My friend Perri VR passed on this email to some friends from her son Mack. I really like this and and Mack agreed to let me post it here.

So here you go…

n

Hey,

- Mack

This Saturday we entered the boat in the Santa Claus Parade, which was totally a blast. Once again the Leaders in Training from the Boy’s and Girl’s Club stepped up to help organize things for the parade.

The kids were troopers as it was a really cold night, but it was even worse for us as we were way up on the deck of the boat as we made our way down Princess Street. Nothing a few blankets and hot chocolate couldn’t fix, but it was pretty darn cold out there.

I’m not much of a Christmas person, but I have to say that it was a fantastic way to get into the spirit of the season.

Once again, a big thanks to the LIT group, John for driving, George and th Girls for helping to decorate the boat, Alison for helping with all of the logistics, Pride Marine for loaning us their truck, and the the Downtown Kingston Business Association for putting on a great event.

Last week was crazy busy with activities at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club. The Leaders in Training group have been taking on more and more responsibility over the past few weeks and I am really proud of them as budding leaders in their community.

On Wednesday last week we ran a “Sailor Boot Camp” for the kids at the club. In the gym at the club we set up three stations: a spinaker hoist, a stacking race and an emergency preparedness drill where they had to pretend they were sleeping below and get dressed and on deck to deal with a problem, fastest time wins. The LIT group helped to get everything set up and then helped run the stations.

I want to send out a big thanks to George Jackson, John Curtis and James Brown for their help running the stations and encopuraging the kids to get through all of the activities in record time.

So I said that I was going to give it to you straight…

I wanted to let people know that if you haven’t ben able to contact me over the phone recently it’s not just you.

My service provider has cut off my service. Times are tough at Minimus Sailing Team Headquarters, so please email me if you have anything of great importance.

I hope to have it sorted out soon, I’ll post when I get it online again. Sorry for any inconvienience.

EDIT: Got it sorted out. Phone is now up and running.

There is so much ocean racing going on at the moment: the Volvo Ocean Race, record breaking season, and the IACC boats finally back at it again. But by far the most difficult and exciting race of the past four years began yesterday morning, the venerable Vendee Globe.

I got up at 3:30am EST to watch the start over the internet, and found my heart thumping away in my chest as the 30 sailors made their way out the canal and out to the biggest race course in the world.

One thing that made this Vendee Globe so special for us Canucks, is that Derek Hatfield made it to the start. This in it’s self is an astonishing feat. With budgets going through the roof in the IMOCA fleet, Derek had an impossible challenge to over come. There are no words to describe the feelings I had watching him on the bow of Spirit of Canada as he headed down the canal toward the sea. His beaming smile said it all and I felt a lump in my throat as I thought of the stress and turmoil that he has been through over the past four years putting this pogram together.

I can’t help but have my thoughts wander toward my own start, that will come in less than a year. Definitly getting to the start line is more than half the battle.

So be sure to check in on Derek at the race tracker, and to send some positive vibes his was as he fights his way around the planet with the best skippers in the world. If anyone deserves to be there it is Derek.

A few weeks ago I got a call from Jim Brown at work. He was calling to give me the good news that Empire life were coming on board as sponsor, contributing $2500 toward the campaign. Super good news! This past Friday I had a chance to meet with a few of the Empire Life executives and have a chance to chat with them about the project.

Empire Life is no stranger to corporate giving and supporting the Kingston community. They are just wrapping up a United Way fund raising campaign and separately support the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston among many other things. Empire is unique in Kingston, in that they are a national company with a big local headquarters here, not Toronto or Montreal. I really like that they are out in community and trying to help out. Kingston is definitely better for it.

It seems kind of crazy that with all of the amazing ocean racing going on that I am posting a video from the one unsuccessful boat in the past month.

But this is AWESOME! It totally appeals to the wannabe DJ in me and sailors will appreciate the pretty slick crew work on this monster of a boat.

Franklin Tulloch is the director from Earthbound Studios. Check out his youtube feed here.

Over the past month, I’ve been working with Kingston sail loft on making a new main and jib for the boat. These are super important sails that will be putting on some significant miles in the coming months. We want them to be fast, reliable, and easy to use.

Adjusting the sail plan on the mini is key and you must have the boat set up in such a way that you can adjust sail even when you are tired, it’s blowing 40 and the boat is bucking up and down below you. Making the sails easy to use saves energy and encourages me to make the sail charge early enough that it’s not too late. Andy and John put up with me constantly stopping in at the loft to see how things were progressing or to discuss whatever was coming next.

The Kingston Sail Loft have been so supportive of the campaign from the very beginning and I am very grateful of their donation of time and experience in working on the sails.