A Brief History of Exploding Sailboats

Ahoy, and happy Friday my salty friends!

Quick question: Why did the sailboat cross the road?

Answer: To get to the equator side…

Anywho, on to the news.

In today’s roundup:

• All Hands Below Deck: The Le Mans Sailboat Race.

• Rolex World Sailing Awards: Neuschäfer and Slingsby honored.

• Exploding Sailboats: A brief history.

• Sailing Snippets: New Google AI Weather Forecaster, Graveyard of the Atlantic, Hōkūleʻa.

All Hands Below Deck!

The race begins with all boats at anchor, sails stowed, and all hands below deck. This Saturday is the 55th Annual Le Mans Sailboat Race in Gig Harbor, an idea cooked up by two friends who wondered whether it was possible to have a Le Mans style start to a regatta.

The original Le Mans race began with the drivers lined up across the pavement, and at the gun they would run over to their cars, start them, and race off. The Le Mans Sailboat race pays homage to the starting pandemonium of the original race. (The Le Mans cold start was abandoned in the 70’s because of so many accidents).

Five minutes before the starting gun, a first horn will blow.

“All hands below deck!” crackles over the bull horn.

Within one minute, all crew must be stowed below decks and out of sight. After four minutes of forced confinement, the final starting gun will go off, and all hands will scramble to weigh anchor, hoist sails, and catch a hopeful breeze.

The victorious get a trophy and beverages, and the bystanders get one heck of a show.

World Sailor of the Year

Kristen Neuschäfer and Tom Slingsby were crowned the 2023 Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards in Malaga this week.

This is the third time taking the award for Slingsby, after leading the AustraliaGP team to a third consecutive title, and he is still the only skipper to have won the SailGP trophy. Slingsby will also be competing in the America’s Cup next year.

Kirsten Neuschäfer was the first woman to finish first in the solo Golden Globe race, making history earlier this year.

A Brief History of Exploding Sailboats

The U.S. Navy is using drone sailboats near Iran. These aren’t weaponized…yet. Currently, these mini boat bots are for research only, but in the future they will be able to carry weaponized payloads. This got us curious, and wouldn’t you know it, autonomous exploding sailboats have been around for at least a thousand years. Here’s a very brief history:

• 10th Century - First known use of unmanned attack ships in naval warfare. The military treatise De Velitatione Bellica describes how the Byzantines used unmanned fire ships to attack the Arab fleet at the Battle of Chrysopolis in 747 AD.

• 17th Century - The Dutch develop Branders, large heavily armed sailing ships with sophisticated self steering mechanisms. Branders were used to great effect in the Anglo-Dutch wars, and up to the 19th Century.

• 18th century - The British develop unmanned torpedo boats, used with success in the American Revolutionary war, and up till the 20th Century.

• 21st Century - Ocean Aero develops TRITON, the world's first fully autonomous surface and submersible vehicle. The TRITON can sail autonomously for up to 3 months on solar and wind power, and submerge for up to 5 days.

Sheesh. And we thought Orcas were dangerous.

Sailing Snippets

The Graveyard of the Atlantic claimed two ships this week, one of which was burried in sand by shifting shoals in less than 24 hours. Park officials blamed the colliding cold-water northern current, and the warm water Gulf current that converge just offshore from Cape Hatteras That report and pictures are here.

Google’s AI Weather Forecaster: Google unveiled GraphCast, their new predictive weather model that uses AI to generate global 10 day weather forecasts with unprecedented accuracy. Read the release from Google’s DeepMind here.

Hōkūleʻa was docked in San Diego this past week, her last stop before returning home. She got a chance to sail with historical vessel the Star of India, and crew said she held her own keeping up with the (comparatively) modern ship. The Polynesian Voyaging Society announced a pause to the four-year Moananuiākea Voyage back in September. Check out pictures from her time in port here.

That’s it for today, stay safe out there and we’ll ketch ya’ next week!

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