CA Handbook Covergirl
Arkyla features as covergirl for the 2025 Cruising Association Handbook with a mast-down shot taken whilst cruising the Balearics.
News
Awards, magazine features, exhibitions and updates from Arkyla, newest first.
2 new YM articles...
Check out June Yachting Monthly for the story behind Arkyla's eventful Atlantic crossing, and in the July YM issue our article on how to cruise the Balearics without hitting the crowds or denting the wallet.
CA Photo Winner 2024
Pleased to paste from the CA news site of my second win in the CA annual photo competition...
Congratulations to CA member James Kenning, who has claimed top honours in the 2024 CA Photo Competition with his breathtaking image of the Atlantic Ocean. The photo captures his yacht Arkyla surging through mid-Atlantic rollers, showcasing the raw power and beauty of the Atlantic.
This year’s competition saw a wealth of entries, and the task of selecting the winner and runners-up again fell to acclaimed marine photographer Paul Wyeth. Reflecting on the submissions, Paul said, "It's a real pleasure to cruise through a wonderful selection of images. There is some real diversity of subject and location which highlights all the amazing places that members have been exploring over the past year."
Of James’s winning photo, Paul commented, "This is a lovely image that I'm very pleased to select as the winner. What a beautiful evening with the boat clearly flying along. The warm soft colours just make you want to jump on board but more than that, the clever angle pushed out beyond the side of the hull really makes you feel like you're skimming over the waves next to the boat.
"Add to that, the slow shutter speed that emphasises the movement and almost makes the image look like a painting, really works. Congratulations James on a great image that is full of atmosphere and really says to me, ‘Let's go cruising!’"
James Kenning, a long-time CA member, shared the story behind the photo, saying, "I wanted to capture the vastness and power of the ocean whilst crossing the Atlantic. It is so difficult to get any sense of scale of waves in a photograph though, so I used a long exposure to instead create a sense of speed and energy in the image as we bowled along at 8+ knots under twin headsails."
CA Log Competition Winner 2024
Once again SailingArkyla has won the Hanson Trophy - top prize in the annual Cruising Association log competition. The judge, yachting author and journalist Julia Jones, commented "James’ presentation was outstanding, particularly the chartlets for each stage and I appreciated his candour in costing the new equipment he bought when preparing for the cruise. His photos were also well-chosen."
Mixed fortune crossing the Pond
Mixed fortunes during Arkyla's trans-Atlantic trip in Nov/Dec. On leg 1 to Cape Verde, the Parasailor was terminally shredded after the halyard inadvertently fell out of the mast winch jaws and the spinnaker dropped overboard. On Leg 2, we experienced some rudder failure after a suspected impact from a whale; on hauling out in Grenada, we discovered that the hull had suffered a crack around the skeg in the incident too. The boat has been undergoing repairs and we hope to relaunch first week of Feb 2025. On the positive side, Arkyla finished 3rd in Division and 5th overall on handicap of the 96-strong fleet. Some liquid compensation too in the form of Blue Light aribbean Gin for winning, for the second time, the ARC+ Photo Blog award.
Double CA success
Double success for Arkyla at the Cruising Association 2023 photo and log awards; I was winner of the Lacey Trophy (for best website), and runner-up in the annual photo competition. A shame I was unable to make the Hanson lecture this year to receive the award in person.
Cover girl... again!
Arkyla is once again a covergirl, this time gracing the front of the latest Latitudes & Attitudes magazine. It's now a trio of magazines that my Swedish beauty has featued on the front cover of; Lats&Atts, Yachting Monthly, and Cruising Magazine.
National Historic Ships... last chance!
November is the last opportunity to visit the exhibition of the winning entries from the National Historic Ships 2022 photo competition. My entry, of schooner Te Vega at anchor in Ferraguda Portugal, is one of the photographs displayed. The exhibit, with a theme of 'Journeys', is housed within the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum; a ticket to the dockyard, which is valid for as many visits as you want in a full year, gains access to the exhibit as well as all the other attractions on site. For anyone with an interest in maritime and naval history, its a 'must do' day out; there are too many things to list here, so check out the website for yourself... https://thedockyard.co.uk/
Photo of the Year!
Really excited to announce that my photo won the International Cruisers Awards 'Photo of the Year' 2023! Big shout out to Young Cruisers Association for hosting the event and Latitudes and Attitudes magazine for sponsoring this category. @latsatts @youngcruisers #ycass
Drone Article in YM
The October 2023 issue of Yachting Monthly has another Arkyla article in its pages; how to fly a drone from a yacht. Advice on how to launch, but more importantly recover, a drone whilst at anchor and under sail.
Finalist in International Cruiser Awards
Excited to say that my photo of 'Many dolphins, twin headsails, and one sunset' is in the final three images competing for Best Picture of the Year, sponsored by Latitudes & Attitudes magazine, at the International Cruiser Awards on 13 Oct 23.
Orca alley article
Following Arkyla's event-free delivery from the Algarve to the Med, Yachting Monthly asked me to write an article on strategies to avoid orca interactions and attacks in the Straits of Gibraltar. Read the full article in the August 2023 issue.
Yachting Monthly Feature
Read about Arkyla's trip across Biscay and down the Atlantic Portugal coast in the May 23 issue of Yachting Monthly.
CA Hanson Cup winner
Another fun evening at the Cruising Association headquarters in Lime Basin London to listen to the annual Hanson lecture and receive the 2022 season Hanson Cup. The night was made extra special by meeting the godfather of cruising Jimmy Cornell who received a lifetime award for his contribution to the world of world cruising!
ARC photo success
Another competition win; my shot of Ade working the bow during my Atlantic crossing onboard Falcon has won the 'Life aboard' category for the 22/23 ARC, ARC +, and ARC January rallies!
Exhibited again!
Some great news from National Historic Ships; for the second year in a row, one of my photos will be exhibited in the Chatham Historic Dockyard as part of the NHS gallery of winners.
Information on Chatham Histric Dockyard and all to see and do there is available from their website... https://thedockyard.co.uk/whats-on/
CA 2022 Photo Comp Winner!
Pleased and proud to announce that my photograph of dolphins playing off Arkyla's bow has won 1st prize in the Cruising Association annual photography competition for 2022.
ARC+ Photo Blog Winners
Very pleased to announce that Team Falcon won the 'Best photo blog' award at the prize giving event that rounded off the 2022 ARC+ rally crossing of the Atlantic via the Cape Verdes. Now got to see if any of the 2,500 shots I took during the passage can win any of the categories for the ARC+ photo competition that will be judged in April 2023!
National Historic Ships calendar
Honoured and proud to announce that my shot of the schooner Te Vega, lying at anchor in Portimao, has been selected as the June photograph in the National Historic Ships 2023 calendar!
Eco cover girl
Sustainable cruising and minimising our impact on the environments that we sail to is really important to us, so we're really quite proud that Arkyla has been chosen as the 'cover girl' for the Marlec 2023 brochure for boat renewable energy systems! See their range of wind and solar systems here...
https://www.marlec.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Marlec-Direct-2023-.pdf
We make front cover of Yachting Monthly!
There we are on the front cover with our Dolphin escorts down the Atlantic Portuguese coast; inside the magazine you can find my 5-page article on sailing photography.
Nautica clothing: we've become fashion models!
Well this was unexpected... sailing clothing brand Nautica has asked us to model some of their range, and has featured us in their 'sail away with' blog feature. Who'd have thought we'd become fashion models at our age!
https://www.nautica.eu.com/blogs/news/sail-away-with-jenny-and-james-kenning
Shortlisted for National Historic Ships photography competition.
Proud to announce that for the second year in a row, I've been shortlisted in the judging of the National Historic Ships photography competition. This year my shot of tall ship 'Te Vega' is entered in the 'Journeys' category.
https://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/photography-competition/shortlist
Teamed with Vircru - boat monitoring system
Very happy to announce that Arkyla has teamed with Vircru to test out and review their modular boat monitoring system. You can find our appraisal of the system, and links to the company, under the technical pages here on Sailing Arkyla.
Meeting a legend - Rob Humphreys
What a great honour to be presented the Cruising Association Dolphin Cup (for best photographic log of a cruise in 2021) by yacht design legend Rob Humphreys.
A great night at CA House in London's Limehouse basin celebrating all the winners of the annual log competition, listening to Rob's fascinating talk on his lifelong journey in yacht design, and meeting other CA members to swap stories and upcoming cruising plans.
Exhibited at Chatham Historic Dockyard
Really excited to say that one of my photographs is to be displayed within the 'Back to the Water' exhibition at the Chatham Historic Dockyard this summer and autumn. The exhibition showcases many of the winning entries to the National Historic Ships annual photography competition. Details of how to visit can be found here...
https://thedockyard.co.uk/whats-on/national-historic-ships-photography-competition/
