You're Sheeting Me

Ahoy! Welcome to I’dRatherBeSailing, the newsletter that’s knot too serious, and never gives in to pier pressure. Let’s sea what happened in the sailing world this week…

In today’s email:

• Race Updates: Around the World in Many, Many days

• You’re Sheeting Me: Regattas in the Metaverse

• Sailing in Yellowstone: An Unknown Adventure

• Cruising ‘Round the Web: Installing Mooring Balls with a Bowsprit, ghost ships, and a book on sailor’s superstitions.

Racing Updates

Do sail racing updates make you feel like a 1920’s newsie? Breathless updates of semi-recent events, and mishaps on remote parts of the map. When time is counted in weeks and months, it can be hard to stay on top of it all. Some races have media people on the teams, embedded like a war correspondent sending back videos of high seas adventure. Other races send back nothing but text updates, leaving your imagination to color in the lines of the Lat/Long. Anyway’s, here’s the major race updates from the past week.

• The Ocean Race: All four teams have passed Cape Horn, with Malizia the head of the class, update here 

• Golden Globe Race, Day 204: Kristen still leads the pack, 330 miles ahead of Abhilash. Full daily GGR recap here

Speaking of The Ocean Race…

You’ve Got to Be Sheeting me

The Ocean Race launches a Metaverse experience. We spent a few hours digging around the bilge to get to the bottom of this, so you don’t have to. Here’s the lowdown:

• What it is: A virtual boat show…kind of.

• Highlights: Virtual Regatta, live race stats.

It’s called the Metaverse, but let’s call it what it is. Its a virtual boat show. You walk around and check out pavilions, like a live race updates station, and a Virtual Regatta booth. There’s even a virtual Helly Hansen booth. Would it even be a boat show without HH? Right next to the HH booth is the Virtual Regatta booth, which lets you digitally race The IMOCA’s. We spent an entertaining hour doing exactly that. To play, go to the Virtual Regatta booth, click on Play Inshore Game, and setup your username. We chose the very professional team name of ugottabesheetingme. To access this Metaverse-boat show, follow the steps below.

• Go here, where you sign up and get an access code

• They’ll email you an entrance link

• Follow the link, use your access code to verify, and you’re in!

Interestingly, the Virtual Regatta here is the same Virtual Regatta that all the kerfuffle in the sailing community has been about. In case you missed it, sailing was added to this year’s Olympic ESports Series. Yes, that is a real thing. That means you can become an Olympic Sailor without ever getting your feet wet. It seems like something that’s pretty easy to dismiss, but here’s our take: anything that lets people compete regardless of age, location, or physical ability, and brings awareness to the sport, is a win in our book. And if it leads to more young people eventually “messing about in boats” as Rat says in The Wind in the Willows, well that’s a win too.

Sailing in Yellowstone National Park

Usually, the harder the place is to get to, the more spectacular the view. This held true for Brianna Randall and her young family, who chased down the dream of sailing in Yellowstone National Park. From navigating the required permits to sail the park, to raising the keel and paddling their sailboat through a 2’ deep creek to a secluded pond to escape a storm on the main lake, this family had a sailing adventure that most would never know was even possible. They planned for every contingency, but who would’ve thought their outboard would die because the carburetor couldn’t get enough oxygen? Her full story appears in Cruising World, which you can read here.

Todays email is sponsored by our dear friends (in real life, and of the newsletter!) Reef Runner Yacht Sales.

Cruising season is right around the corner. Reef Runner Yacht Sales is newly representing a 1994 Island Packet 35, located in Panama City, FL. Well cared for and ready to set sail, she is a notable blue water cruiser, and looking for a new captain to take her home to the sunsets. Contact [email protected] for more info and an exclusive subscriber deal.

Cruising Round the ‘Web

Installing Moorings in French Polynesia’s Rapa Iti Bay: How these cruisers used a steel drum raft and even their bow sprit to float out the mooring blocks. Their full story appeared here

Ghost Ships: What could possibly go wrong? Who needs captains when you can have robots. A shipping company has plans to launch semi-autonomous vessels. The report is here.

Never Say P*g: The Book of Sailors Superstitions. The nautical reference book you never knew you needed: a compendium of all superstitions maritime and marine. Learn your A-B-Seas of sailors’ guiding magic and mythos―and why you should never stir your tea with a knife, lest you invite trouble and strife.

Stay safe out there, we’ll ketch you in a few days!