Drama on and off the water

Work levels are still pretty manic so its good to have the distraction of the Vendee Globe to escape into.

Alas its all gone pear shaped for Sam Davies (above, from here) after she lost her mast in the first few days, and she sounded pretty gutted in this video.

But its not all bad as JP has a brand new niece - woo hoo! I have baked the parents and other nephews & nieces a ginger cake with lemon icing a bit like this earlier trial:

If it would help I'd send a slice to Sam in the hope it would cheer her up, though I'm not sure how to attached it to an email.

So I might just have to eat it myself.

C'est la Tweet en Francais!

Ca va, toute le monde? Monsieur Buff ici! Buff par nom et Buff par nature!

Maintenant, JP regardé le fil twitter du Vendée Globe et rien compris, car il est tout en français.

Oui, c'est Vive-la-France pour Twitter et tant pis pour les anglais: regardez à Sam Davies, elle habite en France maintenant!

C'est Monsieur Buff, tous les Français aujourd'hui, dire au revoir


Image: ici

An autumnal weekend in London

It's a lovely crisp but sunny day today here in the London, just right to walking through the park kicking at the leaves.

Yesterday was a bit wetter and cloudier for the Fuller's head of river fours:

I watched just long enough to feel the cold before heading off to the shops to buy the ingredients for a warming beef casserole.

Today went to the most civilized of musical events, namely one of the Wigmore Hall's Sunday morning concerts, complete with free coffee or sherry, overlooked by its stunning cupola.

Now just re-grouping before heading off to see the latest Bond, Skyfall, which will be louder and less civilized, though hopefully in a good way.

Isn't it nice not to work over a weekend?

How to buy a wetsuit?

It's about that time of year when JP becomes Uncle JP and starts making lists of present ideas.

One possibility is a wetsuit for a dinghy sailor, something for south coast Britain sea temperatures and those pesky little Lasers that keep tipping over.

I've never bought a wetsuit before so I'm looking for pointers and thought - why not ask those readers who actually have one to tell all.

So, please, let me know what did you buy and why?

Woo hoo!

The result is finally in after a grinding process that many wondered would ever end.

There were shocks and twists along the way, with the Rhodes Island surprise catching many out - who would have thought that Tillerman would turn to the dark side?

But after literally billions having not been spent there could only be two winners.

So congratulations to Britain and Oracle Team USA's Ben Ainslie and China's Lijia Xu - ISAF sailors of the year!!

Buff's message to America

G'day all! Buff Staysail here! Buff by name and Buff by nature!

Tomorrow's a big day for you yanks but alas yours truly won't be on the menu after the sad demise of the Buff for President campaign, though I should say that the Billionaires for Buff PAC is still accepting contributions via the Cayman Islands (hint hint Mitt) if you want this expert's endorsement.

Couple of points for you, first up JP's been asked a couple of times on his travels across the pond "how do you think we're looking after your colonies?" and its been puzzling him.

The thing is those darn limeys have invaded almost everywhere. Indeed according to the map above from The Telegraph (see here) they've only missed 20 countries in their rampage across the world.

But JP says that doesn't count as that's all a long time ago, not like the modern Britain (see the London Olympics etc).

Anyhow the point is you're in a boat with pretty much everyone else and so hopefully its clear why they don't spend long worrying about any one country in particular.

Secondly note that this is not a competition!! Don't feel you have to beat the Brits at this! That's what the Olympics is for (see London 2012).

Finally if you do find yourself invading (say) the Marshall Islands (4 athletes at the London 2012 Olympics) it might be polite to ask them if they'd like join in, for old times sake.

Well that's a lot of words for Buff, so I'll say over and out and head over to the fridge for a cold one!

Best of luck from one ex-colony to another!

The colour of water - part 2

Back in July, just before the Olympics I posted this picture:

It shows two examples of the colour of the water we saw when sailing to the Arctic Circle.

The change was dramatic, almost like the boundary between two rivers, and we crossed between the two colours several times while we were between Iceland and Greenland.

Since then I did a bit of Googling and found the picture at the top, taken by NASA's Terra satellite. It beautifully shows the phytoplankton bloom that caused this colouration.

It is also this bloom that makes these waters so rich in wildlife, such as the dolphins and whales we were lucky enough to see.

Fireworks in the sky

It's a good night's sky at the moment, with the Moon and Jupiter bright in the East.

Oh yes, and a couple of fireworks!

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Gunpowder, treason & plot

 - or the 3rd, if its the nearest convenient Saturday.

Get well soon New York

Seven is a magic number

G'day all! Buff Staysail here! Buff by name and Buff by nature!

Well Sassi and I decided to throw ol' JP a party to celebrate his blog's 7th birthday but he's no fun at all going on about how's its not right given the mess Sandy's made and anyhow he's got to work.

What a party pooper!! But Sassi and I decided to have one anyhow-

Hi guys, Sassi here! To be honest its a bit of a washout with just Buff and his beer cans (what no cocktails?) so I'm off!! Luv yah!!

-....oh, well it looks like its just me then. I had this whole speech about sailing more and working less but it can wait.

I'll just have to put my feet up and watch a moovie!

This is Buff Staysail, the one man party, over and out!

A bad day in the office...

... is better than a worse one at sea.

This photo (from here) was taken a few years ago in heavy seas on the replica HMS Bounty, currently lost at sea out in hurricane Sandy.

Good luck to all those on the US Eastern coastline - and keep safe.

Best of London 2012

Currently putting in 60+ hour weeks so not much time for blogging or indeed anything else but did find 4 minutes to fit in this video of the best bits of London 2012.

It brings back some good memories from this summer - in fact I might watch it just one more time before turning to the work laptop.

Buff says its curtains for AC72s

G'day all! Buff Staysail here! Buff by name and Buff by nature!

What a week its been for the America's Cup, with the biggest prang ever for an AC72 boat as Oracle 17 nose dived into oblivion out on those choppy waters of San Francisco Bay!

Can these beasts be ridden or are they destined to overpower the crews? Are even Olympic Gold Medallists up to the task or do they need the Buff-Meister's advice?

Yes, that's right, your's truly has the answer and it came to me as I was drawing the curtains at JP HQ early this morning (Ed:  the neighbours INSIST you remember the bathrobe!!)

It came to me in a flash - curtains! Or rather, should I say blinds!

These wing sail things are built with a thin skin over a skeleton but why should it be static: why not design the skin to be retractable? Split the wing into segments, each controlled separately and you could reef an AC72 wing!

When you find yourself in a bit of a blow and the foiling wing-sail cat is a bit over-powered & nose-heavy you could just wind in one or more sections of skin to leave bare carbon fibre. It would be like rolling in and out tin-foil!

So what do you think? Ready to join the Buff Staysail: 2013 AC Team!!

BS: ACT now for 2013!!

This is Buff Staysail, without his bathrobe but with a vision, over and out!!




Picture from: here

This one works

(With apologies to Tillerman)

It might be crazy but that's what makes it interesting. Pushing the edge of the ol' envelope on foiling carbon fibre wing sail big-cats, that's the bleeding edge technology for sailing in 2012.

And lets not forget it involves the likes of Jimmy Spithill, Ben Ainslie, Grant Dalton, Russell Coutts, and Tom Slingsby.

 That's a long list of the world's top sailors.

AC 72 Crash

"Breaking things will be bad" - in this case a destroyed wing.

How many spare wings do you need to defend the America's Cup?

High Tension

The latest video from the Oracle AC72 is pretty amazing but equally scary: the loads on this thing must be huge - just look at those hulls flexing.

And Ben Ainslie's been out there sailing them and he's reported back, emphasising again the need for a shore crew.

This is just after the row when with under a year to go the organisers turned round and told the competitors they'd have to cough up for shore based facilities. New Zealand's Dean Barker wasn't impressed and blogged about it (gosh, these bloggers eh?).

While I'm quite impressed with the high tech beasts it again highlights one of the worst sides of the AC, namely the extent to which success depends upon funding.

At least they are out there sailing, but no one really knows what's going to happen when they go head to head for real, except breaking things will be bad.

And very, very expensive.

Bond and Ben on Saturday

Ah, the joys of Saturday morning, when the alarm is switched off, the cappuccino machine is switched on and the newspapers are piled high.

And what do I discover but Bond, James Bond, on-board the luxury yacht Regina (above, from here) with Berenice Marhole, and the reviews of Skyfall are equally good looking.

Also in the papers was an interview with Ben Ainslie, talking about racing in the Olympics, sailing AC boats and his new girlfriend, Olympic sailing medallist Marit Bouwmeester below (from here):

I do like Saturday mornings.

Volvo Ocean Race documentary on YouTube

It's been a manic week work wise so it's very nice to be able to put my feet up, and what better way to start the weekend than this rather enjoyable documentary about the history of the Volvo Ocean Race aka the Whitbread.

It's all available on YouTube via this link here and you can watch Steinlager 2 (above) and co sail around the world in the dry, warm comfort of your own home.

Polished nicely

I was going to post a detailed description of tonight's GBBO (*) but this is meant to be a boating blog. Well, of sorts, anyhow.

Anyway I've just made myself some crepes in sympathy with this week's patisserie-themed semi (well, they're French, and yes still GBBO) and jolly good they were too.

To keep the boaties happy here is a well polished Holt designed boat sailing nicely along on Sunday.

I'd like to see James (the baker) make a boat shaped choux gateau with lots of chocolate, nuts, caramel and cream - yum!

Even better, I'd like to eat it.


(*) Great British Bake Off - do keep up

The Jack Holt Centenary Race

I had to work over the weekend, which was of course a bit of a bore, particularly as I kept getting distracted by these dinghies. Sailing down then up the Thames was a regatta of little boats - not the usual one design fleet but a range including some lovely old wood ones.

It was a race to commemorate the centenary of Jack Holt and appropriately it was organised by the Ranelagh Sailing Club on Putney Embankment.

Jack Holt was a prolific designer and builder and had to his name the following classics:

• Cadet
• Diamond Keelboat
• Enterprise
• GP14
• Heron
• Hornet
• International 10sq m Canoe (posted yesterday)
• International 14
• Jacksnipe Lazy E
• Merlin Rocket
• Miracle
• Mirror & Mirror 16
• National 12 & National E
• North Norfolk 16
• Pacer (Puffin Pacer)
• Rambler
• Solo
• Streaker
• Vagabond

Here are just a few of his creations out where they should be, sailing on the Thames: