Day 49: Ecuadorian tuna fishing ship sighted. They lowered speedboat, two men approached, ‘no English‘, pirates? Silence. They smiled, phew. I rubbed my belly. They nodded. Bully beef? Onions? Rice? I wish. Potato chips, Powerade and cigarettes instead!

The race for both vessels was fraught . TE RAPUNGA had to beach their yacht in the Bay of Islands, due to extensive leaks. They recaulked as necessary, floated off and continued the race. They won the race from NGATAKI , who arrived nearly two days later, after weathering a horrendous storm passing through Bass Strait.

The video really does have one of the most annoyingly saccharine voice overs ever recorded, but once you get past that, you will hear about an amazing Marlborough family that have owned the 1912 built – BALAENA for 62 years.

One of her fastest voyages in what was generally called the “Grain Races”, was a passage of 93 days, departing Williamstown on 4th March and arriving Queenstown in Ireland on 5th June, 1929 with 3840 tons of wheat.

''I am not in a position to to carry out the necessary renovations myself, either physically or financially, so unless someone steps forward in the next couple of weeks, I’ll have to start scrapping her.”

The phased withdrawal of paper charts from production will take place over a number of years and is anticipated to conclude in late 2026.

In celebration of this rich dialogue and in expectation of more to come, we are republishing (in no particular order) some of our favourites comments from this year.

The adventure was beginning and it was nothing like what I anticipated. Years, months, and days of prep work were forgotten. We just wanted to make it through the evening of squalls and then the Gulf Stream safely reminding ourselves that this trip was our vacation time.

Both Mander and Tasker published books with accounts of this career defining competition. They reveal different approaches to sailing mostly defined by character.

It is an old, coral-encrusted question, puzzled over for the last three centuries, and usually posed in three parts. Where did Polynesians come from, when did they get there, and how?

Don’t expect character arcs, unresolved sexual tension or Chekov’s Gun, but do expect spine tingling accounts from the last great fleet of square-rigged sailing ships the world would ever see, and extraordinary imagery to match.

Five weeks after leaving Lima, Tom passed the 1,000 nautical mile mark on Sunday 7 August. He is now nearly a third of the way through his first leg with around 2600 nm of, hopefully, plain rowing to go before he reaches the Marquesas.

On January 16th, 1980 the barometer dropped 4 points and things got hairy.
 Their single sideband radio would receive Radio Moscow in English but all they could receive from Australia was snatches of cricket commentary no weather forecasts.

When one of these massive, shiny, floating apartment blocks is made out of (mostly) timber then its worth reading about, and taking on board the possibilities.

A completely intuitive designer, Uffa Fox, trusted his gut feelings about what made a boat fast, seaworthy, fun to sail and safe.

A film about a rough, old school sawmill that produces some of the world’s finest timber, including the uniquely Tasmanian Huon Pine.

Ed is tough but considered, practical but romantic, exacting but inclusive. If more people were like him, sailing would be a better sport.

There are an estimated six million boats in the EU alone, 95% of which are made of GRP. Every year, around 1-2% (60,000-120,000) of these boats reach the end of their useful life. Of these, only 2,000 are recycled, while 6,000-9,000 are abandoned.

If Pete’s home was on AirBnB – which it is not – but if it was, his balcony would get a 5 star rating – the view is spectacular and it was from here, I first spotted Chris Naden’s family owned, Broome built, pearling lugger STREETER.

“In our next anchorage-the fjord-like Puerto Eugenia, a sheep farmer rowed out and made us a gift of a lamb. “I bring you fresh meet” he said in perfect English. At first we tethered it to the mast but that proved to be awkward while sailing so finally we lashed it to the stern pulpit. We did not know how to feed it and none of us had killed a sheep before.”