|
|
|
By Billy Bob Boyer
On a foggy day down at the end of a long dock lies a beast beckoning to be flogged hard and put away wet…The Andrews-designed TP 52, Victoria 5. What follows is an impression of an attempted race from Long Beach, California to Barra de Navidad, Mexico. As I am usually sailing aboard the other TP 52 J Bird, winning races and taking abuse for our lying, cheatin' ways, I had agreed to sail with Victoria 5 for this one. For me it was an interesting proposition to sail against J Bird and test my skills against theirs (always a mind expanding experience). Having sailed with Mike Campbell since 1996 on his various other Victoria's I find him smart, quick witted and quite comfortable in giving us enough rope to hang ourselves! Most of the Transpac 52 racing Victoria has done has been close to shore so this was its first real offshore test. Victoria was changed from inshore mode to offshore mode in short order, having been on the hard just 2 days before the race. Organization of gear was at a fever pitch. The day before the race the modified rig was put back in and adjusted. Everything appeared to come together at the last minute, but having sailed in just about every offshore race on the west coast for the last 31 years, I was choking my skepticism back. My main concerns were: Is the radio working; Are we getting good weather information; Is my bunk going to be dry; and the burning question; do we have enough Snicker bars for a week…? The morning of the race and the first gremlin reared its ugly head, HOUSE BATTERIES DEAD. Off to the marine super we went in search of the best batteries we could find. Averting a possible Stone Age sail (can you imagine the horror: we'd actually have to sail by feel? Not to mention navigating.), we loaded the food, fuel and checked for our storm jib and trisail. No jokes please. All was well and working as we left the dock. The wind before we started this race should have been a good indication of what was in store for us that first night. Flat calm. This is always a good time to get acquainted with your new mates. We had Mike Campbell, owner/father to us kids, Scott Dickson as our GM, Sam Heck, Pete's sensible twin that doesn't get all the bad press, Roy Dickson, father of Chris and Scott and classic throw back to a sailing era when men had balls and you worked for every angry inch of race track, Tony Stewart (not the race car driver), Steve Trigger, a paramedic from Catalina Island - a guy you would want to share a foxhole with, Howie as back up bow, and the never sleeping travieso of the bow world, Mike Herlihey. With the kids in the crib we were on our way. Just as the start sequence is started the wind picks up to a blow that's nothing like the Route Du Rhum, but more like the doldrums where you see zephyrs of wind on a sheet of glass. As we kick out the jams, we lead our fleet to a sunny bar far far away. By nightfall the first day we are working our nemesis J Bird over and gaining the valuable inches we will need at the other end. When evening was getting closer it was time to fire up the stove and get all that tasty dinner substance heated to a degree that will go with the wine. One small problem, about half way through the canister sputters and the keeper of the flame asks where the other canisters are located. After finding the new canisters it's discovered that they aren't the same ones as the old ones and don't work with the stove we have on board. After a few choice words from the owner we settle into the tried before never popular "fantail reflection cooking method". Goes great with that expensive Merlot! I feel very fortunate now that all my meals were vegetarian; better to eat it without cooking it anyway. Looking at all that cold meat stew, chicken and rice, mashed potatoes and lamb laying all over the poop deck was quite a sight. I just couldn't understand why every seagull in the northern hemisphere wasn't following us. As night turns into day and day into night the fight continues, taking a little, giving a little, until day three. We were never more than a mile away from J Bird, which is a testament as to just how close these two boats are in speed. Might also say something for how they are sailed too. Day four I was on watch at about 1:00 pm in the afternoon, 16kts of downwind sailing, sitting on the ever so comfortable bean bag chair and don't laugh, t r i m m i n g the kite, when up through the hole/hatch Sam looks at me like I stole his toupe. We're dropping out he exclaims! I think to myself, "bullshit, don't fuck with me, the sailing is incredible and I am in one of those states not far from a Zen monk in deep meditation." He runs it by me again and asks what part of dropping out don't I understand? The second time I question his sanity. He explains that the tropical disturbance we had on our last weather fax had developed into a possible tropical cyclone and the owner wants us to get the bleepin' boat to shore as soon as possible. After a few minutes we run through all the possibilities. When is the next fax? 5 hours? Can we raise anyone on the radio? Tried for close to an hour. Race committee, KMI, another boat? No response. We have in our estimation about 1 day to get to shore and be secure. On our weather fax the disturbance was headed straight at us just inside our course and straight at Cabo San Lucas. At that time we were about 130 miles from shore; 13 to 15 hours with the jib up. A week prior to this disturbance there was a hurricane that ravaged Puerto Vallarta (only a 100 miles from were we were headed) with 150kt winds so we were taking what we thought was the appropriate action. In retrospect I think that there is a good case for a satellite phone to be on board any offshore boat for safety purposes. After jib reaching 90 degrees to course for 4 hours, it's time for evening roll call. We need to check in and give the bad news of our departure from the race to the others in our small world. David Janes, owner of J Bird comes unglued and is upset with Mike for getting him to race in this race in the first place. After assurances from Dave that the weather we see on our weather fax is nothing to worry about, he offers to race us to Cabo. What? We just sailed 90 degrees to course for 4 hours. If J Bird is getting the same weather as us how is it determined that there is nothing to worry about? Maybe they have more channels on their SSB, or better training? I know they have a lot of weather forecasting training between Dave and Ernie R on J Bird, but to deduce there is no danger from two maps? Zephyrus was saying they were monitoring the situation very closely and that there was no problem. How can you monitor a situation closely when a weather fax only comes out about every 5 hours? I think I know but I think it's not my place to say. For all the work that goes into an ocean race, on both sides, race committee or racers, a little better communication is in order whether it's sat phones for instant communication/weather routing or internet access, or maybe transponders. I think it would give us all a little better peace of mind. As our race has ended the other 10 boats (10 Boats! That's pretty pathetic for a major west coast offshore sailboat race) continue on. This sad number must be indicative of something, and whatever it is, it isn't too good. The first two boats to finish were J Bird, which started a day before Zephyrus, and then Zephyrus. After that the wind shut down and the other boats were relegated to slat for days before one by one they dropped out. The other finishers, far off the pace of the leaders were Magnitude, Adrenalin and Bay Wolf. It was a great effort by all the finishers just to finish. This race in my opinion is run in the part of the year when we have notoriously light winds over this course and more people than not will be discouraged from a week of light air fighting. I would like to see at least every once in a while race where we can have our balls busted in some real breeze! To sum all this up, a race run in March or April would be nice. No restrictions on weather routing would be fantastic. Transponders for each of the participating yachts monitored by the hosting club or organization might be too much to ask for, but might create some Internet interest, and some much-needed enthusiasm. A little better promotion and running of offshore races in So Cal could promote a bigger fleet (No Cal doesn't seem to have a problem!) and somehow show the owners more incentive than a pickle dish for the enormous outlay of cash it takes to run in some of these races. If I were spending my hard earned cash to run a program in offshore races, a couple of glad hands, a crappy trophy dinner that I had to pay for, and a bowlers trophy would be at the bottom of my list. A lot of money is being spent and there should be someway to promote that fact in a positive way. Notes of interest: Victoria 5 and J Bird will be headed to the right coast to first sail at Key West along with The Transpac 52 Rose Bud. Then they will sail in various races on the East Coast and Great Lakes areas. My feeling is that Victoria 5 and J Bird will not be returning back to the West Coast. Janes is in negotiations to purchase the 77ft Chance, and Campbell is looking into an 86ft something or other. Since these guys were the backbone of the Transpac 52 class it's questionable whether or not the 52 class will ever get off the mark. So far the 52's aren't enjoying the ten years we had with the 70 class, which of course was foreshortened when owners started outspending each other in an arms race that proved to be their demise. But after sailing on both Victoria and J Bird I hope they will go to good owners who will appreciate these tools for what they are INCREDIBLE… 11/25/2002 |
