NYYC Annual Regatta

The NYYC Annual regatta in Newport this weekend was lumpy and rainy. We ended up taking our cameras out in the rain and got some cool shots. All the photos are posted, sorted by boat name in our online gallery. Enjoy.

2011 CPYC One Design Regatta

The Cedar Point One Design Regatta has been on the PhotoBoat calendar since 2006. This was our 6th year covering the regatta, but since 2010 it's been in the care of our associate photographer Michael Bagley as we've been on another assignment in Virginia. Mike covered the action again this year, capturing the nearly 40 boats from multiple angles. The One Design regatta has hosted a variety of fleets over the years, with some rotating in and out. Always present are the J30s and J105s. This year, there was a nice group of First 36.7s and Viper640s to round out the group. See the photos at PhotoBoat.com .

Southern Bay Race Week 2011

It was another great year for Southern Bay Race Week. 98 boats competed off of Hampton and Norfolk VA this past weekend. Friday’s weather was sunny with a 10-20kt breeze. All boats raced inside with a nice backdrop of docked navy ships. Saturday, the competitors saw light conditions but got off three races. Racing was very tight; see the results here: http://www.hamptonyc.com/2011_Raceresults/sbrw_standings.htm

Sunday was rainy with scattered thunderstorms, so racing was abandoned and the kegs were tapped early.

Yet again southern hospitality and expert sailing combined for an unforgettable experience for everyone.

All of our photos are posted online in our gallery. Click here to view the photos

2011 Block Island Race: Summer's Here

The 2011 Block Island Race kicked off the LIS summer season this weekend with some sunny warm weather and light wind- how appropriate! We had a great day on the water, especially after the breeze clocked around to turn a slow upwind sail into a swift spinnaker run. It was like photographing two different events in one day. We enjoyed shooting with both a wide angle and a zoom from the VSR to create a nice collection of images for each boat. See the photos here.

Boat Names: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The BoatUS list of top ten (a.k.a. cheesiest) boat names for 2010 gave me- well, a feeling of nausea- but also some motivation to step back and think about all of the boat names I see every year. In my post on WaterViews, I discuss the meaning of some of the names I see on the race course all the time but never stopped to look up.

Keep up the creativity, racing sailors.

Speaking of the APS Catalog

We came across an interesting post on the APS website, celebrating their 20th year in business. Check out all of the catalog covers they've had over the years.

2011 APS Catalog Photos

As you flip through your 2011 APS catalog this season, you might notice that our photos are used exclusively. Take a look- you may even find yourself! This is our 4th year working with APS.

Also check out the Annapolis Performance Sailing website at APSLTD.com

Charleston Race Week 2011

Charleston Race Week provided another long weekend full of activity and great sailing this year. This is our 5th year photographing the regatta, and the participation has more than doubled across the years. In fact, it has nearly tripled. We had our hands full with more than 250 boats to photograph this year, but we came prepared with years of experience and help from associate photographer Michael Bagley. We enjoyed Friday's 15-20 knots and lumpy seas on the offshore courses. Saturday, the weather threw us a curveball and racing was cancelled due to high winds. We did enjoy photographing a handful of Melges 24s that decided to practice- and show off for photographers- anyway. Sunday's weak high pressure system made inshore racing a little bit dull, but the offshore fleets were able to wait for the sea breeze to fill in and enjoy some good racing. But racing is only part of a regatta experience for most people; the race village on the sandy beach at Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina was full of action. We enjoyed having our booth with display terminals set up right in the middle of it all, and participants enjoyed viewing their photos as always. See the photos here. We look forward to coming back to Charleston again- this event is always a success!

2011 Prosser Trophy Team Race Championship

Who would expect a weekend in early April in Ithaca, NY to be sunny and 65 degrees? To be fair, today was overcast, but still not too cold. Lake Cayuga's water is still in the 30s, and there are still traces of snow in the hills in upstate New York, but as far as we're concerned, it was a great weekend in Ithaca. Thanks to Cornell Sailing for hosting us. Even with generally light breeze, the college sailors competing for the Prosser Trophy know how to make slow sailing look good. See the photos here. The series consisted of more than 60 races sailed by 8 teams across two days. Daniela was pleased to secretly cheer on her alma mater's team, Georgetown, as they won the regatta and their place in the National Championship at the Gorge in Oregon. If only we could fit a trip to Oregon into our busy Spring schedule...

Another stock photo put to good use

The folks at Tyler Yacht Club in Texas used one of our J80 Worlds photos and some creativity to make this cool t-shirt design.

Don't delete that shot...

Everybody has their own taste when it comes to photos. Some people like full-boat shots that show the sails; others like close-ups with facial expressions. Some like a serene sailing scene, others like epic action. Some like to see boats in the background (especially boats behind theirs), others prefer a solo shot. We've learned to take enough shots to cover all the angles, and to keep everything, but we still get a kick out of unusual requests.

For commercial and editorial photos, we never know what will be useful- we've sold capsize shots to positive flotation manufacturers, countless sail shots to sailmakers, and photos of lobster pot buoys showing current. We had another somewhat unusual request from WindCheck recently, but given our past experiences, we weren't surprised.

We inadvertently take "dirty bottom" shots all the time, especially in late summer when the water's warm and the boats have been in it for a few months. Usually these dirty bottom shots lead to a conversation about whether we'll offer photoshopping services, and they may occasionally lead to a fired bottom-cleaner. But we got a kick out of sending this shot to WindCheck for their latest article on selecting a bottom paint.

2011 Key West Race Week presented by Nautica

2011's Key West Race Week was a warm and sunny one. In Key West in January, this can be a blessing, as we've seen all sorts of conditions in the 5 years we've covered Key West, including 50 degrees and rainy. Though we didn't have any days with epic conditions for photography, the sun and green water were plentiful and we were very pleased with our coverage. We were really impressed yet again with the handling of the VSR we chartered. We used it and a wide angle lens to get this shot right alongside Oracle Racing.

See all the 2011 Key West Race Week photos here.

The 2011 J/Boats Calendar: January

We're proud to be a contributor for the 2011 J Boats calendar. They're a great gift idea and can be purchased in the J Boats store.

October, 2010 Action

October was a wet and wild month. Here's a montage of our broach and capsize shots from J80 Worlds, Heineken HPDO, and US Sailing Championship of Champions. Click the link below or press the play button to view the video!

October, 2010 Action

2010 US Sailing Championship of Champions

Between AYC Fall Series, J/80 Worlds, and the HPDO, we had 10 straight days of shooting and took, edited, sorted, and posted more than 20,000 photos. The 3-day break before the Championship of Champions was much needed, especially since the C of C proved to be another very intense event. Put champions from 20 different fleets around the country in Ideal 18s and send them out in 35 knots, and it makes for some interesting photos (yes, apparently Ideals like to pitch-pole).

To get the full flavor, see Carol Cronin's write-up about the event here and more shots on the US Sailing site, and ours, of course.

2010 Heineken HPDO

The High Performance Dinghy Open was a fantastic event again this year. Better-than-forecast breeze and good participation (including a huge Viper fleet) made for another photogenic weekend. Having packed up our boats in Newport at 11 pm after the final evening of J80 Worlds photo displays (and after 5 hours of photographing in 30 knot conditions before that), we were pretty tired when we got out on the water in Rye for the 11 am start the next morning. Adrenaline kicked in, though, and the HPDO is one of our favorite events to photograph, so we were fine. The fact that Heineken sponsors our coverage, and participants receive free medium-res photos, makes this a happy event for everybody. See the 2010 Heineken HPDO photos here.

2010 J80 Worlds

The word of the week at the 2010 J80 World Championship in Newport was Epic. All 4 days, plus the practice day before the event, we saw wind speeds above 15 knots. The event started with a nasty, grey-skied Noreaster that brought huge seas to the offshore sailing area, and ended with a 30-35mph westerly with bright skies and porpoises playing off of Newport. Every day was memorable in its own way, including Wednesday, during which we all got drenched by pouring rain for several hours. We probably took more photos of broaching boats at this event alone than we have in our entire career so far. Even the winner was caught on her side at one point- it was just part of life during this regatta. The photos are a must-see. Check them out here.

AYC Fall Series

AYC Fall series was a 2-weekend, 4-day series, as always. This year mother nature delivered for us on the last day, starting off a long stretch of extremely high-wind shooting for us in October. In fact, we shot for 10 consecutive days, with the wind speed averaging around 25 and reaching a max of 35. We know everybody loves high-wind photos, and we had so much web traffic in October that we had to increase our bandwidth- twice!

Check out the 2010 AYC Fall Series shots here and stay tuned for the rest of the October story.

IHYC Classic and IRC LIS Champs

The weekend of Sept 18-19 brought two new regattas to the Long Island Sound sailing scene, right in the heart of the busy fall season: the Indian Harbor Yacht Club Classic Yacht Regatta and the IRC LIS Champs/Fall PHRF Classic. We covered both- not only were they both run out of Greenwich, but some of the classic yachts actually sailed through the IRC/PHRF course while sailing their distance race. It was great to see so many sailboats out on the sound, though apparently not everybody thinks so. I was photographing at the windward mark of the IRC course when one of the big charter fishing boats- the kind that takes hundreds of people out at a time- actually came over to race committee to complain that the course was taking up too much space...

It's nice to still have some surprises out there after shooting 50 regattas a year for the past 5 years.

We're looking forward to shooting these two great events again. As always, the classics are beautiful. Check out the photos here.

2010 E-Scow Nationals

70 E-Scows gathered at Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club this past weekend for three days of extremely varied sailing conditions (Fri: NW 15-20, Sat: NE 5-10, Sun: rain, no wind) and two days of similarly varied post-sailing activities and attire (Fri: formal banquet, Sat: pirate party). The club volunteers spared no effort to put together a memorable Nationals for the class. We got some exciting shots in the big breeze on Friday, and captured some beautiful, colorful images on Saturday.

See the photos here.

Shooting The Vineyard Race 2010

Although Hurricane Earl barely gave us a drop of rain or a gust of wind, the cold front that came through on its tail provided a lot more drama for those sailing the Vineyard Race, and those photographing it. The 25 knots from the West with gusts to 30 at the start of the race provided the opportunity for a quick spinnaker run down the Sound, many boats breaking personal speed records.

We were contracted to provide an 8x10 photo for each class winner. For a distance race, this means we have to really focus on catching every boat at the start. For this race, we knew it would mean focusing on catching all 70 boats as they sail downwind at 8-20 knots, depending on the size/design. Our strategy was to use two dinghies and each cover a side of the Sound about 1/2 mile East of the start, and communicate via VHF about who covers which boat as they sail towards us. Because there's a tendency to travel downwind extremely quickly in these situations, and end up dozens of miles away from our starting point with a long, painful upwind trip in heavy seas, we avoided this by being quick and efficient with our photos and motoring back upwind after every start. Two hours after the first gun, the last class started and we finished out the day with photos of photos of all but 3 boats that started.

This would normally be enough of an effort, but with the addition of Kattack Live tracking, our ability to see exactly where all the boats were and how fast they were going introduced a new temptation to us. We got in the car with a dinghy in tow and headed towards the turning mark, which was in the Groton area. Though we should have had an easy time beating all the boats- and leader Vela Veloce- to Groton, when we reached terrible holiday-weekend traffic in the New Haven area, things changed. We were now in a race with Vela Veloce, and it was apparent that we might lose.

We plugged along on I-95, carefully watching Vela Veloce on Kattack and making every move we could to win. As we pulled off 95 in Waterford, with the self-imposed race down to the wire, we sped towards the boat ramp we had picked out- one we had never been to before, but selected because it was a state ramp and had easy access to the Sound. We are always in search of ramps that do not require us to go down a river, through a 5-mile no-wake zone.

This ramp was, in fact, right on the Sound. However, it faced Southwest, and there were 3-foot waves breaking over it and a lot of rocks in the area. Nobody in their right mind would have launched from this ramp. In fact, a few cars pulled up with boats in tow and left while we were there. But we were still in the middle of a race with Vela Veloce and if we didn't launch now, we'd lose. We had a crowd of people watching, including a police officer, as I put the trailer just barely in the water and Allen waited for a wave to crash into his transom and float him enough to reverse off of the trailer and turn quickly in reverse to avoid the rocks. It was a success and as he went off to get some great shots of Vela Veloce and a number of the other faster boats, I reasearched another boat ramp where I'd pick him up at sunset.

Step 3: why not catch a few boats finishing. Putting the Stamford lighthouse in the background made for some great shots and another angle on a race to remember.

Riverside Yacht Club Vespers

Tight racing and lots of smiles during Riverside Yacht Club's Vesper racing series last night.It was fun to get some interesting shots in fading light, and when it went down... adding some flash made it even more fun.

Click Here to View the Photos

2010 Summer Cruise(s)

We cruised to the Cape Cod area last week and were asked to shoot the Riverside Yacht Club cruise and the American Yacht Club cruise along the way. Both of these premier yacht clubs from Long Island Sound know how to have a good time, whether at their dinghy raftup, or beating their way through 15-20 knots of wind on current in the rain between Mystic and Block Island. We had never been part of a dinghy raftup before, but were impressed at the great time had by all as hors d'ouevers were passed from dinghy to dinghy in Quisset Harbor. Even the harbormaster laughed and took photos as we towed the whole group of rafted dinghies over to the commodore's boat. You never know when or how that 20 hp Honda on our dinghy will come in handy.

The AYC group got the harcore award for sailing through a rain storm with 15-20 on the nose. Many would have either motored in these conditions, or simply stayed put in Mystic, but this group deserved their mudslides at The Oar when they arrived.

Westport CT to Nantucket

An hour before sunrise, and so far so good. We left Cedar Point Yacht Club at 7pm Wed and our eta in Nantucket is 5pm Thursday. We plan to photograph the opera house cup and a few more regattas in the region before ending our yearly sailing trip during the week of the 22nd... Track us with this URL: http://thephotoboat.com/location/

See you on the water!

2010 Gov Cup - St. Mary's does it again

It's a beautiful, quiet Sunday morning at St. Mary's College. I'm sitting on the upper deck of the state-of-the-art boathouse uploading our photos and occasionally looking out over the water to see another boat leave the perfectly protected anchorage to begin the trip back to Annapolis. As a boater, I can't imagine a nicer setting for a college. Do the kids who go to school here put "kayak" on their back-to-school list?

The conditions for this year's Governor's Cup race from Annapolis to St. Mary's College were absolutely perfect - the participating boats had a long moderate-breeze spinnaker run down the bay, then turned the corner around Point Lookout and beat their way up to the finish.

The day-long post-race party was a huge success as always, making the Gov Cup a fantastic experience for everybody.

See the 2010 Gov Cup photos here and the results here.

William (Michael) Clark 1943-2010

Dad died at 11:15 this morning from brain cancer. He was 67. We learned about his tumor in January, 2009, and we’ve been battling hard ever since. He had two brain surgeries, radiation, and various forms of chemotherapy including clinical trials at National Institute of Health.

He loved traveling, sailing, photography, friends and family. He never accepted anything but perfection and it was apparent in all of his endeavors, including bird photography, gourmet cooking, fine carpentry, and in his professional life as a business executive.

He is the reason I sail, and the reason I took up photography. He was the best father that anyone could have ever asked for and we already severely miss him.
This photo is of Dad on the left, with his two grandkids and two daughters-in-law off of Martha’s Vineyard on his boat, “Expeditious” Aug 2009.

Love you Dad, Rest in Peace.
- Allen Clark

Here is a link to is obituary.

7/4/2010

Today marks our first wedding anniversary, so we dug up this fun "team PhotoBoat" photo to remember last year's celebration.

Newport-Bermuda Start: Copyright...Clark

The Newport-Bermuda Race is always one of the highest-profile events on the East Coast sailing circuit, and the start on Narragansett bay just off of Newport is full of excitement. This year was no different, with a 180+ boats and dozens of spectator boats, the starting area was packed and the warm, sunny light-wind weather made it a great day for onlookers.

We opted to rent a VSR for the job this year, with the hope that a bit more speed would help us catch more boats. Without a tiller setup like our dinghies, driving and shooting cannot be done as adroitly, so we divided responsibilities for best success: Allen drove and I- harnessed in at the bow- took the photos. The setup worked extremely well- with all of Allen's experience driving the dinghy, I had the best driver possible- I don't think there could be anybody better at putting the boat in the right place for the shot. But it begs the question, who deserves the copyright for these photos? Technically, it would be me, but it doesn't seem quite right. It was a team effort, with Allen's job being as important as mine, as he was creating the shots. For us, as partners and husband-wife, it doesn't really matter how we get the shots, or who takes them...copyright Clark, or PhotoBoat.com works for us.

posted by Daniela

Newport Bermuda Race Photography 2010

Newport Bermuda Race Start in 2008; I had just completed taking some of my most favorite shots of my photography career. I stood in my custom photography dinghy, - harnessed in - watching the last of the boats disappear over the horizon on their way to Bermuda. I was very tempted to keep following the boats and to continue to get fabulous shots of hundreds of anxious but excited sailors.

Then it dawned on me, I was so caught up in the moment of gathering these images that I didn’t realize my own situation.I had hurled my 11.5ft dinghy over larges breaking swells in a good following breeze, to a distance of nine miles offshore. It hit me, though i did have a SPOT gps emergancey transponder, a handheld gps, life vest on and enough fuel to make it half way to bermuda. Still, if anything happened to my engine, or if I took a wave incorrectly, then I would probably join these sailors in Bermuda, just in far worse shape.


After carefully weaving my way around steep breaking waves that were easily over my head, I did make my way home just fine (after narrowly missing a collision with what must have been a 8ft shark on the surface). But this year with self-preservation in mind, we have chartered a VSR to photograph the 2010 Newport Bermuda Race Start.
Daniela and I have sailed to Bermuda on a Delivery but have never raced. We look forward to participating in future races.

Here is a link to our 2010 Newport Bermuda Race Photography

Sailors: Please, be safe and enjoy the ride! Good luck!

Allen Clark - PhotoBoat.com

PhotoBoat in search results- a fun little video

PhotoBoat's Been Busy

While we photograph each regatta during the season, we love providing an opportunity for boat owners and racers to buy quality photos of their boat, or a cool shot of crew on the rail. But this isn't how PhotoBoat stays out of the red. We're really looking for those quality shots that make it into ads, magazines (online and print), catalogs, websites and email bursts that keep sailors up-to-date with the latest products, boats and sails, etc. If you have a sailing industry business, please contact us about our stock photo rates.

Check out these three loyal PhotoBoat customers:

APS 2010 Catalog (www.apsldt.com)

2010 Dinghy Locker Cover (www.landfallnavagation.com)

Sailing World Magazine May 2010 "Centerfold" (SailingWorld.com)