<= Back

11 January 2007 • New Orleans: Bam! I'm back.

Okay where to start. My boy Kip Stone won the Open 50' class in the Route du Rhum and set a new record! Ex-Mini sailor Lionel Lemonchois (four Mini Mini Transats) smashed the overall race record in his trimaran, Gitana 11, by removing 4 days from the record, making the new record 7 days and 17 hours! I met Albert Bargues, the builder of my boat, who is now in a managerial role for the Open 60, Sill. He's a super nice guy and seemed very happy to hear that Mini 252 is sailing again. I hope I can make the boat shine again as he did in the 1999 Mini Transat. The team had a great time in St. Malo and working with Kip is always a pleasure. He's got lots of energy, lots of trust and is always asking, "What are we doing next guys?". It's a good work environment.

Since returning to Louisiana from St. Malo, I've been working on 252 steadily and she is now in the water and sailing. The boys at Cat 5 Composites have taken care of me really well and this project would be grounded if it weren't for their generosity patience. Being able to work on my boat inside with access to everything I need is a real luxury and I've learned a lot under their guidance. Even the guys working on the floor were super helpful. The painter, Raul Ulloa, even stayed after hours and came in on a Saturday to paint the bottom with me so I didn't screw things up too badly. His help was the key to getting the program rolling again.


I also had a visit from my friend, Adam Seamans. Adam first exposed me to the Mini scene back in 2003 when he was preparing for the Mini Transat. He and his friend Daniel Tyson helped me and Daniel Bobeck prepare the boat after it's launch. They swooped in like angels, fixed my outboard, calibrated my autopilot and then left to meet Daniel's girlfriend somewhere in New Orleans for what could only be a magical dinner of some sort. It allowed DB and I to leave that night for the infamous Mississippi River Gulf Outlet or Mr.Go as it is affectionately known. Mr-GO is a manmade channel that connects New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico in one strait shot. It was intended to be a quick way for bigger ships to reach New Orleans. It has essentially functioned as a great bloodletting of Louisiana and accelerates our critical coastal erosion problem. When MR-GO was built, the channel was 650 feet wide. The average width now is 1,500 feet and it has served as an efficient way to deliver storm surge directly to New Orleans and the surrounding areas of the Pontchartrain Basin. This was probably the last time I will ever go through MR-GO as there are plans to close it in the future and give it back to nature.

Being back on the water singlehanded is an incredible relief. I feel like I can breath again and I am really loving learning 252. She is a wonderful boat to sail and has some incredible performance characteristics especially off the wind. In a recent jaunt into the Gulf of Mexico with my friend Daniel, we were easily seeing boat speeds of 14 knots when surfing down waves in what could only have been 15 knots of wind. The boat is really lively and I'm learning something every day. School is definitely in session here on Lake Pontchartrain. I can’t wait to do it day after day after day, etc... I close my eyes and that's all I see.

Beaucoup thanks to Cat 5 Composites for their wonderful support and wisdom, Dorothy Middleton and De-Comp Composites for all the free epoxy I hope I'll ever need!, Brunswick New Technologies Marine Electronics, for their great customer support and donated Navman 3100 autopilot display, Northshore Trailer Sales for keeping my boat safe during the hurricane season, Seachest for donating the mainsail prefeeder I so desperately needed, Biloxi Maritime and Seafood Museum for letting me dock my boat at their pier for Christmas, The Peep for always having me back, Jeffrey Dingle, Troy Gilbert and Katie Triplett for their constant support and hard work, my brothers Jeff and Daniel for not beating me up after taking them sailing, and of course my friends and family who keep holding on to their belief in me and reminding me to do the same.

Happy New Year, still.

-Ryan Finn