Simultaneous Pacific Racing

With sixty-five boats on the line, the Pacific Cup will be putting quite a crowd into the ocean. Additionally, on July 12th there will be twenty-four more starting out from the Singlehanded TransPac. I was hoping that the Vic-Maui race's eleven would be out there at the same time but they're leaving in mid-June.

Still, that's a lot of boats racing to Hawaii at roughly the same time. One Hundred boats racing to Hawaii. That's pretty cool.

The thing is, that's a hundred boats with several hundred people that are going to have the time of their lives in a really exciting yacht race. But you have to think that with the amount of money spent on these races and the type of environmentally-sensitive people that sailors are, we could make this about something better. Some way to raise awareness for the health of the oceans.

On Oceanaire, we're already raising money for a charity, Give Back a Smile, to benefit victims of domestic abuse. Other boats are doing similar: Elise for Beat Sarcoma, Le Flying Fish for Children's Hospital Oakland.

Stephane from Le Flying Fish has a start with the Blue Water Charter, the least we can do is to lessen each of our environmental impacts on land and sea. Oceanaire will follow these guidelines and find a way to encourage more to do so.

The Big Blue Sail

Our practice sails have consisted of very targeted work on particular expected maneuvers for the Pacific Cup. None of us would be on the boat if we didn't know how to sail already so what we're doing is familiarizing ourselves with Oceanaire and how to sail her most effectively.

Last Saturday's practice was with the assymetrical spinnaker.


We needed to get familiar with the best tack position, best gybing practices, hoisting, and dropping the sail. We figure that we'll fly the assymetrical all day and into the early evening once we hit the tradewinds. Once the night-time squalls start, we'll drop the kite and put up the twin butterflies which are much more easily reefed during a squall.

This upcoming weekend is our first extensive butterfly practice, those are definitely the more photogenic of the sails. So by next week we'll know how to play the main and the twin poles with them. And I should have a good picture.

Crew Updates

Oceanaire has finalized her crew. We are sailing to Hawaii with six. The watch schedule should be simple, 3 on 6 off, two crew per watch. We went sailing together as a full and complete crew for the first time this past Saturday. It was fairly light wind but gave us a chance to sort out a few things, get the new guys to know the boat and to see how the crew dynamic is. All three worked out well.

Without further ado, our finalized crew:

Charlie
Charlie sails a C&C 37 out of Redwood City. He's raced for most of his adult life and recently even traveled to Antigua Race Week. He is a breath of fresh air on the boat, I'm guessing since he has two daughters just exiting the teenage years, a trip to Hawaii with five people in a confined space will seem like a vacation (just kidding, I have no idea if all teenage girls are like what I expect mine to be).



Darren
As I mentioned on the crew introduction, Darren sails a trimaran that just got re-rated to -3. I am not sure how he can possibly feel like he's moving on a 42,000 pound boat...that must be motivation. Darren and Lissa are in charge of provisioning and will be the only ones to know where the food is hidden on the boat...must be nice to Darren on this blog!



Edward
This is what people get when only one person takes pictures. I get to pick my own shot and I chose the Dread Pirate Edward, Terror of the Pacific Cup. I've sailed my whole life but have only taken up pirating since I had kids and needed to get a tri-corner hat for the boat. I sail a Newport 28 out of Berkeley.



Garrett
Garrett is the captain and rules the boat with an iron fist. A tyrant by nature, it is best to just avoid him when sailing. Unfortunately, he and I are going to be sharing a watch (that's a joke Garrett, really). Maybe I should tell the truth then...we are all very lucky to be sailing with Garrett. He is one of those attention to detail guys and it shows on the boat. He and Lissa have owned boats for 20 years together, including a Newport 28 just like mine. He's a licensed captain and really knows his boat; I couldn't have asked for a better person to sail to Hawaii with.



Lissa
Lissa is why we're getting to sail in the Pacific Cup. She suggested it to Garrett while they were vacationing in Hawaii and he had the paperwork in the next day. I had a choice of pictures to put up but thought it would be nice to show the happy couple together. Lissa has the hardest job on the boat as she'll be making sure that we all eat healthily.



Phil
Phil is a singlehander by nature. He's sailed to Hawaii three times all on the Singlehanded Transpac (he'll probably want it noted that he's won his division twice and once overall). On his first day on the boat, Phil settled into the cockpit, took over steering and seemed to enjoy it. He has more experience in tradewind sailing than the rest of us put togeher, maybe we'll just keep him there.

We've Been Inspected

We had our inspection this past Sunday. Garrett and I showed up early to make sure that we had everything organized prior to the inspector getting there. We lined up all the required gear on the dock (anchors, flares, med kit, PFDs, tethers, etc). We had a stack of paperwork ready to give Mr. W. Floorboards were lifted for essential access. And I was still nervous (I suspect Garrett was too).

When Mr. W got to the boat he told us about the last time he'd done the Pac Cup. As his boat was docking, he jumped off to help with the docklines and was immediately yelled at by the inspectors to get back on the boat. They then went through a grilling. He and his friend on the boat said there has to be a better way. So they volunteered to help with the inspections.

And it made a difference, Mr. W was thorough and well prepared. He was not nitpicking odd subsections of the OSR but was really checking to see if our boat was safe. He had some great suggestions and really made it a consultative process. Our to-do list is pretty small going forward and I suspect we're going to pass inspection.

I just wish I hadn't been so nervous and had taken some pictures of the boat and our gear laid out on the dock. Or at least the new uncovered lifelines.

Of Course Our Lifelines Are Covered

The crew went over the Notice of Race (NOR) and Offshore Special Regulations (OSR) cover to cover. Very very thorough. We even made sure our buckets were "stout" and that our tethers had colorful webbing.

What we somehow missed were the lifelines need to be bare wire. You know, to encourage splinters. As you can see very clearly on the below picture, our lifelines are vinyl-coated.

So, our inspection is this Sunday and we have to somehow strip off the vinyl coating or order new lifelines by then. Sheesh, how did we miss that? Since I don't think it will be done, I'd like to point out to Mr. W (our inspector), that our offer still stands.

Well Stocked Pantry

Valis had a really cool post on their nav station and a full writeup on all of their electronics. I'm not going into that kind of detail (what, you're saying I don't know what all of that is? Shame on you).

What you'll see in that picture is radar(including AIS and chartplotter), GPS, one pactor modem, one vhf, one stereo, all of our wind/speed instruments, one SSB and the corner of a laptop.

What you don't see is a satellite phone (on order) or the EPIRB (out of the screen). You've already seen an email sent via sailmail over the SSB using the pactor modem. I have also shown our wind and speed stats from the cockpit viewing station. Next picture on the agenda will be us deftly avoiding a collision using the radar and/or AIS. All part of a well stocked nav station.

The Sixth Crew Cometh

We have our sixth crewmate. He is an accomplished sailor and winner of a Single-handed Transpac (SHTP). I will plan on writing him up after our next practice sail on May 3.

But for now I just want to highlight a phrase from his SHTP profile and a phrase from my own crew available ad.

Him: enjoying his favorite offshore meal (hold onto your stomachs), Dinty Moore Beef Stew with brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce!

Me: I have a good sense of humor, understand watch systems, will not eat Dinty More Beef Stew, and absolutely love to sail.

Anybody else notice any crew compatibility issues about to come to the forefront?