From The Deck of Prospector 1100 BST 19 August 2015

The Decision

As with most decisions, if you wait long enough, our decision on which route to use exiting the English Channel around the Land’s End TSS was made itself.  We preferred the southerly exit through the Scilly Islands.  It is shorter and positioned us better for the left shift we were expecting on the other side.  The first four monohulls to get there, Comanche, Rambler88, Leopard and MOMO all chose that route.  So did all of the fast catamarans. Fortunately for them, they got there with the current running with them.  Unfortunately for us, we got there with the current against us.  Despite the foul current we were still thinking of giving it a go.  Just ahead of us Tonerre and Sorcha, two very well sailed boats with pro crews were facing the same decision.  We watched on AIS to see what they did.  When they headed north along the coast of Cornwall our decision was made for us.  We followed close behind them and picked up a two knot push from the current and began short tacking between the coastline and the TSS Zone.  Tactically it was the smart thing to do because it kept us in the same water as our competitors. In the short run from a routing perspective given the favorable current on that route it was also the smart thing to do.  We hoped the other boats in our fleet just behind us would make the same choice.  We worried that the boats further behind would pick the southerly route and make gains.  The other risk we faced in choosing this route was that the light northerly wind we were sailing in would die and that the current would turn against us before we got over the top of the TSS.  We didn’t love the decision, but didn’t love the other choice either.  

Anchored

At first the choice to go north looked golden.  The northerly strengthened we had a push from the current and it looked like we would be over the top of the TSS in two hours, well in advance of the next foul current.  Also, the boats closest behind us, in particular our sister ship Venomous, followed along behind us.  Then the northerly began to fade away and it all began to unravel.  We spent the next several hours milking what we could out of the last of the wind and current to get north.  The boats in our class that were further behind us decided, as we feared they would, to take the southerly route to the Celtic Sea, and began to gain on us.  It was painful.  The only good news was that we were drifting better that the boats in front of us and were gaining on them.  After several hours we were well north of the north eastern tip of the TSS and tacked to the west towards Fastnet Rock.  But the current had other plans for us.  As the wind shut off altogether the current turned against us and started carrying us back toward the TSS.  We tried to tack back to the north, but that didn’t change things as we just drifted backwards rather than sideways.  At 00:30 BST, in imminent risk of entering the TSS we decided to anchor.  In 200 feet of water.  The gear was rigged and the anchor and nearly 1,000 feet of line went over the side in a desperate, last ditch attempt to avoid incurring a 20% penalty for entering the TSS.  At the last possible instant the anchor dug in and brought us to a stop exactly one tenth of a mile, almost 500 feet from the TSS.  Having miraculously avoided a nasty penalty we settled down to wait for either the wind to come back or the current to change so that we could resume racing.  From what we could guess from the tracker a couple of other competitors, including Venomous, anchored too.  The boats ahead of us that we had been gaining on were slowly being pushed away from us by the current they were in.  We could also see the boats that had selected the route through the Scilly Isles making slow, but steady progress and moving past us on the leaderboard.  We were not a happy bunch. Two hours after we anchored, still without wind, we noticed the current beginning to carry Prospector away from the TSS.  Desperate to get back in the game, and perhaps too optimistically, we weighed anchor, hoping to drift away from the TSS while waiting for the wind.  Collectively we held our breath as the anchor came up while we waited to see which direction the current would carry us in.  The anchor and its makeshift supersized rode were readied to be redeployed if necessary.  After a nervous few minutes we all began to breathe again as Prospector began to move to the north, away from the TSS.

The Celtic Sea

The trip out across the Celtic Sea and back again is 320 nautical miles.  We began our crossing drifting to the north away from the TSS, waiting for the wind to show up so we could turn west towards Fastnet Rock.  Eventually the wind picked up from the northwest and we were on our way.  It was a warm sunny day and everyone enjoyed driving in a building breeze after 36 hours in very light air.  We could see several boats around us including SCA, BancPopulaire, Camper, Caro, Tonnere and Black Pearl which gave us a yardstick to measure our performance against.  We picked up a pod of dolphins who kept us entertained as we sailed on towards Fastnet Rock.  The wind built and backed to the south as we sailed the 160 nautical mile outbound leg to Fastnet.  The crew was kept very busy as we changed headsails multiple times to keep pace with the wind.

Fastnet Rock

As we approached the turning mark of the race the weather steadily deteriorated.  The wind built in to the mid 20s and it began to drizzle rain.  We rounded Fastnet Rock at 00:46 BST and turned for home.  It was a bit of a disappointment to round the rock at night.  All of us had been hoping for a daylight rounding so we could get a good look at the classic old lighthouse and if we were really lucky a picture from a photo boat of Prospector with Fastnet Rock as a backdrop to memorialize the race.  All the same we were happy to see it, seemingly passing near enough to touch it as it appeared in framed in silhouette by its powerful light.

 Homeward Bound

Fastnet Rock receded quickly into the dark, drizzly night.  We had a short upwind beat to clear the Fastnet TSS and then bore off on to a reach on the 152 nautical mile leg to the southwest edge of the West Scilly TSS.  These TSS zones have become more than a little tiresome haven’t they?  We sped along at nearly 12 knots and covered the distance in a little more than 13 hours.  Prospector enjoyed the sportier sailing conditions, though her crew had become a bit spoiled by the extremely gentle weather we have had for most of the race.  The TR2015 veterans in the crew remembered the weather today, the worst of this race so far, as the best they experienced in their Atlantic crossing.  

Toward Plymouth

Early this afternoon we turned towards Plymouth after we cleared the West Scilly’s TSS.  We set our newly repaired A6 and began the just over 90 nautical mile final stages of our Fastnet Race.  We are currently in 6th place in IRCZ.  13 boats started in our class.  Three have retired.  Of the five boats ahead of us, only one, Snow Lion, is a heavy displacement racer/cruiser.  The other five consist of a 72 foot maxi and four lightweight modern planning boats.  Those five are nothing like us.  Most importantly we are well ahead of our sister ship, Venomous, in what we have decided is the Farr 60 World Championships!  We have had none of the carnage to the boat and her sail inventory that we experienced in the much rougher TR2015.  All in all in line with our pre-race expectations and something to be proud of.

From The Deck of Prospector 0900Z 18 August 2015

This is one crazy Fastnet Race.  The race is normally a beat out to the rock and a run 

back in a strong SW wind.  We aren’t experiencing anything like that.  Other than a brief 

sea breeze that kicked in a bit after the start and lasted until night fall on Sunday we 

have had mostly a light wind out of the NW to NE, or at times, no wind at all.  We have 

also had to deal with very strong currents, often greater than 5 knots, particularly around 

the headlands we have we have been passing on the English coast.  The combination 

of light fluky winds and strong currents have made the race thus far a navigators 

nightmare.  

Because we have been so busy dealing with very challenging sailing conditions, we 

haven’t had much time to write about the race.  This morning, in the middle of the Celtiic 

Sea, things have settled down a bit.  The approaching warm front that is the leading 

edge of the Atlantic low to our east has provided us with our first steady breeze since 

Sunday night.  Finally, we are pointed towards Fastnet rock, free of the various 

obstacles and obstruction zones along the English coast, with a steady wind and a little 

bit of speed.  We have some time to catch you up on our adventures so far.

The Start

WOW!  It was crazy.  An unbelievable spectacle.  None of us had ever seen as many 

boats in one place at one time.  It was an amazing experience to be part of such a large 

fleet. There were boats of all shapes and sizes.  Spectators in RIBs mingled in among 

the boats, checking them out, cheering on friends and watching the starts.  Nearly 400 

boats in one place with no wind and a lot of current, facing a 15 mile beat in a narrow 

channel.  For those of you on Shelter Island, imagine 400 boats racing in the channel 

between Greenport and Shelter Island, the only differences being that the channel is 

twice as long and the current three times as strong.

We arrived at the starting area, off Cowes, just before the first start at 12:00 BST.  

There was no wind and the current was still flooding.  Boats in the first couple of starts 

struggled get to the line, let alone get across it.  Our first task was to mark both ends of 

the starting line, which ran between the Royal Yacht Squadron flagpole and a buoy in 

the middle of the Solent, in our Nav computer. Because we were going to start in light 

air with a 5 knot current pushing us over the line, knowing the exact location of both 

ends of the line was imperative.  The Race Committee placed buoys marking the inner 

and outer and outer limits of the line, but the sailing instructions warned that they might 

not be on the line. The actual starting line was a transit formed by lining up the RYS 

flagpole with a white line on orange diamond on the RYS club house.  To help 

competitors locate the line the RYS installed two vertical light beams that get brighter as 

you approach the line and momentarily go out when you are on the line.  This is all 

simple in theory, but complicated in practice.  With all of the boats milling around the 

starting area, the RYS clubhouse, flagpole, orange marker and lights couldn’t be seen 

from the outer limit buoy.  After a few tries we gave up on that and headed to the Cowes 

side of the Solent to ping the line from there.  On our third attempt got a good ping on 

the port side of the line.  We headed back out to the starboard end of the line and 

finally, after about half of the fleet had started enabling us to see the RYS, got a ping we 

were happy with there.

With the starting line located, we put the deck computer in start mode, and began to 

experiment with different starting strategies.  We knew there would be a crowd fighting 

for a start at the inner marker.  Boats that had started there in the earlier classes had 

done better than boats out toward the outer marker.  We also knew it would be fatal to 

be over early.  We could see several boats from the earlier classes that were over early 

with their spinnakers up fighting the tide to get back to the line.  All of them were failing 

as they were swept backwards away from the line by a foul tide that was getting 

stronger.  These two observations became the basis for our starting strategy.  Not 

wanting to get into a fight we would likely lose to the likes of Comanche and Rambler88, 

we decided to start one third of the distance of the line away from the inner marker.  We 

also decided to intentionally be 30-60 seconds below the line at the start to protect 

against being over early.  We made several attempts at timed runs to the line, starting at 

15, then 20 and finally 25 boat lengths behind the line.  It was amazing to see how 

quickly we would be carried back to the line in the building current.  After several tests 

we settled on being 25 boat lengths behind the line 90 seconds from the start.

Our strategy worked well and we got the start we wanted.   We were 30 seconds below 

and one third of the way down the line when the gun went off.  We even got a little lucky 

to get a puff that we tacked to port on to get away from the boats that started to 

starboard of us and clear our air.  After few minutes on port we tacked back to starboard 

to head towards Cowes.  We crossed in front of several of the boats that had tried to 

fight for the inner marker and were off down the Solent.

The Solent

As crazy as the start was, our beat down the Solent was even crazier.  We had to sail 

among and through the nearly 400 boats, thirty of which started with us, and the rest of 

the fleet that started ahead of us.  It was an unbelievable sight.

Immediately after the start we were sailing in a 5 knot NW to NE wind with 5 knots of 

current pushing us down the Solent.  Every boat wanted to be in the same place, which 

was in the deep water to maximize the benefit of the current and wherever the wind was 

strongest.  Everyone also positioning themselves for the SW”ly sea breeze that was 

forecast to develop over the course of Sunday afternoon.

Shorly after our tack on to starboard to head towards Cowes, we found ourselves off 

Gurnard, and getting a persistent lift and crossing boats that had been ahead of us.  

When we tacked to port to head back out offshore we lost the lift and were in turn 

crossed by boats that heading in to the shore.  Based on this observation we decided to 

work the Isle of Wight side of the Solent and tack offshore only when necessary to avoid 

running aground.  This strategy paid off well for the first half of the beat down the Solent 

and we gained ground both on our fleet and the fleet as a whole.  We gave the 

shoreside spectators a thrill and got a big cheer as we tacked within feet of the shore off 

Hamstead Ledge.  

About this time the sea breeze built in and we enjoyed great sailing conditions in a 12 

knot SW’y wind.  The arrival of the sea breeze dictated a change in tactics.  With strong 

wind all across the Solent, and at its narrowest stretch, we began to use the whole 

Solent, tacking from side to side across it rather than only playing the Isle of Wight 

shore.  The key to this phase of the race down the Solent was finding and maintaining a 

good lane on each tack as we picked our way through the rest of the fleet.  The crew did 

a great job, picking the right moment for each tack and ducking or waving boats across, 

as necessary, to keep our lane clear.  We gave the spectators at Hurst Castle a thrill, 

approaching them on starboard tack at full speed and tacking away within a few feet of 

them to waves and cheers.  As we pulled away from our tack at Hurst Castle we saw 

Lucky aground, hard, just ahead of us, nearly where we would have been had we not 

tacked.

Our trip down the Solent ended as we tacked away from the Needles and out into the 

English Channel at 15:30 BST.  Both Prospector and her crew performed well and we 

found ourselves in third place in our fleet.  It was a fun, exhilarating, challenging and 

memorable experience.  Experiences like that are why we do these things.

The English Channel

Past the Solent we faced the challenges of the English Channel.  This section of the 

race covers approximately 165 nautical miles and is dominated by five iconic 

headlands, St. Alban’s Head, Portland Bill, Start Point, The Lizard and Land’s End.   

Around each of these headlands the winds and currents swirl and the sea can get pretty 

kicked up.  In a fair current you go as close to each headland as you dare.  In a foul 

current you go offshore to seek current relief.  These headlands act as tidal gates, 

alternately opening and closing every six hours.  Get them right and you can win the 

race.  Get them wrong and it is game over.

By the time we exited the Solent we knew we could get past St Alban’s head with the 

remaining fair current we carried from the start.  Portland Bill was another matter.  If the 

sea breeze held, which was unlikely, we might just make it.  If it didn’t we needed to get 

offshore in a hurry to pick up a light northerly gradient wind.  As expected the sea 

breeze began to die off as we neared St Alban’s Head.  Our decision made for us we 

headed offshore and got past Portland Bill at around 19:30 BST.  We remained 

offshore, approximately 20 miles offshore for the rest of the night, passing Start Point, 

as the wind velocity began to drop. At 06:00 BST, we pointed Prospector at The Lizard, 

to catch the strong currents that live there and in hopes that a sea breeze would 

develop over the course of the day.  We passed so close to the Lizard we could pet its 

snout at 12:30 BST.  Continuing to play onshore with the current and sea breeze we 

tacked in to Mounts Bay, between the Lizard and Land’s End.  Short tacking the shore 

we checked out the crowds on the beaches in the coves along the coast. 

As we neared Land’s End, we were wrestling with what might biggest decision in the 

race, how to deal with the Land’s End commercial traffic separation scheme, or TSS.  

All of the TSS zones in the area of the race course are designated as obstructions for 

the race.  If you enter them you get a 20% scoring penalty.  The other TSSs require 

relatively minor course adjustments to steer clear.   The one at Land’s End is a big deal 

for two reasons, it is the largest TSS requiring a large course adjustment and it dictates 

how you exit the English Channel and enter the Celtic Sea. Avoiding it leaves you with 

two choices to get to the Celtic sea, southeast through the Scilly Islands or north along 

the coast of Cornwall between the TSS and the coast.  Both routes are governed by 

tidal gates, when one has fair current the other is does not.  The route along the 

Cornwall coast is longer.  Which one you chose is determined by what the wind and 

current is doing when you get there, what your competitors do and what you think the 

wind will do once you get through.  It isn’t an easy decision and one we haven’t been 

looking forward to making.

More on that in our next post.+

Prospector returns to action this weekend in the Rolex Fastnet Race, one of ocean racing’s greatest events.  This is the 46th edition of the Fastnet Race which is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2015 with a record 372 entrants.

The 603 nautical mile race is a test of strategy and skill with challenging tidal currents and changeable weather. The fleet starts off the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, races out of the Solent and down the English Channel passing The Needles, Anvil Point, Portland Bill, Start Point, The Lizard and Land’s End, ahead of the open water passage across the Celtic Sea and the symbolic turn around the Fastnet Rock off the southern coast of Ireland; a rounding that heralds the race’s emblematic moment as the fleet embark on the long return leg to the finish in Plymouth.

We start at 13:40pm British Standard Time, which is 8:40 am edt.  Our start will include our class, IRC Zero with 16 yachts, IRC Canting Keel and the Volvo 65s.  32 yachts in total will be on the line with us including Comanche, Rambler 88, Bella Mente, Lucky, Leopard and Volvo Ocean Race competitors Dongfeng and SCA.  It promises to be a very exciting start. 

IRC Zero is a very diverse class, very different from the fairly homogeneous group we were grouped with for the Transatlantic race.  It is a very similar class, with many of the same yachts, to the one we were in for the Caribbean 600.  We will have our hands full and will be happy to finish in the top half of this group.

Details of the race can be found on the race website:

http://www.rolexfastnetrace.com

There is a terrific race preview video available at:

http://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/Multimedia/multimedia-area-overview.html

The start of the race will be broadcast on radio and TV and will be streamed over the internet at

http://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/Fastnet-Radio-2015/87-9-fm-fastnet-radio-2015.html

You can track the race on Yellowbrick via the internet or the mobile app.  The link for online tracking is:

http://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/Tracking-Full-Page-Hidden/2015-fleet-tracking-race-player.html

We hope you will follow us along on our latest adventure!

A Glossary of Prospector Terms (in no particular order)

Quinn Tobin is Prospector’s linguist.  He applies his particular and often peculiar

sensibilities to all aspects of Prospector’s equipment, operations and daily

routines.  You can’t understand Prospector if you don’t know DialQ, a language

Quinn invented.  This might be helpful.

Supermodel:  Our A2-4 masthead spinnaker.  Tall and curvy, she is very beautiful

but extremely high maintenance.  She will give you plenty of trouble if you don’t

pay the utmost attention to her.

The Girl Next Door:  Our fractional A-5 spinnaker.  Safe and reliable, the GND is

easy to handle and trim.  Lately the boys have been referring to her as Caitlin

Jenner following an unfortunate incident that required extensive surgery to fix.

The Green Monster:  The toilet seat in the head, painted green in honor of our

beloved navigator.

The Silk Road:  The pathway between the galley/head area and the forepeak. 

This is the most heavily travelled area of the boat.

Lindsey Vonn:  Our number five jib.  She is very beautiful, very sturdy, and always

comes through in the clutch.

The Drive Thru Window:  A cockpit portlight that opens to the galley.  Food and

beverages are distributed to the on deck crew from here in foul weather.

Pol Pot:  The persona assumed by our beloved navigator when he doesn’t get

enough sleep.

The Carbon Cabana:  Also referred to as steerage, this is the below deck area at

the very back of the boat where our nippers Scotty and Lu sleep and do strange

things that no one wants to know about.

The General:  Our Genoa Staysail.  Set just behind the headsail, the General

doesn’t go to the front lines but he is always ready to lead the charge.

The Third Dolphin:  If you know, then you know.

Cambodia:  The starboard lower bunk in the main salon.  Pol Pot can often be

found sleeping here.

Spin Class With Henry (aka All Aboard the Pain Train):   The unlucky position of

being main grinder when Henry is trimming the mainsail and Dave is lawn darting. 

The tone in Henry’s voice will let you know how much it is about to hurt.

Owner’s Stateroom:   The dark cave portside aft with three bunks where

Brendan, Paul, and sometimes Larry have their bunks

Owners Changing Room (aka The Group W Bench):   The bench just outside the

Owner’s stateroom.  A perfect place to get into or remove your foulies.

Colette’s Stateroom:  The starboard side companion to the Owner’s Stateroom.

ESU:  Emergency Services Unit.  Led by Tery and assisted by various off watch

crewmembers, the ESU responds to on deck emergencies to help shorten sail or

take jibs/kites down.  Its motto is “You flag ‘em, we bag ‘em”

Bear Claw:  A sheet hobbling device that was initially met with much derision by

the Prospector crew.  However, with time the boys have come to appreciate the

invaluable service provided by the Bear Claw.

Poking the Bear:  Sailing too close to a low pressure system.  (See also:  The

Widowmaker)

Bikes:  Arm-driven handles that power the mainsheet and primary winches.  (See

also:  The Midget)

Baptismal Font:  The nickname given our offshore companionway hood.

Mulligan – Ever Elusive:  Spending a watch in your bunk instead of on deck when

you are perfectly capable of standing said watch.  This never happens.  Sorry

Dave.

Monkey:  The act of bouncing along with the new active sheet during a jibe.  Its

effect is to tension the leach of the spinnaker and snap the twist out of the head.

Dryer:  An extremely valuable device invented by Tery, the Dryer is a tray in the

engine room for drying hats, gloves, and socks.  Accessed through a trapdoor in

the galley counter.

Sched:  Fleet position update.  The obsession of racing navigators the world over. 

Offshore race boats live and die by the Sched.  Updated on the half hour during

the TR 2015.

Cranky:  What our navigator is when we have a bad Sched, which may lead to Pol

Pot making an appearance.

Get The Lulu:   What is said when an item or is too heavy for the old guys to lift.

The Deflect:  What you get when you try to get an answer or commitment from

our sailmaker.

BFL:  Big F***ing Light.  A large flashlight with many thousands of lumens.

The Widowmaker:  The low pressure system that we got a bit too close to, that

tried to kill us.

Longboarding:  Benign surfing conditions.  A less aggressive version of the Lawn

Dart.

Lawn Dart:  A big wave surf.  So named because the Prospector’s bowsprit often

pierces the next wave in the train, much like a lawn dart.

North Atlantic Boat Racoon:  Our nickname for Scotty who is found constantly

eating out of the cooler of left over freeze dried in the early morning hours. 

Always armed with his “Racoon Spoon”, he is something of a human garbage

disposal, which explains his frequent gastrointestinal distress.  This usually leads

to the administration of a cocktail of stomach medicines by Dr. Dave.

The Midget:  The mainsheet winch bike.  It seems just a bit too short.

The Keystay:  An ingenious device devised by Tim Keyworth, aka Keys.  The

Keystay consists of a masthead halyard led back to a padeye on the weather rail

which helps to stabilize the topmast when flying The Supermodel.

Moneypenny:  Our number four jib.  It is our money sail when things get sporty.

From The Deck Of Prospector 13 July 2015 1000Z

A Paean To Prospector

As we near the finish of the TR2015 all 15 crew onboard are reflecting

on how lucky we have been to do this event on such an exceptional

yacht.

The yacht called Prospector today has a long and illustrious history

since her commissioning in 1998.  She has been Deep Powder, Carrera,

Harrier, Hissar, and Captivity.  She has had terrific owners in Joe

Dockery, Steve Munger, Edgar Cato, and Sam Byrne who maintained

her well and upgraded her consistently.  She is a winner on the race

course, and among her many victories she is the current holder of the

course record for the Annapolis to Newport race, set when she was

Carrera.  When the SITP partners found her in Maine we could

immediately tell she had great bones, though she needed a bit of love. 

More on that in a separate post.

Many famous sailors and highly accomplished crews have raced on her

over the years.  We have been amazed at the number of people we

have met who fondly remember sailing on her in the past.  To a one

they have offered us advice and encouragement as we have gone about

getting ready for the TR2015.  Many of them have told us how happy it

makes them feel to see the old girl out and about again.  It would be

great fun if any of you who sailed on her put a post on our Facebook

page.

Every racing yacht is great at some things and not so great at others.

We have only found two flat spots with Prospector.  The first is that she

is underpowered downwind in light air.  The second is that we have to

switch to smaller fractional spinnakers in any reaching condition over 8

knots because the top of the mast is unsupported and we don’t have

running backstays.  Both of these issues are minor (though they did

impact our Annapolis to Newport result) relative to her many strengths. 

There are a couple of other minor annoyances. Prospector is a bit of a

wet boat now, mostly because of her age.  The aft facing Nav station is

a bit of a trip and a bit of a challenge for her navigator.  All things

considered, these are pretty acceptable trade-offs in exchange for her

many strengths.

Prospector is very fast upwind in almost any wind condition and

downwind above 15 knots though we can’t quite compete with the

planning yachts of today.  The more the wind blows, the more she likes

it.  It is amazingly easy to tell when she is underpowered and when she

is overpowered.  In either state, a quick adjustment to the sail plan gets

her back on her groove again.  During our transatlantic crossing we

were blessed with a lot of wind.  On more than a few occasions too

much wind.  The crew had more trouble dealing with that than

Prospector did.  After we reduced sail area, often to a triple reefed

main and J5, Prospector would settle right down, incredibly balanced

and relatively easy to steer.  It was an incredible sensation in over 40

knots of wind to feel her trundle on like a locomotive on a track,

shaking off the mayhem raging around her.  Her strength and

confidence rubbed off on us.  In conditions that often were just this

side of terrifying, we were able to remain calm knowing our sturdy

yacht could handle them.

Her other terrific attribute is her sheer volume.  Long, wide and tall she

is enormous below decks.  Prospector was an amazingly spacious and

comfortable home for the 15 of us as we crossed the Atlantic (this is of

course a relative comparison).  There was plenty of room for all of us,

our gear (too much gear), 14 or 15 sails, food, supplies, tools and

spares.  Sail storage and handling was easy given the space in the main

cabin.  She is extremely comfortable, an important consideration for a

partnership group that would be hard to categorize as young. 

Prospector is very big, and she looks it.  We were in Antigua this winter

at the Catamaran Club for the Caribbean 600.  We were on a dock in

front of the Ker 51 Sorcha and alongside the Cookson 50 Privateer. 

Both looked tiny compared to the massive Prospector.   People would

walk the docks and check Sorcha and Privateer, both amazing yachts. 

When they got to Prospector they would stop and stare, stunned at her

size.  We really benefited from her size and volume in the sailing

conditions we experienced during TR2015.

We had a very tough race.  We rarely sailed in less than 30knot winds. 

Often, too often really, we were in 40 knot plus winds.  We also had

very big seas.  Bigger than any of us had ever seen before or want to

see again.  We pushed Prospector hard to try to put up the best

possible finish we could.  We had some breakdowns, and some near

break downs, and even more near misses but Prospector gave us more

than we should have asked of her and brought us across the big, unruly

North Atlantic safely.

All 15 of us now trust her completely.  We know we are beyond

fortunate to have such a fast, strong, sea kindly yacht to enjoy the

adventure of a lifetime aboard.