Here I am starting my third year with this blog - and this year will be an amazing one, I assure you!

More than anything, I hope you all have a wonderful 2008 filled with happiness, health, and the love of your family and friends! Great success would be nice, too.

As I write this it's cold here. Arse biting cold, in fact. Two heaters on Pelican are just barely keeping up so there's going to be an upgrade here real soon now, definitely before the next cold snap. Next week it's going to be in the 50's. Go figure.  read more »

Posted by: BlueWater Boat Brokerage Boat Loans By Excel Credit Description: [b]Dimensions[/b] LOA: 55' Draft: 5'8" Beam: 17' Bridge Clearance: 17' Displacement: [b]Engines[/b] Engines: Lugger Engine Model: L6125A Engine Hours: 1380 Horsepower: 425 Cruising Speed: 8 knts Maximum Speed: [b]Tanks[/b] Fuel: 950 Water: 360 Holding: 40 [b]Accommodations[/b] General Description The Champagne Lady is an elegantly styled pilothouse trawler custom built within the highest standards as a live aboard cruiser on a rugged fiberglass Defender hull. This is an excellent example of a well kept, low hour, one owner yacht which is offered at a fraction of replacement cost. She shines inside and out.  read more »

Well, here I am aboard a 65' Outer Reef on a delivery to Florida. My friends Cory and Kevin are involved in this thing (Cory's the Captain, Kevin and I are the crew). This is an expedition trawler. Quite a lovely boat, actually.

We're tied up at a really nice marina, the Atlantic Yacht Basin, just south of the lock in the ICW south of Norfolk, Va.

We left a couple of days ago and a series of lows came across the mid-Atlantic states making the outside really, really uncomfortable with spray over the pilothouse and 8-10 foot waves. Sure, the boat has stabilizers, but there's a limit. Also, since we're running someone else's boat, we came inside at Cape May and up the Delaware to the C & D Canal, and down the Chesapeake. We're running 24 hours a day when outside on 3 hours on watch, 6 off.  read more »

Our friends from the excellent Italian sailing website Zero Gradi Nord have published an exclusive video interview with Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi's owner, regarding the America's Cup. The Swiss yachtsman was in Porto Cervo, Sardinia where he won Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in the Mini Maxi division with a comfortable margin, scoring 4 bullets in 6 races. Bertarelli has chartered the 66ft yacht Numbers and raced with a crew almost entirely of Alinghi team members. Bertarelli talked to the Italian media present in the regatta for about 30 minutes covering most aspects of the America's Cup. The interview was in Italian and for the convenience of our non-Italian readers we publish the translation. Note: The translation is mine and hopefully as reliable as possible. Although I consider myself very fluent in Dante's language a few errors might have slipped in, especially when at moments Bertarelli's voice was silenced by the noises of forks and knives. Be patient, the article is long... Ernesto Bertarelli talks to the Italian media. Port Cervo, 6 September 2008. Video copyright Zero Gradi Nord Question: Given the latest court decision in favor of Alinghi, are you thinking about a multi-challenger Americas Cup? Ernesto Bertarelli: You could think about organizing an Americas Cup next year with multiple challengers but even if you consider there is a very small percentage the court might rule and decide that Cup doesn't count it is not feasible. We are currently in the same situation we have been for some time now, waiting. Question: Is there still room for diplomacy in the duel between Alinghi and BMW Oracle? Ernesto Bertarelli: We have been using diplomacy for a year now. I think we committed an error in July 2007. We should have taken the scheduled 3-week holidays immediately after winning the America's Cup. The other big error we made was that instead of putting the documents on the table, we should have first presented our vision, the reason of existence of the new Protocol. We made a mistake and didn't do these two things. Yet, what we did from July until November was to sit with the Challengers, always inviting BMW Oracle, and made 13 modifications to the Protocol. We also let the Challengers, without our presence, take a decision on the new boat rule. We then agreed on the regatta format. During these 3-4 meetings the Americans always refused to attend and instead decided to go ahead with their litigation to Justice Cahn. After they won the case with Justice Cahn we once again sat with them and told them, "very well, you won, let's now work this out and find a solution to go out of the court and on the water for a multihull race". They refused a solution that would have given us the time to build a boat. We couldn't accept a regatta where they would have ready a 90ft catamaran while we only had a Version 5 ACC yacht or a 40ft catamaran. This is why we appealed because we had made a proposal and they refused. Can we talk about diplomacy when one party doesn't want to give in, or better said when one party takes a step ahead but the other party always takes a step back?  read more »

Can Panbo reader Rolf network the NavNet 3D version of MaxSea Time Zero straight to NN3D radar and GPS compass aboard his Regina 43 (as he graphically dreamed of above)? The idea seems conceivable given that NN3D radar scanners are independent Ethernet entities, and can even bridge in NMEA 2000 sensors, but...  read more »