.)

This video does give a good feel of open ocean racing in the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe's.

Sailfish; the Joy of Sailing a Small Boat

If a comment to one of my posts strikes my fancy, I'll drag it out to the main page and give it some exposure. Chris Marthinson, in a comment, posted a link to his post on his Sailfish experience . The fun of sailing a simple boat........

Look Ma, No Rudder (No DB either!), West Mersea Duck Punt

My post about the ACA Cruising Canoe, sans rudder, elicited a comment and also an email, an unprecedented response for this blog. Both readers pointed out that there exists in the UK, a small sailing craft copied after a local wild fowl gunning punt, that is raced with no rudder, just a paddle, and even more surprising, no daggerboard either. Truth be told, I had stumbled across the Dylan Winter video on the West Mersea Duck Punt and already had it penciled in as one of my classes for my "Look Ma, No Rudder" series. Plus, Paul Mullings, pointed me to their website and some more digging on the Internet fleshed out more of the West Mersea Punt story.

The West Mersea Duck Punt is, what we call in the U.S, a flat bottom skiff. Being a craft designed to sneak up on wild fowl, it has very low freeboard and narrow beam. A local boatbuilder took the traditional design and converted it to 12mm plywood. He sells the plywood shell to homebuilders to finish off. The rig looks to be an Optimist sprit rig. The steering paddle is plopped into an oarlock on the leeward side and, like the ACA Cruising Canoe, the steering position forces the skipper to recline about in the middle of the punt. According to Dylan Winter, lateral resistance depends on heeling the punt to get the chine into the water. It must be very interesting to watch the fleet race, particularly since most racing takes place in the winter and, as far as I can see, they have no buoyancy for self rescue. Some of the paddling techniques on the turns are identical to the ACA Cruising Canoe but I'm sure there are some other racing techniques unique to the West Mersea Duck Punt.

According to the website, they have 20 and growing certified crazies that have put one of these craft together. My type of crazy.

Dylan Winters, the great sailing/travelogue videographer, documents his Duck Punt build over here.

And a video on light air Duck Punt Racing;




We also have in the U.S, the Barnegat Bay Sneakbox and the Delaware Ducker, two other gunning craft that evolved to become some very smart sailing dinghies.