On Friday the Classe Mini released the first version of the Transat 6.50 entry list, and I was releived to see my name under the DCQ entrants.

There are seven foreigners competing for DCQ spots and two compeitors have already qualified. So now it’s a race for the remaining compeitors to get all of their qualificaitons out of the way. (For foreigners, the first to fufil all of the qualification obligations, goes to the top of the list.)

We have a lot of work to do, but we are trucking along, right on schedule.

Next up: 1000nm Qualification sail. More on that in a bit.

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.

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

The mighty ship 680 is into the shop for a refit and whole bunch of work.

As I mentioned below, Boat Services Kingston have come on board as a sponsor and I am very happy with 680’s home for the winter. The shop out on Highway 38 is heated and has tonnes of space for us to work. I’m also very happy to have the guidance and knowledge of Niilo Avarmaa as work on the boat over the winter.

Niilo is known to be a very talented man when it comes to working on boats and fibreglass, and I am lucky to be getting a chance to see him in action and learn from him. I think what makes Niilo stand out is that he always does things properly, looking for the root cause of a problem and then working meticulously to fix it for good. It gives me great confidence that he is working on my boat.

680 will be getting a proper bottom job over the winter, and we have a whole bunch of little fixes, things to install, and improvements to make to get her ready to go offshore in June. Right now I am getting in all of the experts in various areas to come in and offer help and advice.

I’ll try to post some photos soon of her in the shop.

David Sineau, who was second across the line had this to say:

” The repair list is long. The most penalizing damage was the loss of my gennaker just before the doldrums. This is actually the sail we need the most to help us get out of the doldrums. This might have been for the better as I had to steer away from the rhumb line to sail better angles under spinnaker. I then lost all my wind instruments because of three birds who damaged them. So no more wind speed and wind angle….truly blind. Then the torn gennaker passsing under the boat damaged the keel foil, affecting greatly the hydrodynamic… Yves Le Blevec is a superb winner. He sailed really fast… I had a lot of fun sailing. I never pushed myself over the edge. My training on the water for the last 3 years paid off, I did not do any broach, which cost so much to my competitors.”

This Sunday from 1-3pm, the team will be hosting an Open Boat at the Kingston Yacht Club. We want to give the public a chance to look around the boat and to learn a little more about living aboard a mini and to tell people a little more about the race. Which is currently underway.

Everyone will be able to get aboard 680 to take a look around down below and to get a sense of what it’s like sleeping, eating and living aboard this tiny offshore weapon.

We’ll have a demonstration on how to cook freeze dried food with Chef Eric Baron (trust me you don’t generally need a chef for freeze dried…), we’ll have a slide show with some pictures and video of Minis sailing in the current Mini Transat and also give a little talk on how we interpret weather forecasts before heading out and while under way.

I think this will be a really fun opportunity to talk with folks about the project and to show people first hand how I manage sail this extreme little boat all by myself.

Hope to see you there!

The Shark Intergalatic championships are being sailed in Austria at the moment and as I write this there are three canadian boats in the top five.  Our Heavy Fuel middle man and weather guru, Hal Ebert, is sailing with Greg Cockburn and Christine Forsyth and are sitting in second place.  Just one point separates them from last years world champions, the Shark Poop guys who are in third.

Hal, kick Johan’s ass for us!

Direct link to results.

OMG I can’t wait to be at the stage Katie Ambach and Tara Thomas are at. 

Their boat got delivered to Newport recently.  Read all about it on SA.

It’s pretty cool to see your name in the local media.  A big part of this launch was to hlep with the public awareness in the Kingston area and I think we are on the right track.  Lindsey Fair has done an amazing job of getting the media on board with this project. 

We got three mentions on the local TV station and a couple of mentions on the radio which is good.  I’m going to pick up a copy of the piece on CKWS TV in the next couple of days.  I’ll upload it to youtube if the licence agreement allows.  (It probobly won’t.)

I have to admit that it’s a little weird having everyone know what’s going on in my life.  I’m still trying to find the proper response when people say, “Heh, I saw you on the news last night.  What a cool project!”  I’m generally leading folks to the MST website and the sponsorship page.  (You can download the CYA form for tax deductable donations on that page.)  It is also nice to have some money trickling in.  As nice as it is to be a “celebrity” and all, it really is about raising funds to get sailing. 

Hope everyone in Ontario is safe and sound out of the crazy weather.  It’s nasty out there.