The MoD has informed Ofcom of the following GPS jamming exercises: Dates: 31 March to 4 April 2008 Times: between 08:00 and 18:00 hrs Location: To sea from Bridlington - N54 06.842? W000 05.045? Contact: Trial Manager - 07766 134758 Dates: 20-21...

What is the vessel that appears in the photo? A trimaran, a catamaran or a keel boat? At least two things are certain, she is motor boat and she arrived in Valencia yesterday. Concerning last week's quiz, one of our readers posted the correct answer. It was the deck of the brand new GP42 under construction at the Dcision boatyard in Switzerland.

S43°23.10' E171°75.39'

After 51km of calm seas, spurred on by copious amounts of singing, Justine and Barry have arrived in Timaru. Following a feast of fish and chips, they are camping at the yacht club.

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STONY BAY FROM ABOVE
THE WAVES AT SUMNER AND THE FATAL PHOTO THAT WAS BARRY'S UNDOING!
Wow, what an adventure so far! We have a bit of time on a computer thanks to Nigel, Paula, Shelly & Carey who picked up 2 waifs and strays at the yacht club and brought us back to their home so we can write a blog update. Thanks to Dave Weith from the yacht club who allowed us to camp outside the yacht club and luxury-of-luxuries, have our first shower since starting out.  read more »

Last Thursday Valencia Sailing visited the Alinghi base and talked to Grant Simmer, managing director and design coordinator of the Defender of the 33rd America's Cup. Our interest was of course the hearing that had taken place in New York 3 days earlier (January 23rd) and more specifically Alinghi's claim that "multihulls" and "keel yachts" are two incompatible types of vessels. The interview doesn't of course take into consideration the documents submitted this week. It's quite long but very interesting. Valencia Sailing: So far during the legal battle Valencia Sailing has avoided taking any sides and tried to be as objective and neutral as possible.  read more »

In compliance with a new Solas regulation that regards long range identification and tracking of ships and the International Maritime Organization (Imo) Resolution MSC.211, since January 1st, 2008, passenger and cargo ships, including high-speed craft, of 300 gross tonnage and upward, and mobile offshore drilling units built after 2008, on international voyages, will be fitted with a system that will transmit automatically the identity and position of the ship, and the date and time of the position provided.  read more »

Close to the end of our trip I hunkered down in my cabin and took the multiple choice 117 question American Sailing Association Bareboat Certification exam.  It had to be completed within an hour, so it wasnt that much of a burden on my vacation time, unlike the coastal navigation or advanced coastal cruising exams which would have taken two or three hours each.  Only one of our students was motivated enough to actually take those exams during the trip, because otherwise he would have had to travel from Boise, Idaho to Tacoma to take it sometime after the trip.  He needed the entire dining table in the saloon to lay out the chart and graphs.  I doubt very much that everyone elses walking around and partying on deck helped him very much. Id tell you everything that was on the test if I could remember.  I had to forfeit the last 3 or 4 questions because they referred to a chart that looked like it had come through a fax machine and was totally unreadable.  There were also a few questions that I missed because they required you to select more than one answer, but they didnt tell you that, so I only selected the best single answer.  My advice is, if the question or answers dont make sense, ask your examiner because something is probably wrong with the test.  The only other question I remember getting wrong was a true/false question about clearing customs.  I said that it was true that you can only clear customs at designated ports of entry, which is wrong.  Apparently, you can clear customs at any port , provided you are willing to wait a while (days, maybe) for a customs officer to come to your boat. So after finishing the written exam, and demonstrating a rolling hitch and a truckers hitch, I passed!  Now Im qualified to "act as skipper of a 30 - 50 foot boat sailing by day in coastal waters".  Woo hoo!   After I passed I was like, Im done , dude .  I dont need to bark out orders or pay attention to sail trim to squeeze that extra half knot out of them anymore.  Hey, the boats going forward, OK?  What the hell more do you want?  read more »

Dear Sailors, Our company Polconn CSS together with Sail Training Association Poland organize some offshore trip on the famous Polish training ship Pogoria: http://www.pogoria.pl/info.php Planned itinerary: Catania (Sicily) - Malta - Egadi Islands ...

Dear Sailors, Our company Polconn CSS together with Sail Training Association Poland organize some offshore trip on the famous Polish training ship Pogoria: http://www.pogoria.pl/info.php Planned itinerary: Catania (Sicily) - Malta - Egadi Islands ...

UPDATE: Regatta report on the RYA site: Green wins chance to defend Winter Challenge crown
As promised a post about the Match Racing at Queen Mary Sailing Club last weekend. This was act 4 in the RYA Winter Challenge. We had a great weekend with very good sailing conditions on the Queen Mary Reservoir. With my brand new digital camera I took some pictures and if you are interested, you can see them all on Flickr. Go Here  read more »