Blog

ORCA attacks on Yachts continue

28th June

The latest ORCA attack was made last week on my colleagues in the VO65 racing yacht in the Ocean Race 2023 approaching the Straits of Gibraltar - the same area as many others. The encounter involved the now typical nibble of the r ...

Derecho Storm – 18 August 2022 - Corsica

19th October 2022

A rare Derecho storm (a Mesoscale Convective System event) formed during the night from 17th to 18th August 2022 over the northern Balearic Islands and then rapidly moved towards the north east, hitting Corsica early in the mor ...

Medicane ‘IANOS’ – 18 September 2020

17th October 2022

Medicane ‘IANOS’ – 18 September 2020 – Lefkada and Cephalonia, west coast of Greece. The Storm track prediction plot of 16 Sept. 2020 shows the weather system forming east of Malta and was predicted to make fast progress ...

Weather you need to make a plan – or not!

17th October 2022

(Medicane ‘Ianos’ approaching Greece – September 2020). A weak pun, but the seasonal weather patterns we are experiencing are not the same as they were.Of course, what that means for you depends to some degree on where you s ...

Staying Afloat

7th December 2021

None of us want to ever step up into a life raft. John highlighted one of the growing issues that we have in offshore and oceanic racing – hitting stuff. With the tragic increase in rubbish in the oceans, the chances of hitti ...

Unseen Hazards and Staying Afloat?

10th November 2021

Safety is a key part of the YachtDataBank mission – and there appears to be much food for thought out there. Most yacht owners are more than aware of the fragility of their existence on the water, and undertake regular maintena ...

When some things break

20th October 2021

There is a lot of kit that we rely on for our everyday comfort and safety that is no longer manufactured in a way that allows mere mortals to repair it when it goes wrong. Long gone are the days of changing a blown valve in a te ...

Staying Onboard – Or Not…

13th September 2021

Dee Caffari’s brilliant ‘mea culpa’ article about her recent overboard experience, whilst racing on a fully crewed yacht, highlighted how easily events can take a turn for the worse. Happily Dee was safely and swiftly recovered ...