World Speed Record Attempt: Once more into the fray for Paul Larson & SailRocket

All the on-shore calibrations were carried out this morning so now we are heading out across the lagoon to speed-spot once more. The wind is whistling outside and beginning to make a steady low roar. Big dark clouds are massing out to sea. It's not a normal day. Its forecast to blow 27 knots but we only have a couple of hours tide left. It's still very gusty.

I decided to go over as it is an exercise that gets the whole team back into sailing mode. It's the best final shakedown to make sure that everything is working as it should be.

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Australian 'did not invent winged keel on yacht that won America's Cup'

Toni O'Loughlin in Sydney
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 October 2009 17.13 BST

It was a sporting victory that inspired Australia's then prime minister, Bob Hawke, to declare any boss a "bum" if they sacked a worker who took the day off to revel in the nation's glory.

But now the legacy of the Australian yachting team's spectacular triumph, when it seized the America's Cup in 1983 to end the New York Yacht Club's 126-year grip, has been rocked by claims that the man hailed as a hero for the winning vessel's revolutionary design only played a minor role in its creation.

Ben Lexcen is credited for Australia II's winged keel. But Peter van Oossanen, a Dutch naval architect who worked with Lexcen on the vessel, says he can confirm what the Americans alleged in protracted court battles but could not prove - that the boat broke America's Cup rules on yachts having to be designed by residents or citizens of the country they represented.

Read the complete article

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Inside IYRS: A little visit to the IYRS Maritime Research Library

Written by: Tom
10/14/2009 12:21 PM

The IYRS Maritime Research Library is just about finished, but it's now open for business.

One of the lesser known treasures of IYRS is the newly opened Maritime Research Library on the top floor of the mill building. The Fall issue of Restoration Quarterly has a good article about the library and should be available on the IYRS website soon.

In the meantime, here are a few photos to give you a taste of what you will find if you come visit.

Jill is our reference librarian and she has the enviable qualities of being both friendly and professional. She knows what we have in our collections and if we don't have it, she knows how to get it.

Click here to read the entire IYRS Blog.

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Lowell's Boat Shop to revive Mighty Merrimack Rowing Race

It has been an exciting, revitalizing year for a local historic treasure, Amesbury's own Lowell's Boat Shop on the banks of the Merrimack River. Now, as a means of celebrating the highly successful completion of a Partners in Preservation (PIP) grant and of expanding its rowing program, the nation's oldest continuously operating wooden boat building establishment is reviving its Mighty Merrimack Rowing Race (MMRR) - the featured event of the Boat Shop's Fall Haul celebration - Oct. 25, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The MMRR was started by Jim and George Odell in 1983 and was last held in 2005. This year's race, a preview of the 2010 race, will be the first step in reviving the annual event. It will be a small, less formal event intended to reflect the fun and pleasure of rowing.

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Fall lecture series at IYRS to focus on great yachts, past and present

Beginning in late October, the International Yacht Restoration School will host a five-part lecture series that will explore the great yachts of today and yesterday. On five Tuesday nights from October to mid-December, experts will give lecture-goers a look at a series of magnificent yachts and the people behind them-including newly restored classics such as the stunning 104-foot Trumpy design Freedom, the majestic J-Class sloops and the largest Herreshoff schooners ever built, steam yachts that today stand as the megayachts of old, and the historic 1885 Coronet now being restored on the IYRS campus.

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