RIDING THE RAZOR´S EDGE – ONE-WAY TRAFFIC ON SPONSORSHIP STREET

The fall guy

USUAL PROCEDURE?

2018 July

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Puzzling things out

WINDPILOT – INTRIGUE AND COPYCATS

Intrigue and copycats

WINDPILOT – PROPERLY EFFECTIVE WINDVANE STEERING SYSTEMS

Hydrovane – Windpilot

IN EXTREMIS – LOSING THE RUDDER

SOS Rudder

THE HOW AND THE WHY

From the harbour tug operator to the car driver with an empty tank, anyone with first-hand experience knows the best way to set a large load moving in the right direction is to push it from directly behind or pull it from directly in front.

Saildrives

INFLUENCERS AND INFLUENZA – THE SILENT POWER

Influencers and influenza: both have the capacity to render one powerless, but while influenza’s challenge to the immune system is impossible to overlook, the influence on our thought processes of sources we trust can be far more insidious.

Influencers

RUDDER, TILLER, WHEEL STEERING, EMERGENCY TILLER

Is overconfidence the order of the day? Have we lost our respect for the forces of nature? Naively succumbed to the marketers’ forked tongue? Is the new really always better than the old? Are today’s boats objectively better than yesterday’s?

Cardinal sins

PLANNING A LONG VOYAGE

Six months is really quite a long time, at least when it comes to travel planning.

2018 January

APPEARANCE AND REALITY

A tour of European trade fairs and marinas reveals which marketing campaigns and promotions have gained the most traction and highlights the latest trends and developments to have been packaged up, badged (invariably) as important improvements and sold on to the sailing public.

Rudders

GENESIS OF THE LONGUE ROUTE 2018

To plagiarize shamelessly Jack London – or his wife Charmian, both wrote exactly the same sentence without specifying the author – “it’s all the fault of Captain Joshua Slocum and his ship the Spray!”

Genesis

THE EARLY BIRD AND THE WORM

The time is racing away. Watch out or you might find yourself left behind, washed up – a social outcast even. You have to keep up, everyone says so. Perhaps there’s comfort to be had from the crowd, all paddling frantically all the time trying to keep up with each other.

2017 November

PETER FOERTHMANN – 70 Years – UNPLUGGED

With 70 years on the clock, my life’s drone has soared to a height at which one could be forgiven for expecting a measure of wisdom, a modicum of life experience.

Peter – 70 years

THE CHANGE FROM ARIES TO WINDPILOT MADE SIMPLE

As the years have passed, innumerable UK-based boats that once had an Aries in pride of place have switched to the Windpilot Pacific. The differences are striking – time marches on (at Windpilot at least).

Aries to Windpilot

Relief from manual steering for catamaran crews

Catamaran sailors too have the right to close their eyes once in a while. Ocean-going catamarans at sea are almost without exception steered by electric autopilots, with permanently installed inboard autopilot systems generally the preferred way of sparing the crew a life of drudgery.

Catamarans

BIMINI – PERSONEL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Transom ornaments 2

INSTALLATION, OBSERVATIONS, ( OVER ) ANALYSIS

Transom ornaments 1