Posts Tagged ‘Blue’

Blog action day

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Today, October 15, is the annual Blog Action Day, a day that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. This year’s topic is Climate Change. Blog Action Day 2009 will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web.

I believe that through education and experience of the natural environment, we can grow a community that loves and cares for the environment. Through this experience, we will change how the communities look at the world around them and learn how to live in a more sustainable manner. Every little action and choice that we make can make a difference and contribute to a global effort, that is needed to slow down the impact we are making on climate change. Just by cycling into work at least once a week means that I now feel healthier – both in myself and for the environment. By choosing groceries with less packaging has reduced our household waste. By being more a little more conscious of our water usage has reduced our bills and our garden is happier for it. All of these are easy-to-do, every day actions that require so little effort, and that’s all we need to do… make more of an effort.

I am passionate and love our ‘BLUE’ environment and so through The Blue Climate and Ocean Project (www.theblueproject.org) and the launch of the new mass-participation event, The Blue Mile, am hoping that by encouraging more people to enjoy our blue environment, they will be encouraged and hopefully inspired to care for it.

Conrad Humphreys

Final breakfast

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Nice banter during breakfast, everyone has their own ideas about what spares to take. The mood is upbeat as crews tuck into the last proper breakfast. The next 6 days the diet will be power bars and lucozade gels.
The weather forecast is for the wind to die and I suspect we will have a long paddle to Fejan. It could be a long one! After that it’s anyone’s guess, the race organizers are keen for to go north of Aland which would put us over 60 degrees north, better pack some more thermals.

Ryan Crawford said
“woke to the sound of rain on the tent and breeze, now there’s nothing. Not looking forward to paddling on day 1!”

Daily blog, images and tweets live from Conrad Humphreys during the Archipelago Raid starting from Monday 17th August 2009.

For more indepth visit
www.conradhumphreys.com

Folllow tweets
www.twitter.com/conradhumphreys

Follow the race
www.archipelagoraid.com

Leg position:
Speed:
Blue Miles covered:

F18 Eurocat 2009

Monday, May 4th, 2009

The first big F18 event of the year took place at Carnac over the bank holiday weekend and this year saw over 140 F18′s and many of the world’s top sailors take part.

It has been over ten years or more since I raced in a fleet of this size and we were here to work on boat handling and speed to ensure that we were on the pace come this summer’s Archipelago Raid.

It still surprises me, that the 12 year old design of the Hobie Tiger is still such a competitive design amongst a fleet comprising two brand new designs. This event was the first outing for the much hyped Hobie WildCat and also the new Loday-White Shockwave. Neither boat’s have had much time on the water, but with the star studded team’s sponsored by Hobie, including world and Olympic sailor, Darren Bundock it was tantalising to see the new designs in action for the first time.

First race and we were inside the top ten at the windward mark – unbelievable after a poor start. 
No problem with our pace up wind. The downwind leg saw a number of team’s pass us by, it was just a case of not pushing hard enough but as the confidence grew we started holding our own here as well. We finished 14 in the first race, our best result of the weekend and an opportunity to see that we had good overall speed.

On Saturday, the 300 strong fleet took part in the 30mile offshore race and after a light upwind start we had a 7 mile reaching leg. Tactically the fleet held high and we managed to soak off down this long reaching leg which paid massively as the tide was racing around the Quiberon Penisula. Gybing through the islands was just breath taking with a large swell running and lots of rocks scattered around it felt a bit like the Archipelago. After around 50 gybes, we were around the back of the island and back on the wind for a long fetch home. We were in good company with Andrew Macpherson and Mitch Booth close by. We crossed the line with less than twenty ahead of us, which was fantastic. It was a good chance to see that our tactics were good and so was our speed.

Overall, the weekend was superb, and really impressive to see Carnac with such an active race scene for Catamarans. The event management was superb with over 200 volunteers involved in making the event happen and with the onshore activities, there was certainly a buzz for the whole town. Well done Carnac Yacht Club for a great event.