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Miles And Beryl Smeeton
Miles Smeeton (1906–1988) and Beryl Smeeton (1905–1979) were an outstanding couple of travellers, pioneers, explorers, mountaineers, cruising sailors, recipients of numerous sailing awards, farmers, prolific authors, wildlife conservationists and founders of the Cochrane Ecological Institute, a Canadian non-profit charity responsible for successfully reintroducing the swift fox to Canada. Biography Brigadier Miles Richard Smeeton, DSO, MBE, MC was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1906, and was educated at Wellington and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1925 but transferred to the Indian Army in 1936, joining Hodson's Horse. During the Second World War he served with the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade in the Western Desert and commanded Probyn's Horse in action against the Japanese in Burma in 1945. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry at Bir Hacheim on 27 May 1942 and the Distinguished Service Order for successful ...
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Cruising (maritime)
Cruising is a maritime activity that involves staying aboard a watercraft for extended periods of time when the vessel is traveling on water at a steady speed. Cruising generally refers to leisurely trips on yachts and luxury cruiseships, with durations varying from day-trips to months-long round-the-world voyages. History Boats were almost exclusively used for working purposes prior to the nineteenth century. In 1857, the philosopher Henry David Thoreau, with his book ''Canoeing in Wilderness'' chronicling his canoe voyaging in the wilderness of Maine, is considered the first to convey the enjoyment of spiritual and lifestyle aspects of cruising. The modern conception of cruising for pleasure was first popularised by the Scottish explorer and sportsman John MacGregor (sportsman), John MacGregor. He was introduced to the canoes and kayaks of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans on a camping trip in 1858, and on his return to the United Kingdom constructed ...
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Bermudan Rig
Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a type of sailing rig that uses a triangular sail set abaft (behind) the mast. It is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. Whilst commonly seen in sloop-rigged vessels, Bermuda rig is used in a range of configurations, for instance, a cutter or a schooner (where it may be used in conjunction with gaff rigged sails on other masts), and several other types. Bermuda rig takes its name from Bermuda, where it was developed in the 17th century. The term ''Marconi'', a reference to the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi, became associated with this configuration in the early 20th century, because the wires that stabilize the mast of a Bermuda rig reminded observers of the wires on early radio masts. Description The rig consists of a triangular sail set abaft (behind) the mast with its head raised to the top of the mast; its parts of a sail, luff runs down the mast and is normally attached to it for its entire length; ...
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Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo was a powerful tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread destruction across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. The eleventh tropical cyclone, eighth Tropical cyclone naming, named storm, sixth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season, Hugo arose from a cluster of thunderstorms near Cape Verde on September 10, 1989. This cluster coalesced into a tropical depression and strengthened into Tropical Storm Hugo as it tracked west across the Atlantic Ocean for several days. On September 13, Hugo became a hurricane and continued to intensify through September 15 when its maximum sustained wind, sustained winds peaked at , making it a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Between September 17 and 21, Hugo made landfall on Guadeloupe, Saint Croix, Puerto Rico, and lastly South Carolina, with major hurricane strength winds. The storm weakened inland and accelera ...
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Royal Cruising Club
The Royal Cruising Club (RCC) is a British yacht club founded in London in 1880 to support leisure sailing. It is most widely known for the series of pilotage books produces under the auspices of the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation, a registered charity. Membership of the RCC is restricted to no more than 400 and is by invitation only although some if its awards are open to all yachtspeople. Notable members have included include Erskine Childers, Arthur Ransome, Hammond Innes, Peter and Anne Pye, Bill Tilman, Blondie Hasler, Adlard Coles, Miles and Beryl Smeeton and Eric and Susan Hiscock (Eric Hiscock was Vice-Commodore from 1959 to 1963), Paul Heiney Awards The RCC presents annual cups, medals and prizes some specifically for its members but also unrestricted awards for feats of outstanding exploration, seamanship and services to cruising. The first award in 1896 was the members Challenge Cup, which was held by the winner for a year and was awarded to the ...
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Cruising Club Of America
The Cruising Club of America (CCA) is an international organization of cruisers whose objects are to promote cruising and racing by amateurs, to encourage the development of suitable types of cruising craft, to stimulate interest in seamanship, navigation and handling small vessels, and to keep on file all information which may be of assistance to members in cruising in any waters. About The CCA was launched in the winter of 1922 at Maskells Harbour on Nova Scotia's Bras d'Or Lake by a handful of experienced offshore cruisers interested in cruising The founders included Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, F.W. (Casey) Baldwin, William Washburn Nutting, Jim Dorsett, and William A. Wise Wood. As of 2021, the club has more than 1,400 members, including 116 women. Members range from 25 to 99 years of age, averaging 70.7 years. CCA members report owning 1,036 boats, averaging 41.3 feet. This includes 702 sailing yachts, 225 powerboats, and 49 "undesignated" boats." CCA's members personify the i ...
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Blue Water Medal
The Blue Water Medal is an honor awarded annually by the Cruising Club of America for a remarkable sailing feat. The first award was issued in 1923. Winners *Kenichi Horie (2022) *Ginger and Peter Niemann (2021) * Randall Reeves (2020) *Jean-Luc Van Den Heede (2019) * Bruce Halabisky and Tiffany Loney (2018) *Webb Chiles (2017) *Michael J Johnson (2016) *Tom and Vicky Jackson (2015) * Skip Novak (2014) *Jeanne Socrates (2013) *David Scott Cowper (2012) *Thies Matzen and Kicki Ericson (2011) on Wanderer III "for 24 years and 135,000 miles of sailing the oceans of the world with a focus in the high latitudes of the Southern Ocean". This is the second Blue Water Medal earned by the Wanderer III, the first being with Eric and Susan Hiscock who made two circumnavigations with her and received the Blue Water Medal in 1955. * Alex Whitworth (2010) "for a circumnavigation of the world via the Northwest Passage west to east." * Annie Hill and Trevor Robertson (2009) * Peter Passano (200 ...
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Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan's circumnavigation, Magellan Expedition, which sailed from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain in 1519 and returned in 1522, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, Indian oceans. Since the rise of commercial aviation in the late 20th century, circumnavigating Earth is straightforward, usually taking days instead of years. Today, the challenge of circumnavigating Earth has shifted towards human and technological endurance, speed, and List of circumnavigations#Miscellaneous, less conventional methods. Etymology The word ''circumnavigation'' is a noun formed from the verb ''circumnavigate'', from the past participle of the Latin verb ''circumnavigare'', from ''circum ...
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Rogue Wave
A rogue wave is an abnormally large ocean wave. Rogue wave may also refer to: * Optical rogue waves, are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves. * Rogue Wave Software, a software company * Rogue Wave (band), an American indie rock band * "Rogue Wave", a song by American progressive rock band The Hsu-nami * ”Rogue Wave”, a song by American rapper and producer Aesop Rock * “Rogue Wave”, a short story by Theodore Taylor (author) {{Disambig ...
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Trekka (round-the-world Yacht)
The Trekka was a light utility vehicle built on the basis of the Czech Škoda Octavia, manufactured in New Zealand between 1966 and 1972. It is the only vehicle designed and manufactured in New Zealand to have entered commercial production for an extended period. Overview Development The idea for an agricultural utility vehicle based on the Škoda Octavia engine, drive train and separate chassis came from Philip Andrews, who had taken over the Motor Lines vehicle assembly company from his father. When Motor Lines was taken over by Noel Turner, Andrews was able to convince him of the market potential of such a vehicle. At that time in New Zealand agricultural vehicles attracted no tariffs and there was no government limit on the number of such vehicles that could be sold. Turner discovered that a prototype of a small utility vehicle had been made by an engineering company in Kawerau using an engine based on a British Bradford. Peter Risbridge, who ran the Kawerau engineering ...
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John Guzzwell
John Guzzwell (1930 - 23 August 2024) was a yachtsman who circumnavigated the world single-handed from 1955-1959 in a 20ft 6in (6.25m) wooden yawl named ''Trekka'' that he built in a shed behind a fish and chip shop in Victoria, British Columbia. ''Trekka'' held the record for the smallest yacht to complete a circumnavigation until 1987 when Serge Testa broke the record in his boat, the ''Acrohc Australis''. Guzzwell was also a renowned timber shipwright. In 1959 he was awarded the Cruising Club of America's Blue Water Medal to recognize his achievement. Early life and education John Guzzwel was born in 1930 in England, but was brought up in Jersey, Channel Islands, the son of a sea captain. Early in the German Occupation of the Channel Islands he was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp where his father taught him celestial navigation. After the war he trained as an apprentice joiner and shipwright before emigrating to British Columbia in 1953. Circumnavigation On 10 ...
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Cape Horn
Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet. Cape Horn was identified by mariners and first rounded in 1616 by the Dutchmen Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire, who named it after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands. For decades, Cape Horn was a major milestone on the clipper route, by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. The waters around Cape Horn are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs. The need for boats and ships to round Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the Panama Canal in August 1914. Sailing around Cape Horn is still widely regarded as one of the major challenges in yachting. Thus, a few recreational ...
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Clipper Route
The clipper route was derived from the Brouwer Route and was sailed by clipper, clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route, devised by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, reduced the time of a voyage between The Netherlands and Java, in the Dutch East Indies, from almost 12 months to about six months, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route. The clipper route ran from west to east through the Southern Ocean, making use of the consistently strong westerly winds called the Roaring Forties. Many ships and sailors were lost in the heavy conditions along the route, particularly at Cape Horn, which the clippers had to round on their return to Europe. The clipper route fell into commercial disuse with the introduction of marine steam engines, and the opening of the Suez Canal, Suez and Panama Canals. It remains the fastest sailing route around the world, and has been the route for several prominent yacht racing, yac ...
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