Behind the Shot
In March 2022, the turquoise waters off St Barths boiled with whitecaps as the legendary Bucket Regatta roared to life. Perched on a chase boat, photographer Ryan Borne waited for the fleet to charge past, searching for a moment that felt as sharp as the competition itself. He found it in the bow of a single racing yacht, knifing cleanly through the swell—the instant Blade was born.
“I looked through the viewfinder and the boat didn’t feel like a hull anymore,” Ryan recalls. “It felt like steel slicing water—pure precision.” Shot with a long‑reach telephoto lens, the frame zeroes in on the forward quarter of the yacht. Rivets, spray, and taut lines all converge to a single point, turning motion into sculpture. It’s the sister image to Ryan’s earlier print Rival, but where Rival captures the duel of two J‑Class titans, Blade strips the scene to one brutal, elegant truth: speed.
The picture still arrests Ryan every time he revisits it. “The bow looks as if it could cut straight through the horizon,” he says. “It reminds me why these classic boats feel timeless—part machine, part work of art.”
