Behind the Scenes, August 2024

Sharon Green

The walls of Scuttlebutt HQ include the Ultimate Sailing calendar by Sharon Green, with Betsy Senescu sharing this behind-the-scenes story regarding the August 2024 images.

We turn the tables on you with the August pages of the 2024 Ultimate Sailing Calendar. This exhilarating image of the TP52 Vitesse – cool, calm, and crackin’ down the Molokai Channel – was captured by our own intrepid Sharon Green: clearly hovering just inches above the spray! An added perspective on this shot comes to you from Vitesse skipper Thomas Furlong on the water, not just our aerial wizard.

After a thrilling Transpac Race start and a chance to intercept the fleet off Catalina Island, our next sighting of Vitesse was in the rollicking Molokai Channel – just 25-miles from the Diamond Head finish. Vitesse was barreling down the channel after a week of hard-core racing when Sharon zeroed in on them in the R44 helicopter.

“It is always such a thrill when one of your favorite teams finishes in the daylight,” exclaims Green. “After a week of nail biting and calculating ETAs, it is finally all about to happen. With the trackers these days, we are able to see the trajectory of the boat so we don’t waste any helicopter time scouring the horizon. Usually I just refresh the tracker in the helicopter as we pass over Koko Head and zero in on the boat.

“As you can see in some of the photos we flew way offshore to capture that iconic approach to Oahu. We happened to have another boat in the channel at the same time, not too far away, so we could bounce back and forth between the two.”

Green describes her modus operandi for capturing these thrilling shots in these challenging conditions.

“First we swoop down and wave to the team. Imagine this little helicopter coming at you after 2,000-plus nautical miles of solitude! We’re conscious of our noise, so to keep from distracting the team or interrupting the beauty of these final moments of the race, we make various passes at different heights and angles, then flit off and give them a bit of a break: especially if we are going all the way to the finish line with them. In this case, we popped over to photograph the other boat a bit before the finish: a total of over two hours in the air!”

She captured these images with a Canon 1Dx Mark II and 450mm lens; settings at 1/1600 sec/ 6.3 F-stop.

Vitesse skipper Furlong added, “Conditions were great! In 20-plus knots of wind we’re just flying, and we were in good shape. We know the boat, we’re all doing our jobs, we’re in total control.”

Not one to get flustered or distracted by the whir of the chopper and paparazzi circling close overhead, as Green dropped in to capture the featured photo in the August pages, Tom admits, “All I could think of was, ‘Are we going to lay the finish line?’

“That’s always the question, in that window of time. That’s what the ‘head shed’ behind me was talking about, whether we needed to steer up more or come down. And what’s funny is, that moment almost looks more exciting than it is. This boat is big and fast but she’s under control, everyone’s relaxed, we’re just focused on getting to the finish.”

Vitesse wrapped up the 2,225-mile crossing from Los Angeles in just seven days and three hours to capture second overall in the 40-boat fleet, and second in the hotly contested Division Three.

“We had six 52-footers in our class, some really tough competition all the way over,” Furlong noted. “It was a terrific race, just fantastic, and I had several of our crew say it was the greatest race they’re ever done.

“To memorialize that race in the Ultimate Sailing Calendar was awesome! Really neat. You’ve taken a lot of great shots of the boat in other events, but because the Transpac result was so good it was great to get the photo spread! I have multiple copies of the calendar. Thank you, it’s fantastic to get such a different perspective and remembrance of an amazing experience.”

We were thrilled too, to capture Vitesse on the home stretch from both air and water. It’s always a buzz when the boats finish in the daylight, in big breeze, along the lush coast of Oahu.

“This was a highlight of my racing career,” shared Fulong, but I added, “So far!” We see great things ahead for Tom and the crew of Vitesse.