Maltese Falcon

Montenegro June 2009 - by Sean Truscott

Montenegro is one of those places that have eluded me over the years I have spent in the Yachting industry and how often have I heard people talk of it fondly whenever I mention Croatia and Dubrovnik enquiring as to whether I had made it a little further South to Montenegro? Well no more. On the 26th of June 2009, at around 1600, from my seat in the engine control room I heard the engines pull back and the felt the heel of the boat as we made the turn. We had arrived and the scenery that would unfold as we made our way up the Kotor fjord was nothing short of breath-taking. Old defences, presumably no longer occupied, guarded the entrance to the fjord and her towering mountains in the back ground with banks of cloud rolling off her peaks.

After Picking up pilot at Zelenika we continued our journey up the gulf of Kotor to Kotor itself where we cleared in. The entire passage up there was a spectacle to behold. Kotor with her impressive wall extending high up the mountain was an amazing place and has quite a history behind it (look here for a brief history; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotor).

We spent the night anchored off Kotor graced that night by a pleasant, if slightly chilly, evening and a shore line of old buildings pleasingly flood lit followed by a spectacular dawn, for those early enough to enjoy it. The valley was filled with a blanket of fog creating a somewhat eerie feel. We moved The Falcon to a spot a little up the way from Perast on the North Western end of the bay close to the islands of Saint-George and of Our-Lady-of-the-Reef. I am always amazed at how well travelled Saint George must have been for he sure has a lot of places attributed to him!

After some play time here we raised anchor, set sails and made our way out of the bay and onward to Corfu in Greece.

Below you will find some pictures taken that you might share the experience in some measure with us.

sailing into Dubrovnik/Cavat

On the 24th of June the Falcon was sailing towards Dubrovnik/Cavtat (pronounced Savtat) to anchor for the night, but there was a very intense lightning storm situated right above Dubrovnik that made us all very nervous! It was decided that we did not want to go near this storm and so we tacked and sailed away from Dubrovnik and the electrical storm. We saw the very beautiful island known Andrija which has a lovely lighthouse on it and decided to use this island as our mark to sail around before heading back to Dubrovnik. Rounding Andrija and making for Dubrovnik we saw a water spout off in the distance. Water spouts are always a great spectacle from a distance but you do not want to come to close to them as they can be very dangerous! After five to ten minutes the water spout went away and so did the wind, the rain and the lightning and we motored into our anchorage just off of the old town of Dubrovnik.

Again some people sent us some great photos, thanks goes out to Jernej, Marco and Gavin.

Chris Gartner

Captain,

website: www.symaltesefalcon.com

Maltese Falcon in the Adriatic

After 6 weeks of routine maintenance at the Beconcini shipyard in La Spezia, Italy, the Maltese Falcon departed for Venice. The trip around the "boot" of Italy was great if you like to motor, terrible of you like to sail! The only time we were able to set the sails was in the straits of Messina where the Falcon reached a top speed of 16 knots on a deep reach, but this only lasted for 30 minutes before the wind died out. From that point we did not have more than 5 knots of wind and we had to motor the rest of the way to Venice. It took us four days to cover the 1100 nautical miles from La Spezia to Venice since we were able to maintain an average speed of 11.5 knots in very calm conditions. Arriving in Venice was exciting from the start, when entering the channel into Venice the Clipper Stadt Amsterdam was sailing out. We decided to salute her by firing a canon shot across her bow which I am sure they appreciated as she was also designed by the naval architect group of Gerry Dijkstra. and when we entered it was nice to be back! We stayed in Venice for four days on the Riva Sette Matiri which is 500 meters east of the San Marco Piazza, the best berth in Venice for a visiting yacht!

On the morning of the 20th we left Venice for Rovinj, Croatia. The weather had turned for the worst and we were sailing on a southeasterly heading with 30-45 knots of wind out of the northeast putting us hard on the wind for our trip across the Adriatic towards Rovinj. The trip across was very rough and proved to be a tough first day at sea. After a day of strong winds and huge steep seas we were very happy to drop the anchor near the point where the town cathedral sits upon. After we arrived the sun came out and our first evening in Croatia turned out to be very nice.

A special Thanks to Gavin Chappell , one of our guests who gave us the photos of the Falcon in Venice.

Also, to Susan and Chris who emailed us some photos of the Falcon when she was berthed at Riva Sette Matiri in Venice.

Chris Gartner

Captain,

aerial photos

These photos were sent to us by a Spanish Air Force pilot named Javier Banzo flying out of Villanubla Air Base. He was flying his C-212 on a maritime patrol flying at an altitude of a 1000 when he sighted us and took these photos.

Thanks for sending these photos to us Javier!

Captain Chris

Goodbye Atlantic and entering the Med.

Since leaving the Med in November of 2007 the Falcon was coming home. After crossing the North Atlantic, spending time in the Caribbean Sea, the Central Pacific, the South Pacific and the North Pacific we were going to enter back into the Med.

Upon entering the Straits of Gibraltar the gateway to the med we encountered 50 knots of wind out of the east, but we had timed our entry perfectly so that the tide was ebbing and not flooding making our trip through much easier as the wind and tidal flow were going in the same direction. Since this was the case we did not encounter the steep and shorts seas that the straits are notorious for making our life miserable for the last 5 hours before reaching the Med. Once we were back in the Med the winds subsided as usual and we motored to Barcelona where we entered the Gulf d' Lyon picking up a strong Mistral blowing out of the NW giving us one more great sail before reaching Antibes, France!

Nice to be home!

Best,

Chris Gartner

Captain,

FIN WHALE ENCOUNTER

On our passage from Horta to Gibraltar we encountered the four Fin whales shown in the accompanying photos, together with their escort of playful dolphins. The Fin is second in size only to the Blue whale and these were full grown at roughly 80 feet in length. The Fin whale is readily identified by its unique colouring of the jaw: white on the right and black on the left. Known as the "greyhounds of the sea" they were easily cruising at 12 knots, surfacing roughly every thirty seconds to breathe. When chasing prey, they are capable of 25 knots---faster than the Falcon! These photos are from Timmy Attard's video of the hour, or so, we spent in their company. T.P.

MALTESE FALCON ARRIVES IN HORTA, FAIAL IN THE AZORES!

The Maltese Falcon arrived in the famous port of Horta on the 27th of May after sailing from St George’s, Bermuda.   The island of Faial is one of the nine islands in the Azores group which is normally the first port of call for boats when sailing back from the Caribbean or the east coast of the US.  Most of the famous sailors and boats, past and present have been through Horta as it is the first landfall you will come to when doing a west to east trans-Atlantic crossing.  Once in Horta most sailors will stop in the very famous Café Sport for a cocktail after a long crossing and to paint their ships emblem on the breakwater in the port!   The crew of the Maltese Falcon was not any different; they painted the emblem on the wall and managed to have a night out at Peter’s Café Sport where they had a chance to have a few drinks with fellow sailors and other visitors on the island.  Needless to say, it was a great night!

The next day we had a great surprise when Captain Charlie Wroe and his crew sailed the beautiful schooner Mariette of 1915 into Horta, a boat Tom owned for 10 years and I Captained for him for 7 years.   Both boats saluted one another with cannon fire, to say HELLO, it was great to see them again!  Matter of fact, we painted the Maltese Falcon emblem under the Mariette of 1915 emblem that the old crew and I painted on the wall while we were here in 1998!  It was really great to see Charlie, his crew and of course the beautiful Mariette of 1915 in Horta! (Charlie and Milosh, thanks for the yellow fin as well.)

To add to our list of nice surprise the owner of the Schooner Renegade of Ohio painted a very nice painting of the Maltese Falcon while in his row boat and gave it to us as a gift, thank you very much! (please see it in the attached photos below)  

All in all our stay in Horta was a perfect stop over prior to our next leg of this passage.

On the evening of the 28th we dropped our lines and then turned the Falcon around to set all of the sails in the port of Horta tostart our next leg to Antibes, France 1850 nautical miles.  This leg will take us through the Straits of Gibraltar which will take the Maltese Falcon back into the Mediterranean after being gone for nearly a year and half!  I think that everyone is excited to get back home!

Regards
Captain Chris Gartner

Below you can read some of our statistics from our last leg.

STATS FROM OUR TRIP FROM BERMUDA TO THE AZORES

Voyage Stats
total nautical miles: 1948
total days to cross: 7
total hours to cross: 168
total days sailing: 4.46
total hours sailing: 107
total days motoring: 2.54
total hours motoring: 63
total % of sailing: 64
total % of motoring: 36
total days, port to port: 8.5
total hours port to port: 204
total engine hours: 63
total generator hours: 204
total liters of fuel used; engines: 15,335
total liters of fuel used; gens: 5,100
total liters of fuel used on this leg: 20,435

Under Sail
Fastest Speed over the ground in nautical miles:21
best 24 hr run in nautical miles:  327

THE FALCON'S POSITION AT 1200 UTC, APRIL 25TH, 2009

BERMUDA April 20th, 2009

April 20th, 2009; while still in the harbor of St. George's, Bermuda the Maltese Falcon sets all her sails from the Course to the Royals and then sailed through the very narrow cut leaving Bermuda and entering the North Atlantic Ocean beginning her third Transatlantic voyage, a very memorable moment for everyone onboard the Falcon and for everyone watching from the shores of Bermuda!

North Atlantic April 25th, 2009 at 1200 UTC

North; 40 degrees 33.945 minutes

West; 041 degrees 10.201 minutes

C.O.G (course over ground); 085 true

S.O.G (speed over ground); 12 knots

T.W.S (true wind speed); 22 knots

T.W.D (true wind direction); 180-190 degrees

April 25th, 2009; after five days at sea on a starboard tack and four wonderful days of sailing in a strong South Westerly flow we have rounded Point Alpha (suggested ice berg limit) and now we have altered our course to head eastward towards the Azores. Unfortunately this course will take us into the center of the Azores high where we are supposed to run out of wind and our sailing will come to an end and then we will have to start the iron jenny and motor our last day into Horta!

Although the sails will be furled away and the engines will be running, we have some great memories to reflect upon, the beautiful sunsets, the huge Atlantic seas and sailing along at speeds of 21 knots through the North Atlantic are just some of our fantastic memories that we all have from this crossing!

Next stop Horta where we will stop for a day or two and then we will set sail for Gibraltar in hopes to break the 400 nautical mile mark in 24 hours, which means we must average 16.7 knots! Not an easy task, even for the Maltese Falcon!

Fair winds and smooth sailing to all!

Chris Gartner

Captain,

MALTESE FALCON, THREE YEARS SINCE SHE FIRST TOUCHED THE WATER, JULY 15TH, 2006

On April 7th, 2009 at 1820 the Maltese Falcon sailed through the 60,000 nautical mile mark, and who would have ever imagined that she would be sailing through the 60,000 nautical mile mark in just over two and a half years since she left the shipyard on her maiden voyage! It is also her birthday as she first touched the water on April 15th, 2006 when she was lowered into the water for her first time in Tuzla, Turkey. Happy Birthday Maltese Falcon!!!!

April 16th.

Latitude; 27 degrees 16 minutes north

Longitude: 064 degrees, 17 minutes west

After a great time at the ST Barts Bucket and a fantastic two week charter that took us from St Barts, the BVI's, the Grenadines and finally to Barbados the home of Mount Gay Rum our Caribbean season has come to a great finish! We left Barbados on the 14th the same day we dropped off the guests and set sail for Bermuda. About four hours out we had to make an emergency detour to St Martin to pick up some supplies and so we sailed to the west of the Windward Islands motoring up the lee shores of all the islands from Martinique to St Martin. During this time we set and furled our sails a total of 12 times in less than 12 hours motoring when we had to and sailing at every chance we had, proving once more to me and all the boats around us how simple and efficient our Falcon (Dyna) rig is in comparison to other large sailing yachts!!! We made St Martin at 2200 and picked up some supplies and were off once again at 0000 towards Bermuda, the Formula One teams would have been proud of our Maltese Falcon Crew!!! Once we left St Martin we have been sailing along at 14 knots right on course for Bermuda in 20-24 knots of true wind, what a pleasure!!

One last thing I would like to mention. I would like to thank our friends, agents, service companies and all the people that helped us in any way during our last 5 months in the Caribbean!!!!! We look forward to seeing everyone again next year!!!

Captain Chris and the Crew of the Maltese Falcon

14th Annual St Barths Bucket Regatta March 26-29, 2009

Final Results of the st barths bucket regatta 2009

Gustavia, St Barths, FWI (March 31, 2009) The 14th Annual St Barths Bucket was once again blessed with perfect sailing weather which provided some of the most spectacular sailing on the most spectacular yachts in the most spectacular Caribbean sailing neighborhood. With a consistent 15-22 knot trade wind, the fleet was fully powered up and the racing was startlingly close. Once again this Bucket was declared the "best ever".

SY METEOR, 51m Royal Huisman modern classic Schooner won first place overall in the regatta with the 30m modern classic ketch ,WINDCREST, in second place overall and the 54m classic schooner, ADELA, was 3rd place overall. The following are the additional trophies awarded:

Grande Dames des Mers: (Cruising Division)

1. METEOR, 51m Huisman
2. MALTESE FALCON - 88m Perini Navi
3. WINDCREST, 30m Hodgdon Yacht

Gazelle De Mer: (Racing Division)

1. GANESHA - 39m Dubois Performance Sloop
2. P2 - 38m Perini Navi/Briande Performance sloop
3. DESTINATION FOX HARB'R - 41m Dubois Performance Sloop by Alloy Yachts

For the first time ever, the Wolter Huisman Spirit of the Bucket was presented to a Huisman Yacht. METEOR was presented this award, which is earned by the yacht that best exemplifies the Spirit of the Bucket -- having the most fun while displaying the best Corinthian values, sailing their yacht perfectly with a non-professional group of great sailors while sharing their joie de vivre and generosity with the fleet.

Vitter's Shipyard Seamanship Trophy was awarded to VIRAGO. The award is presented to the yacht that demonstrates the best seamanship and sportsmanship in the interest of promoting safety on the race course. All participants in the Bucket acknowledge that superyachts have serious limitations operating safely in close quarters and therefore, the RC has always valued safety well above performance. This award recognizes the yacht that best demonstrates that understanding. It also goes to prove that nice guys don't always finish last!! On several occasions, VIRAGO chose to give way to other yachts in order to decompress potentially dangerous situations. She was run and raced like a proper yacht in all respects while setting a safety example that we would all do well to follow. Well done!!

The All Star Crew Award, presented by Holland Jachtbouw and The Yacht Report went to MALTESE FALCON. The All Star Crew is selected by peer ballot, with each yacht in the Regatta putting forward their vote for the crew that has the best run yacht, with the tightest crew family -- they get along and they get it done while enjoying themselves fully.

Best Performance by an Alloy Yacht -- DESTINATION FOX HARB'R

Perini Navi Cup - Best Performance by a Perini Navi Yacht -- MALTESE FALCON

The Skullduggery Cravat was presented to AXIA. The cravat is a perfectly tied Admiralty Noose, framed, with instructions in elegant calligraphy on how to tie a proper, 13 turn noose. This was originally awarded to the owner of SARIYAH in 2002, so his captain, Timothy Laughridge (Bucket Committee) could be hung at the pleasure of the Fleet. The award was renamed and put forward as an award by the Committee, to reinforce the Bucket premise that we are NOT here to promulgate adult behavior.

The 2009 Cravat was handily earned by the owners and crew of AXIA, who accosted our RC Chairman, Hank Halsted at the welcome party, while dressed in full antique Spartan battle dress, held him at spear point in front of the crowd, while beseeching him to exercise his good judgment in putting forward a more favorable rating handicap! In view of the fact that they had the wisdom to address Hank as "wise one", the request received favorable consideration!! In sum, AXIA brought the house down with their well honed sense of fun.

The Bucket Regattas began in August 1986 in Nantucket, MA, as a casual race to prove bragging rights among the owners & skippers of seven of the largest yachts in town -- an afternoon sail, there and back again, with a galvanized bucket as the trophy. The St Barths Bucket Regatta has grown to become one of the most prestigious sailing events in the world, attracting the largest yachts ever to compete on the race course. A complete recap will be available on our website:

www.bucketregattas.com.

Media contacts:

Hank Halsted, 401 965 3256; hank@bucketregattas.com

Holly Paterson, 401 743 4726; holly@bucketregattas.com