The Disney boat's Official Site www.blackpearlracing.com
Popular Mechanics updates the Disney entry in the Volvo Ocean race as The Black Pearl is launched. The skipper is Paul Cayard from where? Here!
Paul and crew are out on a 2,000 mile warmup sail From this post from Paul's blog:
Tommorrow with the north wind, we will look at our spinnakers and probably see some pretty high boat speeds. Winds are supposed to be around 25 to 30 knots so the boat will be doing about the same.
My first impressions of this boat is that it s much more powerfull that the 60's were. It is a bit daunting actually. It will take some good sail handling techniques to keep the manouvers safe and efficient duing the race. We have been learning a lot these first few days.
Life onboard is reminiscint of the other parts of the Volvo oceann race I have done....damp clothes all the time, difficult sleeping, always hungry, freeze dried food actually tasted pretty good this time thanks to Dry Tech, salty hair, beard growing out... I'll probably look like Santa Claus this time. Curtis got us the really good sleeping bags from North Face so we can burrough in when those moments come along.
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and from the official site
It wasn’t quite what real pirates might have wanted, no buckets of rum, no flaming matches in Paul Cayard’s beard – no beard for that matter – and the glamorous Gabriella wasn’t kidnapped by licentious brigands, but for the naming of the latest boat for the Volvo Ocean Race it was just about perfect.
Prior to the naming, a press conference with Robert Mitchell, MD of Buena Vista International, the powers behind the latest Disney epic from the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and skipper Paul Cayard, was treated to an exclusive preview of the new movie. A secrecy pledge and threats of death and worse from a certain crew member who identified himself as Blood Sucking one-eyed Blewett, prevent us from revealing the content of the film, but suffice to say that Captain Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner will be swashing their buckles as never before. Look out too for a new addition to the fleet, though not Mr Cayard’s good ship.
Mitchell admitted that the idea for the Pirates’ entry in the Volvo Ocean Race was, “either a brilliant idea or marketing suicide,” and went on to talk about the promotional campaign based on the race and their boats that will bring both to a new audience numbered in millions.
Skipper Paul Cayard limited himself to comments more grounded in the campaign and the boat, but when asked why he had come back for another go at this, the toughest of all the races, said, “When you are talking about races, all the best stories come from the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race. You have the rest of your life to go to a five star hotel after all.”
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it's a crazy event
"It's blowing hard. With black snow squalls coming in from behind. And the yacht is on the verge of being out of control. The spray coming over the windward deck is turning to ice particles. The decks are covered in ice. The coils of ropes are full of snow. And it's so bitterly cold."
When deep-ocean sailors gather to down a few pints, the conversation inevitably turns to tales of passages made, races won, and colleagues lost. It was at just such a gathering in 1971 that the discussion turned to thoughts of staging the ultimate race around the world -- a trip of nearly 27,000 miles. It would be a race that pushed the endurance of the crews and boats to the outer limits as they navigated sweltering Doldrums, freezing oceans filled with icebergs, and gales that blew unabated for weeks on end -- a race that would be considered the Mt. Everest of ocean racing.
Such a race, if it could be arranged, would have no equal in sports. No other competition would ask so much of both man and equipment. No other event would put so many competitors at such risk, for so long, so far from help.
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Not all the boats and not all the people make it to the finish much more at the links.
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