Portsmouth, U.K.-Navy Blue
Naval Gazing
Portsmouth Harbour, where iron, sail, memory and foiling speed occupy the same stretch of water.
Every time I walk into this port town, HMS Warrior is standing tall and proud. Portsmouth does not keep naval history behind glass. It leaves it in the misty saltwater air.
Walk Toward the Dockyard
The harbour draws the eye from the city toward the waterline, where working port, historic fleet and low tide share the same frame.
Iron and Sail
Two ships make the scale of Portsmouth visible: HMS Warrior’s iron hull and HMS Victory’s crowded decks.
HMS Warrior, the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warship, stands in the harbour as a constant reminder of the age of naval dominance and the legacy of empire and sea power.
HMS Victory, Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship, is docked at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Hard to believe you could fit 800 sailors aboard.
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When the Boats Began to Fly
The harbour shifts eras in a few hundred metres: from timber and iron to carbon, hydraulics and foils.
It is the most famous sailing event in the world and the oldest competition in international sport. The best sailors race in the fastest boats.
These AC45 catamarans are different. They are faster, lighter, and they fly on the sea. There is very little of the cat in the water. It is about aerodynamics, control systems and hydraulics. It is not brain surgery; it is rocket science. It reminds me of Formula 1. Red Bull even had one of its open-wheel cars beside the bar concession on full display. Zoom.
I broadcast a few live video feeds using Twitter’s then-new Periscope app. It was cool to get the views and have people across Europe and around the planet see my world through my Samsung S5 lens.
Smooth Is Fast
Speed at this level does not look frantic. It looks coordinated.
I am winning at this life thing—and yet there are people so much cooler than me: extreme sailors. Touché!
Launching at the apron at 10 a.m., it was teamwork again in action. Smooth is fast. Ben Ainslie’s team looked solid, in the water and sailing through the Solent in no time.
I managed to hitch a ride on Charles and Annie’s Ballistic Inflatable, a Zodiac that could throttle to 50 in the tiny spaces around a 20-metre trampoline.
Even though it was a sea trial, the foils came out of the water and things got fast very quickly. It reminded me of open-wheel racing and life in the fast lane at the Indy 500.
Naval Gazing in Motion
Five moving views of the harbour: ironclad silhouette, race-day crowds, grinder power, salt spray and foiling speed.
Look Long Enough and Time Changes Hulls
Portsmouth’s lesson is not that one age replaces another. It is that every age leaves a wake. Timber becomes iron. Iron becomes carbon. Sail becomes foil. The harbour holds the memory while the boats keep moving.
Field lesson: Smooth is fast—and history is never as still as it looks from shore.
Photos and words by Ed Reif. EK Blogger edition.