WindPath offers exclusive America's Cup Coverage

The 34^th America’s Cup will be held in San Francisco California, right next to WindPath of San Fran, and we are pretty excited about it!

We have created a special portal site chocked full of America’s Cup video, photos, team information, venue information and more. Please visit http://www.windpath.com/ac34 and get ready for some amazing America’s Cup action!

Sinking Boat?

So I'm in Arizona at a conference for work when a buddy of mine sends me these pictures:

Now I'm accustomed to getting some pretty crazy images, but this guy below seems pretty relaxed for hanging out on a sinking boat...

Then I see the image of "The Vessel" (and I use the term lightly) in its slip:

Finally the last two images painted a very different, and surprising, picture:

The Love Love was built by French artist Julien Berthier to look as if it is sinking. The 6.5m (21ft) yacht was cut in half with a new keel and motor added so it remains in the sinking position while being fully functional. He describes it as "the permanent and mobile image of a wrecked ship that has become a functional and safe leisure object."

Berthier has taken the boat (or should I say half-a-boat) across the English Channel to London and has toured it around Europe, getting plenty of offers of assistance from unwitting good Samaritans, who would presumably be either very annoyed or rather bemused by the contraption.

I'm sure the Coast Guard will love this one if it makes it to the states!

Last week we pulled down our primary website because we wanted to give something back to you this holiday season. On Tuesday we posted the first of a series of videos entitled “The Road Less Traveled”, and today we released the second video in the series “The Greatest Gift”. If you are tired of giving the same old “stuff” to the people you care about, and want to do something really special this year please take a look. You can see it all at http://goboating.windpath.com

Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum

If you were online on Saturday (November 13th) and stopped by Google you might have noticed the really cool “doodle” logo for the day.

When I first saw it, for a second I thought they had somehow created two “International Talk Like a Pirate Days". No worries, its September 19th, and the original lies safely behind us this year.

When I clicked the doodle my memories were instantly thrown back to my childhood. You see Saturday was Robert Lewis Stevenson's birthday. As the author of Treasure Island Mr. Stevenson, who would have been 160 on Saturday, was largely responsible for hours upon hours of backyard treasure hunts, epic wooden sword duels, and hostile bunk bed boarding parties throughout my childhood.

The old shanty “Fifteen men on the dead man's chest- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” was first penned in the pages of this classic novel.

I can clearly remember fantasizing about life on the high seas, buried treasure and exotic ports of call after reading the novel and later seeing the movie (I wonder if Hollywood will ever do a new version of this one...).

Saturday night I raised a glass of rum to Mr. Stevenson for inspiring a youthful generation of modern day pirates born 200 years too late, and to his unforgettable characters like the marooned Old Ben Gun, the young and naive Jim, and the peg legged pirate leader masquerading as cook, Long John Silver.

Check out Treasure Island @ Amazon

Get the book here

Get the 1950 Disney movie here (I would pass on the 1982 musical remake, awful)

What is the Mesh?

Lisa Gansky's new book The Mesh, why the future of business is sharing (released September 23rd) goes straight to the heart of what WindPath and the shared boating industry as a whole is trying to achieve.

"The Mesh is reshaping how we go to market, who we partner with, and how we invite participation and engage new customers.... If you embrace the Mesh you'll discover how your business can inspire customers in a world where access trumps ownership." - Lisa Gansky get The Mesh at Amazon

The Mesh is all about sharing in the modern connected age. How social media and the internet, as enabling technologies, are rapidly creating a new business landscape of sharing. From cars to planes to handbags, and

of course boats, businesses and consumers are getting smarter and realizing that there is much more value in sharing these high cost sporadically used goods then in owning them.

WindPath Fractional Yachting embraces the principals discussed in the Mesh.

Boat share disasters

Want to know how to sink a boat, and a business, like a pro?

In this third video in the Splice Boating launch we take a look at what NOT to do with your shared boat. I expose 5 real world examples of shared boating disasters in the hopes that we can all learn from past mistakes.

http://www.SpliceBoating.com/launch

Break out another thousand

B.O.A.T = Break out another thousand

Heard that before? What a tuff image for such a great
activity, but the fact remains boats are expensive to
purchase, operate, and maintain...

Until now.

Today we launch Splice Boating, and with your help
we are going to change the way people look at boats.

I put together a short 5 minute video for the launch,
check it out here:

http://www.SpliceBoating.com/launch/

Splice Boating will offer something for everyone,
whether you are dreaming of the day you will get
that first boat, are already a boat owner, or own a
marine related business, Splice Boating was built
for you, check it out here:

http://www.SpliceBoating.com/launch/

Best,

Ian

P.S. This video will not be online indefinitely so please
plan accordingly, once the launch is complete I will be
pulling it down. I only share this because last time I
pulled down some free content there were some people
who were upset they did not have the opportunity to take
a look and I don't want that to happen again... So here's
the link:

http://www.SpliceBoating.com/launch/