Sailing Scenes

KEEPING WARM IN THE WINTER…
Testing, photographing and writing about boats is a year-round business that takes you to wherever the boats are at the time. In our case, that has included Helsinki in October (it was wet, but the reindeer steaks were good and the saunas were great), Hong Kong in May (that was fine), St Maarten for the Heineken Regatta in March (warm weather; cool beer)…and northern Poland in February.
Gdansk in February might not sound particularly inviting, but back in 2005 – that’s 21 years ago this month – the boat had just been launched and everything was ready, so we went. It was snowing on and off, the wind-chill was about –20°C (we had to keep a spare camera battery in an inside pocket to keep it warm), the water was frozen in places, our photo boat was a Polish search-and-rescue vessel, and a Russian naval ship hovering not so very far away appeared to be watching us with interest. After all, in Gdansk you’re only across the bay from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad Oblast, and the authorities might have wondered why anyone would be out there sailing on a freezing February day. There were times when we did too, but we lived to tell the tale…

BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS…
Anyone recognise the chap at the helm? Here’s a clue: he drives boats in Sail GP and the America’s Cup these days.
Back in 2011, we got involved in some exhibition match racing at the Southampton Boat Show. It was between a then-very-young 49er sailor by the name of Dylan Fletcher, and another top-class sailor and match racer, Simon Shaw, who (among other achievements) went on to win two World Match Racing Tours with Ian Williams.
As for Fletcher – well, this was early days. With Alain Sign, who’s sailing with him here, he finished sixth in the 2016 Olympics in the 49er, then picked up gold in 2020, won the Moth worlds a time or two, and went on from there. But had it not been for this invaluable match-racing experience more than 15 years ago (with slick crew-work and tactical input from the cockpit, of course…) would things have worked out as they did? Who knows…?

COMMODORES’ CHALLENGE 2025
We were out in the harbour on 27th December photographing the annual match-racing challenge between youth teams from Parkstone YC and Poole YC. The wind blew, the sun shone and the photos are on the SailingScenes web site: https://bit.ly/CommodoresChallenge2025

COOPERATIVE CORMORANTS
We were testing and photographing some traditional-style daysailers in south Brittany a few years ago, one of which was called…well, the photos give you a clue. Leaving the fishing port of Le Guilvinec one morning, we took a sequence of shots as the boat sailed past a port-hand beacon marking a rock just off the entrance. A couple of examples of the boat’s feathered namesake were sitting on the beacon as we drew near, but were clearly not inclined to linger and flew off. We carried on nonetheless and asked the boat’s crew to sail inshore of the rock, whereupon another cormorant landed on the beacon. He looked on suspiciously with his wings folded as we positioned ourselves in the photo boat. Then, just after we called for the crew to tack and head across to seaward of the beacon, he partially opened his wings and provided the photo opportunity we had been looking for. Cormoran (oiseau) meets cormoran (bateau)…