Ocean Records World Championship

Almost 8 years ago, I tried to go for the maximum route where no Cat's, foiler-spoilers, and fashion-boats could follow. No canters, no funboats, only for the real McCoy could do it.
What I designed is history, but the track I had chosen was taken over by Henk de Velde, who came to learn of my plans, partly by myself, partly by others.
That he did not succeed was caused by the fact that his preparations were badly conducted and that he had no intimately knowledgs about the course to follow.

This course was: Departure Amsterdam or London, following the NE Passsage through Bering Strait, going straight South along the datumline, coming up through the Atlantic finishing wherever required by the sponsor.

It is not yet copied, not performed.

Partly, yes but not in the total lay-out.

All the other routes are milked out and does not give any additional value.
They are just milk runs. There the name.

 

Motorsailors or not, they are fast and beautiful, a pleasure to the eyes!


http://www.volvooceanrace.org/mediaplayer/index.aspx?guid=affb29cd-e44c-47b1-b04c-0f96497cbefc

 

Agree 100% !

This year's regatta series format and the new boats make the VO very interesting to watch. Great sailors in great boats, no doubt about it.

 

D'ARTOIS I am impressed with your route, but what do you mean about the other routes? Should one take a new route each time and say thats a record or are the old routes too difficult to win?

 

You should say, any route is good as anyone, but that is not the essence of what I mean to explain.

Today - whatever race you take - everything is concentrated on the Sponsor. Without sponsorship no boats and so no races.
The costs for boats have been multiplied by factor 6 or 7 since the mid '90's and are now loaded to the brim with high tech electronic gadgets, high cost gear, rigging, sails etc. without they appear not be able of circumnavigating. Boats more like surfplanks, all this started me to think about some passage where only real boats and real teams could survive and tactical mistakes will result in loosing the game.
Where speed is not the ultimate goal, but boat's strength, teamplay, and tactics will be the winning factors.

This will result in another boat's type that requires a very strong hull and rig,
no hanky-panky play with keelgimmicks - "the ultimate" systems; maybe one has to make a step back in technical sense, or maybe not?

Not that the other routes are not good!

The developments in the VOR scene lately have only reinforced my idea's : - not that I advocate them a lot since there are many other pleasures to be found in sailing and not particularly in the southern hemisphere.

In another 25 years, our world will turn topsy turvy, no more plentiful energy, no more secured employment, and no more plastics. The only remaining boat left for pleasure will be the sailing boat. Other types will proof unaffordable, and therefore my next boat will be of the kind that will be almost self-supporting. So do think many others already!

Very often, in this respect, I think of Moitessier and his equals, who did not need the fancy boat to race in, or to sail in, but were content with what they had. Or Tristan Jones, who had met all the difficulties in his life, just barely capable of keeping himself up, even his meagre income as a writer of seastories could not help much to improve his lifestyle. But who still managed to go everywhere, hosting a vast number of admirers.

I look at the waist of time, money and energy put in those monster racing machines, hybrid vessels that cannot survive without combustion engines or otherwise masses of energy to keep them from sinking.

In a flash of a second, there era will be over and the only thing that will be left is the boat that can go on it's own and natural resouces. And that time is not so far away, you might even experience it.

 

Here another type of Ocean Record...
http://www.seriesdrogue.com/story/erma.html
(My heart is closer to this kind)

 

And here another one:
http://www.vagabond.fr/

 

Here another attempt, the other way around:
http://www.alphaglobalex.com/?q=950

 

I wonder whether the inability of "many" to afford power assisted triming systems on board influences their opinion on whether they should be allowed or whether it is "real" sailing.
Now if the choice was more boat or power assisted boat for the buck then we would have a clearer picture.
Power windows used to be heavier and costlier and now are cheaper and lighter than manual systems.

 

Absolutely not. I could have a trawler if I wanted.

I think that power assisted systems for cruising boats are wonderful. They should make passages faster and safer.

I think power assisted systems make for very interesting racing.

My opinion is that power assisted boats are not true sail boats. That doesn't make them bad boats.

Comparing power assisted boats to manual power boats and claiming new records is poor sportsmanship.

It has nothing to do with cost.

 

Interesting thoughts D'Artois. May I ask you to attach some drawings of your design? I would like to see her.

I saw Henk de Welde's boat Campina. Caroff's design, certainly looks as a good choice for the voyage into the ice, but to really get buildible, maintainable, self-supporting boat, using low-tech, simplification should go further. Rig for example.

Henk de Welde has a nice site:

http://www.henkdevelde.nl/3/engels/campina.html

Milan

 

that was a site with henk on the forum and all but was taken of the net now i see this site with henks whereabouts

 

Damn, Yip... that is reaching deep into the Way-Back Machine for a nugget of some standing when it comes to the exploits of our boy, Henk.

Nice of you to revive the wonderment.

Let's get on up and around that Northern route before the climatologists declare the issue of Global Warming to be passe and the ice reclaims the passages. ;-)

Chris

 

motor running sailboat rcords

Hey Doug
I am mostly on your side in your foil crusade but I can't agree with you on motor running canters (that derogatory term motorsailer is pefect for them) - even Juan Kouyoumdjian who designs them, says the multihull is a better solution. Speedboat was built here by Cooksons and it is beyond impressive but .... that bloody motor is running while they sail. Sacrilege mate!

 

Canting Keels and Records

My 10c worth (2c increased for inflation).

To me it all boils down to "would I want to spend my weekends sailing that boat"...

For anything for which the motor has got to be running a significant percentage of the time the answer for me is a clear "no". To me that is not the point of sailing. I dunno about "real sailing" or otherwise - but when I go siling I dont want any motor thanks very much all the same.