Latest news with #sailing
CBC
8 hours ago
- Climate
- CBC
Missing sailor from Quebec found alive off Labrador coast
A missing boater was found in good health Wednesday morning, about 200 kilometres east of Mary's Harbour, Labrador. The 20-foot sailboat was also located. Martin Hurley, acting deputy superintendent of search and rescue coordination at the Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre in St. John's, said the solo sailor was last heard from on Thursday after posting regular updates online. The sailor wasn't hurt, Hurley said, but poor weather conditions damaged some of the boat's electronics and a satellite communications suite on board. "He just became disabled due to weather, which caused some damage to his communications equipment," Hurley said. A Hercules aircraft was deployed from Trenton, Ont., and the Canadian Coast Guard sent vessels to the east coast of Labrador to participate in the search. The sailor, who is from Tadoussac, Que., last stopped in Blanc-Sablon on his way to Greenland. He was transferred to Gander by helicopter. Hurley said the Canadian Coast Guard would like to encourage everyone to consider their personal safety when venturing out on the water.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Father and daughter to take on 'Everest' of sailing' — the 2025 Fastnet Race
A FATHER and daughter from the Isle of Wight are set to take on the 'Everest' of sailing — the Rolex Fastnet Race — this weekend. Richard and Sophie Palmer, from Cowes, will be competing in the world famous race on his yacht, Jangada, which starts on Saturday (July 26). The double-handed crew will be part of the IRC4 class in the world's largest offshore yacht race. Having already completed the 2023 Fastnet Race together, Richard will once again be sailing double-handed with his daughter. Sam White and Sam North, of Yarmouth, will be competing double-handed in the 2025 Fastnet Race. (Image: Sam White) For Richard, the Fastnet Race this year is all about "sharing the experience with my daughter," he said. "This will be the 11th Fastnet for me, and Sophie's second." This year marks the 100th anniversary of the legendary race, organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and is part of the Admiral's Cup regatta, hosted by Cowes. The non-stop race course is 1,287 km long, from Cowes to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, in France, via the iconic Fastnet Rock off Ireland. Richard's past sailing highlights include being crowned the 2022 RORC season's champion, winner of the 2019 RORC Transatlantic, and the 2022 Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race. Richard said: "We will be hoping for light winds and calm seas. A clean start and exit from The Solent is key to settling in well. "It always takes 24 hours to then settle into the rhythm." The Fastnet Race started in 1925, with just seven entries, and a mission to encourage long-distance yacht racing and excellence in design, building and navigation. Among the other competitors in this year's race are co-skipper Sam North, and Sam White, of Yarmouth, sailing his boat, Mzungu!. Action from the 2023 Fastnet Race (Image: Carlo Borlenghi) North, a former professional sailor, will be taking part in his fourth Fastnet, while for White, it will be his seventh. White is an airline pilot and property developer, following a career in the Royal Navy, while North owns a conference and trade show business, splitting his time between London and the New Forest. Their friendship goes back to university, but the idea for their double-handed campaign was sparked during a stag party at Lake Garda in 2020. More than 3,500 crew members will be competing in what has been described as the 'Everest' of sailing. For most, the race is a personal challenge and a 'bucket list' event.
Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Times
Global Clipper race lives up to its name, with Britons in the minority
A Frenchman, an American and a Belarussian board a Clipper Round the World yacht and the skipper says 'where have all the Brits gone?' It may sound like the start of a joke, but the increasing popularity of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's race has resulted in the proportion of British crew plummeting, with more than half of sailors taking part hailing from the rest of the world. 'Originally it was only the Brits and a few Europeans taking part, but the last race had 43 nationalities' Knox-Johnston, 86, said, before the start of this year's race at the end of next month. 'The international crew were at 53 per cent in the last race, with the Brits down to 47.' The biennial race, where about 700 amateur sailors pay to race around the world on a 70ft racing yacht, helped by a professional skipper, first launched in 1996. This year's event, which takes place across eight legs and involves a fleet of 10 Clipper 70 yachts, will have the highest number of international crew so far. 'We've got better known internationally,' Knox-Johnston said. 'We go to these ports around the world and when you get crew from other countries their newspapers send reports back, so that's bloody good advertising.' Forty-five per cent of the crew aged 40 and under are female this year, while across all ages about 25 per cent of the crew are women. The biggest group of participants, after the British, is now Americans. 'It used to be Australians, but that's dropped,' said Knox-Johnston, who became the first man to sail non-stop around the world solo in 1969. The first thing prospective crew have to do is complete four weeks of rigorous sail training on the Solent, where Clipper has its headquarters in Gosport, Hampshire. It costs about £10,000 to complete the training and take part in one of the race legs. For those wanting to do the full circumnavigation of the globe it costs more than £50,000. When The Times joined a crew of 12 amateurs completing their first week of training, only two were British. The rest came from Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, France, Belarus, Germany and the US. It is a steep learning curve as many sign up without any previous sailing experience, having seen an advert at a time when they want to radically change their lives. Kyle Vacca, 43, a former pilot in the US Air Force who is now an engineer and mission manager at SpaceX, managed to lose his iPhone overboard just before the crew's first man overboard drill, after someone knocked into him on deck. 'It's been a very intensive learning experience,' Vacca said. 'I am used to operating procedures in potentially hazardous environments while being safe and working with a team, so the details are new to me but there are a lot of similarities.' By the end of the first week they are beginning to get to grips with the vast array of different ropes onboard and bewildering terminology. 'You need to load the halyard on to the pit winch and open the jammer,' Nigel Parry, 60, the skipper of the training boat, shouts into the wind at Alice Morel, 35, a French travel agent living in Queensland, Australia, who has no previous sailing experience. Then he barks: 'Oliver, are you milkmaid? Then you should be on the other side of the mast.' Later in the day they attempt their second man overboard drill. Trish McLaughlin, 55, a retired Canadian police officer from Mount Currie, a small town of 5,000 people in British Columbia, is winched over the side to retrieve a floating dummy from the choppy Solent. 'I've always wanted to learn how to sail for my retirement and see the world,' she said, after successfully retrieving the dummy on the third attempt. 'I saw Clipper on my social media feeds and this made me realise I could learn to cross an ocean.' McLaughlin said the training had been 'a lot'. 'I didn't realise sailing was as technical as it has been,' she said. 'I used to have a water phobia but I conquered that so I could go sailing. 'I did have some people saying, 'Are you crazy?' and 'What are you wasting all your money for?' but it's my investment in my retirement, to be able to meet beautiful people in beautiful places, and see a little bit more of the world.' The 14th edition of the race sets sail from Portsmouth on August 31, but for those who prefer to keep their feet on dry land, a new five-part series called No Going Back, which follows the teams in the 13th edition, is available on Amazon Prime Video.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Tall Ships Aberdeen: Crews say fond farewell to Granite City
Crews have been saying a fond farewell to Aberdeen after the spectacular Tall Ships event in the city attracted hundreds of thousands of event - described as Scotland's biggest tourist event this year - began on Saturday, featuring almost 50 majestic vessels from around the ships left on Tuesday with many excited new, young crew members for the onward journey to believe there may have been at least 400,000 people at the Tall Ships - and hope the event can return in the "not too distant" future. The long weekend of celebrations in Aberdeen included a display by the Red Arrows on Monday night. Thousands of people witnessed the mid-air spectacular, despite some views being clouded by fog. However the sun came out for the final day, as visitors returned to wave the ships were cries of "Bon Voyage" and "hip hip hooray" from the crowds. The races are designed to encourage international friendship and training for young new crew members joined the boats for the next leg of the Tall Ships races over to them were Aberdeen girls Mya , Katherine, Mia, who are all 15, and 16-year-old are on board the Netherlands tall ship Eendracht for nine days, with mentor Toby Maddams from Peterhead."I'm really looking forward to sailing for the first time," Mya told BBC Scotland News on the deck, before departing."It's a really good new experience."Freya said: "I am looking forward to going to Norway with my new friends, it should be fun. This is my first time sailing. Everyone has been so nice on the boat."I'm nervous about sleeping, and sea-sickness."They joked that mentor Toby would be their "boat mum". 'It has been awe-inspiring' Adrian Watson from Aberdeen Inspired - a business organisation which promotes investment in the city centre - said the Tall Ships event had exceeded all expectations."To see hundreds of thousands descend upon our wonderful city has been so impressive ," he told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland."We feel confident that we will be on or around 400,000-plus."It has been awe-inspiring, and it's meant so much to the people of Aberdeen." He said the major Union Square shopping centre had broken its footfall records at the footfall numbers on Saturday were 78,685 and on Sunday it was 61,682."Most large towns and cities are going through a very difficult time - this has been such a success," Mr Watson said."We'd be very keen to see them come back." Deacon Blue had kicked off the event on Friday night with a harbourside main Tall Ships event then opened to the public on Saturday morning, followed a Ministry of Sound classical concert in the saw crews parade through the streets, and Monday featured a Kaiser Chiefs gig at night. Tall Ships Aberdeen was billed as Europe's largest free family event, with almost 50 ships taking 2,000 international crew members attended from as far afield as Uruguay and had previously hosted the prestigious event in 1991 and 1997.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Sport
- Globe and Mail
How five Canadian sailors survived their sailboat sinking on Lake Michigan
They bobbed on the surface of Lake Michigan in the pitch-black of night on July 16. Rain blown sideways stung their faces and 10-foot waves smashed into them. At the same time, their 55-foot ketch, Red Herring, was plummeting to the bottom of the Great Lake, 400 feet below. The five crew members, all skilled and veteran sailors from Toronto, tried to keep as near to one another as possible for safety reasons. Fifteen minutes earlier, the rudder had been torn out of the back of the sailboat as it was launched down a wave. At that point, there was no saving the Red Herring, a venerable 45-year-old craft fashioned out of cedar and owned by Fred Eaton, a member of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and former Rolex Canadian Sailor of the Year. Mr. Eaton is the son of the late Fredrik Stefan Eaton, the patriarch of the family's retail empire. He was aboard when the incident occurred, but was not available to speak about it. Several days earlier, the yacht had finished second overall, ahead of 189 other competitors, in Michigan's 480-kilometre Bayview Mackinac Race. It completed the event in 35 hours, 42 minutes and 39 seconds, and at no point was there a hint of a mechanical or structural issue. It sank as it was being delivered for the start of the July 18 Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. The 536-kilometre regatta, established in 1898, is the oldest and longest freshwater race in the world. Several hundred boats and more than 3,000 sailors compete each year. It is also quite dangerous. Each of the five Great Lakes pose a threat to sailors. They are small compared with an ocean and relatively shallow, and become extremely rough in heavy weather. Among them, Lake Michigan is considered the worst. In 1940, 32 out of 40 boats withdrew from the Bayview to Mackinac race because of weather conditions. In 1985, 96 out of 316 vessels in the Chicago to Mackinac race did the same. Deaths have occurred. The Red Herring was about 24 kilometres off the shore of Kewaunee, Wis., when disaster struck. 'We were expecting challenging conditions but thought they would be manageable,' Magnus Clarke, a crew member, said Friday as he and his wife, Heather Kosa Clarke, drove to Toronto from Chicago. Mr. Clarke has competed in 13 Chicago to Mackinac races, two Olympic campaigns and was a member of two America's Cup challengers. As soon as the rudder was lost, all hell broke loose. 'We realized we were sinking badly,' Mr. Clarke said. 'We knew it was a catastrophic situation. After we lost the rudder, we were all overboard and in the water 15 minutes later.' The crew barely had time to issue a mayday – an internationally recognized distress signal – and send a text to its onshore support team to explain the dire circumstances. Mr. Clarke is 56 and has sailed for five decades. He has taken part in safety drills more times than he can remember. This was more terrifying than any training session. 'It was absolutely and categorically the most dangerous situation I have ever been in,' he said. A Good Samaritan sailing near the Red Herring reported the capsizing to the United States Coast Guard, which also picked up the mayday at 9:31 p.m. It immediately dispatched a Jayhawk helicopter from a station at Traverse City, Mich., and a 45-foot rescue craft from Sturgeon Bay, Wis. The Toronto-based yacht was equipped with an emergency positioning beacon, which broadcast its global co-ordinates before it went under. The five sailors also wore life vests that likewise transmitted their GPS co-ordinates. The crew members were in the 19-degree water for more than an hour before they were located by the helicopter and then hauled aboard the rescue boat. Until then, all they could do was wait and hope for a miraculous recovery. Heather Kosa Clarke did not race in the Bayview to Mackinac competition but was also aboard the Red Herring to help deliver the yacht to Chicago. She sails, too, and has security and safety training, but did not complete the extensive at-sea course the others had taken. She has experienced having a man overboard on her own boat, however, and believes it helped her in the emergency. 'I did feel I used some of the skills I had learned,' she said. 'Mostly I was trying to stay calm and make sure not to make the situation worse. 'The idea is to overcome any negative feelings. We didn't want to swim too much and lose energy and we constantly kept checking with each other and talking to keep everyone's spirits up. 'We knew if we kept calm and didn't freak out, it was just a matter of time.' She said the boat was sailing under full control until the incident occurred. 'It was a very frightening moment,' Ms. Kosa Clarke said. 'You know a major failure has happened. You are scrambling around. It's very scary.' On the same day the Red Herring sank, a 70-footer named Trident was knocked onto its side by a wave and a crew member was washed overboard. He was rescued by a fellow competitor an hour later. 'The most important thing in the moment after the incident was for us to communicate with the Coast Guard and shore crew,' Mr. Clarke said. The Coast Guard plucked the sailors – the Clarkes, Fred Eaton, his son William and Bob Batty – out of the water and brought them to the Kewaunee Municipal Marina. They were transferred from there to a medical facility to be treated for symptoms of hypothermia and seasickness. They are all fine now. 'There was a moment of euphoria when we first saw the helicopter,' Mr. Clarke said. On Friday, he and his wife drove from Chicago back to Canada. They crossed the border at Sarnia, Ont., but first called ahead to let authorities know their documents were at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Mr. Eaton has a lot on his hands, including coping with the loss of the Red Herring. It can never be recovered from the depths of the lake.
