On Monday after the regatta I took Yeoman round to Bobby’s Marina at the airport location. It was so much less stressful than two years ago as they have now marked the channel which is a large benefit when you draw 10 feet and can’t touch bottom with a delicate carbon boat!

Simpson Bay Marina kindly lent me a RIB driver to push my bow through the wind to get into the tight haul out which has a wreck on one side and a shoal on the other. Lance who runs the boatyard was on the ball and we were hoisted out within 30 minutes of getting there and an hour or so later a pit had been dug for the keel and Yeoman was all dug in for 14 days.

To say that Lance has a soft spot for dogs and cats is and understatement! The animals that he brings in from the streets are lucky indeed getting fed, watered, taken to the vet and cleaned. They are all well mannered and not at all aggressive all they want are lots of petting! Lance spends 50% of his income on his animals they are his family which as he says means that he is not likely to move anywhere. If he does go back to his native South Africa it will mean getting a container and converting it into a dog/cat transport facility. The two dogs I remember from last time I was here two years ago have unfortunately passed on and taking their place are a brother and sister. These puppies are easily spooked but are thriving on the attention and growing fast. Lance dropped me off at the airport at 5:45am including me in his dog feeding run – every other day he takes food to a large pack of dogs behind the movie theater and another pack next to the airport. I asked if he takes donations towards feeding the dogs and cats, he doesn’t – as he says money comes and goes it doesn’t make you happy in the bank.

Yeoman has a bunch of repairs to be done while I am away so she is in a bit of upheaval with floorboards out etc. I return in 9 days it will be a quick turn around and off to St Thomas and the BVI for some more racing in the sun.

Hopefully my long commute home to the bay will go smoothly and I will be hanging out with my nieces in the morning. Little Charlotte should be out of the hospital after surgery apparently her scar is 3 inches long which is half the length of her torso.

The launching of the 40 footer went well at Svendsens and she is now having electronics installed and interior cushions done while I finish off the deck hardware and we await the mast delivery in a few months. The owner seems to be happy to finally have his boat in the bay and now I have to fix all the leaks which we are finding in the inclement weather. Hope all of you with office jobs appreciate the warmth and dry inside! I got hailed on today big pieces of ice falling out of the sky. In fact it is warmer in London than San Francisco.

The Saga 409 build is drawing to a close so I spend Monday thru Friday in LA finishing off last minute stuff/decisions on the boat. She will be loaded onto a truck next week and I will be in the Bay to unload her and hopefully the owner will have a smile on his face. The boat was taken out of the shed to have the bottom sprayed and the graphics look great on the hull. There is a lot to finish off in the bay – small details always seem to take time.

I had a great time staying with the Leths – family friends who have known my dad since before he married my mum… It has been a great project for me getting to see them every month.

The build of the cruising boat in LA is coming along fast and the owner will have it just in time for Christmas. It has been a long haul for him. We have a few nice customisations that mean the boat doesn’t quite know whether it is meant to be raced or cruised! It is fun learning every day and getting to make small design choices. Off to Sydney tonight.

Some weeks I really love my job as I get to learn so much. I just got back from a week in LA working on the boat build project. It was fun working on all the little customisations we are doing to the boat. Hopefully it will be in the bay area by Christmas. When Westerly works on something they really move fast and the quality of workmanship is high. Unfortunately we had to have the heavy metal toe rail installed as the flush hull deck joint was going to be too expensive. but there are one or two cool little features from race boats on this cruising boat. I know the below picture is not that exciting but it really is for the owner as it shows progress!

A perk of the job is that I get to visit with friends in LA I stay with very old family friends – surrogate parents of mine who live about 15 minutes from the yard. I was also able to visit my friends on Balboa Island down in Newport Beach which is a very cute little village very different from the rest of LA. I met there new son and had a great dinner.

Today I went out on iShares Xtreme 40 which Hugh Styles is skippering. Hugh and I worked together on Yeoman XXXII last year and when he was asked to bring the X40 to the Bay he called Racing Yacht Management to help out with some of the logistics.

The boat arrived in a 40 foot container at the end of February – the hulls mast etc all fits onto a trailer which goes in the container. There is about 2 inches on all sides. The crew built the boat last week  over at Svendsens only needing a crane to put the mast up and launch the boat.

The boat is sponsored by iShares and Hugh has been hired on as skipper see http://www.hughstyles.com/home

I really enjoyed my little sail around the bay. The boat is very fast and when you start flying the hull it is a cool feeling. You can tell that there is a fine line and it can all go tits up very quickly. It was a perfect sunny day on the bay blowing 20-25 knots and we were going the same speed as the wind. I was glad to have my Kokotat drysuit on as although it wasn’t that wet it was cold.

After lunch with the guys at the club of soup to warm the cockles of Hugh’s heart, I took them all to sports basement as they needed thermals. They hadn’t heeded my warning about the temperature at this time of year.

See video below of the boat sailing.

[youtube CHKOK_wNVoQ]

I spent last week down in Santa Ana (LA) working on a 40 foot cruising boat at Westerley Marine. I flew down to Westerley and tried to make some sense of the random parts that were thrown into the boat before it left the old yard. I inventoried the boat, cleaned it up, protected the woodwork that is in the boat and came up with some design ideas to make the beautiful lines of the boat evident. We will not be installing the metal work that makes it look a little like a sports fishing boat! The boat is now all put to bed awaiting a slot in the yard schedule to officially start the finish of the build. Meanwhile I have lots of shopping to do - rudder stocks, bearings, blades, refridgeration compressors, plates, wichard padeyes, masts, booms etc. I also have to put together a picture of how the jigsaw pieces go together as we don’t have many drawing of the boat. Luckily there are 14 completed boats out there I just have to find out how to get in touch with them.

I am lying in my starboard guest cabin after a pretty exhausting week. It started with a Monday night stepping of the rig (finishing at dark 9:30pm) and ended with cleaning the teak until 8:00pm Friday night. We start our work day at 7am and up until this last crazy period of wrapping up we were finishing at 4pm. I decided a 40 hour work week is what life is all about!

For the last week and half since I got back from Mexico I have had a temperature and been really sore. Fever broke last night I woke up drenched in sweat – nice eh!!! Haven’t been sick like that since I can remember last. Last night at 11:30pm the new chef knocked on my door to tell me there was an alarm going off and I had taken Nyquil. Seeing as the varnishers had been in to do the steps up the the pilot house I had to climb out the escape hatch from the crew mess in my PJ’s to get up to the pilot house. Not really a large feat however I don’t know if it is because I am tea total but that nyquil made me feel like I had just been to the knot and shot at KWRW after a large night at the beer tent!

The skipper comes back after 5 1/2 weeks away tomorrow morning at 6:30am and there is a lot to do before we can leave on Tuesday. The bow thruster motor decided to pack it in on Monday so we will most likely have to jury rig it. The hydraulics guy didn’t label the lines right so he has the vang buttons working the halyard tension! Just a few small things that might stop us going sailing! Great project manager I am At least the rig is on, the sails are on (mostly), the boat hasn’t sunk at the dock and the white carpets are still white. Looking forward to sailing the Farr 40 in January where there are no bow thruster, furling mains, half halyards with hydraulic rams or lots and lots of teak to clean.