On the Wind Sailing

#Bonus. Thanks to Weems & Plath for sponsoring this episode of the podcast! Matt Rutherford joins the show once again to discuss his imminent departure for Japan and the whirlwind of a time he's had in California for the past fortnight getting the boat ready. Matt and Nicole Trenholm arrived at the WD Schock facility on April 1 to find their loaner boat, hull #1 of the new Harbor 29, still in the mold! Over the next two weeks he and the team at Schock managed to finish the boat in time for the Strictly Sail Pacific show in Oakland, and Matt and Nicole hope to shove off on the Ocean Research Project's second major expedition on April 20. Matt tells Andy the story of how it all came together in California over the past two weeks. Check out 59-north.com for more content from this episode. Enjoy!

#20. Andy chatted with Nicole Trenholm last week just before she and Matt Rutherford departed for California, the Strictly Sail Oakland boat show, and their voyage across the Pacific to Japan. Nicole talked a lot about her life before the Ocean Research Project, how she got into sailing, what it was like working on a tall ship and later as a scientist for NOAA, and finally, how she met Matt and got involved with the ORP. She wasn't much of a sailor before she moved to the Chesapeake area, but certainly has the chops now - she's done 6,000+ miles already with Matt and the ORP, recently got her captain's license and is about to set out again for another 7,000 miles in the Pacific! Nicole also has the distinction of being the first chick on the 59º North podcast! Thanks Nicole!

#19. Etienne Giroire! Andy and friend Billy Rudek (the third voice you'll hear) sat down with Etienne in his home in Ft. Lauderdale on their way to Marsh Harbor to deliver a sailboat back to Annapolis. Etienne is most know for his namesake sailing company, ATN Inc. (get it?), which produces spinnaker sleeves, trampolines for catamarans, the 'mast climber' harness system and other bits and bobs. But more interesting, Etienne is a sailor in the truest sense of the word. Raised in France on Eric Tabarly and Bernard Moitessier, Etienne became in his own right a single-handed hero just like those heroes he grew up with, winning his class in the famous OSTAR race and going on to sail maxi multihulls with some of the most famous sailiors in the game. He did a leg of the Whitbread with Magnuss Olsson and sailed his own boat single-handed in the Route du Rhum (which ended in disaster, but I'll let him tell that story!). Etienne now is a dual citizen of the USA and France, having come to Florida back in the 1980s and never leaving. He's a remarkably nice guy and a phenomenal storyteller, which is why this one runs so long. But listen right to the end, it's worth it! Thanks so much Etienne!

#18. Peter Trogdon. New intro song from the Blaggards, 'Botany Bay'! Andy sat down with Peter in January in Annapolis to talk all about Weems & Plath, Peter's history as a sailor, the history of navigation, and the new exhibit on navigation at the Smithsonian Institute in DC. Peter also discussed some of his other non-sailing hobbies. This episode was sponsored by SpinSheet magazine, and is the first in a series of podcast/article projects. Read the article that came from this podcast in the March 2014 issue of SpinSheet, available all around the Chesapeake or on SpinSheet.com. Thanks Peter & SpinSheet!

#17. Paul Exner of Modern Geographic sat down with Andy at the Strictly Sail Chicago boat show and recorded the first-ever LIVE 59º North podcast! Andy and Paul talked all things ocean sailing, from boat design and gear selection to how to handle heavy weather offshore. Thanks to everyone who came to the show, and we look forward to doing more of these in the future!

#16. Matt and Andy sat down again on Burnside Street in Annapolis to discuss the Ocean Research Project's upcoming expedition to Japan. Matt and NIcole Trenholm, his scientific partner, will set out from California in a newly built Harbor 29 to do a plastics research voyage in the Pacific. it'll be the longest-ever research trip of that nature (6,500 nautical miles nonstop), in the smallest-ever boat used for such a purpose. Nicole call it their 'vessel of opportunity' - far from ideal, but good enough to do the work that needs to be done. Matt and Andy also discussed the Kiwi Spirit failures towards the end, so listen through for that. Check out oceanresearchproject.org to get involved with Matt's project.

#15. Erik de Jong designed and built his own 52' steel boat for Arctic expeditions. It's called 'Bagheera', and you can go sailing with him! Erik was super cool to talk to - he and I have a lot in common, having grown up sailing with our dads. Erik has always known he's wanted to design boats since he was a little kid, and followed that dream. He now lives in Halifax working most of the year for a shipbuilding firm, handling engineering and business contracts, and sails for 4 months in the summer on 'Bagheera' up to Greenland and the Arctic.

#14. John Harries of Attainable Adventure Cruising chatted with Andy to announce news of the 'Adventure 40' ocean sailing yacht. John has many, many thousands of miles crossing oceans (most recently in his 56' McCurdy & Rhodes aluminum cutter), mostly in the far North Atlantic and high latitudes of the Arctic. That experience led him to believe that the ideal ocean going production sailing yacht doesn't exist - yet. Now, thanks to John's ideas and to the design and engineering of Erik de Jong, it does. John and Andy discussed how the idea came about, John's specifications for the ideal ocean cruising boat, and how the whole thing came together. It was a fascinating 50 minutes, and really refreshing to hear from someone I admire sharing the same ideas when it comes to ocean sailing. Thanks for the chat John, and come back to the show soon!

#13. I had some fun with this one. We recorded this at the Caribbean 1500 start in Portsmouth, VA back in November (and frankly, I'd forgotten I had the file, or I'd have posted it sooner!). It's my seminar on crossing the Gulf Stream, as told to the 2013 Carib1500 skippers. Yes, we're missing some of the visual aids I used (though you can see some of them online at 59-north.com), and at times it's hard to hear the questions that come up, but overall I think it works. If you've never been offshore, the Gulf Stream is one of those major challenges that everyone coming or going to the American continent is going to eventually have to face. Hopefully this chat eases the tension a bit, and sheds some light on that challenge. Read on for some of the slides that accompanied the talk, which will hopefully shed some more light on the subject and clear up some of the stuff I mentioned in the podcast. And here is the link to the Ocean Navigator article I reference, and the rest of my archive. Enjoy!

#12. Andy talked to Tom & Susie from the ARC yacht Adina about just what makes the ARC rally so special. For 27 years now, the event has attracted upwards of 200 boats. And 2013 marks the first-ever ARC+, that saw 43 boats head to the Cape Verdes before continuing across the Atlantic. Tom & Susie offered some excellent insight into just what it takes to complete such an audacious undertaking, and why they felt doing it with the ARC was a perfect fit for them. Thanks guys!