Tag Archives: Atlantic Ocean

The Many Factors Of Orange Sails for Safety at Sea

How well will you be spotted at sea by other ships, in rough and nasty weather? Our friends at Rolly Tasker asked three highly experienced ocean adventurers to give a unique insight into their thoughts on this.

How well will you be spotted at sea by other ships, in rough and nasty weather? As Rolly Tasker Sails are making sails for some of the world’s most ardent ocean sailors, this was a natural question to ask. Three highly experienced ocean adventurers give a unique insight into their thoughts on orange sails. The one thing they have in common? Serious ocean sailing and sails by Rolly Tasker Sails!

André Freibote, Skipper

André Freibote: North Sea and Atlantic

André Freibote from Germany is sailing a Beneteau Oceanis 473 out of Bremerhaven on professional offshore sail training trips across the North Sea and out into the North Atlantic Ocean – in fact, he very nearly met up with Eric Aanderaa in Iceland in the 2024 summer! See his website “Segelpartner Nordsee” for more information on his cruising schedule and how you can join (in German language).

storm jib in bright orange color

Erik Aanderaa youtube sailor

Eric Aanderaa: North Atlantic Ocean

Eric of course also offered his thoughts and needs no further introduction other than himself being Mr. No Bullshit Just Sailing. The crazy guy from Norway who sails from Haugesund out into the northern ocean no matter the weather or the season, on his Contessa 35, becoming a YouTube sailing star in the process.

1 Orange Sails for Safety at Sea

pat lawless, circumnavigator

Pat Lawless: on Golden Globe Race

The vastly experienced professional seaman and sailor Pat Lawless from Ireland, who is currently preparing his Saltram Saga 36 to compete, for the second time, in the non-stop, single-handed around-the-world retro “Golden Globe” race (GGR) that will start in 2026. Needless to say, he will again put his trust into Rolly Tasker Sails. Find out more about Pat on his website.

2 Orange Sails for Safety at Sea

So, are sails in bright orange a good idea to increase visibility of your boat? We know that many storm sails are made in orange for this reason, but what about your standard sails?

“Orange colours stand out from sea and sky far away. It will definitely make it easier for other traffic to spot you. It will also make it much easier to find you in a distress situation”, says Eric. “In all cases orange is the most visible colour of them all, I believe.” Pat is yet looking at colour choices for his new sails for the GGR: “I have been thinking about safety orange sails for a while. The Notice of Race for the Golden Globe Race says all the sails have to be the same colour with safety yellow or orange at the top of the mainsail. That means that all the sails can be safety orange or yellow. I know from using an orange storm jib and having a bright orange spray dodger that it’s easy on the eyes. Probably better than White. Am I brave enough to go all orange sails?” Finally, André is quite clear on the subject: “The situation will arise when you just can’t be orange enough at sea!”

Pat Lawless' boat with orange tip mainsail

And this despite AIS and radar?

“AIS is actually clear in the information, giving name, call sign, course, speed and so on. However, if a sailing yacht is detected by radar in poor visibility, the lookout on a commercial vessel should be diligent. Here on the North Sea, we have already received radio messages along the lines of: “Fantastic, how well we can see you, sailing yacht Polaris!” It is imperative, so it seems, to be seen by eye and not only rely on radar or AIS, although all commercial ships and some fishing vessels receive and send AIS signals and rely mostly on AIS and radar for their lookout. However, visual contact also is extremely important.

Pat confirms this: “In the Golden Globe Race we don’t have a plotter or other modern equipment. We do have an AIS transmitter, and active radar reflector. Any ships I spoke to while at sea all said that they saw me a long way off, no problem.”

Would you have the entire sail in orange or just a patch or the top part?

Eric says: “I like to have at least the top part orange, as its the highest point on the boat, letting the sails easily be spotted in between big wavetops.”

André: “The upper area of the mainsail and all the sails on the cutter stay are completely orange. Since the cutter stay is on a furling system, the UV protection of the sails is also in orange to ensure better visibility even when furled.”

What about other parts of the boat?

Eric: “I have painted the sides of the rooftop in orange, changed my blue sprayhood to orange and changed the cutter sail-bag to orange. This way the boat will be much more visible.”

Pat also plans to brighten up his boat in a similar way: “In storms the hull is so important. I will put an orange stripe over the white about 150mm just under the gunnel and the same on the top of the cabin sides. This should stand out with the white underneath it. I had about 3sq meters of safety orange on the deck in the GGR 2022. This will be freshened up when I apply the stripes. Apart from that, the Saltram Saga 36 is a good dry boat. I don’t use dodgers on the lifelines. In the Southern Ocean they are wind pollution in the wrong place and sometimes block areas of sight. My spray dodger will be safety orange. But in storms, it will be folded down.”

André, on the other hand, seems happy for now with his orange sails: “At the moment I am not planning to change any other parts on board to orange. However, I could see my lazy bag for the mainsail in orange.”

bright orange storm jib

Will orange sails, sprayhoods or dodgers not be too bright on the eyes in fair weather and sunshine?

Eric has taken this potential problem into account: “The sails in orange are not quite as intense as the bright signal colour painted on deck. Still, the sails will be visible from far away.” André believes that this will not be an issue at all: “Never too bright!”

sailing with bright orange storm jib and reefed mainsail

How Orange Will You Be?

How orange would you dress up your boat for ocean sailing or offshore passages? Pat is still in the decision-making process: “My quandary is mainly about the colour of the sails. I need to make a decision early in 2025. While sailing in the longest, loneliest, sporting event in the world, I need to be seen as easy as possible. The sails are the biggest area of the boat most of the time.” But will he really have all sails completely in orange? At Rolly Tasker Sails, we offer suitable sail-cloth in “Storm Orange”. However, if you want to go for specific types of sail fabric, the solution will probably come down to having orange sail tops or patches.

The View From the Bridge

It’s always good to see also the other perspective, so we spoke to a commercial Captain, Master Mariner Reemt Remmers, about visibility of yachts at sea. He fully confirms the fact that orange sails are a true safety factor for yachts at sea, especially in rough weather with limited visibility. Which is when, according to him, there will often be an extra lookout on the bridge.

orange tip at the main and bright orange jib

Orange, AIS and Radar

Orange, incidentally, is also the signal colour for ship’s lifeboats. Obviously not without reason. And if a ship’s officer from the bridge spots an orange object somewhere out there, this officer will then instantly be on full alert. AIS, on the other hand, is just as important. There will be times in ship’s routine when only one officer will be on the bridge who will rely on AIS and radar. Obviously, also at night, these technologies are essential to remain visible.

Between these two, Reemt Remmers also confirms that yachts are often easier to spot and identify on AIS rather than by radar. In heavy seas especially, the radar signal response from a yacht can be quite weak and might not be noticed by the watch-keeping officer. An AIS signal, on the other hand, will be clearly seen and also contains all essential information about the type of boat and her movements in a clear and precise way. For the Silo, Sven Cornelius.

Once Vibrant Expanse Of Sea Now Covered With Trash

My name is Ivan Macfadyen and I am a seasoned sailor with many voyages in the World’s oceans. My last Pacific crossing has raised an ominous alarm-  I’m used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3,000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen. This once vibrant expanse of sea was hauntingly quiet, and covered with trash.

Ivan Macfadyen
Ivan Macfadyen

Experts are calling it the silent collapse.

Although very few of us see it, we are causing it — overfishing, climate change, acidification, and pollution are devastating our oceans and wiping out entire species. It’s not just the annihilation of millennia of wonder and beauty, it impacts our climate and all life on Earth.

But we have a fleeting window still to act and this could be the year to turn the tide — the UN is considering an initiative to stop dumping and pillaging in the high seas, and announced back in 2015 that they will help create the largest single marine reserve ever in one of the most pristine areas on earth!

Lack of political will is the only real obstacle to getting more of these agreements moving.

Ocean Pollution Beach Example

My apocalyptic sailing voyage is a clarion call to action. Let’s get started on making everyone aware of the situation right away.

Right now, fishing boats are scraping the ocean floor clean, and over 80% of sea pollution is coming from fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics pouring off shore land. The reports are dire: in less than 40 years, our oceans could be completely fished-out.

In 100 years, all coral reefs in all the oceans might be dead.

Pollutants Entering Earths Oceans

But just as wilderness parks work to rehabilitate life on land, the same happens in the ocean. If our governments create big enough marine reserves and enforce protection laws, the ocean can regenerate.

Famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau said: “people protect what they love.” Let’s inspire millions more people to fall in the love with the ocean and defend its treasures.

We are in a precarious moment when there are still fewer marine mammal extinctions than there are on land, and when ocean ecosystems have shrunk less than those on land. We have not yet passed the tipping point for our oceans, but we will if we don’t act soon and at a scale that rivals the enormity of the problem. There is no other community in the world that can do that like we can. For The Silo, Ivan Macfadyen.

 

Real Estate Bubble? Celebrities Forced To Reduce Asking Price On Homes By Millions

Both Celine Dion and Puff Daddy have vastly reduced the prices on their mansion homes, featured this week at TopTenRealEstateDeals.com.

“Celine Drops Price on Florida Water Park Home” Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer Celine Dion and her manager husband, René Angélil, built their dream Florida home on Jupiter Island in 2010. The location offered the privacy the hard working couple wanted to relax with their children and friends and they designed an estate around a series of water features and outdoor sports activities that, along with pristine beachfront, took full advantage of the Florida sunshine and Atlantic Ocean breezes. But even for celebrities who seem to have achieved it all, life can throw curve balls.

For Sale -Now Reduced! Celine Dion's Florida home.
For Sale -Now Reduced! Celine Dion’s Florida home.

Though René had successfully fully recovered from a bout of throat cancer in 1999, it reoccurred in 2013 when he had surgery for another malignant throat tumor. Dion announced in 2014 that she would suspend her performances indefinitely due to her husband’s worsening health. In August of 2015, she resumed her Las Vegas residency at Caesar’s Palace, but lost René to cancer in January 2016 and her brother only two days later. The couple and their three children had made the Las Vegas bedroom community of Henderson their home while Dion was performing at Caesar’s Palace. She returned to the stage on February 23rd for the first time since René’s death and paid tribute to his memory and their life together in her first performance.

Their Bahamian-inspired Florida oceanfront estate was first put up for sale in 2013, the year that René was re-diagnosed, for $72.5 million. Over a period of time with no buyer interest, the price was cut to $62.5 million and recently reduced to $45.5 million.

Among many five-star features, the 5.5-acre beachfront property’s centerpiece is the 500,000 gallon water park highlighted by a slow-current lazy river connecting two pools, bridges and a twisting water slide. There is also another pool located beachside. The two-story, 10,000-square-foot main residence has five bedrooms with a second-level wraparound terrace with ocean views and multiple main level terraces. The luxurious master suite walk-in closet has automated carousels for quick access to shoes and clothing at the touch of a finger. The open-plan main level is light and airy in keeping with the subtropical climate. There are also two separate four-bedroom guest houses, tennis house, simulated golf range, pool house and beach house. Celine’s Jupiter neighbors include Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, and Palm Beach is just a few miles down the road.

Now settled in Nevada at least until the end of her Caesar’s Palace residency in 2019, Celine has stepped up her effort to sell her resort estate by engaging a new brokerage and lowering the asking price. Fenton Lang Bruner & Associates in Jupiter Island holds the listing.

“Puff Daddy’s New Jersey Mansion” Whether called Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, or his real name Sean Combs, the Grammy-winning rapper, actor and businessman is frequently in the news, whether for his recordings, his charity or his clothing line. Most recently, he has signed on as Pharrell Williams’ team adviser for season ten of “The Voice.” Listed as number one by “Forbes” as the wealthiest hip hop artist of 2015 with an estimated net worth of $735 million, Sean has reduced the price on his New Jersey mansion  several times, now at $7.89 million.

For Sale- Now Reduced!- Puff Daddy's NJ home.
For Sale- Now Reduced!- Puff Daddy’s NJ home.

Combs purchased his elaborate 3.25 acre estate in Alpine in 2004 for $6 million. Built in 1999, the home has all the glamour and amenities expected in the home of one of America’s most popular celebrities. The 8,000-square-foot home has six bedrooms, six baths, foyer with double staircase and expansive formal rooms with walls of glass filling the interior with light. The basement is the activity heart of the home with its own kitchen, wet bar, home theater, an aquarium and another bedroom with full bath. There is also an indoor basketball/racquetball court and a fully equipped gym with full bath. Outside is a swimming pool with waterfall, putting green, a lighted tennis court and a six-car attached garage. Originally, Sean put the property on the market in 2011 at $13.5 million. Without a buyer, he pulled it from the market and relisted it again in 2015 at $8.5 million. Again with no buyer, he has once again dropped the price to $7.89 million. The listing agency is Sotheby’s International in Alpine, New Jersey. For the Silo, Terry Walsh.

Visit TopTenRealEstateDeals.com for more famous, spectacular and celebrity homes and real estate news.