MARI-CHA IV EXPECTED TO BREAK RECORD

Owner Robert Miller (Hong Kong/New York, N.Y.) and his crew on board the 140-foot (43m) schooner Mari-Cha IV are at present on course to pass Lizard Point tomorrow morning to better Charlie Barr and the schooner Atlantic's 100-year-old race record by more than two and a half days. "This is my seventh transatlantic crossing, and I can safely say that it has been by far the toughest one for me," Robert Miller confided.

"Not only has the weather been in our face for the first six days, making life extremely difficult, but since then we have always been sailing close to the limit, which means that there is the risk of hurting the boat and the crew. "At times, I've felt that perhaps the ghost of 1905--Charlie Barr--is looking down on us and enjoying every bit of hardship we are encountering. But there is not time to dwell on that, as we have a race to win. The competition has also been tough, but I must say enjoyable--Maximus and ourselves have spent the whole race running close together and have been, at times, only 15-20 miles apart." Despite Mari-Cha IV being 40 feet (12.1m) longer than the newly launched Maximus, the two boats have remained together as if attached by elastic, with the giant schooner regaining the lead on Sunday for the first time since sustaining damage to her rig. At 12:48 UTC, Mari-Cha IV had Maximus still 30 miles astern with 390 miles to go to the Lizard.

According to navigator Jef d' Etiveaud, she was making 20 knots, broad reaching/running in 20 knots of southwesterly wind. "We are pushing the boat. We know that on this point of sail we and Maximus are very even," he said, adding that despite last week's rig problems, they have once again been pushing the boat to 100%. "Everyone is concentrating very hard, but as long as we can keep them a few miles behind, we are happy." While Mari-Cha IV and her crew may tomorrow be able to bask in the glory of having set the fastest race time to the Lizard, handicap victory in the Grand Prix class seems equally assured for Maximus, as the larger schooner must give the smaller sloop 79 minutes time per 24 hours. Given their present speed and separation, tomorrow morning might see the two boats finishing between 90 minutes and two hours apart on the water.

A majority of the fleet, from the front runners back, are now enjoying favourable 20-30 knot southwesterly winds, making for a much faster run than they have experienced to date. In the match race of the Dubois-designed 170 footers in Performance Cruising class 1, the sloop Tiara and its charterers from the Societe Nautique de Geneve remain ahead of the ketch Drumbeat. But leading, it is Chris Gongriepe's smaller Dutch spirit of tradition schooner Windrose on a course farther south than that taken by the Grand Prix maxis. Some 450 miles astern of the 170 footers, Tempest, the 80-foot (24.4m) Sparkman & Stephens maxi chartered to Bugs Baer and William Hubbard III, is currently leading Performance Cruising class 2. Her crew is enjoying the ride, reports Bugs Baer:

"Racing in 30 knots is strenuous. We had a chute blow out, but it is already under repair and it should be back up soon. We've had some minor equipment problems. There are no injuries other than some aches and pain and strains. Everyone will arrive healthy I think. But it is tough going--hard steering, a lot of strains in the equipment. We have to replace the chafing gear on halyards and guys." This morning, Tempest was experiencing 27-knot winds and 8-foot seas from the southwest, big enough to get some exciting surfs. Otherwise the Atlantic is a lonely place. "We haven't seen any other boats for seven days," said Baer. We had a conversation with a 30-foot boat that was racing from Barbados to the Azores. They saw a mast and called us, but we never saw theirs."

For the Classics, A. Robert Towbin's Sumurun holds a 140-mile lead on the water over Dr. Hans Albrecht's Nordwind. From on board Atlantic on day 10 of the race for the Kaiser's Cup, Frederick Hoyt wrote: "Worse and more of it. On going on deck for the morning sight, it was blowing a whole gale from the southwest and a heavy sea was on the quarter. There were four oil bags strung at intervals along the weather side, but they did not seem to have much effect. The ship was under nothing but the squaresail and fore trysail in a heavy following sea with both quartermasters lashed to the wheel, and once in a while the whole quarter deck flooded with the top of a wave which would slop over the rail."

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GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE

At the front of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge fleet, both race leader Mari-Cha IV and Maximus are now making good progress directly toward Land's End, the southwestern tip of mainland Britain before they turn and cover the final 20 miles to the race's first finish line off the Lizard. At noon today, just 32 miles separated the two boats on the water, with 835 miles left for Mari-Cha IV to sail.

According to Mari-Cha IV's project manager and navigator Jef d'Etiveaud: "The boat is nicely sailing at 22 knots in good running conditions…finally, after a long upwind poker game with Maximus over the last two days. It has been quite intense for all on board, especially for the afterguard, which has been trying to anticipate the opposition's moves on the water. Are THEY going to stay north? Are THEY going to go south just after the position report?" After spending Saturday night with its mainsail down as the crew attempted to repair the broken headboard car, Maximus is now fully back up to speed jib-top reaching.

On board, navigator Mike Quilter says they have been averaging around 19 knots, while his computer is predicting an arrival time at the Lizard of 1000 UTC on Wednesday, June 1. But to do this, they must sail perfectly, and it also relies on their headboard repair holding. To beat Atlantic's 100-year-old record, a yacht must finish by Friday, June 3 no later than 22:11:19 UTC.

Co-owner Bill Buckley's dislocated shoulder is now almost fully mended, and he is back on deck. "We got all the medical books out, and there was plenty of discussion," recounts Quilter of how they fixed the shoulder. "We lay him face down on the bunk and gradually dropped his shoulder over the side of the bunk towards the ground, and that slipped it back in. Once the shoulder was back in, you could see in an instant him becoming much more comfortable. He's a tough old bugger."

On board Chris Gongriepe's Windrose of Amsterdam, captain Nick Haley says that yesterday they set a best day's run for the boat of 346 miles. By coincidence, this was the same day in the transatlantic race 100 years ago that Charlie Barr, at the helm of Wilson Marshall's Atlantic, a New York Yacht Club vessel, also scored the largest run of his crossing--341 miles. "She [Atlantic] was a bigger boat, but we were happy, because it beat our previous record by 20 miles," said Haley.

This morning, after the "upwind slog" as they crossed the Grand Banks, Windrose was fully powered up and making 14.5-15.5 knots at the front of the Performance Cruising class 1. "At the moment, we have 25-28 knots of true wind, and the breeze is 200-220 degrees true. We have full main, full foresail and staysail and code zero up," said Haley, who tentatively estimates their ETA at the Lizard sometime on June 3rd.

"There is a long way to go between now and then," he says. "We are not getting too confident just yet. With the boat being pressed so hard, the number one priority is to keep the boat in one piece. We are in a nice band of southwesterly flow, and we should be sailing fast on the starboard gybe all the way in. It looks like the breeze is dying out slightly as we close to the finish, but we are hoping we still have good pressure as far as the Lizard.

Some of our pictures show the Channel might be a bit slow, but if we can get to the Lizard still traveling fast, we'll be happy with that." Last night, Jose Aguinaga's 77-foot (23.6m) Ocean Phoenix, racing in Performance Cruising class 2, retired from the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, the third yacht to do so. "We are on route to the Azores to effect repairs and then continue to England afterwards some time in June," wrote skipper Charlie Carlow. "Our sail wardrobe has taken a hammering, and with such a distance left to go, and continual attempts to fix sails, it's beginning to make our ETA very far away. The race rules state that there is no time limit.

However, some of our crew have other fixed obligations, and these will not be met with our current speed or our long-range weather forecasts." Leading the charge to the British Isles in Performance Cruising class 2 is John "Hap" Fauth's Whisper, and in the Classic division, A. Robert Towbin's Sumurun was 313 miles ahead of Dr. Hans Albreicht's Nordwind at noon today. 100 years ago, on day eight of the race for the Kaiser's Cup on board Atlantic, Frederick Hoyt wrote: "As soon as it was light enough to see, the mainsail with a single reef was hoisted, which did a lot to stop the rolling, and by daylight in the morning we were running before a strong southwest wind under fore and mainsails, squaresail, raffee and two topsails, the mizzen staysail being put on just after noon.

It was a dark, cloudy, disagreeable day with rain most of the time, and there was no chance of getting sights, so we had to depend upon our dead reckoning. This branch of navigating a ship is often done in a very slipshod manner, the chances being taken that there will be sights, but Captain Barr is most thorough and our courses, speed, deviation and variation are entered in the log every hour, and when we picked her off at noon today she was just on the circle and we had made the course determined upon at noon yesterday."

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CHALLENGE TAKES ITS TOLL

While several boats competing in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge have sustained damage since last Sunday's start off New York, over the last 48 hours it has been the turn of their crews.The injured crewman, reported yesterday on Peter Harrison's Sojana, was Mal Parker, a highly experienced sailor and the upwind trimmer for Harrison's GBR Challenge in the last America's Cup.

At 1100 GMT on Friday, the crew was in the process of reefing a headsail when Parker's left arm was pulled into a winch, breaking it in two places. Parker had his broken arm splinted and immobilised, as Sojana immediately ceased racing and turned to make for the island of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon to the south of Newfoundland.

"Mal was transferred to a hospital ashore, where the arm was x-rayed, and he was given morphine for pain relief," wrote Sojana's skipper Marc Fitzgerald. "The arm will require surgery to pin the broken bones, which cannot be done at the facility in Saint-Pierre, so he will fly today to Montreal to undergo surgery there, before returning home to Tasmania to recuperate.

" Parker is being accompanied by Sojana's navigator Graham Sunderland. Since then, Sojana has asked the Race Committee permission to rejoin the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, and this has been granted. This morning, they were rounding Cape Race, the southeasternmost tip of Newfoundland.

On Friday, aboard the race's on-the-water leader Maximus, Bill Buckley--the Kiwi sloop's co-owner and one of New Zealand's most prominent engineers--took a fall, dislocating his shoulder. The crew was forced to sail downwind in the opposite direction to the course for some hours while on-board medics relocated the limb. While Mari-Cha IV's crew spent Thursday making repairs to the boat's rig, Maximus's co-owner Charles Brown revealed that his crew, too, has been experiencing its share of technical problems with the brand new boat.

"While running at up to 30 knots under full main and fractional gennaker, the switch for the canting keel failed during the gennaker drop, causing the keel to cant to the wrong side. Fortunately, our back-up keel control system allowed us to remedy a potentially dangerous situation for the boat and crew.

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SOJANA LOSES CLASS LEAD; CREWMAN INJURED

There was concern in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge yesterday for Peter Harrison’s Sojana when her track showed her heading in a northwesterly direction, 90 degrees away from the proper race track to England.In a communiqué with the New York Yacht Club Race headquarters, skipper Marc Fitzgerald explained that a crewman on board the 115-foot (35m) ketch had broken his arm in two places, and they were heading for the remote French island of St-Pierre, part of the St-Pierre et Miquelon group immediately to the south of Newfoundland.

There they would take the stricken crewman to a hospital before rejoining the race. Prior to diverting, Sojana was leading the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge’s Performance Cruising class 1 on handicap.Following her rig damage and a subsequent day of repairs on Thursday, Robert Miller’s Mari-Cha IV is now closing on Charles Brown and Bill Buckley’s New Zealand 100 footer Maximus.

At 0800 GMT this morning, Mari-Cha IV was approximately 35 miles astern."We are able to sail at about 85 % of our potential at the moment, but if we are lucky enough to get some reaching and running conditions, then we will be back at 100%," recounted racing helmsman Mike Sanderson yesterday. "The whole deal has cost us around 95 odd miles to Maximus." Both boats are now off the Grand Banks but over Flemish Cap, properly into the Atlantic, sailing upwind into 25-knot east-southeasterly winds.

With Sojana temporarily out of the running, the lead in Performance Cruising Class 1 has been taken by Tiara, at 178-feet (54.3m) the largest yacht remaining in the race following the retirement of Stad Amsterdam."Due to the southern route option, we were able to miss most of the bad weather some of the other competitors had," reported Alexis Lombard, whose father has chartered Tiara for the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge with a group of fellow members from the Societe Nautique de Geneve, the club defending the America’s Cup,.

"After two to three days of warmer weather in the south, we have been back in the mist and cold weather for a couple of hours. All eyes are on Drumbeat’s position. They have sailed a great race since leaving New York--taking a different strategy--but the Lizard still seems very far away from here. Losing the staysail was a tough moment, but all the crew on board seems to be back on track today. Our focus over the coming days is to keep boat speed at a good level. Having as much fun as the Atlantic and the wind can give us stays our priority, as well as challenging our most similar competitor Drumbeat!"At present, the slightly shorter ketch-rigged Drumbeat is almost 100 miles astern of Tiara, having taken a course more to the northwest. Between them, in terms of distance to finish, is Mike Slade’s Leopard.

"The game of cat and mouse, with low and son of low, continues for this big cat," reported Leopard’s navigator Julian Salter. "We have been sailing our upwind modes on starboard tack for four days now--a subtle game of wind angle, heading and sail combinations played out more brutally on deck with headsail changes and reefs in and out, in cool 25-35 knot conditions, with an ever-changing sea state. As time goes on, we are making good progress and looking forward to some faster conditions.

"Salter expects them to be off the Grand Banks to the southeast of Newfoundland later today. "Then," he says, "we will be free of the limited visibility, oil rigs and fishermen who are out there somewhere. Below deck, condensation is king in the Labrador current."Further down the fleet in Performance Cruising class 2, where John "Hap" Fauth’s Whisper continues to lead on the water over Clarke Murphy’s Stay Calm, Joe Hoopes, owner of the Little Harbor 75 Palawan, was loving the conditions. "The wind is 19 knots out of the southwest. We are running under headsail and main with the staysail set as well, making between 8 and 10 knots depending upon the wind and the wave. The crew is fine.

We’ve just had a pancake breakfast - no freeze-dried food on this boat!"Hoopes reported having seen everything from flat calms to massive squalls since last Sunday’s start off New York Harbor. "We got hit by a microburst a couple of days ago, which tore our mainsail. We had to take it down and repair it. We did see 55 knots in that. We are still on the edge of the [Gulf] stream, and we are getting a little bit of a lift and the weather is warm. It is 62 degrees (F), so it is very comfortable sailing, and we are about to change watch. We’re going to rig the spinnaker pole to the jib, to wing it and head a little farther north.

"Despite the conditions, Palawan has remained dry down below. "She is very comfortable. Everyone gets a shower every day and three square meals," says Hoopes. Although this is Hoopes’s fourth Atlantic crossing in Palawan, it is his first in a race.On board the schooner Atlantic in the 1905 race for the Kaiser’s Cup, Frederick Hoyt wrote:"On going on deck at 5.30 this morning there, on our lee beam about five miles away was a berg which must have been half a mile long and 300 feet high.

It certainly was a beautiful sight with the morning sun reflecting from it. Our topsails have been going from bad to worse and after the watch had cleared up the decks, the skipper had the mizzen down on deck and took a cloth off the after leech. The main will have to go through the same operation later, while the fore seems to be fairly good still."By 11 o’clock the sail was out and at once bent, it being a great improvement. Today was a great change from the preceding night, the thermometer standing at 72 degrees and all hands going around in their shirt sleeves, whereas last night there were not overcoats enough on board to warm one. Cold on the ocean will go through the heaviest clothes and one cannot realise how it penetrates until it has been experienced."

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OS TROFÉUS DA REGATA ROLEX TRANSATLANTIC CHALLENGE

Cape May Challenge Cup




Commodores' Cup




The Commodore's Challenge Cup


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PHOTOS OF ENTERED BOATS

ANEMOS

112 foot (34.1m) Swan sloop designed by German Frers.

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CARRERA

81 feet (24.7m) sloop.Reichel Pugh design. First yacht to finish the 2004 Newport Bermuda Race and most recently set a course record in the Fort Lauderdale-Key West Race.

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DRUMBEAT

The 174 foot (53m) Drumbeat was previously known in sailing circles as Salperton. Designed by Dubois, she is the sistership to Tiara, also entered in this race.

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LEOPARD

97-foot (29.4m)Reichel Pugh sloop.Current Records: Hoya Round the Island Race Record 2001 and Cowes - Dinard Race 2001. Won the Fastnet Rock Trophy in 2003 for Best Overall Performance in IRM.

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MARI-CHA IV

140 foot (42.6m) canting keel two-masted schooner. Designed by Clay Oliver, Greg Elliot, Philippe Briand, Mike Sanderson and Jef D'Etiveaud. Holds the transatlantic-passage record and 24-hour-distance record for monohull yachts.

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MARIELLA

80-foot (24.4m) Alfred Milne ketch built by Fife in 1939.

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MAXIMUS

A 100 foot (30.5m) carbon fiber super-maxi. Designed by Greg Elliott and Clay Oliver. Features include a retractable canting keel and a rotating wing mast.

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NORD WIND

88-feet (26.8m) composite ketch built in 1938 to the design of A. Gruber. Before World War II won the Fastnet Race and in the process set the course record (88 hours and 23 minutes) that stood for two decades.

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OCEAN PHOENIX

77-foot (23.6m) Rob Humphries-designed sloop.

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PALAWAN

75' (22.9m) sloop. Designed by Ted Hood for Tom Watson, the IBM chief. Under Joe Hoopes' stewardship wonclass in 2002 Bermuda Race.

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SARAYAH

130 foot (39.6m) ketch. Designed by S&S. Finished second in the Atlantic Challenge Cup, this race’s predecessor.

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SELENI

80 foot (24.5m) Swan sloop, a collaborative design of Nautor's Swan and German Frers

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SOJANA

The 115-foot (35m) ketch was designed by Farr for Peter Harrison, the America’s Cup syndicate leader from the U.K. She is designed to be a fast offshore racer and luxurious blue-water cruiser.

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STAD AMSTERDAN

252-foot (77m). Gerard Dijkstra & Partners design. Launched in 2000 as the first clipper ship built in 130 years.

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STAY CALM

70-foot (21.3m) Swan sloop designed by German Frers.

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SUMURUN

94-foot (28.7m) Fife ketch, built in 1914, won the Classic Division in the Atlantic Challenge Cup, this race’s predecessor. Owner is chair of Rolex Transatlantic Challenge.

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TEMPEST

80-foot (24.2m) ketch designed by Sparkman & Stephens in 1974, rebuilt in 2000. Third yacht to finish the DaimlerChrysler North Atlantic Challenge.

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TIARA

178-feet (54.3m). Second only to entrant Stad Amsterdam in size. Designed by Dubois and built by Alloy Yachts.

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WHIRLAWAY

140' (42.7m) sloop designed by Dubois and launched in 2002.

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WHISPER

116 (35.4m) designed by Ted Fontaine and launched in 2003.

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WINDROSE OF AMSTERDAN

A 151-foot (46m) schooner constructed in 2001. A Gerard Dijkstra & Partners design and built by Holland Jachtbouw.Holds the WSSR Performance Certificate for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a two-masted schooner.

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REGATA ROLEX TRANSATLANTIC CHALLENGE II

MARI-CHA IV

O iate "Mari-Cha IV", com 141 pés, pertencente a Robert Miller e com Mike Sanderson como "Skipper", fez precisamente o mesmo percurso em 6 dias, 17 horas, 52 minutos e 39 segundos, a uma média de 18,05 nós, mas detém apenas o recorde de passagem do Atlântico. Ele será, no entanto, um dos maiores candidatos a bater o recorde da regata e Sanderson salienta que muito foi renovado desde a anterior travessia: " O Mari-Cha IV está mais leve e melhorámos muito o andamento à bolina".

Estes dois mastros de 42,6 metros são todos em carbono, foi construído em 2003 nos estaleiros JMV, em Cherburgo, França, e desenhado por uma equipa mista de neozelandeses e franceses: Clay Oliver, Greg Elliot, Phillipe Briand e jef D'Etiveaud.

Os objectivos eram o de lançar à água o monocasco mais rápido do planeta e parece que o conseguiram, já que está preparado para velocidades acima dos 40 nós.

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Revista Unica-Expresso

REGATA ROLEX TRANSATLANTIC CHALLENGE I

12 dias, 4 horas, 1 minuto e 19 segundos:
eis o velho recorde de cem anos a bater pelos veleiros.

Vinte e um dos maiores e mais rápidos veleiros em todo o mundo largaram no sábado passado, de Nova Iorque, pelas 14 horas locais, rumo a Lizard, na Inglaterra, para participarem na Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, uma regata de mais de três mil milhas recheadas de aventura.

O objectivo principal é bater um recorde já com cem anos (o mais antigo na vela) e que pertence à escuna “Atlantic”, comandada em 1905 por Charlie Barr, que nessa travessia gastou 12 dias, 4 horas, 1 minuto e 19 segundos para cumprir o mesmo trajecto.

A passagem do Atlântico Norte foi sempre um pólo de disputa, vivido com algum romantismo à mistura.

Primeiro, eram os grandes veleiros que anunciavam em parangonas os seus recordes de travessia, no intuito de cativar comerciantes e passageiros com a rapidez do serviço.

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Revista Unica-Expresso

FAROL DO CABO RASO

O Plano geral de Alumiamento e Balizagem do Continente de 1883 previa a instalação no Cabo Raso de uma luz de porto constituída por um aparelho de 4ª ordem, produzindo clarões de minuto a minuto, com um candeeiro de duas torcidas, garantindo 19 milhas de alcance luminoso em estado médio e 10 em estado brumoso.

Incluía também a observação seguinte: "Emprega-se o apparelho optico que existe no deposito da Direcção Geral dos Correios, Telegraphos e Pharoes."

Assim se conservou esta primeira luz do Cabo Raso até 1915, data em que seria instalada a torre metálica que ainda hoje ali existe: "A luz vermelha instalada no angulo sul da casa do faroleiro foi substituída por um farolim de luz vermelha, o qual consta de uma torre de ferro pintada de vermelho, situada no forte de S. Braz e contígua à mesma casa do faroleiro, encimada por um aparelho iluminante de 5ª ordem com o alcance de 9 milhas.

O plano focal fica 19 metros acima do nível do mar e 16 metros acima do sólo.

A luz pode ser marcada desde 11º SW até 43º NW por S., E. e N.

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Onde a Terra Acaba

história dos Faróis Portugueses

FAROL DO CABO DA ROCA

Erigido no ano de 1772 foi este um dos faróis previstos no alvará de 1 de Fevereiro de 1758 da Junta Geral da Fazenda do Reino.

Do equipamento que primitivamente nele foi instalado não nos chegou noticia, mas certamente se coaduna mal com as necessidades de sinalização daquele ponto da nossa costa continental.

O edifício em que assenta esta lanterna consta de uma pequena torre quadrangular construída em alvenaria, sobre a qual se eleva um sócco de cantaria de 1,90 m de altura, com oito faces de 1,91 m cada uma, para sustentar a lanterna.

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Onde a Terra Acaba
História dos Faróis Portugueses

FAROL DO CABO CARVOEIRO

O Farol do Cabo Carvoeiro, um dos mandados edificar pelo alvará com força de lei de 1 de Fevereiro de 1758, principiou a funcionar em 1790.

Alguns anos mais tarde, os roteiros referiam-se nestes termos à zona onde se encontra instalado :

“O Cabo Carvoeiro demora 17 milhas ao S 50º O do Faxo de S. Martinho, e he formado por uma ponta de rocha de mediana altura, cortada a pique, com huma pedra destacada pela parte de O., a que chamão a Nau (vede o Plano das Berlengas e Peniche). Hum farol elevado está construído no alto deste cabo, que se acha em 39º 21’,8 de lat., e 0º 16’,4 de long. Oc. A pequena distancia do farol há uma bateria denominada da Vittoria, por estar chegada á ermida do mesmo nome.”

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Onde a Terra Acaba
História dos Faróis Portugueses

FAROL DO PENEDO DA SAUDADE

Em 1947 foi completada a electrificação do farol, por meio da instalação de grupos electrogéneos; desta transformação resultou a passagem da primitiva fonte iluminante de vapor de petróleo a uma lâmpada de incandescência eléctrica de 100 volts, 6.000 watts.

Segundo o Aviso aos Navegantes que dava conta desta alteração, o alcance luminoso passava a ser de 46 milhas.

Em 1950 foram adicionados painéis aeromarítimos à óptica.

Nos trinta anos seguintes poucas alterações sofreu o farol, a não ser no aspecto do progressivo decréscimo de potência da lâmpada, que em 1966 era de 3.000 watts.

Em 1980 foi iniciada a sua automatização, que compreendeu a sua ligação à rede pública de distribuição de energia, a montagem de dois grupos electrogéneos de arranque automático, de dois motores de rotação do aparelho (um principal e outro de reserva, como é de norma), de um sistema de comutação de lâmpada em caso de fusão e de alarmes de falha das chamadas funções principais do farol – alimentação, rotação e lâmpada.

Actualmente funciona ainda com a óptica instalada em 1921, mas com uma lâmpada de halogéneos metálicos de 1.000 watts, alimentada a 120 volts, que lhe confere um alcance luminoso da ordem das 30 milhas, emitindo grupos de dois relâmpagos brancos de 15 em 15 segundos.

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Onde a Terra Acaba
História dos Faróis Portugueses

FAROL DE AVEIRO

O farol de Aveiro conquistou pelo menos duas vezes uma notoriedade talvez superior a muitos outros: viu o seu projecto descrito no catálogo preparado para a Exposição Universal de Chicago de 1893 e, decorrido 94 anos, foi um dos contemplados na emissão filatélica que os CTT promoveram, no âmbito de uma acção conjunta com a Direcção Geral do Património Cultural e a Direcção de faróis.

Nesta iniciativa se inseriu aquela que foi porventura a primeira exposição exclusivamente dedicada à temática dos faróis, realizada na Torre de Belém, em Julho de 1987.

Foi também quase por certo o primeiro farol Português a merecer, no mês de Dezembro desse mesmo ano, a honra de figurar na capa do Boletim que a Associação Internacional de Sinalização Marítima publica trimestralmente.

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Onde a Terra Acaba
História dos Faróis Portugueses

FAROL DE ESPOSENDE II

"Em Dezembro de 1866 recebia a barra de espozende uma luz de porto ou farolim lenticular montado no seu respectivo candelabro de ferro, colocado no antigo forte à entrada da barra.

A luz é vermelha e tem um alcance de 7 a 8 milhas em boas condições atmosféricas. Esta obra foi feita pela nova oficina de faróis".

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C.A. Pinto Ferreira

"Breve Dissertação sobre Pharoes"

A propósito de uma visita à Exposição

Universal de Paris em 1867

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A verdade é que se tratava de uma luz rudimentar, como aliás fazia notar o presidente da Comissão de faróis e balizas, Conselheiro Guilhermino Augusto de Barros, no seu discurso inaugural no seio da Comissão a que presidia:

"(...) Os pharolins dos Concelhos de Vianna e esposende estão como é de uso ao ar livre, e nasceram de exigencias de ocasião, destinando-se o segundo a enfiar com uma luz que nunca se collocou".

Por curiosidade, esta primeira luz que existiu em Esposende, que podemos justamente considerar a percusora do farol, foi uma das primeiras alimentadas a petróleo instaladas no nosso país, em substituíção do azeite de oliveira até então empregado para iluminação.

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Onde a Terra Acaba
História dos Faróis Portugueses

FAROL DE ESPOSENDE I

“Ao 58ºE, na distancia de 10 milhas do Cabo Vianna, está situada a Barra de Espozende na foz do rio Cavado, em cujas margens, e a pequena distancia da Costa estão a duas povoações de Espozende e Fão, quasi fronteiras e muito próximas, tendo cada huma um alto campanário, que as faz reconhecer.

Espozende he a principal povoação que contém 800 habitantes, e dá o noma á barra, a qual apenas pode receber pequenas embarcações, não tendo em prea-mar mais de 10 pl (7 pés) d’agoa; além de que os bancos desta barra soffrem grandes alterações com a força das correntes e dos ventos; chegando muitas vezes a obstruir-se a passagem; pelo que he indispensável hum piloto pratico.

Defronte de Fão na distancia de milha e meia da costa, estão situadas duas restingas de pedras à flor d’agoa, parallelas entre si, denominadas os Cavallos de Fão, ás quaes he necessário dar resguardo, não se aproximando à Costa em hum fundo menor de 15 br.; porém tendo passado os sobreditos rochedos para o S. , pode-se costear a terra por 10 ou 12 br. De fundo até defronte de Villa do Conde ou do Porto.”

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Marino Miguel Franzini,
“Roteiro das Costas de Portugal, ou
instrucções náuticas para intelligencia
e uso da carta reduzida da mesma costa,
e dos planos particulares dos seus principaes
portos (1812)”

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Bastará este trecho para fornecer-nos uma ideia aproximada das dificuldades que se deparavam aos navegantes junto da foz do rio Cavado, na falta de referências bastantes.

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Onde a Terra Acaba

História dos Faróis Portugueses

A ÍNSUA DE CAMINHA

A Ínsua de Caminha - fronteira de sinalização maritíma Portuguesa, desde que em 1886 ali foi instalado um farolim.

Em 1926 a fonte luminosa passou a ser a incandescência pelo vapor de petróleo e em 1947 a electricidade, na sequência da ligação do farol à rede pública de distribuição de energia; a lâmpada era de 3.000 Watts e garantia um alcance luminoso nominal de 40 milhas.

Após sucessivas modernizações, em 1987 a instalação eléctrica seria completamente remodelada e proceder-se-ia à automatização do farol, cuja característica é presentemente de 2 grupos de relâmpagos brancos, com um periodo de 9,5 segundos, possuindo um alcance luminoso de 22 milhas.

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Onde a Terra Acaba
História dos Faróis Portugueses

CONTRA-ALMIRANTE JULIO ZEFERINO SHULTZ XAVIER

A acção deste ilustre engenheiro hidrógrafo da Armada, nascido em Alhandra em 1850, foi determinante na modernização dos faróis e na iluminação de zonas até então carentes de sinalização nocturna.

Sob o seu impulso, ao longo de catorze anos foram criadas 39 novas luzes e transformadas 13 das já existentes.

Entre os novos faróis então criados contam-se os de Aveiro, Cabo Raso e Ponta do Altar, Sagres, Ilhéu de Cima, Ferraria, Nazaré e Capelinhos, edificados no final do século passado e princípios do actual.

Suceder-lhes-iam, até aos anos vinte, os da Serreta e da Ponta das Lajes, da Ponta da Piedade, da Gibalta e do Esteiro, da Ribeirinha, da Ponta do Pargo, de Vila Real de Santo António, do Albarnaz, de Leça e de Gonçalo Velho.

Os da Ponta da Barca, das Contendas e da Ponta da Ilha viriam a ser construídos entre 1930 e 1946, já depois de atribuído este serviço à Direcção de Faróis, criada em 1924.

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Onde a Terra Acaba

História dos Faróis Portugueses

CARTA DE FAROIS

CARTA ANEXA AO PLANO DE FAROLAGEM DE PEREIRA DA SILVA REPRESENTANDO A COBERTURA DO CONTINENTE POR ELE PROPOSTA.

De 1790 até 1835 decorreu um periodo de marasmo no que aos faróis diz respeito: Invasões Francesas, Guerra Peninsular, partida da corte para o Brasil, lutas sucessivas entre liberais e absolutistas, eis alguns dos factores determinantes para que a evolução deste sector se ressentisse gravemente.

até 1856 modernizam-se alguns - até aí dotados de sistemas catóptricos - , com a adopção dos aparelhos lenticulares de Fresnel, contando-se entre eles o do Cabo Mondego e o de S Julião da Barra.

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Onde a Terra Acaba

Historia dos farois Portugueses

VICE-ALMIRANTE FRANCISCO MARIA PEREIRA DA SILVA

Nascido em Lisboa no ano de 1813, elaborou em 1866 o mais antigo plano de farolagem Português, tendo sido o primeiro oficial da Armada a assumir a responsabilidade pelo serviço de faróis.

Com base no projecto de Pereira da Silva seriam edificados Esposende, Santa Maria, Ponta de S Lourenço, Ponta do Arnel e Cabo de Sines.

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Onde a Terra Acaba

Historia dos Farois Portugueses

PERSPECTIVA HISTÓRICA

Os farois encontram a sua origem em fogueiras acesas em pontos conspícuos da costa para orientação dos mareantes, fogos esses cuja manutenção era normalmente assegurada pelos religiosos das irmandades de conventos sobranceiros ao mar.

No nosso pais, provavelmente por esse facto, as primeiras luzes destinadas a orientar os navegantes nascem da iniciativa de prelados.

Sustentam uns que a mais antiga de todas terá sido mandada erigir pelo bispo D. Miguel da Silva em S. Miguel-o-Anjo, na foz do Rio Douro, junto do local em que hoje se ergue o farolim da Cantareira, um dos que definem o enfiamento de entrada da barra do Douro.

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Onde A Terra Acaba

Historia dos Farois Portugueses

ONDE A TERRA ACABA E O MAR COMEÇA

Cabo da Roca, o ponto mais ocidental do Continente Europeu, que Camões tão belamente descreveu n'Os Lusíadas, como sendo o sitio "onde a terra acaba e o mar começa".

SINAL DE ESPERANÇA

Página de rosto do Alvará Pombalino de 1758, primeiro sinal de um esforço organizado tendente a dotar as costas do país de uma cobertura luminosa condigna.

Se a luz é o único antídoto contra as trevas, e a terra o único lugar firme perante a insegurança do mar, o farol não pode deixar de ser o símbolo da esperança. De uma esperança que não desfalece nem mesmo quando a morte está próxima. Ora a verdade é que a morte está sempre próxima.

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Onde a Terra Acaba

História dos faróis Portugueses

POINT MONTARA LIGHTHOUSE

On the rugged California coast, just 25 miles south of San Francisco, sits the Point Montara Fog Signal and Light Station.

Established in 1875, the historic lighthouse and turn-of-the-century buildings have been preserved and restored by Hostelling International - American Youth Hostels and California State Parks, in cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Location :

25 miles south of San Francisco on California Highway 1 between Montara and Moss Beach, look for hostel signs.

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Fotografia Don

A PESCA DE ARRASTO

A pesca de arrasto consiste em arrastar uma rede pesada pelo fundo do mar, capturando qualquer tipo de peixe. O problema, alerta a coligação, é que apanha também algas, corais, esponjas e outras espécies sem interesse comercial mas importantes para o equilíbrio do ecossistema.

Além disso, esses recifes de coral têm um ritmo de crescimento muito lento. "Se os corais foram danificados, podem levar centenas de anos a recuperar ou podem nem mesmo recuperar", disse Alex Rogers, da British Antartic Survey (Bas) à BBC online.

Actualmente existem onze países que utilizam a pesca de arrasto, entre eles Portugal, Espanha, Rússia e Nova Zelândia.

Os especialistas receiam que este tipo de actividade destrua os corais antes dos investigadores terem tempo para os estudar.

LONELY BOAT

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Fotografia Ahmet

CASTLE HILL LIGHTHOUSE

To help mariners through the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, Congress authorized $10,000 for the erection of a fog signal at Castle Hill in 1875. A year earlier the famous Harvard professor and zoologist Alexander Agassiz had built a large summer cottage at Castle Hill on the very property where the government wanted to put the signal.

Agassiz refused to sell his property. He and other local landowners did not want a fog bell sounding "at their very doors." In 1886 a lighthouse was proposed along with the fog bell at Castle Hill.

Agassiz finally sold a portion of his land to the Government, but then refused to grant the Government the right to pass through his property to the lighthouse site. Castle Hill is steep and rocky, and landing by boat is difficult. In 1888 Agassiz finally granted the right-of-way and construction began the following year.

ULTIMA MANGA

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Fotografia Cory