This may not be a solo round the world attempt, VOR challenge, AC program, but then I am just your everyday working slob and club racer. But so are most of you so I hope you will find this of some interest and of course if you don't I know I will read about it in the forum.

After playing around with the idea for about a year I decided to check into what it would take to set a record for the fastest sail around the Big Island of Hawaii. First thing I did was contact the World Sailing Speed Record Council and was surprised with how quickly John Reed (secretary for the WSSRC) responded. Extremely polite and considering there were two Jules Verne trophy attempts in the works at the time, never made me feel like I was small fry. After many e-mails it was decided that while this would not be a "world record attempt" it could fall under the category of "performance certificate" as he put it that's a World Record with a small "w".

I decided to take advantage of this attempt to promote sailing here and the Kona Sailing Club specifically, O.K., so I'm the commodore. No sh*t from you, I don't own a blue blazer and in fact do most of my officiating wearing my SA hat. Besides the Kona Sailing Club is a group of people that just love sailing, my kind of place. I also decided to utilize this and make it a fundraiser for Hawaii Island United Way, one of my favorite charities.

After working out all those details it was time to look at the attempt and what would be needed. We spent a lot of time and money doing extensive VPP and weather studies. The results were that the perfect boat for the attempt would be a new VOR Open 70 or an Olson 30. As luck would have it I own an Olson so it was decided to go with it. I also calculated that it would cost several thousand in equipment/mainsail/WSSRC fees to do this. This only was counting record specific equipment, no what the heck it would be nice to have one of these for the boat items.

So it was off in search of sponsors. I decided to go with just three so that they would get the most out of advertising and publicity. Also I wanted to be able to spend more effort raising money for HIUW. Now I am a firm believer that you need to give your sponsors more than just a logo on a sail and have to admit that all of Bruce's plugs show he has the right idea. I have been spending several hours a week writing press releases, articles and promoting the attempt and sponsors. My goal was to give them at least double their investment in publicity. So for all of you out there please help out the next guy by not burning your sponsors but plan on putting a lot of time into working for them.

My first sponsor was the Fairmont Orchid Hawaii, (Fairmont.com/orchid). A new luxury hotel on the Kohala coast. I was really lucky here because their PR manager happens to be a blue water sailor and so it wasn't a hard sell at all. In addition the promo shots of the boat with new main in front of their hotel will be way cool. My second sponsor was G&M Maintenance Service Inc. A local professional cleaning company whom I've known and respected for years. Again it wasn't a hard sell, mainly because they believed in the attempt and were looking for a way to show their pride in the Big Island. The third sponsor.....well there is no third sponsor. And boy did I try. I decided that I would make the attempt with just two but it would mean some corners would have to be cut and credit card limits would have to be tested.

I sent the money and application to the WSSRC, that was a healthy chunk. Ordered a new main with logos from Gary at Ullman Ventura. Gary did my downwind inventory and I like his sails and prices.

A little bit about the attempt itself. The Big Island has 266 miles of coastline, but of course we will sail a bit longer distance. If you check out any of the wind models you quickly discover that only 33% of the distance has what could best be described as pleasant sailing conditions. The rest of it is beating, or light and variable. On the north side is the Alenuihaha, which is one of the worst channels in the world. The south side isn't much better. Either way you round the island you have to beat through one of them. On the west side of the island you have a large area that sits in the Mauna Loa wind shadow. To bypass that would add about 100 miles to the attempt so we need to sail through it. The windward side actually bends the wind to run around the coast, so half is downwind and half is beating no matter which way you approach it.

One of the reasons there is no record for circling the Island, is that no one really wants to sail it. Years ago there used to be a round the state race that was part of the Kenwood cup. The Big Island part was taken out because the windless zone was frustrating and rounding South Point and beating up the windward coast was considered cruel and unusual punishment. Needless to say local sailors just consider me crazy, something that I have never claimed otherwise. We will make our attempt in the opposite direction of the Kenwood cup, clockwise. I think it's a faster way around, but not necessarily more comfortable.

We are planning the attempt in June/July depending on weather. I will keep you all posted on what's happening. Check us out at www.bigislandchallenge.com.

Mitch Green
"Olson Kahuna"

05/14/2003