Fastnet 2007 – Fastnet Supermen

August 16, 2007   

From Sailing Anarchy forum….

Marine Blast View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member’s Topics Find Member’s Posts   Aug 15 2007, 11:59 PM Post #1
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 Thought this was worth a new topic as I think it is truely incrediable that they are still out there, battling it out on their way home. Whilst it’s all the big super maxi’s and Open 60’s that are getting the headlines, I think what these boys have done is simply pure magic and outstanding, who would have thought that two J105’s would still be out there with Alfa Romeo jacking it in because of the weather (not that there is anything wrong with that) but what a life changing experience it must be for them both, two J105’s VOADOR and JUNEAU. Fuckin supermen? story and alot of praise here
 

 

Omer View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member’s Topics Find Member’s Posts   Aug 16 2007, 01:42 AM Post #2
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 Yes.I totally agree. There is nothing to say to that.
But i also think, in an open sea, where wave period gets large enough, larger
boats may get a worse beating by slamming into the next wave or dropping off of
a wave, whereas a smaller boat may find it easier to ride over and around them.
Bigger is not always better when the going gets tough.
 

 

amperrin View Member Profile Add as Friend Send Message Find Member’s Topics Find Member’s Posts   Aug 16 2007, 03:18 AM Post #3
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 I agree with both your posts.When I was 19 I raced doublehanded round britain and ireland on a 34 footer called QII she was custom built for singlehanding. One of the original water ballasted boats. That race was the hardest thing I have done almost 50,000 miles of racing later. The start was in Plymouth and it was similar conditions to what we were seeing in Fastnet this year except that it was a dead beat to lands end and then a reach to cork. By the time we had reached Cork 32 of the 57 boats that started the race had retired. With stop overs the race took us 21 days mostly beating close into shore. I am not writing this all to show off only to tell you where I am coming from on all this!Two years ago I delivered a J105 down the coast from st petersburg to key west and the wind got up to 25 knots and it was again a dead beat. By the time we took shelter the sky was the blackest I had ever seen it and with bare poles we were heeling over a good amount it was gusting in the low 40’s. J105’s aren’t that bad if you seal the front hatch with rope and tape and you seal the pole really well. The furling headsail is a bonus as you don’t have to choose between sails and don’t have to go up on the pointy end.

This year I was on Yeoman XXXII the boat I have looked after for the last 6 months. Last year I had the honor of doing bow on a Z86 but not in any major seaway or wind so I can’t tell you how it would have dealt with the conditions we had this year. Although Alfa Romeo is a lot larger than Yeoman she is also carbon and has a similar hull shape/design ethos. Both boats are extremly fast boats for their size. The problem with these type of boats in comparison to a J105 or the 34 footer I took round 10 years ago is that you have to slow them down so as not to fly off waves. IF you don’t slow them they pound heavily. The pounding will kill the boat very quickly creating structural issues especially as carbon doesn’t give like fiberglass does. So what I am saying is that the way you sail the two boats is very different and that the Omer is correct in that the sea conditions can favour small boats over the larger boats.

I have a lot of respect for the J105 still out there and wish we had been able to enjoy the ride back from the rock but I think the same respect should be given to all the crews who finished the race and kept their boats together. I will say I do understand the frustration of being a small boat not getting the same press as the big guys and being ‘forgotten’ about.

All that being said I think the J105 guys are hardcore nutters and deserve quite a few beers for their efforts.

 

Fastnet 2007

August 14, 2007   

These are the posts I made about the race on Sailing Anarchy.

I am sitting in the warm and dry at home after retiring on Yeoman XXXII. Last night was hard work for sure. Sea conditions were unpleasent and wind was in the high 30’s.

We were alongside Snow Lion having caught up with them in the Solent when we retired. We changed from the number 4 jib to the storm job and had 2 reefs in the main. The change from 4 to storm jib was unpleasant on the bow, I was happy I was wearing my drysuit. I was being fully thrown in the air on the foredeck while trying to do an inline peel the storm jib went up and then stripped out of the tuff luff. So dropped both jibs in the process of dropping the number four I was lifted off the deck over the lifelines and into the water. The jib was in the water as well so I fell in the belly of it and then got tossed back onboard by the next wave. A little bit of night time excitement. Tying the storm jib to the tuff luff was a large effort as the pulpit is so narrow you have to wedge yourself in place to get far enough foward to tie the reef knots creating a feeling of being captured – not nice. A 1/2 hour after hoisting the storm jib we decided to go for the trysail so called all hands for the manuouver. We dropped the sail to deck and used a line to lash the boom in between the two wheels while we got the main under control a large effort seeing as the main has a luff rope we got the main to weather and everyone sat on it and then rolled it towards the boom. We took a mooring line and used it to tightly tie the main to the boom. We took the main halyard off the head of the main and I held it there was so much windage that it was being pulled out of my hands. We got that onto the rig and attached the clew to the outhaul on the boom as we wanted the boom in the air rather than lashing it to the deck as I feel this is dangerous if it breaks free in a large seaway. we retired after hearing splittering carbon as the trysail pulled out of the track on the back of the rig.

Have to go to sleep now very sore.

Ashley

Note – both my brothers have criticized this post for being badly written and unstructured stream of consciousness – I do agree however, my excuse is tiredness and that it wasn’t meant to front page reading!! ‘

 ———————————–

Gear Failure leading to retirement

The mainsail had pulled out of the bottom of the track about a foot when we went to change to the trysail. I believe this was due to the strop holding the tack forward not being tight enough altering the tack set back. Remember this is only the second offshore race this boat has done. The last was the race to key west where we saw wind in the mid 30’s but we were going downwind. The luff tape on the trysail was very slightly larger (maybe less than a mm) and I believe that might have put pressure on the track. Also our track is only reinforced where the head of the sail sits in the track when we are reefed or when the trysail is up. We put the trysail in the track two days before the start and we didn’t think to wonder whether the area where the tack fitted needed to be reinforced as well. There is a strop on the tack which lifts it above the main as it would be near impossible to get the tack attached at the actual fitting with the main on the boom. This meant the tack was bearing in a non reinforced area of the track.

I used the trysail twice this year on delivery but it was only 25 knots of wind at the most and it had worked fine so I believe it was a mixture of a lot of factors which caused the failure. The wind was in the mid 30’s gusting to the high 30’s when we went for the change. One of the crew mentioned that hoisting the trysail wooled would mean you could get luff tension before putting any pulling force on the track. We might alter our trysail with some cringles to allow the sail to be wooled. This would mean using the reef line as a sheet on the end of the boom to ‘launch’ the sail.

The next morning we found that our number 2 reef line was about to explode due to chafing on the sheave a tie down might have given us some more time to deal with this if that had occured but the conditions were such that it was a little dangerous to go hanging on the end of the boom tying the clew down. Also we were not tying the belly of the sail up for the same reasons. If we had tied the belly up we would have gone through the cringles and around the sail not the boom so that in the case of the clew failing we would have not been in danger of ripping the sail as the load would have transferred to the cringles. I much prefer a system of tie downs that has a sacraficial patch on the sail with webbing loops so that pulls off the sail instead of cringles which rip the sail. We will be sending the main back to make these adjustments.

This would have been my fifth Fastnet and 6th time around the rock I am looking at the tracking information thinking about how fun the ride would have been on Yeoman coming home. We would have been roaring home at a high rate of speed. Oh well. I guess we weren’t the only ones!!

 —————–

QUOTE(amperrin @ Aug 14 2007, 11:32 PM) *

I was being fully thrown in the air on the foredeck while trying to do an inline peel the storm jib went up and then stripped out of the tuff luff. So dropped both jibs in the process of dropping the number four I was lifted off the deck over the lifelines and into the water.

That is hysterical.

There are times you know that you can do embarrassing things like a bare headed change. The boats that weren’t to proud to drop the headsail, get It below, and then get the storm sails out will be rounding the rock about now.

Peeling to the storm jib. That’s great

In response to the above post:

It was really great fun mate even got fresh calamari in the mouth!!! You should have seen the jibs below horrible mess no bags on etc… just get the jibs below at that point. The inline was working fine as we had a jib cunningham on and the bottom part of the 4 was unhooked. Should be fine doing an inline in the low 30’s if you don’t have a sail that strips out of the tuff luff but obviously when the helmsman had the head of the storm jib flapping around his ears it was time to drop both and start again!!! I am not to proud to do a bare headed when conditions warrant but it wasn’t really necessary at that point as we were changing early down to the storm sail. We weren’t putting the storm sails up for survival conditions we were putting them up for speed and angle of boat issues. Also leaving a sail up give you the benefit of keeping crew members aboard when the waves are washing them down the deck.

Protest Diagram Kit

August 8, 2007   

I forget where I ran across the link to this protest diagram kit it was made by Angelo Buscemi. He explains how to use it on the first pages. Not only boats are provided but also pages with different places on the race course, i.e. starting line or leeward mark.

It is an excellent tools when you have to unfortunately go into the room. This summer it was necessary to protest a larger boat at Cowes Week while sailing on my fathers boat after a collision ending in a large hole in our boat. We prevailed in the room which we were happy about but also unhappy about as it adversely effected the other boats 1st place in class that day. Also I would highly recommend having a digital camera as it was helpful to show the protest committee the extent of the damage in the room on my laptop.

Safety on High Performance Boats

July 25, 2007   

The below article is a shortened version of an article written by Stan Honey which I found to be very interesting

Anti quick-stop

This method cannot be used on any large high-performance boats running in heavy winds.When sailing downwind in 30 knots of wind with lots of sail, it is using its maximum stability to sail at a very fast speed. To attempt a “quick-stop” and immediately round up in that much wind with a spinnaker up would result in a knockdown. Getting the spinnaker down once the boat was knocked down would be very difficult because of the high apparent wind and the fact that the spinnaker would be blown through the rig. The fastest and most reliable way to slow down when running in heavy winds is to douse the kite the way the crew has trained to do it. Reduction of sail area is necessary to go upwind and complete dousing of all sails with the engine going may be faster. This also removes the danger of getting caught in irons with the main up. Litter the ocean with lights etc. so you can calculate drift etc. Start at the GPS MOB location and investigate each location of litter. Pursue a sensible search pattern incorporating that information with the location data supplied when the MOB button was pressed.

 

GPS MOB button on deck.

A MOB button at the helm location is the single tool that provides the most help in finding a guy in the water. This is because in windy running conditions there is no way to stop a boat quickly. The boat will have to return to the MOB from over a mile away after dousing the kite, it is an enormous advantage to provide the crew with a reliable position where the person was lost. On the Volvo boats (as on Pyewacket and Cheyenne), there is a button at each helm location that, when pressed, enters the boat’s current GPS position into the instrument system and then displays the range and bearing to that location on a deck display. Many GPS’s have a MOB button, but only a few (e.g. Leica and some Ray-Marine units) have the critically important ability to wire in an external button that can be installed at the helm locations.

 

Personal EPIRBS

The VOR boats were all required to carry personal EPIRBs for everyone on the crew and an ADF system to display the bearing to an EPIRB in the water. Each boat was required to test that system with a guy in the water. In the tests the system only worked at such a short range that few crew on our VOR boats bothered to actually carry their personal EPIRBs. The range of the EPIRBs (300 meters) would have been sufficient, however, for boats that were capable of performing a quick-stop.

 

Harnesses/PFD’s.

Several of the crew on ABN AMRO ONE, on other VOR boats, and on Pyewacket have built theirown lightweight Spectra harnesses that have no metal parts. The guys who have these harnesses find that they are so comfortable that they wear them more often than the heavier integrated harnesses/PFD’s. Integrated harnesses, coupled with the second shackle on the person end of the tether, have made the gear so heavy and cumbersome that many crew delay wearing them until they feel it is necessary for safety. The guys who wear the light Spectra harnesses sometimes wear “fanny-pack” style PFD’s. Some folks criticize this approach stating that the fanny pack PFD’s will not save an unconscious person in the water. All VOR crew have gone through the VOR in-the-water training for PFD’s/survival-suits/liferafts. After that training many concluded that no PFD will keep them alive in the water if they are unconscious unless the sea is absolutely calm. As many have experienced, when you’re in the water in any reasonable wind and sea state, it is hard to keep water out of your nose and mouth. The spray hoods on PFD’s are a huge help, but you need to be conscious to deploy them. So some crew figure that they are better off with the light Spectra harness and a fanny pack PFD because they willwear it more often than they would an integrated harness/PFD. This approach is permitted by the ISAF Special Regs, but the trend of most boats to use the bulkier integrated PFD/harnesses might be counterproductive since the crew is likely to delay wearing this integrated harness.

Grinding competition Block Island

June 15, 2007   

Another Win for Yeoman XXXII

June 14, 2007   

See the regarding our NYYC Regatta win.

http://www.rogersyachtdesign.co.uk/news_press.php?RECORD_KEY%28hotnews%29=news_code&news_code(hotnews)=39″>press release by Rogers Yacht Design value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/QZz2sU_jpaw&hl=en&fs=1&”>

Kiwi Will (bow), Steph (trim) and Wolfie (grinder) at the NYYC.

Team ‘Universal Marina’ win at Stanford Antigua Race Week 2007

May 28, 2007   

By Neil ’Jaffa’ Harrison

 

Avia Willment director of Universal Marina (Hamble, UK) along with Paul Smith and David Gaskin, chartered The
Rogers 46 Yeoman XXXII from David Aisher for Stanford Antigua Race week. Tactician for the week was Neil ‘Jaffa’ Harrison who runs The Metre Shed at Universal Marina and is Director of Jaffa Racing. Leading the trimming was Richard Burlingham, also an employee of Avia Willment.

The week consisted of various races from Round the Island Coastal style to short course windward leeward all held in
15 – 20 knots of breeze, scorching Sunshine and a moderate sea. ‘Universal Marina’ sailed consistently well in all
the races posting 5 race wins a 3rd and a 4th to win Racing Class Two by 6 points, and 5th overall in division behind 4 Class One yachts.

Avia came up with the plan of competing in Antigua late in 2006, and gave Richard and Jaffa the task of finding a
boat that would win in Antigua. They selected the Rogers 46 as the boat they felt capable of winning class in Antigua, she was light, fast and would revel in the expected conditions in the Caribbean. They were not disappointed. In training they hit 20.68 knots in 20 knots of breeze, while racing they were often over 18.

The crew for the week consisted of: Avia Willment (Skipper), David Gaskin (Float), Paul Smith (Main), Thomas Lindquist (Helm), Jaffa (Tactics and Nav), Richard Burlingham (Trim 1), Neil Fullerton (Trim 2), Douglas Watson (Grinder), Gordon Dundas (Mast), Ashley Perrin (Pit 1), Elizabeth Dobson (Pit 2), Natalie Gray (Mid bow) & Nick Bishop (Bow).

“The guys all worked really well as a team coming together quickly after only one days training. We spent a day prior to the charter getting everything in order, Richard did a great Job on setting the rig up, which is a major factor in the boats performance, if this is not perfect the boat just wont find that extra gear you need to pull away from the Fleet”, commented Jaffa on reflection of the weeks outstanding performance.

A great week and a great result.

 Press Release at http://www.rogersyachtdesign.co.uk/news_press.php?RECORD_KEY%28hotnews%29=news_code&news_code(hotnews)=37

End of a Carribbean Season 2007

May 7, 2007   

It is 1:30am on Sunday morning I came on watch at midnight and am still a little groggy from my 3 hours of fitful sleep. I attempt to wake myself up with a large injection of sugar in the form of a piece of decadent chocolate cake. The relative cool of the night is blissful. 13 hours earlier I had been sitting on the deck in the unrepentant harsh Caribbean noon sun sweating profusely the bottle of water I had brought up with me was now luke warm almost warm enough for a proper English cup of tea! When I went down at 9pm Saba Island was just off our port quarter the island is very mountainous and the lights of civilization look as though they are hanging in the sky. Three hours later Saba is well behind and the moon is reflecting across the water bathing the boat in a warm glow. The light of the moon hides any light pollution that might have been visible. I am on my own on watch there is no autopilot on the boat so it is lifejacket on, clip in and as there is less then 10 knots of wind from dead behind the engine is purring away propelling us towards St Thomas where the boat will be loaded on Dockwise for the east coast racing in June. In my mind a pretty good delivery J no pounding upwind and worrying about the boat. The only sign of civilization is another boat coming my way going ‘down island’. I enjoy these rare moments when it is dark and I can attempt to switch off my brain. I reflect on the Caribbean season of racing that I have been privileged to take part in with Yeoman XXXII. We left Florida on with a delivery crew of five – three of the delivery crew under 23, myself at 29 and the owner’s brother Tim. (Poor Tim had to put up with push up competitions on deck between the 20 year old boys). Mac and cheese and Top Ramen were popular snacks. The delivery was uneventful with the exception of a fast ride through the Bahamas regularly hitting 20 knots with spray blinding the helmsman. The 120 gallons of diesel on the stern helped to keep the bow from burying with a small jib from a 38 footer and 2 reefs in the delivery main Yeoman XXXII was reveling in the conditions, despite being in ‘RV” mode (full of spares and sails). The two young relatively inexperienced crew members aboard were wide eyed.

In St Maarten the boat and myself were on charter to a group from Calgary. They renamed the boat ‘The Blue Eyed Sheiks of the North’ a clue as to how they make their money. The helmsman was a Canadian Olympic sailor and the navigator/tactician owns a charter business in BC. All ‘old’ guys who every year charter a boat for Heineken as their annual holiday without family. I was determined to make it a good one for them. Experience ranged from Olympic sailor to Charles an English guy who I don’t believe had ever been on a boat. Other then the yearly trip they don’t race at home and very rarely step on a boat so it was an exciting ride for them. Top speed was around 21 knots during the week.

Due to the bridge openings at 7:30am dock call each morning is at 6:45am so this requires the boat captain to be up and out at 5:15am. You don’t get back in till the 3pm bridge if you are lucky otherwise it is a 5:30pm bridge so it is a long day on the water. The guys were there to soak up as much information as possible and as smart successful businessman they tackled the boat head on and maneuvers got better each day. I have a lot of admiration for one of the crew in particular who has prosthesis – his leg was amputated below the knee. He did sewer with gusto and learnt quickly how to band the kite going upwind and pack the retrieval line ready for the next mark rounding. With winds up to 25 knots Yeoman provided them with a few downwind sleigh rides and there were a lot of grins about the 3rd place at the end of the week. It was hard to compete against the well sailed Swan 56 Noonmark who loves long upwinds and the carbon RP44 Storm a local boat with a lot of talent. The Heineken regatta is a great race week with a mix of coastal courses and windward leewards and I enjoyed the European flavor of the island.

Next stop was St Thomas and BVI regatta which was meant to be the owner’s regattas however, due to tearing his Achilles tendon two weeks before the regattas he was out. A few other key crew members had to bail due to work/visa problems. So with two weeks notice I needed to find four key crewmembers – helm, tactician, main trim and mast/mid bow. They needed to be good sailors, be able to take two weeks off with two weeks notice and needed to be able to pay their way. All in all pretty hard to find! Sometimes things just fall perfectly into place. We ended up with a mixed group of the normal British Yeoman crew and four Bay Area sailors’ three of whom sail together on a J120 and the other a former Farr 40 owner. Five girls and eight guys drank copious amounts of rum and tings and had the best time that I have seen a crew have. I smile a lot when I think about those two weeks we had a lot of laughs. The Caribbean regattas require consistency as they don’t have throw outs so any gear failure means you drop quickly in the rankings – this unfortunately caused us to have two bad results putting us back in 3rd place overall.

The regatta at St Thomas requires the boat to be anchored out – not something that race boats do gracefully so I was happy when we moved on to Nanny Cay marina. No more rows upwind against the trades in a 10 foot dinghy to the outskirts of the anchorage every night to stay on the boat. I was able to spend my nights tucked up in a nice bed overlooking the straits between Tortola and St Johns. On the delivery trip from the USVI to the BVI we stopped off at Norman Island where I introduced the crew to Willy T’s bar – it was hard to pry them away. Another day of racing took us up to Bitter End on Virgin Gorda the day was very British in terms of the weather – cold and raining – the Rolex flag from St Thomas provided shelter on the rail! The crew split up for the layday – half sailing lasers and half taking to a 30 foot motorboat to site see amongst the Baths and the bars of Jost van Dyke. We raced back to Tortola finishing 3 seconds after the time limit after a very long day on the water going upwind into shifty light winds.

After the first day of BVI regatta we were lying in 3rd place to ABN Amro and Titan. It was fun sharing the starting line area with these fast boats that of course very shortly afterwards left us in the dust. The second day of racing was Yeoman type conditions with enough wind to get her planning unfortunately we had to retire for the rest of the regatta due to a damaged rig. The rig had to be repaired in a very short timeframe to get us to Antigua in time for our next race week. For Antigua the boat and myself were again under charter.

The boat is fast upwind sailing to her polars and downwind so far our top speed is 25.7 knots. She starts planing at around 18 knots of wind and rewards hard work on the part of trimmers and grinders to pump her on each wave. She is also really forgiving downwind and doesn’t wipe out easily but the helm has to concentrate fully to get the numbers.

The season has been hard work however, it all paid off with the last results of first in class at Antigua Race Week. Thank you to all who helped out on Yeoman XXXII down island maybe we will be back next year J

An Unrequited Dream

February 20, 2007   

An Article by Sutter Schumacher published in Latitude 38

 

When she packs for long distance races, her gear bag doesn’t just include a sail repair kit ” but an entire sewing machine. She’s raced offshore for more than half of her life, and, she is the youngest member ever admitted to the prestigious Royal Ocean Racing Club in London, easily amassing the required 500 miles of ocean racing by the time she was 15. Since then, her sailing odometer has rolled over a solid five figures…Emma Sanderson? Right country, wrong woman. Ellen MacArthur? Nope, though she counts Dame Ellen as a close friend.

She’s Ashley Perrin, a 29-year-old Mill Valley sailor and entrepreneur whose preparation, focus and intensity make her an asset on any crew. For more than half her life, Perrin has made her sailing dreams come true ” from racing on boats as large as 90 feet throughout the world to doing shore side support for an around-the-world campaign. Only one goal eludes her – racing around the world. Call it her unrequited dream.

She’s already done a ˜circumnavigation’ of sorts, flying to and from various projects. But you don’t have to be Honey. Cayard or Kostecki to know that going around the world on a 747 isn’t the same as doing it on a Volvo 70. But don’t count her out yet.

Born in San Francisco to an American father and British mother, and educated in the UK, Ashley sailed in the San Francisco YC junior program before moving with her parents and two brothers across the Atlantic at age 9. By then she was thoroughly hooked on sailing, and when she reached her 12th birthday, she proclaimed that she planned to sail around the world. Her parents were duly impressed, and even supportive. But her father announced that she would have to wait until she was 13 ” not to race around the world, of course. But to take the first steps by doing some offshore racing.

Barely able to restrain herself until the next year, she was rewarded by learning from one of the top ocean racers in Britain, Chris Dunning. Dunning is a former RORC Commodore and British Admiral’s Cup team captain who, over the last 40 years, has successfully campaigned a long line of keelboats, all named Marionette. Dunning and crew took a liking to the ambitious teenager and introduced her to life on the pointy end of his then-newest Marionette, a Lightwave 395. Her first race was from Southampton to St. Malo, France, and she recalls her performance as somewhat less than stellar. Basically, I just rolled around the foredeck, she laughs. I was useless, but they liked me, I think mostly because I did all the offshore cooking. But in exchange, they taught me the bow.

Soon she was spending all her free time sailing either on Marionette or her dad’s Express 27, which he’d brought over from the Bay Area with him. Southampton; where both boats were based, was a few hours’ drive from London, and her weekend schedule revolved around the long haul to and from the boats.

Predictably, schoolwork suffered. By her last year of high school, her parents and the headmistress had had enough of her dismal attendance record, particularly on Friday afternoons, when she left early to get to the boat on time. Her penance was a ban from sailing for the rest of her senior year. If anything, the ban only hardened her resolve. Within two weeks of her graduation in 1996, she took off on her first trans-Atlantic passage.

The trip had all the ingredients of a disaster: double handing a 32-ft boat from Newport, Rhode Island, to the UK, with an ex-boyfriend ” and no double handed or overnight experience. But, in what has become something of a hallmark in Ashley’s life, she not only made the experience work, but walked away better for it. It was amazing, she says. By the end of the trip, I was able to peel a kite at night without waking Jason up. Before then, I’d only done foredeck on a 40-ft boat, so this became a benchmark for how much I learned on the trip. She spent the following year on boats of various types and sizes before going on to university. Although she stayed away from the schools sailing team ” ˜They drove two hours to sail on lakes when the ocean was right in our backyard! she says, still in a mild state of disbelief ” she continued to sail any chance she could.

Taking her education seriously at this point in her life, she finished degrees in geography and oceanography in only three years. Then it was off on another adventure this time to New Zealand, where she had heard someone was trying to put together a team for the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race. The rumor turned out to be just that ” little more than talk. But as always, lemons turned to lemonade when Ashley hooked up with Dawn Riley’s America True syndicate, which was in Auckland campaigning for the 2000 America’s Cup. Ashley was offered a job at the organization’s San Francisco headquarters, so she returned to her childhood stomping grounds to devote the next 18 months to pursuing another VOR opportunity, this time a co-ed youth team under the America True banner.

This involved calling on many of her sailing friends ” including MacArthur, whom she met during high school when both were looking for sponsors for their sailing exploits. Ellen (who had recently catapulted to fame’ following her performance in the 2000 Vendee Globe race) expressed plenty of interest in the Volvo project, but by that time (2002), time was growing short to design and build a boat. In the end, Ashley says, ˜We looked at other options, but nothing came together.

By this time, ˜with her bank account rapidly dwindling, Ashley picked up with regularly some maintenance work on Bay Area race boats. Once her knowledge and skill came to the fore, she was soon in high demand. It was about this time that the entrepreneurial bug bit her. Realizing that there were only so many hours in a day that she could sell her services, Ashley started a company called Ocean Racing. You may recall OR from its clever initial offering ” designing and building gear bags from old racing sails. But the overall purpose was much larger. I wanted to create a brand around myself to increase my marketability and give me work in the off-season, says Ashley. I couldn’t sell the hours that I was out sailing but I could earn money selling gear bags. The name Ocean Racing perfectly encapsulated everything she was working for ” which was basically working any angle she could to make a living and simultaneously move towards that still illusive round-the-world goal.

A new door toward that goal opened in 2002 when she joined Bruce Schwab’s Around Alone race campaign, Ocean Planet, as part of the shore support team. That was a learning experience not only for Ashley, but for Schwab himself, who was sailing the boat. None of us had much experience when we went into that program, Schwab says. But Ashley did a tremendous job of getting the right parts when we needed them and handling logistics.

Ashley looks back on the Ocean Planet experience as a perfect showcase of her boating skills and organizational talents ”with the icing on the cake being valuable experience in the global ocean racing realm.

Back in the Bay Area, she returned to her company and to sailing. One of her accounts ” for whom she both sailed and did maintenance ” was Mary Coleman’s Farr 40 Astra. Ashley is just an awesome sailor, Coleman says. I’ve never seen anyone more enthusiastic about going up a mast! And she’s not talking just about the 60-ft mast on Astra. When Coleman chartered an JACC boat to race on the Bay, Ashley soared to new heights on that 110-ft spar ” twice. Ashley is incredibly focused and competent, Says Mary. You couldn’t ask for a better sailor to have on your boat.

The world beckoned again in 2005. When she heard that the ABN Amro team was fielding applicants for its ˜young guns’ entry in the 2005-06 Volvo race, Ashley immediately submitted her resume. One of 80 candidates chosen from the 1,800 resumes sent in, Ashley took part in crew trials and made it to the semi-finals. Although most would be proud of that result, Ashley felt only frustration, It was a bit of a nightmare, she says, I didn’t make it far enough.

Ashley has incredible drive, says Ocean Planet’s Schwab, someone who is familiar with the trials and tribulations of chasing a round-the-world dream. He worked more than 10 years and spent every dime he had to finally realize the goal, in the 2003 Around Alone Race, and again in the 2005 Vendee Globe (he made history in the, latter by becoming the first American to complete the grueling nonstop, single-handed race); But what I really admire about her is that she doesn’t pretend to be the best at everything ” she knows her strengths, and she plays to those strengths.’

I’m not an after guard kind of sailor, says Ashley. I’m happy to leave calling lay lines or perfect sail trim to the people who are good at those things. What I offer are solid offshore skills. I have lots of experience out there, and I can fix just about anything that breaks, anytime. Up the mast at 2 a.m? No problem. .

˜To win round-the-world races I think you need both kinds of people ” good technical sailors and those of us who make sure the boat is prepared and will hold together.

While recent disputes with her Ocean Racing business partner have left the company’s future in doubt, she’s not starving for work on the water. In fact, 2006 was something of a watershed year for Ashley. She was doing boat captain or maintenance work for 15 local boats; racing aboard her brother’s Moore 24, and even getting in a little sailing back in the UK. (Between May and September, she was only home for 21 days.) But the highlight of last year was, doing the bow on Roy Disney’s maxZ86 Pyewacket. ˜Out on the end of a bowsprit doing 18 knots ” that’s the kind of stuff I like, she says with a sly grin.

Shortly after we spoke, to her, Ashley was off to manage Yeoman 32, a new Simon Rogers-designed IRC 46 that made its debut in Key West last month. Built in Thailand for current RORC commodore David Aisher, the boat is doing the IRC circuit in the Caribbean and on the East Coast before being shipped to its new home in the UK.

All in all, life is still good on the pointy end. But her focus never strays far from The Dream. Later this year, she and a partner are hoping to race double handed on the Open 60 circuit in Europe, and perhaps stage a run in the Barcelona World Race in November, if they can drum up enough sponsorship.

If I don’t go offshore for a couple of weeks at least twice a year, I’m a miserable person to live with, she says. Life is a lot easier out there. No lawyers, no phones. . . That’s where I really feel like I’m in my element.

” latitude/ss

KWRW 07 – Day 1

January 15, 2007   

Thought I would write a quick boat captains diary type thing – feel free to say this is boring – but thought it might be another perspective seeing as my class is covered by people better qualified to write about on the water!Yesterday up at 6:30am bed at 10:30pm – doing logistics all day including dinner of roast chicken for 14, home depot run for fender board, pharmacy to increase first aid kit usefulness, store to get 15 crates of water, 6 crates of Gatorade more food, home to unload, U-Haul to take truck back, back to hotel to order parts online, to dock with beer for crew coming back from training and parts, call electrician to change shore power cord so that it will power our British boat (no one should steal our cord at this point as it will plug into a US boat but will fry the boats electrical system if they do!!), beer tent for 10 minutes, cook dinner of fingerling potatoes, roast chicken, salad (oven wouldn’t work so had to take chicken to another apartment!), work of booking flights for rest of season, bed at 10:30pm.

6:00am alarm goes off
6:30 check emails online regarding delivery crew logistics for boat going to Caribbean and back up to Lauderdale
7:00am put out breakfast for 14 and make sandwiches for 13 one crew walks in and says they are sick so the spare crew is woken to sail for the day. I move positions from floater to second pit to take sick crews place.
7:20am at the boat finishing off job list (some crew have already been down to put grinder back together as it sheared in practice day, also computer is not working think video card is fried) normal boat prep sails on, rigging. quick conversation with relevant people on what my new tasks are for the day as secondary pit
8:10am leave the dock
9am up the rig tuning D2s
10am start of race light air good race for us, it was always going to be an interesting day as this was the first time the boat had EVER been raced inshore windward leeward, normal in between races of packing kites, wolfing down food
3pm back at dock and work on job list which includes moving mast butt, increasing rake on rig with new toggle, fixing starboard primary which won’t switch gears properly, rig check etc.
4:30pm up top of rig lubing sheaves
5:30pm scrubbing deck
6pm still working on rig tune, cleaning boat
6:20 – 6:30pm 10 minutes in beer tent having a coke with the owner and discussing my delivery crew for Caribbean and when I am leaving
6:35 – 7:30 cook pasta with white sauce, salmon, mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, green beans for 14 crew, cheated and used paper plates so less cleaning up!!
9pm – more logistics – booking of rental cars and ordering of parts online
9:45pm about to sign off of SA and hopefully go to bed for a 6am wake up
10pm should be falling into bedBTW have a massive cold and flu – anybody else have it……………

Press Release http://www.rogersyachtdesign.co.uk/news_press.php?RECORD_KEY%28hotnews%29=news_code&news_code(hotnews)=34

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