Category: Yachts
Bruckmann 50 MKII
These classic Mark Ellis – designed motorsailers only improve with time.
It was a lovely summer afternoon when we set off from Falmouth, Massachusetts in the company of three Bruckmann 50s to see if we could get some photos of the big motorsailers engaged in “synchronized sailing” on Nantucket Sound.
The breeze was light and there was a little chop, but the boats were able to fill their sails and gathered speed to about 4 knots in the 8 knots of wind. The boats were sailed by their owners – Dan Betty from An – dover, MA, Keith and Diana Anderson from Montgomery, TX, and John Cryer and Edna Ramos from Houston, TX – so they were somewhat shorthanded for close maneuvers. Still, one by one, the 50s formed up on Dan Bettys 50 and we were able to more or less get them sailing in formation through all angles of sail. You wouldnt normally think of displacement motorsailers as nimble, but the 50s were fully capable of sailing close and turning smartly when called upon to do so.
Asantes Transatlantic
The afternoon was cool and overcast as I sat at my desk, looking seaward from my apartment outside Newport, RI. The phone rang. I didnt know the caller, but she explained that she wanted to learn about weather routing. She was determined to do a Mini Transat campaign, had three sons in their late teens, lived in Annapolis, and worked as a marine surveyor with her partner, Peter. “Im sure I can help you with that,” I said, explaining that there were probably a few other things I could help with as well. I had managed round the world, single – handed campaigns and had done my share of single – and double – handed ocean crossings. “Well be presenting a weather seminar here in Newport in a few weeks – why dont we start with that?”
That was 12 or 14 years ago, and the caller, Gale Browning, has since gone on to sail a Mini from France to Brazil in the Mini Transat Race, race up the East Coast in the Tybee 500, cruise around Cape Horn, and log thousands of miles on deliveries – some of which Im happy to admit weve done together.
Are we encouraging a tragedy in the San Bias?
Since the first cruising yachts began arriving in the San Bias Islands of Panama, stories have appeared in various magazines and cruising books recounting the traditional lifestyle of the fiercely independent and proudly insular Kuna Indians. During a recent re – read of A Cloud of Islands, Bill Crealocks touchstone book about his visit to the San Bias in the early 1950s, I was fascinated by the romance of a tiny nation holding onto their traditions and ancient beliefs in the face of pressures from the Western World. At the end of 2010 I finally had a chance to cruise the area aboard our schooner, One World. What I found was quite different from what I had expected.
