“...to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.”
Looking deeply into the world of Herman Melville.

One of the remaining trees was this 700 year old specimen, bought and felled by the late Dick McIlvride whose goal was to build an all-Kauri 47-foot ketch to the plans of the naval architect John Alden.

During the race a boat’s location must be determined by traditional star, sun, planet or moon sights. Navigators of boats competing using celestial navigation must at a minimum maintain, and have ready for inspection in Bermuda, the paper-based plotting sheets for the entire race which demonstrate the method of obtaining the vessel’s position at any time during the race. All fixes resulting from Lines of Position shall have recorded the GMT, altitude, azimuth and intercept of the body or bodies of each LOP. Any Local Apparent Noon fixes shall have GMT and altitude data recorded and available for inspection.

I always start a search with so much optimism, and then the mishmash of soulless production non entities, unrealistically priced one-offs, and boats than need to be put out of their misery becomes too much, and I switch to the more bespoke sites that have fewer offerings but more potential.

Bolivar, sometimes known as Porky, an experienced fisherman whose hands are large and whose plastic sandals are held together with tape, has done something stupid. To make enough money to fix it before his pursuers cut off his ears, he needs to catch fish.

“It is disappointing to now be told to leave Docklands with no viable alternative,” Mr McDonald said, adding that it had received a previous commitment from DV “for a future home for the Alma Doepel in Docklands for more than a decade. After all of the work, meetings, plans and advocacy to now end up with ship getting kicked out of Docklands is extremely disappointing.”

While this was going on Barry, who was navigator, said that ‘he was not feeling too well and would go and have a lie down’. When we did get sailing again Alan called down to Barry to give us a course but received no reply. Steve Kingsland went below, to discover that Barry had died during the half hour it had taken us to get sailing.

"My girlfriend said she would look for a house and I would look for a boat, but then she realised houses are expensive and maybe we should just live on the boat. Houses are well and good, but you can't move your house, can you?"

“Every Christmas everyone would go, all those who worked on the water, to all the old boatsheds in the area. You’d eat prawns and oysters there for as long as you like – they didn’t fight, they had a great time together – this was at Bayview – Palm Beach was considered a fair way away then.”

After sea trials on St Vincent's Gulf, John, then an academic in history at Adelaide University, obtained a grant to undertake research in the Lau group of islands of eastern Fiji. The boat was trucked to Sydney then loaded onto a ship to Tonga

While no pre-WW2 yachts are entered, there are many examples of yacht genres from the second half of the 20th century, that have helped the Fastnet become the world’s largest offshore yacht race. 

Nick carried out substantial work, including a new rig, new sails and with a crack crew competed at Hamilton Island, Qld, in the Australian IRC Championships in 2001. With her low handicap rating, she was a surprise winner, astonishing the race favourites of Brindabella and Alfa Romeo

While shooting the British Boatbuilders 2023 Tour, we noticed the relatively low representation of women in the U.K.'s boatyards and sail lofts. In Italy, however, the gender gap is even more pronounced.

There are times when owners needs to sell a classic sailboat but the memories of the good times on the boat keep them for committing. David Crosby cherished Mayan, not just for the times he sailed her but also for the inspiration she brought to his song writing

After around 15,000 years ago, sea levels began to rise quite rapidly, reflooding the low-lying coastal areas of the Bassian Plain. It took about a thousand or more years for Lutruwita/Tasmania to be separated from mainland Victoria, and another few thousand years for the main islands of the Bass Strait to emerge.

This class is only permitted to carry the smallest model of electric autopilot, and it is not adequate when the boats are being pushed hard downwind.  This was a deliberate decision by Don McIntyre, race founder, to keep the boats simple and affordable

She sits as a time capsule. She is in a shed with a dirt floor, an ideal environment for a double-planked boat. Her exterior finish is deteriorated but original. Her lovely full-length mahogany planking has checked over the years from drying out and splined, but she still has the clear varnish finish inside and out with which she was launched. She looks to be as original as when she was built. Let’s not forget that her builder, Bjarne Aas, was a legend at the end of his career.

“Across the globe and throughout history, wooden boats have been foundational to the story of human civilisation. Whether for fishing, trade, exploration, or leisure, these vessels have always been part of humanity's shared heritage and culture. They've taken us to every corner of the Earth and they bind us together.”

This 'boaty' environment led to the establishment of the Shipwright's Point School of Wooden Boat Building in 1995, where they taught students how to build and restore wooden vessels, preserving an art that was at risk of being lost.

Built by Deemings boats at Ōpua in 1960, the Bay Belle was first launched in 1961 as the Fullers Cream Trip ferry making deliveries and transporting passengers over a traditional shipping route that took in some of the Bay of Island’s most spectacular coastal sights.