Monthly Archives: August 2011

>For many years I have admired the work of Steve and Linda Dashew and the style of narrow slippery sailing craft that they pursued. After reaching a “certain age” they moved from sail to a powerboat and designed a very unique craft Wind Horse.  It is this very attitude of narrow long easily driven hulls that inspired me when I purchased Pandora.  In a day where it seems that it’s more about what’s down below and focused on “how many can it sleep?” to me it’s more about performance and sea keeping ability, not to forget speed.

Having read much about the Dashew’s work over the years, imagine how thrilled I was when we arrived in Camden earlier this week to see Wind Horse anchored in the harbor.   On Thursday morning I dropped by to say hello and had a nice chat with Linda Dashew who was sitting out on deck enjoying the view of the Camden Hills.

Interestingly, Steve keeps a blog and many of his photos from Camden two days ago are similar to the ones that I took.  His blog is well worth looking at.   Here’s his post on Camden.  Funny, he didn’t take a photo of Pandora.  No wait, his post was from the day prior to our arrival.  Yea, that’s the ticket as he would have certainly included Pandora had he seen her.

Wind Horse is known for her long narrow slippery hull.   This boat looks like it is designed to take anything, and it is.  If you check older posts you will see that they were in Arctic waters not long ago.   I guess that they have a good heater.   This boat is just so impressive.  Check out this tour of her.  It really shows what she is made of.   She’s not a lot wider than Pandora and yet nearly twice as long.    This link to their site is a video about a cruise near Greenland that they took.  There are lots of other videos there worth viewing.

You can really see just how narrow she is.  No wonder she knifes through the waves.

Speaking of narrow, this was also the style way back when this Victorian era steam yacht was launched.  So different and yet the same.  What a contrast to see them both anchored together in the same harbor.

And, a sweet clipper bow.  Certainly different than today’s focus on interior accommodations.   However, I’ll bet that she is lovely down below.

Speaking of long and narrow, as that’s the theme of the moment.  Here’s a very modern Aegis Battle Ship from Bath Iron Works here in Maine visiting Rockland for the annual lobster festival.  The color is a lot like Wind Horse and I’ll bet that she’s plenty good in rough seas.  And yes, she sleeps plenty, narrow hull and all.

I posted shots of Bystander last week but can’t resist a few more of her on dock in the inner harbor in Camden.   What a classic she is even though she was built in 2004.  I am told that between her and the
J class sailing yacht Velsheda the combined crew is in the neighborhood of 25.  Running these two boats is like running a corporation.  Actually the combined budgets might be like a small city.  No, make that a large city.  It’s nice to know that even the big guys have technical difficulties and Bystander was visiting because of generator problems.  Parked on the dock beside her was a portable generator half the size of a tractor trailer to supply power to her while they worked on her own power plant. No yellow shore power cord would work here.

I should also show these few shots of our brief visit to Stonington for lunch last weekend.  What a lovely place to visit.

It’s mostly a fishing village but there are some very nice places to have lunch such as this deck on the water where we stopped.  Good food.  We admire this sort of shade treatment and would enjoy having such an arrangement on our deck at home.

It’s Saturday and we are at the the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) rendezvous and I am very much looking forward to meeting lots of new people sharing the cruising lifestyle and seeing old friends.   I also am hopeful that we will get a tour of Wind Horse as Linda Dashew said that they will be here.  Should be a great weekend.

The sky here is just amazing.  Hard to imagine seeing clouds like this “for real”.  Put these in a painting and they would say that they looked fake.  

>It’s hard to believe that it’s been a month that we have been aboard Pandora here in Maine.   We have had terrific weather, although today’s isn’t anything to write home about (wait, I am writing home about it in this post) with winds out of the NE and building up a nice chop on the harbor’s mile fetch here in Rockland.

Today is Tuesday and it’s another work day with the specter of some decent time off on the horizon later this month.  However, I am very much looking forward to this weekend’s rendezvous of the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) on Isleboro about 10 miles north of here.  This rendezvous has been hosted by a cruising couple for over 20 years who have a home on the water there.   Their place has a wonderful view and waterfront property that faces the anchorage.

The group, SSCA, has some 2,500 members worldwide and is dedicated to the cruising lifestyle.  The group provides lots of resources including a robust website at www.ssca.org.  For the modest cost of a membership, and you can join at major sailing boatshows, there is a monthly print newsletter with lots of cruising notes, written by members from their travels around the world.  The site also includes links to many other resources worth checking out incuding the 7 seas U, that offers courses on many topics from energy use aboard boats to fitting out a water maker aboard.

On Sunday evening in Rockland Harbor I saw a boat flying an SSCA burgee that three dinks tied up behind hit.  Knowing that it meant a party, I shot over to introduce myself.  It was a great visit and I met three couples that had spent many years cruising with trips to the Caribbean islands, Bahamas and the Med among them. I learned that one feature of the gam would be a talk on “heading South”, something that Brenda and I plan to do in the next few years.  We will have to take that one in.

It will be fun to participate for the second year and now that we know more folks in the group it will be even better.  Last year there were over 50 boats, an impressive turnout.  They also have gams in Annapolis, Florida and even in Tonga in the South Pacific.  Not sure that particular one is in my future.

On another somewhat related front, I was interested to read in the New York Times today, that there is a move by some well off folks, billionaires actually, to build submersibles that will be capable of reaching the very deepest parts of the ocean.  I guess that’s related to sailing as it involves water, even if it’s on the other side of the surface.

While folks that sail do their best to stay on top of the water, these guys will be going under, a long way under  in some very high tech craft.    Check out the article in The Times.

They profile three groups that are pursuing this including Richard Branson, the iconic leader of Virgin Atlantic Airlines and other businesses as well as James Cameron, the director of Titanic and Avitar.

I was particularly intrigued by Branson’s group Virgin Oceanic and their submersible, that looks more like a plane than a sub, will “fly” through the ocean to great depths.  They have an interesting video about the project.  Of particular in interest, is that the “mother ship” for the project is a massive sailing cat.  This guy does have flair and it can’t hurt his businesses to be seen as just so hip.

Another company is Triton Submarines, who boast that they are the only company building subs for yacht based use.  Perhaps there should be one on Pandora.  Perhaps not.  I have had to raise the waterline because of all the crap on board once already.  Not again.   Here’s a fun video about their deep sea project.

Well, enough messing around.  Time to get to work and it’s only a few day to the weekend.