11 September 2009: The
Win, Part II - I was now essentially
splitting my angles to BXA and the sea state didn’t
get much better offshore and I was now going more directly
into the swell which launched the boat a lot with some hard
landings. After one particularly hard landing the speedo
stopped working, and I didn’t think much about it
except for that it was reading 0.00 instead of --- which
is what you’d see if the wires were at fault. I was
like “Gee, how strange. Whatever.”
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About
20 miles from BXA I started sailing into a nice
header, and I told myself “Look dummy, you
probably are not going to lay from here, so just
forget about that. But if this wind keeps shifting
you are close, and you sure as shit aren’t
going to over stand the mark, so get ready to tack!”
Part of me doesn’t want to know the truth
out there, but the part that knows needs to speak
up when I’m tired like that. The more I do
this, the more that voice takes over. |
So… I pop down below to restack everything and to
my surprised there is ankle deep water sloshing around the
entire boat. It’s always distressing to see something
you like, say a wool hat, sloshing around with toilet paper
pulp. I was looking for an excuse to delay the tack and
I found it. I immediately checked the ballast fittings.
Everything cool there. Then went forward to look at throughhulls
and saw the speedo sloshing around with a Crock and a head
torch, and definitely reading 0.00 knots. I plugged it back
in, pinned it properly this time (my bad) and started chasing
water around the boat with a sponge, bucket and bailer.
I thought it would take hours but it went quickly, and when
I had removed half of the water, so that the risk of it
getting into my battery compartments was gone, I tacked.
After tacking I chased out the rest.
The delay was good, and we got lifted very slowly for twenty
miles so that by pinching with full main and jib in 20 knot
for the last five miles I was able to lay BXA. I was going
fast and high, so I pretended that it was the last windward
leg of the last race of a regatta and don’t worry
about over ranging the sails. Plus I told Dimension Polyant
and Ullman Sails that this set was an experiment, and I’d
push them pretty hard to see what happens. The jib is Pentex
FLEX from DP and after 1,000 miles of sailing I still have
not had to use the leech line. Where I an honest person
I would have told them that I “may” be pushing
their sails because I “may” be too lazy to reef
or tack at the end of a race. Now they know.
Starboard rounding of BXA, a fast reach down the channel
at 10-13 knots and bam, race over. There was an FFVoile
RIB waiting for me, and they told me I won while towing
me back to the marina. They said the next boat was several
hours behind, but I never saw the official finish times.
Only seven of the fifteen boats that registered this race
started, but I was happy to be the first of them back. With
the restart outside of Bayonne that means I was able to
put in a lot of distance on the fleet in the last 100+ miles
of upwind sailing which I feel very good about. For me it
redeems all of the time I spent thinking and working on
how to make an old prototype faster. Up until now I thought
it was all lost time.
The next step is to find some financial sponsorship. It
is essential for me to have a sponsor to stay in Europe
and train because I can’t work here without a visa.
That brings me back to the States which keeps me far from
Europe, where the races are happening. The approach being,
with an old boat I will have to work harder than the other
guys with sponsors and new boats to do even reasonably well.
That means sailing a lot and spending a lot of time studying
the Bay of Biscay and surrounding areas so that I know it
like a local. At the very least I need some money just to
enter the races over here and get the proper safety equipment
(borrowed for the Medoc race). So it’s still full
throttle on my end to qualify for the Les Sables d’Olonne
– Les Acores – Les Sables d’Olonne Race
next summer and develop a new prototype for the 2011 season.
All in time.
Now it’s time for sponsor redemption!
Dear Lewmar,
Thank you for helping make Myrna a fully functional, overly
rigged and perfectly reliable machine. You guys still make
the best small boat clutches ever. And between you and Samson
I can now tweak pretty much everything on the boat.
Dear Samson
Rope,
Thank you for giving me lots and lots of high tech line
to play with. You’ve allowed my imagination to soar,
and I now have a boat that is faster and more complicated!
Also I have the smoothest hands of anyone in the mini fleet
because of the soft APEX control lines. When I meet people
they probably don’t think I actually sail.
Dear Genasun,
Thank you for making my electrical system harder for me
to understand. I never thought I’d be using telephone
type data plugs on my boat, but because of you I am. I have
also never seen the voltage constantly above 13.2 even at
night or been able to throw a 100 amp hour battery around
like it was a six pack of beer. Myrna is now about 90 lbs
lighter.
Dear Dimension
Polyant,
This FLEX stuff is really good. Very smooth entries, very
clean exits, I’m very impressed. Like I said, I have
yet to hear any flutter on the leech even when I’m
pushing the sail a bit. All this and the FLEX jib is eight
lbs. lighter than my old one and 30% bigger! More like that
please.
I’m still going to try and break it though. Same goes
for you RBS Battens!
Dear Columbia
Sportswear,
I used to wear shirts from Good Will that had golf club
bags and golf balls flying around in space, or tarpon flying
through the air as some lawyer fights to remove it from
the water. Mainsheet Girl loved to hate that, and you’ve
ruined it for her. The way normal people felt when they
took “Saved by the Bell” off the air. Now I
look like a respectable person (from a distance) and am
almost a contributing member of society. Clothes make the
man, right! They are nice though.
Dear Wallenius
Wilhelmsen Logistics,
Thank you for shipping my boat to Europe so I didn’t
have to sail it over. The only time it makes sense to sail
minis offshore is when there are other minis doing it too
and it’s a race. Any other time it feels like this.
It was also nice that my boat showed up in exactly the same
disarray as I left it with you guys. The only way your service
could have been better was if you had fixed the mast track
and autopilot while the boat was being delivered. Maybe
next time.
Dear Ullman Sails,
Fast… Between Dave Ullman and Dave Bolyard you guys
have come up with some really fast mini sails. Nice clean
overlaps between all the sails, very versatile, and they
are beautiful to look at. Additionally, Dave Bolyard and
his crew have no equal when it comes to customer service.
It’s a pleasure to be working with you guys.
Dear AIG,
I don’t know where you guys found the money, but I’m
super excited to work with you guys for the next two years
on a four boat mini campaign leading immediately into an
Open 60 campaign I’m totally not prepared for. Thanks
for opening your doors to the “little guy”.
The sponsorship return on this will be huge! I promise.
- Ryan
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