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Sailing Magazine

April 2020 raymarine sailors of the month – hasso plattner.

Now here’s man who is absolutely passionate about his sailing, yet despite his age he just continues to mix it up with the best sailors in the world on the 52 Super Series circuit. Up until recently he was always a highly respected 505 dinghy sailor on the international circuit.

Hasso Plattner played a massive role in getting this series, as well as the now cancelled Rolex TP52 World Championship to Cape Town.

But this award is about sailing, so it was fitting that he won the opening race, and another, to ultimately finish second on the podium after 7 races – and that’s against some of the best sailors in the world.

Plattner helms his own boat, and has a cosmopolitan international crew aboard ‘Phoenix II’, amongst whom are some local South African sailors.

Plattner is alone in campaigning two boats in this series, with ‘Phoenix 12′ being helmed by his daughter Tina. She too has an international crew with South Africans included.

These two events brought top international sailor to our shores to sail on Table Bay with the iconic Table Mountain overseeing proceedings. It also gave local yachties an opportunity to see world class sailing at it’s very best.

Thank you Hasso for your contribution to the sport of sailing Hasso.

2020 Sailors of the Month

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Morning Glory lives up to her name

• July 25, 2005

Hasso Plattner's maxZ86s Morning Glory breaks Transpac record

Early yesterday morning on a moonlit sea the torch was passed to Hasso Plattner the man whose team outsailed Roy Disney’s and broke his record in the latter’s 15th and final Transpac.

Both were sailing futuristic maxZ86s in the Centennial sailing of the event and both broke Disney’s race record of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 11 seconds set in 1999, but Plattner’s Morning Glory was two hours faster than Disney’s fourth and last Pyewacket, lowering the standard to 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds. Pyewacket’s elapsed time was 6:18:32:25.

Their average speeds were 13.9 and 13.7 knots for the 2,225 nautical miles from California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula to the volcanic landmark called Diamond Head just east of Waikiki. Randall Pittman’s Genuine Risk, a Dubois 90 with similar lines, also beat the record with an elapsed time of 6:22:02:35, and Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80 and Doug DeVos’s Windquest were expected to join the club later in the day.

Their performances were remarkable because it wasn’t a particularly windy Transpac. Grant Baldwin, the retiring communications chief, referred repeatedly to “wimpy trade winds,” and Peter Isler, who co-navigated Morning Glory with Ian Moore, said: “We didn’t see 20 knots [of breeze] until the Molokai Channel.”

“These boats are fantastic,” Plattner added. “With the canting keels we have less weight and better righting moment. It’s a pity that more people aren’t joining in.”

Isler said, “This boat goes so fast effortlessly it’s amazing . . . 21, 22, 23 knots, and you don’t have the sensation of speed you have on a smaller boat. Everybody got a lot of sleep. It’s a pretty painless way to go on this boat in these [relatively mild] conditions.”

It was the longest race ever sailed by Russell Coutts, the three-time America’s Cup winner who sailed as a watch captain with Morgan Larson and said, “I really enjoyed it. It’s pretty easy to go 20 knots.” Larson joked, “It’s not fair. It shouldn’t be allowed. It’s too fast.”

Morning Glory led most of the way after the three top boats surprised some observers by going their own ways as soon as they passed Santa Catalina Island 22 miles off the California coast. “We stayed together for the first five hours,” Plattner said, smiling. “Then we saw that Pyewacket was going north and we were heading south. Then the next day we swapped.”

The gamesmanship continued until Genuine Risk dropped off the pace and Morning Glory was able to put Pyewacket behind it by as much as 71 miles, but then Pyewacket steadily cut that deficit in half the last couple of days.

“It was great fun until the last minutes when we had a little adrenaline rush with Pyewacket,” Plattner said. “When they came back [Saturday] we were worried.”

Isler sailed the previous race on Pyewacket when Philippe Kahn’s Pegasus ducked south early to gain an edge it never relinquished. Asked if he was thinking about that, Isler said, “Oh, yeah. Having got stung once by just relying on [technical data], we relied more on what was the best path to take.”

Plattner drove the windiest part of the race the final night through the Molokai Channel to the finish, but Morning Glory was a rare Transpac sight when it passed Diamond Head without flying a spinnaker. Plattner and Isler explained that they overstood by delaying their final gybe to be sure they could lay the finishing buoy and had to sail too high an angle to keep the asymmetrical chute filled. “But we still crossed the line doing 16 knots,” Isler said.

Division I (Started 17 July)

1. Morning Glory (R/P maxZ86), Hasso Plattner, Kiel, Germany (0:00:00), elapsed time 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds (betters record of 7:11:41:27 by Pyewacket 3, 1999)

2. Pyewacket (R/P maxZ86), Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles (0:00:00), 6:18:32:25

3. Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach (9:44:58), 138 miles to go

4. Scout Spirit (R/P 77), Bill Turpin, Newport Beach, Calif. (32:21:35), 399

5. Genuine Risk (Dubois 90), Randall Pittman, La Jolla, Calif. (0.00:23), 50

6. Beecom (Reichel/Pugh 72), Isao Mita, Yokohama, Japan (30:16:07), 404

7. Windquest (R/P maxZ86), Dick & Doug DeVos, Holland, Mich. (6:51:07), 184

Division II (Started July 17)

1. Pegasus 52 (Transpac 52), Philippe Kahn, Honolulu (51:49:29), 464

2. Rosebud (Transpac 52), Roger Sturgeon, San Francisco (55:04:54), 501

3. Coruba (N/M 68), Rob and Suzanne Fleming, Seattle (57:52:37), 561

4. Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Long Beach (45:59:58), 472

5. Trader (Transpac 52), Fred Detwiler, Pompano Beach, Fla. (52:18:39), 529

6. Skylark (S/C 70), Doug Ayres, Newport Beach (52:18:53), 530.

7. Mongoose (Santa Cruz 70), Bradley Thorson, Bellevue, Wash. (57:38:37), 592

8. Ragtime (Spencer 66), Peterson/Richards/Welsh, Honolulu (69:08:37), 675

9. Braveheart (Transpac 52), Charles Burnet, Seattle (55:23:53), 606

10. Merlin (Lee 68), Patricia Steele, Maui, H.I. (41:54:03), 577

11. Bengal 2 (Ohashi 52), Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya, Japan (64:07:15), 776

12. Renegade (Andrews 70), Dan Sinclair, Vancouver, B.C. (40:03:46), 635

13. Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, Encino, Calif. (65:20:10), RETIRED

Division III (Started July 15)

1. Reinrag2 (J/125), Tom Garnier, Portland, Ore. (90:15:09), 493

2. The Cone of Silence (Super 30), Jamie and Jenny Neill, Sydney, Australia (83:69:39), 469

3. Cipango (Andrews 56), Bob & Rob Barton, San Francisco (84:08:21), 490

4. Stealth Chicken (Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (80:52:12), 492

5. Bolt (Nelson/Marek 55), Craig Reynolds, Newport Beach, Calif. (90:16:35), 550

6. Artemis (Andrews 53), Louis Bianco, Seattle (90:58:29), 562

7. Jeito (J/145), Francisco Guzman, Acapulco, Mexico (86:10:42), 571

8. Blue (J/160), Ken and /Cheryl Sears, Nashville, Tenn. (93:03:17), 615

9. Innocent Merriment (J/160), Myron Lyon, San Diego (91:10:54), 630

10. DH-Serena (T1150), David Kuettel/Dave Van Houten, Bel Marin, Calif. (84:32:16), 628

11. Barking Spider 3 (MacGregor 65), David Kory, Concord, Calif. (74:38:45), 616

12. Dasher (S/C 50), Roger Groh, Sausalito, Calif. (89:38:24), 828

13. Chasch Mer (S/C 50), Gib Black, Honolulu (95:31:20), NO REPORT

Division IV (Started July 15)

1. Tabasco (1D35), Alamitos Bay Syndicate, Long Beach. (115:31:05), 613

2. DH-Two Guys On the Edge (1D35), Dan Doyle, Kailua, H.I. (114:54:33), 689

3. Wild Impulse (J/120), Larry Barels, Santa Barbara, Calif. (122:19:04), 733

4. Sensation (1D35), Rodney Hagebols, San Francisco. (115:11:28), 707

5. Kahoots (Andrews 43), Kerry Deaver/Bob Williamson, Newport Beach (119:24:28), 753

6. Pursuit (Custom 48), Norman and Rosemary Dawley, Solomons, Md. (121:2:04), 775

7. Uproarious (Olson 40), Robert Bussard, San Diego. (123:41:45), 818

Division V (Started July 11)

1. DH-Soap Opera (Hobie 33), Scott Self/Nigel Brown, Rockwall, Tex. (141:56:43), 53

2. Brown Sugar (Express 37), Steve Brown, Santa Ana, Calif. (141:30:59), 126

3. Super Gnat (Beneteau First 40.7), Cliff Thompson, San Diego (132:16:04), 79

4. B’Quest (Tripp 40), Challenged America, San Diego (136:41:18), 155

5. Showdown (IMX 38), Pete Meade/Mike Luna/ Paul McDonald, Irvine, Calif. (136:02:44), 171

6. DH-Diablo (J/35), Reed Bernhard/Brian VanderZanden, Anacortes, Wash. (150:24:54), 311

7. Iataia (Beneteau First 40.7), Marcos Rodriguez, Acapulco, Mexico (133:59:14), 242

8. DH-Jacaré (J/35), Jeff Young/Rich Blackman, San Diego (148:46:04), 367

Cal 40 (Started July 11)

1. Ralphie (Cal 40), Davis Pillsbury, Woody Creek, Colo. (165:37:14), 146

2. Psyche (Cal 40), Steve Calhoun, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. (166:05:17), 218

3. Illusion (Cal 40), Sally Honey, Palo Alto, Calif. (167:07:37), 225

4. Far Far (Cal 40), Don Grind, Naples, Fla. (164:53:27), 215

5. Seafire (Cal 40), John Harrison, Honolulu. (168:13:35), 237

6. Shaman (Cal 40), Steve Waterloo, Alameda, Calif. (166:13:50), 241

7. Callisto (Cal 40), Jim Eddy, Glendale, Calif. (164:44:47), 233

8. Radiant (Cal 40), Fin Beven, Pasadena, Calif. (164:09:20), 243

9. Dancing Bear (Cal 40), Mark Schrader, Sitka, Alaska. (165:01:55), 270

10. Azure (Cal 40), Rodney Pimentel, Alameda, Calif. (165:50:20), 287

11. Willow Wind (Cal 40), Wendy Siegal, Sunset Beach, Calif. (166:28:31), 312

12. Spectre (Cal 40), Lee Rogge, Seattle. (165:13:28), 328

13. Bubala (Cal 40), Lloyd Sellinger, Newport Beach. (168:51:37), 468

14. California Girl (Cal 40), Don and Betty Lessley, Richmond, Calif. (163:20:29), RETIRED

Aloha A (Started July 11)

1. Between the Sheets (Jeanneau 52), Ross Pearlman, Marina del Rey, Calif., elapsed time 12:12:22:08, corrected time 7:06:08:51

2. Odyssey (58′ yawl), Audrey Steele Burnand, Newport Beach, ET 12:15:10:48, CT 7:06:17:01

3. Plan B (Peterson 48), David Johnson, Long Beach, ET 12:16:52:51, CT 7:09:45:32

4. Madrina (Cabo Rico 56), Dick Simon, Dana Point, Calif. (124:52:04), 46

5. Incredible (Swan 53), Rick Gorman, Los Alamitos, Calif. (126:14:24), 100

6. DH-Charmed Life (Catalina 470), Patricia Garfield/Diane Murray, San Francisco (131:54:20), 325

7. Enchilado (Jeanneau 54), Cesar de Saracho, Mazatlan, Mexico. (112:22:50), 265

8. Shanakee II (Pedrick 74), James Warmington, Costa Mesa, Calif. (83:26:25), 537 (started July 15)

Aloha B (Started July 11)

1. So Far (Swan 48), Larry Hillman, Chicago (147:28:54), 107

2. Pipe Dream (CF 37), John Davis, Long Beach. (164:43:08), 312

3. Wind Dancer (Catalina 42), Paul Edwards, Ventura, Calif. (149:50:14), 234

4. Azure (Swan 441), Samuel Beckey, San Diego. (138:17:59), 539

5. DH-Camille (Stewart 42), James and Ann Read, San Francisco (141:52:48), 1,022

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Plattner’s Visione takes pride of place in Superyacht fleet

Visione , owned by Bermuda resident Hasso Plattner, is among an extensive fleet of yachts that will compete for the coveted Boat International America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta Trophy when racing begins today.

Plattner’s Reichel/Pugh design Baltic 147 underwent a refit in 2007 and since then has produced a string of impressive showings, including claiming class honours at the 2015 Superyacht Challenge Antigua.

Visione is among the fastest superyachts in the fleet and among her crew is Glenn Astwood, the former Bermuda Olympic sailor.

A new champion will be crowned this year as the 180ft twin-masted schooner Adela is not back to defend her title.

Among the other contenders for Adela’s vacated title are the classic 43-metre yacht Rebecca, 88-metre Maltese Falcon and the 47-metre Hyperion .

The America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta is an invitational event, open to yachts measuring a minimum of 24 metres in length. The fleet will be divided into classes based on the size and specifications of the entrants.

The regatta will also feature the most complete fleet of J Class ever assembled.

These majestic titans of sail competed for the America’s Cup during the 1930s and are perhaps still some of the most famous yachts afloat. Only ten J Class yachts were ever built.

“The Boat International Media Superyacht Regatta is a unique event at the heart of the 35th America’s Cup,” said Darrell McLennan Fordyce, chief marketing and events officer at Boat International Media.

“We are excited to see these extraordinary yachts showcased as they compete in Bermuda and we look forward to congratulating the winning owners and crews at the end of the regatta.”

The one-design J Class will start and race as a single fleet. The Superyacht fleet will start and race in a staggered start format, with individual starting times. The Superyacht fleet may be divided into as many as three classes. The race committee reserves the right to change from the staggered start to pursuit format.

The J Class yachts will be scored based on the JCA handicap, while the Superyacht fleet rating rule is the ORC Superyacht Rule.

The offshore regatta will also feature some of the world’s most experienced sailors, including Brad Butterworth, a four-times America’s Cup winner, as well as Olympic medal-winners Peter Holmberg, Ross MacDonald, Ian Walker and Shirley Robertson.

Racing will take place north, east and south off St George’s.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club is hosting the regatta, which runs from today to Thursday, in conjunction with Boat International Media and the America’s Cup Event Authority.

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Plattner Sets Record in Transpac Victory

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Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory, sliding smoothly through a moonlit sea, finished the centennial Transpacific Yacht Race in moderate winds just after 2 a.m. local time Sunday to smash the record held by his nearest rival, Roy Disney.

Although it wasn’t a particularly windy Transpac, the maxZ86s proved their slippery power. The German boat’s time for the 2,225 nautical miles was 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds, lopping almost a day off the record of 7:11:41:27 set by Disney’s previous Pyewacket in 1999.

The new Pyewacket crossed the Diamond Head finish line almost exactly 2 1/2 hours later in what was Disney’s 15th and final Transpac.

Two boats finished ahead of the two maxZ86s -- Ross Pearlman’s Jeanneau 52, Between the Sheets, at 10:22 p.m. Saturday, and the 68-year-old yawl Odyssey, with Cecil Rossi as skipper, 54 minutes ahead of Morning Glory -- but they were Aloha A class entries that got a six-day head start on the big boats.

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“I never ever mooned Larry Ellison”

• Updated: March 14, 2003

In his own words, Hasso Plattner recalls what happened at the 1996 Kenwood Cup, when his maxi Morning Glory lost its rig. As Larry Ellison has often told it, Plattner mooned his business and sporting rival as Ellison, on board his maxi Sayonara , was sailing by. Plattner has vehemently denied this. Here is his version of the events that day in Hawaii. “We had a business meeting and he told me he was building a maxi yacht, must be 1994 or ’95. My maxi, Morning Glory , came a year later, and from 1996 on we raced against each other. We were racing [at the Kenwood Cup in 1996] and we had a bad first race. Then we had a win in the second and we were about to win the next one and we would’ve been in the lead¿we were faster, we felt we were faster.

I was sailing against [Chris] Dickson, but with Russell [Coutts]’s help. But I steered the whole time Dickson was steering Sayonara and our mast came down. It was the last tack before the windward mark, probably five boat lengths in front of the windward mark, and the whole s–t comes down. “ Sayonara was at that point probably 10 boat lengths behind us because we had a nice little America’s Cup start, we were both late. They had to jibe and nearly hit a spectator boat. We are the second to last boat over the line and they are the last boat over the line. But we were faster than all the other ones. Then it happened. That was probably the turning point. Until then, I tried to have a normal relationship with [Larry]. We had high waves in Hawaii, typical Kenwood Cup waves, our mast is broken at the second spreader.

Somebody goes up in the mast, a French dentist, and cuts and cuts and cuts half of his thumb off. So he comes down, it’s bleeding, I still remember Matthew [Mason] saying, “Don’t look at it. Don’t look at it.” We had another dentist on board and within less than a minute they had the needles and the yarn out because when a dentist loses a thumb they’re done. So they were stitching the thumb together. The fourth spreader was still banging against the hull so everybody was focused on that. Then we secured the mast, cut the other stuff; this happened unbelievably quickly.” Sayonara sailed by, looked at us. You know how sailors are when you see a mishap of somebody else. First you calculate that they’re [out of the race] and you’re ahead and you get a first and they get a did not finish. So that’s probably in their faces and they just sail by and they’re gone. Larry and his whole crew is gone. We start the engine and the engine doesn’t engage. The pin is broken and we are without engine. And now the boat is tumbling in the waves. The mast is secured, but we can’t move. So there are tenders and we ask for help.

We ask the shore base. A tender will be out, but it will take half an hour. A small tender comes, but it can’t take us in the waves, we are too heavy. Here comes Oracle’s tender. Goes around and around. We make all the signals, ‘C’mon pick us up, give us a tow.’ We communicated to them they should not tow us into the harbor, just tow us into the wind so we could clean up the rest and then our tender would come and pick us up and get us home. They didn’t react. They didn’t react. They circled us probably twice. Then I made the official signal. There’s 20 people working and still cleaning up things, I do this here [waves outstretched arms vertically]. They take a video camera and do another round and videotape. When they come the last time from the stern, to take a nice shot from behind. I lowered my pants. I said: ‘If you have to have this on your video, when you go home you should feel s–tty about what you did.’ There is a yacht with 22 people out and we have a serious problem. We have an injury, we don’t know the amount of the injury. But we had blood on the whole boat, we have no engine and we have high waves.

They disappear, so we give them some nice America four-letter words and then a big boat came and it took us one and a half hours to get back in the harbor because we had to go slowly the mast banging. We put everything we had between the mast and the hull. So we go home, the race is over, we are done. “Years later I read in the Wall Street Journal that I mooned Larry Ellison. I write to the Wall Street Journal this is not true and they have to redo this. My advisors say: ‘No, don’t get involved with the Wall Street Journal, it’ll only get worse and everybody will pick up the story.’ I made the mistake and gave in. Then it quieted off and then Larry Ellison brought it up in interviews again, two times. In German, when he came to Germany, he made snide comments, one comment was my ass looked so awful that he feared about the mental health of his crew when he sailed by.

Another story was that I was so pissed when we lost the race and the World Championships in Sardinia in 1997 in Italy that I came by his boat and mooned him. The day when this should’ve happened, he had already left, because he didn’t race the last race because he was not there. They were moored inside, we were moored outside. We never went by him. So now again I ask my lawyers, ‘Shall I do something?’ and they said, ‘Let it die down.'”I met him in Italy and I said, ‘Larry, why are you doing this?'”‘I’m not doing anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about. You never mooned me. I never saw anything.'”I said, ‘Larry, who is writing this s–t?'”‘I don’t know, I will take care of it.'”And then he did it a third time.

So that’s Larry Ellison. Everything has been said. Therefore I would never enter an America’s Cup and sail against him. I do this for fun. What I don’t understand is that he put this in a business context and so I think this is an absolute scandal. And then I ask again my lawyers, ‘I’ll make a statement under oath. I never ever mooned Mr. Larry Ellison, nor his Sayonara crew.’ And isn’t that enough? Is there anybody in the world who believes in me? I have 22 quotes signed by the whole crew, half of them the Black Magic [NZL-32] crew, that it was not Sayonara , it was the tender. Sayonara was long gone. There was no reason. I had nothing with Larry Ellison. He couldn’t help it, he was racing by, he says, ‘Good Bye! Thank you for letting us through.’ I didn’t expect any help from them. But we expected help from any of shore crew. And not taking video. That made me really upset.”

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Hasso Plattner

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Hasso Plattner SAP Co-chairman and CEO 57, German www.sap.com

During a 1996 race off the coast of Hawaii, Plattner's yacht, the Morning Glory, had a breakdown. A boat owned by archrival Larry Ellison, the head of Oracle, cruised by and the crew allegedly mocked Plattner's plight by videotaping rather than helping. He famously mooned the camera.

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Morning Glory is a name synonymous with success in the Cape 2 Rio Race

Morning Glory is a name synonymous with success in the Cape 2 Rio Race, Dr Hasso Plattner seen celebrating with his illustrious crew on board Fancourt Morning Glory on achieving line honours in 1996 Race. Many of this crew are household names in the sport of yacht and small boat racing – notably 5x Olympic medallist @Torben Grael, and The Ocean Race Winner, Bouwe Bekking to name but a few who else can you recognise?

Boat named Morning Glory with Dr. Plattner at the helm have achieved the following set of results, 1993 South Atlantic Trophy Winner – overall handicap, 1996 Line Honours Winner with Fancourt Morning Glory. SAP the global software corporation founded by Dr. Plattner has also been a proud sponsor of the of the Cape to Rio Race for which we are truly grateful.

2023 is set to be a bumper event, we are looking to crown the Races 50 year anniversary to be celebrated next with an impressive fleet of entries.

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The Hasso Plattner Collection includes 113 works. With 39 paintings by Claude Monet, its focus is on French Impressionism. Discover the artists and their work here.

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• Decades of Sailing - The 1940’s
• The Story of the 1965 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1967 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1969 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1971 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1973 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1975 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1976 Tahiti Race
• The Story of the 1977 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1978 Tahiti Race
• The Story of the 1979 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1981 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1983 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1985 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1987 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1989 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1991 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1993 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1994 Tahiti Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1995 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1997 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 1999 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 2001 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 2003 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 2005 Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 2007 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 2008 Tahiti Yacht Race
• The Story of the 2009 Transpacific Yacht Race
• The Story of the 2011 Transpacific Yacht Race
• 2011 Bill Lee Interview
• The Story of the 2012 Tahiti Race
• The Story of the 2013 Transpacific Yacht Race: A Race for Both the Old and the New
• The Story of the 2015 Transpacific Yacht Race: An Unusual Race in an El Nino Year
• The 2017 Transpac: “Normal” weather returns and with this records fall

Race Records

• Transpac’s Historic Highlights
• The Essence of the Transpac Race from Those Who Have Conquered It
• The Origins of the Transpac Race
• The Story of the 2019 Transpacific Yacht Race: Huge Turnout for Anniversary Race
• Transpac 51 – An interesting but successful and fast year

LOS ANGELES TO HONOLULU

Elapsed time race records are achieved through a unique combination of circumstances: the limitations on the size and style of boats competing in the race, the steady improvement of yacht design and technology, the skill and efficiency of the crew and the navigator, and of course one of the most important factors of all: the weather.

On any given year of this race on the designated start date, it is the North Pacific weather patterns that will dictate whether or not a race record could be threatened by the first-to-finish contenders entered in the race. These patterns must be in precise alignment to deliver consistent (not necessarily strong) winds over a course track that also minimizes the actual distance raced from Point Fermin to Diamond Head.

With modern technology in weather analysis, boat speed prediction and routing software, the tools are better than ever to deliver more records should these factors line up in future races.

And its important to note the difference between race records and course records: the latter is often faster because a team may await for weeks at any favorable time of year to have the precise alignment of weather needed to have a go at a record run.

One of the longest-standing records in Transpac history (20 years) was set in 1977 by the yacht  Merlin , designed by Bill Lee, with an elapsed time of 8 days 11 hours 1 minute and 45 seconds. This was more than just a remarkable time: the feat set off a revolution of interest in light fast offshore-capable yacht design and create a new generation of interest in West Coast offshore racing that would also export itself elsewhere as well.

In the 1997 race Roy P. Disney sailing the family’s turbo-charged Santa Cruz 70  Pyewacket  finally broke the race record by getting to Honolulu in 7 days 15 hours 24 minutes and 40 seconds, taking almost a day off  Merlin's  long lasting time.

In 1999 Roy E. Disney built a new  Pyewacket , a 73-foot maxi ultralight yacht designed by Reichel/Pugh which recaptured the record from his son with an elapsed time of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes and 27 seconds. In recognition of all monohull yachts that may set new race records, Disney commissioned noted designer Andrea Favilli to create a trophy, formally called the Transpac Honolulu Race Elapsed Time Record Trophy , but informally referred to as “the Clock Trophy.”

The record fell once again in 2005, with Germany’s Hasso Plattner racing his maxZ86  Morning Glory , the scratch boat leading a five-boat assault that year on the monohull record. She finished the race in 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes and 11 seconds to win the “ Barn Door " trophy, an elaborately-carved large slab of carved Hawaiian Koa wood traditionally awarded to the monohull with the fastest elapsed time.

Fastest daily runs are also remarkable achievements and worthy of note. On July 7, 2009, New Zealander Neville Crichton and his team on the Reichel/Pugh 100  Alfa Romeo II  bested  Morning Glory’s  record for best day's run set in the 2005 race by sailing 399 nautical miles in 24 hours at an average speed of 16.6 knots. The next two days she broke her own best-day records by sailing 420 nautical miles and then 431 nautical miles (average speed nearly 18 knots).

Also first to finish in 2009,  Alfa Romeo II  set a Transpac race elapsed-time record of 5 days 14 hours 36 minutes 20 seconds. However, because she uses stored power (a diesel engine) to create the hydraulic pressure needed to move her canting keel,  Alfa Romeo II was not eligible for the traditional Barn Door trophy, but instead was the inaugural winner of a new trophy dedicated by Trisha Steele, called the Merlin Trophy . This new trophy started a new tradition in Transpac to recognize the most advanced monohull designs allowed to race.

In that year’s double-handed division,  Pegasus 50 , an Owen Clarke-designed Open 50 sailed by Philippe Kahn and Mark Christensen, also set a new record of 7 days 19 hours 38 minutes and 35 seconds. They took 2.5 days off the previous record set in 2001 by Howard Gordon and Jay Crum who also raced an Open 50. Kahn and Christensen pioneered use of an iPhone, with Fullpower-MotionX GPS technology.

In 2017 multiple race records were broken. Jim Clark’s VPLP 100  Comanche   skippered by Ken Read set the new Merlin trophy elapsed time record at 5 days 1 hour 55 minutes 26 seconds for an impressive average speed on the course of 18 knots.  Comanche  also set the best 24-hour distance record at 484.1 nm, a 20.2 knot average speed. The steady conditions in that year’s race also allowed H.L. Enroe’s on his ORMA 60 trimaran  Mighty Merloe  to set the multihull elapsed time record at 4 days 6 hours 32 minutes 30 seconds, and average speed on the course of 21.7 knots.

In 2019 there were no new records set, but the Barn Door Trophy was re-dedicated to be awarded to the fastest monohull in each race, while the Merlin Trophy was re-dedicated to be awarded to the fastest monohull in the race without stored power.

THE TAHITI RACE

In 2008, Doug Baker, with his four-year-old Magnitude 80 speedster ripped about 3 1/2 days off Kathmandu's 1994 elapsed time record, sailing to Tahiti in 11 days 10 hours 13 minutes 18 seconds (average speed 13.0 knots). He said, "When you have a boat like this, any record is always your goal. It's an adventure, not just a race."

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SAP Ultimate Transformation: Iconic Chairman Hasso Plattner to Step Down

Capping off a profound transformation that has turned SAP into one of the world’s fastest-growing major cloud providers, founder Hasso Plattner, whose vision and passion inspired SAP for more than half a century, will step down as chairman next year, further solidifying CEO Christian Klein’s status as the company’s unquestioned leader.

While SAP is in the process of appointing a new chairman of its supervisory board, it will be impossible for the company to replace Hasso Plattner, who founded the company with four partners in 1972 and spent the next 51 years making enterprise applications absolutely indispensable business tools.

Under Plattner’s leadership, enterprise apps not only codified work that was being done but also radically transformed the nature and scope of that work, connecting suppliers, partners, and customers — indeed, entire industries — in ways that were never before possible.

Driven by the combative and highly competitive Plattner, SAP first created and then clearly dominated the enterprise-apps category for more than 40 years until the explosive growth of the cloud entangled SAP in a classic example of Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma .

Former CEO Bill McDermott then used acquisitions to build a significant cloud business for SAP, but the company faced daunting challenges in attempting to unify those new cloud products with its core ERP products. In an attempt to pull those disparate pieces together, Plattner led — and if not led, surely inspired and aggressively motivated — the development of SAP’s HANA in-memory database, which ultimately become the core of the company’s hugely successful S/4HANA Cloud ERP suite.

And it is within the rise of S/4HANA Cloud that we can see the arc of what has been an elegant and essential transfer of behind-the-scenes influence and power from Plattner to CEO Christian Klein, who took over as sole CEO early in 2020.

In this context, it’s important to recall that while Plattner has served as chairman of SAP’s supervisory board since 2003, he has also carried the title of Chief Software Advisor . If overplayed, that role could have created counterproductive factions within SAP at a time when the company needed to move forward with intense and singular focus and at a speed matching the upheavals taking place among customers and prospects.

But Plattner appears to have managed that transition artfully and successfully, and he deserves enormous credit for acknowledging — quietly, perhaps, but nevertheless acknowledging — that Klein now needs to be viewed by everyone inside and outside SAP as the company’s unquestioned leader.

With S/4HANA Cloud revenue growing close to 100% over the past few quarters, and with SAP’s Business Technology Platform now providing a thoroughly modern end-to-end unifying force for all of SAP’s applications and related solutions, Klein has provided the tangible proof that he deserves that elevated consideration and latitude.

It can’t have been easy for Plattner to decide to step away from the company that he created, nurtured, inspired, and ultimately drove to enormous success. To get a quick sense of this, take a look at a remarkable YouTube video he made about 12 years ago in which — and yes, I’m being serious — he interviews himself. It’s called Hasso on Hasso and I will just say that whatever feelings you happen to currently hold about Plattner, this video will likely intensify those feelings.

Final Thought

In a piece I wrote last month called The New SAP Crushes Q4 , I highlighted that, in Q4, S/4HANA Cloud rose 101% and SAP’s overall cloud business now accounts for 40% of the company’s total revenue.

If ever the time was right for Hasso Plattner to move on to the next chapter in a life jammed with achievement and adventure, that time is now. So I tip my hat to Plattner for taking what must have been a difficult step and wish him all the best with his various ventures (Hasso Plattner Institute, sailboat racing, San Jose Sharks, and much more).

As for Christian Klein and his plans for SAP’s future, check out my recent CEO Outlook 2023 video interview with Klein as he describes a dynamic new business world. And in watching that, we should bear in mind that all of SAP’s fast-growing cloud-based innovations were built on the foundation laid 51 years ago by Hasso Plattner.

To hear more data modernization, AI/hyperautomation, cybersecurity, and growth strategies from CIO practitioners, tune into Acceleration Economy’s Digital CIO Summit, which takes place April 4-6. Register for the free event here .

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Founder of Cloud Wars and Co-Founder of the Acceleration Economy, Bob leads the strategic direction of the global analyst network and actively covers the Cloud and Digital Business categories. Creator of Cloud Wars Top 10, a ranking and ongoing analysis world's most influential tech companies driving digital business and the digital economy. World-class strategic communicator focused on emerging business strategy, disruptive innovation, and forward-looking leadership.

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Sabine and hasso plattner.

Heidelberg, Germany

Software (SAP AG Software Company)

East German art; Impressionism

Hasso Plattner, a German billionaire, famously left the technology company IBM in the 1970s to form his own software business, SAP—an acronym that stands for “Systems, Applications, Products.” Plattner loves paintings by East German artists. He favors the Leipzig School in particular, and major names in his collection include Wolfgang Mattheuer, Werner Tübke, Bernhard Heisig, Willi Sitte, Ulrich Hachulla, Erich Kissing, Hartwig Ebersbach, Arno Rink, and Michael Triegel. In 2004 he founded the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University, focused on producing creative solutions to complex design-related challenges. 

In May 2019, after eight minutes of intense bidding, one of Monet’s 1890 “Meules” paintings hammered for $110.7 million, making it the most high-priced Impressionist work ever sold at auction. The buyer, at the time, was unknown, but industry sources said that the couple who placed the winning bid was on a multimillion-dollar buying spree on behalf Plattner, who, in addition to buying German art, is well-known to collect big-ticket Impressionist art, by the likes of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. (Plattner has publicly denied buying the Monet.) The month before the auction took place, Plattner announced that the long-shuttered Communist-era restaurant Minsk in Potsdam, Germany, will be the location for a new museum for his collection . It will be the second institution operated by Plattner in the city, after the Barberini Museum, and opening it will be no small undertaking—building the museum requires reconstructing the facade and renovating the interior. “We are getting short of space in the Barberini,” Plattner told the Art Newspaper . “The Minsk would convert well into a museum.”

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52 Super Series : Hasso and Tina Plattner in double duty off Menorca

Tatjana Pokorny

 ·  23.05.2019

The first starting gun for the 52 Super Series 2019 has been fired off Menorca. At the halfway point, the favourites are ahead: the American team Quantum Racing leads the classification after five of ten races, ahead of the Italian "Azzurra". The Turkish "Provezza" is surprisingly in third place ahead of Harm Müller-Spreer's "Platoon", which is also only three points behind the leaders.

For the first time, Hasso Plattner ("Phoenix 11") and his daughter Tina Plattner (Phoenix 12) will be racing with two boats under the South African flag. As an alternating father-daughter team, the two enjoyed the exciting competitions in the class so much last year that they will be in double action with two boats throughout this season. Because Tina Plattner lives in South Africa and wants to make a difference to sailing there, the yachts are sailing under the RSA flag.

Hasso Plattner had the idea of entering the class a few years ago. In 2014, he and his daughter found their first second-hand "Phoenix" from a broker and sailed her together in Europe. Because it was so much fun, father and daughter went on to purchase a new TP-52 yacht. Hasso Plattner's motto: "Let's do this and really go for it again together." They chose the world's leading regatta series for monohull yachts. Tina Plattner said: "It's really cool to walk down the dock at a 52 Super Series regatta. The number of America's Cup people, Olympic medallists and world class people is a bit impressive and also a bit scary. But everyone has stayed grounded, which is a lot of fun."

What has Tina Plattner learnt from her often successful father? "Quite a lot! He has always been my biggest hero in sailing. I didn't know the celebrity sailors like that before. My father often won the 'Line Honours' with his maxis for the first boat to cross the finish line. That really impressed me. Now he's 75 and dares to take on this project again. That's great. Because you know what you've achieved in the field, even if you finish eighth. He enjoys that. The sailors always say about him that he can analyse and learn very quickly. That's true. His mind is brilliant." "Phoenix 11" and "Phoenix 12" are currently in seventh and ninth place. However, both helmsmen and their crews have already shown with strong individual finishes that they want more and can do more.

Here to see the intermediate results.

Most read in category Regatta

Always on view: Impressionism: Hasso Plattner Collection

The permanent exhibition at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam presents museum founder Hasso Plattner’s extensive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. With 113 masterpieces by 23 artists including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Henri-Edmond Cross, and Paul Signac, the collection shows French landscape painting in a uniquely coherent and comprehensive way. With 39 paintings by Claude Monet, it is the largest collection of Monet’s work in Europe outside of Paris, making Potsdam one of the most important centers of Impressionist landscape painting worldwide.

This year the Museum Barberini celebrates the 150th anniversary of Impressionism—discover more here !

From Impressionism to Fauvism

Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley joined forces as an artists’ group in the 1860s. Liberating themselves from the traditional motifs of their time, they revolutionized art with their sun-drenched landscapes. In 1874, they became known as “Impressionists,” working in the open air and capturing fleeting impressions directly on the canvas. Berthe Morisot, Paul Cézanne, and Gustave Caillebotte later joined this new artistic movement, and Paul Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross further developed the Impressionist style with Pointillism in the 1890s. The early twentieth-century Fauves, including Maurice de Vlaminck and André Derain, turned their back on Impressionism and Pointillism in favor of a painting style marked by flat, brilliant colors. The Impressionists, Neo-Impressionists, and Fauves all pursued the same ideal: to evoke the sensory experience of nature through light and color.

David von Becker

“As viewers, we are immediately drawn into the paintings. We feel the wind on our skin and the temperature of the water when we look at Monet’s sailboats on the Seine. No other art can do that. The Impressionists are geniuses of communication.”

The Hasso Plattner Collection in the Museum Barberini

French Impressionism has been the focus of museum founder Hasso Plattner’s collecting activities since 2000. In the fall of 2020, about three years after the opening of the Museum Barberini, Hasso Plattner transferred 103 works from his private collection and from the holdings of the Hasso Plattner Foundation to the museum on permanent loan. In 2022 and 2023, ten new acquisitions were added to the collection, including a painting from Claude Monet’s famous series of the Houses of Parliament in London. The collection now comprises 113 masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism by 23 artists. With 39 paintings by Claude Monet, the museum holds the largest group of Monet’s works in Europe outside of France, as well as outstanding pieces by Caillebotte, Pissarro, Signac, Sisley, and Vlaminck. Among the best-known paintings in the collection are Caillebotte’s  The Argenteuil Bridge and the Seine  (ca. 1883), Signac’s  The Port at Sunset, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez)  (1892), and Monet’s Grainstacks  (1890),  The Palazzo Contarini  (1908), and Water Lilies  (1914–17).

DAvid von Becker

“No other collection can show French Impressionist landscape painting so comprehensively and coherently, in terms of both development and iconography. Through our works, visitors can learn not only about the history of this fascinating art movement, but also about the subsequent development of landscape painting by the Neo-Impressionists and Fauvists.”

The collection on view in the Museum Barberini spans the period from the 1850s to the early twentieth century and brings together works by three generations of artists who often worked together, traveled to the same places to paint, and mutually inspired each other. With nine major themes, the permanent exhibition offers the opportunity to trace the development of French landscape painting through the styles of Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, and Fauvism.

Please note that the Fauve room will be closed for the duration of the Munch exhibition.

View of the exhibition

Over 110 works by 23 artists tell the story of French Impressionism—from its beginnings in the 19th century to its continued development by the Pointillists and Fauves of classic modernism.

“With its permanent exhibition of Impressionists, Potsdam moves far to the front of the rankings for German museum locations”

“SAP founder Hasso Plattner gives his art collection a museum home. The Museum Barberini in Potsdam now proudly displays Impressionist paintings”

“A coup! Impressionism collection of Hasso Plattner now permanently on view in Potsdam”

“Such an abundance of French landscapes and city paintings are now on view here, from Pissarro to Picasso, that one hardly wants to go back out into the outside world”

“In Potsdam, more than a hundred masterpieces from the collection of SAP founder Hasso Plattner are now on view in a permanent exhibition at the Museum Barberini”

“A moment of joy, a beacon of hope, a spirit of generosity, a homage to nature ... a must-see destination for the birth of modern art“

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Best Student Paper Award for Bjarne Pfitzner

Lecture series on current database research.

The HPI doctoral student was honored for his work in the field of digital health at a conference near Los Angeles. > Go to article

The hybrid lecture series on databases starts on October 17 and will be offered at several German universities. > Go to article

HPI staff votes for Institute Council

25 years of hasso plattner institute.

The Institute Council enables more worker participation also for student assistants and scholarship holders. > Go to article

The Hasso Plattner Institute is turning 25 this year! Let's celebrate - with exciting stories and events. > Go to article

“Service to the scientific community”

New hpi professorship for data-intensive internet computing.

Prof. Felix Naumann is editor-in-chief of the "Journal of Data and Information Quality". We interviewed him about his work. > Go to article

Starting January 2024, Prof. Vaibhav Bajpai will head the "Data-Intensive Internet Computing" department at HPI. > Go to article

Interview with AI specialist John Platt

Hpi d-school open house on june 14th, 2023, innovations.

Learn more about how artificial intelligence can help make the world more sustainable. > Go to article

At the Open House on June 14th, anyone interested had the opportunity to get an impression of the D-School and its programs. > Go to article

New Master's program Computer Science at HPI

From the winter semester 2024/25, the new English-language M.Sc. Computer Science will start at HPI. Thanks to the track structure, you can specialize in the area of computer science that suits you best.

Apply now until June 1st for one of our Master's degree programs in Computer Science , Digital Health and IT Systems Engineering .

HPI Merch - Now available for online order

In our  HPI Shop you can now find fair produced and certified merchandise like sweaters and t-shirts made of organic cotton, bags, water bottles, an erasable notebook and other sustainable accessories.

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One of MIT’s best-kept secrets lives in the Institute’s basement

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When MIT's Walker Memorial (Building 50) was constructed in 1916, it was among the first buildings located on the Institute’s then-new Cambridge campus. At the time, national headlines would have heralded Gideon Sundback’s invention of the modern zipper, the first transcontinental phone call by Alexander Graham Bell, and Charles Fahbry’s discovery of the ozone layer. It would be another 12 years before the invention of sliced bread, and, importantly, four years before the first U.S.-licensed commercial radio station would go on the air.    

In true MIT fashion, the past, present, and future of Building 50 seem to coexist within its hallways. Today, the basement of Walker Memorial is home to what some students consider to be one of the Institute’s best-kept secrets — something that likely never crossed the minds of its original architects: a 24-hour, high-fidelity radio station. 

Operating under the call sign WMBR 88.1 FM (for “Walker Memorial Basement Radio”), this all-volunteer troupe has endured many hurdles similar to those faced by others in the field as radio itself has largely changed over the years. But as general managers James Rock and Maggie Lin will tell you, there’s something special about this station’s ability to build deeper connections within the larger community.

“Students have the opportunity to get to know a bunch of our community members,” explains Rock. “Our tech director works closely with every student who wants to contribute, which involves anything from manning a drill to climbing to the roof of Walker and manually bending the antenna back into shape, which I did a couple of weeks ago,” laughs Rock. “Most of our student members are trained by someone who's been around and really knows what they’re doing with radio after decades of experience.”

“It’s really fun,” says Lin. “It’s being able to hang out with people who love music just as much as you do. The older members of the station are such a cool resource for talking about different kinds of music.”

Now sophomores, Rock and Lin first arrived at MIT and WMBR two years ago. At the time, the station was mitigating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which WMBR went off the air temporarily. “We’ve been general managers since last spring, so the majority of our time at the station has been managing the station,” explains Lin. “We just came at a time when the station didn’t have many student members because of Covid.”

Lin recalls stories from disc jockeys who were at the station the night in 2020 when WMBR went off the air: “I’m told it was extremely sudden. There was someone here who said they finished their show and left a tote bag of records for the next time they were going to come back, and they left … and they still haven’t [returned].” 

However, resilience is a trait that WMBR has displayed in abundance throughout its storied 80-year history. First signing on as WMIT on Nov. 25, 1946, the station’s original equipment was built from the ground up by MIT electrical engineering students. In 1956, when the station’s call letters were licensed to a radio station in North Carolina, the Cambridge-based station became WTBS. And when the station was in dire need of cash for new equipment in the 1970s, its members found a creative solution: an agreement with media mogul Ted Turner to exchange the call letters WTBS for $50,000. This afforded the station the new equipment it dearly needed and allowed Turner to launch the Turner Broadcasting System. The station subsequently became WMBR on Nov. 10, 1979.          

So it’s no surprise how station members responded to the challenges posed by Covid. “The tech team pulled off something kind of crazy when they set that up,” says Lin. “Within weeks, they set up a system where people could upload files of shows they recorded from home, and then it would be broadcast live.”

“Sticking to the hybrid system means that especially new members have the flexibility to start out recording from home,” adds Rock. “That’s what Maggie and I did. It means if you're scared, a little jumpy, or stutter as you speak, you can go back and edit.”

The station also expanded its slate of new content in the years following the pandemic. “I think the most lasting effect of Covid is that we are now 24/7,” says Rock. “Most of the time it’s fresh material now. The spring schedule is guaranteed fresh material from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.”

“It’s a packed schedule,” adds Lin.

Considering the sheer amount of original programming now airing on WMBR, it would be easy to assume the station relies heavily on ad revenue to keep the lights on. But, thanks to one fundraising week held each November, the station keeps pumping out music and spoken-word shows such as “ Music for Eels ,” “ Post-Tentious ,” and “ Crunchy Plastic Dinosaurs .”

“And operating an FM radio station is not cheap,” says Rock, “maintaining the antennas and buying new tech equipment, getting music, paying licensing fees, and ordering pizza to keep the students on board because the DJs have to be happy, etc. So it’s a real privilege that we are able to operate on that listener funding from that one week each year.”

“It’s kind of crazy, because when you're broadcasting, it’s to Greater Boston, but you really don’t know how many people are listening,” adds Lin. “And I think it's really awesome when you see fundraising week. It’s like, ‘Yeah, people really do listen.’” 

“And if a donor chooses to pledge to a show, generally the DJs will mail a postcard back as thanks for that donation. So, if you want a signature of Maggie’s or mine, support us in November!” laughs Rock. “Limiting [fundraising] to one week means that we never advertise, so as long as we keep that contained to one-52nd of the year, the rest of the time you just get the music and the DJ’s commentary you tuned in for. There’s no solicitation.”

In many ways, this highlights the paradox of WMBR: reconciling its undeniable audience of loyal listeners and passionate community members with the fact that many MIT students and employees have never heard of WMBR.

“I think a lot of people just don’t quite know that the radio station is something that exists,” explains Lin. “I understand it’s because people our age don't really listen to radio much anymore, but I think the space is so amazing. A lot of the new students that we bring in are pretty awed by it, especially the record library; with hundreds of thousands of records and CDs, and the studios,” says Lin, referencing the station’s impressive collection of music, which fills a space so large that it once held a bowling alley. “It’s an opportunity that is kind of easy to miss out on. So I feel like we’re bringing in new members — which I’m really happy about — but I just want people to know that WMBR is here, and it’s really cool.”

“Yes. I second that,” says Rock. “MIT is so full of opportunities and resources that you can’t possibly take advantage of all of them, but we are hidden here in the basement of Walker Memorial where students don’t really make it [to] that often.”

“Listeners don’t even know,” laughs Lin. “We had someone pass by the door once, and they were like, ‘The radio station? It’s here?’”

“I didn’t know there was a campus radio station, and I frankly hadn’t really thought of campus radio until I walked into Activities Midway during my first CPW [Campus Preview Weekend], and maybe orientation,” adds Rock. “One of the great things about it is that you can share your own music tastes with all of greater Boston. You have the aux cord for an hour every week, and it’s such a privilege.”

“It’s kind of scary-sounding to think, ‘You're going to go sit behind a microphone and all of Greater Boston will hear you,’” adds Lin. “But James is always full of confidence, so I just thought, ‘What if we did a show together?’ That’s another thing that we like as we get new students in: people who want to co-host shows together.” 

“We are always looking for new student members,” says Rock. “Whether you want to do a radio show, podcast, help with maintaining and upgrading our broadcast equipment, or gain valuable experience helping to manage and lead a nonprofit organization that is an eclectic mix of MIT students, staff, and members of the local community, let us know!”

Walker Memorial Basement Radio (WMBR) is currently on the air and streaming 24/7. Listen online here , or tune your dial to 88.1 FM. To find out more about joining WMBR, send a message to [email protected] .

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