On the Wind Sailing

#238. Friend of the podcast Erik de Jong joins the show for the 4th time. Originally from Holland and trained as a naval architect, Erik eventually built his own steel boat Bagheera in his backyard and sailed it to Nova Scotia, where he relocated, spending winters designing ships and summers sailing to Greenland. He’s since completed the Northwest Passage and relocated himself and Bagheera to Alaska, where he now runs expedition charters and scientific voyages in the North. Erik & I spoke about his most recent ‘Arctic Mission’ expedition alongside adventurer Pen Hadow to sail north into the Arctic Ocean to research climate change and sea ice retreat. On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marin. And also supported by Adlard Coles, and BRNKL Systems.

#237. Brandon Wright is the founder of BRNKL, a Vancouver-based tech startup focused on remote monitoring systems for boats. Brandon & I originally connected on Instagram and immediately hit it off. His sailing, tech & entrepreneurial background ticks all the boxes of my own personal interests, so it was a blast talking to and learning from Brandon about how he got his fledgling business off the ground. He has a background in surveillance, having worked for the US Military in the middle east, creating home systems for Arab sheikhs and more. Brandon’s lightbulb moment to start BRNKL came when his own sailboat broke it’s mooring in the middle of the night and ended up on the rocks… On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marin. And also supported by Adlard Coles, and Weems & Plath.

#236. Legendary yacht designer Bob Perry is widely considered as the greatest cruising boat designer of his era, creating some of the most iconic boats of the last several decades including the Valiant 40, Tayana 37 & more. Despite growing up in the midwest and far from the ocean, Bob always knew he’d become a designer. He has somewhat of a hippy past, playing in rock bands in the early days while basically talking his way into the industry as an apprentice when he was in his 20s. He’s worked alongside some of the greats, and obviously has carved a niche out for himself. This was a long, wide-ranging and really fun conversation I had with Bob about his career, his favorite designs, life after losing his son, and more. On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marin. And also supported by Adlard Coles, and Weems & Plath.

#235. Sara Hastreiter is of course one of the members of Team SCA, the all-female crew in the previous edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. Sara was on the podcast back in 2015, immediately following that Volvo to talk about how she went from horseback riding in Wyoming to sailing in one of the world’s premier ocean races. I got to speak with her again in March about what it felt like to be left off the Volvo race this time, her mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas and her ‘Seven Seas, Seven Summits’ project, speaking at the Explorer’s Club in New York, continuing to race on multihulls around the world, and her goals to inspire young people to follow their dreams. On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marin. And also supported by Adlard Coles, and Weems & Plath.

#234. Maik Brotzmann has been a friend of the podcast now for a few years, having joined Mia & I in Annapolis two years back to attend one of our Celestial workshops. He grew up in East Germany and lived through the fall of the Berlin wall, before later moving to Iceland to pursue his career on the waterfront. Maik is educated as a metrologist, but his interests are wide-ranging, from weather forecasting and routing to yacht design and naval architecture to sustainable marine tourism. We caught up with Maik on his own turf in Isafjordur where we stayed at his humble quarters, as he calls them, before joining Aurora Arktika for the ski & sail adventure we did in March. Find Maik online at haf-strand.com. On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marin. And also supported by Adlard Coles, and Weems & Plath.

Hey, we fixed the volume level issue! Here's a quick PSA from Andy on how to get the corrected files in your podcast feed.

#233. Nat Philbrick is the author of ‘In the Heart of the Sea,’ the famous story of the whaling ship Essex, which sunk in the Pacific after being attacked by an angry sperm whale. This true-life story became the inspiration for Herman Melville’s classic ‘Moby Dick’, and at the time, was one of the most well-know sea stories. Of course Nat’s book, which recounted the true story from the perspective of the ship’s cabin boy, went on to become a Hollywood movie of the same name. Nat’s also a sailor, and actually lives on Nantucket, the whaling capital of the world in the 1700’s. I chatted with Nat about his career as a sailor and writer back in February. On the Wind is presented by Forbes Horton Yachts. And also supported by Weems & Plath, and Broadreach.

#232. Paul & Sheryl Shard of course have the popular TV series Distant Shores, and for 25 years have been sailing the world on their boats of the same name and documenting their travels. Mia & I met them again in Toronto in January where they were excitedly awaiting the launch of their latest boat, a new Southerly 48. We sat down with them between seminars to talk about the design process, how Southerly are now owned by Discovery Yachts in the UK, what they wanted in their new design, and about how they’re getting ready and planning for the next phase of their cruising life by sailing trans-Atlantic and getting ready for the Pacific! On the Wind is presented by Forbes Horton Yachts. And also supported by Weems & Plath, and Broadreach.

#9. Andy talks about Isbjorn's big refit and the 70-mile shakedown cruise he and Mia did up the west coast of Sweden. Special thanks to Helly Hansen for inviting us to their event; and to Isbjorn crewmember Karl for composing and performing the music motifs on this week's show. -- Our 2020 Passage Calendar is now live! Go to 59-north.com/2020 to sail with us in the Atlantic.

#231 Tom Cunliffe is one of the great sailor/writers of the past 30 years. His old-school style in both the boats he chooses to sail and the way he tells his story is fascinating.  -- On the Wind is presented by Forbes Horton Yachts. And also supported by Broadreach and Weems & Plath.