Page 8 of 63 FirstFirst ... 4567891011121858 ... LastLast
Results 71 to 80 of 626

Thread: Around the World from West coast?

  1. #71
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    Plouf ... Un coup dans l'eau.

  2. #72
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    111

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by jamottep View Post
    Although I've put this on the back burner until I'm back from Hanalei I'd like to advertise that I'd like to build a team to support this event and it's not too early to start that.

    Now it's not like I'll be able to pay anyone who wants to join. Instead you'd join because you want to improve some skills of yours and you want a goal to motivate yourself, or you'd like to go a step further than reading someone else's blog, or you feel like it's time to give back, or you want to do this trip too and you want a close up before venturing on your own. The list goes on.

    I realize we all have busy agenda and when free we like to fill it up with our own stuff. If you think the idea to be part of the onshore team of a non stop solo circumnavigation excites you please drop me a line, even if you're not in San Francisco Bay. Some positions are arm chair jobs. In other words you could do it all from wherever you are.

    The bottom line is that I cannot research or do everything on my own and would like to enroll you to help. Here are some examples, some of these could be split if you'd like to do only part of it:

    1. Media and marketing: you'd be in charge of all media, including pictures, videos, articles, social media, etc. You'd be in charge of our outside voice and image.

    2. Sponsorship: this is totally a wild card. I have it here because I should. Who doesn't try ..

    3. Communication equipment: research and advise in all things offshore communication, including safety, satellite, weather forecasts, social media, hardware, software, etc.

    4. Boat maintenance: this is not a position where you'd do the work (unless you want to); it's more you'd be in charge of making sure that the boat is maintained properly. You may be relied on to advise on repairs at sea.

    5. Sail: you wouldn't stitch a sail (unless you want to); more you'd research best sail choices for the boat and conditions, help build a sail plan decision tree, etc.

    6. Routing and weather: right?

    7. Safety at sea: all things safety from EPIRB to life jackets to boat design to route choices, etc.

    8. Sparring partner(s): one lesson learned with Double Espresso is that doing everything alone is extremely taxing. This is where a sparring partner comes into play.

    Feel free to add to the list where you think you could help. The energy that comes from being part of a team is essentially driven by the team's goal and the people dynamics. For now this remains very informal. However should we get something going I will formalize things a bit more.

    Newsflash: a seed was planted in the fertile ground of the singlehanded sailing community.
    Response from an anonymous onlooker: "What?!?! You're asking them to team up? What part of singlehanded did you not understand?"
    Hi Philipe,

    A mission critical piece for me is the electrical energy - autopilot system. I will not have a wind vane, so electrical energy must be generated enroute, stored in batteries, and drive an autopilot continuously for months without fail. Also, you might think about your physical condition, sleep, and nutrition - depending on your boat of course.

    On routing and weather, I'm a purist so my thought is to go without outside assistance and learn how to read 500mb charts. But I'm not married to this.

  3. #73
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by jamottep View Post
    Yes, yes ... November 2019?
    The next Vendée Globe is 2020. Wouldn't it be better to go that year, rounding the Horn about the same time?

  4. #74
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    The SSS forum was fantastic to prepare for the SHTP. Now, to prepare for a solo circumnavigation, where would I go and start a "Interested in a boat for ..." thread?

  5. #75
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    430

    Default

    I think you just started one.

  6. #76
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Tchoupitoulas View Post
    I think you just started one.
    You have a point ... So let's resume where we left before the SHTP ... This time there is a constraint: the boat would need to be fast enough to complete the trip in 4 months, with this skipper, solo, uninterrupted. Assistance is ok. A short stop is ok too if necessary. I don't feel it necessary to go round Hawaii, personally. I'm not trying to break or set a record; this is more like preparing for something else. I'm thinking starting late 2020 and round Cape Horn about the same time the Vendee Globe skippers will, assuming that makes sense weather wise for the rest of the trip (that says a lot about my ignorance; but we all know that: I'll remain a newbie till I die). Last I don't have large budget, I don't even have a small budget but that's another story :-)

    1. I can't do this round the world thing alone! Anyone interested in contributing in any way?

    2. Any suggestion for a boat that's ready to go :-)

    I just ordered four books about/by previous Vendee Globe skippers ... that'll either get me started or it'll send me looking for another past-time :-)

  7. #77
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by jamottep View Post
    You have a point ... So let's resume where we left before the SHTP ... This time there is a constraint: the boat would need to be fast enough to complete the trip in 4 months, with this skipper, solo, uninterrupted. Assistance is ok. A short stop is ok too if necessary. I don't feel it necessary to go round Hawaii, personally. I'm not trying to break or set a record; this is more like preparing for something else. I'm thinking starting late 2020 and round Cape Horn about the same time the Vendee Globe skippers will, assuming that makes sense weather wise for the rest of the trip (that says a lot about my ignorance; but we all know that: I'll remain a newbie till I die). Last I don't have large budget, I don't even have a small budget but that's another story :-)

    1. I can't do this round the world thing alone! Anyone interested in contributing in any way?

    2. Any suggestion for a boat that's ready to go :-)

    I just ordered four books about/by previous Vendee Globe skippers ... that'll either get me started or it'll send me looking for another past-time :-)
    I have my own goal for 2020, or more likely 2022 so this isn't going to be on my radar.

    That said, I'm going to be brutally honest, here. Please don't take this personally, I haven't met you, I have no axe to grind here and I'm not trying to rain on your parade. Honest....but here goes.

    Over the years there have been a number of schemes, including one of mine, which have been floated on this board. Mini's that were going to do the SHTP were one. Eight years went by between when the first mini-hopeful started posting here and the first 6.5 to actually complete the race. We watched guys complain about the rules, go on and on about how mini's were special and better so they didn't have to play by the same rules. They didn't have to have communication equipment and so on. It got really tiresome.

    This community watched me work hard for eighteen months to try to organize a race called the "CrossPac"....all to naught. Three for four times I've proposed the idea of a West-Coast "Figaro-like" shorthanded race boat, to a chorus of yawns and complete disinterest. The online sailing community is chockablock full of folks with great ideas, but no money and no serious stick-to-it-iveness to make their ideas happen.

    I'm going to be blunt. "Around the World from the West Coast" strikes me as another one of these ideas. You have no money. NONE. You don't have a boat. Nobody else has signed up to play. There's no website. There's no press package. There's NOTHING but you talking about this on the SSS forum. Take a hard look at the recent Shorthanded Race that just left from Southern California. The organizer is a good guy, he's got sailing experience, he has a boat. He doesn't have a big budget, but he's advertising a doable experience...sailing solo to Hawaii. Right and how many boats are making the trip in the Shaka? Three? Sailing solo AROUND THE WORLD? That's orders of magnitude more challenge. Look, the SHTP is the biggest long-range singlehanded ocean-crossing race on the West Coast. The Pac Cup is the biggest doublehanded race. They are maybe half compared to, for example the Transquadra - France to the Caribbean, which is just ONE of the multitude of shorthanded races that cross the Atlantic.

    The one and only person in Nor Cal who amassed enough money and everything else to pull this off was Bruce Schwab, and while I like Bruce personally, and admire his dedication to achieving his dream, he burned a lot of bridges around her to make it happen. I hope that he's happy in Maine. What he went through wouldn't have been worth it, to me...I hope it was for Bruce. There's no question that what he achieved was absolutely amazing, but that's what it takes to do a serious around the world race like what you're proposing. That or you're best friends with a couple of multi-millionnaires who own huge vineyards.

    Racing around the world on a modern solo sailing machine in a competitive fleet is at least a million dollar exercise. I sure don't have it. Bruce didn't have it, he was a rigger at Svendsens. Who here, has that kind of money to spend on sailing?...not to mention the kind of stamina it takes to pull off a race like that.

    Will you be the guy who convinces Ford and Starbucks and Nike and Uber and Elon Musk and Citibank that an around-the-world solo sailboat race starting from Silicon Valley is the Next Hottest Thing? ...that each of them should pony up a million and a half dollars to put some SSS sailors on red-hot custom Classe 40 boats to sprint to Puerto Montt, Chile on Leg One? Maybe. But I won't bet on it. When that happens, let us all know. Not that I'll sign up, I doubt that I'm up for a solo Around the World race.

    meanwhile, if you want to post about what would make a great boat for a solo non-race circumnavigation, then by all means, post on the forum. But unless you're really good at making video and getting patreon accounts, or raising money though online means, or happen to stumble upon a million dollar a year job next month, don't hold your breath. Dropping $25,000 into a 1986 Wilderness 30 and racing to Hawaii is one thing. Buying a $250,000 Classe 40 (that's in Europe) getting it over here, putting another $40,000 into it, then having support crew meet you in five widely-spaced locations around the world is a whole other ballgame.

    If you, personally want to buy a boat YOURSELF and do a 'round the world voyage, then go to it. But hoping that a whole mess of SSS'ers will jump on the bandwagon, buy boats, and take off for a year to race around the world is fantasy.

    And remember, this is the <B>single largest group of shorthanded sailors in north America</b>. You are talking to The Group most likely to make this happen, and it's NOT going to happen, with us. Not without a freaking lot of money. Find the money, then you might have a chance.
    Last edited by AlanH; 07-30-2018 at 04:16 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  8. #78
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    That's a pretty cold lecture, though realistic, and I suspect that I might have delivered one of those already. I'll try to keep that in mind in the future.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  9. #79
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    That's a pretty cold lecture, though realistic, and I suspect that I might have delivered one of those already. I'll try to keep that in mind in the future.
    Yes, that's how you responded to my thread about finding a boat for the SHTP, which I believe prompted me to respond with what may be one of the funniest comment on this forum ... And you've also said so on this thread a couple of times I think.

    Sure most likely I won't hear from anyone. And that's ok. Not even trying though ... That would be acting like a fool.

    I'm wondering what you get by writing these lectures. It is time consuming. I wonder what purpose they serve.

  10. #80
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    3,485

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by jamottep View Post
    Anyone interested in contributing in any way?
    I have an XL Mustang survival suit you can have. I will also buy you a double coconut ice cream cone upon your arrival.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •