W/NW The Romance of Sail: Sailing boats, yachts, dinghies and ships

I wanted to know the classes of the Lake Constance yachts, too. The one with the D is a Dragon, about 29'. The other is a Lacustre, about 31'. Both are classic yachts. The small one on Lake Ontario is an Optimist Dinghy, a very popular class for kids worldwide. It's only 7'9" and 77 pounds, but at the end of a weekend regatta and you gotta get your kid's boat on top of the car for the three hour drive home, you wish it were smaller!
 
Time was, I was a keen sailor for 10-12 ( or more ) years but sadly life moves on and other things take over! I have posted some shots here before of times I I sailed on a tall ship, The Eye of the Wind, in the South Pacific. Here is another shot. The port light is visible and so I expect it has only just dawned (given it is still burning) and I am coming off the last watch of the night. A magic time of day on any ship. Breakfast and another day beckons!

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At some stage I also took up coastal sailing on yachts out of one of our local yacht clubs. Here taken from the yacht on which I am sailing at the time are some other participants in a weekend "around the cans" race. Here I am looking more or less in a south easterly direction, with the Adelaide's coast line to the east of us showing some of the coast a little south of the built-up suburban area of this city.

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And finally just for the hell of it, here is a shot I made late in the day (gin and tonic time - one can't take risks with malaria ;) ) looking in a westerly direction over Jimabaran Bay in Bali at one of the local vessels sailing into another beautiful pending tropical sunset.

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The Eye of the Wind sailing in Sydney Harbour as part of the tall ships fleet celebrating Australia's bicentenary in 1988. watched, it seems by half of Sydney.

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And one final one (for now) taken as we wended our way back to harbor after a weekend yacht race. A channel marker at Port Adelaide - all a part of that mystery of sail.

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Time was, I was a keen sailor for 10-12 ( or more ) years but sadly life moves on and other things take over! I have posted some shots here before of times I I sailed on a tall ship, The Eye of the Wind, in the South Pacific. Here is another shot. The port light is visible and so I expect it has only just dawned (given it is still burning) and I am coming off the last watch of the night. A magic time of day on any ship. Breakfast and another day beckons!

kpdZ3V2.jpg



At some stage I also took up coastal sailing on yachts out of one of our local yacht clubs. Here taken from the yacht on which I am sailing at the time are some other participants in a weekend "around the cans" race. Here I am looking more or less in a south easterly direction, with the Adelaide's coast line to the east of us showing some of the coast a little south of the built-up suburban area of this city.

893xgV1.jpg



And finally just for the hell of it, here is a shot I made late in the day (gin and tonic time - one can't take risks with malaria ;) ) looking in a westerly direction over Jimabaran Bay in Bali at one of the local vessels sailing into another beautiful pending tropical sunset.

7z4g9cx.jpg

To be under sail is to be in another realm. Reaching hull speed is like reaching the speed of light. To be in a large body of water with fair winds and following seas, as the saying goes, is to be at the Gates of Paradise. And in the eye of a bad storm is to be at the Gates of Hell. Boats and water seem primal. They damned sure can be fun. You have had a great life.
 
To be under sail is to be in another realm. Reaching hull speed is like reaching the speed of light. To be in a large body of water with fair winds and following seas, as the saying goes, is to be at the Gates of Paradise. And in the eye of a bad storm is to be at the Gates of Hell. Boats and water seem primal. They damned sure can be fun. You have had a great life.
Thank you for your thought provoking and kind observations. Yes, I know the feeling well. The feeling of the boat driving you forward under the influence of the wind, the wind is out of your control though with luck and good management the boat will stay more or less in control. And if not - watch out! It is unbelievably exhilarating to be on that edge. And contrarywise, so also is the feeling of coasting through the night under a more or less gentle breeze - in near silence, the stars above, the waves below, the only other light than the stars being from the phosphorescent trails of dolphins, cutting through the water while hitching a lift from the bow wave. The only sound being the rhythmic swish of the hull cutting through the water, the sound of wind in the rigging, the creak of those riggings as the ship responds and rolls as it passes over a wave crest. With the occasional flap and crack of the sails as the wind catches them athwart.

Looking back, I kind of have lived an interesting life in some ways - how many people can say they have sailed under the night sky in the South Pacific, dived on sunken wrecks and helmed a tall ship in the tropics - let alone dived with sharks and visited island villages which had not changed much in a hundred years or maybe a thousand (though these days there is no head hunting as there once was). It was a special time of my life and I am intensely grateful for it. At the time it seemed interesting and special but not life altering - but now that the real world has taken over, I realize that it has shaped me and made me the person I am.

Out on the jib boom nets while standing watch under sail.

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And of course, I cannot leave the subject without further mentioning diving on wrecks from WW2 which I hinted at above, in some of the more hotly contested islands of that tragic war.

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I wanted to know the classes of the Lake Constance yachts, too. The one with the D is a Dragon, about 29'. The other is a Lacustre, about 31'. Both are classic yachts. The small one on Lake Ontario is an Optimist Dinghy, a very popular class for kids worldwide. It's only 7'9" and 77 pounds, but at the end of a weekend regatta and you gotta get your kid's boat on top of the car for the three hour drive home, you wish it were smaller!
Thanks. So the picture of the three boats ("rush hour") is of three Lacustres -- the "club" symbol on the mainsail is the class symbol I guess?
 
Yes, that's correct. I haven't found what that "club" symbol is or means. The class symbols and numbers can be kind of fun. For example, there are classes in the Great Lakes area in which the numbers stay in a family and can be used on their boats regardless of how newly built the boat is. Typically a new boat gets a new number. That Optimist Dinghy is number One thousand three hundred something.
 
My hole in the water for a number of years, ah what dreams are made of........
It was a Fraser 36 hull. Full keel and set up for off shore cruising although I never got farther than Pacific north west.

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And a shot below deck with 21mm Super Angulon on the M4. I did most of the woodworking, teak and holly for the sole with yellow cedar overhead.

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My hole in the water for a number of years, ah what dreams are made of........
It was a Fraser 36 hull. Full keel and set up for off shore cruising although I never got farther than Pacific north west.

View attachment 4825511

And a shot below deck with 21mm Super Angulon on the M4. I did most of the woodworking, teak and holly for the sole with yellow cedar overhead.

View attachment 4825512

Teak and holly for the sole and yellow cedar for the overhead. That sounds about right. It looks beautiful. Always a refuge.
 
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Leica M6 and Zeiss 21/2.8, TMAX100 dev’d in D76 1:1. Taken August 2023.

I could do this game all day - @ptmaritime on IG, Jeremyjohnson.photos for my website. I specialize in maritime photography, mostly the trades people but sometimes I’m out on the water.

The skipper is Erik and owns Left Coast Charters in Port Townsend, WA. They do public day sails. Extremely experienced skipper.
 
My hole in the water for a number of years, ah what dreams are made of........
It was a Fraser 36 hull. Full keel and set up for off shore cruising although I never got farther than Pacific north west.

View attachment 4825511

And a shot below deck with 21mm Super Angulon on the M4. I did most of the woodworking, teak and holly for the sole with yellow cedar overhead.

View attachment 4825512
Looks wonderful. I get all wistful seeing stuff like this. If I had a life do-over, sailing would be a big part of it. Alas, that ship has sailed, as they say. Thanks for sharing.

John
 
Fortunately where I settled is close to salt water. Harbour and bays are within walking distance. The photo below is from Southern Vancouver island, about a 15 minute walk from my home. The peak is Mt. Baker an extinct volcano in Washington state, it's ~ 73 miles away.

D800E 70-300mm

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A shot from Tsehum Harbour looking east near sunset.....

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For those fascinated by the sailing life, I recommend this vlog by Barry who, seven years ago chucked it all in; bought a boat, and is sailing the world:

 
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Thanks for identifying the sailing boats on Lake Constance.
When hiking along the edge of the lake, sometimes I think, several yachts are much too big, as Lake Constance is just a longer ground filled with water from the Rhine.
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