This is my second blog and I wrote it somewhat sooner than anticipated. You may remember that I said that I was setting sail for the cyber seas at the same time that my son was starting on the Fastnet Race. I even wondered whether that was a good omen but I think I ought to leave omens alone because son Jan capsized in his great 100feet yacht 24 hours later just south of Ireland, next to the Fastnet Rock. The keel broke of the hull and ‘Rambler’ went over like a 10foot dinghy, in ten seconds she had turned turtle. The crew managed to scramble onto upturned Rambler and were shoreside in the village of Baltimore after a few hours. Jan is getting used to capsizes, I think this one is his third, the one before was off New Zealand in ‘Groupama’, a 100feet trimaran who was sailing around the world in order to break a fifty day record. This brings me to talk some more about my book ‘Ocean Advocate’ because without my son’s expertise I would not have been able to write it.

     You see, I’ve always sailed in fishing boats or in traditional sailing craft like that old schooner of mine that you see in my site’s heading. Jan was almost born on that craft, ‘Artemis’ and already early in life he decided that colleges and universities were not for him and he became a professional yacht sailor.It took him many years, he specialized in foredeck work, handling bloody great and heavy foresails in mono-and multihulls, several times around the world. He furnished me with the knowledge of the latest sailing techniques and materials although the pneumatic beams used in the Ocean Advocate trimaran are my invention.

     What fascinates me most in these fast modern yachts is the fact that they generate their own wind, which is faster than the real wind. For instance with a 10knot beamwind the boat’s speed brings the apparent wind 45° to the front at a speed of 15knots which makes the boat go faster still until an equilibrium is reached. That’s how ‘Stealth’, the trimaran in Ocean Advocate could reach such phenomenal speeds to even outrun a nuclear submarine.

     Of course, there are setbacks to these race sailing machines, you can only sail in them, they’re no good for fishing or carrying cargo. They won’t go when they’re heavy, that’s why the crew eat only freeze dried grub for weeks on end in an around the world race. Neither do they have security craft standing by, a capsize or an iceberg collision in the wild Southern Ocean has to be sorted out by themselves.

     Anyway folks, I told you all this to show that I know what I’m writing about when I wrote Ocean Advocate.

     PS ‘Rambler’ is being towed to Ireland and might be salvaged.


Category: sailing

4 Responses to 100feet yacht ‘Rambler’ capsizes just south of Ireland during Fastnet Race

  1. marie says:

    Nice To Have dôme news

  2. Jack Dekker says:

    Well, one race Jan didn’t win, very unusual for him.

  3. Jan says:

    Well done . Very good.

  4. Lauwrens Cornelissen says:

    Nice blog! Can’t believe Jan was on another capsized racing boat. That has got to be a record of some kind

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