California Condor
Antrim Class 40 Racing in the 2010 Pacific Cup
| Vessel Name: | California Condor |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Antrim Class 40 |
| Hailing Port: | Richmond, CA, USA |
| Crew: | The PacCup team: Buzz Blackett, David Blackett, Jim Antrim, Todd Hedin, Liz Baylis, Tom Paulling |
22 July 2010
7/22/10 - Pau!
Yes! We finished at about 2130 HST. Over 100 other sailors and other well-wishers came out to greet us when we got to the dock. The good will and wishes for us for palpable. These sailors are a pretty wonderful group. After a few mai tais and sushi we collapsed around 2:30 a.m.
21 July 2010 |
7/21/10 - Onward to Kaneohe Finish
We made good progress during the night and the rudder seems to be sturdy (after some real stress tests in squalls during the last two nights). So we have decided to finish the race and go into Kaneohe for a day and then sail the boat to Honolulu for hauling and shipping. We just completed the 100 mile check-in with the race committee and are hoping to finish by 9:00 p.m. Hawaii time and get to the dock by 11:00 p.m. We'll try to send a final blog this evening.
20 July 2010
7/20/10 - Light Winds, Slow Progress
Pulling the drouge out of the water and steering with a rudder instead made the boat go much faster. Until the wind dies. Which is what has happened to us during the course of the day. We are having to work for our miles, trimming and gybing. The good news is the rudder is holding up just fine. We still hope to arrive Thursday at the latest.
7/14 (P.M.) /10 - Heading Slowly Down The Track
If you have followed our position reports, you've seen that we haven't gone far. But we have made substantial progress. We have shortened our drogue (allowing us to go faster) and have set a "double head rig" with the heavy #1 on the forestay and the spinnaker staysail set half way out the sprit (to help us sail lower and also to help us sail faster). The staysail is now rigged with the heavier duty jib top furler (to enable us to reduce sail area if we get more wind). All these changes appear to be working. We are now sailing at 5 - 6 knots on a heading of between 205 and 235 degrees. Rhumb line to Kaneohe is about 220 degrees. We'll see how it goes tonight.
For those of you who may not visualize sailing down wind without a rudder in windy, wavy conditions, it would be like driving a car with no steering wheel, ball-bearings instead of front tires, and cafeteria trays under the rear tires, through a slalom course on ice by pushing on the rear bumpers against a team of gremlins trying to pushing it the other way. Sound like a new Winter Olympic competition?
We all continue to be in good spirits, and the crew work has been superb. We are thinking of all of you, and we'll try to update this blog more frequently.
