Twice we've had a boat break its rudder.  The first time was in the 1998 PacCup.  500 miles from San Francisco and about 1800 from Hawaii we were blasting along at about 11 knots.  It was howling with breeze in the mid 30's...like a very strong Santana.  I was below, trying to sleep when we hear a bang-bang and the boat spun out.  I ran up on deck and looked around.  We were out of control and the driver was waving the tiller around like it was a conductor's baton.  All he said to me is "it feels like it's gone."

We reduced sail and waited for first light.  When the sun rose I looked down and realized that something has sheared off the bottom 80% of our rudder and thought to my self, "race over".  It took us 3 days to limp home. 

The next time we lost a rudder on the deliver home from Hawaii in 2003. 

Races require that you have an emergency rudder capable of controlling the boat.  We lost our last emergency rudder when the whale hit us.  So rather than pay someone to make us one, I'm doing it myself.  It will be a cored carbon rudder...somewhat hi-tech...if it wasn't being built by a very un-technical person.

The process is actually quite simple:

1) Build the plug.  We built a platform that is 8' x 2'.  Onto that i have glued down 7' of 12 inch wide foam.  I will then shape this into the correct shape for 1/2 the rudder.  Once done I will cover it in clear packing tape and then wax that surface.

2) build the mold.  Onto the rudder plug I'll lay a bunch of layers of fiberglass with a 2" lip of glass all the way around.  Once that has cured, I'll pull the glass off and voila! we have a perfect copy of the rudder.

3) build the rudder.  I'll then wax the inside of the mold and lay the carbon laminates into the mold.  Once they have cured I'll then pull them out.  I'll need to make two pieces, a right and left side.

3) mating the pieces.  I'll fill each half with foam and then glue the two halves together making the rudder.  After that I'll lay a couple layers of fiberglass or carbon over the seam so that they don't get pulled apart and presto...we have a very solid, stable emergency rudder. 

All in all it will take me two weeks of evenings to do this, or about 40 hours.

So, we are now about 2 months from the start of another Pacific Cup.  It will be my fourth (1998, 2000, and 2006).  It will be my 6th Hawaii race.  Only this one feels so very different from any in the past.  Mostly, the crew is the same, but the real change is the boat.  For the first time in my life, we'll be on a brand new boat, designed for this race. 

For us, this is a big deal.  A Hawaii race is an interesting challenge, with a couple of critical pieces: boat, preparation, crew and conditions.  To win, everything must be in your favor. 

Certainly, there are 'horses for courses' when it comes to Hawaii races, meaning that certain types of boats are favored.  Becuase the vast majority of the race is sailed in the Tradwinds ( a clockwise rotaton of breeze around a high, located in the middle of the Eastern Pacific, that takes you from the mainland to Hawaii).  The conditions favor light boats with lots of sail area and a long waterline (the amount of the boat in the water).  This boat has a longer waterline, lots more sailarea and is much lighter than the average 40 foot sailboat. 

Becuase the boat is new the challenges of preparation are very different.  It's all about getting all of the equipment necessary aboard.  Becuase the boat is new there is little to repair, but much to add.  This means that we are spending great amounts of time getting things aboard and working correctly.

We know our crew well and have sailed with them for quiet a while.  We have two new additions from the 2006 crew: Jim Antrim (www.antrimdesign.com) and my son Richard.  Jim is a great sailor and a pleasure to have aboard.  Certainly, if something goes wrong, it will be nice to have the designer/engineer aboard.  This will be Richard's first crossing.  Suffice to say both my father and I are really excited that he will join us.  Equally, I'm not sure my mother and wife share the same complete enthusiasm for the experience.  I'm sure the reality will fall somewhere in between.  However, imagine how much fun it will be for him to sail across the Pacific at 13!

I hope to update this as we get closer to the date and then on a daily basis as we race across.

Fair winds and following seas.