Boating chit chat thread.

Is marinetraffic.com down for everyone else?

I've just been getting a blank white screen for a few days now.

Hah, that worked! I have no idea why though, it always worked on mobile for me but just went blank in the last week or so - but the incognito page worked. Working grand on the laptop.

Thanks!

Up from a weekend on anchor in Kinsale

Another day is going to be lost to following dots on a screen…..

Live tracking of inshore racing at the Admiral's Cup in the Solent - Ireland being represented by a team from the RIYC

https://live.tractrac.com/viewer/index.html?target=https://em.liveserver1.tractrac.com/events/12f03780-1956-013e-f43d-04421a259aad/races/3f30d940-4072-013e-8ee9-04421a259aad.json&banners=https://em.liveserver1.tractrac.com/api/v2/events/12f03780-1956-013e-f43d-04421a259aad/banners.json

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-30/protest-lodged-against-bnc-by-min-river/106188442

Controversial overall/handicap result in the Sydney-Hobart race this year!

BNC won on handicap, but Min River lodged a protest over illegal use of a pole on their spinnaker in the last couple of nautical miles of the race.

BUT they hadn't actually seen it themselves, they went on photos/videos that they saw - fair? correct? dunno….

BUT, BNC once they'd been called out on it, lodged an admission that they'd broken a rule

So now the International Jury have to make a decision on that (or they decided that they should make a decision on that)

Min River withdrew their protest, I'm not entirely clear if it was once BNC admitted the rule breach, or once they knew that the IJ was taking it up themselves.

Anyway, end result is that BNC were penalised 1 hour for the rule breach, and 5 mins for the unfair advantage gained, handing the overall win to Min River.

Lots to unpick there, and I'd say there'll be acres of reports and debates in the coming weeks about it. I haven't quite decided if I think there's a slight shadow on the win myself - but the fact that I'm even thinking about it probably means there is, a bit, for me.

But what a year for the smaller boats - 7 of the top 10 were double-handers and all were Class 4 or below - given the state of conditions for the first 36 hours, that's some achievement!!

And the first double-handed overall winner, and first female skipper/owner winner (I think I heard one report saying she took up sailing about 10 years ago?)