Courageous Challenge 2008

Flagship Adventures was pleased to sponsor and compete in the 2008 Courageous Corporate Challenge, which raised funds to support the youth sailing program at the Courageous Sailing Center in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Courageous Sailing Center is a public charity founded in 1987 through a joint effort between the City of Boston and the late South Boston sailing enthusiast Harry McDonough. Its mission is to provide a fun, safe and accessible environment that promotes positive life skills and values through teaching the sport of sailing to children of all economic and ethnic backgrounds.

WEDDING FUN IN BOSTON!

With the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and post-wedding brunch complete, these lovely ladies topped off a wedding weekend in Boston with a fun tour of Boston Harbor and the islands aboard a Flagship RIB. With a high speed run to the islands for the adventurous, coupled with some relaxed exploration of the innner harbor, there was something for everyone.

BEACON HILL CUP

Flagship Adventures recently had the pleasure of organizing the Beacon Hill Cup for the Brewster Lawn Society. This fun regatta was held on Boston Harbor on a beautiful Spring evening. The Beacon Hill Cup was raced in Rhodes 19s and our Flagship RIB provided the Race Committee and photo boat.

Congratulations to all the competitors! Participants in the regatta are welcome to download any of the event images posted here. Simply right click on any of these high-resolution photos and save them to your computer. In addition, we have volumes of additional photos from the event. If you don't see what you are looking for here, please email us with your contact info. and boat number and we will forward you additional images.

Whale Tales

What better way to see the whales of Stellwagen Bank than on a 7.8m RIBCRAFT from Flagship Adventures. Last Sunday, a hot and humid day in Boston, but comfortable and cool on the water, we headed approximately 22 miles offshore to get up close and personal with these wonderful creatures of the deep. After an exciting, high speed trip to

the whales' feeding grounds, we spotted our first whale, breaching, just a few hundred yards ahead. We stopped the RIB, turned off the engine, and quickly learned that the whales in the area were just as curious about us and our RIB as we were of them. For over an hour, a group of eight whales swam around us, up to us, and under us, investigating the peculiar craft that had entered their waters and its passengers. If you want to really get up close and personal with the whales, this is the only way to visit them.

One Skipper, One Boat, 3,000 miles...Flagship Adventures Welcomes the 2008 Artemis Transat to Boston

Flagship Adventures had the pleasure of providing the Race Committee, Media, and VIP vessels for the Boston finish of the IMOCA Open 6o class in the 2008 Artemis Transat over Memorial Day weekend. This offered our captains a front row seat to all the action. Although my memory of the event may be a bit hazy from lack of sleep (almost all the boats finished at night) and too much celebration (thanks to OC Events for that), here is a brief recap.

After 12 days at sea, Loick Peyron came screaming into Boston on Gitana Eighty around 10pm on Friday May 23rd, en route to a record breaking win. Two days earlier, Peyron had diverted course to rescue fellow competitor Vincent Riou, after his Open 60 PBR suffered keel damage in a collision with a shark. As Peyron approached Boston, one of Flagship's RIBs was dispatched to retrieve Riou off Gitana Eighty prior to the finish. On a pitch black night, with a stiff breeze, 3 to 4 foot seas, and Gitana Eighty roaring along at 15 knots just south of the Graves, this proved to be an adrenaline stirring operation.

After Rios safely transferred off Gitana Eighty, Peyron finished his historic adventure, which was memorialized by a flock of international media onboard our fleet of support RIBs. The official event website, http://www.theartemistransat.com/, has a wealth of video and photography capturing the Open 60 finishes, all of which was shot from Flagship RIBs.

With Peyron tied up at Rowes Wharf and the champagne following, second place finisher Armel Le Cleac'h arrived on BritAir shortly before sunrise on Saturday May 24th, followed by third place finisher Yann Elies, who kept the night time finish streak alive, ghosting into Boston in light winds around 11pm Saturday night aboard Generali.

After a respite on Sunday May 25th, which permitted some recovery time for the revealers who celebrated the podium finishers accomplishments, Marc Guillemost, aboard Safran, finally provided a day light finish, arriving at sunrise on Monday May 26th. Despite suffering a broken rib early on in the race, he arrived in high spirits and enjoyed his Mumm champagne celebration, before being taken to a local hospital for examination. Later that day, a local favorite, Samantha Davies, became this first Brit and first woman to finish the 2008 race, when she sailed Roxy past the finish line off Deer Island.

Monday night saw the closest finishers, with Yannick Bestaven aboard Cervin EnR and Arnaud Boissieres aboard Akena Verandas, finishing within a hour and a half of each other, in sixth and seventh place, respectively. Our local captains, as well as race management officials, let out a collective sigh of relief after Bestaven successfully navigated a perilous approach into Boston, choosing to thread the needle between the Roaring Bulls and Green Island.

Finally, on Tuesday May 27th, Dee Caffari, another local favorite and an Honorary Member of the Corinthian Yacht Club, official host club to the event, finished aboard Aviva around 11am, followed a little over 12 hours later by Steve White aboard Spirit of Weymouth.

Now, after a few days rest and some necessary repairs, the entire fleet has departed Boston and is heading back to Europe, many gearing up next for the start of the Vendee Globe later this year. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Boston and we look forward to welcoming the Transat back in 2012.

PUMA Power

Two days after PUMA Ocean Racing christened its ferocious black boat il mostro - Italian for The Monster - in Boston Harbor, Ken Read and his crew headed out to sea to complete its 2000-mile qualifier for entry into the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009. Il Mostro and PUMA Ocean Racing's other boat, Avanti, left Boston, on a bright sunny day around 10am and will be out on the waters of the Atlantic for the next several days. "We're pretty much heading out and just seeing where the wind will take us," said Read. "The qualifier is probably something we could have done later in the summer, but we wanted to start checking off the boxes early on the things we needed to do before we get closer to the race."

PUMA Ocean Racing photographer Sally Collison jumped on-board il mostro for the first hour of the trip to shoot the crew. She then gracefully hoped onto our Flagship support RIB for the fast and fun ride back into Boston Harbor.

We enjoyed the entire experience of working with Ken Read, Kimo Worthington and the PUMA team during their Boston visit. However, the highlight for us was unquestionably escorting both PUMA boats out of Boston Harbor on May 14th.

Il Mostro is truly an extrodinary boat. We look forward to welcoming her and PUMA Ocean Racing back to Boston in May 2009 when the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race comes to town.