Armchair sailing

Bareboating Blog « Bareboating the World Nice blog here from the US which is almost as occasional as this one, but provides some nice tips for those who like to charter around the world. Check out the video in the anchoring piece from December 17th as well:

There's an absolutely brilliant picture on Elaine Bunting's blog today of Emirates Team New Zealand banging into the 1m waves of Valencia yesterday. 1m may not sound like a lot but, it clearly was putting those thoroughbreds under pressure. I suspect the photographer's a pro and will be guarding this one carefully (I would in his shoes), so won't re-post here. I did, though, follow the lead of "favourite blogs" to sail-world.com's cruising page . This, in turn, led to a story about one Kiwi selecting the Marten 49 as his perfect fast cruising yacht. To say it's a bit of an Aussie Wally makes it sound like somebody who thinks the Wallabies can win the Rugby World Cup. Nothing of the sort. Check out the builder's site here (I assume they'll have no problem with me posting one of their snaps).

The magazine Business 2.0 isn't the place you would most obviously go to look for fun stuff about sailing. But, browsing their blogs today, I came across the Waterlog which includes some interesting posts including the latest with a marvellous photo of VC Tom Perkins' Maltese Falcon in all her glory. One question, though: I saw some posts somewhere a few weeks ago asking how well she sails. Look off her port quarter. It looks as though the rudder is well across to port and kicking up a heck of a lot of spray. Is she about to tack or is this a nasty case of lee helm?