Jeff Armstrong (1951-2016)

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out and I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race
Frank Sinatra channeling Jeff Armstrong

My best friend died this morning.  One measure of how good a friend Jeff was is that I'm sure many others flatter themselves with the same thought.  Jeff's best friend and guardian angel Nancy and their kids Kathryn and Gordon know that Jeff loved life and loved them.  We all love life but Jeff loved it more.  Whether at the helm, holding forth in his shop, carving wooden spoons and spatulas for friends and family, with a wrench in his hand, or ringing the bell when he sold another Yamaha outboard motor at Jeff's Marine, he luxuriated in his mock persona as "the pirate of the Midcoast".

When Jeff invited me to join him, his brother Peter, and friends Alex and Steve Pags for a fly fishing expedition to Alaska I realized that I was loved more than I had known.  For seven days we floated down the Lake Creek River from placid beginnings to raging rapids.  As we drifted down river I'd snag a few while Jeff and the others landed dozens as they flicked the lures in front of the noses of salmon and trout struggling  upstream. 
- George

At the source of the Lake Creek River

fishing the rapids

Building Comanche – The Ocean Going Beast from the East | TotalBoat Show

Building Comanche – The Ocean Going Beast from the East | TotalBoat Show

Now that the gnarly Sydney-Hobart Race has come and gone (See this blog post to fill yourself in on this historic race), with the mighty Comanche winning line honors, we thought it might be fun to look into some of the build of this awesome racing machine. (another video of the build is here) Photographer Onne van der Wal was charged with documenting the build of this amazing super racer and his video above shows a Downeast boat yard (Hodgdon Yachts in Boothbay, Maine)  who took on one of the most impressive high-tech builds in recent history. No stranger to high class yachts, Hodgdon nailed this one in a “Downeast meets Uptown Carbon Fiber” success story.

The successes of Comanche are notable in her young one+ year on the circuit so far. And while she has yet to the the overall winner of any of the major races she has entered (which is her mission), she has set impressive records and made quite an impact on the large end of high-tech carbon fiber race boats. Come aboard for a wet and wild ride for part of the Transatlantic Race from Newport to the UK. Comanche might not have won that race – but she did set a new world record for fastest monohull in a 24 hour period (average of 27 knots! NUTS!) And this video shows how the build of the yacht is vital to staying in one piece, much less surviving massive seas at a rapid clip of 25+ knots. Stressful for any boat, hull, skipper and crew, to say the least.

Comanche, now fresh from her newest ocean endeavor across the world and down under in Australia, suffered some damage to her rudder in the Sydney-Hobart Race, but managed to stay intact during a nasty storm which afflicted the fleet and knocked out many top contenders and much of her competition in the first night.  All this high speed sailing and record setting makes one wonder what it must be like to blast along on a 100-foot maxi monohull. Well, thanks to an ambitious video from “Juggy” on the Comanche crew, you can take a ride and get a feeling for this speedster and the stresses she endured to pick up a record and  line honors in Hobart, Tasmania just a few weeks ago.

HOLD on!  And try to imagine going 27 knots for 24 hours on any other sailboat you have been on. And what that boat might look like after. This – ladies and gentlemen – is why boatbuilding of this nature is not for just any old yard guy. It takes lots of talent, lots ofepoxy and carbon fiber and plenty of the green stuff, too.

Miss Stacy tugboat in trouble fights from getting sucked under bridge - YouTube

Miss Stacy tugboat in trouble fights from getting sucked under bridge - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vLTOrYQ9ug&feature=youtu.be

Braving the elements on the Tappan Zee Bridge

Braving the Elements Atop the New Tappan Zee Bridge http://nyti.ms/1Of4EAQ

Rich Wilson, the best ambassador for the Vendée Globe - Vendée Globe 2016

American Rich Wilson finished ninth in the last running of the Vendee Globe.  He has got a different boat now - Dominque Wavre's former Mirabaud.  November1, 2016 is the start date. One person, on a boat, around the world (France to France), nonstop, unassisted.  That's the race.

Rich Wilson, the best ambassador for the Vendée Globe - Vendée Globe 2016

That is how Denis Horeau, the Vendée Globe Race Director described the American maths teacher at the press conference presenting the 2016 Vendée Globe at the Paris Boat Show. It was just a quick stopover in Paris for the skipper of Great American IV, who is busy developing a worldwide teaching programme using the Vendée Globe as a tool. At the age of 64, he is to compete in the 2016 Vendée Globe, even though his boat was recently struck by lightning.

© François Van Malleghem / DPPI / Vendée Globe

Tell us a little about your recent travels and how you explain your project, Rich
”I was in China, Beijing and Hong Kong just making connections and they are really interested in the concept. The great thing is the Vendée Globe is so easily understood, one person one boat, non stop around the world without assistance. We are working on the partnerships concept. Schools are excited about wrapping the race into their programmes. In China we were meeting with the right people I think, with decision makers and I think it will work for education, science and technology especially. In the US it spans Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths in high schools and we are just trying to reach out to as many people as possible. We reached 1/4m people in the last race and now we want to expand overseas. We can do that, the internet lets us reach people from Bogota to Boston to Beijing and Bali it doesn’t matter.”

Read more

New Year's Day - Friendship River

Walking with my baby down by the bay.

Seeing stars again: Naval Academy reinstates celestial navigation - Capital Gazette

My father commanded a 110 foot sub chaser on convoy escort duty in the north Atlantic.  Every day they had to report their noon position - determined by using a sextant like that above.  The advantage of celestial navigation is that it is three dimensional.  It helps you orient yourself in space.  - gwc

Seeing stars again: Naval Academy reinstates celestial navigation - Capital Gazette

by Tim Prudente

The same techniques guided ancient Polynesians in the open Pacific and led Sir Ernest Shackleton to remote Antarctica, then oriented astronauts when the Apollo 12 was disabled by lightning, the techniques of celestial navigation.

A glimmer of the old lore has returned to the Naval Academy.

Officials reinstated brief lessons in celestial navigation this year, nearly two decades after the full class was determined outdated and cut from the curriculum.

That decision, in the late 1990s, made national news and caused a stir among the old guard of navigators.

Maritime nostalgia, however, isn't behind the return.

Rather, it's the escalating threat of cyber attacks that has led the Navy to dust off its tools to measure the angles of stars.

After all, you can't hack a sextant....

Friendship - First Storm - Christmas Week 2015

Maine-built Boat Wins Sydney Hobart Race

Portland Press Herald - East Boothbay- built boat wins 628 mile Sydney-Hobart Race
Comanche - the East Boothbay built maxi - has won the Sydney-Hobart Race.  It was a brutal race in which 29 of 108 starters retired after the first night. At the helm as they crossed the finish line was Aussie lass Kristy Hinze-Clark, wife of owner Jim Clark who founded Netscape.  She was, presumably, wearing foulies, not the suit she chose for the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

Puerto natales, Chile | Issuma

Getting Drier | Issuma

Richard Hudson is getting pretty far south aboard Issuma.  At 48 South, 73 west  near Puerto Natales he is in the pleasantly cool weather of the Patagonian summer.