Race along with the team on their blast down the coast.

Continuing Prospector’s year of Pacific domination, the team is gearing up for the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race, a 1,000nm run down the Mexican coast.  Given the current forecast (full detail below), navigator Larry Landry has placed the over/under at a 3.5 day race, so the team is aiming for tacos and tequila somewhere between March 6 and 7.  

Prospector is competing in Division 1, featuring speedy 52 footers Bad Pak, Patches and Vincitore as well as Manouch Moshayedi’s Rio 100, who holds the course record of 3 days and 5 hours set in 2016.

As always, the team will post updates from the course here at prospectorsailing.com, and other stories can be found at the race website http://pvrace.com/.  You can follow the team’s progress at the race tracker here, and as always tune in to the @prospectorsailing instagram for a glimpse of life on board.

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Weather Briefing From Larry Landry, Navigator:   Still a little early to be certain but, it looks like we we will start in a 10-12kt westerly that will shift right to NW and build to 15-20kts.  Temps in  low 60's during the day and dropping to low 50s at night.  As we move down the track winds will hold at NW 15-20 and temps will climb to high 60s.  From Cabo to PV winds will shift to N and get light, 5-10kts and them shift back to NW at 15kts ish and temps will climb to 70-80.

Latest routing suggest 3.5 day race.

Prospector’s 2018 campaign starts Friday February 18 when the team takes on the 2018 Islands Race, a 134 nautical mile sprint which starts in Long Beach, CA and finishes in San Diego after leaving Catalina and San Clemente Islands to port.  The race will not only provide the team an opportunity to shake off winter’s cobwebs, but will also serve as a tune-up for the 1,000nm Puerto Vallarta Race in two weeks’ time and the team’s first foray into Pacific Ocean racing.

While it’s still early, the Pacific Weather Gods look to be serving up a forecast that favors reintroduction to racing.  Winds are expected to be in the 8-10 knot range starting out of the west and shifting into light northeasterly breezes by Saturday morning.  The Race looks like a largely off-the wind affair; perfect training for a campaign that promises to feature a good amount of VMG sailing.

Based on the forecast, navigator Larry Landry expects to cross the finish line off San Diego in the early hours of Saturday the 17th.  Since the forecast does not suggest Prospector will be able to challenge for the course record of just over 11 hours (set by the Santa Cruz 70 OEX in 2011), the crew is hoping to at least be ashore before last call.

Prospector will be racing in the ORR-1 class, which features perennial west-coast favorites Pyewacket(Roy Disney, Andrews 70), BadPak (Tom Holthus, Pac52) and a number of other strong competitors.  Follow the team as they test the waters with the yellowbrick Live Tracker  (http://yb.tl/islandsrace2018) and share the adventure through our Instagram feed @prospectorsailing.

Editor's Note: Our deepest apologies for not posting these accounts during the race.  Regrettably, we had satellite communication issues that prevented us from publishing anything while offshore.

Day 1:

What a beautiful day to go sailing.  The start was a bit lighter than we expected, as the sea breeze fought off the morning’s gradients.  This created some agitation in the back of the boatas our start brought around 4 knots of wind and a major left hand shift.  At the gun, we pushed a long starboard tack off to the port layline, tacked and aimed the pointy end right at the mouth of Marblehead harbor.  Waiting for us there was one of the best spectator fleets we’ve seen.  Smiles ear to ear on deck as horns, whistles and hollers from the gallery powered our left turn around the top mark, and stayed with us until the second mark, where we set our big A1.5 and aimed the boat for Canada.

About 30 minutes later, we were greeted by some local wildlife.  A gentleman on a jet-ski, well out of what we though was standard jet-ski range buzzed by holding a gropro and an iphone.  We think he said he was with Cape Ann TV and that we were all going to be famous.  More on that later I guess.

The beautiful afternoon continued, interrupted only by a whale strike, prompting momentary confusion on deck as the boat came to an abrupt stop.  We reported its location to the Coast Guard, and hoped that our competitors - not to mention other whales - would be spared a similar fate.  We didn’t hit hard, and the whale remained in place until our momentum rolled it off the keel, leading us to think it was dead before we hit it.  At least that’s what we hope.  Naturally, we named the whale Bob.

Back on track, we set back down the rhumb line at 12-13 knots under a double headed rig: A1.5 and spinnaker staysail.  We sailed comfortably in this configuration for about an hour until a left shift and pressure meant we were sailing too hot to hold the A1.5.  We peeled to an A3 plus genoa staysail setup and rumbled on.

The wind has stayed light, and the sea state relatively flat.  In the back of our minds, we all knew that a few more knots of wind could really push us in to warp speed and get us to the bar in time for last call Monday. 

Night 1:

The sun set around 9:00pm, but long before that, the fashion show began.  One by one, crew members snuck below to add layers in preparation for the night ahead.  A few of us had done this race before and knew full well how cold it can get.  Needless to say, we were treated to a multicolor variety of fleece, wool and foulies in various shades of “I’d never wear this on shore.” 

Preparation was key though, as the wind built into the 20’s and held the same direction.  It did get cold.  By now we were hauling the mail through the water around 16-17 knots, but our A3 kept us well above the rhumb line.  Initially we were happy just to be logging good miles in flat seas, but around 2:30am the call was made to peel the A3/genoa staysail combo in favor of the A2+ and spinnaker staysail.  We were a few knots slower in this configuration but could carry the A2+ at true wind angles.  Also, a well timed left shift pushed us closer to the rhumb line, offsetting speed through the water somewhat.

3:00 now, and Larry the Navigator (L1 as he’s known on board) appears through the companionway.  “Brazil rock by 7am boys! Send it!”  Luckily I (read: the bowman) was driving.  The challenge was to keep the boat in around 15 knots by hunting within a true wind angle of 128 - 135.  Down at 135 degrees, the boat got sticky and slow and we’d lose momentum, whereas we’d quickly get too wicked up around 128.  After some calming influence from my trimmers, Rob Gale and Dave Scott, I actually managed to settle in and start hitting my numbers, and even turned a few 15s into some 16s,  but then we went dead ship.  All electronics were out leaving us only the binnacle and the stars to sail by.   Rob, Dave and I worked to keep the boat moving as best as we could, and 5 minutes later when the lights came back on, we were still at 133 degrees true wind angle.  Sometimes, sailing is best done by braille.

Day 2:

We did indeed pass Brazil Rock at 7:00am, but were too far offshore to see it.  Strong southerlies were pushing us up along the Nova Scotia cost as we VMG gybed our way towards Halifax.  We all knew were were close to the end of the race, and the watch system became a bit of a free for all as the possibility of setting a record became more and more attainable.  Everyone wanted to be on deck, and everyone wanted to contribute whatever boat speed they could. 

Unfortunately, we got caught in a light patch inshore, and had to make a slow gybe out to reach the sea breeze.  Strangely, this brought us our first glimpse of the shoreline of the land of flannel bikinis.  Surely we were almost there now.

Once again, I was given an opportunity to drive, which you don’t pass up on a Mills 68.  A2+ and spinnaker staysail were the weapons I was dealt.  Within half an hour, average boatspeed was in the high 16s, low 17s and a few bounces up to 18.3 on the fun-o-meter.  After I stepped off the wheel, the boat would not hit those speeds again until a third sail was added to the foredeck.

Which was actually a terrifying sight to behold.  Flying along at 19-22knots on flat seas under the A2+, spinnaker staysail and genoa staysail, Prospector seemed unstoppable.  She was jumping and charging like an animal that wants you off its back, and only got faster and more stable as she figured we weren’t going anywhere.  

We thundered into Halifax Harbor at 16 knots under just our jib and main.  Even before we crossed the line, local spectators were all out in their boats offering welcomes, and congratulating us on breaking the record (which we didn’t officially know yet).  The victory parade continued as we dropped sails and steamed in to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron as more boats came to see, and people gathered on the side of the channel to shout congratulations.  All in all, it was a pretty surreal experience for a crew of mostly amateur sailors who had managed 5 hours of sleep int the prior 36.

Fortunately, we cleared customs, and our top notch shore crew, Tery Lively, greeted us with plates of sandwiches, cold beers and even victory cigars at the dock.  At that point, it had happened.  We had won the race, and officially broken our first record.  Here is hoping it stays for a while.

By 1:30 pm tomorrow, Sunday July 9th, the mighty Prospector and the band of misfits calling themselves her crew will set out from Marblehead harbor, aim the boat towards Halifax, and hope for the best.  With a promising forecast, the team is hoping to cross the finish line somewhere between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, but in any event, early enough to enjoy the Halifax hospitality promised by race organizers.  

You can join the adventure by following updates from on board here at prospectorsailing.com, and track the team’s progress at the yellowbrick tracker here:

https://www.marbleheadtohalifax.com/Default.aspx?p=dynamicmodule&pageid=38&ssid=100045&vnf=1