#170. Magnus Rassy is one of my favorite characters in sailing. He's the CEO of Hallberg-Rassy and one of the most enthusiastic people in the sport. When I asked him how the new HR44 came to be, and why they needed a new model at all, his answer was pure Magnus.

The man has a twinkle in his eye when he talks about his boats and it was a joy to catch up with him for a second podcast interview, again recorded onboard the flagship HR 64 at their yard in Sweden, a year after our first.

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Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you listening in the US!

Mia & I just returned to the US after a blistering passage south with the Caribbean 1500. The 8 ½-day trip was a heck of a way to finish off the sailing season for us. We had it all - big winds and big seas up north, a few calm spells, and classic Trade Wind sailing under the SuperMoon a few weeks back. Our landfall in Tortola, as the moon was setting and the sun was rising, was a career highlight for me. Huge thanks to our crew of Ed, Bruce, David & Tom for making it such a memorable trip for Mia & I.

By the time you hear this, Mia & I will be on the way to Sweden. We've got the next two months 'off', so to speak - off the boat anyway. For me, it'll be a time to rest and reflect - during the long dark days of the Swedish winter, I'll be hibernating, and it'll be great.

I'll also be working of course, a little bit anyway - on this podcast, mainly, but also on some new creative projects, on keeping in touch with our crew for our 2017 passages and on answering emails from our listeners - so if I haven't gotten back to you yet, be patient, I'll try. And if you have something to say, now's a good time to get my attention, so fire away any ideas, suggestions or just a note to say hi.

Finally, we've made a few minor schedule changes for 2017, and a few of our crew have changed passages for next year so we have some open spots - 1 crew spot left for the Grendad-BVI trip in March; 3 available on the April Leeward Island & Dominica trip, which is now just ten days and scheduled to get you home in time for Easter; and 1 spot on the Azores to Scotland trip in June. That one in particular will be a great chance to do a proper long & challenging ocean passage. It's 1,200 miles in potential heavy weather, and the temperature will be dropping as we sail north to Oban. And of course we're all set up for the Arctic passages in 2018. See everything we have available and sign-up for a passage on 59-north.com/offshore.