Blog
1st January 2010 New Year
Ok here is the final blog of 2009, and as I am typing this late at night, it is soon to be the
first blog of 2010, so I thought I would take this opportunity to round up the events
of 2009 and tell you about our plans for 2010 and beyond.
2009 has been our most successful year yet, with a 5th overall in the OSTAR 2009 and
also becoming Etchell national champions along with Phil Laurence and Laurence Mead,
have both been massive achievements.
The Ostar marked a turning point in my year, having been focused like an arrow on one
goal, I finally achieved it. The feeling of crossing the finish line in Newport having sailed
the entire Atlantic alone is one I will never forget, and one I hope to experience again in
the future. When telling the story of my Ostar, I have to send my thanks to all of you out
there who sent emails of support. Reading your emails pulled me through some very
very tough times, and helped me muster the energy to overcome the technical problems
that I experienced out there.I hope that I managed to convey some of what it was like to
be out there in my blog, and I am currently working on getting my video cut together
and I will post it as soon as I have finished. It was a truly great experience and one I can
recommend to anyone who wants to try a serious challenge, my three words to describe
the Ostar would be Wet, Wild and Wonderful, truly the best experience of my life so far.
This neatly leads me on to the Future and the plans for 2010. We are currently in the
process of fielding an entry into the Velux 5 oceans, and have spent the last few months
feverishly working away to secure a title sponsor, this is still proving elusive however,
I will keep you informed on progress in this area. The Velux 5 oceans is a logical
progression from the Ostar and we have had fantastic support from sailors in the know.
So there you have it, the next goal for team Oscar Mead is to be a contender in the
Velux 5 oceans, round the world race. There is a sentence I never thought id say,
but here we are.So there is my round up, short but sweet. 2010 here we come!!!
1st September 2009
Hi Hi everyone. it has been a bussy time scince i got back i have been doing lots of sailing with Artemis aboard 1 which has been a fantastic experiance (see photos bellow). A1 is an amazing boat and ideally it would be the boat to race with in the Velux 5 Oceans,Rce which starts nect October (2010) but we will have to see what happens.
As for the Fastnet, great racing we battled with Hugo Boss the whole way and to still be in front of a new boat at the rock was a great race. To my great supprise I was driving as we went round the rock, so i was really chuffed to have that opportunity (thats the bottom pic). Thanks to Simon and the boy on board for a fabulous sail!!!
The top picture is of us just before a tack that why there is such a big heel angle, we didn't sail like that the whole time!!!!!!!!!!!!!. At that point i was hanging desperatly from my bunk on the high side, having been woken by that tumbling feeling!!
And, great news, my new web sight will be up and running soon so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Tuesday 30th June
Hi everyone, I am now back in the UK and have to apologise for my lack of blogs in the last two weeks, I got back and just had a crash out, so sorry about that.
The boat is in good condition and should arrive back in Cowes on the 22 of July ready for me to make the repairs and get ready for Cowes week and the Fastnet.
Osc
"KING OF SHAVES" FINISHES THE OSTAR 2009
2nd in class and 5th overall.
pics courtesy of Will Carson / Southern Evening Echo
Online chart of the 2009 OSTAR is here...
and in the top left hand corner are the options to navigate to the chart, leaderboard (including the distance to go) and IRC handicap projections.
Also some start video and interview with Oscar on this site
SKIPPERS BLOGS ARE AT
Shore note, Monday 15th June
"King of Shaves" HAS FINISHED THE OSTAR!!!!!!!
Oscar finished at 0815 eastern time today (Monday) to finish in a few hours over 21 days. His target was 24 days so it shows it has been a fast race which Oscar said he has really enjoyed.
The boat was in good shape, sails were a but hammered (ripped main under the 3rd reef, A2 blown up and A5 with a repair in it but other than that not much that was operator error. A lost set of spinnaker sheets was the worst of it, of and 2 satallite phones!!!
Oscar finished in bright morning sunshine and local photographer Billy black took me out on his rib to accompany Oscar the last 8 miles of the trip which was great and Billy got loads of GREAT pics which I will both post on here and add a link to his site. Billy and Tom (his RIB partner) were super guys who made the trip out here really really great.
Oscar didn't beat Barry Hurley either on the water or on handicap in the end but in truth that all becamse a moot point once Oscar sailed over the horizon. Just to have done this was amazing. Barry is a great sailor and deserved to win having never given up on the battle.
OSTAR START
Blog Friday the 12th June
Hello Everybody
We have made great progress through Friday towards the finish line. I had the A5 chute up but as planned dropped it and have switched to the jib top while I sailed into this header. I am starting to worry a little that I might not have used the last 48 hours to get south enough, the latest weather says that the northerly after tonight’s light air patch is going to be more easterly than previously suggested and that will make the wind angle very square on Saturday, I will be dead upwind (better that then dead downwind!) of Nantucket Lighthouse. Its hard to be sure, there is still 280 miles to go to the lighthouse so lots of time to get south but it’s on my radar.
Nothing new to report on the boat front. King of Shaves may be small but the J105 is a pretty awesome little boat really. Very seaworthy and other than upwind in the light she’s pretty fast as well. With the chute up nothing much is faster rating for rating. I don’t know this for a fact but I would guess this is the first J105 to cross the Atlantic and I can recommend it, other than the fact that the living quarters down below are smaller than the bathroom of a modern semi detached house…..Oh, plus the fact that the only real way to go to the toilet is “bucket-and-chuck it”!!!!!!
Absolutely no viz out here today. I can only see the front of the boat, misty and chilly. I have spent a lot of time today hiding in my conservatory (home built solid sprayhood) as that allows me to see all the sails and stay warm and dry at the same time, but other than recently its been cold enough to want to keep the hatch closed, so that whatever warmth there is down below stays there. My sail repair on the A5 held so that was satisfying.
Race wise its me and Barry on Dinah fighting for the lead in the Gypsy Moth class. We have a pretty good lead on the rest but I think I am about 10 miles in front of Barry today so that is going to go down to the wire. We are also fighting for 5th place across the finish line which is pretty good as we are in the smaller class. I think I might get there early Monday at this rate….keep your fingers crossed and thanks for all your emails.
Cheers
Osc
THURSDAY
Hi all, this has been a very fast OSTAR, I have just clicked under 300 miles to go to the Nantucket Lighthouse (1pm Friday UK time) which is days ahead of schedule. I had been working on 23 to 25 days for the race but this is day 19 (I think!) and I am still sailing on port with the little A5 chute up doing 9 knots pretty much straight down the rhumb line. I am a little north of the fleet but don't want to drop this kite as its a magic little sail and King of Shaves is really quick in these conditions. After this blog I will have to go and drop it however so I can close up to the fleet who are all south of me before the wind heads. That being said I can't see why some people have gone south of the latiude of Newport, that seems to be adding mileage and the 3,000 ( I think its officlally 2800 by the way!) we started with is enough!!!! And there is a northly coming but is it possible we will get there before it comes in?
I am not sure there is such a thing as an easy OSTAR, there have been some really hard bits of this, the first few days were really brutal but it has been a fast race and I know there have been much much harder ones.... Thanks to whoever arranged an easier one for my first trans Atlantic. The worst bit has been the cold off the corner of Newfoundland, man that was chilly at night. The best bit has been being north of two lows so that we have had so much reaching.
A fast race and I am looking forwad to a STEAK!!!
Cheers
Osc
BLOG WEDENSDAY
Hi All, a nice day on the water today, a little lighter breeze than I had hoped for but it lifted while I was on starboard as planned so I gybed over late morning and have spent the day on port sailing just north of west. Had the big chute up all day. We should have this all day Thursday and it should head and increase all day but I hope we can use chutes as long as possible as I know we are quick in those conditions.
We are also lining up for the last shift of the race. Its going to go light and then be a northerly on Sunday so I am sailing lower than my competitors aiming to get west fast, even if that means I stay more north and that I need to use that last shift to get the last bit of southing in. If it all goes to plan I should gain a bit from my northerly position. I must also be in less adverse current I hope.
Pretty amazing to talk about the last shift of this mini epic race. I know its not the Vendee but its been a long race and it does seem like a long time on a small boat. I will be pleased to finish the OSTAR, that said, I have enjopyed it a lot and I still want to win!!!
I did manage to kick the turning blocks today while I was speeding back from the bow having packed the number 4 and in a rush to re trim the flogging kite, I think I might have a broken toe....oooowwwweeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!
Over and out for today,
Oscar
BLOG TUESDAY
Tuesday AM in the North Atlantic but a beautiful sunny day on my part of the ocean. That has been the good news, the bad news is that I am sailing upwind in 20 knots true and not making a lot of progress. We are probably the lightest and most tender boat in the fleet and this stuff really hurts us, it's almost better when its really windy as everyone stops and starts over the waves. In this power beating condition we just don’t have any power, I don’t have 6 large guys sitting on the rail so every gust rolls us over to leeward a bit and it feels like we are going sideways as fast as we are going forward. Not helped by having Anthony only steering to course rather than wind angle, so he doesnt luff up or bear away in the shifts. I don’t expect great things from the scheds over night…Need another few feet of beam and some of the Figaro’s water ballast please!!!
Wind was supposed to head me over night which it hasn’t really done yet but I have just tacked onto starboard and am now sailing down the coast. It should lift me so I can ease sheets a bit later today and then we will get back into our conditions more. We might have the chute up tomorrow and that is our chance to go faster. Had some nightmares while I was "sleeping" last night, maybe the odd sleeping pattern has just got to me? Didn’t sleep well as a result so been tired all night and don’t feel on top of the world today.
Need to get out of this slow mode and race....off to sail trim. Hope you are all having good days back on land!!!
Osc
PS, opened a new weeks food box yesterday, and have eaten all my Oreo’s for the week again!!!
BLOG MONDAY NIGHT
Hello All and apologies for not writing for a few days, I guess the truth is that I didn’t want to make it sound like I was spending all my time fixing things as that seemed unprofessional and I didn’t want to whine about broken bits and pieces. However, in truth I am out here on a small boat, that I did a lot of work to last winter, but in retrospect I did too much in some areas and not enough in others and that has meant I have had lots of annoying and sometimes scary things to work out.
I have been keeping myself focused and working on my problems and am happy to report that (at least for now!!) I am on top of things and I think we are doing better on the race course as well. I got pretty pissed off with things over the weekend. I had played the low aggressively by getting north only to see it fly by so far south that I only had 20 hours of breeze and only half of that was really windy, the good news is that it was all from astern, it topped out at 40 knots and I had just the main with 2 reefs in it. However, that started the comeback on the race course and after some lighter winds today I am in good shape.
Gear wise I was sailing along nicely with the A5 chute up in about 20 knots of breeze over the weekend and for some reason (which must have been operator error) the tack line jammer came open and I ended up with the chute filed 30 feet to leeward, and my lovely little “King of Shaves” was laid over flat in the middle of the ocean with water only feet away from the open hatch. I didn’t have the washboard in…..I dived to leeward and fired the sheet, which half improved things and half made them worse, I had to get up front and fight the chute down which thankfully I was able to do after a big bear away. Not sure if I kicked the jammer open or what, but that had the potential to be a major disaster. The kite did get ripped (about a 4 foot tear) so I had to lay that out all over the floor and glue it back together, (now done - and thanks to Gerry at Sailcare in Cowes for my sail repair kit) . I also had a 3 foot split in the mainsail at the leech under the 3 reefing point that appeared after the big blow, so I had to drop the main and fix that as well, most of my sticky kevlar repair tape is gone…(but it lasted longer than my oreo’s!! Ha ha ha!)
The biggie however was my batteries, well my newly installed smart charger to be accurate. We fitted a smart charger in the spring which puts higher voltage into the batteries when you first start the charging process, and allows a full charge to be achieved in about 45 minutes. To go with this was an updated monitor, which gave more read out on electrical usage and battery status. It was always odd that despite the new system the batteries never got to 100% charge but the electricians told us this was because the monitor wasn't calibrated. Needles to say we should have dug deeper, as on Saturday morning the charging system failed completely. In the end I wired the alternator straight to the battery, and cut out the relays, and that fixed it, but not without a lot of anguish over about 6 hours. No battery charging = no race. No race = unhappy Osc!!!! It turns out you need bigger relays to handle the higher charge rate, shame we weren't told that before we set out across the Atlantic!
The AIS system also went down and that took 8 hours of tracking down till a loose connection was found. The failure of the AIS took down the chart plotter, as the chart plotter had been running off the AIS' internal GPS since the sea talk error on the instruments earlier this week took out its primary source of GPS data.
Damn I was tired after all that and emotionally poooppped and need a bit of time to get my act back together. It was then that the low blew past me and it wasn’t until I gybed and effectively turned left off the corner of Newfoundland that my spirits started to rise again. I have to also say that I rode the biggest wave ever (for me!) over the night of the big low, in the trough of the wave I was pointing up at 45 degrees to point at the top of the wave going away from me. I hand steered that bit, FREEEZING and daunting rather than out and out scary, but FAST!!!!!!!!!! Oh OK it was scary too....
I don’t know how I am going to feel about all of this when I finish. The waves are indescribable to a sailor who hasn’t been out here. All the pic’s of the waves, all of the words aren’t enough to describe the feeling of being on such a monster wave, on your own in a little boat surfing at 20 knots +.
Saw a BIG whale, 50 dolphins in a pod (with babies!) and had a close run thing with a fishing boat that kindly steered around my transom by 400 yards. Race wise I am in this race and planning in pushing really hard for the next few days. I think I am back leading my class but want to get closer to Hannah and Jerry. Mind you it seems like the faster boats just can’t drop the Sigma’s. What is all that about? I knew they rated low but they are also damn close behind. Well sailed Will and Marco!
Thanks for reading this long blog and for ALL your emails which have been great to read. I appreciate them all. Oh, and I found that diesel smell at last…on the collar of my oily jacket. NO WONDER I COULD NEVER GET AWAY FROM IT!!!
Over and out for Monday. Wind now 14 knots SW and I am doing 6.7 through the water but 8.3 over the ground so must be a nice current with me as well. Steering 270 and position at midnight GMT Monday was N 44 43.687 W 51 88.994
BLOG Friday
BOB BOB BOB. Nope, this isn’t a reprise of the Black Adder sketch about a woman called BOB this is my position in the North Atlantic, King Of Shaves and I are BOB BOB BOBING about…!
No wind, a long night and no wind and according to the GRIB files a while before we do get wind. I don’t know if the GRIB is accurate enough to but it says that 50 miles south there is an easterly and 50 miles north there is a northerly and I am hoping that the latter comes to me and I can trickle off into the distance!! Had a bad night according to the skeds though, Barry Hurley is now very close to me east / west although I am still north of everyone and surely (surely!) that’s got to pay when this low comes over in 36 hours time. The forecast for after the low looks good right now for me as well so I am just enjoying this BOBING and waiting for it all to kick off this weekend.
Anthony is still on a go slow and will only steer to course but otherwise in good shape. Now got the A5 chute up and doing 4 knots in 6 of Northerly breeze, doubt it will last long but will make the most of it while I have it. Going to have another yellow wire tracking session to see if I can find Anthony’s problem.
Over and out for now
Osc
BLOG Thursday
A very difficult day on the water for King of Shaves. I am sorry to report that at 0830 we lost all our instruments and for 30 minutes we were strugling to go anywhere at all. I used the wheel lock and tried to balance the sails so that we could sail on but it was at reduced speed. About 30 mniutes before hand the speed display had been flashing on and off and in the end the whole system shut down. I have had the boat apart as the dispaly said "seatalk network error" and according to Raymarine this is likely to be a loose connection or a broken wire, frankly no surprise after the pounding of the race, so I have been tracing the yellow wire all over the boat. I have various spares for Anthony but they aren't any good till I find the broken bit!!!
Finding that out here though has so far proved impossible I have hard wired Anthony into the course computer so I can now get him to steer a course so we are half back up and running but we can't steer to wind angle which is a performance loss. I know others out here are in the same state and I am still hoping to track it down. That has taken up most of my day and I had all sorts of mess while I did it, wires everywhere!!
Turned out the GRIB files were better than I was suggesting yesterday as the breeze did indeed die away as it was supposed to so we had a light air night. We are now properly into the NW that I was hoping for and having lost a bit of ground need to work hard in what looks like very shifty stuff for 36 hours before a BIG low hits us on Sunday. I am going to go north and try to get over the top of it. To do so I will need to be at 46 north (no further south) but the ice is as 45 north....hmmmm...!! The alternative is to stay south and sail upwind in 40 knots of breeze...hmmmm! Choices choices...
My way point in the chart plotter is Flemish Cap at 47N 45W, I wont go quite that far up but its going to get colder and windier and foggy. After that its 200 miles to the Grand Banks and the ocean part of this race will be over. Amazing...really amazing.....
Blog Wedensday
The highs and lows of a day on the water and doing housework!
I had a great night Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, the wind was doing what I thought so I had sailed with the little A5 spinnaker all night and just took the header as I got it. This allowed me to keep speed on as the wind dropped and bought me down south a bit which I was happy to do. I’d like to get hooked into the leading pack so that was all fine.
About 7am Wednesday the wind finally dropped away so I went to the jib and had a few hours of cleaning and tidying and felt the boat was sorted. That included filling the fuel tank fro my spare jerry cans while it was light and of course I spilt some diesel and then had an overwhelming smell of the stuff and no matter how hard I cleaned I couldn’t find the last of it, so had that all day…yukkk. I hate diesel!!!
I was then in the hole that had to be sailed through and that was a hard few hours as I couldn’t maintain any speed in the sloppy waves other than to sail at 90 degrees to the finish line, not what I wanted and it was odd to be parked, barely making any forward way after so many days of flying along straight at the US coast. I then had a bit of a period of looking at the chart plotter which is always a mistake. Best to sail in the bit of ocean you are on and not to look to far away….everything looks close when you get the scaling right, but when you look at the numbers its still 2 Fastnet races away….
Anyway, I managed to wriggle out of the hole about 1130 am and then we were back onto port and heeling over at 45 degrees, so life at an angle began again. I took in a reef mid afternoon (I wish I had a kept a better record of reefs in and out!) as the breeze built and am now sailing 260 degrees at 7 knots just cracked off for speed. Jib and a reef and the number 4 on the way if this breeze holds, which it isn’t meant to do but anyway, grib files 5 knots under forecast, that’s not new news!
Cheers,
Osc
BLOG Tuesday 4pm
Jib top and one reef in the main. 17 knots of true wind speed, steering a bit futher south (254 degrees) and position at 1600 hours was N47 51.751 W35 15.908. Overcast but waves have died down so a comfortable and fast sail. I will take the last reef out now. Still wearing my dry suit which REALLY needs a rest...!
Had a few issues during the day but all sorted now although at one point I managed to eat a whole packet of Oreos biscuits in 5 minutes as a "stress relief measure". I think that might be a record.....! The bad news is that I have eaten a lot (yes most, alright nearly ALL!!) of this weeks food box treats......bum! Will drop a little south over the next 24 hours. Going fast and enjoyng the race.
Over and out till tomorrow. Osc
SHORE NOTE TUESDAY. For those of you who dont have access to the race tracker, Oscar is now 5th on the water after a brilliant 36 hours when he had his spinnaker up for a long time and was flying along. He then had a good 12 hours with the reaching jib up and has overtaken a lot of boats. Right now he's level with Katie Miller and Hannah White (who are in faster boats) and isn't far behind the group fighting for 2nd. He's winning his class by about 40 miles.
Weather wise, today will be a slowly dropping wind, by tomorrow the fleet will have very little wind and there will be some place changes while they get through that area of light winds. After that it looks like a load of wind from the south west on Sunday.
BLOG Tuesday 8am
Tuesday morning and this is "King of Shaves" reporting. It is still windy, still wavy, still wet and we are still flying along...... I have been in throttle back mode all night as I had had a great 36 hour run and with the wind on the beam and the waves pretty massive I wanted to give Anthony a break and make sure that I didn’t blow it all up and spin out on a corner after having got myself right up there in the race. It was always going to be that I lost ground while we were beating at the start, would make some up while we were reaching (if that ever came along which thankfully it did in a BIG way!) and, then, assuming we are in the race at the Grand Banks, then the results will be decided on the 800 miles down the coast. I got the positions from 8am and I am really happy with my position, I am further west than all but 4 bigger boats so that can't be bad. I may be a bit too far north but right now you can only sail where the waves allow and this is the angle I need to sail. Flying along though, still surfing at 14 knots regularly even with only a double reefed main up.
I spent a lot of time down below overnight, was up and down to check sail plan / wind and waves but I had a good night with the boat, I have sailed her enough to know a bit about what she is telling me and I have an agreement with Anthony about how hard he can be pushed and when it’s too much he lets me know and I re-balance the boat to take some strain off him. So far so good on all those fronts.
I will put the number 4 back up now and as the breeze is supposed to drop I will increase sail all day it seems. Mind you, the GRIB weather files are ALWAYS 5 to 8 knots under reading so maybe not!!! Nobody said anythung about 45 knots on the first night!!!!!!!!!!!
Breakfast of oats and fruit today, so off to eat some yummy food…it’s funny how out here very plain food tastes awesome. Mind you the view is spectacular…………… Cheers, Osc
BLOG Monday 1700 hours
Very brief mail today as wet wild and windy. Decided that discretion was the better part of valour and after yestrdays big run with teh chute up I ended up with just the main up in 40 knots of breeze and am sailing a course that is best suited to the wave angle just to keep it all sane. Biggest waves I have ever sailed in by a LONG WAY!!
Saw 2 ships which came up on AIS, saw a WHALE (I thought it was a dolphin but that was one damn big dolphin!!!) and just want to say that the water colour out here is amazing. Phosperesence all night, dark blue water and then when the boat slpits a wave in two and we hoon down a wave you get the same iceberg blue colour that is on Mum's Bombay Saphire gin bottles...!
Taking it easy tonight and will be ready for when the wind lightens tomorrow sometime.
Cheers
OSC
BLOG Monday 0700 hours
Its freezing out here, I am wearing my full Musto drysuit, loads of thermals and I have the hatches shut to keep the waves out and the warmth in. still windy though, I had just over 30 knots in the night and am sailing with a reef and the jib top doing 10 to 12 knots all the time and making great long surfs at up to 21 knots on the waves. I have never sailed in this sort of condition before and it’s half scary and half exciting. Slowly getting used to it but this seems like a very small world on a J105. I am bit more apprehensive for some reason so trying to stay positive and focused.. A fair bit of water in the boat and no chance of sleeping, you can rest but there is no deep sleep. My main sat phone got soaked last night so that has given up the battle and I am now using my spare but with my old sim card.. Battered and bruised from being thrown all over the boat. Anthony the Autopilot is struggling but has managed to cope so far. Using a quicker response level in these conditions so using more power but need to in order not to get knocked around too much by the waves. Still absolutely hoooooning along......
Position at 0700 hours Monday N49 15 180 W 29 30 439 Steering 255 (ish) at 14 knots.
Osc
BLOG Sunday 2000 hours
Very tired after a long 24 hours of really pushing the boat and myself but I am at 26 degrees west at just before 8pm so very happy with that and I think I will have taken some ground out of people today. Last year we had some great reaching legs in this boat in the Royal Southampton YC’s 2-handed series so I am hoping we have had the same sort of performance in the last 24 hours.
I carried the A5 chute till 4pm but at that point I got tired of fighting the boat and the waves and although it was fast I decided to throttle back and get organised for the night. It’s supposed to blow hard and head a bit so I am planning for 24 hours of good napping and letting the boat do its stuff while we get ready for the next light patch which will be demanding on time and energy. My position is N49 44.537 W26 07.928. Speed is getting up to the early teens even with the jib top up instead of the chute, course 265.
Thanks for your support all, (including Mark and Viv from HKG whose emails came through this evening) Bet its warmer there than here……!
(Editors note: This position puts Oscar first in his class on the water (just ahead of “Vijaya” who is a long way south of King Of Shaves) and about 40 to 50 miles behind the bunch fighting for 2ND on the water so a GREAT position!!!) We haven’t told him that yet though as there is a long way to go.
BLOG at 1200 Sunday
TRUCKING!!! Mid morning Sunday, short message as flying along and need to stay focused on the boat but I managed 19.5 knots down a HUGE wave and I am ahead of Anthony who only managed 17.5! Slow in the Jenson Button world but out here it feels like flat out on the straight at Silverstone. Whoever invented upwind sailing???? Another 24 hours of this I think but will take spinnaker down tonight for a rest overnight as breeze is getting up. Position at noon N49 43.012 W24 15.186. Had one long 4 minute surf on a big wave…..magical!
Osc
BLOG at 0700 Sunday
Hello All
Sunday morning and I think a good night. I changed down to smaller kite at dusk, and ran that all night. Now mid morning and I am still under A5 spinnaker waiting for the wind to either get up or back, which will be a signal to go to the jib top. Had a great night though, it didn’t get dark until 11.45 last night, I had my night vision tuned in so it may have been dusky before that, but as the sun was up again at 4am we had a short night. I hand steered a lot and didn’t get much sleep but I really think I need to push hard here as this is when my boat has an edge (after 4 days of horrible J105 upwind weather!!) so I am going to push hard. The wind will come forward and get windier if we can get far enough west quick enough, or it will drop us off the back and it will go lighter and aft. Either way I can catch up with sleep then. Feeling good, boat reasonably clean and tidy but a few things that I will have to do during the day today, nothing serious so far thankfully. At 0700 I was at N49 49.938 W23 02.398, steering 285 at 8 to 12 knots, had one surf last night at 14 knots down a long Atlantic wave.....yeeee haaaa!
Cheers,
Osc
BLOG AT 1700 Saturday
A short blog tonight. Its been a quiet day so not a lot to report. It has been a good day though. Had the A5 chute up for a while this morning and then peeled to the A2 and went a bit lower. Just trying to get west, I think the wind is going to mean it makes no real difference north or south. Have been moving along nicely all day in light air and I think we will have sailed to our rating today. Forecast is for a load more breeze so I will go back to the A5 before night falls, hold that all night, even if I have to bear off if it gets windy overnight, and then it looks like the jib top all day Sunday, so another change as the breeze comes up tomorrow morning. Thanks for all your messages of support, sorry my tracker isn’t working, I am still going (!!!!) and am at N49 40 522, W20 18.296 at 1700 hours sailing 268 and doing 6.3 knots in about 8 of wind.
Cheers Osc
BLOG at 0900 Saturday
Morning All
I had a good night and have had an adventurous morning. I won the race to be the first to fly a chute in this race by flying mine off the start line and I may be 2 to fly a chute as well as I put my little flat A5 up at first light and am now using it as close to the wind as I can, almost as a Code Zero.
Things got better last night not long after I posted my blog as I had a live interview with Robin Knox Jonhson on his H2O radio show (Editors Note ; the link to Radio Solent’s
“I player” is going to be put on the website) and I enjoyed talking to them so that cheered me up after a crappy day. I got up and down all night to work the boat through the front and into the new wind, I had a fair bit of NW breeze just after the shift so was down to the 4 and a reef for a while but it has since been dropping all night.
My adventures started at about 0200 when I went to go to unfurl the jib and the checkstays we had fitted just before the start as a precaution against excessive mast pumping had blown out to leeward and become entangled with the top drum on the furling gear of the jib. I was only able to get 2 rolls out, and deciding that climbing the mast in the dark was a bad idea, I went back to the jib top (high clew reacher) and used that till first light, when I made a mast climb using my nifty mountaineering gear. I had my helmet on as well so decent protection. Up and down pretty quick, jib out and back on my way.
The wind has been veering all night and as soon as I was able to, I hoisted my A5. Not long afterwards I got an AIS bleep for a craft doing 3.1 knots in my direction so that must be a competitor. I don’t have a VHF aerial at the top of the mast otherwise I might be able to hail them. Anyway, somebody out there to sail past….! I don’t have up to date competitor positions so I hope it’s a fast boat and I am somewhere in it….!
All good again this morning. Does that mean that I will have a crappy day like yesterday after a good start? I hope not. Light winds and a sunny morning. Here’s to a good day on the water.
Cheers
Osc
SHORE NOTE Oscar will try and reboot his tracker again this morning and his position at 0700 was North 49 36 West18 65 so very close to Olbia / Tamarind and De Franchman.
BLOG at 1800 hours Friday
What a rotten day, I came into today feeling good and thinking I was sailing well, I had a tactical plan and I was happy with my position. By the end of the day my tactical plan was on the floor covered in a pile of smelly stuff, the inside of the boat was covered in a smelly diesel smell and I was feeling sick and very deflated. I reckon I lost 35 miles in 18 hours. Not sure what happened really, I went to nap this morning figuring I would steer about 170 all day, getting up to increase sail as the wind dropped and came aft, but "Anthony" sailed 145 for 4 hours and I didn't notice (a rookie error as I should have noticed that the wind wasn't feeing up as it should have been doing if I was sailing the right course) I didnt oversleep, I just didnt get my brain working well enough. I still don't know why Anthony sailed the wrong course. I am sure I put the right number onto the dial but I ended up north of where I wanted to be. I have spent some time checking the GPS log with Anthonys numbers and there is an error in there somewhere so I am compensating for that now and trying to work out a reason and solution.
I am now hoping I can get the shift into the new NW beeze right (I am on starboard already) and get back some of my lost ground. Not happy with the day and not happy with my race performance in the last 12 hours. Ggggrrrrrrr, will try and get my head together and move forward as there is still a LONG way to go. So much for surviving the first 3 days, what about Day4???
Osc
BLOG at 0800 Friday
Morning All,
I am INTO THIS now! I survived “the first 3 days” and this morning I am ready for the rest of the race. I don’t want to tempt fate with regards to gear etc but mentally and physically I am in good shape and enjoying this. I had a nice dinner of bagel and cheese which I toasted in my frying pan and it tasted good. I kept it all down and the boat is tidy. I still have breeze, slowly dropping but high teens. I am going to put the new North Sails jib top up for the first time and that should start to be a wind angle that suits my lovely little boat well. It’s amazing to be out here in a small little boat but “Juneau – King Of Shaves” has been a great little ship from the first day I sailed her 18 months ago, and I really like her. Shame she’s quite so wet but hey ho….
I am going to shave today, first time since the start so I will use my sponsors handy products and may try to video that if I can. My toothbrush is in the bilges and I cant find my spare, options are to wash the one I have (very well!!!) or make a new one out of a little scrubbing brush I have….hmmm! Still in dry suit but hoping to have a change of clothes later today if the wind finally drops off. I bought 3 sets of gear, oiles for the first half, a dry suit for the windy bits and I have a vacuum packed spare set of oiles for the last week when it’s going to be freezing cold fog. Mary Falk gave me that tip so thanks Mary.
I have come up a bit to the north, maybe too far? My position at 0600 is 49 40.453 North and 016 11.711 West. I am not sure where that puts me in the fleet but I don’t think I have sailed badly so far so will take whatever I have and go on from here. After 4 days of beating in 20 to 30 knots in a J105 I am pleased to still be going and if I am somewhere in the fleet that will be great. If we get the downwind stuff that the weather files show I will for sure be quicker than my rating.
I have a live interview with Robin K J the H20 show on Radio Solent tonight, if you can listen in that would be good. I think you can get it on the internet if you are a Hong Kong follower, or on the “Iplayer” (replay) option the site has.
Over and out for this morning.
Osc
BLOG at 2000 hours Thursday
Well that’s another day in the North Atlantic, still good breeze but no longer that windy. I have started drinking well, (water!) and am going to hit the kitchen after this and make myself a pizza, Won’t be that fancy, but it will have cheese and it will have tomato paste so I will call it a pizza!!!
First, I was really really sad to hear that Paul Brant has had to retire. I wouldn’t have had sat phones and laptops working without Pauls assistance, and he is one the Petite Bateau guys who have made it possible for loads of us to be on the start line, he was the busiest guy in Plymouth before the start helping us all and I am sorry he won’t be in Newport. I owe you one Paul.
I am sailing a bit blind as I cant really download too much data, I am sailing as fast as I can on about 270. I know my tracker hasn’t been working but I rebooted that this evening, so I hope that now switches on. I know I am to leeward of the fleet which I am OK with, I wanted to be here. The next big test comes tomorrow when we run out of wind and in theory a northerly comes in, the trick will be to get into that new breeze as fast as possible, so I am planning on sleeping a lot tonight so I can work hard and be alert tomorrow for that. There seems to be a lot of rain on the leading edge so I am hoping to see that coming and use it to prepare, I am not sure if that is how it is out here though!!!??
The pin in the steering rack that gave way on my qualifier sail last year is bouncing around a bit and I had to spend 30 minutes today tightening all that but it seems fine now. Just load and over use I think. The autopilot has been on for 90% of the race so far and its getting some serious use.
Next up, a tidy up (it will be as clean as my bedroom Mum!!!) and then back to my wet bunk…… after a “pizza”
Just so you know, my position at 1700 hours was 50 36 North, 14 20 West
Osc
BLOG at 0800 hours Thursday
Hi, North Atlantic calling...! Thursday 0800 Day 3 starts, Jerry Freeman said the first 3 days were the hardest and I hope he’s right because this has been pretty hard on a J105. It’s been wet and bouncy but the boat has been great, holding up to the constant slamming and being easy to balance and push on. So far all is good with the LITTLE ship “King Of Shaves”. I hear that a blog posting from someone says that they have been out and bought an AZOR razor from King Of Shaves, after following my blogs, does that qualify me for an Open 60 deal yet Will coz I could really do with another 30 foot of boat out here….!!!
I am back to the number 4 and 2 reefs, its over 20 knots but I am being lifted slowly so am keeping “Anthony” on a wind angle of 40 degrees and this should slowly bring me up to the great circle route. The weather still has a northerly coming in so that’s where I am headed. No sun today, misty, overcast and just like the….well just like the North Atlantic. I am not sure that the founding fathers of this race chose the easy option for a race course but I am very glad that we have emails, laptops and phones because this would be ONE LONLEY place without any contact whatsoever, which is how those guy’s had it. Long day ahead of me, not sure what I have to do but feel like I should get on. Not eating much but feeling OK. All for now, Osc
BLOG at 2000 hours Wedensday.
Its about 20 knots out here now, it feels like its about 10 knots after the bashing we got yesterday! I have lost the VHF aerial off the top of the mast but other than that I haven't got any more issues to report. The boat is still pretty wet but I have had a good tidy up and am still bashing upwind on port. I am wearing my Musto dry suit ALL the time, its the only way to get any sense of being dry and sleeping. I had a good sleep as the wind dropped today and have probably been sailing with a bit too little sail area for the last couple of hours but I wanted to keep it all together and felt I needed a rest. I went up to the number 3 early afternoon but still have 2 reefs in and am going at a decent lick but could run some more mainsail area. This sail combo works well though and King Of Shaves is nicely balanced like this. I am sailing 302 degrees so lifted a bit and will hold onto port all night now. Still not got my sea legs, I am hungry so I eat, I eat so I throw up and then I am hungry....hmmm! Louise and Morty in Cowes will know I had a long sea-sickness session on the China Sea Race a few years ago but the good news is that it no longer knocks me out so here I am, still goimg and having a bit better time, still racing as well!!!
Off to take a reef out.
Osc
ON SHORE UPDATE.....1715 HOURS WEDNESDAY. We havent heard from Oscar after the early morning comtact but on the tracker hes pushing forwards. Hes lost some gound to Hannah White but is well positioned. The wind has lightened out where he is and he is getting liftted up towards the great circle route to Newport. The forecast says he wilhave a quieter night, then tomorrow the wind slowly increases but not too much and it goes aft as it does. Friday looks like a good windy day but with winds from the South East so Oscar should be nicely positioned for that. Thereafter there should be a shift with the wind going north which is why Oscar is making every effort to get positoined for that rather than worrrying about going west at this stage.
If we hear from him tonight we will update the site again.
Thanks
Team Oscar Mead
This is the weather chart as it stood at 0300 Wedesnday. Oscar is right where it says....GALE! (just to the SW of Ireland)
Blog updated at 0730 Wedesnday.
A WILD night out in the race course, less a race course for King Of Shaves, more a survival course. I was down to the Number 4 and no mainsail overnight (and still am as I send this) with winds topping out at 45 knots. Now down to early 30's. Completely O T T for my little boat. I am swimming in water down below and there is stuff everywhere. The cooker has jumped off its mounts and there is NO WAY I can stand up. I am only able to sit on the leeward bunk and wait for things to calm down. I spoke to home base and they said I had had a good night on the tracker till the 0400 position report at least but it was about 0300 that I took the mainsail down so we will have to see what my position is after that. There isn't any racing going on right now on my boat, I am just hanging on. The breeze is forecast to ligten all day today and we really need that to try and tidy up and get this show back on the road. I am still going forward but its not fast. I guess the big cruisey boats will be all over me in this but nothing to do but hang tough, again! I am going to try and sleep for an hour now and then get some more sal up, didnt sleep at all lasyt nigth as I was worried about being rolled in some pretty enourmous waves. We bought a "Gekko" helmet that the RNLI uses and I haven been wearing that all night to try and drown out some of the noise and it was briliant when I went on deck to reef as I was able to see past the spray. The decks are constantly awash...everything WET WET WET. All for now, Osc.
BLOG updated at 2000 hours GMT Tuesday.
Its been a slow 12 hours for King of Shaves, I was right in it at the close of play on day 1 but I can't point as high as the guys around me in the breeze and BIG waves, the tracker shows me losing height but if I pull the sails on to point higher my rather light weight boat just stops in the waves. I have to take this period of the race as my slow bit and just hang tough. If I try to point up I think I will lose more than I am doing by at least keeping my speed on.
I am in pretty decent shape. Jerry Freeman send out a note a while back that was entitled “The First 3 days” and it was all about surviving the first three days, drinking plenty of water, eating when you can and sleeping enough to keep your wits about you. I think I am just about in that state. I have eaten and I am drinking. Apart from the broken port side halyard winch I don’t have any broken gear but have made some mistakes in terms of sail handling. I managed to wrap the jib top furler line into the jib furling drum last night and that cost me an hours bouncing around on the foredeck and the physical tiredness that goes with that. When you hear an Open 60 sailor talk about being tired after a sail handling manoeuvre you can't imagine what it takes out of you till you’ve been out here in the ocean, on your own, trying to manhandle even a small situation in your favour. This is a small boat and I am pretty strong but its amazing how tired you get doing the basics. Eating isn’t easy at this angle and the boat is so light I can’t just bash forward. Inshore we have to play the mainsheet over ever wave and I can't do that out here so its shorten sail and hang on till the breeze is lighter and a bit freer.
Here’s looking forward to tomorrow….the forecast is lighter and freer so that will suit me better.
Good night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Osc
Update at 1300 hours Tuesday.... first satalitte call from the boat.
Oscar called in at 1230 today (Tuesday) and reported a pretty brutal first night. He had 35 knots of wind from the NW all night and has 4 to 5 metre seas crashing down the boat, he said his “shed” canopy was working well and when we spoke he was in sitting on the steps of the companionway behind the shed. The waves are from the WSW and with wind in the NW it’s a head sea that has only one way to go, straight over the deck.
He said he was very tired not having had much sleep overnight. He locked himself down below most of the night as there wasn’t much point in being on deck, 3 reefs and the number 4 all night and the hatch shut with the wash board in. In a pre-race prep session Mike Golding told Oscar he would have times like this in the race, but he may be lamenting the fact it was on his first night out! Oscar had a spell when his race track shows him sailing lower than the rest of the fleet, partly maybe because his boat is very light and doesn't go upwind that well, and maybe he had the set up wrong. He wasnt sure when I spoke with him but is now back on a heading of 245 degrees so back on track. He is planning on tacking in the next few hours as he gets headed. The wind is forecast to lighten a bit but it will be 24 hours before it calms down much and that will be only brief before they get another pasting on the other tack.
Only one “new” problem to report which is that the port side halyard winch has given up the ghost, shame as we had them serviced last winter but it seems like a catastrophic internal failure rather than just pawls going wrong. He can use it as a fairlead to lead ropes to the other winches but its days as a winch are over. It has the main halyard and first reef line on it, so quite heavily used.
The other issue is WETNESS! He says that the boat is already soaking down below. That isn’t really new news, we knew the main issue with being on the lowest freeboard boat in the fleet was going to be the amount of water down below. There isn’t a lot that we could have done about that and he is going to have a long and wet sail to Newport from here…………
More tomorrow.
UPDATED to Tuesday 27th at 1000 GMT
Dear All
Oscar did write a blog the morning of the trace but it was short and we didn’t get round to pasting on here before the start and as I (Dad!) am now sitting at home on Tuesday morning and Oscar is out there it seems a bit out of date to post his pre race thoughts. Suffice to say that he wasn’t too nervous, a bit giggly at times but in the last 2 hours quite impatient to get going. He had very little to do on the boat the morning of the start so we sent his sister up the mast and fitted some check stays to the mast (although a last minute addition in case it gets really wavy and the mast starts pumping we had the bits and pieces to set it up for ages, we just hadn’t done it!) and then he headed out early.
So an update of the start from my perspective (!)
It was an overcast day, light winds from the NW which meant a tight reach from the line to the western harbour entrance / exit. The easy way to do this was to start under jib and fetch quietly towards the corner. Oscar had rigged a kite, against my advice to go for the small and flat A5 he had put the BIG A2 spinnaker on deck, and of course he didn’t bother with the jib, he just went for the kite about 40 seconds before the gun. Although a bit late crossing the line he had said he wanted the publicity shots of using the chute without risking the penalty for being early across the line. The OSTAR runs a peculiar system for OCS penalties, 30 minutes for every one second you are over the line. As this penalty kicks in at the 10 minute warning signal you could have a 2.5 week penalty at the other end….NOT one to take on board, hence his reluctance to risk it I guess.
The reach was tighter than he had thought and the A2 was a handful but he held onto it and got lots of pics which I hope to be able to post on here soon.
As the corner of the harbour entrance approached the wind lightened and he sneaked round the breakwater a few yards ahead of one of this main competitors, Katie Miller, and soon ground down Irishman Barry Hurley who was still without a kite. That put him 3rd “regular” monohull behind Rob Craigie in his J122 and Pip Huley who was sailing really nicely to be second in her Lightwave 395.
We have grouped the fleet into sections for our purposes. The Tri’s…gone! The Open class yachts (40 footers and 35 footers) with water ballast etc which should blitz the rest, and the regular monohulls which is everything from JOD35’s (2 of) through Figaro’s (2 of) – both of which have water ballast - and then the J boats, Sigmas and other assorted "regular" monohulls. Oscars goal is to be well placed in the regular monohulls and to beat the other young guns out there. There are 4 under 25 year olds and Oscar would obviously like to win that battle. The rest are, Katie Miller on a Figaro 2 (who is one of Oscar best friends on the circuit as well), Hannah White on a Figaro 2 and Rob Cummings on a Tripp 40. They all give Oscar time on handicap. I will work out how much and post it sometime mid race.
Anyway back to the race course. After the breakwater the wind dropped to nothing for the leading pack and Oscar had to drop his chute and tack over to get into the filling westerly wind. This cost him a lot, and, as we headed back to shore in our RIB he was neck and neck with Katie and Jerry Freeman for 3rd on the water in the "regular monohulls".
Over night they have had 25 knots of north westerly breeze. I haven’t heard from Oscar yet but he’s going to file a blog at about 1230 GMT and call in so I will update this site thereafter. He's on starboard tack with the rest of the fleet heading into the channel doing 6.8 knots at 0400. Its been raining here in Cowes but not sure about where he is. The forecast is lighting winds which will go more westerly, then a building SW which will reach 25 to 30 knots overnight tonight. They will all be tacking at about 7pm tonight is the likely scenario before a long 2 days on port.
THANKS for all your emails! I have passed them all onto Oscar this morning and he will get them during his noon contact session. You can reach him direct on the boat by email at
I know he would love to get supportive emails from all.
Daily Blog of Friday 23 May 2009
Two days to go to the start of the OSTAR. Are you all getting bored with my count down? I am kind of tired starting my blog update with the count down but its how I live my life right now. Every day that clicks by is one less to finish some job that needs doing and is a day closer to the start.
There isn’t that much to do. I am going to get some shower curtains from the local store and make some more barriers for the spray to get past before it gets down below into my little boat. I can see this is going to be a wet 4 weeks (yes, I knew that already!) but as we get closer to the off the idea of nipping out and buying something, (anything !) to keep a little drier sounds like a good plan.
There is a bit of “cuddy envy” going on, on the dock. I built a small but solid spray hood which keeps me dry-ish from spray and rain and allows me some shelter from the wind. Others have built nothing and are going to tough it out. That sounds like hard work to me as we will have waves washing down the deck for days on end and one is bound to find its way down the hatch every time you open it unless you have a cuddy. At the other extreme, some boats have got HUGE (and I mean HUGE) canvas affairs that look like you could have a BBQ behind them but I wonder if they will survive the north Atlantic. If they do then I will have cuddy envy, but for now I am mid-fleet on this one. Happy with what I have got and happy to have something. Good luck to Barry on “Dinah” and Katie Miller on "Blu Qube" who have nothing…..
Other than that I had a quick trip back to Southampton. Yesterday’s plea for a loaner helicopter went unanswered so it was a train or a car. I managed to get a life off Katie who was also heading back to Southampton Uni for an exam, I should have gone by train!!! An hour out of Plymouth the clutch gave out on the hire car she had and we ended up with an 8 hour slog to dorm’s. I got in at 2am. Never mind. I finished my model boat for my Naval architecture course and have handed that in so all done.
Apart that, it is my customs form to get out of the UK that needs handing in and then the 3,000 miles to Newport Rhode Island. The wind forecast says we will have a quiet-ish (12 to 18 knots of breeze) for the first 24 hours after the start and then the wind will build slowly from the south south west so we will have about 3 days on port tack as the wind builds. After that its hard to be sure but we will either have a load of breeze on the wind on starboard or, if we can get north of the low that is coming in, we might have 24 hours of windy fetching before tacking on a north westerly shift and beating upwind on starboard. The first 24 hours is all I am thinking about at this point though…and the start which is inside Plymouth Sound itself so should be exciting. Apparently two boats had a port and starboard collision last race and both had to retire before they made it out of the breakwater so I will aiming to avoid that!!
Cheers
Osc
May 19th 2009
I HAVE A SPONSOR!!! It has been a long winter in a number of ways, making the start of this race was a MUCH bigger undertaking than I ever realized and one of the things I was doing last autumn was writing loads and loads of sponsor seeking letters. A few months ago I wrote an email to a guy called Will King who runs a company making razors and mens grooming products....
I had known of the brand for a few years as King Of Shaves sponsored Cowes Dinghy Week a few years ago and I sailed in the regatta in my 49er, anyway, to cut a long story short Will answered my email personally the next day, put me in touch with his "people" (just like in the moves but "Team" Oscar Mead is me (and my Dad!!) so people on my side were limited to 2! ) and within a few weeks we had a deal and my little boat now has King of Shaves logos on the bow and a MASSIVE "AZOR" logo on the mainsail. That's my first (of many!) sponsor plugs...."Azor" is King Of Shaves new new hybrid razor system, shave closer, longer for less...!!! And, I know that 50% of the population out there needs to shave every day so I am hoping you will go out and give Wills great products a try. I was sent some samples and I can honestly say they are GREAT! I am thinking that I might shave HALF my face for the 26 days of the OSTAR as a gimmick!!! YES / No???
I am going to add some more pics onto this site so please have a look there. Must go now as got to pack some warm gear! The Volovo round the world race has just left Boston (where we are headed) and the sailors are all complaining about it being cold. Now if they are saying its cold after sailing through the Southern Ocean it must be damn cold....and we have to sail the track they are but we are going to be going upwind, they are coming this way so that will be warmer than we are going to have it.....brrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Got my new MUSTO drysuit (who have been a good sponsor for me for technical clothing, and thanks to Gemma at Musto for making this happen before the start!) arriving tomorrow...I think its going to get a LOT of use!!!
I will also be updating this site everyday while I am on the race and will add a link to the tracker that all the boats in the race have so you can follow my progress. Start date is next Monday, time NOON!
PS..My sister has set up a facebook page for me as well so please go there if you are a facebook user. (OSTAR 2009 Team Oscar Mead)
Thursday 20 (somthing!!) of May!
I have lost track of the date, I know Monday is the 25th as that's start day but I have forgotten the date today and cant be bothered to work it out! 4 days to go, I know that!!!!!!!!!!
My head is swimming with last minute stuff. Main issue is trying to get Inmarsat to register my Sat Phone account properly. I have 2 sat phones, one is a rental from the US, the other is one that Mike Golding has very kindly lent me. I need the main one to be able to send text messages and that apparently requires a different registration to an email account...all brilliant technology of course but the paperwiork in it all is pretty intense. I think thats my main new learning in the last few days, the paper trail isn't short! Other than that I would like to thank everybody for thier words of encourangment. I have had loads of texts and emails, from Hong Kong supportes (Marty, Nick and Mo, Jamie Mc...all many thanks, and from Uk friends and family (Uncle Dave, my 2 grannies of course!!) and even from some UK Etchells sailors so thanks for everybody for your support. Also thanks to Will King at King of Shaves for his email this morning, and to Nick and Kate from the Brawn GP team (I sailed with them in thier J109 two years ago) for thier support.
I will be updating this as often as I can so please keep looking back here.
Weather today in Plymouth is beautiful, the forecast isnt as bad as it looked a few days ago although we might have some big breeze on Day 3. The forecast is pretty changeable at the moment though so I will keep you up to date on that as the weekend gets closer. The RWYC people are great, all very freindly and the competitors are mostly here now.
Back to work for me now, not sure how to fit in my last exam at Uni in Southampton tomorrow, anyone got a helicopter I could borrow????!!!!!
Cheers
Ocs
May 6th 2009
OK here we go, the days to the start countdown is now seriously scarily tight!!! How do we get everything done in the time left? How do you know what isn't done till you remeber it isnt done?
Dad and I seem to spend a lot of time reviewing and updating the job list, and when does it stop growing and start shrinking?? We had some input on the boat the other weeek from a singlehanded legend which was great (more about that soon I hope) and it was a super detailed review of the bits of the boat which look weak or might fail in a North Atlantic gale even if they are strong enough for the Fastnet but of course it made the job list longer....AGAIN!
This race is 5 Fastnets in one go....yikkesss! How do those Vendee sailors keep thier heads together when they set off and they have 33 THOUSAND miles in front of them?!!!?? OK I am rambling a bit here so will stop!!!
Before I do..... I have a sponsor now!!!!! I will be announcing the name and showing the logo'd boat within the next few days so stay tuned!!! During the race you can see a tracker position of all the boats which is updated every 6 hours and I will put that link on here and on my facebook page. I am not sure I can get it as a link on here but will try.
The better coverage I get for my sponsor the more money I get at the end of the race so please come back here often and if you need thier products please give them a whirl!!!! However, and this isnt sexist at all......it only applies to some of the population....it's a man thing......hint hint...!
Will update this site every few days as we count down to the start.
Oscar
April 22nd
Electronics and Visas 16/04/09
Unfortunately due to circumstances and several problems with the auto pilot, I have been unable to do the extra training miles that I wanted. We have done some training to test out the new sails etc, but its nothing like it should have been. I had to go and stand in the US embassay for a mornming as well while I applied for a visa which we have to get as we are entering US waters by boat. Yes I know that going by jet would be easier and wouldn't need a visa but this is more of a challenge!!
This weekend is the RIOW Solo (round the Isle Of Wight solo) organised by Petit Bateau, which is always a great event. It was my first ever solo race last year!!! We start from the JOG line off at 0600. Unfortunately the forecast looks like little breeze which is not so good for me, as I was again hoping for a stonker! I will keep you posted on the race and hope to have some decent pictures up soon.
ciao
osc
March 23rd 2009...update.....
I am sailing again! It wasnt a long sail last weekend but we hoisted all the sails and had a potter down to Portsmouth to see the Clipper Challenge boats (and so that my sister could see her boyfriend who is a skipper in the event!!!!) and everything worked OK. The new central seat arrangement is a bit floppy and I cant see it surviving a trans atlantic so that will need beefing up, but otherwise it was mostly OK.
I am now getting very nervous about the timeframe. We dont have a lot of time left and we have a fair bit to do. I need to focus on weather and routing, safety gear, clothing, spares and auto pilot and electronics. Not a short list but not insurmountable either.
I am still planning to head out over Easter and want to sail the first 4 days of the track into the Atlantic. I am going to sail 2 handed to Plymouth and then drop off my passenger and sail solo out down the race course. Should be a really good warm up (well I expect it will be damn cold but good race practise) as I am going to sail the OSTAR course as much as I can.
I still need a sponsor so if you know of anybody who wants some great coverage please let me know about them or them know about me! I dont need much money but I might be able to offer some good coverage to a sponsor who then might want to sponsor me for an Open 60 ! ha ha!!
All for now. working hard at University so cant stop!
Osc
February 24th 2009
OK, winter is over (ish!) and the boat is coming out of the shed as I write this. The team at GBR Yard in Cowes had hooked me up to the trailer at the end of last week so I assumed that was a sign to get out of the shed! I was almost done anyway and after a busy Sunday we are good to go! The boat isn't in bad shape now, we have a rigger fitting the inner forestay on Wedesnday and then the rig can go back up as well so we will be sailing in ten days I think.
This week I have a promo dinner for the OSTAR race with Trinity House (they lay and manage all of the buoys in British waters) and then on Friday my friend Katie Miller is having a launching and sponsor launch for her OSTAR campaign. She has a sponsor and I NEED ONE!!!! (yes I know, like lots of solo wannabees!!!)
On Saturday I am attending the Petite Bateau Solo Saiilng conference that Jerry Freeman and his team organise every year which should be awesome. Mike Golding and Sam Davies are apparently going to drop in and say hello and we have talks on sleep deprevation etc to look forward to. Thats it for today as I am back at Uni this week and have work to do that isnt OSTAR related.
Osc
105 Days to go and nearly Finished stage 1 of preperations(10th Feb 2009)
As I write this we are rapidly approaching the 100 days to go marker, just five days away! The good news is that the boat is in excellent shape and should be ready to sail again very soon, hopefully in two weeks or so would be amazing. The sails are all completed, the bucket seat is fitted and is very comfortable, the spray top is on and the windows should arrive in a matter of days, and most importantly, The bottom of the boat is Orange!!!!!
I see this as a mile stone , all dedicated single handed boats have orange keels and the bright orange square on their hull, and finally Juneau is no different. It looks great and when it is sanded and polished this weekend I hope it will be super smooth, I will let you know how that goes. The mast is also coming along nicely and I owe thanks to Mark Lamble (of the opposition) for helping there, he has leased between the riggers and has taken some weight off my shoulders. So all being well and if (Katie's boat is out of the way in the shed) we can get out and get back to the fun bit, Proper sailing.
All for now I will get back ASAP with some pictures,
osc
The Spray hood goes Fluro!! And the engine is back in (January 25 2009) –
…………….about 123 days to the START!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great progress this weekend, the spray hood is finished (structurally) and we are only waiting on the windows so we can finish it. We deliberated for some time as to what colour we should spray it, and in the end opted for a Fluro Orange which looks great. It’s very very Orange! I think you could see it miles away!
A slightly more scary moment this weekend, I watched a program called “The Scilly boys” on TV. They attempted to row from New York to the Isles of Scilly (which I sailed round in my 500 miles solo qualifier last year), however their boat was capsized in a storm, leaving all four men struggling for survival. Fortunately they survived, but it really got me thinking (and has altered my plans for some safety equipment!!!) and so I am again looking into safety courses and people’s past experiences. It was a real reminder that although 50% of the race is in the preparation, there are still big hurdles to overcome. Dealing with them fills me with a sense of excitement and anticipation, however I am still viewing this challenge as a race more than anything. I don’t want to be viewed as a novelty entry as a function of my age. If I am going to race across the Atlantic I plan to race and the objective is to do as well as I can. The race has apparently
been confirmed as an IRC race, (in the past its been first to finish in each class who is declared the winner) but I think the J105 will be a decent boat on IRC and of course that suits me!!!. I have some new sails coming (thanks Dad!!) and I will report on that later.
Engine out & spray hood on. (December 17th 08)
So, finally the engine is out of the boat and is lying in the workshop in multiple pieces being serviced, there are only one or two minor problems and a few parts to replace, but on the whole the engine looks to be in good condition. The spray roof in nearly finished and we should be able to stick it all together in the very near future, but obviously it can’t be attached until the engine is back in place. The bottom is finished, and is now ready for spraying first thing in the New Year. It looks as though the bottom will be white instead of grey, but that’s not a big deal. The rudder and keel will be orange to comply with safety regulations so that should add a bit of colour. The bucket seat arrives in Cowes on the 7 of Jan and so we should be able to get a good feel for the interior soon after that, and I will take some more photos as soon as it’s in.
All for now, speak again soon.
Progress! (November 20th 08)
Finally some visible progress! After much sanding and cleaning, and sanding again the boat is starting to look really good, the bottom is very smooth and should sort out our light wind speed problem. So next weekend we will be preparing for priming hopefully. The bottom will be painted in gun metal grey and then polished; the new Teflon antifouling is well known to be fast which bodes well.
Apart from that the mammoth job list is beginning to shorten as we split up the jobs into realistic targets, as with any rebuild there are setbacks, our first and only minor, is that the balsa core that surrounds the chain plates is slihtly damp, so chain plates out and some gentle heat to start the drying process. (Fortunately this is not structural) and so a quick epoxy injection and we will be back on track.
Hopfully i will get some more pictures up soon, all for now
Osc
I Hate Sanding (October 31st)
We are barely in to the refit of the boat and already I have remembered what I dislike about boat building, Sanding above your head!! Ah after a while your arms ach like crazy and its really frustrating,! However on a positive note, the bit that I have sanded looks really good which means there might not be to much extra sanding before priming and the final layers, however that is still a long way off. Also today the designs for the spray shield/ conservatory (as it is fondly described as) reached me and it looks really good, so we can start construction of that right away. Speak soon, have to go and do some maths revision, (big test coming up)
Osc
Juneau in the shed at GBR yard Cowes, work on the bottom has already begun.
Juneau Hits the Shed!
Last week the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place and the boat began to fall apart, (so to speak) the crane arrived and the rig was removed from the boat, shortly after which the boat was lifted and carefully manoeuvred into the shed, where it will sit for the winter refit. Now shrouded in polythene like an old AC boat we are steadily working on the bottom. The rudder has been removed so that the stock and bearing arrangement can be properly surveyed (and so I can see how it all works). The spray top is currently being designed and will commence construction in the next few weeks hopefully. There has been so much stuff taken off the boat, I am struggling to know where to put it all, we are having to be rather ruthless, I am not a hoarder, but I find it hard to throw out an almanac even if the pages are stuck together because it got soaked, for now it is safe but we will see. There is allot of stuff stored at home, which is consequently sending my parents insane, but for now It will have to do. that’s all for now
Osc
