Press from OceanLines

This is a belated post featuring a belated article, but it's still fun to share. We have enjoyed working with OceanLines writers for a couple of photoshoots to accompany their articles, like this one about the Nordstar31. But enough about that...as if we didn't publicize our wedding enough last summer...

http://oceanlines.biz/2009/09/congratulations-to-our-favorite-marine-photographers/

Website redesign complete!

We've spent the last month building our own new website, and we're happy to announce that it's now online! Check out the new look at www.photoboat.com .

Announcing PhotoBoat and Charleston Race Week 2010

We're pleased to announce that we'll be working with the South Carolina Maritime Foundation as a sponsor of Charleston Race Week 2010. We'll be taking great action shots of every boat and displaying them on our terminals and our big screen at the party every night. Charleston Race Week is a growing event and we're thrilled to be a part of it. For more information, visit www.charlestonraceweek.com.

PhotoBoat is a DryCASE dealer

No, we don't normally sell anything except our own photos, but we think the DryCASE product is so great that we've become a dealer. The case works with a vacuum seal- you actually suck the air out of it after it's sealed. The result: not as clumsy as other cases. The other quality that sets DryCASE apart from the rest: it has a headphone valve and still maintains its seal.

We'll have a few cases with us at events this coming season- check them out, buy them on site, or use the code Photo Boat at checkout for 10% off.

Key West Race Week 2011 Press Release

KEY WEST RACE WEEK
January 17 – 21, 2011

Key West Florida, USA


A Premiere Racing Event

Key West Race Week 2011 will take place in Key West, Florida in January 2011.The 24th edition of North America’s first major regatta of the winter season offers five full race days for IRC, One-Design, PHRF, multihull and 20’ sportboat classes.

Enjoy world class competition and fun shore side parties in this warm water, spectacular venue. Premiere Racing’s reputation for excellent race management and regatta organization promises to deliver another great winter get-away for racing sailors.

Details on invited classes, exciting new information on logistics and planning will be posted on: Premiere-Racing.com

New England Boat Show

The New England boat show in Boston was hopping this weekend- perhaps a good indication for boat manufacturers that things might be picking up. The most notable display had to be the amphibious vehicle made by SeaLegs. No, it's not street legal, but it does roll right onto its custom trailer. And if you have waterfront property, you can bring her up the beach and right into the garage after a day of fishing.With the powerboat manufacturers down in attendance this year, the smaller businesses really stood out, including boat time-share companies like Freedom Boat Club (power) and SailTime (sail). And the sailing schools were quite popular, including Boston-based, award-winning Black Rock Sailing School.

The boat show continues through this coming weekend. For more information, go to the event website.

Gulfstar 37 Sailboat for Sale

FYI, after paying for an expensive dock space. We didn't even sail our boat once last summer.

We used it for our dream adventure down the entire east coast in 2006, and some cool cruising in LIS, Nantucket, and Buzzards Bay. But since our business (PhotoBoat.com) has become as successful as it has, we don't have time to sail our boat.

We're selling her, so please spread the word.
We've made a spec sheet on my other website, www.Boat-Delivery-Captain.com .

Key West 2010 Animated Slideshow

Click "play" above to watch the slideshow, or click here to see all of the Key West 2010 photos.

2010 Key West Photos are Online

It was another dramatic week at Key West Race Week. Even though we only had one day of good breeze, it was enough time to get great shots of every boat crashing over waves. Our photos are online, sorted by boat name, here. If you weren't racing and just want to take a look, check out the highlights.

Key West at its Best!

What a great day for photos! We enjoyed decent breeze and some nice waves rolling in from the South today off of Key West. Today's highlights will be posted later tonight.

Making things interesting

Sometimes you have to go wide (angle) and up close to make things interesting. This is a shot from a few feet off of Highland Fling's starboard quarter today.

When there's not much wind....

We look for other things to photograph...

Key West's dolphin and turtle populations have been quite visible this year in the light breeze.

2010 Key West Race Week mid-week update

Key West Race Week started on Monday with a beautiful sunny day- it was everything everybody comes to Key West for, except the wind. But the 9 knots or so was enough for the race committees to run two races on each course.

With "Near 10 Knots" in the forecast again for Tuesday, the 11 or 12 knots were a blessing, and though the clouds came in in the afternoon and the temperature dropped to the low 60s, a little bit more wind helped to feed the action. We have a bunch of great shots from both days, and look forward to today, Thurs, and Friday for some more great Key West Race Week Photos.

See our 2010 Key West Race Week photo gallery here and our highlights on Premiere Racing's site here.

Small Craft Advisory

Key West Race Week is still three days from the first gun, but we're here, so why not start putting our cameras to work. Today's bright sunshine, 25-29 knots from the ESE and a bunch of boats out practicing combined for some great photo ops for PhotoBoat. Still, the Coast Guard did not think so, as they felt it necessary to remind us that there was a small craft advisory, and we are, in fact, a small craft. The warning was much appreciated, but not heeded.

Keep an eye on our Key West Race Week Photos page for photos throughout the event.

Halfway to Miami

The Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race start today led to the same dilemma we have every year: you're in a dinghy off the Florida coast, 7 miles from the Port Everglades Inlet (the one from which you left) and 5 miles from Baker's Haulover Inlet in Miami. Do you turn around and go back or just keep going? We've even scoped out a good boat ramp at Baker's Haulover. As it turns out, we usually prefer extra mileage in the dinghy- even upwind- to sitting in traffic. So Fort Lauderdale it is.

We are always trackable with our SPOT at www.thephotoboat.com/location

YRA LIS Annual Meeting

Check out our video from the YRA of LIS annual meeting: Best of LIS

Three Covers in a Row.

It's rare that people question our consistency. But it's nice to have a little reinforcement once in a while. Also keep an eye out for our photos in Sailing World magazine over the next year.

Check out WindCheck Magazine at http://www.windcheckmagazine.com/

Another Windcheck Cover by PhotoBoat.com

J105 North Americans

J105 North Americans ended yesterday with another day of great racing. The concern that a regatta on Long Island Sound in early November would be cursed by bad weather was wiped away as the 29-boat fleet sailed 11 races over four great days with winds that spanned around 8-30 knots and temps that were suprisingly bearable.

We saw the entire spectrum of conditions for photography. Check out the photos here.

Video Clip of the Summer

This is our favorite clip from the on-board-cams this summer.

October Windcheck Cover

We haven't tried counting how many times Chris Gill has used our photos on the cover of WindCheck Magazine, but it's always nice. On the cover here are our friends Chris and Michelle who didn't realize what they were signing up for when they decided to sail in the Denmark Friendship race this summer. Check out http://windcheckmagazine.com/.

Storm Trysail Intercollegiate Regatta

What a great event- you can tell these guys are having fun, and so did we. 40 college teams sailed aboard the same boats we're used to photographing all the time on LIS, but the college kids added some new flavor.

See all the photos here.

2009 Heineken HPDO

The weather couldn't have been better for photos at the Heineken HPDO this weekend. Saturday we saw winds reaching 30 knots as a front passed through and the sky changed from overcast to bright and sunny, with a lot of interesting clouds and light in between.

See the photos here.

Given the windy conditions, the competitors should really enjoy getting their complimentary photo CDs this year- thanks to Heineken for sponsoring us again this year to make it happen.

J30 North Americans

The October 3-4 weekend was a tough one for sailing weather, not that it was windy and rough like it usually is in October, but the opposite extreme. The J30s were on the calendar for Friday through Sunday, and Friday's light breeze that peaked around 10 knots was the best we got all weekend. Still, it was enough to make this 14-boat J30 fleet look good as they sailed on Westport waters. See the photos here. Cedar Point Yacht Club has hosted a number of important regattas this year. Next at CPYC: the impressive Laser frostbiting fleet kicks off their season.

Viper NAs

Stamford Yacht Club and Indian Harbor Yacht Club hosted 2009 Viper 640 North Americans and delivered two days of great wind for the sport boats- exactly what they need. 37 boats competed in the teaching regatta, which included after-racing chalk talks for the growing class that's rapidly recruiting new boat owners. As always, Vipers look great in big breeze, so take a look at the photos here and look for them in Sailing World in the spring.

Star NAs: an Easterly and a Westerly

We had two complementary great-weather days during the 4-day Star North American Championship held at Cedar Point Yacht Club in Westport this September. Tuesday was a quintessential Long Island Sound Easterly, with gloomy skies and big seas on the body of water that opens to the East. Friday's Westerly was a familiar weather pattern as well, with high pressure, bright sun, and strong winds. 50-something stars had 4 great days of racing- what a treat. Take a look at the photos here.

NY400 Flying Dutchman Regatta

Around 100 Flying Dutchman sailors from around the world convened in Manhattan this month as part of the NY400 celebration of the 400th anniversary of Captain Henry Hudson's arrival in New York and establishment of New Amsterdam. For a full history lesson and information about the Holland on the Hudson celebration, visit NY400.org.

The waters between Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty are an interesting place to sail and a wonderful place to take photos.

See all the photos here.

The Vineyard Race and The Denmark Race

Two of Long Island Sound's biggest annual races have come and gone again: the Vineyard Race and the Denmark Race, both hosted by Stamford Yacht Club. Labor Day Weekend's Vineyard Race was a drifter this year; the Denmark Race weather was much more interesting for photographs.

See the Vineyard Race photos here and the Denmark Race photos here.

America II and the 12YDF

This photo speaks for itself...

It was a perfect night for a sail on America II (US 42) last night, as we had yet another beautiful evening with clear skies and a little bit of breeze. It's been a great week and it looks like the Vineyard Race participants will get more of the same this weekend- as long as they have some breeze.

We hadn't been aboard a 12 meter since we ran US 42's sister ship, US 46, in 2006. It was good to be back, especially with such a great group of people.

We look forward to photographing the 12s at the 2009 12 Meter Worlds and the rest of the local fall circuit, but also hope to be aboard US 42 and the newly acquired Lionheart more often for the 12 Meter Yacht Development Foundation.

CT Leukemia Cup Regatta

We were thrilled to be involved with the 2009 Connecticut Leukemia Cup Regatta, hosted by Duck Island Yacht Club and North Cove Yacht Club in the Westbrook-Old Saybrook area. This is a very well-planned event for a good cause, and the regatta party was held in a big work shed at Brewer's Pilot's Point Marina. We were not quite as thrilled with the weather that we got, but that goes with the territory, and it certainly makes things interesting. The remnants of hurricane Danny didn't deliver any excessive wind, but did dump buckets of rain on us throughout the entire distance race. Everybody put their foul weather gear to the test during the 2-3 hour race and came in with a good attitude and eagerness to help raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. See the photos here. Click the logo for more info about the event and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

PhotoBoat Annual Cruise

We didn't get to cruise on our Gulfstar 37 this year (at least not yet), nor could we fit in 3 weeks, but at least we got an upgrade on the boat. We had a great time sailing with family aboard the X412 Expeditious- here's a Christmas card shot during a daysail off of Martha's Vineyard. We took care of the delivery home and despite threats from Hurricane Bill, the weather turned out the be quite calm. We just motored along, bobbing up and down with the big swells from the North Atlantic, like this one breaking on the Point Judith breakwater.

Introducing Harry Katz

Thanks to Harry Katz, a photographer and videographer who worked with us this summer. Harry is a Sophomore Photojournalism major at the University of Missouri School of Journalism- one of the top Journalism schools in the country. Harry's comfort with his camera was obvious to us right away, and no wonder, since his father is a well-known commercial photographer. Harry also worked as a photojournalist this summer for the Baltimore Sun. He's built quite a portfolio and is a true professional photographer already.

Harry helped us with video this summer, added to our photo inventory, and was instrumental in helping us with our event set-up.

At each event, we have four terminals networked for participants to view their photos from the regatta, including photos taken that day, searchable by boat name or sail number. With our pop-up tent, our viewing terminals, our projected slideshow going on in the background for those who just want to see a sampling of all the boats, we've got a lot of entertainment going on. Participants and organizers love it. Thanks, Harry, for helping us get to the next level.

Change of Seasons

It's back to school time and things have been busy. We've been covering a number of end-of-summer championships, particularly on the Jr. scene.

The Junior Sailing Association of Long Island Sound 2009 Summer Season ended with some great regattas. We covered Opti Champs at Pequot Yacht Club and Laser/420 Champs at Beach Point Yacht Club.

In spite of the fact that these are the best Laser and 420 sailors on Long Island Sound, when they got an Easterly thrown at them on Western LIS, things got a little messy- as usual. It's such a stark contrast to average LIS summer fair weather conditions. These kids will remember this day for sure, as I remember each one I experienced growing up sailing in Pequot's JSA program.

Be sure to check out the rest of the dramatic photos here.

Opti Champs was not as epic, but there was consistent wind and nice sun, and for that we are grateful. Pequot and Southport Harbor were absolutely overflowing with Optis, but everything was very well orchestrated- nice job, organizers.

I caught this Opti sailor waving to his parents at the jibe mark, which is a fun photo considering the fact that Opti racing can be very competitive.

See all the Opti Champs photos here.

Thistle Nationals 2009

What a week! More than 80 boatloads of Thistle sailors converged on Cedar Point Yacht Club for five days of sailing and a remarkable number of other activities. We've observed a lot of regatta parties, and we have to say, these Thistle sailors made an impression on us. They had costume nights, talent shows, bands, bocce competitions, blender wars, volleyball, and more. Cedar Point was the perfect venue for such laid-back family fun and we were thrilled to be working less than two miles from home.


This group was having a good time out on the water as well- and showing off for the camera- in spite of a week largely full of 5-knot days.

We got a lot of great shots throughout the week; check out our photos here.

2009 Governor's Cup Photos

The 2009 Governor's Cup start was very dynamic this year, with a lot of weather changes on the heals of a day of thunderstorms. The skies cleared just in time for the start and 15 knots filled in from the North on the heels of the front. It didn't hold for long, but a steady breeze held long enough for us to chase 100 boats 11 miles and get some nice shots. The light was constantly changing, and we were lucky enough to have a few moments like this one, where we caught Age of Reason looking good in some nice light. When the last bit of useable light was gone, we took the 11-mile trip back to Annapolis, packed up our boats, and headed to our dorm room at St. Mary's college...always fun. The next day's conditions were light but pretty, and as always, Southern Maryland knows how to party.

We always get a kick out of the photography competition that goes with this event- it's safe to say that there are more photographers at the Gov Cup than there are at Key West Race Week! Maybe we should enter the photo contest...

See the 2009 Gov Cup Photos here.

Across the Sound

KFAC IX took place last Saturday and between 200 and 300 kayakers made it across the Long Island Sound again this year. We always feel so lazy for powerboating across when all these guys are limited to self-propulsion, but they don't seem to look down on us. In fact, the KFAC group is one nice bunch of people. We always enjoy interacting with them both on the water and at the party. For more info about the event and all of the money raised for local charities, see the KFAC website. See all of our photos here.

Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge 2009

The overall winner of the Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge this year was Remedy; we're not sure where Still a Gorilla (last year's overall winner) was, but though they didn't sail this year it looks like they might have sent a representative...

The Screwpile is the kind of regatta where you can show up in a gorilla suit and start dancing. The Chesapeake sailors know how to have fun and the three-day regatta at the Holiday Inn Resort and Marina on Solomons Island is the perfect venue. The Screwpile is also the only regatta I know of that has a band named after it. The Screwpilers put on a good show again this year and so did the racers. The breeze was on the lighter side, but had it's moments- enough to get some great photos. See the photos here. Also see our photos and read about the event on the Screwpile event website and theBayNet.com.