Tag: snow lion

THE NEW SNOW LION

Snow Lion, a Jason Ker design, based on “Aera” has now been revised. Over the winter “Snow Lion” underwent a facelift, botox if you like. Today, we will go sailing to tune the rig and make certain everything is working. The Block Island race starts next friday, and the Bermuda race on June 15.

I will have more to report at the end of the day.

The new “Belle Mente” was built at New England Boatworks while “Snow Lion” was being altered.

THE DATE SAYS SPRING

We continued our search for sites of former mills in Rhode Island last weekend. Spring was evident, it has come early for us this year, but not without a price. Although it does not show in the photographs of the dams; the water table is very low as a result of a relatively dry spring and little snow this winter.

Alterations to Snow Lion are nearing completion, we all have high hopes of a speed advantage beyond the rating increase. The Bermuda Race start is a little over six weeks away. The longest days of the year. By the time I return from Bermuda the days will be already getting shorter.

PHOTOGRAPHY

SNOW LION DURING THE BLOCK ISLAND RACE 2011

I have been working hard at my photography over the last few years. I have an archive of over one hundred thousand images, starting in the early sixties to the present, covering a broad spectrum of events in the world.

The image above remains one of my favorites, taken with a Go-pro, best known for video. This is an older go pro I can only imagine why the “new ” generation will produce.

I used it during the Transatlantic race last year and have video of us sailing, however it was a particularly benign race so there is no truly exciting footage.

My photography web site is down due to an unknown glitch which was caused by an update as far as I can tell. So almost a year’s work is locked out. I think there is a missing or misplaced piece of code that could be the culprit. I have started work on a new site, hoping it will be safer.

CARINA FINISHES THE SYDNEY-HOBART

“Carina” finished 2011 by competing in the Sydney-Hobart race; a journey that started in June with the transatlantic race to England, the Fastnet race; and the kids sailing the boat to Australia in time for the race.

Naturally when I pause to think of the wonderful adventure 2011 brought to them I reflect on my own small adventures. The Transtalantic race aboard “Snow Lion”. I have sailed with most of the crew on both boats for great distances and keep many fond memories.

NEW YEAR’S EVE IN PARIS

CHAMPS ELYSEES BEFORE CLOSING IT TO TRAFFIC

 

2011 and two grandchildren

HOW WELL DO YOU HANDLE ADVERSITY?

We all like to win, but in the words of “Highlander”: “there can be only one”. It is really about how well you deal with losing. Adversity is a normal event in life, how well you handle it will make all the difference.
Above it is “Puma”, The image below is the replacement bow section being fashioned for “Team Sanya”. We had our own mishap in the 2010 Bermuda race, A few minutes after the start, the clew of the mainsail failed, leaving us to watch our class sailing away. We ended up 2nd in class after the crew worked for 40 hours sewing.

RAN AGAIN?

It looks like the boats that have not finished have light air ( it looks like 10 knots from the north, i.e. off the shore) and are subject to the tide that makes the Fastnet Race so challenging. “Ran” may well be winning on corrected time for a second time in a row, again helped by the light air on the course. “Snow Lion” is still fifty miles from the finish but steering a course straight to the finish. Once again the bigger boats benefitted from the weather pattern; but that’s ocean racing.

FASTNET RACE START TODAY

Track the boats with yellow brick,  the same system used for the transatlantic race. There have already been several withdrawals from the race. Click HERE to read race updates. The buzz is for the big boats to break out and finish quickly while the smaller boats would be left with light air to contend with the the tide gates returning from fastnet rock. Looking at the weather it is a beat out of the solent and along the south coast.