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.

So in my “spare time” I’ve been studying all kinds of cool stuff like celestial navigation, tides and currents, the international buoy system, etc. etc.

Recently there has been an Australian guy gal on Sailing Anarchy who is taking an Royal Yachting Association Course, and is posting his thoughts and studies in the forums for discussion and to help others learn. There is some great discussion and explanations on various topics which is totally worth a visit.

Week 1 was about variation and deviation. Week 2 was on the international buoy system. Week 3 is on tides.

Definetly worth reading if you are a geeky wannabe skipper who is looking to expand your knowledge. The usual SA warning applies: These threads may contain: violence, nudity and language that may be offensive to some readers. Reader discretion is STRONGLY advised.

This is either the first or second question that people ask me when I bump into them when I haven’t seen them for a while. “It’s going OK” is my usual answer. Not great, not bad, but ok.

Brown’s Fine Foods here in Kingston have made a generous donation that will get us through the winter. This money will buy stuff like epoxy, solar panels, and miscellaneous bits and pieces to help get the boat ready to sail in the spring. This has taken a bunch of pressure off us, BUT we will definitely need more money to get through the sailing season.

When I combine all of the in-kind, cash donations, and services that people have provided, it adds up to something just short of $50,000. That sounds impressive, but this is just the start. In the next few months we will have a LOT of expenses like race fees, generator, life raft, flares and emergency gear etc. etc. etc.

It’s funny how the little expenses always turn out to be way more than you thought they would be. For instance, I just ordered all of the charts that I will need for the coming year (Chesapeake River, US North East coast, and Bermuda) as well as the list of lights, tide tables, and nautical almanac. The total bill was around $800 USD. Wow.

I don’t like pimping for donations. I’m bad at it and it generally makes me feel uncomfortable. But when I look at the race schedule, the work list and the 3 year plan, I just can help but make the humble request for help….

The worst thing about having a blog like this is that everyone knows when you are not writing!

Over the past couple of months we have been extremely busy doing all kinds of cool stuff, and it is often hard to get it written down before I loose the moment, thus all of the recaps and catch up sessions on this blog.

There is a tonne to talk about though, so please bear with me as I try and catch up again!

I’ve been terribly negligent about reporting on all of the amazing ocean racing that has been underway over the past few weeks, but I just had to write a post to get people to send positive vibes to Derek Hatfield and Spirit of Canada who is currently racing in the Ecover Transat B to B.

Pattianne reports this morning that Derek has been having some serious problems with the on-board computers, sat-comms and autopilot. I can tell you from experience that when “Auto” craps out on you it is super exhausting just trying to do sail changes and trimming, let alone trying to solve computer problems. My experience on the mini pales in comparison to an Open 60. I can’t even imagine what it would be like try to manage one of these powerful beasts without a pilot.

To make matters worse, he had an accidental jibe that caused some damage and wrecked further havoc with the computers.

So please take a minute to send some positive vibes to Derek, he’s got a lot of miles to go.