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After an incredible four decades enjoying life on the ocean wave, Bill and Laurel Cooper have now berthed back home in Blighty, England for good. The intrepid couple, who are in their 80s, have traveled around the world four times on boats they built themselves – ever since Bill quit his high-flying city job on a whim and they sold their home in 1976.

In 36 years at sea they have notched up 100,000 nautical miles, sailed across seven seas, traveled 22,000 miles along canals and rivers, and have dropped anchor in 45 different countries. They have navigated 25 ft. waves, hurricanes, 100 mph winds and got close enough to dolphins, sharks and whales to “smell their halitosis”.

But now health problems have forced Bill, 83, to hang up his captain’s hat. He and Laurel, 82, are now moored on the River Medway at Rochester, Kent, to see out their days on Faraway their 40 ft. houseboat.

Bill, a former Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy, said, “We’ve had a wonderful time, but I’m afraid I have been overtaken by what you could call ill-health. When I got to about 78, we built a boat we could manage for when old age really strikes – we call it the geriatric boat.”

The couple met in 1945 and started sailing on the Norfolk Broads two years later. They did their first sea cruise in 1954, sailing around Sicily with their baby daughter Shelley. But the on board facilities were very basic. There was no toilet and cooking was done on a paraffin Primus stove.

Bill and Laurel built their first boat after he quit as a broker in 1971. Five years later they sold their six-bedroom house, gave the money to their children, Shelley and Benedick, and set sail.

Part-funded by Bill’s Navy pension, they put to sea on a 50 ft. steel ketch called Fare Well – and never looked back. In 1986, they upgraded to an 87 ft. barge and named it Hosanna.

For the complete story, go to www.mirror.co.uk.

Three people who braved strong winds off Cedar Key, Florida on Sunday afternoon to go sailing were pulled from the water 11 hours later after rescuers found them clinging to their overturned boat.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the boaters, ages 53, 40, and 16, had sailed into the Gulf on a 16-foot-long fiberglass catamaran.

Coast Guard officials declined to release the boaters’ names but said at least two of them were from Michigan.

A small-craft advisory had been issued by the National Weather Service on Sunday, meaning that winds had reached 20 to 33 knots and seas were at or above 7 feet high, said Todd Barron, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Ruskin.“A small-craft advisory means that it is not recommended that you go out on the water in a small boat,” Barron said. “If your boat can’t handle that much wind or waves that high, you should not go out.”

A family member called 911 around 7 p.m. to report the boaters overdue. The family member told the Coast Guard the trio planned to sail around Atsena Otie Key, which is about a mile off Cedar Key. The caller also told Coast Guard officials the boat had no motor, lights, radio or any other emergency equipment.

Barron said that while the boat was on the water, the wind was blowing at about 20 knots, with gusts as high as 25 knots. The water temperature was in the mid-60s, Barron said, and the air temperature — which had been at about 70 degrees at sunset — fell to about 55 degrees after midnight.

The Coast Guard dispatched an HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter from Clearwater on Sunday night, while the Levy County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sent officers to aid in the search.

After seven hours of searching, the trio were spotted atop the overturned hull of the boat shortly before 4:30 a.m. about two miles east of Atsena Otie Key, according to the Coast Guard.

A rescue swimmer was lowered from the helicopter and helped all three boaters into the helicopter.

Courtesy of www.ocala.com.

The Proteksan-Turquoise designed and built super-yacht, YOGI, sank Friday morning off the coast Skyros, a small Greek island located in Aegean Sea. (Click here for video)

The 197.5 foot super-yacht, which has only been up for charter since the summer of 2011, was reportedly in the area for “minor warranty” work when it suffered a mechanical failure, began to list, and eventually sank.  Luckily the Hellenic Coast Guard was on scene with a Super Puma helicopter and was able to get everyone off safely.YOGI featured accommodation for 12 guests in 6 cabins (5 double, 1 twin), and a large main deck master suite with lounge/day area, office area, dressing room and his and hers en suite bathrooms.  Amongst her many features were a large jacuzzi on the sun deck, a temperature regulated swimming pool with a skylight to the beach club below on the aft deck, two beach clubs, a massage room, a multimedia play lounge and a sun deck Teppanyaki bar.

The superyacht was available for charter through the superyacht charter company Burgess with rates of $469,000 to$497,000 per week.

Courtesy of www.gcaptain.com.

Commenting on the deal Klaas Meertens said, “As investors, we are delighted to have the opportunity to add such a strong and prestigious British brand to our select portfolio of companies and have every confidence in Oyster’s CEO, David Tydeman and the existing management team to take the business forward. For myself and Wim, this is a personal acquisition and a long term investment. We look forward to working with David and the team to develop Oyster’s strategy for the future and build on the success the whole team at Oyster has achieved over the last three years.”
Oyster CEO David Tydeman said, “This is a fantastic opportunity for Oyster, our team of loyal staff and suppliers. HTP Investment’s acquisition is funded by the private funds of its two partners and means that Oyster can look forward to a period of long term stability, doing what we do best – building great sailing yachts.”

Though HTP and Oyster declined to reveal just how much the deal was worth, it is reputed to be between $15 million to $25 million, substantially less than the reputed $110 million Balmoral paid for Oyster four years ago.

HTP acquired Oyster using exclusive funds of the partners Wim de Pundert and Klaas Meertens and is therefore it claims, not  subject to any restrictions with respect to the amount invested and the period over which the investment is held. According to HTP it expands the activities of its portfolio companies both through organic growth and further acquisitions, supporting the management in strategic decision making and any required reorganization of the firm’s financial structure. However, as yet HTP Investments has not disclosed details of the new financial structure for Oyster.

For the complete story, go to www.ibinews.com.

Many cruising sailors confess to having nightmares about being in the water and watching their yacht sailing away without them. It’s a nightmare that makes you clip on, and when alone on board, have your inflating life jacket on as well. How could such an experienced sailor fall overboard, as reported, while on a night watch, 53 nautical miles from Phuket?

But she did and now her grief stricken partner is sailing their boat, Moondancer, back to Penang, after the search was called off for locating her body.

Brookes, 60, and her partner Dr. Gerry Goeden were business partners in the sailing business Whitsunday Escape and lived in Airlie Beach on Australia’s golden sailing area behind the Great Barrier Reef for about ten years. In 2007, they sailed to Penang in Malaysia where they settled. On the night of February 2 this year, the couple were sailing on their 47 foot yacht from Langkawi to Phuket and were off the coast of Trang. Goeden, a marine biologist, had been engaged in a coral reef project at the Andaman Resort in Langkawi. But when he awoke to take over from Brookes, who had been doing the night watch, she was nowhere to be found.

After a week, the search for Brookes was called off. Friends of Goeden described how the rescue systems were “very different” with no shore bases monitoring emergency radio channels. There is apparently no such thing as volunteer radio systems or Coast Guard the language differences made communication very difficult if not impossible.

If any good is to come from these tragic incidents it is to remind all long range sailors to clip on at all times and have strict rules about sailing the boat alone while your other crew is below sleeping. You only need to slip once.

Courtesy of www.sail-world.com.

A state proposal to raise boat registration fees for the first time in nearly three decades has dismayed many boat owners.

A bill filed last week in Annapolis would replace the flat $24 boat registration fee paid every two years with fees ranging from $50 to $700, depending on the size of the boat. The increases would be phased in over four years, beginning in October, for Maryland’s 191,000 registered boat owners.

“What’s the benefit? Or is it just one more way to raise revenue for the state? No wonder people move out of Maryland,” said Jesse Buckwalter, who keeps his 25-foot sport fishing boat in the driveway of his home in the Eastport section of Annapolis. “It seems exorbitant.”The money would go to replenish the state’s Waterway Improvement Fund and pay for maritime safety efforts.

The measure is the latest proposed fee increase by the O’Malley administration as the state looks to make up for lost revenue and maintain services in a weak economy. Other controversial proposals include the governor’s plan to increase the so-called “flush tax” on water use to pay for sewage treatment improvements and to extend the state’s six percent sales tax to gasoline.

The state last attempted to increase boat registration fees in 2007, but the proposal died in committee.

“We’re not doing this to create something new; we’re doing this so that we can maintain what we have,” said Bob Gaudette, director of the Department of Natural Resources boating services, citing the need to keep channels and boat ramps safe and reliable.

Under the plan, the registration for a boat under 16 feet would rise to $50 every two years by 2016. Registering a boat from 16 feet to 32 feet — the most popular size in Maryland — would cost $125. Vessels 32 feet to 45 feet would cost $250. Vessels 45 feet to 65 feet would cost $500. The registration fee for the approximately 52 yachts over 65 feet would be $700. All of the new fees would be paid every two years.

Graduated registration fees based on boat size are used in a number of states, including Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey.

For the complete story, go to www.baltimoresun.com.

Rowing across the Atlantic Ocean may be an extreme test of human endurance but an all female crew who completed the feat discovered a secret tactic to ease the physical burden — rowing nude.

“We spent a lot of time rowing naked because when the sea water gets inside your clothes it increases friction against your skin which can cause sores,” says Debbie Beadle, Skipper of the Row for Freedom team.

“If you row naked it means you don’t rub as much and you also get dry much quicker instead of constantly having wet clothes,” she adds.

The unconventional ploy worked to perfection as Beadle and her fellow crew members — Julia Immonen, Katie Pattison-Hart, Kate Richardson and Helen Leigh — smashed the existing Atlantic crossing record for a boat of five rowers, taking just 45 days.

The British team also became the first all female boat to complete the 2,600 mile voyage between the Canary Islands and Barbados, although they were sure to don clothing as they approached their final destination last month.

“Getting the records was just amazing,” says Beadle. “It was something we worked hard for and were really determined to achieve when we set out.”

The trip followed a route previously used to transport slaves between Europe and the Americas in the 19th century, raising money for UK-based anti-human trafficking charities the A21 Campaign and ECPAT UK.

Beadle, whose day job is a youth worker at ECPAT UK, says the motivation to achieve something notable for such a worthy cause far outweighed any inhibitions that she or the crew may have held.

“We got to know each other very well,” says Beadle as she recalls airing her sores in front of her ship mates after a particularly hard day of rowing.

For the complete story, go to www.cnn.com.

An inflatable fishing boat survived an attack by a great white shark off Strandfontein, South Africa. The boat was anchored two miles out to sea when the shark attacked. Its crew was fishing for smooth hound sharks, which are preyed upon by great whites.

One of the passengers had just pulled a smooth hound onto the boat when a great white stuck its head out of the water and took hold of the side of the boat. The shark bit down, puncturing the boat, held on and thrashed for over a minute.

The boat, 26 ft. long and 10 ft. wide, was carrying five passengers and its two owners, Kevin Overmeyer and Chad Battle.

Graham Classen, one of the passengers, said, “I was less than an arm’s length away from the shark and all I could see were its giant rows of teeth. When it thrashed back and forth it shook the boat.”

Classen said he was still shaken. “It was horrific. I thought the boat would sink. A nearby vessel radioed to see if we were going to need to bale. It is only because of the owners, Kevin and Chad, that everyone made it back to land. They had the anchor up and us off to safer waters in minutes.”

The attack left a gash about one and a half feet long as well as a number of the shark’s teeth in the boat’s hull, which workers in Kalk Bay harbor admired on Monday. Overmeyer and Battle, friends since the age of 13, have owned and operated their tour company, CKAT Coastal Adventures, for four years. They say this is the first time anything like this has happened.

“We see great whites quite often in this area, but they have never attacked our boat or one of the fish we were pulling up.”

The summer months are when great whites get the closest to fishermen as the seal population is low and they feed on fish.

“The fish come to the warmer water near the coast and the sharks follow,” said Battle.

Classen and Battle said the shark was about 23 ft. long and its teeth were about 2 inches long.

Courtesy of www.iol.co.za.