2002
Home > Journals > Around Alone Preparations
Ocean Planet – Post Puerto Vallarta Race
March 3, 2002
Way behind on the updates, I know. We had a glitch in setting up our delivery system that I always do, but look for the e-mail updates to become fairly regular soon.
We had a great time great in the P.V. race, although not doing quite as well as we had hoped. We wound up with the fourth fastest elasped time, but I am not worried at all about the speed of Ocean Planet. The race was a minefield of light air and dead spots that were difficult to negotiate without tactical boo-boos. Also, our sails are somewhat specialized by Doyle sailmakers for super durability and for singlehanded racing. For instance, our indestructible Vectran D4 mainsail would be made a bit lighter if it was meant for just racing to Mexico, and we would have bought another light air spinnaker if we had the budget. It would be so nice (yes, I lust in my heart….) to have a full Doyle inventory for all types of racing, but I can’t forget that our primary goal for this year is to make the Around Alone in September.
I am very pleased with the performance of our equipment on what was our first long ocean race. Big kudos to our Nobeltec visual series charting software, it makes navigation so easy I feel guilty. Our Samson ropes were fantastic, especially our Amsteel blue sheets and halyards. Our AMD powered PC performed well under pressure in a very harsh environment. Thanks to Spectra Watermakers for our super watermaker that can literally produce a gallon of water for every amp/hr of power consumption. On the racing software side, I am learning more about our Force 4 race package by David Brayshaw and local knowledge.
One of the coolest features on Ocean Planet is the special unstayed rotating mast built by composite engineering with MAS Epoxies. It is amazing to watch the mast automatically flatten the mainsail as the boat moves through puffs and waves.
I also want everyone to know how thankful I am to Schooner Creek Boat Works for creating this boat with so much sweat and love. Have them build your next boat, you won’t regret it.
Jeanie left for the airport an hour ago, and we spent our last day (at least for several months) together and did some sightseeing yesterday. We took the bus to downtown and walked around a good six miles. Puerto Vallarta is a beautiful town with a rich history. There is quite an artistic community here and it a great place to find really beautiful art from Mexico and Guatemala, etc. It was great to spend time together in such an interesting place. The last couple of years of constant fundraising (begging?) and preparation had been very hard on us, but I carry Jeanie’s love for me with when I go to sea and it makes me stronger.
We are getting the boat ready to leave for Panama tomorrow with our new crew. I’ll send more news soon.