December 2006 - Coming from a sailing
family, I did not have a lack of time on the water, though I always wished
for more! Like other west-coast kids, I learned to sail on a sabot, and
also sailed on Geary 18s, 505s, San Juan 24s, J24s, and Hobie cats as a
kid. I spent my summers as windsurfing instructor - and all my free time
windsurfing on the Columbia River.
In 94/95, after not having sailed for about 6 years, I
saw a documentary on the BOC Challenge and decided that singlehanded
sailing was going to be my goal. The opportunity to pursue this goal didn’t
arrive it until I moved to the East Coast in 2000.
In December of 2000 I decided that I would race the
Bermuda 1-2 in June of 2001, though I didn’t yet own a boat, had almost no
offshore experience, and had never sailed a boat bigger than a Hobie cat alone,
ever. But, the choice had been made, and over the next 6 months I studied
navigation, seamanship, safety at sea, attended a sleep seminar given by
Dr. Claudio Stampi, and read everything I could about singlehanding.
Just two months before the race I finally found the
boat - a 1981 Olson 30 - just like one my Dad had shown me on the west
coast 9 months before that he thought was cool. A few minor modifications,
a few day sails and a short qualifier, and I was 'in' the Bermuda 1-2.
The race turned out to be interesting. Directly on the
rhumbline to Bermuda was a huge meander in the Gulfstream - not the best
place to spend an extended period of time in an ultralight. After 24 hours
of nasty squalls and going slowly upwind in steep seas it was finally over
and I was ready to put the hammer down and make up some time. After a short
period of light air the wind died completely and over half the fleet
dropped out and motored the rest of the way to Bermuda. This not really
being an option for me with an outboard engine, I sailed at 1-2 knots for
the next 3 days to arrive in Bermuda in 4th place, and guaranteed a 4th
overall in class due to the dropouts. The race home with my father as crew was
great, and though not fast, and definitely built some much needed
experience offshore. The next
summer I competed in the NE solo/twin, the Offshore 160, and several crewed
races, followed by a transatlantic trip on a J-120. It’s amazing how much
you can learn in a short time. At this time the Around Alone skippers were
about to set off around the world, and I was working as shore support for
several of the AA yachts, primarily Spirit of Canada. I played “Navigator”
aboard Spirit for the Around Alone prologue race to New York in which we
beat the 50’ Tommy Hilfiger!
When Derek dismasted in the southern ocean I flew to Ushuaia,
Argentina to rebuild his electronics, and to help get him back on the
water.
Meanwhile, I was completing a refit on my own boat to
race the 2003 Bermuda 1-2. This time, although my position in the race
didn’t improve as I might have hoped, my comfort level on the boat had
improved dramatically, and I felt like I was ready for anything.
Battery problems the second day forced me to hand steer
20+ hours a day for just under 5 days to get to the finish in Bermuda in
5th place (correcting over another boat that finished just in front of me
by 2 minutes)!
After working on the Around Alone boats it had become
my goal to purchase an Open 40 and to race the Around Alone. My dreams,
along with those of many of my friends, were shattered in 2003 when they
announced that Open 40’s would no longer be allowed in the Around Alone. I
didn’t know what the next step would be, until I started to read about
minis, and realized that they were the definitive stepping stone towards
potentially bigger things. I met Katie on the Open 60 Ocean Planet. She was
delivery crew for Bruce, and I was working on the electronics and other
small projects.
It was a fortuitous meeting as we were both in the
process of trying to figure out how to start a mini campaign. We decided we
could help each other out. Our friend Jean Rhealt, a skipper in the 2001
Mini Transat, suggested that we could build a boat together. And so I quit
my desk job, moved to Newport, and set up a boatbuilding shop right
downtown. On July 5th 2004 we began to build the first all carbon-composite
mini transat boat ever built in the United States. Our international team,
two Frenchmen, two Americans, completed the first hull and deck in a little
over 2 months. By the time we had finished the first boat and its owner,
Louis Mauffret, took it back to NYC, it was time for me to go back to work
and earn some more money. Since then it has taken Katie and I almost two
years to launch our Rolland Proto.
Finally, after last week, she is sitting happily in
the water, and I am again looking forward to the 2007 Bermuda 1-2.
