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3 wings better than 2 sails

Ralph Varcoe — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:33:35 +0000

BMW Oracle Racing have been testing in San Diego. Some great footage of the beast with the 3 wings… 2 horizontal ones on each side of the hull and 1 vertical foil. It looks strange but it moves like a dinghy.

In just 7 knots of wind the massive trimaran flies on only one of its horizontal wings. It’s a massive 90ft by 90ft as a platform and the vertical wing is almost 200ft tall. With an engine onboard to move the wing, there are no more grinders. Surely that’s just not Cricket! (For those nations bereft of the greatest gentlemans sport on the planet you may not understand that comment.)

It’s very impressive, but is it what’s needed in the America’s Cup? I can’t be the only one who is bored sh**less over the court wranglings. Can’t these grown men put their egos away and prove they have the best team at SAILING? Where apples are compared with apples?

What does my opinion matter? Have a look and marvel.

This video gives a little insight into the flying machine…

And here is a longer video showing it moving around the bay…

Release your Inner blogger – write for Harbour Exchange

Commodore — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:57:06 +0000

Let me appeal to your inner blogger. Your creative desire to be a wordsmith. Have you ever secretly thought – ‘I could write a blog’, or ‘I know the perfect way to do ….’? Have you wondered if you could combine your passion with writing? I bet you have. I know I used to wonder.

We are looking for people who have something to say, something to offer to fellow sailing enthusiasts. Those who can help novices to understand what this sailing thing is all about. Those who can offer practical advice. And those who know how to interpret the rules for the Sunday morning racers. Or if you have an opinion about sailing, boating regulations, whether children should be allowed to drift alone in the oceans!!

We want to provide a mouthpiece to your latent writing talent (or not so latent is also fine).

One option is to blog in the Club House. Simply create a free account (click here) and start blogging. If you’re new to writing, this is probably the best place to start. Any really good blogs will be featured in Home & Info.

The second option is to submit an article to us for the front page. You submit to us and we’ll edit and publish for you – and you get full credit.

I know that yesterday I said Alltop have never responded to submissions to include Harbour Exchange in the Sailing section, well their ears must have been burning and only this morning I got an email saying Harbour Exchange is now included in both http://sailing.alltop.com and http://boating.alltop.com

What this means is that any of your articles published in the Home & Info section of the site will be included in the largest online magazine rack around.

So, if you’re interested, email admin at harbourexchange dot com

Can’t wait to hear from you.

AllTop: Where Top Blogs Go (bloggingot.com)

‘AllNews’ and BoatNe.ws

Ralph Varcoe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:24:09 +0000

I have been lucky to see Guy Kawasaki give his ‘Art of the Start‘ talk live. If you have the chance to see him, don’t miss it. It’s irreverent, cuts through the corporate bull and is very, very funny. For those that don’t know Guy, he worked at apple in the early days, runs a venture capital company and has co-founded a company called ‘Alltop‘. He has over 190,000 followers on Twitter (@guykawasaki) and describes himself in his bio as ‘a firehose that answers the question: What’s interesting?’

Why a firehose? Because he pumps out all the most interesting articles that appear on Alltop in both his Twitter feed and via his Posterous blog ‘Holy Kaw‘. You’ll get everything from interesting photos, information on the web, gadgets, politics and articles he and his team think are interesting. And the tweets come thick and fast, hence the reference to being a firehose.

Alltop was inspired by PopURLs, a service that aggregates all top news feeds from interesting websites and puts the URLs on a single page. Popular URL’s. Only, Alltop has done this with hundreds of categories, including sailing and boating. It is a useful place to see the latest news from across the Internet – except that it is impossible to get your blog or news feed listed. Impossible. You can put forward a submission and – no reply. No acknowledgement. Email them. Submit again. Email again. Submit in a different category. Nothing. Not one reply. No communication whatsoever.

Allnews has been inspired by Alltop except it is dedicated to boating and sailing only. Plus it is part of Harbour Exchange where sailors have access to the Club House, Bid or Buy or the Boat Register and Sailing CV. PLUS – if you submit a blog or news feed, WE won’t ignore you. Harbour Exchange is by sailors for sailors. What makes you happy makes us happy.

Bookmark http://allboatne.ws or even bookmark http://bestboatne.ws which will take you right to the Allnews section. If you follow Harbour Exchange on Twitter (@harbourexchange) you’ll notice that the url shortener is now http://boatne.ws too.

We also want more submissions from our readers for great blogs, news, racing, cruising, magazine feeds to include in BoatNe.ws

If you have a suggestion, then use the discussion/comments section below to give us a great tip. Let us know the site url and the feed url.

And….if you like this new section, please share the link with others, tweet this post, or tell others about Harbour Exchange.

Thank you.

How to Reduce Spills When Fueling a Boat

Commodore — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:22:18 +0000

Each year hundreds of diesel, petrol and oil spills pollute harbours, lakes and coastlines. Many of these are the result of careless refueling. Take a look at the article by Lucy Brake on Suite101.com

http://greencleanboating.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_reduce_spills_when_fueling_a_boat

Ellen MacArthur Trust – Donate via Harbour Exchange

Commodore — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:44:12 +0000

The Ellen MacArthur Trust is one of the first organisations to sign up to Harbour Exchange. Not only will you find their profile on Club House, you’ll also find it in Bid or Buy under Charities & Trusts in the Directory section.

You can support the Harbour Exchange campaign to raise ¬£10,000 by clicking on the button below:

If you don’t know what the Ellen MacArthur Trust does, then you must check out their website www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org

Thanks to generous donations from the public, the Ellen MacArthur Trust can help young people recover from cancer by giving them a thrilling and confidence boosting experience sailing.

Ellen is an inspiration and has set a very high bar, and her charity lives up to the standards set by one of our biggest sailing heroines.

Give whatever you can by clicking on the button above.

List boating stuff you no longer want for Free

Commodore — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:10:36 +0000

If you have boating stuff you no longer need, don’t throw it out. Other’s could well make use of it, and in these times of recession, anything to make all our boating lives easier and less expensive has to be welcomed.

On Harbour Exchange Bid or Buy there’s a section for Free Stuff to be advertised….FREE!

Only thing you need to do is register for an account (also free) and post the item in the Free Stuff category.

Join Harbour Exchange Bid or Buy, list your unwanted boating stuff and browse to see what else is there.