Sunday, June 10, 2007

Choosing a ride Part I

I (Dean) first voiced my intention to race to Hawaii before I turn 50 last August in Santa Barbara as Paul, Debi and I were preparing for our fifth Santa Barbara to King Harbor race. We won the 2002 race on Paul's Antrim 27 and have be back attempting to repeat every year since. Deb and Paul committed to the project on the spot and we immediately started looking for boats to use for the race.

We would have used Paul's Corsair 31 trimaran Sally Lightfoot for the program, but multi-hulls that small are not allowed to compete in either the West Marine Pacific Cup race from San Francisco (even numbered years) or the Transpac Yacht Race from Los Angeles (odd numbered years). There is a good reason for this since multi-hulls that small are inversion-prone when raced hard. On the other hand, most modern multi-hulls are unsinkable. Paul's previous boat was sister-ship to the Antrim 27 ET, that has multiple podium finishes in the Pacific Cup, so an Antrim was immediately on the short list.

We walked the crowded docks at San Barbara looking at possible rides and compiling criteria. The docks were an excellent place to look and dream. All types of ocean racing yachts from all over California were present.

3 comments:

Debi said...

How can anyone resist! I initially got permission from my fiancee to do the race only a day after our wedding! But alas the perfect boat did not appear until now and less than a month of preparation would not be wise. I am looking forward to this adventure with two great sailors and friends.

Paul said...

First blog post of my life. Which is pretty sad since I run a team of Web Marketing professionals. Oh well, virginity lost. (it was great)

Dean, Debi and I are three distinctly different personalities. There's an x-factor that make us very compatible. The only real arguments I can recall involve the difference between VMG (velocity made good) and WCV (waypoint closing velocity).

As long as we stay off that topic - unlikely in a Pacific crossing - we'll be fine. Maybe Mark Rudiger can settle it for us before we leave.

fdasailor said...

You guys should talk to Jam Quanci of Green Buffalo. He raced a Hobir in the 1986 Pac Cup and won the 92 race on a Moore 24. you can reach him at the Pac Cup number 415 441-4461