trimaran spirit of america

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Lock Crowther

Famed muli-hull designer of Australia. Among his most notable designs were the Bucaneer & Kraken series trimarans, Spindrift 45 & Catana 40 cats, as well as a great number of other cruising, racing, charter/commercial and power cats and tris. Lock Crowther built his first boat, a trimaran called BUNYIP, in 1959 while still a teenager. The following year he raced in the Easter regatta at Paynesville, Victoria, Australia, beating 300 boats to the finish. The success of his boat inspired several of his friends to build similar boats and thus Lock Crowther’s design career started, though he did not expect to make a living out of it, and studied electrical engineering. In the early 1960s, when there were only a handful of people designing multihulls, Lock Crowther was involved in this international scene and also a member of the Amateur Yacht Research Society. BUNYIP was followed by the Kraken 25 design, which somewhat widened Crowther’s recognition. His reputation was established internationally in 1966, when his first offshore racing trimaran BRANDERSNACH won the Sydney to Hobart multihull race. Even more notice was taken in 1969, when a Kraken 40 won the New York to Bermuda race with him aboard. During Lock Crowther’s career, more than 2500 of his designs were built. He started out with racing boats, where most of his new ideas were developed, though he was successful drawing cruising and commercial craft as well. Among his outstanding designs was the trimaran SPIRIT OF AMERICA, which was an early user of GRP-foam sandwich construction and had innovative composite beams with uni-directional fibres and turned-down ends. Lock Crowther also developed the use of ‘bulbous bows’ as a measure to reduce pitching, and hence increase speed when sailing upwind in a swell.

15 Sailboats designed by Lock Crowther

Buccaneer 40 (crowther).

Buccaneer 36 (Crowther)

Buccaneer 28 (Crowther)

Buccaneer 24 (Crowther)

Buccaneer 33 (Crowther)

Crowther 42.

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Spirit of America

Discussion in ' Multihulls ' started by old dog , Dec 14, 2011 .

old dog Junior Member

cross beams Hi Corley. As far as I know the first of Lock's boats to use FG for beams was the spirit. As some of his earlier tris also had gullwing beams to go with the submersable floats I would imagine Lock used the method in subsequent boats.  

more spirit View attachment scan0007.zip 1st View attachment scan0008.zip 3rd View attachment scan0009.zip 2nd  

Corley epoxy coated

Thanks for posting it makes very interesting reading. In an interesting aside Nigel Irens floats on his modern trimarans could be considered semi submersible. He has gone on record as saying these days he favours racing multihulls which are less stiff with narrower beam and have more ability to submerge their (low drag) floats under load at least partially.  

warwick Senior Member

wasn't there another Kraken 55 built about 1988, that competed in the round austrailia race. From memory it was called yumi maru  

redreuben redreuben

There was, infamous for enormous masthead kite and a pitchpole capsize in Brisbane to Gladstone. (I believe). RR  

I remember reading about a capsize. Didn't they later on fit larger floats to it later on, an did some thing happen during the round austrailia race.  

They had some anxious moments on the Round Australia race when crossing the great australian bight but no capsizes they went directly to Westernport Bay rather than down to Tassie. Yumi Maru was a Kraken 55 like Spirit of America not sure if they made any float mods though. Mark Pescott was on the boat with Phil Smith if I recall correctly.  

trimaraner Junior Member

Corley, as far as I am aware Spirit of America and Youmi Maru were the only 2 kraken 55's ever built. Must be some sort of syncronicity going on because over the weekend I started didgitising boxes of old multihull slides and found some of Spirit of A in Plymouth UK ! I will post when I work out how to. Mike Kane built a large, 50 or 60' Cross Tri called Crusader after Spirit but what happened to her I do not know. I delivered Youmi Maru from Melb to Cairns with Phil and Youmi,Phils wife, We showed her off in Sydney to Rob Mundle and some other boating journalist and had her 2 sail reaching at 25kts over the top of a camera man in a dinghy! Now those pics would be something special. We had a top speed of 28 kts during the delivery. Phil capsized her during a race but not the B2G and afterwards built bigger floats. She was last heard of in Guam with solid decks instead of the nets and tourist seats doing charters! Love to hear from anyone with more up to date information. Cheers all.  

I believe there was an article in a Austrailian magazine called cat or catamaren sailor about the mid eighties, about yumi maru, and the capsize.  

In the book by Gavin LeSeuer "The Line" Phil is quoted as saying they sailed the boat over when using that massive masthead kite it was a broach and the boat capsized to leewards over the float (very slowly apparently). It makes sense that he went on to build larger floats. Yumi Maru was called "power brewing" temporarily for the duration of the Round Australia Race whether Phil actually extracted any sponsorship or beer out of them I dont know Trimariner I found an interesting article the other day which talked about the foundation of MYCV my father Graeme was a member in the early days and was building a Piver Lodestar with Arthur Burrage he went on to own the Kraken 25 that I'm currently rebuilding. I'll see if I can scan it in.  

Attached Files:

Age may 13, 1966 trimaran article.jpg.

"A" class My eldest has been scanning all my old slides and sent me this gem. It's the scale model I built of Lok's proposed A class. The rig is only dowel and string but you get the idea.  

ModelBoatDec73.zip

Spirit of America, Old Dog and Corley. Thanks guys. Thats what I call a couple of blasts from the past. In fact I think that article was the first one I got published, in the Age I think, as the new Publicity officer of the Trimaran Yacht Club of Victoria. I recall complaining at the first meeting I attended that they had no phone No under Yacht Clubs in the Telephone book and I had been looking for information and like minds for some time. Locky got up next and said, Well I nominate John as our Publicity Officer. That was the start of a beautifull friendship and a life time interest and love of all things Multihull. Tris in particular. In those days we all thought that in 5 or 10 years at the most! everyone would be sailing Multis. In 88 after the AC win for Dennis Conner in the wing sail cat I thought, How can they not go to Multis. Well it took a little longer! But nobody said anything worth while does'nt take a life time. Nathanael Herreshoff, designer of the revolutionary catamaran Amaryllis back in 1876, which beat everything and was promptly banned by the New York Yacht Club, Hopefully is getting a laugh out of it all! I know I am. Cheers all.  

Ha the idealism of youth, as a petulant teenager I decided I would not become a naturalised Australian (i'm English) until Australia became a republic ! Ha I'm 52 and still waiting !  

I had my supernova beach tri on an MYCV promotional stand at the Melbourne Summer Boat Show over the weekend. I mentioned that I had a buyer for my boat and my dad instantly wanted to buy it instead, he reckons it will be just the ticket to sail off the beach and go club racing and cruising around on calm days on Port Phillip Bay with my mum. Once its in your blood no getting rid of the bug, not bad for 76 years old  

31965 supernova tri.jpg

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more spirit. mine is scotch thanks. View attachment Interior maybe Spirit of America 1973.zip View attachment BoatDec73.zip View attachment 1974002.zip  

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Kane Recalls Terror of Sea Ordeal

By Joanne A. Fishman

• July 18, 1976

Michael Kane is a study in composure—a cool gaze from behind rimless glasses, a firm handshake, lips compressed into a straight line. He is trying hard to forget his 18

News of Boating day ordeal at sea. But wisps of terror remain. So do the tremors in his hands. Michael _ Kane spent eight years panning for the singlehanded transAtlantic race, held every four years from Plymouth, England, to Newport, R. I. When he crossed the starting line on June 5 in his 62‐foot trimaran, Spirit of America, he was considered the top United States entry in the unlimited class.

Twelve days later, more than halfway across the 3,000‐mile expanse, and 150 miles in the lead, a series of gales smashed a hole in one of the crossbeams. Kane stopped pounding upwind into the 30‐foot waves and headed back to Plymouth.

He doesn't scare easily. A former United States Marine captain, he has logged 80,000 miles of singlehanded sailing. Kane was the first to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world in a trimaran. But in listening to tapes he made during the voyage, the 36‐year‐old insurance salesman from Costa Mesa, Calif., got as far as the third reel. “I couldn't listen anymore. I broke down and cried. It all came back to me …”

“It's great stuff for a documentary we're planning,” said a representative from United States Tobacco Company, which bailed Kane out financially by sponsoring the yacht.

Kane nodded. Great stuff. The self‐steering device caused constant problems, and the radio was out after the second day.

On the fourth day he encountered the first storm, southeasterly winds roaring at 70 to 80 knots. A violent gust struck. “I was halfway out of the hatch when the main came off the mast. The slides popped out like popcorn. And 600 square feet of sail fell into the water. At the same time the mainsheet snapped. It was five‐eighthinch line. The whole thing took seven seconds. I've never seen anything like it.”

A calm period followed enabling him to make repairs. But there was no way to replace the life raft loaded with emergency rations that washed overboard, or the pulpit that was torn off, or the safety netting between the three hulls.

Next came four days of gales, with winds to 60 knots. Despite the double‐reefed mainsail, the slides blew out again.

One morning he woke up with a start. “I dreamt Michael Flanagan fell overboard. I remember being so relieved it was only a dream. It's strange. I never dream. And, anyway, I was worried about Mike McMullen, not Mike Flanagan,” he recalled.

Flanagan's 38‐foot sloop Galloping Gael was found empty and adrift by a passing freighter over a week ago. At midweek, Mike McMullen had not arrived in Newport.

“The toughest challenge in sailing alone is mental. If your mind is not ready, you're in trouble. And I wasn't sure about Mike McMullen. His wife died three days before the start,” Kane said.

While resting on the 12th day, the self‐steering didn't hold the boat into the wind and it quickly accelerated from 6 to 15 knots, slamming into the waves. At that point a crack on the crossbeam grew into a 1‐by‐3 foot hole. Kane turned around.

On the run back to England, Spirit's self steering unexplicably worked and Kane made the 1,800 mile trip in 6½ days, including a 24‐hour period in which he logged 300 miles, all the more remarkable since he had no mainsail.

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Spirit of America, US-34

Built in 1982 according to the International Third Rule- America’s Cup.

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Trimarans and the BladeRunner...

Discussion in ' General Catamaran Discussion ' started by catmando , Mar 3, 2005 .

catmando Senior Member

Avast mateys!! I found this forum from a link on www.offshoreonly.com about the Millenium 140 High-Speed motoryacht. I am of the high-performance persuasion myself, but as a boatlover I also browse the yacht mags from time to time. My boat is a 24' Carlson Reverse Three-point Air-entrapment Monohull. It is powered by a 540ci/600hp/Bravo1 powertrain. Only three of these hybrid hulls were built. One is in SoCal, one is in the Med(being raced, I understand) and I have the other one. My top speed so far is 105@5500rpm. Revs are limited to 6000, so that's probably as fast as I will run it with that motor. Art Carlson(Glastron designer in the 1960s/70s) also designed a 20'er and a 33'er with similar hulls. The 33 has an 11 1/2' beam and runs in the mid 70s with gas or diesel power. It will carry nine people and sleep six. I don't have the cash to hang with you guys, so I hope you don't mind if I read, learn and ask questions.

YachtForums Administrator

Hi Catmando, OSO'ers are always welcome! DJD (CTDave) and Packinaire are members here as well.... so welcome aboard. The description of your Carlson "Reverse Three-point Air-entrapment Monohull" made me do a double-take. I thought you just posted the ultimate oxymoron! Then I remembered the "Veloci-Slot", built by Steve Stepp. I think this is the hull configuration you're describing. In laymen's terms... a Tri-Maran. I vaguely remember one being built by Glastron or Carlson. It's been a long time since I've seen one. If you have a picture, post it. I'd like to see it. No cash required to hang here. If you love big-boats, you're in good company.

I wish I could post pics, but my digicam is malfunctioning for some reason. Art Carlson had left Glastron many years before he designed and built his hybrid hulls. However, he wasn't the first to try this design. Spirit Of America II, a contender for the water speed record back in the '50s, had a similar hull. It was unsuccessful, crashing and killing its driver. The Triton raceboat, which you may remember, was also a hybrid. I understand it also was involved in a fatal crash during an offshore race in Deerfield Beach in the '90s. I assure you I am being very careful with my testing. My previous boat was a 23' bowrider pleasure/ski boat, so this is a whole new world of boating for me. I always wear a Lifeline offshore lifejacket, and will buy a helmet(not helmut ) very soon. I can say, though, that the boat is very stable, turns extremely well in slalom manoeuvers(sp?) and is a joy to drive at high speeds. It does turn very flat, which takes some getting used to. The leading edges of the sponsons are like knives, which grab the water and turn the boat quickly. The sponsons are 2' wide and 2' deep, which pack quite a bit of air. Unfortunately the ride is not so soft, because the bottom is flat. The V in front only goes down to the waterline. From there the hull is flat back to the transom. Re-entry is especially hard, and I am looking for suspension seats. Killin my ol butt!!

Yes, I remember the Triton! Thank you for reminding me. That was the hull I've been thinking of all along. And I remember it had a sharp V entry, graduating back to a very shallow deadrise. (was it completely flat?) I recall some feedback from a guy that owned a Triton... claiming the hull was "squirrely" in rough water. The principles of the design were fairly sound for smooth water operation. No surprise it worked well in these conditions. I always thought... if the sponsons were raised slightly, it might have exhibited better rough water capability. However, this may have sacrificed lateral stability. Hard to say... no seat time. Speaking of seats... there are manufacturers of gas/shock suspension seats. Can't say the brand name, I don't remember. But I can tell you... they are effective. We used them on a couple of test platforms. Fix that digi-cam and I'll learn to spell helmet.

I don't know whether the Triton's bottom was flat, but mine sure is. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

Here's a link to the new Ice Marine 51Bladerunner; www.icemarine.com/spec/51_spec.htm Click on 'specification', the other three links beside it are not operational yet. Carl the 51 is being built in St. Pete. Click on 'distributors' for the address and phone #. Might be interesting to visit the shop next time you're over there.

Jorge Lang Senior Member

One of the 51' Bladerunners is powered by twin Cat C-18's. It is waiting for the right weather conditions to try to circle England in less than 30 hours to break the current world record. Here is their website for those interested. http://www.roundbritainrecord.com/ Jorge Lang

Mark Hawkins at the St. Pete shop told me they had a window of opportunity this month or last, but a crewmember was on the Continent and couldn't get back in time so they scrubbed. I'm getting frustrated myself so I know how Lorne and Jeremy must feel. They've been trying since last year to get this done. www.roundbritainrecord.com

I got an update that they will attempt to break the record starting at 9:30 in the morning British time on 7-9-05. They will be posting live updates on their website. Should be pretty interesting.

Codger YF Wisdom Dept.

Even with the technology it's still one heck of a challenge just to complete it in one piece.

Time to ruffle some feathers around here. (it's the only way to draw in lurkers!) I'm on the fence with this one guys. I've been keeping quiet on this thread for some time, but I've got some very definitive thoughts on this subject. Aspects of this hull design have merit and stand on sound principles. I KNOW this hull works in smooth water. But I have reservations about it's rough water capability. I'm basing this partly on the feedback I got from an owner of Steve Stepp's "Veloci-Slot" in the mid-80's. The other part is... my instincts tell me differently. This hull has an extremely shallow deadrise aft with a very narrow cross section forward. BladeRunner's theory is to "slice" through the water with a narrow bow and then induce air within the tunnels to soften the ride. In concept, the tunnels should create equal pressure to increase stability... but this is not realistic in varying water conditions. It would appear this hull runs very wet under and through the tunnels, so pressure differentials WILL exist. This is where the outriggers are suppose to compensate, but on this design they appear to have a cross section so narrow, they would provide limited buoyancy to counter lateral oscillation. Their website claims superior rough water performance over catamarans and Deep-V's, going on to say this design is not susceptible to "hooking". I understand the basis for their claim... the outriggers should effectively help maintain direction (if a lateral oscillation is induced that could result in a hook). BUT... this design also creates 3-point surface contact toward the rear of the hull and a 1-point contact at the bow. If you don’t follow me here… think tricycle, or better yet… 3-wheel ATV’s. (inherently unstable) The fact that the majority of lift, both static and dynamic is being generated in the aft-half of this hull, coupled with an extremely narrow girth forward that provides little dynamic lift… is a “hook” waiting to happen. It’s simple hydrodynamics… once the nose gets buried in a wave, the rear of the hull will seek an alternate path during wave impact and the deceleration forces that are generated. Essentially, the nose will have better “grip” at this point, whereas the aft section of the hull (remember: shallow deadrise, coupled with aerodynamic lift) will be loose. This was the scenario that plagued previous versions of these hulls and they were abandoned for offshore racing. Sooo… my point is, I’m sure a lot time, money and testing went into this hull. I have nothing but praise for anyone that puts forward an effort like this, but I wonder if a deep-v or a cat may be a better choice for an attempt of this nature. Just random thoughts from a warped mind. I hope I’m wrong…

AMG YF Moderator

Right now, ten minutes after the start, the boat is running almost 75 mph which is pretty fast to be in the beginning of this race. From the drawings on their website I think this hull isn´t too bad Carl? It does not have a fine entry, but is rather the same deadrise all the way which will give a pretty good ride even in rough seas since the centre hull is long and narrow. I have been racing narrow boats with 26 degrees all the way and this has less deadrise. I wish them luck and more thoughts on the boat design are of course welcome!

Looks like they'll be seeing some waves in the 6 ft range. http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=64045

Yes, it seems they met some swell down at Lands End when the speed dropped to 46mph but since then it has been closer to 70 again, when they now have been out for seven hours. On the link http://www.roundbritainrecord.com/default-flash.htm you can see the speed at each 15 min interval by moving your cursor over the marks.

I'm surprised that there isn't more coverage of this. BBC has dropped the ball. I checked Ladbrokes and the odds aren't even posted.

I think that 24 hours after the worst ever terror attack to London, this event has a very low priority. Without that disaster and with England just nominated for the Summer Olympics it could have had the top priority, but I can fully understand that this will not gain much media attention for a while. Still it is exciting for us to follow on the net!

AMG I suppose that you are correct. Perhaps I've spent too much time in areas where bombs are not noticed that much anymore. I've been checking the buoys and weather stations to see what kind of seas the boat will be confronted with. It is quite exciting. The site doesn't say who is on the throttles. He's going to be a busy man.

Lars, You’re absolutely right about the deadrise remaining constant from the bow to the stern on the BladeRunner. If the hull progressed to a sharper deadrise toward the bow, this would further aggravate the scenario I described earlier. But here in lies the problem… in order to obtain a design that slices through a wave, a sharp entry must be used or a narrow forward cross-section. Fabio Buzzi did this with outstanding results, but this was with an inflatable RIB that had tremendous “inflated” buoyancy at the bow and also laterally. If the hull doesn’t have sufficient girth forward (buoyancy), it will not displace a wave, but rather… penetrate it. Clearly, the design is trying to balance wave dispersement AND buoyancy by using a relatively shallow deadrise at the bow. But I really question if this is sufficient, because the primary hull represents less than 50% of the overall width of this boat at midship and aft. In contrast, the forward section of the hull is only half as wide as the rest of the boat. Getting back to the deadrise… the BladeRunner is using a fairly shallow deadrise for an offshore boat. I couldn’t find any specs, but it appears to be in the 20-degree range or less. (see photo below) Anyone who’s run a 22-degree hull in offshore water will be the first to give you their chiropractor’s name. 24-degrees at the transom is often the standard, with RIB’s like Fabio’s running 26 degrees or more. Of course, as deadrise angle increases, stability decreases, therefore an inflatable RIB can get away with this. Again, like I said earlier, the BladeRunner design stands on sound principles. This is why other manufacturers have attempted this before. But the real world sometimes differs from the conceptual world. It’s an absolutely beautiful boat and I’m the first one to embrace new technology. I’m not trying to discredit these guys… I’m only trying to understand why this hull design would be a better choice than a catamaran or a deep-v mono-hull for this record attempt. The following posts and pictures are for reference…

Bow Close-Up & BladeRunner 51 Bow Rendering… These picture illustrates how the bow might lack sufficient girth forward to compensate for a stuff. Again, they are trying to strike a balance of silhouetting a wave, while reducing wave impact that would cause bow rise. The rendering shows the deadrise is constant at the bow. Certainly a shallow deadrise in the forward section will offer more buoyancy and dispersement, but it would also result in a less favorable ride through rough water.

Attached Files:

Bow closeup in-water.jpg, br-51bow.jpg.

Hull Stern & Stern Quarter profile... These pictures show the wide signature created by this hull’s configuration at the stern. The deadrise appears to be quite shallow. If it were not for the air cushion created by the tunnels, this would be a very unfavorable ride in rough conditions

hull_build-stern.jpg

Hull_build-stern-quarter.jpg.

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THIRD-PLACE FINISH IS A START FOR REFITTED…

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Third-place finish is a start for refitted ‘spirit of america’.

Spirit of America is proof you can’t keep a good powerboat out of action forever.After disappointments during the first two 1988 American Power Boat Association races, John Antonelli’s Spirit of America proved the third time was a charm.Antonelli’s Open Division-rated powerboat, a 38-foot Cougar catamaran powered by twin 750 horsepower engines Antonelli said can reach […]

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June 15, 2004

‘Welcome to Hell’

A photojournalist records his thoughts during the battle for grozny., stanley greene.

Since the war in Chechnya began, photojournalist Stanley Greene has been there to document its devastating toll. Eighty-one of his images, along with his diary entries and other commentary, have been brought together in a book, “Open Wound: Chechnya 1994 to 2003,” published by Trolley Press in fall 2003. In the following 1995 diary excerpts, which he adapted for this magazine, Greene describes the death, destruction and survivors he encountered when the Russian military began its bombardment of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.

January 7: The only way to reach Grozny is by car, like most of the Chechen soldiers who commute to battle from their villages. Usually it’s an old beat-up one, and you hope that nobody stops or shells it. Driving on back roads through Ingushetia to reach the Chechen border and finally entering Chechnya, you immediately hear the sound of Russian war planes and helicopter gunships. Then you see them streaking across the sky. My driver shows no fear, only contempt. He is Ingush, “but Ingushetia and Chechnya are one,” he explains. “We are all brothers. The Russians want to scare us. They want us to die. Chechen soldiers will fight to the death. Russian soldiers will fight for nothing. This is not their land. They should go home.” My first sight of Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, is grim. Dead people strewn in the streets, wild dogs chewing on their corpses. In Russian, the name “Grozny“ means “terrible.”

Welcome to Grozny, a city to die in. There is a sign on the road when you enter Grozny that says “People, keep the peace.” Beneath it now someone has written, “Welcome to hell.”

January 10: The soldiers and civilians express only defiance and scorn for Boris Yeltsin and the Russian military’s effort to crush them. Russian planes and helicopters have bombed villages on the edge of town, they say. One woman grabs my arm and in broken English and Russian screams that she will fight for Chechnya’s independence until she and every member of her family are dead.

Life in the city has become chaotic: no food, no water, men and women searching for sustenance in the midst of bombs exploding around them. Bodies remain on the street because it’s too dangerous to try to remove and bury them.

The 999 bar is a blown-out storefront where Chechen fighters warm themselves next to a fire. In another destroyed store nearby, old women huddle near a burning Smirnoff sign. Journalists photograph, interview and film the two groups. Asked about the war, they have the same response, “Allah Akbar,” God is great.

There are 70 or 80 corpses lying in the street. It’s wet and cold and I’m there to photograph but I can’t when I see the dogs eating the faces of the dead. I try the long walk down Lenin Prospekt, curious about the ceasefire which most civilians haven’t heard about. At 57 Lenin Prospekt, near a blasted department store, two huge craters in the sidewalk. Russian bombs aimed at a Chechen Howitzer position dropped instead into the courtyard of an apartment building and on the building opposite. Both are badly damaged. Old women wander dazed, buckets in their hands, wailing at strangers, holding their hands up to the dark grizzly sky. A woman who lives at 61, wrapped in shawls, cries that her children are in Vladivostok, her husband is an invalid and can’t walk, there’s no light or water, and no way she can rejoin her children. “They are crying there, and I’m crying here. Why are they bombing civilians? Can’t they see what they’re hitting?” Mogamed Mutayev, a doctor who lives in the building, says that on Sunday Chechen guerillas came to warn them that Russians were coming and herded everyone into the cellar. While one man guarded them, many apartments were looted. “They weren’t Russians, but our people,” he said bitterly. “You see what war is.”

January 20: A thick blanket of snow covering the bombed-out city muffles everything except pounding of artillery and the Russian warnings, broadcast by loudspeakers mounted on helicopters, telling Chechens to “surrender or be destroyed without mercy.”

Though fighting continued in some areas, it was unusually still among the ruins of the city center. Residents and rebels are despondent and surly. At a sidewalk market a man shouts to women to stop talking to journalists, waving a hand grenade to show he means business.

January 21: In a graveyard outside Grozny, about 30 men stand in the snow holding hands in prayer at the funeral of a Chechen elder. He was a man of peace, says one of the mourners, who was shot to death by Russian troops as he traveled a road near Grozny. His body, wrapped in a white sheet and a carpet, lies on a stretcher awaiting burial. During the ceremony, a Russian plane flies low, dropping a bomb that explodes a few hundred yards away.

January 30: “A bullet, a shell, a bomb, or a missile cannot, will not, destroy us. This will not end. We will sooner or later revenge ourselves upon you for the deeds you have done to us.” —Open letter to the people of Russia from the Wolves of Islam.

February 11: I’m leaving today, getting out will be difficult, there’s no regular transport, but tanks and water trucks ply the roads, along with busloads of refugees. I too am a refugee, I feel part of Grozny, of Chechnya. And at the same time detached from the rest of the world, my world in Paris. No man or woman can view a field of battle and witness so much death and destruction without becoming detached or callous. I mean you lose it for a while, it’s like going on vacation and putting your feelings in a suitcase temporarily until you return to reality. When a journalist risks everything to get to a war, he gets down to it and does the work. You mask out that paralyzing fear of death. It becomes your unspoken duty to depict the truth as you see it breaking around you. There is no such thing as taking pictures from a place of safety. You become part of the unfolding story. It marks you! The battle of Grozny has marked me forever. In war you realize that all the photos you might take or do make will fall short of showing the full horror of war—but you keep trying in a hope that you will succeed.

Stanley Greene photographed conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Croatia, Kashmir, Sudan and Rwanda before he went to Chechnya to document the war.

                                                              Photos by Stanley Greene/Agence VU.

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Ukraine invasion — explained

The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is — in the words of one U.S. official — a shift in "the world order." Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all.

Chechnya once resisted Russia. Now, its leader is Putin's brutal ally in Ukraine

Ari Shapiro

Jonaki Mehta

Ashley Brown

The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putinin 2019. Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putinin 2019.

In the 1990s and 2000s, people in Chechnya described Russia's two separate wars there as a nightmare that terrorized citizens and left the capital of Grozny in ruins.

"The ground was literally charred. There were very few buildings in the center of Grozny still standing," said Maura Reynolds, the then Moscow correspondent for the L.A. Times . "All the trees were burned, you know, had lost all their branches and leaves. Even though it was spring, there was no green. There was no sign of life."

The messaging Russia used to justify the invasion of the small Muslim republic was about "bandits and terrorists," Reynolds said, "just like you hear Russian officials, including Putin, now talk about Nazis [in Ukraine]."

How does Ukraine keep intercepting Russian military communications?

One prominent Chechen figure during this period, Akhmad Kadyrov, initially resisted Russian forces. But as Russia took control of what is now the Chechen Republic of Russia, he flipped, and ultimately became the leader of Chechnya in the early 2000s, aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Kadyrov was assassinated in 2004 by Chechens who opposed him.

Today, his son Ramzan Kadyrov is in charge. Like his father, Ramzan Kadyrov is a key ally of Putin, and he's played a role in Russia's war in Ukraine as his fighters – known as the Kadyrovtsy – have taken part in the battle.

Former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov (R) and his son Ramzan standing in front of Ramzan's house in January 2004. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov (R) and his son Ramzan standing in front of Ramzan's house in January 2004.

Ramzan Kadyrov's stake in the war in Ukraine

Even before the war in Ukraine, the younger Kadyrov was sometimes referred to as the brutal puppet or attack dog of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Kadyrov earned this reputation through his absolutely brutal and feudalistic-type tight hold grip over Chechnya, where he has been the leader basically since the assassination of his father," said Rachel Denber, the deputy director for the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

Kadyrov's rule includes public policies and attempts to control the private life of civilians through his security services that are widely feared and linked to enforced disappearances, summary executions and house burnings, Denber said. He has been sanctioned by the U.S. for human rights abuses that include the persecution and torture of LGBTQ people.

The Picture Show

Photos: more than 5 million have fled ukraine as russia's invasion continues.

"These days, Kadyrov exercises control through his brutal sort of praetorian guard and also through extensive surveillance of online chat groups and the like," Denber said. "Also by filtering out people who are believed to express even the most mild criticism of him or government policies."

Kadyrov's involvement in Ukraine does not come as a surprise as Chechen forces have previously aided the Russian leadership. But their impact is not entirely clear, with reports they have suffered heavy casualties, including a key commander, according to The Guardian. Kadyrov has claimed to be in Ukraine, including outside Kyiv, but that has not been confirmed.

Putin wanted a militarily weaker Ukraine. He got the opposite

Though Kadyrov is one of Putin's top allies, the relationship is complicated. Kadyrov sees Putin as a kind of patron, Denber said. This goes back to the early 2000s, when the elder Kadyrov tied Chechnya's fate to Russia.

So when it comes time to help Russia by providing fighters, Ramzan Kadyrov is given a chance to show the Chechen power and then be owed something in return, Denber said.

Cultivating his social media image

During his rule, Kadyrov has also created a larger-than-life profile for himself with his use of social media. His outspoken behavior allowed him to develop "a cult around himself," Denber said.

Instagram was Ramzan's preferred platform for years, and when he was active on it, Denber said "he allowed himself to say the most outrageous, flamboyant and inflammatory things."

NATO, explained: Why the alliance was formed — and what it's doing for Ukraine

Today, Kadyrov has taken to using Telegram, where he shares voice memos and other messages that vary between rants about what needs to be done, to messages appealing to Putin, or posts that contradict reports about casualties his troops have sustained.

His posts have not gone unnoticed, regularly amassing more than a million views. He has also drawn attention to himself by engaging in online spats with the likes of billionaire Elon Musk, who is in the process of buying Twitter.

Kadyrov went after Musk in March following a tweet in which Musk challenged Putin to "single combat" over the invasion of Ukraine. Kadyrov responded on Telegram, saying there was no way Musk could take on Putin, and the Chechen leader invited Musk to train at some Chechen centers.

All of the messages and posts are about self-promotion, Denber said.

"I think he wants to be as visible as possible," Denber said. "You self-aggrandize so that the boss notices you, but you also self-aggrandize, you know, so the local folks also notice [and] see you in a particular way."

Wynne Davis adapted this story for Web.