01 Jan

Fare increase for Panama Canal

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Offshore Sailing
The Panama Canal will no longer be an inexpensive way totransport a yacht between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans if an expected increase in the toll takes effect this spring. Instead of the relatively cheap $650 transit fee ($250 plus a $400 "measurement fee") required until now, the new fee will be $1,500 after May 1, according to officials with the Panama Canal Commission. The fare increase, which has outraged the world yachting community since it was first announced in January, is being described as necessary by the Commission to balance rising maintenance and operation costs. Panama is set to…
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01 Jan

Ayesha's last cruise

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing
In 1914, the German cruiser SMS Emden and Kapitanleutnant Helmuth Karl von Mucke found themselves in the South Pacific upholding the Imperial interests of Kaiser William. On Nov. 9, Emden disembarked 50 men, including von Mucke, at Direction Island in the Keeling group, to wreck its vital cable and radio station. The landing party quickly vandalized the facility, and the British operators were made "prisoners," although no one was actually constrained or locked up. In fact, the interaction of the two groups was so cordial that von Mucke agreed to a British request that the station's radio tower be felled…
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01 Jan

Fiddler’s green

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Offshore Sailing
EMIL "BUS" MOSBACHER, JR. America's Cup Skipper and OpSail Chairman Two-time America's Cup winner Emil "Bus" Mosbacher, Jr., died August 13, 1997, at the age of 75. Raised on Long Island Sound, where he was an eight-time International One Design champion in the 1950s, Mosbacher skippered the 12-meter Weatherly to victory over Australia's first Cup challenger, Gretel, in 1962. Two challenges and five years later, Mosbacher was at the helm of the Intrepid when she swept Australia's Dame Pattie in four races. The opposing helmsman in both series was Jock Sturrock, who also died this year. (In 1970 the same…
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01 Jan

Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing
Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare4,162 miles across the Pacific in a rowing boatby John TooheyThe fastidious cartographer and right-hand man of Capt. James Cook fell in reputation from one of the highest positions in the Royal Navy to one of infamy. A slight by a sycophantic crewmember, in a posthumously published account of the voyage of Resolution, kept Bligh from the fame and wealth accorded many of those who had also sailed with Cook in lesser positions. He then went on to lose command of Bounty and spend many months adrift in an open boat before fetching Tahiti. John Toohey's gripping…
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01 Jan

Swedish inventor going 'round again

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing
Sven Yrvind, the Swedish sailor and inventor formerly known as Sven Lundin, is hard at work building another of his funky sailboats this time for an ambitious east-about solo circumnavigation that includes Tristan de Cunha Island, Tasmania, and Cape Horn. His latest vessel, Bris Orädd, a 22-footer with a thick foam core and polyester fiber skin, incorporates the inventor's passionate belief in utilizing the latest technology in unconventional ways. Yrvind has made numerous high-seas voyages aboard his various little craft, including a transatlantic with his artist wife Olga in a 15-footer; to Tristan de Cunha in a 20-footer; and around…
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01 Jan

Brad Van Liews Record Run

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing
Around Alone sailor Brad Van Liew set a new World Sailing Speed record this weekend when he ran 345.03 miles from 0300 GMT on Saturday to 0300 GMT Sunday. On this final stretch of his run to Capetown and the finish of Leg 2, Van Liew clocked an average of 14.37 knots, the longest distance sailed by a 50-foot monohull sailboat for a 24-hour period. If verified by the World Sailing Speed Council, Van Liew will have broken J.P. Mouligne's 1998-'99 Around Alone record aboard Cray Valley. On Monday morning, Dec. 25, Van Liew was approximately 480 miles from Capetown…
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01 Jan

Ex-Navy sub should extend Alvin's reach

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing
A deep-diving submarine, similar to the famed Alvin, has been donatedto the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution by the U.S. Navy. Sea Cliff, a close cousin to Alvin, is able to dive to 19,500 feet with a crew of scientists. Although WHOI future plans do not include operating two manned submarines, according to Adm. Richard F. Pittenger, associate director of marine operations, the addition of a second submarine will enable the Institution to mix and match parts to create a better sub. "Sea Cliff is not going to be used as it is too large, too clumsy, and too expensive to…
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01 Jan

There's no place like Peter's in Azores

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing
Mariners who have visited the Azores over the years have undoubt-edly stumbled into the islands' world-famous gathering place for travelers: Café Sport. Opened by Henrique Azevedo in 1918, this harbor-front café and bar has been welcoming tuna fishermen, whalers, boaters, and yachtsmen to Horta, on the island of Faial, for the past 80 years. Today it is run by the new patriarch, Henrique's 72-year-old son Jose Azevedo (called Peter by those who know him, a nickname apparently given by a passing Dutch seaman when Jose "was just a tadpole"). Peter celebrates his own milestone this year50 years of continuous service…
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01 Jan

CrossPac' to depart for Sydney in 2003

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing
A new short-handed race that will run between San Francisco and Sydney, Australia, via Hawaii will be held in 2003. Appropriately called the CrossPac, the 6,500-nm race will depart the Golden Gate Yacht Club during the summer of 2003. Participants will be sailing either single- or double-handed in boats up to 60 feet in length. (The race committee is still considering allowing multihulls.) Organized by Californian Alan Hebert, the race is being coordinated and sponsored in San Francisco by the Golden Gate Yacht Club, in Hawaii by the Waikiki Yacht Club and the Hawaii Yacht Club, and in Sydney by…
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