Double Trouble prepped to sail from Key West to Cuba in the Conch Republic Cup

While we prep the Boat after her Long trip back from Cuba and Key West Race Week in Florida

Check this cool Picture James "Hippie" Clapier took from the top of the Rig of DT at Key West 2016

Shows you how Narrow the J125 design is. I especially like the Double Trouble Logo in the Deck

Team Double Trouble Smashing Down Wind at the Big Boat Series 2014
Crew Andy Costello,Paul Cayard,James Clapier and Nicholas Katley
photo by Daniel Forster

Team Double Trouble decided to race a J70 at this years 50th anniversary of the Rolex Big Boat Series.
Here is the report from DOUBLE TROUBLE: “The 70 is an awesome little boat. We had a solid 25 knots gusting to a bit more on the bottom of the course towards the top of the Berkeley circle on Saturday and we hit 19 knots over the bottom on the Velocitek GPS. We joked afterwards that must be a J/70 record, but probably not. There were some 70's or two washing their Windexs in the bay.... some halyards didn't hold etc, on that late afternoon run in typical SF Bay breeze. The boat and the rig feel pretty bomb-proof. We stuffed it hard into some big waves a few times, when we couldn't go over the top of them. I thought the rig was going to come down, but no way! Great job with the Southern Spar!

J/70 Double Trouble- Andy Costello and Paul Cayard sailing San Francisco Big Boat SeriesMy crew for the regatta was awesome!! Two of my crew were from my J/125 DOUBLE TROUBLE- James Clappier (a.k.a. “hippie”) on bow and jib trim downwind and Nick Catley (from New Zealand and currently on the World Match Race Tour) on jib trim upwind and spin trimmer downwind. We then had Paul Cayard on tactics and mainsheet (a Star World and Volvo Ocean Race champion), with me driving.

We had two days before the event to sail for some practice; none of us had stepped on to a J/70 beforehand. We learned a lot over the Regatta and really progressed over the six days of sailing.

I'll be purchasing my own boat soon! Mark Howe let me use his J/70 for the RBBS and we had Sharon Green from Ultimate Sailing out on my Protector RIB shooting some awesome photos!

The J/70 fleet was competitive and the racing was incredibly tight. It was my most enjoyable Big Boat series in the 10 years that I have done it!! Go figure, and it was on the smallest boat!!”

The final standings in each class were the following:

J/70 fleet sailing San Francisc Bay in Rolex Big Boat SeriesIn J/70s, Costello’s team ruled the roost, taking an 8-1-2-1-2-1-2 for 17 pts to win class by a comfortable margin

Double Trouble Has entered te 2014 Pacific Cup and will begin its optimization and prep to the boat shortly. Crew will be announced shortly but it s looking like the team from 2012 that sailed her to Hawaii in 7 days in the 2012 race will almost all be on the boat. (DT was the second boat under 50 feet ever to do that in a Transpac or Pac cup.) Look for updates on projects and testing and tuning along the way to our start in early July. Cant wait to Surf the Trades !

Peter and his rock star inshore team defended their 2012 Rolex Big Boat Series win in the super competative HPR Division with a win last week taking the national championship of the HPR Class. They battled with stiff competition from the likes of 3 other j125s an Rp44, Farr 400, MC38 and Farr 36 yachts. The event was raced over 4 days and the best of seven races taking place on San Francisco Bay just a day after the completion of the 34th Americas Cup.

This marks the third straight Rolex win for DT in this west coasts premier event