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)

American Yacht Club Spring Series (Week One)

Week one had two opposite weather days. Saturday was light breeze, warm and sunny. Then Sunday brought in some heavier breeze, cold and rain.

Welcome to spring sailing on Long Island Sound.

Let's see what this weekend's weather brings to the table.

For our sake, we're hoping for a nice 20kt easterly on a bright and sunny day with a few puffy white clouds in the background.

Is that too much to ask?

Here's a link to our photos. Enjoy!
AYC Spring Series Photos

2010 Charleston Race Week Photos are Online

Click Here to view our photos of 2010 Charleston Race Week.

Three great days of racing made for some exciting photos!

Great Breeze in Charleston: Race Week Day 1

The breeze held longer than forecasted yesterday and we were busy capturing about 5000 photos of 180 boats on 4 courses. Today's weather looks good as well, so here we go again.

See the daily highlights on our website.

Charleston Race Week 2010: The Day Before

We've arrived at Charleston Race Week 2010 to a nice VSR waiting for us. We chartered the "Very Slender RIB" from Coachboat Management to cover the outside courses. I know, I know.... we've always covered the outside courses with our 11ft RIBs. But this year, with a record high turnout and a tight deadline for displaying the photos daily, we'll make sure we can get in and out faster, safer, and in style! We'll still be using our smaller boat for the two inside courses, because a dinghy is still the best platform for photography!

Charleston Race Week kicks off tomorrow morning with 4 courses, 183 boats, and 15 knots in the forecast. We'll be set up on the patio displaying photos on our terminals every evening.

Here's a shot of the Dinghy Locker crew from today.

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.