The inside passage to Alaska has been paddled by native canoes since time immemorial. It’s in the spirit of tradition, exploration, and the lawless self-reliance of the gold rush that the Race to Alaska was born. R2AK is the first of its kind and North America’s longest human and wind powered race, and currently the largest cash prize for a race of its kind.

It’s like the Iditarod, on a boat, with a chance of drowning, being run down by a freighter, or eaten by a grizzly bear. There are squalls, killer whales, tidal currents that run upwards of 20 miles an hour, and some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.

You, a boat, a starting gun. $10,000 if you finish first, a set of steak knives if you’re second. Cathartic elation if you can simply complete the course. R2AK is a self-supported race with no supply drops and no safety net. Any boat without an engine can enter. Last year 37 teams were accepted and 21 finished. Graham Shaw was 1 of the 21 and he shares his story.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

An episode with the Ocean Gem crew, who recount their epic 1,000nm trip from Southport to Pittwater via Middleton Reef, Elizabeth Reef, Lord Howe Island and Balls Pyramid. These unique reefs and islands are 300nm off Australia's Coast and are steeped in a history of untouched reefs, shipwrecks, incredible sea and bird life and the chance to stand knee deep in water, in the southern most coral reef in the world, surrounded by a 5,000m deep ocean in every direction. 

This 9-day ocean passage initially took us 300nm upwind to Middleton Reef, a stopover at Elizabeth Reef and 2 days ashore at Lord Howe Island before sailing around the 'jurassic like' Balls Pyramid, en-route to Pittwater, NSW on a 10-25 knot, 3-day, downwind sleigh ride, in preparation for the Pittwater to Southport race in January. 

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

A fascinating interview with New Zealand scientist and sailor; Josh Scarrow, who has spent time on the ice in Antartica on three different occasions, taking him to 85 degrees south, 2,800 metres high and temperatures below -20 degrees C. Josh is with the Antarctica NZ organisation and shares his sailing experience from Hobart to Antarctica on the 95m icebreaker Aurora Australis and his flying adventures both to and across Antartica.

Josh is also a sailor at heart and his Pacific adventures have taken him from Auckland to Port Vila on a 60 foot catamaran. Josh shares his perspective on the melting ice caps and what it would take to raise the sea levels as much as 60 metres globally. 

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

Sytske du Crocq is a Netherlands based sailing entrepreneur who has turned her passion for racing in exotic destinations, into a global business. I met Sytske by chance at Hamilton Island in Australia when she was here to compete in the Sydney to Gold Coast Race and unearthed a great story, about what you can create if you have passion and determination. Sail Race Crew offer both grand prix yacht racing and cruising adventures on yachts as extreme as TP52's and Volvo 70's and as classy and Swan 65's. With destinations all over the world and access to 4,900 yachts, they create 'bucket list' experiences for sailors of all ages.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

Mark Gallick joins me onboard Ocean Gem for a 600nm ocean passage from Hamilton Island to Southport in Queensland. Its a challenging passage that takes in islands, reefs, whales, commercial and military traffic and a number of navigational challenges including the shallow 70nm passage down the western side of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.

Mark shares the personal goals he wanted to achieve on our voyage south and his future plans for acquisition of a Seawind catamaran to go cruising with his family. We dive into Mark's 22 year career with the US Coast Guard including some colourful stories and being stationed on the US mainland, Hawaii and the Bahamas.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

Guest host Joe Richardson interviews Jason Ker, founder of Ker Yacht Design onboard his very own ‘Ker designed’ 19.2m (63 feet) racer/cruiser yacht “Dark Horse of England”. Jason Ker launched Ker Yacht Design than 20 years ago and he talks about how he got started in yacht design, his ocean racing experiences with both the Fastnet and Sydney Hobart Races under his belt. He lives by the design philosophy that “you are only as good as your last boat”.

With success all over the world, it’s a fascinating and technical insight into the mind of one of the world’s leading yacht designers with proven pedigree ranging from monohulls to cats, cruisers to grand prix ocean racers and he shares the highs and lows of the GFC and financial risks of designing for the Americas Cup. Jason talks about yacht design 10 years from now and what the future might look like.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

Guest host Paul Trammell is back and interviews David Young who lives in Jacksonville Florida on his Endeavour 35 yacht, built in 1984. He shares his experience on Pacific voyaging, using parachute anchors and drogues, 4 decades of ocean sailing; starting with pilot charts, radio direction finders and sextants and talks about evolution to GPS, the risks of GPS navigating and the explosive growth in confident technology-equipped cruisers. 

David met the famous sailor ‘Bernard Moitessier’ in the early eighties at a boat yard in Northern California, when was building his new steel yacht ‘Joshua’. David shares some of Bernard’s advice about handling storms and various sea states, along with staying well off the coast in onshore gales. 

David yacht was ship wrecked off the northern coast of San Francisco in a bad gale after rolling through 360 degrees and losing his mast. Bernard Moitessier new yacht ‘Joshua’ was also beached and wrecked in a subsequent Cabo San Lucas storm with 30-40 other yachts a few years later.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

David Hows set out from Hobart in Tasmania and sailed 1,300nm solo across the notorious Tasman Sea to New Plymouth in New Zealand in preparation for the 4-yearly 1,400nm Solo Tasman Yacht Race back to Mooloolaba on Australia's Sunshine Coast. David talks about race stratgey, sleep patterns, nutrition and sail performance management. He also shares his challenges and set backs which include; battery charging problems, bilge pump failure, loss of autopilot, tainted drinking water, dysentery, dropping a spinnaker into the sea, when a hoist went wrong and wrapping his spinnaker around his forestay for the 4 days of the race. He finished 3rd on line honours and 1st on IRC.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

Paul Trammel is one of the most down-to-earth, consummate sailors you will meet. With a passion for surfing, sailing and free-diving, the ocean is a big part of Paul's life. From cruising the Bahamas, to free diving into under water caves in Florida, to sleeping with alligators in the Okefenokee Swamp and surfing big waves in Puerto Rico.

Paul's tales of his free spirited adventures and his outlook on life is simply inspiring. Paul lives by the mantra: "Fear is here for us to face and adventure waits on the other side". Paul shares his adventures in his 1972 Dufour Arpege, named Sobrius and they were colourful from the get go.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

In this episode, we’ll hear from guest host Caroline Ballard from a fellow podcast called HumaNature, which tells stories where humans and our habitat meet. After passing Sable Island (a small island situated 190 nm southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia) on their first Atlantic crossing, this is a short story of a family who traded life on land for a 25,000nm sea adventure.

They share the tale of encountering strange noises in the middle of the night and how they were terrified at first, but eventually discovered the source, which turned into a unique, once-in-a-lifetime wildlife experience.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

Guest host Paul Trammell talks with Jim den Hartog and Helen den Dekker on board Gaia, a steel Colvin Gazelle designed yacht, that they spent a decade building from plans. Paul interviewed Jim and Helen at Conception Island in the Bahamas and they share tales of their lessons from sailing all over the world, including 22 years at sea and never experiencing a storm, along with sailing the intra-coastal waterway from Maine to Florida in the USA. Jim and Helen have circumnavigated the globe and draw on their many adventures in this episode.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

We catch up with Lena Padukova in Gothenburg, Sweden for finish of the penultimate leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. Lena is an experienced ocean sailor, mountaineer and leader of multiple ocean adventures and land expeditions. Lena shares stories from her years of sailing all over the planet from the Pacific to the Arctic and her lessons learned from leading teams and crews to high latitudes and high altitude destinations. In this candid chat we discuss leadership styles and the risks that come with taking people on adventures in extreme conditions. 

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

David Hows, producer of the Ocean Sailing Podcast; shares his thoughts on his first 7 years of keel boat cruising, racing and ocean passages in his Beneteau 445 'Ocean Gem'. After 25,000nm and 400+ races, with the most recent adventure being a double solo Tasman Sea crossing of 2,800nm in total and lots of 'thinking time" David shares his plans to turn his passion for sailing into something bigger than a part-time pastime.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

An absolutely fascinating chat with Sonny Natanielu, about the revival of traditional Polynesian voyaging methods using waka (canoes) that go back several hundred years. It was a tremendous insight into the importance of the ocean and significance of waka (canoes). Maori has its roots in times past, when voyaging waka forged the links between the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki and New Zealand and waka also linked together all of the peoples of Polynesia. The skills these pacific ancestors required to build and navigate these vessels across the Pacific using only natural materials were beyond imagination.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

In this episode I spent a session with Rod West, owner/skipper of Another Painkiller (a Beneteau First 44.7) and Philip Bell, owner/skipper of She (an Olsen 40) and we reflected on our preparation and race experience and did a post mortem of our entries in the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, our race results and the things we all did differently.

2017 was the first year that the Southport Yacht Club had seen 3 of its members enter this iconic ocean race and the conditions were amongst the best in the 73 year history, with the line honours record tumbling by several hours for the second year in a row.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

Andy Lamont interviews Mike Sabin about his lifetime of adventures on the water. Mikes a boat builder, sail maker, has been a coastal patrol pilot and has sailed every part of the Australian coastline. At age 40 Mike sold everything and headed off in his new yacht 'Sly Fox' for 5 years of sailing and adventure all over the world, including sailing to Europe, where he removed his mast and spent 2 months cruising the French canals. Mike also shares tips on how to look after your sails and maximise their life expectancy.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.

I caught up with my favourite maritime author - Rob Mundle in late 2017, on 'all things Jimmy Spithill' and his recent project writing Jimmy's biography 'Chasing the Cup - My Americas Cup Journey'.

After preparing my Beneteau yacht 'Ocean Gem' for our first ever Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, I decided to interview our crew 4 weeks after we completed the race and gather their thoughts on the project and their experience. It started in September 2017 when we assembled a crew of 10 and a prepared a long project list that grew to more than 200 items. In early December we departed the Gold Coast in Queensland for Sydney via Lord Howe Island (300nm off Australia's east coast). The 800nm delivery journey qualified our crew and yacht for the 630nm race of a lifetime.

This is a great episode for those thinking of pushing their local club racing and blue water sailing to the next level. It demonstrates that with good preparation, anything is possible.

Visit Ocean Sailing Podcast for offshore sailing opportunities and podcast extras and follow us on Facebook.