Där skulle jag vilja slå ett slag för något som är vanligt utomlands, den sociala kappseglingen. Alla går ut med samma målsättning, att på ett socialt sätt gå ut och segla. I många tävlingar, i Australien t ex, har man inte ens en målgång. Man startar och har trevligt ombord och det är ingen som bryr sig hur det går. Det är den sociala gemenskapen som är viktigast. Då tror jag att det kan bli fler båtar.
Benoît Stichelbaut är mest känd för sina fyrbilder. Kolla in den nedan! Men han har också varit officiell fotograf på Transat Jacques Vabre, The Transat och Vendée Globe. Dessutom åt många av de stor soloseglarna som Vincent Riou, Sébastien Josse, Jean-Pierre Dick, Michel Desjoyeaux, Jean Le Cam, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede och Ellen Mac Arthur.
Marine photographer is not an easy title to define; it means much more than being able to catch a maritime landscape on a picture. Of course, some techniques are essential: anticipating a wave to ensure a straight horizon; evaluating depth of field needed to capture the density of a landscape; recognizing the right moment when two sailboats meet each other, and so many other obvious skills.
Reproducing the sea on a picture, it is the ability to express a perception. Benoît Stichelbaut looks through his objective with his sailing experience, knowing deep inside the motivations of those who leave for the sea, be it for their own pleasure or as a profession. He respects the silence of the sailors, listening to their sometimes brief explanations and knows how to integrate them to their profile. His photographs are not only aesthetic; they also capture a moment of life. By the wobbling of an angling boat in the Raz de Sein Straight, we can imagine the power of the waves, threatening to unbalance the boat at any moment.
Catching the moment when two multihull cross each other near the coast shows all the tension animating the crew on board these speed machines. The sailor bending down in the sight of a wave which will soon break on the bow reminds us the icy sea water drops which will ooze in his back, in spite of his fool weather gear.
Here is the point of view Benoît Stichelbaut wants to reproduce when he photographs the sea, far from the aesthetic objective, sometimes dehumanized. Brittany, by the richness of its contrasts and the variety of its men and landscapes offers him a wonderful playground.
Vincent Riou i sin Open 60 PRB. April 2004.
How did you start with sailing photography?
I was in a school (in Concarneau) to became Sailing school manager or to work in sailing “area”. A last, I have a work experience scheme in a sailing magazine (Neptune Yachting – 1990), and try to become journalist and photograph.
Which picture are you most satisfied with?
The first one is a picture I took during Brest 1992. Il like this photo because everybody could take the same : you just have to be there and look for a photo… No helicopter, no special accréditation etc..
There were a lot of photographers during this event, but nobody had taken tihis picture I sold this photo to a very important magazine in France. My first big sale !
Few month ago I shot a big tempest in Brittany : I wait this moment (this kind of weather condition at this place) since several years… So I will be very satisfied to see the pictures !
Decemberstorm i Bretagne 2007 med 10-15 meter höga vågor. Fyren d’Ar-Men är 37 meter hög!
Best regatta to shoot?
Antigua Classic week : beautiful boats, waves, sun …
Worst regatta to shoot?
A regatta with no sun and no wind : it’s very hard to get a nice picture…
Alain Gauitere i sin 60-fots trimmis Foncia 2001.
Who inspires you (other photographers)?
I have a passion for photography so I like very much look at pictures : each photographers could inspire me, famous one or not, sailing photographer or not … I like to look at a photo and think “wahooo”.. ! Of course, with sailing photography it’s often with the same famous photographers – the ones who take “new” pictures : Carlo Borlhenghi, Philippe Plisson
What gear do you usually use/favor (camera/lenses)?
Canon 1DS – Canon 1D – lens from 16-35 to 500
Any advise for those who want to become a better sailing photograph?
It’s better to have knowledge about sailing ! So you know what could happen, the right pace on board etc…
To become better : take picture, make mistake …. take picture
How do you see sailing photography develop in the future?
I dont know… Probably young photographers will arrive with new ideas, and the digital révolution continue ! If you ask the same question 10 years ago, it was very hard to have the right answer.
Business will probably become more difficult ! (more and more digital image on the market, more “big” compagny with very low price …)
UPDATE: Så klart det är en Melges 24. I Stenungsund. Här är storyn om hur man skaffar sig en sådan över helgen…
SWE452 med bas i Stenungsund och Europa som startfält!
Din hemsida är mycket inspirerande, så inspirerande att vi kom på att vi också måste göra något ballt av seglingen.
Vi fick en idé… vi vill ha det roligaste man kan segla, något enkelt sätt att få segla stora fält internationellt, gärna VM status och gärna spektakulärt runt omkring.
Då finns inte mycket, då finns MELGES 24, MELGES 24 eller MELGES 24.
Så vi drog i lördags morse 05.00 från Göteborg – åkte nonstop till Tourqay i England (typ 190 mil) sov 5 timmar på ett tveksamt hotell (alla vet väl att Faulty Towers är inspelat i Tourqay) och sedan handlade vi GBR452, att det sedan krävdes att vi åkte tillbaka de 190 milen med köer o elände i London och Köpenhamn det löser sig alltid… Vi var borta 56 timmar från Gbg, 50 av dem har vi varit i Volvo´s flaggskepp S80,
4 timmar av dem har vi varit på hotellet och 1 timme har vi handlat båt.
Klart och färdigt, hur svårt kan det vara?!?
SWE452 ägs och kommer att seglas av Jonas Berntsson, Mats Berntsson, Håkan Olsson, Magnus Lundberg och Mattias Heiding.
Sponsorer som gillar fart och fläkt är välkomna att höra av sig, vi utlovar fräcka reklamplatser av seriösa seglare som varit med förr, kundarrangemang i diverse olika båttyper finns att tillgå.
Michel Kleinjans kör många av soloracen med sin Lutra Open 40. Med besättning var de också tredje båt i mål i tuffa Rolex Middle Sea Race. Men med ett IRC TCC=1.245 räckte det inte till en topplacering. Nu skulle han slå rekordet på sträckan Marseille-Cap Carthago, Tunisien.
Här är hans story…
Question
What does a Belgian building contractor and solo sailor do to attract some interest in his next venture; the Portimao Global Ocean Race, 2008?
Answer
He puts down a speed sailing record so that the potential sponsors come flooding in, well that is the idea at least and crossing the Med seems like a piece of cake of course….
So you bring your boat to Marseille from Malta after the Rolex Middle Sea race and wait a few days till the wind is ok and off you go. Well then you wait 7 weeks for a decent weather window!
But just in the middle off a very busy working week that happened, so you cancel all your meetings and appointments, and get a few unhappy clients. Thursday afternoon you hop into your car to drive a thousand kilometers to Marseille, were you arrive in the middle off the night, you sleep 5 hours, in the morning you start preparing the boat and call a few times with the local company that was going to get some bugs out of your electronics, so you have at least some instruments working, then you get that diver arranged to scrub the bottom nice and smooth( that is thanks to my brother who lives nearby). Sort out the last issues, get the visit of the WSSRC representative, call the meteo guru and by the time you are off you are already through your adrenaline for the first night!
Then you go to the start line, to see that the wind is not there!
Call the meteo man again, he searches for a computer as it is Friday night and looks up some satellite pictures, to tell you something you don’t understand but that the wind will fill in later than he predicted just 6 hours before. So there you are waiting 4 more hours in the bay of Marseille looking at the city lights, and spoiling the dinner of the WSSRC representative, so you call the guy that he can go and eat the next course because you are still drifting around in the bay with no wind..
Then after midnight the wind gently fills in, you sheet in your main, unfurl the code 0 and of you go…Completely in need of sleep of course.
After 3 miles you go round the corner at Tiboulen light for 300 miles straight sailing to the south west corner of Sardinia, you get the chute up, and then you really need some rest…., you leave it to the pilot and try to sleep a bit in the cockpit.
After half an hour the wind really begins to pick up and you decide to hand steer, two hours later the first wipe out. Time to get the spinnaker down and get some proper rest, the wind backs a bit so genoa on an outer sheet and mainsail, ideal sleeping conditions at last
The wind increases till 20-25kn from 115° on starboard for the rest off the Saturday so a piece of cake till Sardinia.
You go round Isla Toro at 3.14 in the morning and get up the chute again as you have to go 15° deeper, now it is becoming a bit more rock and roll, as the wind picks up till 25knots and you have the masthead chute up, making 12 or 13kn average speed for a few hours, you enjoy a nice sunrise, and again you realize you are getting tired, so lets change the chute for the code0/gennaker. During the manouevre you wrap the spinnaker round the fore stay, gybe to get if off, then the main halliard breaks, so that leaves no other choice but to get up the mast. Two hours later the mess is cleared and off again now with only a code zero, but as the wind picked up you are doing again 10 or 11 knots average, nice. An hour sleep now, after threequarter of an hour ‘bang’, and there goes the furler up in the air. One way or another you get the sail back on deck you hoist the jib and use the mast head spinnaker halliard for the main sail with 2 reefs and that is it till the finish.
A few more hours and you finish, just about 10knots of average speed, not too bad for a 40 footer and the Roaring Forty skipper. And now let’s hope it will bring in some bucks back in the home country?
The local WSSRC representative, a very friendy lady and the secretary general of the local yacht club of Sidi Bou Said, are awaiting me in the marina and after a very nice meal and some good local wine, offered by the latter I fall asleep in my bunk, an exhausting last few days!
You can follow my course on the replay at www.oceanracetrack.com, where is Roaring Forty. And I would like to thank Racing at Petit Bateau for the loan of the tracking equipment
Apropå “chines”… Här har ni Hi-Fi, Neil Prydes senaste i Hong Kong. Man tar ett däck från sin Farr 52 och så sätter man ett nytt skrov under. Design Hugh Welbourne.
Neil Pryde has made a major decision on how to extract some more speed out of his Farr 52 OD Hi Fi. Unable to sell the boat and move onto something faster, UK yacht designer Hugh Welbourne was once again bought in to see what could be done. After surveying local hi tech boat builders McConaghy Boats, China was chosen to cut away the hull and replace it with a new Welbourne hull. General manager Mark D’Emilio is very familiar with this procedure, while working at DK Yachts they successfully preformed a similar task on Neil’s former Hi Fidelity a few years ago. To the average bystander this would seem quite a drastic measure but they can rest assured by using the old deck, internal bulkheads, furniture, mast, rigging and sails this is a significantly cheaper alternative than building a new boat. We hope it all works out and they are ready for the up and coming racing season.
