Harbour ExchangePhoto of the week | Harbour Exchange

The Flying Foiling Boat with No Hull

Ralph Varcoe — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:58:45 +0000

If you like foiling boats and boards (which we do) then you’ll love this. It’s a custom built foiling skiff with no hull.

It’s light and fast but needs a tow (a bit like a glider) to get going. And if the crew aren’t super brilliant and let the boat stall, it needs a tow to get going again.

I can’t see it catching on as an olympic sailing class but for a bit of ‘engineering’ fun have a look at the video.

Sailing Cakes

Ralph Varcoe — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:11:31 +0000

Now I’m hungry!

It’s 11am here in the UK so it’s time for the traditional ‘elevensies’. Nice cuppa and some sailing cake would be perfect. Sadly though this cake is from New Hampshire, USA rather than Hampshire, England (to which I can walk in 15 mins from my house in Berkshire).

This cake is from the Wild Orchid Baking Company. Check out their fabulous website.

Better go and grab a biscuit to have with my coffee instead.

No related posts.

Photo of the Week – Freezing Marina

Ralph Varcoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:29:10 +0000

The freeze is thankfully over in the UK (at least where I live). After 1 month of snow, ice and chaos, normality has returned to the roads. During this big freeze our house lost power twice and we spent days and nights frrrreeezing. I suspect we’d have been warmer on board a boat with just a gas burner ring on for warmth.

You have to go back to the early 1960′s for worse weather than this. It was so bad then that the sea froze around our coastline.

I saw this photo of a frozen marina and thought I’d share. You’d need an ice-breaker to get out!!

Photo of the Week 7

Ralph Varcoe — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:25:38 +0000

A great photo of a Frigate docked in Portsmouth just before Christmas.

HMS Iron Duke, returned home to Portsmouth following a six-month deployment to the Caribbean during which she made a record-breaking drugs seizure. The Type 23 frigate discovered 5.5 tonnes of pure cocaine with an estimated UK value of ¬£240m in a converted fishing vessel off South America. It was the largest ever cocaine seizure by the Royal Navy.

The ‘white-out’ in Portsmouth over Christmas and New Year may have had a helping hand from Charlie….No wonder the photographer could see two of the ship!

Credit: Chris Ison/PA Wire.

Photo of the Week 6

Ralph Varcoe — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:29:48 +0000

Here’s a great shot for you all at Christmas.

We will be eating, drinking and being merry over the next few weeks, so no more posts until 2010. See you all then and have a great holiday season.

A Turkish bulk carrier is seen half sunk near Sukhumi, capital of the breakaway Georgion region of Abkhazia. The freighter was blown on shore by a storm.

Credit: AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev

Photo of the Week 5

Ralph Varcoe — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:09:57 +0000

There’s something about New England. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of home. The scenery and coast line are so similar to those of England in so many ways and often I’ve seen a photo of some harbour (or I should say harbor as ‘Harbor’ is clearly the New ‘Harbour’ in ‘New England’) and thought it could be Poole or Dartmouth.

The lobster boats are such a classic, evocative and exciting sight, knowing that their catch will delight on the lunch table fresh from the depths later in the day. The classic New England style of building along the water’s edge with a lone rower pulling through a calm group of moorings on the way to a New England wooden dock.

Beautiful!

This week’s photo is a piece of art, shot in black & white and courtesy of mph007 on Flickr. It was shot in 2008 at Bar Harbor in Maine.

If you want to know where Bar Harbor is, here’s a map:

[mappress]

Photo of the Week 4

Ralph Varcoe — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:05:11 +0000

I wish I were technically proficient enough to sail one of these. They look fantastic. Unfortunately, being middle aged and of large frame, I’m not quick enough to trim the balance in the gusts and lulls and in any case my balance isn’t great (maybe something to do with the pre-race ‘snifters’ in the bar?).

The Foiling Moth needs about 7 knots of boatspeed to get out of the water and it can get to that speed in about 7 knots of wind. Once you’re out and flying the boat will stay up in less pressure.

Fast, silent and looking like a mini oil rig travelling at speed with its square platform. The crashes can also be fast and spectacular, and I promise we’ll find some footage and post in an article soon.

So, here you are, the photo of the week – the Foiling Moth.

Photo of the Week 3

Commodore — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:05:28 +0000

Will it ever stop raining?

Carrick is almost isolated by swollen River Shannon

In what should have been a very busy period for the county town in the run up to Christmas, the almost isolated and cut off Carrick-on-Shannon has been left a partly submerged ghost town for nearly a week.

One local even made an enterprising business ferrying residents across flood waters on a boat and charging three euro for each passenger!

Originally posted on Flickr by Tony Murphy. View a larger version Here.

Photo of the week 2

Commodore — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:48:59 +0000

Originally posted on Flickr by Stannesman

Is this the strongest dog in the world? Really looks like the dog is marching on with the distressed Riverdance on it’s back AND is having to drag miss ‘pretty-pink-boots’ too.

Photo of the week 1

Commodore — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:31:04 +0000

Originally posted to Flickr by ‘Tambako the Jaguar’ (good name!).

I love wood on a boat – the shiny varnish – the beautiful teak deck. But I wouldn’t have a wooden yacht though. I owned a wooden Mirror dinghy once (called ‘Eat my shorts’ with a picture of Bart Simpson mooning on the side!) and I seriously couldn’t be bothered to keep Bart looking nice. Way too much effort.

Still, if you can afford a yacht like this one, you can probably afford the servants to polish your brass, rub your bottom and make you proud.

Anyone know what type of boat she is?