1999-2000
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Friends and supporters of Ocean Planet,
Press Release -April 12, 2000
General Update!
Ahoy Sailing fans,
Bruce Schwab here with the latest report on our “Made in America” Open 60 program for the Vendee Globe Challenge.
The “Made in America” clothing is finally here! We like to call it “Wocket Wear” for fun, since our nickname for “Made in America” is “Wylie’s Wocket” (named after our designer Tom Wylie).
There will also be “Wocket Wear” for sale at Pacific Sail Expo, April 26-30, at Oakland’s Jack London Village. We will be at several booths with our Official Supplier Sponsors: Forespar Mfg, Samson Cordage, Doyle Sailmakers, Nobeltec, and also Svendsens Marine. Don’t miss the show and stop by our Sponsors booths!
I will also be on a panel doing a seminar regarding modern rigging, spars, and hardware on Thursday the 27th at 3pm, and on Sunday the 30th at 10:30am.
We are looking for more volunteers to man the show, so if you want to get in for free and help us out, let me know.
We should know in the next day or two of if we will can make the Vendee. If not, the Atlantic Challenge our next goal. In fact, here is the schedule of the main Open 60 races that are options if we miss this Vendee.
The Atlantic Challenge (summer of 2001):
http://www.challengebusiness.com/open/open.htm This is a very exciting 5-race series.
The Transat Jacques Vabre (Fall of 2001): http://www.transat.jacques-vabre.com France to Columbia, sponsored the big coffee company Jacques Vabre (of course).
The Gold Race (spring of 2002): No website yet. New York to San Francisco! This race will be a much bigger than in the past. In fact Giovanni Soldini has entered on “Fila”, along with others including Brad Van Liew (Brad’s site: http://www.oceanracing.org/ )
The California Challenge (summer 2002): This will be a new race for Open 60’s, starting from California. The course is still being discussed.
The next Around Alone (southern hemispere summer 2002/2003): http://www.aroundalone.com And of course, the next Vendee Globe Challenge in 2004/2005. We will still have a shot at being the first American official finisher, as I am the last American entry in the present race!
Boat progress: As you may know from previous updates, we have received a substantial contribution that allowed us to go full pace for a while. We have come a long way, but there is still far to go. Right now things are static until we get more contributions/funding. It is sometimes quite hard to keep up the pace on my end, having not had any personal income for months. The project requires my full attention, so I haven’t been able to do any rigging work. There is plenty of work out there, but I haven’t been able to get to it without dropping the ball on fundraising and research for Made in America. While corporate fundraising will continue, I will have to do some rigging and consulting work soon to pay my ever more frightening personal bills.
Just in case you were wondering, your contributions (tax-deductible, see the contributions page on out website) go straight to Made in America and the boat, not to me!
Your contributions are a big part of putting an an American boat on the Open 60 circuit. Every bit of your help puts us closer to getting corporate sponsorship.
I have actually managed to do a little sailing lately. As part of my reasearch on our unstayed rig concept, I have been dailing in the Wyliecat 48 “Ahava.” Owner, Michael Katz, has been kind enough to let me race the boat and has upgraded her here and there to my recommendations. This has been very important for our sailmaker and myself to get the best feel possible for how the sail and the bendable unstayed rig interact. I feel we are getting a good grip on it.
After some improvements and learning how to best trim the giant sail, I was first to finish in the Singlehanded Farallones on April 8th. This was my best finish in that race since I won overall on my old boat “Rumbleseat” in 1995. I was also managed first to finish on the 31′ sportboat “Azzura” in 1997.
Hope to see you out there again soon. To all you SSS’ers, I will be at the on the water seminar at Marina Bay YC this sunday the 16th in Richmond, helping out with rigging information. It’s called the BYOB (Bring Your Own Boat!) seminars!
Smooth Sailing,
Bruce Schwab Skipper,
Made in America Globe Challenges