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.

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.

So I was at a barn party a few weeks ago, and my buddy Steve Black, K7waterfront, was there and we got talking about blogging and news reports and he turned to me and Said: “You haven’t posted anything since July, that just not good enough”. He was totally right.

But I have a confession though…

When we got back from Bermuda, I took a little time to rest, and then started to look at the months that we had coming up and then looking at the rest of the campaign, we are now less than 12 months away from the start of 2009 MT. It is scary how much we have to get done.

Financial woes also cause me concern. We have barely been able to keep up with the expenses for the BOR, and now we have some repairs and things to change on the boat and cash is really tight. This, despite a crew of teammates that have been working their butts off for every donation and gift to the campaign.

So the long and the short of it is that it’s pretty tough to keep blogging with so much uncertainty and stress. While I would love to be reporting on fun sailing exploits, technical notes of interest and other fun stuff, the reality is that I am stressing about money and trying to juggle all the balls of applications, administration and proposals.

But the reason Steve was right, is because you want to hear about these trials and tribulations, you want to know where we are headed next and what we are up to with events, training and the other very meaningful partnerships that we have set up.

So while I am eager to share the cool stuff, I always hesitate to talk about the financial and administrative worries which consume me from day to day. But you know what? That’s just part of it all, so I’m going to give it to you straight.

More in a bit.

Hi All,

Greg and I got into Bermuda on Thursday afternoon and we are pretty much recovered from the race at this point. I’m sorry it has taken me this long to post anything, but sleeping, eating and working out a few things on the boat has taken precidence over the last few days.

I’m not quite ready to post the race report yet, but I wanted to post a couple of videos we took during the race. I hope to post a bit more latter today.

Here’s a little update from Greg. Just a note about record speeds… Right after we did this little update, we managed to get the boat up to 22.6 knots!

More in a bit

Today was a very busy day getting the boat ready for the start.

We had a bit of a scare as we were trying to fix a problem with the cigarette lighter on the boat that we use to charge all of the stuff that takes regular power. After opening up the electrical panel and fixing a lead that had come off, we started to test the system and we found that once we started the autopilot the whole system would shut down and we’d have no power anywhere. Poor Greg toiled belowed trying to fix the problem, while I went about ticking off things on our long list. Eventually we call a marine electrician that found we had a faulty lead on of the batteries. He also gave us a a general electrical “check-up” and cleaned up a few things for us. Everything works now and we are pretty confident that we have a good electrical system.

Around 1300, I registered the boat in the race. This is always such a stressful process, produceing documents and numbers for everything. We were pretty well prepared for this though.

The Captain’s meeting was at a local community hall and we got a very thorough overview of the logistics for both the start tomorrow and for our arrival in Bermuda. There is so much to think about and organize between customs arrangements, shipping schedules, call in schedules etc.

Tonight we finished packing the bins (navigation, kits, and food). You have to be so careful when you are packing all this stuff, making sure that you haven’t forgotten anything, and knowing exactly where everything is so we can find it in a hurry.

I’m looking forward to a good sleep, as tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.

Here are the photos from Geoff Webster. Awesome as always!

Sorry to update you with a press release…. More tomorrow.

The Minimus Sailing Team and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, are proud to announce the christening and naming of world class sailor Nathan Baron’s Open 6.5, on Tuesday May 13th at 4:00pm at Collin’s Bay Marina.

The Minimus Sailing Team has chosen to help promote the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada by naming the boat after this important national child and youth serving organization. Skipper Nathan Baron remarks “This sailing project has been supported by the Kingston community, and we are very proud to be able to give something back to the community. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada does so much to support children and we are very excited to help promote the Clubs and their important programs both locally at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Kingston and at Clubs across the country.”

“We are delighted to be a part of this exciting initiative,” said Pam Jolliffe, President and CEO, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring much-needed visibility to the positive impact that Clubs have on the lives of 200,000 young people in Canada annually and to generate new support for Club programs in the Kingston community and across the country.”

This summer the team will be sailing from Annapolis Maryland USA, racing in the Bermuda Ocean Race (BOR), a double handed (two-crew) race from Annapolis to Bermuda. This unique race is a mix of coastal navigation as well as testing offshore skills of top skippers on the North American East coast. Crew Greg van Rossem commented: “The BOR is a very tough race on its own, but as an element of Nathan’s training for the 2009 Mini Transat, this will be a very important event.”

The launch comes after a winter re-fit on the boat, making various improvements and refinements to the extreme yacht called an Open 6.5 or Mini. Boat Services Kingston have donated their time and expertise to help the Minimus Sailing Team get the boat into top shape for this season’s racing.

The christening of the boat will be open to the public at Collin’s Bay Marina at 4:00pm Tuesday May 13th. Children from the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Kingston will be on hand to help christen the boat. Please come down to support the sailing team as well as the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada.

About Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada
Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada is a leading provider of programs to children and youth that support the healthy physical, educational and social development of 200,000 young people and their families each year. In 700 community locations across Canada, Clubs offer after-school programs in physical recreation, technology, the arts, personal growth and more. Many Clubs also provide meals, emergency shelter, family support programs and other supports to children, youth and families at risk. Boys and Girls Clubs have been helping young Canadians to discover, develop and achieve their potential, for over 100 years. To learn more, visit www.bgccan.com.

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Good news from the Spirit of Canada camp. Here’s the release, via BYM news.:

Vendee Globe: Derek Hatfield Spirit of Canada qualifies for round the world race
Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Canadian single-handed sailor Derek Hatfield is officially qualified to enter the Vendee Globe 2008 - a singlehanded non-stop race around the world.

Just before Christmas, Hatfield completed the Transat Ecover B2B, the single-handed transatlantic race from Brazil to France that is a qualifier for the Vendee Globe. It was also a great chance to shake down his racing machine, the Canadian-built Open 60, Spirit of Canada. Then just last week, all the documentation and official medical training was completed and filed with the Vendee Globe organizers and the official race number; #15 was issued by the organizers.

“I am very proud to finally finish the qualifications for the Vendee Globe 2008. It has been a lot of hard work getting this far but with the support that we receive from so many Canadians, we will be on the start line this November.” said Hatfield. On November 8, 2008, Hatfield, 56, will be the only Canadian in the race competing. He and the Spirit of Canada will be the first Canadian team to attempt the race.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been doing a lot of studying on coastal navigation lately, so I have been paying attention to the recent inquiry around the tragic sinking of the Queen of the North.

The Marine Services guys at MTO are paying attention to this stuff too, and a friend of mine just emailed me a link link to the media files on the inquest. This simulation video (windows media file) is especially interesting. Make sure you have the volume up on your computer so you can hear the radio transmissions.

I find it absolutely amazing that on a ship with chart plotters, radar and a whole bridge staff, that this kind of thing can happen.

I’ve been spending most weekends out at Boat Service Kingston’s shop and it is nice to finally see some progress!

More photos in the my Flickr stream.