He day-sailed the bay for several years before taking the Santana 27 to Santa Barbara (on a very wet and wild wide) and then on to Redondo Beach where he sold it to a "solar powered musician". As fate would have it, a friend called a week later to say that he found THE boat, a well outfitted J35 for sale in San Diego. Jim snapped up Koinonia in 1999 and sailed the boat out of Long Beach for a year.

Jim brought the boat north in 2000 and began racing her in the local J35 one design fleet. DFLs turned to 2nds and 3rds and then BUMMER! the fleet evaporated. After two partial OD seasons, a bunch of OYRA races, and an aborted Coastal Cup attempt, Jim decided it was NOW OR NEVER to sail the SSS Transpac.

After the 2002 Coastal Cup drubbing, Koinonia got a new mast and that was just the beginning. There's all new running rigging. The standing rigging was replaced. "This had been a San Diego boat and now its getting sailed on the Bay and the local ocean. What didn't break didn't get replaced... and that hasn't been much. "Old war wounds have been re-repaired. Windows and hatches are rebedded. "It's wet here and we found all the leaks."

"My goals are simple... keep as dry as possible and get some rest... make it to Kauai in one piece. If I can keep my boat upright I should be able to make a respectable showing"

Navigation: Garmin 48 GPS (2; one w/ external antennae interfaced with the onboard instrumentation and one remaining as a 'portable' handheld), Garmin 50 GPS (backup). A complete Signet SmartPak instrument system. KVH Sailcomp w/ fluxgate compass. Raymarine ST4000 fluxgate compasses (2) Steering: Raymarine ST4000GP, Jim, a redundant ST4000+ backup system, (w/ several pre-wired spare motors and a couple other extra parts). A garage fabricated emergency rudder designed to drive the boat to at least 80% of original configuration. Food: "Good homemade stuff, bagged and frozen, for the first week or as long as the dry and wet ice lasts. A big bag of oranges (but no bananas). Then its cans and bags of factory food to last until I arrive at a good store.... oh yeah!, and a whole mess o' cookies!" Special thanks: Virginia - my significant other, Aaron - my 1yr old (by race day) sleep-deprivation trainer... and the rest of the Koinonia team; Andrew Wong, John Navas, Perry, Richard, Tone, the Eriks (both of 'em!), Rod, Mike, and 'Smokin Duke'... the SSS, for maintaining this tradition long enough for me to participate and hopefully for many more years to come. ... and last, but not least, Glen Hansen for getting the rig in.