Boating NZ November 2020

And so – Covid-bloody-19 notwithstanding – we come to the countdown to the 36th America’s Cup. With all three challengers now in Auckland and familiarising themselves with the tricky tides and winds of the Hauraki Gulf, the intensity is starting to ramp up – you can feel it in the air. The American team has, of course, been here for a while, but we finally have an opportunity to assess the performance of the British and Italian boats. Rarely has America’s Cup design DNA been the subject of so much discussion and speculation. These are definitely the strangest-looking vessels ever to compete for the Auld Mug – and they’re certainly the fastest. Quite a bit faster, if the rumours are to be believed, than the cats at the 2017 Bermuda…

Renowned aquanaut, ocean explorer and environmentalist Fabien Cousteau – grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau – is hoping a proposed underwater research station and habitat will address humanity’s most critical concerns. A project of the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center (FCOLC), PROTEUS™ has been conceived as an underwater version of the International Space Station. It will be a platform for global collaboration among researchers, academics, government agencies and corporations to advance science for the benefit of the planet. “As our life support system, the ocean is indispensable to solving the planet’s biggest problems,” says Cousteau. “Challenges created by climate change, rising sea levels, extreme storms and viruses represent a multi-trilliondollar risk to the global economy.” Proposed as the largest and most technologically advanced underwater station ever built, PROTEUS™ will allow scientists and…

Polish divers have stumbled across the wreck of a WWII ship in the Baltic which they believe might contain missing treasure pilfered from Russia by the Nazis. The wreck is that of the 897-ton Karlsruhe – one of a fleet of vessels involved in Operation Hannibal, a German Navy initiative to evacuate thousands of troops and civilians from East Prussia between mid-January and May 1945 as the Red Army advanced. She left the port in a great hurry on April 12, 1945 – the last ship to leave Królewiec before the Russians took it. She was carrying 1,083 refugees and 360 tons of cargo but was sunk the next day. There were only 113 survivors. It’s also believed she was carrying the priceless art and amber panels (valued at £250million…

As a young boy in the ‘60’s Keith Andrews asked his parents for a sailing dinghy for Christmas. But with five children his parents had no extra money, and Christmas came and went dinghy-less. From then on Keith knew if he wanted anything he’d have to work for it, so he got a part time job. His first boat was an OK dinghy, which he kept at the local Onerahi Yacht Club. Every Sunday he loaded the sails and gear onto his bike and rode to the club for racing. In his teens the motor mechanic partnered up with fellow sailmaker yachtie Jack Lloyd to build and race the 24ft Bruce Farr design Strait Laced. A few years later they built Lovelace – a Bruce Farr One-Ton racing yacht. The…

Larry Pardey – Canadian sailor, boatbuilder and author – died earlier this year in a Northland rest home after a life of sailing and building boats. Pardey – who with wife Lin coauthored 12 books on their voyaging – was one of the first people to sail across the Sahara Desert. In 1967, as part of an expedition organised by the French and sponsored by National Geographic, he captained a North American team sailing land yachts from Colum Bechar in Algeria to Noachott in Mauritania, a distance of approximately 2735 kms. Pardey began sailing at age 17 in Vancouver. He purchased and restored a 28-foot Tumlaren sloop, Annalisa. In 1964 he sold her and went to California in search of an affordable cruising boat. Instead, he signed as first mate…

The first of a fleet of 27 fully-electric catamarans is being trialled in Bangkok – part of an initiative to help clean the city’s air and transform its Chao Phraya river. Danfoss Editron is providing the electric drivetrain systems for the cats. The project’s part of Thailand company Energy Absolute’s plans to promote and increase alternative energy methods of transport in Thailand. Bangkok is the world’s most visited city, welcoming nearly 23 million international visitors last year. But its air quality is regularly recorded at unhealthy levels due to traffic, construction and factory emissions and the burning of waste and crop residues. The city’s seasonal weather changes, which prevent pollutants such as exhaust fumes from dissipating, further exacerbates the issue. The Thailand government is attempting to clean up its air…