STEERING IN FOURTH GEAR
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Peter Foerthmann Blog
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The fall guy
Posted in Golden Globe Race
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Peter and the market
WINDPILOT – INTRIGUE AND COPYCATS
Posted in Bio, Columns, Equipment, Windpilot
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Hydrovane – Windpilot
Posted in Blue water, Equipment, Windpilot
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Achilles heels – Saildrives
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.
Posted in Columns, Equipment
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Influencers
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.
Posted in Columns, Equipment
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Cardinal sins – the rudder
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?
Posted in Columns, Equipment, Yachts
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Golden Globe Race 2018 – La Longue Route 2018
PLANNING A LONG VOYAGE
Six months is really quite a long time, at least when it comes to travel planning.
Posted in Columns
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Hanse Yachts – experiences – three times
EXPERIENCES WITH A BRAND NEW HANSE 588
I know Ariana und Jayme Souza since about 9 years, and of course it has been about transom ornaments. Jayme, living and working as surgeon in Salvador at that time and a sailor on his Bavaria 38 has purchased a Windpilot to leave for distant destinations.
Posted in Portraits
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The importance of a strong rudder
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.
Posted in Columns, Equipment, Yachts
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Longue Route 2018
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!”
Posted in Blue water, Columns, Golden Globe Race
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Golden Globe Race 2018 – Longue Route 2018
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.
Posted in Blue water, Golden Globe Race
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Peter – 70 years
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.
Posted in Bio, News
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From Aries to Windpilot
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).
Posted in Blue water, Columns, Windpilot
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Self steering on catamarans
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.
Posted in Yachts
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Transom ornaments part #2
Posted in Columns, Equipment, Yachts
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