I was the second boat to sign up for the race and I was pretty casual about it until I started to consider the logistics. I had never done this before and was surprised how much organizing was required. Crew schedules, food, weather and current planning, safety inspections. It was time to come up with a plan. I broke it down into the following pieces: Crew, Tactics, Boat Preparation, and Safety.
Crew:
People - This is not as easy as you may think. A race like this can be demanding and you want to have the right crew on board that have the experience to be safe and effective. I wanted also to pick the people with the most race experience and who were available and interested in doing the race. I wound up deciding on two shifts of three people. I took Dave and Curtis who have been long time crew and have a lot of racing under their belts as well as experience on my boat in particular. When the going gets tough both are guys I can count on. It doesn't hurt to have a Nurse on board either.
For the after-guard I went with Niko and his able right-hand man Graham. Niko obviously has a lot of experience skippering his own boat SARANDIS but has done this race before and knows what to expect. Graham has grown up sailing on the East Coast and has raced with Niko and others for years. Fate also dropped Graham's Dad Ron in my lap when he asked to join the crew. While I know little about him I do know that he has been a long time East Coast sailor and is used to heavy weather.
Schedules - The challenge is not only finding the right people but organizing them. The schedule was a little challenge. On a race that can last well over 24 hours it is vital that everyone gets breaks and stays fresh and alert. I decided to create a schedule with three hour rotations and standbys. It is probably overly complicated but I am used to working in call centers and have a soft spot for a complex schedule.
Food - In addition to the people and schedule food plays a big role when your out on the water. I had originally planned to have everyone contributed money and come up with a hearty meal plan but after hearing horror stories on other boats and realizing what picky babies people are (not my crew specifically but humanity as a whole) I said forget it and instituted a BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) program. Personally I am going to go with one thermos of soup, one of coffee a ton of water and sandwiches. While I have a gimbaled stove on board I would rather keep it simple. I imagine we will only be using the stove for coffee and hot chocolate.
Living - Sleeping arrangements on my boat are what you would expect on a 27 footer. Unfortunately I have no quarter berths which make the perfect sea berth. I have really three functional berths on the boat for being underway which, as luck would have it, is the perfect number. The V-Berth can take two people who don't mind being packed in there and the starboard berth in the main cabin has a lee-cloth which is snug. I will have to see how this works out in the end and maybe for next year consider some form of alternative lee cloth setup for the port berth in the main cabin
Safety: They always say safety first and they weren't kidding. I took a look at the requirements and realized I had a lot of work ahead of me. I had often heard that if one race was going to get someone killed in these waters it was either going to be Straits or the Swiftsure. With that in mind they required all boats to be PIYA Catagory II compliant. I thought my boat is pretty safe and should meet all of the requirements. I was wrong. Even though I bitched about it and thought it was over the top it was a good exercise. When I started going through my safety equipment I began finding glaring gaps. I literally had equipment falling apart in my hands that I thought was perfectly functional. What was really required was to sit down with the PIYA list and the Coast Guard Regs and start checking items off the list, while creating a to-do list. There were a few items that gave me real trouble mostly due to budget issues. The biggest one though is emergency steering. I went with the tried but never tested "oar and rope" method. I need to come up with something a little less hobo. Crew also has to have harnesses, tethers, PFDs, lights, and whistles. It is pretty stressful too because if anything is missing they will disqualify you after the race is done when the boat undergoes a mandatory safety inspection; while that seems a bit backwards it is a good motivator.
Boat Preparation: I find the best way to prepare the boat is to make a quick checklist and to take a few hours and go sit down at the boat and take a look around, and tinker until I have everything ship shape. Here is my checklist:
- Lighten the boat (take off all access cruising gear)
- Clean the boat (inside and out)
- Check all lights and make sure spares are on board
- Prepare Engine (new fuel filters, a oil change, and top up the fuel tank)
- Galley Preparation (fill up the stove, clean the icebox out etc.)
- Double check all safety equipment and ship's documentation is on board
- Scrub the hull with a boat brush
- Inspect the rig
Tactics: I maybe no Denis Connor but I thought I would try my hand at getting prepared for the actual racing tactics. I started with printing off tide tables, marking my current atlas for each hour of the race and printing off weather briefings. I preprogrammed the marks into my GPS ahead of time so that there was no messing around on race day. All the wind predictions were looking like there would be light airs for most of the race. Current would have a significant impact so I judged my approaches based on their influence. I was planning on attending the skippers weather briefing and trying to soak up any of the experienced skippers recommendations. The only thing I am not sure about is the use of iPhones during the race to get online weather reports. In theory it could be extremely usefull but I am having my doubts that is "race legal".
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