Alex Thomson Standing On Keel Of Hugo Boss Underway (Photo by Lloyd Images)
Having already tried his hand at foiling, last week round the world sailor Alex Thomson went keel walking on his IMOCA Open 60 HUGO BOSS in the Solent.
Alex said;
“I’ve wanted to stand on the keel while sailing for a couple of years, and last week in 17-20 knots of breeze I stood on the keel whilst sailing wearing a HUGO BOSS suit. It was pretty dangerous but a real buzz.”
In 2005 Alex became the first skipper to sign up for the 3 in 3 – 3 round the world races in 3 years starting with the Velux 5 Oceans in 2006, followed by the Barcelona World Race (BWR) in November 2007, and culminating in the 2008 Vendee Globe
Alex was forced to retire from the Velux 5 Oceans due to severe structural problems. He overcame the Southern Ocean by achieving a second place podium finish in the Barcelona World Race. Whilst on this race Alex smashed the 60ft monohull world distance record and was in excellent shape for the Vendée Globe.
Hugo Boss Keel (Photo by Lloyd Images)
However, only 3 weeks before the Vendée was due to commence, Alex was dramatically struck by a French fishing vessel. His team fought against the clock to finish the repairs in record time to achieve the impossible – and get Alex to the start line. Alex’s dreams to become the first Briton to win the much coveted title were shattered after only 3 days racing; when he discovered HUGO BOSS was letting in water from structural failure to the hull. Devastated, Alex announced his retirement from the Vendée. He is determined to return and compete in the 2012
Alex On Hugo Boss's Keel (Photo by Lloyd Images)
Mike Perham Self Portrait Onboard Totallymoney.com (Photo by Mike Perham / Totallymoney.com)
Mike Perham is 600 miles south-east of Newfoundland, doing 11.4 kts. He has 1,520 nautical miles to the
Ushant/Falmouth finish line.
Light winds last week delayed 17 year-old Mike Perham’s record bid to become the youngest solo circumnavigator. He now expects to reach the Lizard line marking the start and finish point of his 30,000 mile record-setting odyssey sometime on Thursday August 27, still two months inside the current record. He now plans return to Gunwharf Quay, Portsmouth to be reunited with family and friends at 11:00am on Saturday August 29. Mike, who set out from England last November, was 600 miles south-east of Newfoundland early today, his yacht Totallymoney.com speeding on at 11.4knots, after closing to within 2,000 miles of the finish early on Monday.
Mike said on BBC Radio Solent today that he was coping well with being on his own, but is really looking forward to getting home.
Yesterday about 50 dolphins and 6 pilot whales came to visit him. Mike reported: “I was standing up by the mast this afternoon checking a few things and snapping photographs when all of a sudden I heard a great splash. There was this great long line of dolphins all jumping up in the air. There must have been fifty of them. It was an amazing sight! Later, I glanced across the water and spotted six pilot whales having a good look at Totallymoney.com.
Mike Perham on His Open 50 Totallymoney.com (Photo courtesy of Totallymoney.com)
Then, while I was sitting on the beanbag, two dolphins suddenly jumped up just a metre away from Totallymoney.com’s stern. They looked really impressive, spray flying everywhere. I guess the sealife around here is used to seeing a lot of yachts! The temperature on board is getting cooler with the influence of the Labrador Current from the north. The winds have gone around to the north as well. Today I had to put my sea boots on; a strange feeling since I have not worn anything on my feet for ages.
A small low-pressure system currently over Newfoundland, should give me some great running conditions by Wednesday. Once this has passed over it looks as if I might be able to hook into one of the big bad-boy low’s trucking it’s way across the Atlantic to the north of us. I’m looking forward to some more “vroom-vroom” moments!”
Mike Perham on Totallymoney.com (Photo by Julien Girardot/DPPI)
Mike Perham, the teenager from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire who has high hopes of sailing into the record books at the end of August to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the Globe alone, has covered more than 1,000 miles during his first week and is now off the Florida coast.
He and his Open 50 yacht Totallymoney.com left Panama last Tuesday, but says he has not been able to sleep for more than two hours a day, sometimes down to one and never longer than 15 minutes at a time. This is because he has to stay alert for fear of being run down by one of the many ships that are following the same route between Panama and the East Coast of the US. At times he has reported over 20 ships on his radar. On Sunday Mike said in his blog, ‘The main thing is to be safe. The traffic has picked up a lot this evening – in the last hour I’ve had three ships pass within a few miles.’
Mike has also found the extreme heat particularly uncomfortable. He reports, ‘It’s so, so hot inside that the last thing I want to do at the moment is sit at the chart table. it’s over forty degrees Celsius day and night.’ Often he has no choice but to be in the cabin as he has had to navigate around the Miskito and Rosalind Banks that stick out from the coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. On rounding the western tip of Cuba over the weekend there was a traffic separation scheme to be negotiated.
Mike is having to use all his navigation skills, working the currents and sometimes fickle winds to pass through this area. His decision to go through the Panama Canal instead of around Cape Horn is proving far more of a challenge than was first perceived.
Another weather phenomenon he has had to contend with are the powerful lightening storms. On Monday he wrote, ‘Today was a day of squalls and some of the craziest forked lightning I’ve seen so far – a bolt hit the water less than a mile away from me as I rounded the western tip of Cuba. Slightly worrying when I’m the tallest thing around!’
Another concern are pirates which are known to operate in this area. Mike is on an increased state of alert and his web tracker, showing the world Totallymoney.com course, has been suspended until he is clear of the region
If the wind gods remain kind, the 17 year old circumnavigator now expects to cross the Ushant/Lizard finish line off Falmouth UK in 21 days time and hopes to return to Gunwharf Quay, Portsmouth on August 25/26
Totallymoney (Photo courtesy of Totallymoney.com)
17 year old British sailor Mike Perham set out from Panama tlast night on the final stage of his record attempt to become the youngest solo yachtsman to take on the world. Sailing the Open 50 race yacht TotallyMoney.com. Mike set out on this extraordinary odyssey from Gunwharf Quay Portsmouth, England on November 15, 2008 and now expects to make a triumphant return within four weeks.
Mike from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, first hit the headlines two years ago when he became the youngest person ever to sail across the Atlantic single-handed at the age of just fourteen – a record recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.
The Guinness encyclopaedia of record facts and feats is monitoring Mike’s progress once more. Earlier this month, American teenager Zac Sunderland returned to Los Angeles to claim the youngest solo circumnavigation record, but Mike is three and a half months younger and has until mid November to get his name into the record books. Mike Broughton, the British weather guru, who has been advising Perham throughout his record attempt, forecasts a 29 day voyage back to Portsmouth to give the 17 year old more than 2 months to spare.
During Mike’s circumnavigation, which is sponsored by TotallyMoney.com , Vocalink, Skechers Footwear, Mastervolt, Kemp Sails and many other companies, he has overcome everything nature can throw at him including storm force winds and 50ft seas. He has also had to overcome major problems with his yacht’s self-steering system, rudder bearings and electrics. Stopping for repairs added months to the voyage and led to Mike missing the seasonal weather window for rounding Cape Horn. Continued bad weather in the Southern Ocean, which had Totallymoney.com surfing down waves at crazy speeds up to 28knots, eventually forced the teenager to sail much further north than he had intended and sensibly, he re routed his return to the Atlantic via the Panama Canal.
Mike’s daily blogs and videos have been an inspiration to thousands who read and watch them each day. Mixing picturesque sunsets with ferocious seas, he describes with remarkable insight, his encounters with whales and dolphins, – and contrasting rubbish that litter the sea. Mike said today: “I’m finally on the last leg and it feels just great. I only have about 5,000 miles to go, so I am hoping to be home inside four weeks. I really can’t wait, but I won’t push the boat too hard, as I would not want anything to happen that might have been preventable.“
Money raised by Mike during the 28,000-mile voyage is being donated to Save the Children and the Tall Ships Youth Trust.
Pegasus 50 At Sea (Photo courtesy of Pegasus)
The record for double-handing the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu has been broken. At 4:38:35 am HST today, Philippe Kahn and Mark “Crusty” Christensen, crossed the Diamond Head finish line in the Open 50, Pegasus 50, in a record time of 7 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds. They shaved over two and a half days off of the previous record set by Howard Gordon and Jay Crum in 2001 also with an Open 50, Etranger in the most enduring and greatest ocean race in the world covering 2,225 nautical miles from Los Angeles to Honolulu.
It seemed unusual to be taking photos of Kahn and Christensen as they backed Pegasus 50 into the slip at Waikiki Yacht Club after having spent days viewing their blog. They used their Motion X GPS application for their iPhone to get instantaneous performance feedback and to communicate to the rest of the world and share their story with AV blog postings.
“Double-handing the Open 50 to Hawaii is one of the highlights of my year,” stated Kahn, a noted technologist and the creator of the camera phone. “I love being out in the open Ocean, once we’re out there, that’s all that matters – we had our sights on the record and we beat it. Mark and I are a perfect team. We work together at MotionX and we race together as partners on Pegasus across the Pacific. Mark’s experience as one of the greatest offshore sailors in the world is invaluable. Transpac is a navigator’s race and that plays into our strength ”
Today is a busy day in Honolulu for welcoming parties. A staggered start, weather patterns and tactical decisions combined so that boats are streaming into Ala Wai in Honolulu and the greeting parties can barely keep up with the pace. Aloha welcome parties overlap. The consensus among the sailors is that it was a fun and fast race.
Boats in port – Alfa Romeo, Criminal Mischief, Magnitude 80, Bengal 7, Relentless, Samba Pa Ti, Akela, Hula Bad Pak, Medicine Man, Flash, Tachyon III. Pegasus 50, Cipango, OEX due in shortly. By the end of the day, most of the fleet have made their final gybe, crossed the finish line and will be wearing leis and telling the story of their race to family, friends and fellow sailors.
