I’ve recently discovered a newish Youtube sailing channel which I thought I’d share. Normally I stay away from sailing youtubers- they are inevitably gurning post teens, up to thirty five years old if you can believe it, with absoultely no responsibility or future plans, sailing big boats (bought cheap in the US, often) close to land in hot places with flat blue water looking for girls to shag and doing it all on other people’s money. Or that’s what I like to think.
When it comes to youtube I like to see blokes going out and taking on the challenge of the sea, usually in cold places and bad weather, and coming back with something meaningful to say. At one end of this spectrum sits the wonderful pastoral documentary sailing of Dylan Winter, and at the other end there are the great singlehanders, people like Roger Taylor and formerly David Lewis, who go to sea at least in part to see its malevolence. Trouble is, singlehanders in the middle of the ocean don’t necessarily make great videos, and there aren’t many of them out there anyway.
Enter Erik Aanderaa, clearly a fabulously accomplished sailor who sails his Contessa 35, Tessie, from Haugesund on the west coast of Norway. What sets his videos apart is his use of a professional drone, which flies alongside his boat and gives a thrid party perspective of Erik and Tessie in action, and this together with the usual go-pros located on the backstay and masthead capture his sailing brilliantly well. It helps that his sailing is all about going out and facing the kind of weather that 99.9% of cruisers consider completely out of the question, and the result is the most dynamic and thrilling sailing videos I think I’ve yet seen. I’m looking forward to following his adventures and you can check him out on youtube here.
Sailing Karisma 