Jeffrey Macfarlane, 31, grew up in Michigan then spent over a decade in offshore racing, with a long stretch in Australia on boats like the well-known maxi Wild Oats. In 2012, he crossed the Atlantic twice, on the Open 60, Le Pengouin, then in the Quebec St-Malo Race with the Class 40 EDF Energies Nouvelles.… Continue reading Jeff MacFarlane’s Rough Road to 203 Mini Transat
Category: Sailors & Yachts
Solo Canoeist Neal Moore Crosses America
On March 1, 2019– the day after the splendidly rowdy and irreverent Fisher Poets Gathering brought a hundred or so characters to the Hanthorn Cannery Museum in Astoria–another story teller showed up at the museum on Pier 39 at the east end of the waterfront. His name is Neal Moore and he also talks and… Continue reading Solo Canoeist Neal Moore Crosses America
Botterjacht Groote Beer’s Nazi Past All a Fraud
Back in the 1990’s, I wrote what I assumed would be the final American story about the Groote Beer, the 52′ Dutch botterjacht that had spent many years on the west coast, especially on the Columbia River in the 1950s–when it had actually raced to Hawaii–and again in the 1990s–when it returned here and became… Continue reading Botterjacht Groote Beer’s Nazi Past All a Fraud
Ice Bird, Hero, Calypso at Palmer in 1972
Three remarkable craft made an unplanned rendezvous on the Antarctica Peninsula at Palmer Station in the summer of 1972. The 125′ American research vessel Hero and the 154′ ex-WW II minesweeper Calypso were both traditional wooden vessels while the 32′ steel sloop Ice Bird was the first small sailing yacht to visit the frozen continent. Their… Continue reading Ice Bird, Hero, Calypso at Palmer in 1972
After 75 Years, Katie Ford Sails on in B.C.
In the summer of 2016, I received an email from the Canadian owner of the 44′ cruising yacht Katie Ford, inviting me to its 70th birthday party in Victoria B.C. This classic old sailing yacht was built in in 1946 at Astoria Marine Construction Company (AMCCO) and was considered the finest sailing vessel on the… Continue reading After 75 Years, Katie Ford Sails on in B.C.
Arthur Piver: Pioneer Trimaran Designer-Sailor
Arthur Piver (1910–1968) was a World War II pilot, and a legendary sailor, author, and boat builder who lived in Mill Valley on San Francisco Bay. In the late 1950s, Piver (rhymes with “diver”) owned a print shop, and designed and built a series of simple three-hulled, plywood yachts in his spare time, starting with… Continue reading Arthur Piver: Pioneer Trimaran Designer-Sailor
Frenchman’s Obsession with Slocum and the Spray
In the Wake of the Spray Guy Bernardin is a French racing sailor who had an impressive racing career in the 1980s sailing in the new Open 60 class in the OSTAR, the Route du Rhum, two BOC round-the-world races and the Vendée Globe in 1990. He never quite made it to the top of… Continue reading Frenchman’s Obsession with Slocum and the Spray
2010: Multihulls from the Stone Age to the New Age
For many years they were a nautical oddity, their owners dismissed by the traditional yachting world as cranks and dreamers, but no longer! Today cruising catamarans and trimarans (collectively referred to as “multihulls”) can’t be ignored. They can be found crossing Puget Sound and racing around the world, and in the last twenty years they’ve… Continue reading 2010: Multihulls from the Stone Age to the New Age
1992: The COVE System–COre/Veneer/Epoxy
I invented the term “COVE System” in the 1990’s to describe Schooner Creek Boatworks’ wood-composite boat construction method. COVE which stands for COre/Veneer/Epoxy. It a system that utilizes thin layers of wood for the inner and outer skins and a Divinycell structural foam core, all laminated with West System epoxy. Schooner Creek founder Steve Rander… Continue reading 1992: The COVE System–COre/Veneer/Epoxy
2011: “Around the Americas” Voyage Comes full Circle
It was the end of May 2010 when the 64-foot steel expedition yacht Ocean Watch set sail from Seattle on the 28,000-mile “Around the Americas” voyage–the first continuous circumnavigation of North and South American continents. One year and one week later, Captain Mark Schrader and his valiant crew returned to the Pacific Northwest when they… Continue reading 2011: “Around the Americas” Voyage Comes full Circle