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Aholy! Welcome to I’dRatherBeSailing, the sailing newsletter that isn’t worried about banks collapsing, because all our spare change is safely rattling around the Nav Station.
Today’s letter is a short one:
BS in the Baltic Sea: An Armchair Investigation
Broken Mast to Broken Record: The Ocean Race Update
Round the Web: Interesting Reads
Divers used chartered yacht to sabotage Nord Stream pipelines – report
Report in Der Spiegel says six-person crew took Andromeda to Christiansø, close to site of blasts, but experts question theory
Gas leaking from the Nord Stream 2 Photograph: Danish Defence/AFP/Getty Images
While not exactly sailing news, it is about sailing that popped up in the news. We’ll call it… sailing-adjacent news.
Do charter contracts expressly forbid international sabotage? A report from The Guardian lays out a plan for how a group of Special Operatives led a covert mission to sabotage a deep sea pipeline, all aboard a sailboat. Supposedly, a small group chartered a Bavaria C50, loaded it with thousands of pounds of explosives, sailed the loaded boat into the Baltic Sea and used the swim platform as a staging ground for multiple deep sea dives. All while maintaining the boat’s position at sea for four days. Now that’s some elite level skippering! Or, perhaps, an overzealous reporter embellished a few details. Quite a few things don’t pass the sailing sniff test, but in any case, it makes for an entertaining cockpit conversation of “what-if”…
Ocean Race Updates
© Amory Ross / The Ocean Race
From broken mast, to record breaking speeds and second place. Team Malizia recovered from their damaged mast last week, apparently sustained from a wayward Halyard, to finish second in a breakneck leg that set records for all four boats. The new 24-hour distance records are for the IMOCA class; Team Holcim-PRB took first at 695.26nm in 24 hours.
The boats crossed the finish line within hours of each other on Sunday. Second Place Team Malizia co-skipper Will Harris commented:
“I am so happy, so relieved that we managed to come away with second place. It has been such a fight to even still be in the race after having to fix the mast a week and a half ago and not being sure we could continue, and now we are here crossing the line in second. This has been some of the closest offshore racing I have ever done, we crossed 11th Hour Racing within only 200 metres. It is a big relief that we have crossed the line second, we have proved our potential, I can sleep well tonight and then look forward to the Pacific. I am really so happy!”
The teams are now making repairs as they prepare to battle Cape Horn in two weeks. 11th hour Racing team revealed Monday that they have a badly torn mainsail, along a load-bearing seam at the first reef point, that prevents them from using the main at full or first reef. The Biotherm Team is facing issues too, with damage to a longitudinal support frame. We will see how the repairs shake out over the coming week.
Cruising ‘Round the Web
With a Paddle, Without a Clue: Man found paddling in circles on Lake George in boat with sail made from bed sheet and broomstick, here
DIY Watermaker: Liveaboard Boat Owner builds his own, full breakdown here
KAZE Concept: New 60m Ketch design able to pass under the Bridge of the Americas on the Panama Canal, see the design mockups here
Whack-A-Cat: Another electric catamaran project secures funding. Judge the dubious design for yourself here. We have a few questions, and may dig deeper on a future episode..
Happy St. Patty’s Day you Salty Dogs, and don’t forget your green when you’re pinching into the wind.
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