VELEJADOR

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Photo Bruce

FUNDO DO MAR

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Photo Mauro

CAVALO MARINHO

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Photo Christian

DUAL

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Photo Antony

FAROL DE SANTA MARTA

Em 1880 o farol de Santa Marta, constituído por uma lanterna e um aparelho catóptrico vermelho, funcionava apenas como luz de direcção.

Dois anos mais tarde, a 3ª subcomissão da Comissão de Faróis e Balizas – encarregada da iluminação dos portos e balizagem e constituída por Arbués Moreira, António Maria dos Reis e Feire de Andrade – teceram algumas considerações sobre este farol.

Em 1908 substituiu-se o aparelho lenticular até então existente por um catadióptrico de 5ª ordem que ainda hoje ali se encontra montado. De luz fixa vermelha, o seu alcance luminoso era de 8 milhas.

Em 1936 procedeu-se a um aumento de 8 metros da altura da torre, a fim de conseguir que ela se distinguisse bem das novas construções que se vinham fazendo nas proximidades e que dificultavam grandemente a navegação que saía a barra Norte, principalmente durante a tarde. Custou esta obra 37.000$00.

O farol foi electrificado em 1953, tendo simultaneamente sido ali instalado um sistema automático de reserva de fonte luminosa funcionando por incandescência de acetileno, para permitir que o farol se mantivesse aceso em caso de falha de energia de rede :

«Em 1.VII.953 passará a funcionar em regime experimental, com as características seguintes :

Número : 59 na Lista de faróis.
Nome : Santa Marta
Posição : No forte de Santa Marta. Lat. 38º 41’ 20’’ N ; Long. 09º 25’ 11’’ W

Cor e carácter da luz : Vermelha. Ocultações.

Período e Fases : Ocultação 1,5 s , Luz 4,5 , Período 6,0 s

Alcance : 15 milhas


Observações : Na falta de corrente eléctrica, passará imediatamente a funcionar a incandescência a gás com alcance luminoso de 10 milhas (…)«

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Onde a Terra Acaba

História dos Faróis Portugueses

ROPE

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Photo Evan

FISHING

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Photo Andrei

THE STORM IS COMING...

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Photo Barkitos

THE DEEP

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Photo llan

DRAGON BOAT RACES - OKINAWA

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Photo Frank

TWO BOATS, TWO WINNERS

Having established a new transatlantic race record between New York and the Lizard, UK, yesterday morning, the afternoon saw Robert Miller's Mari-Cha IV making an unexpected 20 knots up the English Channel towards the Needles and the finish line of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge race.

The wind, forecast to drop off, held, and shortly before dusk, in a seascape so misty and overcast that it merged grey sky with grey sea, the high-tech schooner charged past the Needles Fairway buoy to the west of the Isle of Wight to take line honours, as well, in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge. Mari-Cha IV crossed the finish line at 19:18:37 UTC, setting a course time between Ambrose Light (in the U.S.) and the Needles of 10 days, 1 hour, 8 minutes and 37 seconds.

This compares with Atlantic's time of 13 days, 10 hours and 15 minutes in the 1905 race for the Kaiser's Cup. Up the Channel, in hot pursuit of Mari-Cha IV, was Maximus, the new sloop of New Zealanders Charles Brown and Bill Buckley, who had passed the four-mile long gate off the Lizard at 19:18:37 UTC yesterday (1 June), making it to the Needles finish line at 00:35:08 UTC this morning (2 June), 5 hours 16 minutes and 31 seconds behind Mari-Cha IV. While this was disappointing for the crew, the consolation prize was a handicap win in the Grand-Prix division. In fact, Maximus's crew say that they weren't racing for handicap honours.

"We wanted to beat Mari-Cha IV on the water," maintains Mike Quilter, Maximus's ex-America's Cup and Whitbread round-the-world race navigator.

"I suppose that's human nature. You like to think you try hard, but in an arm wrestle, she (Mari-Cha IV) has too much muscle.

" On paper, the race seemed highly unfair between the 140-foot (43m) schooner Mari-Cha IV and the 100-foot (30.5m) sloop-rigged Maximus, but in the end, despite both boats suffering broken headboards or headboard cars at the top of their mainsails, rarely were they more than 40 miles apart.

Quilter attributed this to the conditions. "I think the conditions in the race suited us more than it suited her. It was light to begin with; then it was tricky upwind. So we were able to hang onto her." It was finally in the Channel that Mari-Cha IV was able to fully stretch her longer legs and leap ahead.

Even Maximus' designer Greg Elliott agrees: "Given another sort of race in different conditions, Mari-Cha may have stomped all over us." Mike Quilter was on board Mari-Cha IV when she set the passage record for the crossing of the North Atlantic two years ago and is one of the few people qualified to make a fair comparison between the two giants of the yacht racing world. "Mari-Cha IV feels like an aircraft carrier, and Maximus is like a big Open 60 (a lightweight performance racing yacht)," he says.

"Maximus did pretty well. We made it across and put on a good show, and the boat is obviously really fast. To me it surfs a lot quicker. For the transatlantic record on Mari Cha IV, she kept up a higher average speed, but on this boat we had fresh reaching conditions for 12 hours after the Gulf Stream, and we were regularly hitting 30 knots on the GPS every five or ten minutes.

Whereas, Mari-Cha IV keeps up a high average speed, but she doesn't have bursts like this little boat." The next boat due in to Cowes is the 151-foot (46.3m) Windrose, the first in Performance Cruising class 1.

She passed through the Lizard gate at 1135 UTC and is expected to cross the finish line Friday mid-morning. However, at present, it is the two Dubois 170-footers Drumbeat and Tiara that are leading on handicap. In the smaller Performance Cruising class 2, it is still Bugs Baer and William Hubbard III's 1970s-vintage maxi Tempest that is leading on handicap. On the 131-foot (39.9m) Sariyah, racing in Performance Cruising class 2, the crew report that charterers Cortwright Wetherill Jr., Jeff Gram and Sam Shipley are relieved to be passing the half-way stage of the race but enjoying the excitement of constant heavy-air reaching. In the Classic division, A. Robert Towbin's Sumurun is still leading on the water with 1,575 miles to go at noon today.

On board Carlo Falcone's Mariella, also in the Classics, Sophie Luther reported last night they were experiencing the calm before the storm. "It is pretty unbelievable that a system 600 miles across, with winds of 50 knots in it, is brewing." The change, even if not its extreme nature, will be welcome.

Mariella spent 12 hours on Tuesday becalmed. Luther continued: "The ballot on board closed today for the estimated time of arrival at the Lizard waypoint and to the Needles itself, and the results were published in Carlo's big black book. Merelita was the most hopeful, getting us in on the 9th June, which she says we will have to do not only so she gets free drinks when we get to Cowes but because we won't have any more food after this point.

Robin was the most pessimistic/realistic with late night 12th June." From on board the schooner Atlantic on the equivalent day of the Kaiser's Cup in 1905, Frederick Hoyt wrote: "We had a fine night and with a strong breeze and moderate sea we averaged over 14 knots an hour.

On coming on deck this morning a bright sun and long southwesterly swell and a strong breeze made a charming day. They put both staysails on her but with the wind increasing, they were up only for an hour, but we are going along in great shape and at noon today were only 213 miles from the Lizard, the finish of our race."

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge is sponsored by Rolex and also by Moran Towing Corp., Sandy Hook Pilots, P&O Ports North America, and MedLink. The race is hosted by the New York Yacht Club with the support of the Royal Yacht Squadron. It is supported by the City of New York and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Showboats International is the event's official marine publication; program sponsors include Rolex, North Fork Bank and Holland Jachtbouw. Jobson Sailing, Inc. is making a documentary of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge to be aired on the Outdoor Life Network on Wednesday, September 28 at 1:00 am ET and again on September 28 at 10:00 pm ET and on Channel 13 (PBS) in New York at a date and time to be announced.

Listen to satellite telephone interviews from the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge: www.regattanews.com

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2, Rue des Terreaux,

CH-2000

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

RECORD IN THE BAG, BUT THE RACE IS STILL ON

This morning, in thick English Channel fog, Robert Miller's (Hong Kong/New York, N.Y.) 140-foot (43m) Mari-Cha IV passed through the four-mile-long gate off the Lizard on the Rolex Transatlantic Race to break the 100-year-old record set by Charlie Barr on board Wilson Marshall's 185-foot (56.4m) Atlantic.

Miller's giant state-of-the-art racing schooner completed the 2,925-nautical mile passage, east across the North Atlantic between New York and the Lizard, in a time of 9 days, 15 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds-a full 2 days, 12 hours, 6 minutes and 56 seconds faster than Atlantic's record-breaking voyage 100 years ago.

“It is a great feat,” commented Mari-Cha IV's owner Robert Miller. “For a record to stand 100 years, and we've had the honour to make an attempt and be successful at it--I am over the moon, overjoyed. It is fantastic.

This was a very tough trip. We had six days of weather on the nose. We crossed the Gulf Stream, saw some very rough seas there and again headwinds and steep short seas on the nose, and the boat and the crew took a lot of beating.” At one point, pushing the boat beyond its limits ultimately resulted in the mainsail headboard and the headboard cars on both mainsail and mizzen breaking, and the chance of breaking the race record was in jeopardy.

“If the ship or the crew were in danger then we would have had to retire, but we did a very good damage control assessment and the question of retirement was never an option,” continued Miller. “We have a very versatile crew, and we can be really self-contained here, so any type of problem we have been able to overcome this time. We were very fortunate and it all worked out well for us, I'm very happy to say.” In October, 2003, Mari-Cha IV set a monohull passage record between New York and the Lizard of 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds, but for that voyage, in stark contrast to the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, she had the major advantage of being able to set sail when her crew chose, in optimum weather conditions. In 2005, their voyage was very different.

“Pretty much for the first 1,500 miles we were battling away against everything…the elements, Maximus…and we've still got a big battle on our hands now,” recounted racing helmsman Mike Sanderson (referring to the race finish at the Needles still ahead). “From a record standpoint it is very exciting, especially it being such an old record. It is not every day you break a 100-year-old record. It is incredible that a record like that stood for so long and it was the outright record for so long, too.

So obviously it was an incredible achievement back then, and they've made us fight for it this time as well.” On the approach to the Lizard, Mari-Cha IV passed between Land's End and the Scilly Isles, while 40 miles astern, Charles Brown and Bill Buckley's New Zealand entry Maximus passed outside of the Scillies. Off the Lizard, they became engulfed in thick fog that reduced visibility to just 330 feet (100m).

“We can see the bow of the boat, so it's not true English fog, and we are VMG running down the Channel in 14 knots of wind doing 15.5 knots,” continued Sanderson. Despite their lead, there is still a small possibility of Maximus hunting them down. “We are very concerned about the breeze shutting down, and if that happens they'll bring it up from behind, so we have realised we have a race on our hands still,” said Sanderson.

Fortunately, at present, the tides are relatively weak, removing a potential tactical advantage for the Kiwi maxi. Maximus passed the Lizard at 13:18:55UTC, 3 hours 13 minutes and 32 seconds after Mari-Cha IV. “We are just tootling along doing about 15-6 knots VMG downwind,” commented her veteran navigator Mike Quilter.

We don't have no longer have any wind gear, so I can't tell you how much wind there is.” Like Mari-Cha IV, she was gybing downwind, trying to make the most of the available tide. In Performance Cruising class 1, Chris Gongriepe's schooner Windrose continues to lead the 178-foot (54.3m) Tiara, while Tiara's sistership Drumbeat is ahead on handicap. In the smaller Performance Cruising class 2, John “Hap” Fauth continues to lead on the water in his 116-foot (35.4m) Whisper, while Bugs Baer and William Hubbard III's Tempest is still first on handicap.

As Mari-Cha IV and Maximus reached the Lizard, A. Robert Towbin's Sumurun, the on-the-water and handicap leader in the Classic division, still had 1,653 miles left to go to the Lizard. “We are the back of the pack, and it is pretty discouraging when you hear that the first boat has finished and you still have halfway to go,” admitted Armin Fischer, skipper of Sumurun. “We are about 170 miles ahead of the other two boats, but that can change very rapidly if you hit a weather system in the wrong way.”

At present, Sumurun is waiting for the arrival of the next depression. “We are heading northeast now into the next low, and we will see what happens then. The cards can be dealt differently then. It depends upon how we position ourselves in it.”

To date, their progress has been relatively slow, as unlike the faster boats, Sumurun has been unable to position herself within weather systems to make the best use of the conditions, says Fischer. “We had a lot of horrible light airs and big swells. We had a few good runs. Our best run so far was 256 miles, but that was only one day.”

The boat is generally in good shape except that, like Maximus, they have had electronics issues and have no wind instruments. “It is like learning to sail all over out here without having the instruments, with the woolly ties on the shrouds, etc” said Fischer.

Owner A. Robert Towbin turned 70 on 26 May, but his birthday had to be delayed by 24 hours due to the bad weather. 100 years ago on day 11 of the race for the Kaiser's Cup, Frederick Hoyt on board Atlantic wrote: “Last night was beautiful and clear, but it blew a whole gale throughout, and on coming on deck at 07.30 this morning the ship was running with the wind on the quarter, before the heaviest sea we have yet had.

The wind has been building to the southward gradually since midnight and with no abatement. The squaresail yard was braced pretty well forward, and when she would luff on the crest of a sea it would bury her so at 11 it was taken in and the jib set. A great improvement in her behaviour at once followed, the excessive rolling stopped and she went along drier and apparently faster than before.”

Listen to Robert Miller on MARI-CHA IV via satellite telephone after breaking the transatlantic racing record: www.regattanews.com

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2, Rue des Terreaux,

CH-2000

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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."

Listen to satellite telephone interviews from the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge: www.regattanews.com

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2, Rue des Terreaux,

CH-2000

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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."

Listen to satellite telephone interviews from the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge: www.regattanews.com

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2, Rue des Terreaux,

CH-2000

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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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2, Rue des Terreaux,

CH-2000

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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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2, Rue des Terreaux,

CH-2000

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

OS TROFÉUS DA REGATA ROLEX TRANSATLANTIC CHALLENGE

Cape May Challenge Cup




Commodores' Cup




The Commodore's Challenge Cup


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Key Partners Marketing Services (KPMS)
2, Rue des Terreaux,
CH-2000
Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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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Key Partners Marketing Services (KPMS)

2,Rue des Terreaux,

CH-2000

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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