Down Under Rally publishes 2020 Go West Magazine
With so many of us being “hove to” and waiting for the storm that is Covid 19 to pass it is the hope of the Down Under Rally that all those who are intending to resume cruising the SW Pacific…
Cruising
Dedicated to Cruising the world under sail including destinations, navigation, sailing tips, safety ideas, yacht & multihull reviews along with stories and insights for the sail cruising life in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Littlehampton RNLI called upon to rescue dismasted yacht drifting at sea
Friday 27 March 2020 Littlehampton RNLI’s B Class lifeboat 'Renee Sherman' launched to rescue a 38 foot yacht with two persons on board which had lost it’s mast five miles south of the harbour. HM Coastguard tasked the RNLI to…
Calshot D-Class Lifeboat assists a small sailing dinghy which had become stuck on deep mud
Monday 23 March 2020 This afternoon the volunteer crew of the Calshot D-Class Lifeboat were requested by HM Coastguard to assist a small sailing dinghy which had become stuck on deep mud near Ashlett Creek, with concerns for two elderly…
Lifeboat crew help man “upside down” in his lazarette
Lymington’s Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat David Bradley, launched to assist a man in his 60s who was injured and had become trapped on his vessel. The weather conditions were good and there was a fresh NE breeze force 5. The…
Have some spare time? Build some shelves
I would love to have an oven on my boat. However, my otherwise excellent galley lacked convenient storage for regularly used food items. This suggested that the space required for an oven would be more useful as shelving. On my…
Have some spare time? Safety latch your hatches
Any boat venturing outside sheltered waters should be able to survive a knockdown undamaged, with the gear inside still in place rather than strewn all round the boat. Go round the cabin, imagining what it will look like with the…
Queensland taskforce sees a long haul in war on wrecks
Maritime Safety Queensland will continue working to rid Queensland of unsafe and unsightly wrecks after the Minister for Transport and Main Roads gave the green light to explore recommendations made in an interim report to the state government by the War…
Storm tactics: back to the science
The attrition rate in the last Golden Globe Race around the world has led to some lively debate about the safety of these old designs compared with modern ocean racers. Those decrying the use of traditional long-keel yachts point out…
Yacht runs aground off Waikiki Beach
HONOLULU — The Coast Guard and partners are responding to a report of a 35-foot, double-masted sailing vessel grounded off Waikiki, Saturday evening. Pollution responders are on the scene assessing the situation and surrounding area for impacts. At this time, there are no…
Stuck in self-isolation? Do your own laundry
In these crazy times of self-exclusion, maybe it is time to do some of those projects you have had planned. Over the coming weeks we will post up some useful DIY projects that have appeared in Cruising Helmsman. If you…
Simple cockpit table from salvaged stuff
In these crazy times of self-exclusion, maybe it is time to do some of those projects you have had planned. Over the coming weeks we will post up some useful DIY projects that have appeared in Cruising Helmsman. If you…
Another one down: Eighth vessel sinks in the Hoquiam River
Washington, USA: Another vessel has sunk in the Hoquiam River, this one a 40-foot sailboat, just upriver from where salvage crews have been trying to get the Lady Grace up from the bottom at the east end of Karr Avenue….
Minimalism: what you do not have, cannot break
“Nice boat!” is a comment we often hear and it makes us smile. “Of course!” we reply, because every boatowner thinks that his or her boat is the prettiest in the anchorage. “Fibreglass?” “What design?” are usually the next questions….
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's learning to dance in the rain
We are delighted to announce that there are no cases of Coronavirus in Antigua at this time. We are therefore continuing with our preparations for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, starting on 1 April which is shaping up nicely great…
Sea trials begin for Artificial Intelligence “captain”
By The Maritime Executive 03-07-2020 07:55:52 IBM and marine research organization Promare have announced that a new artificial intelligence captain (AI Captain) will enable the Mayflower autonomous ship to self-navigate across the Atlantic later this year. With the three hulls…
Olympic champion skipper's bid to make UK world leader in eco-friendly ferries
Express & Star A double Olympic gold medallist is skippering a bid to make the UK a world leader in zero-emissions passenger ferries. Sailing champion Iain Percy is combining his own know-how from designing America’s Cup racing yachts with expertise…
AMSA safety alert – dangerous marine fauna
Purpose This safety alert aims to raise awareness on the risks posed by dangerous marine fauna. Australian waters contain a range of dangerous fauna that secrete toxins, inject venom, release or contain poison, harbour dangerous bacteria, give electric shocks or…
As if floating containers weren't enough – what about running into a floating mine?
By The Strategist 03-06-2020 09:58:00 [By Elizabeth White] When you stop and think about it for any length of time, it seems a miracle that the global economy spins on as well as it does. As the spread of the…
Sometimes it can pay to be narrow-minded in Queensland
We had been four months cruising the Queensland coast and, being October, were making our way south. Northerlies are usually expected in the last three months of the year, which allows visiting cruisers to escape the cyclone belt and the…
When lightning strikes: sailing blind
This night at last he slept serene, his long tired mind at rest, when on the east the sheer bright star arose that tells of coming dawn, the ship made landfall and came up islandward in the dim of night….
Monk seal safely transferred to seal rehabilitation facility
From United States Coast Guard HONOLULU— Personnel from the Coast Guard 14th District, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and The Marine Mammal Center partnered to transport a rehabilitated monk seal, Pōhaku, from Oahu to Kona aboard an HC-130 Hercules…
Recycling and re-purposing vessels on the Clarence
The Federal Government this week announced plans to support recycling programs and infrastructure in Australia. Whilst much of the talk from the Federal Government is about dealing with food and packaging plastic, the Boating Industry Association Ltd (BIA) is advocating…
When sailors fail our oceans
Ocean Crusaders spend our entire working life removing debris from waterways across Australia. In an 11 day clean up recently of the Cooks River in Sydney, we removed an astounding 13.8 tonnes of debris. The fact we probably missed 95%…
Doin' the Suez: what a way to escape the Med
Having spent the last five years living onboard Leventeia, a Beneteau Oceanis 43, having a great time sailing from Gibraltar to Turkey, we decided to join five other boats to cruise in company through the Red Sea and out into…
Bill Hatfield completes circumnavigation at age 81
When 81-year-old Bill Hatfield sailed through the Southport Channel into the Gold Coast waterway, he had finally achieved his dream of sailing solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world. It had taken him 295 days and was all the more…
Ghost ships that drifted the oceans
Winnipeg Free Press. By: Doug Speirs It may not rival the legendary Flying Dutchman, but the MV Alta is a ghost ship all the same. The 77-metre “ghost” cargo ship made headlines around the world when it ran aground on rocks…
Queensland commits $2 million to superyacht berth at The Spit
Business News Australia As part of its commitment to developing The Spit on the Gold Coast the Queensland Government has announced it will provide $2 million to help deliver a new superyacht berth. The funding is a part of the…
Ferry sank yacht after confused master steered the wrong way
Trade Winds By Gary Dixon A UK ferry smashed into a yacht before grounding after its master became disorientated in poor visibility and steered the ship in the wrong direction. The accident happened on the morning of 21 October 2018 in…
A passage in time: Corinth Canal
The brightening dawn spread pink-tinged fingers in the Easter sky, throwing the mountains of mainland Greece into violet silhouette: leaving the crags, cliffs and defiles etched in darker hues. The brilliance of the coming sunrise gathered momentum as its gold-stitched…
Fires and floods continuing to impact NSW waterways
Transport for NSW Media Release 21 FEBRUARY 2020 NSW Maritime Executive Director Maritime Mark Hutchings today reassured the community recovery efforts on the NSW waterway network are well under way. “The size of the job is considerable in re-establishing the…
Skipper fined for being asleep at the Helm
By The Maritime Executive 02-17-2020 01:03:54 The director of Wellington-based Megisti Sailing Charters, Timothy James Newman, has been fined NZ$2,500 ($1,600) for being asleep at the wheel of the catamaran MV Megisti when it collided with the Port Howard Wharf…
Barbarians at the dock: the etiquette of hosting guests onboard
We all want to share our onboard adventures with family and friends. E-mails, photos and blogs are a great way to stay connected but can often fall short capturing the whole sailing experience. In my opinion the only way to…
Classroom on the cruise
Many people learn to sail to go cruising in great places but if you can extend your learning while cruising in a great place then you have the opportunity to combine the two in a great experience. This is the…
Cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes – deadly by any name
The Maritime Executive By Tony Munoz 02-13-2020 05:34:27 (Article originally published in Nov/Dec 2019 edition.) From 1900 to 2017, 197 hurricanes made landfall in the U.S. causing about $2 trillion in damages or roughly $17 billion per year. The…
Esperance radar upgrade brings more weather data to the region
Weather watchers in the Esperance-Goldfield region will now have access to more weather images, more often, after upgrades by the Bureau of Meteorology to the existing Esperance radar went live today. The Bureau, in partnership with Western Australian Government, have…
Watch: Iceberg the size of Malta breaks up
By The Maritime Executive 02-11-2020 05:58:57 Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica has recently spawned an iceberg over 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) in size. About the size of Malta, the iceberg quickly broke into many pieces. Images taken…
Coast Guard, partners continue working to remove aground sailing vessel on Oahu
HONOLULU — The Coast Guard, State of Hawaii, and salvors are working to remove the sailing vessel Prelude aground near Kaimana Beach, Wednesday. The owner has hired a private salvage company to remove the 33-foot Prelude. Coast Guard and state responders…
Weather and sailors on best behaviour as Buhl shines at Laser Standard World Championship
Weather and sailors on best behaviour as Buhl shines at Laser Standard World Championship A glorious Melbourne day with clear blue skies and a challenging wind from the south-east greeted sailors on the final day of qualifying at the ILCA…
On the hunt for a wooden heart
The Completing our Customs Inward Report: small craft, to return to New Zealand upsets me. Why? Because in the hull composition section and there are many sections this is for NZ remember, we have to tick the box marked ‘other’….
Yacht towed to safety after engine failure
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard Cutter Willow (WLB-202) crew rescued a total of four people in two search and rescue cases while underway in the Caribbean Basin. In the first search and rescue case, the cutter Willow…
