Reprint from Sailing Anarchy. Written By Seth Radow, Owner of Bull and Glama that I worked with for four years and had some absolutely amazing experiences including three Trans-Pacific Races and Four Hawaii to Los Angeles Deliveries. That is a total of a 16000 hair raising Pacific Ocean miles on a 40 foot sailboat!
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/fringe/2002/bull_summer.htm
Well Scot... another summer and a lot of dollars to be spent on another Pacific Ocean crossing.
Bull Racing has been out of commission most of the year. The boat made it back to MdR from Hawaii in November 2001 after having spent the summer racing the boat in Hawaii. Some of the best and most consistent ocean sailing on the planet is in Hawaii. Pity it's not like that ev
erywhere.
Having changed firms earlier this year, my business life has been keeping me off the water and I have not had much time to get the boat and the crew anywhere near the water this year. I have been pulling 90-hour weeks since February. If it were not for my wife throwing me out of the house and off to Hawaii this summer, I would probably still be in the office 15-16 hours a day. That having been said, we have been able to put together a few practices with the crew. It appears we may be a bit rusty. We will be getting to the water 2-3 days a week until we leave so we should be back up to speed in short order.
After Transpac and the summer's races, we learned that Bull could undoubtedly be faster. Fresh out of the box… any boat can be faster. We knew we had to redistribute some of the boat's internal components to get some weight out of the stern. We did that. We realized we had a few areas where we could take some weight out of the boat... a little here, a little there and before you know it, you have a bit over a hundred pounds of nothing. We knew we needed to reinforce a few areas. Those have been reinforced. We found a few leaks during the summer's races... those have been plugged. We had a few plumbing issues... those have been replumbed.
When you look at a boat, system by system, you can always find a way to improve those systems. On a big, or even a mid sized offshore yacht, there are a heap of systems. Detailed notes in the log from last summer's racing has given us a punch list of well over 100 items to address. It sounds like a lot, but in reality, there is nothing all that extraordinary... just a lot of little things (but they seem to cost a small fortune to correct). Let's be real... the boat goes well... very well. But the fact is that if one is competing against the likes of Pegasus and Zephyrus one needs to mind every single detail. Save a half a second a mile here and half a second a mile there and next thing you know you can pull nearly half a dozen seconds out of your hat. Am I really talking about saving SIX seconds a mile??? It is not improbable and certainly possible. Saving weight, redistributing weight, optimizing systems, improving the sail plan, working on the bottom... sure, you can get at least 6 seconds per mile. It cost a lot of money to pull all this off, but recall what I stated last year about race preparation before Transpac, that "80% of the race is won before you leave the dock". If I am right, then this should be money well spent.
Regarding the sail plan. I have no reason to mess with a very good thing. Halsey Lidgard is as good as anyone and in my mind, the best if the business. Dave Armitage, lead sail designer for Halsey Lidgard, is as good as they get... PERIOD. Andy Halsey, owner of the Halsey half of the loft, is the most honest and ethical guy in the business and he knows the business as well as or better than anyone. He knows cloth better than anyone… PERIOD. Andy is cofounder of the company. He is a true "Class Act".
Bull will sail with a predominantly CF and Carbon upwind inventory and asymmetric kites downwind. We will have no symmetric kites aboard... in fact, I haven't even made one for the boat. It is my experience that a full inventory of asymmetrics are faster that a symmetric inventory for downwind on all points of sail when using articulating spinnaker poles. We are doing a new main for the boat. We have a few thoughts to improve this sail over the previous one. We have been working with Cuben Fiber to improve the fabric for mid size racing applications, particularly for mainsails. We are taking the lead from Playstation in using a Cuben Fiber/ Carbon blend. This should prove to be a bit lighter and a bit stronger… though a bit less durable. We are making a few small changes to the shape too. We should see a bit more power with this new sail and it should save us some time on the racecourse. All other sails will remain the same. We've taken digital photos of every sail on the boat and they all look as good as new. The Cuben Fiber is truly a remarkable material.
Pacific Cup is a bit interesting in that Nor Cal PHRF does the ratings. They do things a bit differently than we do in So Cal. First, they rate boats for 18 knots of wind as opposed to 10 knots in So Cal. Secondly, if you limit headsail size to 125% you get a six second credit. In Pac Cup, you only use the headsails for the first day and maybe the second depending upon conditions. You get a six second credit on your rating for the entire 2000 miles though you really only need headsails for the first 200-400 miles. The whole thing makes very little sense to me. I believe it is a serious disadvantage for any region not to have random leg and off wind ratings for boats.
It is my understanding that very few boats take the big headsails for this race. This saves the 6 seconds and, depending upon inventory, a handful of weight and space. My thoughts for BULL... take the 6 second credit limiting the headsail to 125%, save the weight of the Light #1, Medium/Heavy #1 and the Jibtop leaving them ashore. I am betting for a first few hundred miles of 16-18+ knots of breeze. If we can get that, I will look like a genius for the Pacific Cup sail selection. I guessed right last year (the crew wanted to leave the light #1 on the dock), bringing everything we own in Bull's sail inventory... we used every sail in the inventory at least once. Last year we shifted gears often… very often! In light shifty conditions, you have to be a quick and nimble… doing everything possible to gain an advantage.
Regarding the crew. Most of last year's Transpac winning crew was committed for the summer. This was my fault in starting on the program so late. Although the Transpac crew was busy, I have been able to pull together a strong crew from the rest of the Bull Racing Team. The team has enormous depth in terms of talent and experience. I suspect that this year's team will have more talent in some areas and less in others. The key for me, as skipper, is to put the crew together in such a manner that they remain performance driven for the full 2000 miles, that the crew can work synergistically. Remember, we are all amateur racers. To win, we have to sail like pros. The only way to do that is to have the crew create it's own synergy. They have to be able to sail better together than they can as individuals. The chemistry has to be just right. Having most of us as good friends that have sailed together for years, we definitely have a winning chemistry aboard. Now we have to keep that going for 2000 miles. There is no better feeling in this world to know that you and your friends put together a terrific effort and to know that each and every one aboard contributed to that effort. Winning a race like Transpac is big… and one man cannot do it alone. If any one man on the team did not pull his own weight and a bit extra… there is no way we could have won that race. Now we will have to do it again.
So here's the crew, some of So Cal's finest. Once again, we have a solid amateur crew with exceptional depth in driving and trim. The list follows:
We have Rick Valdes out of Costa Mesa who will be returning this year. He will take over duties at the front of the boat for Mark Van Gessel. He will also drive, offering tremendous talent and experience in that position and well as sail making experience. One thing I have learned... you have to be out of your mind to race offshore without a sailmaker aboard. Sure you can do it... but you cannot win. Doing a race like this without sail making skill is like doing an automobile race without an engine mechanic. You just don't do it.
Dave Clarke of Long Beach has been sailing with me for years and will be a lead trimmer and driver. Dave will pick up for Rick as Rick moves forward on the boat. Dave may be the nicest guy in So Cal sailing and without question, one of the best trimmers. Dave was in charge on entertainment on last Pacific Cup. He did such a good job of entertainment that half the crew forgot we were racing. Dave has been instructed to leave all entertainment at home for this race.
Beau Gayner out of La Jolla will also be a lead trimmer and driver. He will fill in for Vince Valdes. Vince has only recently joined the team late (very late)… I will comment later in the article. Beau has a cast iron stomach if the seas are rough... which is a valuable asset if some of the crew goes down to "mal de mare". Beau raced for USC on the college circuit years ago and brings enormous talent to the boat.
Tim Forderer, a friend of mine and long time sailing partner out of Venice Beach will be trimming, driving, crew chief and watch captain and really anything else he wants to do. Tim is a terrific well-rounded sailor who has really come into his own in big boat offshore sailing during the last few years. He has years of experience in smaller boats and raced on the Mid West College circuit during his college years. Tim has more Pacific Ocean crossings than I do since he's been bringing my boats home for a few years now. Tim will fill the hard to fill shoes of Lee Lewis, one of the best drivers in all of So Cal. Tim knows Bull as well as anyone. Tim has been running the Bull program this season and has been heading up all work on the boat. With Peter Franzen out of town, as the shipwright in charge of Brad Van Liew's Around Alone campaign, Tim has been trying to fill those very big shoes this season. He's been doing a solid job bringing in the right specialists when necessary. I am looking for Tim to fill a handful of shoes this year, including my own, as I have been overloaded at work. He is, has been and will continue to impress all of us on the Bull Racing Team. Tim recently passed his 6-Pack and is now a licensed Captain. A hearty congratulations from each of us for that accomplishment.
We had our Pitman drop out this morning... NOT GOOD (name need not be mentioned). He just had a baby and his wife is not too excited about the prospect of him being gone for a few weeks at sea. We were counting on him as a very solid driver too. We do have a list of backup people for the race and the crew will try to draw a consensus during the next few days.
Last year's Pitman, Joe Dervin is off to Australia and New Zealand with his wife. Off to the Southern Hemisphere with a beautiful lady or stuck as sea with a pack of filthy sailors… it's a tough call!!! Joe is still the best Pitman I have ever sailed with... very tough shoes to fill. The team has had a big loss here with the loss of the current pitman and with Joe being gone. I need to pull a rabbit out of the hat... one that can handle pit, trim and drive... and I need to do it in the next few days.
Regarding navigation... well you didn't like my selection last year and Steve Steiner proved to be "The Man". I would love to have him back again, but Steve is donating a heap of time and effort to Marina del Rey's Leukemia Cup, scheduled for this summer. He will be assisting Lee Lewis (a key driver during Bull's 2001 Transpac campaign). The Leukemia Cup will take both Steve and Lee. For a cause such as that, I don't mind giving them up (what am I saying... yes I do)... but they are both going to be very tough shoes for anyone to fill. These guys are terrific sailors and have a great attitude. You can't replace guys like this using conventional wisdom. (I am hoping that Tim will fill Lee's shoes... I suppose this is somewhat conventional.)
For the Navigator's role, I am using the "less conventional" wisdom. For this year's race, we are going to Hawaii for a Navigator. I figure if he really likes where he lives, misses his family and friends... maybe he'll be in a hurry to get home! Ev Flanders comes so highly recommended by so many people and I have been so impressed with his early work that I am absolutely thrilled to have him. Though I don't know Ev on a personal level, we have mutual friends that speak so highly of him that I am led to believe that he may walk on water. As I understand it, Ev may have more Pacific Ocean crossings than the rest of the crew combined. If he can point us in the right direction and I have every reason to believe that he can, I am confident that the rest of the crew can be very competitive this year.
The one wild card is the Pit position, which we are in the process of filling. This could be our "Achilles Heel".
Other than that, we have been following the weather for the last 4 weeks, at least 3 times a day. I have been routing 3 times a day. The rest of the crew has been following my lead. So long as everyone aboard takes the race seriously, we can and will be competitive. We are going to be exceptionally strict with the weight reduction program this year. Clothing, food and gear will be strictly limited. If every pound off the boat is a minute off the racecourse, then we will be watching every single pound. To compete with the best, you have to think like the best.
Can we win... sure. It's going to be a very tough race with some very tough boats. TP 52's, Pegasus, Zephyrus, Mari Cha III... the list goes on. It looks like we will be the scratch 40 footer, so the goal it to try to out sail the best of the SC 50's and 52's. Don't know that it's possible, but if we can do that then we will win. As I see it, we will have to benchmark ourselves against the larger, faster boats and shoot to beat them boat for boat. Now I know that these boats are faster than Bull, but if we can out hustle the bigger boats, we will have a shot. Trying to benchmark Pegasus and Zephyrus is impossible. They will be so fast on the water that they will be a blur.
The key is to get out of the Bay as quickly and efficiently as possible, crack off a bit and begin the sleigh ride to Hawaii. This race is not nearly as technical as Transpac in that you only have a day or so of upwind work as opposed to three days of upwind work. You have to win the race on the upwind leg but this leg is so short, you really don't have much room to work here. Remember, you win races on the upwind legs... tactics getting out of the bay and to the Farallons will be critical because the passing lanes close quickly as soon as the sleigh ride begins. In Transpac, if you are first in class and first overall by the end of day three, the fleet will have a tough time catching you. By the end of day three, the passing lanes get very narrow and don't open up again until the final approach to the Oahu (the decision as to whether to go north of south of the rhumb line). During Pac Cup, it's a different ball game. The accuracy (or should I say inaccuracy) of handicap ratings play a bigger role here as so much of the race is downwind. Nor Cal PHRF ratings are typically for buoy courses. This is an off wind race... so the ratings seem to be a bit out of whack from what we would expect to see in So Cal. Given that I am no fan of PHRF for races of this magnitude, a single rating system is the worst of all worlds. Granted Pac Cup uses their "formula" to determine the Pac Cup rating... but this is still pretty much nonsense and very much "Mickey Mouse". I would love to see what the ratings would look like under IMS and the new Americap II. Dan Nowlan has all that data. Maybe we can get it. Downwind oriented boats really do have a gift in Pac Cup, at least as I see it.
So... what do I think? Zephyrus and Pegasus will be incredibly tough to beat. Both of these boats will be sailing in Turbo trim... They will be wicked fast. Bull's sail designer, Dave Armitage has been sailing aboard Farr 40 OD, Barking Mad, and will be sailing aboard Zephyrus for this race. Dave is widely considered to be one of the best sail trimmers in the world. He was main trimmer on the NZ America's Cup team that won in SD. He was offered, but turned down the main trimmer spot on Alinghy. Pegasus and Zephyrus will have world-class crews for this race. Both boats can cover this course in under a week... If there is a good blow, I suspect that Zephyrus can cover this course in 5 days and Pegasus in 6. In optimal conditions, Bull can do it in less than 9 days.
I don't know the handicaps for these two boats, nor for the TP 52's, but this course is made for these boat (or really visa versa), and Bull is much better suited for the upwind work on the Transpac course. Bull is optimized for a course content of about 50:50 (upwind:downwind), maybe 40:60. The Sleds (52's, 70's and 80's) are about 20:80 (upwind:downwind). The more upwind work we get on a course, the better we can do. I am not trying to make excuses early, but I am certainly trying to be a realist. We race to win... and we will push the boat hard... very hard, but we have to know the limits of our potential. Bull is not a 40-foot sled. If the course, for some strange reason, turns into a longer than usual upwind slog at the beginning of the race, Pac Cup will be more competitive for Bull. On the other hand, if we dig deep and sail hard, if the wind is just right and the handicappers in Nor Cal did their stuff just right... then this, being "sailing"... anything can happen. Two in a row??? Now that would be nice!!! We were the underdogs going into last years race... we will be the underdogs going into this year's race. I much prefer to be the underdog than the favorite! The pressure is on our competition... not on Bull. That's just about how we like it!!!
5/30/02: Some late breaking news for the team. I sent a rough copy of this to the crew last night. Vince Valdes, trimmer and driver from last years Transpac winning effort has been able to shake free from his previous commitment and is available to race in Pacific Cup. Vince will fill the Pit position for Bull. Vince is the consummate journeyman. He can and did do it all for us last year. A strong trimmer and driver, Vince also offers very solid shipwright skills. Vince is so good and was so valuable to the Transpac effort last year that I would be out of my mind to leave him off the boat. Vince is an "A" team player. He was offered a spot on Bull from day one but back out gracefully. He was forced to decline due to other commitments. That he has been able to shake free is a huge plus for our effort this summer. His re-entry to the team has really pumped the team up. Losing a crewmate this late in the game can be demoralizing. Pulling an "A" team player out of the hat gets everyone right back in the game.
See you on the water!
Seth A. Radow
