The wind is blowing 25-30 out of the NE this am.  With a long fetch from Genoa the seas have become very rough, building to 2-3 meters off Porto Cervo.  The Race Committee announced a three hour postponement last night.  First warning signals now at 1430 vs 1130.  We are the sixth start today at 15:30.  The race committee is going to try hard to get a race off but the forecast doesn't look good.

Porto Cervo Marina is pretty exposed in this wind and wave direction.  For safety reasons Tery and some of the crew took Prospector to Portisco, a more protected harbor, 9 nautical miles south of Porto Cervo.  Crew breakfast has been changed to crew brunch, minus the alcohol in case we do go racing.

Here is a link to the Regatta write up of yesterday's race.

http://www.yccs.it/en/news-pag/maxi_fleet_takes_off_in_porto_cervo-185.html

Prospector

6 September 2016

Rolex Maxi Cup, Porto Cervo, Italy

We won our first race. Simple as that. Surprised? You better believe it. But not as in we didn’t have the boat or the team to win. But more, we bought a boat two weeks ago, most of our team has never sailed a maxi (ok, mini maxi but it seems damn big to me), let alone competed in one at this level and winning wasn’t on the table. Yet we won.  You can check out the results here:

http://www.yccsfiles.com/results/myrc16/m16mmr_1.html

I won’t spend a lot of time with the blow by blow of the race both because it’s boring and for me as the driver, I barely look around so I have little idea about how we actually did it. The course was a “coastal race” up and around one of the beautiful islands just off Porto Cervo. The day started off windy, with a pretty big lumpy sea and just getting off the dock was an absolute mission.

Getting out to the racecourse, we were a bit late and we did a few race tacks and then rolled right into the sequence. Larry had the course dialed in and Peter Isler calmly talked us onto the line with a terrific start. Head down, we sailed the first upwind leg focusing on boat speed and staying ahead of the competition. We rounded the weather mark in first place, set the chute and never looked back.

The course was stunningly beautiful as we wound through the islands and narrow channels passing boats that started in front of us. While the scenery was gorgeous, the navigation is a challenge. And one Larry was up to even as we passed rocks that felt like we could just reach out and touch. Such is sailing in the Med. Despite a few ragged practice days (to be expected in a boat like this, with a new team), the boys got it done as we made each turn amid the controlled mayhem of sail changes and chute sets and douses. Everyone was terrific.

Prospector is a super fast boat and an absolutely unbelievably great platform. But she is a man-eater when the wind is up. Eight guys grind up the spinnaker. You can’t hear yourself think when sheets are being eased. Literally every job is hard work. Ok…my job isn’t that hard…but I pretend it is. So it’s exhausting, particularly the first race but the smiles and satisfaction of winning are worth it.

To say we are less than cocky about winning our first race is a massive understatement. It wasn’t luck. We sailed a good race in a great boat but we know we have a ton of work ahead. There are other great teams here and we know that repeating the Cinderella story of our first race is a tall order. We are here to learn and learn we are doing. We will do that first and let the results fall where they may.

I am sure by now you are wondering about the heading – Beverly Hillbillies. As some of us know who are a certain age, the Beverly Hillbillies was a great TV show about a family of hillbillies that moved to Beverly Hills. That’s us. We even have a cement pond at our crew house. This is the most unbelievable collection of yachts I have ever seen and one that couldn’t be replicated in the U.S. The yachts are huge, sleek and managed by crews in matching…well…everything. Among this fancy pants crowd is the Prospector team. Our boat is on the smaller side. Yes that’s right. We are tiny as compared to many of the teams here. I at least feel like at any moment someone is going to walk up and ask us “what are you doing here”? Yet they don’t. Just the opposite. Many folks have come up and said they know who we are and are glad to see us with a new boat.

Pretty heady stuff for some hillbillies from Shelter Island and while we might not fit in just yet, we won our first race and here we are. 

Follow Prospector at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

 

Here is how to follow our escapades in Porto Cervo.

 

The event is hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smerelda, the YCCS website is:

 

http://www.yccs.it

 

 

The Regatta Website is:

 

http://www.yccs.it/en/regate-2016/documenti/maxi_yacht_rolex_cup__rolex_maxi_72_world_championship-227.html

 

On the regatta website you will find links for race documents, results, photos and videos.

 

 

Race Tracking is provided by TracTrac:

 

http://www.tractrac.com/web/event-page/event_20160827_MaxiYachtR/879/

Hurry up and wait is an inherent aspect of all sail boat races, from Optis to Maxis.  We are currently in a shore postponement here at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup because the wind is blowing too hard in the racing area.  Instead of first warning signals at 1130, the race committee is keeping us in the barn hoping that winds will ease, allowing them to start us racing around 1430.  The Prospector team is scattered around the Yacht Club Costa Smerelda, checking out the amazing yachts here, havinga coffee in the café,  or just sitting in the shade people watching.  For Tery, Quinn, Lu and Scotty it means a welcome few hours to continue working on the punch list on Prospector.  In my case it means hanging out in the YCCS bar, no shock there to those who know me, staying out of the sun in an air conditioned environment working on my nav set up and this post.

 

Those of you who have tracked our previous adventures know that when we go quiet it means things have gotten busy.  Busy we have been.  We now have three, count ‘em three practice days in the boat.  Those three days are everything and nothing.  We have learned an amazing amount, both about the boat and each other.

 

The key take aways are:

 

We have an amazing yacht.  She is beautiful, fast, strong and safe.

 

We have some amazing people here teaching us how to sail her.  Endless thanks to Peter Isler, Gordon Maguire, Bob McCarthy, Dave Tank and Dave Scott for passing on their boundless knowledge with such enthusiasm and patience.

 

We have an amazing crew.  We knew that already but these last three days have just proved it all over again.  This is a big step up from the Farr 60.  Everyone has upped their game responding to the challenge with their usual enthusiasm and humor.  We are all in a doctorate level sailing course and learning as fast as we can.

 

Things happen fast on the new Prospector.  We are sailing at 10 knots upwind and 18-20 knots downwind.  The sails are huge and heavy.  It takes a team of three to move them.  The loads on halyards and sheets are immense.  When all four bikes are linked and eight people are on them things fly.  At the top mark kites go up and jibs come down.  At the bottom mark the dance starts five minutes out, bikes ready, staysail furled, staysail down, jib up, kite down.  The sequence is easy to write.  Getting it all down while barreling down the course at nearly 20 knots is hard.  Everything has to happen in its time and on time.  Fall behind the sequence and you can’t catch up.  Each of us depends on the other to get the job done.  The first couple of times we have tried each maneuvre things went badly.  Slowly and steadily we are getting better.  But each time, like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never know what we are going to get.

 

We are scheduled for five coastal races.  We have mixed emotions about not doing any windward/leeward races.  Not doing them takes off a bit of pressure, but it also means we won’t have the chance to learn from doing them.

 

Time to go check in on the boat.  Will try to get a post up tonight about our first race.

 

Keep you fingers crossed for us!