You’ll like the front zip, which makes it easy to don and remove the vest, especially when trying to make quick layering changes or adjustments between races. And Mustang went with a large zipper, one you can easily operate, even while wearing sailing gloves.  

Another perk is that the zipper is offset, which allows the front pocket to be larger than if it was centered.  There’s plenty of room for anything you might want to carry while dinghy sailing: SIs, energy bar, etc. The only niggle, and it’s a small one, is that because the pocket is offset, it’s a little easier for right-handers to access than southpaws.  Certainly not a deal-breaker though.  Inside the pocket is a small loop to attach a lanyard and whistle. Nice detail.  

There are two other less obvious pockets.  First is one on the outside of the vest, just to the right of the zipper. It’s the perfect size for a sailing knife or something similar. It has a Velcro closure to keep anything there in place, and like the main pocket, there’s an inside rope loop as an attachment point. Just inside the left-hand zipper is another pocket, this one large enough to hold a cellphone. Even though it’s inside the vest, it would be reassuring to have a velcro closure on this one as well.  

The vest has a polyester outer shell and mesh lining to help keep you cool when the weather’s not. Side panels (beneath each arm) are stretch mesh and feature a crossed-webbing system, which we found really holds the vest in place, and there are drain holes at the bottom of each side panel. We did find the Podium 50 run a bit on the small side, so keep that in mind when selecting a size. All in all, it’s a great buoyancy aid option. Sizes J-XL. $124.99

Editor’s note: Mustang Survival states: This buoyancy aid is ISO-approved and meets the ISO12402-5 international standards. However, when used in North America, boaters must also have a properly fitting TC approved (Canada), a USCG approved (USA), or a Harmonized approved (both Canada and USA) PFD for each person onboard.

The post Comfort Rules with Mustang’s Minimalist Buoyancy Aid appeared first on Sailing World.

A few summers back, Lynne Shore, an Olympic gold medalist in the 470 at the 1988 games, was racing her Laser in breezy conditions off Hyannis, Massachusetts. She bore off around the weather mark and started surfing downwind. Close ahead, a fellow competitor who was sailing upwind abruptly tacked right in front of her. Fully planing, with no time or space to avoid a collision, Shore could do little but minimize the impact as best she could. “I knew that if I didn’t, my boat would probably have killed [my competitor],” she says. She ended up taking the brunt of the impact when the boats collided, when she was first struck on the left side of her head by her own boom and then on the right side by the other boat’s boom. Dazed by the impact, she eventually righted her boat and, with the assistance of safety boats, made it to the beach, where an ambulance was waiting. She was diagnosed with a massive subdermal hematoma and a severe concussion. “I didn’t go to work for over a week,” she says. It took almost a year to recover from the accident. “Now, I always wear a helmet when the wind is over 12 to 15 [knots].”

While Shore’s story might present an extreme case of a dinghy-related head injury, most who wear helmets while skiing or biking wear them not because they have suffered a head injury, but because they have heard about someone else who has. Plus, most dinghy sailors have the firsthand experience of being tapped in the head by the boom at least a couple of times. As Shore’s situation demonstrates, it’s not always from your own boat. Anywhere with close-quarters racing — starting lines, mark roundings, etc. — you’re just as vulnerable to a hit from another boat’s boom as you are from your own. It’s not always while racing, either. It’s between races, or even in the dinghy park — any time your focus is elsewhere. But the situation is unimportant. As Shore says: “Every time you hit your head, you’re doing damage. It’s just a matter of how much.”

Three years ago, MIT enacted a mandatory helmet policy at its sailing center. “We had some very serious head injuries received while sailing, where students had to withdraw from school,” says Fran Charles, sailing master at MIT. The result? “We have seen all of our head injuries from sailing go away completely.”

Charles does point out that the helmet requirement was one of several measures to make sailing safer, including switching to lighter-weight booms and raising the mast height 4 inches, which got the boom up higher. “We had very little pushback from our sailors because they saw their friends who did get hurt prior to enacting this, and hurt really badly, and they saw their friends dealing with really serious injuries that were very hard to recover from without actually leaving MIT for a semester or two,” says Charles. “The sailors now say they feel naked if they get into a boat without their helmet.” Bowdoin College also requires helmets, and at the high school level, only a few schools require them, says Tim Hogan, president of the Interscholastic Sailing Association.

Could a helmet actually prevent a concussion if the wearer were hit by the boom? The jury is still out on that. Steve Murray, who owns Murray’s Sports, a major distributor of several brands of helmets specifically designed for sailors, as well as helmets for other watersports, is convinced they can at least reduce the possibility. With a helmet, says Murray, “it’s much more likely to be a glancing blow for two reasons. First, the neck is not going to hold the helmet in position. Second, because the helmet is round, it’s going to do its best not to block a strike but to parry it. It’s going to move out of the way, so a hard blow becomes a glancing blow.”

Helmets are now being specifically marketed for sailing, and we decided to take a look at a sampling. Murray says there are no U.S. standards for watersports helmets. All of the ones we looked at, however, were EN 1385 certified, meaning they passed European standards. European standards include a clear field of vision, covering necessary parts of the head, shock-absorption capacity, retention system (chin-strap webbing) performance, buoyancy and durability.

The helmets featured one of two types of padding: polystyrene foam, such as what you’ll find in most cycling, skateboarding and skiing helmets, and closed-cell foam. The polystyrene helmets were thicker, creating a larger profile. They were also much more rigid. With the exception of the Magic Marine Impact Pro, the closed-cell foam helmets were thinner and much more flexible. The polystyrene helmets also tended to be a bit heavier, although by an amount small enough to make the difference almost negligible.

What are some considerations when choosing a helmet? The biggest is adjustability for fit. No matter how well the helmet is built, if it doesn’t fit well, it’s game over. Not only will it be uncomfortable, but you’ll compromise the helmet’s protective capability. In fact, it can even become dangerous. A test aboard a Moth involved a high-speed ejection, and because of a poor fit, the helmet ended up off the back of the tester’s head, with the strap around the tester’s neck.

Then there’s the choice of padding—polystyrene or closed cell. According to Murray, a polystyrene padded helmet will take a bigger impact, but like a biking helmet, it’s a “one-hit” helmet—after a significant strike, it should be replaced. On the plus side, they usually include adjustable headbands, which makes them easy to fit. They’re great for multiple users. Closed-cell foam helmets, on the other hand, can be used over and over, and because the foam is thinner than polystyrene, the helmet is usually closer fitting and less likely to snag on rigging, etc. They do require some custom fitting.

Other considerations are a matter personal preference and situation. Sail for long periods of time? Go for a lighter weight helmet. Low boom? A lower-profile helmet will likely result in fewer “head taps.” And if sun glare is an issue, look for a helmet with a visor, or bring along a regular visor to wear inside the helmet when trying one out.

The Gear:

Forward Pro Wip The Pro Wip is a top-of-the-line helmet from Forward Sailing. The Dial-a-Fit system allows you to create a snug fit by turning a small ratcheting knob at the back of the helmet, identical to what you’ll find on many ski helmets. This model includes a second set of slightly thicker top and side pads, although neither the dealer nor we could figure out how to switch out the side pads. Still, with the adjustment knob, we were able to get a good fit, and after a short time sailing, we forgot we were even wearing the helmet.

Padding: polystyrene. 300 grams. Available in black/red, white/carbon or gray/cyan. $119.99 www.forward-wip.com

Forward Wipper

We tested a model with the optional earpieces and found it was a little tougher to hear — no surprise there. That’s OK if you’re by yourself, but if you’re trying to communicate with a crew, it might be an issue. There is no option of adding padding for a better fit, but a Velcro band across the back provides an inexpensive way to duplicate the Dial-a-Fit system found on the Pro Wip model. The built-in visor helps somewhat with sun glare, but it’s small enough that it doesn’t make a major difference.

Padding: closed-cell foam. 390 grams. Available in white, black, blue or yellow/black, with integrated earpiece. $64.95 www.forward-wip.com

Forward Wipper Kid’s Sailing Helmet

This is the little brother to the Forward Pro Wip, with many of the same features, including the thicker liner, narrow visor and Dial-a-Fit system. The Forward Wipper kid’s helmet is made for a small head, for kids 10 years of age or younger.

Padding: closed-cell foam. 390 grams. Available in orange or white/red. $49.95 www.forward-wip.com

Gath Surf Convertible

This Australian-made helmet was a bit like a second skin. It fit more closely than any other helmet right out of the box, with the exception of those equipped with Dial-a-Fit. It also had the lowest overall profile and the lightest weight of any of the helmets we looked at. The product includes three reusable, self-adhering fit strips, about an inch in width, that allow you to customize the fit around the circumference of your head. Small detail: We liked the buckle placement, not under the chin but well off to one side, which prevented chin chafe — nice touch. The helmet comes with optional earpieces and a visor.

Padding: closed-cell foam. 272 grams. Available in white, matte black, carbon finish, Kryptic, iridescent blue, red, platinum silver, orange or yellow. $149
Buy It Now

Magic Marine Impact Pro

This model comes from Predator Designs, a company that designs helmets for everything from motorcycles and skateboards to watersports, so it’s no surprise that the Impact Pro is similar to a ski or skateboarding helmet. With almost double the thickness of foam padding found in other helmets, the Impact Pro looks like it could take a wallop. The trade-off is that this is also the heaviest helmet of the group. The sun bill is just long enough to reduce glare between the helmet and the top of your sunglasses, yet easily allows looking up without tilting your head back, as you must with a baseball cap. There are two thickness options for the skull pads to customize the fit, and a mechanical rear-adjuster knob, similar to Forward’s Dial-a-Fit.

Padding: closed-cell foam. 440 grams. Available in navy only. $80.
Buy It Now

Zhik H1

A thin-profile helmet, the H1 has a half-inch foam lining and two thickness options for skull pads to optimize fit. Getting the right combination of foam interior strips to allow the helmet to fit snugly without being too tight took a bit of experimenting. We ended up with a combination of thin and thick pads in different places. Molded internal channels allow for good airflow, keeping your head cool even on hot days. A foam pad fits over the chin strap to prevent chafing, but because of the central buckle location, the strap fit only off to one side rather than directly below the chin, where it would do the most good. The H1 runs a bit large — if you normally wear a large, a medium will likely be your best bet.

Padding: closed-cell foam. 378 grams. Available in black only. $119.
Buy It Now

Our favorites? We kept coming back to the Zhik H1, but preferred to wear it with an old Sailing World visor to cut down on glare between the top of our sunglasses and the helmet. The Gath Surf Convertible was also at the top of our list—nice fit with a low profile, although we’d forego the ear pieces, as the wind flow passing between those and our ears increased the sound level.

The best way to find the right helmet for you is to try some on. And even then, it’s likely the helmet will need to be customized — a little more padding here, a little less there. We found that a number of helmets fit well in one direction, such as front to back, but were too loose side to side. And while we liked the idea of a low-profile helmet, the difference between those and the high-profile helmets is small enough that it takes only a little sailing to get used to the extra thickness.

The post Concussion-Free Sailing appeared first on Sailing World.

Celebrate the lives that 406 technology has saved and join the 406Day photo share contest. Show us where you take your 406MHz beacon. Tweet your photos along with a caption to @acrartex and @safeboatcouncil using hashtag #406Day, or email your entry to 406Link@acrartex.com.
 
Two winners will be chosen and awarded ACR safety gear! The winning posts will be selected based on scenery and creativity. Photos are due no later than April 6, 2015.

In addition to sharing where you take your 406MHz beacon we ask that you also recognize 406MHz Beacon Awareness Day by doing the following:

• Testing your beacon
• Checking your beacon’s battery and expiration date
• Updating your beacon registration with NOAA www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov

The post Saved by the Beacon appeared first on Sailing World.

The key differences between the proposed US Safety Equipment Requirements (USSER) and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) OSRs are as follows:

1. The requirements are easier for yacht owners and pre-race inspectors to understand.

2. The requirements are self-contained and do not refer to external documents.

3. The number of categories has been reduced from seven to three: Near Shore, Coastal, and Ocean. Race organizations can then add or delete gear requirements based on the nature of their individual races.

4. The requirements are more specific about certain pieces of gear that lacked definition in the OSRs.

5. The OSRs contained both recommendations and requirements which proved confusing to users, and which increased the size of the document. The recommendations have been removed from the new version.

6. The requirements are far more compact, and can easily be included in their entirety in a Notice of Race or on a yacht club website.

US Sailing wants your input on the proposed requirements. You can download a spreadsheet with the new requirements and instructions on how to provide input on the US Sailing Safety at Sea site. Please return the spreadsheet with your comments and feedback to equipment_feedback@ussailing.org before September 23, 2013.

The post Offshore Overhaul appeared first on Sailing World.

ALL IS LOST: SYNOPSIS

Academy Award® winner Robert Redford stars in All Is Lost, an open-water thriller about one man’s battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) with a musical score by Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), the film is a gripping, visceral and powerfully moving tribute to ingenuity and resilience.

Deep into a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed man (Redford) wakes to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water after a collision with a shipping container left floating on the high seas. With his navigation equipment and radio disabled, the man sails unknowingly into the path of a violent storm. Despite his success in patching the breached hull, his mariner’s intuition, and a strength that belies his age, the man barely survives the tempest.

Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the face.

Filmmaker J.C. Chandor knew he wanted to make some form of open-water thriller long before his feature writing and directing debut, Margin Call, was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar®. But it took almost six years for him to finally hit upon the startlingly original idea for All Is Lost , a harrowing nautical adventure that takes place entirely at sea and features a single nameless—and nearly wordless— character.

“It’s a very simple story about a guy late in his life who goes out for a four- or five-month sail,” Chandor says. “Fate intervenes, the boat has an accident, and essentially we go on an eight-day journey with him as he fights to survive.”

Chandor’s screenplay bore little resemblance to a typical movie script. Rather than the standard 120 pages, it was roughly 30 pages long. And it consisted entirely of prose description, with no dialogue. In fact, when Margin Call producer Neal Dodson got his hands on the slim sheaf of papers, he asked Chandor when he would receive the rest of it.

“When J.C. said that it was the whole script, I was both terrified and excited,” Dodson recalls. “The first film we did together was all about dialogue, and this was very obviously not about dialogue. I admit that my first thought was, ‘I don’t know how the hell we’re going to get this thing financed’—because it’s pretty audacious and pretty brave.”

Fellow producer Anna Gerb (Margin Call) recalls reading the script on her deck with Chandor present, and being blown away by the sheer viscerality of it.

“I read it and I looked at J.C. and said, ‘Wow. I’m seasick,’” she recalls. “As a producer, I like to be in control. Being in the middle of the ocean on a sailboat, putting myself in a situation where I am at the mercy of the universe is something I just couldn’t imagine. ”

Chandor, on the other hand, was intimately familiar with the universe of sailboats.

“Although I never sailed across the ocean alone, sailing is something I grew up around,” he says, “so I knew the basic palette I was working with.”

Chandor says the sheer simplicity of the story—and the filmmaking challenge it presented—drew him to make the film. The story has echoes of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and as Dodson describes “ it’s an existential action movie about one man lost at sea, fighting against the elements and himself.”

A pivotal step in the film’s journey from script to screen was, of course, the casting of two-time Academy Award winner Robert Redford (The Sting). The iconic actor, director and creator of Sundance had met and been impressed with Chandor when Margin Call premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.

“I liked J.C. Chandor,” Redford recalls. “He represented, for me, the exact type of person that we want to support. He had a vision, he was a new voice on the horizon and he told his story in a very special way.”

When Chandor told Dodson that he wanted to cast Redford as the film’s sole character, referred to simply as “Our Man” in the script, the producer knew it was a longshot.

“I said, ‘Listen, he’s going to say one of two things when he gets that 30-page script,” Dodson recalls.

“He’s either going to say, ‘Hell yes, this sounds amazing,’ or he’s going to say, ‘Why in the world would I do that? I have nothing to prove. Why would I put myself through that?’ And to our great, great benefit, he said yes.”

For his part, Redford was drawn to the originality of the project, which he describes as a story about a man who takes “one heck of a journey and one heck of a beating.”

“I really liked the script because it was different,” Redford says. “It was bold. It was eccentric, and there was no dialogue. I felt that J.C. was going to go through with that vision, even though it was not all explained. But I trusted that he knew what he was doing, that he had it in his head. I knew I would be supporting that vision even while not knowing everything, and that was interesting and good for me.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Redford says he doesn’t get bombarded with invitations to star in the movies of the independent filmmakers he champions. Quite the contrary, in fact.

“There’s something kind of ironic in that, all these years after starting Sundance and starting the film festival, none of the filmmakers that I supported ever hired me,” he says, then adds jokingly: “They never offered me a part! Until J.C.”

With their one-man cast in place, the producers sat down with the list of necessities for shooting the film. At the very top: a handful of sailboats, and a place to sink them. As it turned out, shooting the story of one man and his boat actually required three boats—specifically, three 39-foot Cal yachts. While all of them serve as Our Man’s sailboat, the Virginia Jean, each of the three boats was used for a separate purpose: One was for open sea sailing and exterior scenes, another was for the tight interior shots, and the third was for special effects.

Finding three similar boats proved to be a challenge, however, says production designer John Goldsmith, whose previous credits include No Country for Old Men and The Last Samurai. “We scouted them at different times and purchased them in different ports. They all had to be imported, which was a logistical exercise in itself. I think we were two weeks into prep before all three were side by side, ready for us to work on.”

Once they had them, the filmmakers put the boats through their paces—and then some. “We did pretty much everything that you can do to a boat on film,” Chandor says. “We sunk it, brought it back to life, sailed it, then put it through a massive storm, flipped it over, and sunk it again. I think it’s paramount to have a pretty deep understanding of the way these boats work, the way they sail and sink, as well as all of the different kinds of sailing elements we use to help move the story along.”

Chandor and Goldsmith collaborated closely in crafting a kind of back story for the boat itself, which in turn helped inform the story of Redford’s character.

“J.C. and I had some fantastic conversations about what story we wanted to tell about Our Man that would be expressed through this boat,” Goldsmith recalls. “What kind of past has he had? Was he a military man? Is he a businessman? Is he a family man?”

Goldsmith says Chandor gave him detailed notes to guide the production design. For instance, the director told him he envisioned Redford’s character bought the boat at age 51, six years after the boat was built.

Ten years after that, the boat’s upkeep may have slipped a little due to the economic slump in the 1990s. Painting the back story in even greater detail, Chandor envisioned that Redford’s character retired seven years after that, then invested about $20,000 in updating the boat.

“So maybe he selected certain things like the cushions, which were tired, and reupholstered those,” Goldsmith explains. “Maybe he upgraded the window treatments, maybe a few pieces of electronics. So there’s this idea of layering of time and history in this boat. But it’s not an overhaul. It’s not a renovation. In that way, the design had to be really careful about not coming too far forward, but being sort of quiet.”

Given the solitary nature of the film, Chandor, at times, lets his camera linger on Redford and relish his quiet, simple activities in a way seldom seen on film.

“It’s rare to watch someone think,” Dodson observes. “Most movies are very ‘cutty,’ and I enjoy those movies. But this isn’t that movie. Yes, it’s got action sequences, but the camera is going to sit on him for a while. We’re going to watch him eat a can of soup, and watch him have a glass of bourbon, and watch him cook, and watch him stand in the rain.”

In one memorable scene, the sailor is chest-deep in water collecting supplies from his slowly sinking yacht. Then he takes a break to stand before the mirror and—for possibly the last time in his life—shave.

“You work against the odds in the weirdest ways,” Redford says. “But when the odds are so great against you, you fight hard to create some normalcy in your life, even though it may seem weird.”

Other scenes were intensely physical for the actor, who is known for doing many of his own stunts: from clambering up the sailboat’s 65-foot mast to being dragged behind the boat to swimming underwater through the submerged sails. And then there’s the opening sequence in which the sailboat collides with the shipping container and Our Man jumps from one to the other.

“We slammed a boat into the side of a shipping container with him on it—that’s in the movie,” Dodson says. “There’s this huge jolt, and that’s Bob actually hitting the side of a boat and being okay with it. We put him in a life raft and flipped him upside down and inside out, and he was game.”

“Whenever he did his own stunts, it was both inspiring and exciting, and it also put a little fear in us,” Gerb adds. “But he is in great physical shape. He loves the water and he loves to swim. There are a lot of physical challenges in making this film. Even just being wet all day is exhausting and physically draining on any actor. But his spirit and his understanding of the vision for this film just took over. He came to the set every day and absolutely gave himself over to the process of making this film.”

For his part, Redford says he greatly enjoyed working with the director, whom he credits with getting the best out of him as an actor.

“I’m doing this because of J.C.,” Redford says. “I like him. He has a joyous spirit and a wonderful disposition. But the thing that’s incredible is how busy his mind is. It’s a quicksilver mind, and I find it really fascinating. I think he will do very well, because he knows what he wants and he knows how he wants to get it, but he stays loose through the process, which I think is wonderful. He’s very intuitive, he has a vision, and I trust him and his ability to deliver that vision.”

Chandor’s use of digital effects was largely restricted to enhancing backgrounds and skies, as well as

enhancing the waves that surrounded the boat and hammered Redford’s character. All visual effects work was handled by a team at Toronto-based SPIN VFX, overseen by Chandor and longtime VFX supervisor Robert Munroe (X-Men).

Filming in water is notoriously challenging, and that was certainly the case with All Is Lost , which does not feature a single shot set on dry land. Camera crews filmed in various parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean, including off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico, about 80 miles south of San Diego. At one point, Redford sailed the Virginia Jean into port there, complete with a patched-up hole in the side of the boat.

“It was amazing to see the reactions of real sailors in the marina,” says Gerb. “They were looking at our boat, which had clearly been through an incredible battle. It had a film crew hanging off of it and Robert Redford at the helm.”

The shots of sea life—including shoals of small fish, yellowtail, barracuda and the beautiful if terrifying shots of dozens of swirling sharks—in the Bahamas, off the coast of Nassau and Lyford Cay, where an entire camera crew dove down more than 60 feet to capture the footage of the fish.

For the sequences involving the massive shipping vessels, the crew filmed in the ocean around Los Angeles—out of the port of Long Beach to the south, and further north near Catalina Island. But the open ocean is no place to safely sink a yacht. For those scenes and a number of others, including the opening collision with the shipping container, the filmmakers turned to the world’s largest filming tanks. Baja Studios, located in Rosarito Beach on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, the facility was effectively built from the ground up by James Cameron, who required a customized water environment to shoot the spectacular nautical effects for Titanic. In fact, some of the crew on Al l I s Lo st had also worked on Titanic, including line producer Luisa Gomez da Silva, who works full time at the facility and counts herself part of “the Titanic generation.”

The filmmakers used three giant water tanks for different aspects of the shoot, including the world’s largest exterior tank, which sits right on the ocean and has an infinity-edge horizon line.

“It’s the size of three football fields and it creates a very real ocean look,” Gerb says. “These tanks mimic being out at sea, but in a controlled environment where we could safely pull off a lot of our stunts and special effects. It was really the only place in the world we could have made this film.”

Initially, Chandor and Goldsmith believed they would have all they needed with the three boats, but

one particularly dramatic sequence, in which the storm-tossed Virginia Jean repeatedly capsizes and rights itself, called for extraordinary creativity. Although the filmmakers had thought they could use the special-effects boat for this underwater rolling stunt, after further exploration they realized they needed to better protect Redford. As a result, multiple departments pulled together to build a special rig for the purpose.

Similarly, special effects supervisor Brendon O’Dell (Training Day) had to come up with creative solutions to simulate the violent movement of the boat in the storm. “Typically, on a big-budget movie, you’d build a really elaborate gimbal that could move the boat in any direction,” he says. “But that would have been very expensive and time consuming, so we had to rethink our approach.”

Instead, O’Dell’s team used simple rigging and hydraulic cylinders, together with the natural buoyancy of the boat working against the water. “We would just suck the front of the boat down with a cylinder and let the back up, and vice-versa,” he says. “It also worked side to side. It looked really good.”

The complex shoot required seven weeks of meticulous preparation—unusual for a small, independent film. “We needed to create a schedule that tracked wet scenes, dry scenes, storm scenes, with three boats, three tanks and an additional sound stage, night and day, stunts, VFX shots and non-VFX shots,” Dodson says. “It was a lot more complicated than anything I’ve ever worked on before, and enormously complex for a 30-day shoot on our budget.”

The producer says the crew worked less from the script than from a big map in their main conference room on which the entire movie was storyboarded.

“We didn’t really even have sides,” he says, referring to the daily printouts actors usually use. “We used a printout of that day’s storyboards—we’d just go through them and shoot them.”

To capture Al l is Los t Chandor turned to not one, but two directors of photography—Frank G. DeMarco and underwater cinematographer Peter Zuccarini. For DeMarco, the challenge of shooting a movie without dialogue was not without silver linings.

“One interesting thing is that you can do far more takes on a movie with less dialogue,” says DeMarco, who also worked with the director on Margin Call. “The other interesting thing is that, like in a silent movie, the director can sometimes direct the actor during the take. J.C. could actually say, ‘Bob, now remember this, and then do that, and pick up that, and look up there,’ while the camera was rolling.”

DeMarco says shooting interior shots in the tight space of a yacht’s cabin was also tricky—for example, when Redford had to squeeze past the camera on DeMarco’s shoulder or during very close shots.

“We shot with wide lenses, which helped a lot,” DeMarco recalls. “We used a lot of natural light. Ultimately, we just made it work.”

If some crewmembers found themselves having to contend with water, others thrived in it—and none more than Zuccarini, whose credits range from low-budget surfing documentaries to the seafaring blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

“He and his team know how to get in their wetsuits, seal up the cameras, balance their weight and their breathing, and swim in and under the water, shooting footage that you can’t believe,” Dodson says.

With its smorgasbord of water-related challenges, Al l I s Los t was an irresistible project, says Zuccarini. “I specialize in putting cameras in places that are very wet. So when I saw from the very first moment of the script that there’s water flowing into the boat, he’s immersed in water, water is going to spray on his face, waves are dumping on him—I admit, I was pretty excited.”

Adding to the production challenges, editor Pete Beaudreau (Margin Call) did the first pass of editing on location to ensure that the production got what it needed. After a rough start, he says he got used to the approach.

“Because I was able to get the material so quickly, I could show J.C. at the end of the day whatever he had shot that morning, all put together,” Beaudreau says. “And if he felt like he was missing something, we could go in the next morning and grab it.”

In a film so devoid of dialogue, the musical score assumed special importance. Chandor turned to acclaimed singer-songwriter Alex Ebert, leader of the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, to compose the film’s score—his first such project.

“It was sort of a shocker in some ways,” says Ebert. “It’s amazing that J.C. would have that kind of faith in someone who hadn’t scored a film.”

Ebert says Chandor initially asked him to deliver very subdued materials, drones and low notes that sustained over scenes. He also specifically requested that the instrumentation avoid piano. That was challenging for the composer, who had already written some pieces on piano, but he understood Chandor’s reasoning.

“The piano has this inherent emotion to it,” he says. “We didn’t want anything that was ‘emotion in a can’ or ‘tension in a can.’ But eventually I started taking more chances, and after some back and forth with J.C., we landed in this middle spot that I think was perfect.”

Ebert says he played various instruments, including synthesizer, crystal bowls and Tibetan bowls. He also played orchestral samples, most of which were later replaced by musicians using real instruments. Other times he came up with themes on the piano, then mocked them up with sampled flutes or other sampled instruments, before bringing in great musicians to play them. Seth Ford-Young, the bass player from the Magnetic Zeros also provided a number of sounds that evoked the calls of whales and other sea mammals.

“The biggest challenge was walking that fine line between truth and melodrama,” Ebert says. “You don’t want to undershoot it and you don’t want to overshoot it. You want to nail the emotion precisely. Anything else is not doing it justice.”

For Ebert, Al l I s Los t is an inherently emotional film with massive stakes, and he felt he needed to express that in the music.

“It’s about beauty,” he says. “It’s emotional and everything that comes along with life and death, and nothing less. I think that’s the primary subject of humanity—and it’s something that you might want to stay away from because it would be overdramatic. But this dude’s in the middle of the ocean on a raft. Let the music be emotional because it is emotional. We followed the movie’s lead.”

The task of building a robust soundscape for an almost dialogue-less film on the sea fell to the Oscar- winning sound team behind such hits as Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park, Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom, along with their colleagues Steve Boeddeker and Brandon Proctor, from Marin County’s famous SkyWalker Sound. They had already worked on several films with Redford in the director’s chair and welcomed the chance to work with him again.

In some ways, All is Lost is a tribute to man’s seemingly limitless ingenuity and resilience, with Redford’s character simply refusing to quit.

“This character keeps going to a point when some people would give up and say, ‘It’s too much,’” Redford says. “‘I’m out in the middle of nowhere. No one is here to help me and it seems like I’ve done everything I possibly can. Why not give up?’”

To answer that question, Redford references an earlier film whose sparseness and primal simplicity have something in common with Al l I s Los t and in which the actor plays another lone man battling nature and self.

“I thought about Jeremiah Johnson, about that film and that character, especially since I had developed that project myself,” says Redford of the 1972 film. “He had a choice to give up or continue but he continues, because that’s all there is. And this film, I think, suggests the same thing. He just goes on because that’s all he can do. Some people wouldn’t, but he does.”

It’s in those moments of maximum anguish that Our Man actually breaks his pervasive silence and utters a word or two—to great effect.

“There’s a scene where we finally hear the iconic Robert Redford voice,” says Gerb. “There is no real dialogue to speak of in the film, but in this one moment, for a very brief second, he says something. And to hear his voice, and how it comes out, is so powerful, because we all know that voice. And then it comes, and it’s this tiny beat, but it’s a very moving moment for me.”

For Dodson, it is precisely the drive to survive—even when all is apparently lost—that gets to the heart of the film’s meaning.

“It’s a movie about why we keep fighting,” Dodson says. “It’s a movie about why we try to live—about why we would fight against death when it seems so obvious that it’s our time to go. Answering that question about human beings is something philosophers, religion and great thinkers have been trying to do as long as humans have been on earth. I think this movie tries to ask that timeless question in a new way. And for my own part, I’m far more interested in going to see movies and making movies that ask questions than in movies that propose to answer them.”

It’s also part of what makes the film unlike any other, the producer says.

“I don’t think you’ve ever seen a movie like this before,” Dodson says. “It’s a truly singular vision. It’s watching one guy—a master of his craft—work through a character in 90 minutes. And it’s an adventure. But the existential questions in it, I think, will resonate for people even more powerfully.”

As for Chandor, he says he hopes audiences will see themselves reflected in Redford’s valiantly struggling survivor.

“What I’m hoping,” Chandor muses, “is that this character becomes a vessel where audience members are able to see themselves, or parts of themselves. That he becomes the embodiment of some of their hopes, concerns, dreams, worries, fears—all those primal human characteristics. It’s not something that I want to lay out too explicitly, but to a certain extent, I hope that he can become a kind of mirror. And if I did my job well, the film, like Our Man’s journey, is going to be exhilarating and terrifying, and, I hope, emotional and haunting.”

Lionsgate & Roadside Attractions, Black Bear Pictures and Treehouse Pictures present a Before The Door/Washington Square Films Production. Robert Redford in All is Lost. The director of photography is Frank G. DeMarco and the underwater director of photography is Peter Zuccarini. Production designer is John P. Goldsmith. Editor is Pete Beaudreau. The music is composed by Alex Ebert. Visual effects supervisor is Robert Munroe. Executive producers are Cassian Elwes, Laura Rister, Glen Basner, Joshua Blum, Howard Cohen, Eric D’Arbeloff, Rob Barnum, Kevin Turen, Corey Moosa and Zachary Quinto. The producers are Justin Nappi and Teddy Schwarzman. Produced by Neal Dodson p.g.a. and Anna Gerb p.g.a. Written and directed by J.C. Chandor.

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Artemis Racing Capsizes AC72

Regatta Director Iain Murray shared specific safety recommendations with the America’s Cup teams and the Event Authority on May 22; the Review Committee that was assigned on May 16 has stopped short of giving its own recommendations due to liability and insurance reasons.

Murray’s recommendations include:
-Structural reviews of AC72 boats and wings
-Increased max sailing weight for the AC72
–A lower wind limit (reduced to 20 knots in July, 21 knots in August, and 23 knots in September)
–Enhanced sailor safety gear including:
Buoyancy aids
Body armor
Crew locator devices
Hands-free breathing apparatus
High-visibility helmets
Electronic head count system
–No guest racers aboard while racing
-No “ACRM Personnel” aboard while racing (originally intended to be a camera person)
-Additional support equipment, including a minimum of two rescue boats to each AC72, with one diver and one rescue swimmer per rescue boat, and one paramedic carrying an AED device on one of the rescue boats
-Round robins in the Louis Vuitton Cup reduced from seven to five
-Soft marks to replace mark boats.
–Removal of fines for not competing
–If an AC72 capsizes while racing, the race will be awarded to the other AC72 to focus efforts on the capsized boat

The document also states that “These recommendations are made by the Regatta Director after the Review Committee interviewed team personnel from all Competitors, and will be refined as the further work identified above is completed.” Further, “Each Competitor is responsible for the method of implementing the recommendations.”

Safety recommendations listed that “should be implemented immediately” included personal equipment (personal flotation, helmet, at least one knife, personal air supply of at least 45 liters, harness), training, AC72 equipment (permanently attached righting lines, accessible knives in four corners of the trampoline, four personal air supplies of at least 80 liters each on trampoline), and rescue boats and equipment (a rescue boat with at least 3500 kg towing capability).

Safety recommendations that “need to be considered” included estabilishing common emergency drop off zones, common safe recovery areas for capsized boats, 1K liters flotation in the top of the wing to help keep it floating.

Next up? Murray will form task forces with experts to define and expand on the recommendations for some of the specific gear, such as body armor and buoyancy aids.

View a copy of “Regatta Director Recommendations“.

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At a briefing at the Cruise Ship Terminal on Pier 27 in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 14, Golden Gate YC vice commodore and Oracle Team USA director of external affairs Tom Ehman announced: “The America’s Cup remains on track and racing will take place this summer.”

The panel to investigate the tragic death of Andrew “Bart” Simpson and the Artemis capsize on May 9 was announced. It includes: Iain Murray and Sally Lindsay Honey (co-chairs), ACEA race committee chair John Craig, multihull design Vincent Lauriot-Prevost, New Zealand lawyer and sailor Jim Farmer, and Chuck Hawley, who’s been a part of many panels involving yacht racing tragedies. Lt. Jon Lane, with 26 years in the Coast Guard and 10 years experience as a marine casualty investigator will serve as liaison.

With regard to the Review, Ehman added: “The Committee brings immense experience and expertise to this Review. At a meeting in San Francisco this morning, the teams expressed unanimous support for this Committee and this process.”

On May 16, the Review Committee recommended all teams suspend AC72 and AC45 sailing until sometime during the week of May 19.

On May 17, the Review Committee met with the teams. As Luna Rossa had sailed its AC72 since the committee recommended suspending sailing, the press release noted, “We appreciate the vote of confidence Mr. Bertelli, president of Luna Rossa Challenge, gave to the America’s Cup continuing as planned this summer on San Francisco Bay, during his press conference this afternoon in Alameda. We are pleased that Luna Rossa has already submitted its suggestions to the Review Committee. We are, however, disappointed that Luna Rossa indicated that it might not follow the Review Committee’s recommendation issued last evening that teams not sail in San Francisco before May 23rd (to allow the Committee time to make further recommendations).”

FOR MORE: Click here to read Regatta Director Iain Murray’s Safety Recommendations to the teams on May 22.

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Hunter 376 Aegean

On Oct. 30, US Sailing released a report from its independent review panel that examined the April 28 accident aboard the Hunter 376 Aegean during the Newport to Ensenada Race. Here are some of their findings (from US Sailing’s website):

**Synopsis of Findings and Recommendations from the Report:
**
_The panel determined that a key element of the accident was likely an inadequate lookout, and that it is likely that Aegean inadvertently motored beyond a waypoint set before North Coronado Island. Although the inadequate lookout was the proximal cause of the accident, there were additional safety issues that came to light during the inquiry, and improvements in these areas could prevent or reduce the severity of other accidents in the future.

According to the International Maritime Organization, a lookout’s task is to prevent collision. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (1972) Rule 5 says (in part): Every vessel must at all times keep a proper look-out by sight (day shape or lights by eyes or visual aids), hearing, and all available means in order to judge if risk of collision exists. According to the International Sailing Federation Case 26, all boats, whether or not holding the right of way, should keep a lookout at all times.

The panel relied on available facts to create this report. There were no survivors and no eyewitnesses to the accident. The facts include the SPOT Connect (GPS tracking device with text capacity) position reports from which vessel course and speed were derived, times of SPOT Connect text transmissions during the race, published material, press reports including accounts of the San Diego Coroner’s report and the results of their toxicology analysis, interviews with race organizers, participants and past crew from Aegean, wreckage found at North Coronado Island and in the debris field and underwater at North Coronado Island.
_
**The panel recommends improvements in the following areas:
**
1. Always maintain a lookout, with a watch of at least two people, using audible waypoint and radar alarms.
2. Racers need to be made aware of the light obscuration zones in the Coronado Islands.
3. Each watch must understand the operation of the boat’s navigation systems.
4. The use of autopilots while motoring should be reviewed by race organizers.
5. To improve communication, racers should monitor VHF 16 and race organizers should provide a 24-hour emergency contact.
6. US Sailing should create a guide to emergency signaling devices.
7. US Sailing should create a crisis management template for race organizers.

_
_Click here to read the report in its entirety.

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The Coast Guard released some details on their unprecedented decision yesterday:

Recent offshore accidents have highlighted the need to assess offshore race organizers’ safety plans and procedures. Races inside the bay are still being permitted per the current procedures. The Coast Guard is calling on all offshore race organizers and participants to conduct their own safety stand-downs during this period.

In the meantime, US Sailing will review offshore safety procedures and determine if new safety regulations should be implemented.

Latitude 38 spoke with Laura Muñoz, the executive director of the YRA, who noted that the investigation should take about a month. After she received the news from Captain Cindy Stowe of the Coast Guard, she said, “I was blindsided.”

This is the first time the Coast Guard has ever canceled permits after an offshore racing tragedy.

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The requirement of a cockpit sailing knife has always existed for most offshore and inshore races sailed under the ISAF Special Regulations. Regulations usually require a knife to be kept in the boat’s safety grab bag as well. These rules mandate the on-deck knife be accessible, secure in its scabbard, and made of a quality steel alloy that can withstand environmental abuse. In 2011, however, several studies conducted following two high-profile accidents each recommended all sailors carry a personal knife. Consequently, the 2012 Mackinac [Race] Safety Requirements (MSR), used for the Chicago-Mac and Bayview-Mac races now require every crewmember to carry a knife while on deck, and always readily available (i.e., on the outside of your gear or PFD). None of the regulations, however, require a specific type of knife.

There are three primary types of knives applicable for sailing—the folding-blade style, the straight-blade style, and the emergency cutter. Blade sharpness is obviously the key consideration with all three types. Wear-ability is next. Consider whether it can be worn safely all the time, yet readily available. A knife’s functionality is defined by its intended use: Do you need a pointed 5-inch razor-sharp blade or a multipurpose blade that’s safer to handle in extreme conditions?

In terms of blade construction, steel quality and type is the most important variable. Most modern blades are steel alloys, primarily iron alloyed with different unique elements (i.e., carbon for strength or chromium for corrosion resistance). For the short-blade knives that are recommended for racing sailors, a harder rather than softer alloy is better because it will be more resistant to wear, and thus require less frequent sharpening. Many knives are treated with different elements or polish techniques that can improve strength and/or corrosion resistance, and the complexity of treatments ultimately dictates the knife’s price.

A serrated sailing knife has a blade edge that acts like saw teeth when cutting. This makes it very effective for ripping through tough materials such as high-tech rope or a nylon tether. Many knives have a blade with serration along the throat-half of the blade while the tip portion is straight edge, which makes for a more effective swipe or cut. Note that sharpening a serrated knife involves a special sharpener and a lot more time, as you need to sharpen each serration individually.

Blunt-tip knives are intended to make a knife “safer” to handle. A pointed tip is a potential hazard in rough conditions, and is not ideal for youth sailors for obvious reasons. A blunt tip makes most sense if you expect to have the knife at hand by yourself or others, or around materials you don’t want to cut—like an inflatable PFD or sail.

One-handed operation of a folding knife, combined with innovative lock mechanisms to keep the blade open, is an essential feature, especially when you need one hand to steady yourself on the boat, up the rig, or in the water. There are many brands and models from which to choose, but the key thing to look for is how you can attach it to your gear: a belt attachment, a sturdy clip or eye, or all three. A lanyard is essential.

Where to carry a knife outside your gear or in a pocket should be considered as well because it will make a difference. In other words, if you intend to put it in your spray-top or pants pocket, make sure it fits and you can extract it rapidly. If you intend to clip it to your belt, make sure it can’t pop off when you sit.

Also, imagine the following scenarios when considering where you’ll attach it: Which hand will you favor to grab or open it? How will your sailing gloves affect one-handed operation? Will you be using it in the dark or underwater, which would require a brighter, more visible handle? How easily does it store and come out of its sheath?

Blade length is not critical for common sailing applications, but it’s important. Most folding knives have blades around 3 inches. Most straight blades are usually 1 to 2 inches longer. The longer the blade, the easier it will be to cut something, because length allows more effective sawing.

The handle is also worth considering: make sure it fits your grip, and the one-handed operation (thumb placement) is quick and feels natural to you, and that it folds without too much effort.

If you want a personal knife for safety that will also be your all-purpose knife, a folding-blade knife is obviously the ideal choice. For a durable knife that will last a lifetime with regular care, expect to spend around $150, but there are plenty of knives for less than $100 that are perfectly suited for sailboat racing. If you choose a strictly serrated blade, it’s probably best to keep it for safety, not regular use. In this range, you’ll find many knives popular among sailors, including knives from such manufacturers as Benchmade, Wichard, Spyderco, Boye, Gill, and Gerber. Most chandleries and online marine stores stock a variety, but the only true way to meet your personal fit for one-handed opening is to try one before you buy it. Once you buy one, learn how to use it.

The straight-blade knife is an ideal cockpit- or boom vang-mounted knife. Having a blunt tip and/or full-length serration will reduce the risk of accidental cuts and injuries. There are many lock-and-fit mechanisms and knife/sheath combinations. The Gill Rescue Knife (around $26) or the Gerber River Shorty ($34) each have a blunt-style tip and are a good place to start.

Emergency cutters come in many shapes and sizes. It is not intended as an everyday utility knife. You may never have to use one, but don’t let that influence its importance. It’s an inexpensive tool that you can permanently attach to your PFD. Plastic cutters with a stainless blade can be found for $10; Aluminum cutters are only slightly more expensive. Gill’s Harness Rescue Tool and Spinlock’s S Cutter were purpose-designed for sailing, come with pouches, and are less than $40. Benchmade, which has a plethora of choices in many different alloys and coatings, has offerings in the $30 to $50 range. Climbers, divers, hunters, and emergency responders all use emergency cutters so there are many options available, and even kiteboard equipment manufacturers have perfectly suitable offerings.

_Watch a video review of the knives shown here_.

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