Thursday, March 15, 2012

Monthly yacht club meeting.

Wednesday night was my second winter meeting of the Ross Island Yacht Club of Antarctica (RIYCA). The meeting was held in "Hut 10" which is an actual 3 bedroom 2 bath house on McMurdo Sound. In the summertime "distinguished" visitors stay here. These meetings are BYOB while the commodore and the secretary (his wife) bring snacks. The variety of beer brought in was impressive. There was Fat Tire and Dos Equis Amber. Those are two of my favorite yet I was drinking Miller's Milwaukee's Best. Why you ask? That's what the store sells. The other guys had their beer mailed in. There was also a girl there who brews who own beer and bottles it in her room! And here I am drinking something a little above canned water. Oh well. I did purchase a mixed case of fine New Zealand wines from Christchurch and brought that in on the plane. There are some excellent Kiwi reds.

The guest speaker was the Kiwi engineer at Scott Base. He spent a year and a half in 2006 - 2007 as the engineer on the 170 foot sloop "Kokomo" sailing around the world. Yes - a sloop rig that large! The graphite/carbon mast alone is 220 feet and 13 tons. Onto that is added a 70 foot boom. Plus the draft is 16 feet. Quite a yacht! He presented a slide show and video of Kokomo's construction and the first trip to South America and onto Norway and the  Mediterranean.It was a long day as the meeting ended at 10 pm.


Kokomo from New Zealand





Two hours before sunset.

Ross Island Yacht Club of Antarctica club burgee.

The moon is up all day now.

An hour after sunset.


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2 comments:

  1. RoadRiderMarch 15, 2012 at 7:20 PM

    WOW!!! That is one gorgeous looking vessel. How big was the crew or did he do it single handed?Somebody has a ton of money!!! And your photos are spectacular as usual. The moon shots make you feel like you are in another world...which you ARE!!! And the colors of the sunset are just way too cool!!!!

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  2. MikeMarch 16, 2012 at 1:46 PM

    Thanks RoadRider. Kokomo operated with a crew of 12. And it was set up to have 12 guests. At first the owner wanted to race it but quickly found out there were too many luxuries onboard. Plus he always had to have 300 bottles of wine. The Kiwi who gave the presentation said it was difficult finding spots for all the wine. Most of it was wrapped up in the bilge area. The boat cost $33 million. This one was built in 2006. Since then the owner has had 2 more built with the latest coming in at 191 feet. They are all named Kokomo. And yes I do feel I am on another planet!

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