SIGHTINGS A traumatic experience can change the course of someone's life forever. Ron Holland's epiphany occurred in the late '70s on an ocean race, maybe the baddest one of all: the 1979 Fastnet. As Holland details in his new book All the Oceans — Designing by the Seat of My Pants, he was at the helm of one of his latest designs, Hugh Coveney's 43-ft One-Tonner Golden Apple of the Sun, when they rounded The Rock that August evening in 40 knots of wind and huge, froth-covered waves. The next day, it was blowing 60 and they were no longer racing. Skidding along under storm jib, they were just trying to keep the boat from being rolled, pitchpoled or shattered to pieces. "In all my years of racing I had never witnessed seas like those," he writes. "All those years of racing" began in his native New Zealand on local dinghies. Holland got his first boat at age 6. By 7, he was starting continued on outside column of next sightings page RIGHT TWO PHOTOS / EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND
of no less than seven years, is quite a step down from second degree murder, which can carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Bennett is due to be sentenced this month. Hellman's family is proceeding with a civil suit to prevent him from getting any of his wife's assets. They are also seeking an arrangement with Bennett's parents in England for visitation rights with their now 2-year-old granddaughter. — jr
mr holland's opus
Clockwise from top right: It was hard to imagine Team New Zealand's ambitious design going from computer-simulated concept to reality; (Inset:) As we've said many times before, Grant Dalton had the impossible task of trying to satisfy monohull purists as well as foiling aficionados, but it appears that Emirates Team New Zealand has done well; In November, the New York Yacht Club's American Magic launched their prototype nicknamed 'The Mule', a modified McConaghy 38 that blasted around Narragansett Bay; American Magic was the second team to launch a smaller 'surrogate' for training.
LOUIS KRUK
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January, 2019 •
Latitude 38
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