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Arrived in Newport!
 26 May - Star Chaser has arrived in Newport after a great sail up from the Caribbean. That is, they had 2 fantastic sailing days blasting their way north followed by lots of motorsailing mixed with some good sailing under the screamer. Her crew was extremely excited to arrive after what for some was their first big offshore passage. Congratulations to all of the crew for a fantastic achievement!
Now that she is in Newport, Boogie and Marlies will be getting Star Chaser ready for the Newport Bermuda Race that will start June 18, before continuing on to the Azores.
Race ready!
14 June 2010 – Most of Star Chaser’s race crew for the Newport Bermuda Race have arrived in Newport for their training and the prepping of the boat for the race. Although the boat is race ready, they will be fine tuning lots of things to get the best out of her during this epic and famous race to this beautiful island in the middle of the Atlantic. Tuesday and Wednesday will be training days and in the evening and during the boat prep, there will be plenty of time to get to know each other. We have a few avid Star Chaser sailors on board, who are returning to race this epic event with us as well as some very good sailors who are new to the boat, but definitely not to (ocean) racing and sailing. To get to know them and read their blog, follow them here.
3, 2, 1 – go!
18 June 2010 - Star Chaser will start on the Newport Bermuda Race today.
Boogie, Marlies and the crew have worked hard this week to get the boat ready and to train as an ocean racing team in the waters around Newport. Lots of spinnaker work, sail changes, reefs and other crew practise has made them in to a proper ocean race crew. To get to follow their progress and read their blog, follow them here.
Great finish for Star Chaser in Newport Bermuda
Tuesday 23 June 2010 - Yesterday afternoon at about 17.34 EDT, Star Chaser finished the Newport Bermuda Race successfully.
For her entire crew this was their first race and the only one who had done the race before, was Star Chaser herself (under different names: ‘White Jacket’ and ‘Star’). She finished 7th in her class under IRC and 12th under ORR (an American offshore rating).
The crew was elated to have finished this epic race and as soon as we had the sails down and were motoring through the reefs, the celebration rum drinks found their way onto the deck to Star Chaser’s giddy crew. By the time they could tie up at the prestigious Royal Bermuda Yacht Club it was dark, but it didn’t keep the crew from celebrating their successful race at the very hospitable yacht club.
After tidying up the boat, the rest of the week will be filled with crew dinners, parties and doubtlessly some beach time for the crew.
In just over a week from now, Star Chaser will set of on her next trip, an Atlantic crossing to the Azores, and then onto Palma de Mallorca in the Mediterranean.
Sailing off into the sunrise
T hursday 1 July 2010 - Generally the expression is sailing off into the sunset, but Star Chaser sailed off into the sunrise this morning as they navigated their way out of the reefs, starting their Atlantic crossing to the Azores first and ultimately to Palma de Mallorca in the Mediterranean.
Her new crew arrived last weekend and have explored the island and helped out with the provisioning and preparation of the yacht for this challenging passage through the North Atlantic. Most boats will sail straight from the Caribbean to the Azores, so this is quite a unique trip for the crew to undertake. Star Chaser was in Bermuda following her successful finish in the Newport Bermuda Race.
To follow the crew adventures and Star Chaser’s progress, please go to www.starchasersailing.com/log.htm or click on the ‘Where are we’ link on the homepage
BLOG DURING THE RACE
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Tuesday 22 June – 21.15 boat time, 01.15 UTC (Wednesday)
Moored in the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club!
Finished!!!!
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We crossed the finish line at 17.35.24 EDT today!!!! Last 10 miles were in really light wind, but everybody gave their best and we did great!
No idea what position we finished in, but we all are very very happy and elated.
It took another 2 – 2.5 hours to get to the marina here, but we’re moored and ready to party!
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Tuesday 22 June – 13.45 boat time, 17.45 UTC
32.43N 64.50W – 25.5 nm to go (sailed 634) – Boat speed 8.7kn, Speed over ground 8.1kn
Racing hard
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With only 26nm to go to the finish and several boats in sight, we’ve been at the whole morning. Tweaking a bit extra here and there, bringing out the down f*(&er, play with crew weight, really focused helming. Getting every last little bit of speed out of this 23T lovely boat. And we’re slowly getting closer to the boats in front…but so are the ones behind us, so the pressure is on!
This doesn’t mean we are not still having fun on board! With the music going full wham the after guard has become a bit of a 70s disco! With the skipper getting on the pole….
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What can we say, it’s fun to be racing!
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Tuesday 22 June – 08.30 boat time, 12.30 UTC
33.16N 65.20W – 66 nm to go (sailed 592) – Boat speed 9.1kn, Speed over ground 8.0kn
Getting closer
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Less than 70nm to go! Important to stay focused now on helming and trim, easy to get distracted with thoughts of Bermuda, showers and Dark’n’ Stormy’s! No denying though that excitement on board is well up and crew is on their best behaviour!
A few boats we had seen earlier in the race on the radar and the horizon have reappeared last night – we went in different directions at some point in the last 36 hours, but are all converging again now. So much for our different strategies!
With all the excitement in the blogs about sailing, racing, trim and Chinese Dragons, we never got to mention we’re actually on a wildlife cruise as well! How cool is it to be offshore racing accompanied by pods of dolphins on several occasions and even whales greeting us twice, gracefully curving their backs above the water.
There is a bit of wildlife on the boat as well: our very sleek race crew!
As we never got to properly introduce them, a quick meet and greet:
Boogie (38, Dutch) – skipper, tactics and watch leader. Very experienced sailor and racer, infinitely patient, cool, enthusiastic and inspiring. Aka as our blue-eyed Dutchman
Fozzie (41, English) – watch leader, upwind / downwind trim. Experienced racer and mayhem maker (see Turtle story, could tell countless more but afraid they’d all involve politically incorrect content, best to find him in the bar after the race- not difficult, look for someone as loud as an American, using multiple expletives in an English accent. If it is crowded you might have to go by the sound only, as he is a tiny bit short, he’s got enough other features that make him stand out!) Regular crew on Star Chaser (Fastnet, Antigua Sailing Week, Heineken Regatta)
Agne (48, Norwegian) – helm, main trim. Experienced racer and under Fozzie’s bad influence becoming rather naughty. True Viking of the Oceans.
Susan (48, English) – cook and general mother to all crew. Fair amount of offshore (Transatlantic on Star Chaser) and famous for fantastic breakfasts.
Jacques (60, Canadian) – cook, grinder, helm. Omni skilled Transatlantic sailor and funny to boot! Keeping us watered and fed with Susan and then goes on and helms. Offshore experience on Star Chaser in Caribbean.
Andreanne (22, Canadian) – Foredeck. Tall ship sailor, adapting really well to the wet pointy end of the boat, chatty, even on the foredeck so occasionally gulping up some of the Atlantic.
Christina (32, American- but really half Mexican with the looks to prove it). Experienced foredecker, seems to revel in getting absolutely soaked up on the pointy end. Bonding with Fozzie because of being a tiny tad short as well.
Yves (57, Canadian) – Grinder, mast. Transatlantic sailor and future father in law of Fozzie if only Fozzie could have his wicked way with Yves’ daughter Andreanne. Offshore experience on Star Chaser in Caribbean.
Jim (31, English) – foredeck, mast, helm. Another Transatlantic sailor (on Star Chaser) and Cape Horn rounder. Wanting to go really fast as his wife is waiting for him in Bermuda.
Arthur (58, English, Bermudan born) – Helm, floater. Double Transatlantic sailor (Swan 51 as well). Another one wanting to go really fast as wife and son are waiting in Bermuda.
Alyce (44, American/English) – Helm, down wind trim. Experienced racer (also on other Swan 51s). Funny mixture of English and American behaviour.
Elizabeth (40, American) – upwind trim, floater, pit. Experienced racer. Former Star Chaser crew by proxy as both her brothers did Fastnet 09 on Star Chaser. Both she and Christina are from ‘the real sailing capital of the world’ (which they think is Annapolis, the Newporters think is Newport and all the English think is Cowes)
Marlies (40, Dutch) – navigator and floater on midnight sail changes, blogger. Experienced racer and offshore sailor. Regular crew on Star Chaser.
After a couple of days training in Newport we all gelled together really well and have now evolved into a sleek offshore racing team! Bring on the midnight headsail peels!
We are not only getting closer to the line, but also getting closer as a team! You gotta love ocean racing!
More as we progress…54nm to go now…
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Monday 21 June – 09.30 boat time, 13.30 UTC
35.16N 67.42W – 237 nm to go (421 sailed) – Boat speed 8.4kn, Speed over ground 6.6kn
Wet and windy night
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It must have been tempting the gods…not 3 hours after writing my navigator’s blog and saying we were doing reasonable well (while having almost 3 knots with us), Eddie got mad at us and we ended up with a bit of current against us (about 0.5 of a knot). Not something that should have been there according to the charts and the stream data, but as they say, you are your own best weather station and what you see is obviously true, no matter what the data say!
We changed course to hopefully get clear off it, but so far Lady Luck is eluding us and we’re now having 2 knots against us. Even the new data we just got in didn’t help! Guess it’s time to get those chicken bones out and to start rubbing them together!
Other than a slight current issue, life on board Star Chaser is good. We did some wicked sailing last night, easily getting up to nines and tens and ended up with yet another headsail change from No2 to No3, a reef and at midnight a second reef. Seas were getting a bit rough (getting out of the Gulfstream) and wind was picking up to a steady 24 knots true, gusting 27, 28, meaning low 30s apparent. It didn’t agree with everybody though and we had some very tired and wet bodies around as well as a couple of crew feeling a bit under the weather (literally this time!).
Things quietened down though in the early morning hours and we are sailing under a bright blue sky with a full main and No3 again, doing eights and nines and everybody has perked up again.
Our never tiring cooks are doing a wonderful job with keeping us fed and watered, thanks Jacques and Susan, you are amazing the pair of you!
Trucking along nicely on a Swan 51 in the Newport Bermuda Race, nice breeze, great sun and waiting for leftover Lasagne from last night in the middle of the Atlantic – got to admit, not a bad place to be!
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Sunday 20 June – 15.00 boat time, 19.00 UTC
37.25N 69.26W – 402 nm to go (287 sailed) – Boat speed 8.7kn, Speed over ground 11.3(!)kn
Fighting Chinese dragons - a navigator’s battle
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The Gulfstream is a powerful thing (and I am not referring to the private airplane here).
It’s a warm current that influences weather both in the States as well as Europe and comes up South to North from the Caribbean and Florida in a nice and relatively steady stream, then starts to go North East at about Cape Hatteras, before heading East to Europe.
If you ask me, Cape Hatteras is also where she starts to get capricious and wily!
My first look at all the information available, about 2 months ago, was overwhelming and had me questioning my sanity in agreeing with Boogie that I should do the navigation for this race (I am not allowed to drive in this race being labelled a professional sailor by the ISAF – whereas Ben Ainslie was until a short while ago the amateur – but that’s a whole different discussion).
Little did I know what I was getting myself into at the time.
Temperature charts with orange blobs and streams and funny offspring, composite charts, altimetry charts…there is a whole science out there dealing with this Gulf stream.
Had it only been a big body of warmer water moving faster than the surrounding colder water, you could have just identified it with the temperature charts, calculated a basic and simple course to steer, given the courses and waypoints to your watch leaders and gone back to sleep.
Unfortunately, it’s a little bit more complicated than that. And it’s all because of Eddie.
You might wonder what Eddie’s got to do with it – everything! He’s definitely one you want to be on the right side of, not the wrong side!
Probably makes you wonder now as well who this Eddie is…
How to explain…the Gulfstream is not a nice and tidy current anymore when it gets to Cape Hatteras. It starts meandering a bit to the North and the South rather than going in a well behaved curve to the right. Where the Gulfstream meanders a bit too much, you get a bubble, or a blob, or a spot, whatever you want to call it. When the two ends next to the Stream meet, the whole thing plops out of the stream and becomes an Eddie. Mostly leading to a warm circle with clockwise streams to the North of the Stream (a warm Eddie) and a (relatively) cold circle of current South of the Stream (a cold Eddie) going in an anti clockwise direction. As Eddie can be a powerful guy, with streams between 1 and 3 knots, you can imagine we do not want to get caught on the wrong side of Eddie, having a foul stream against us, slowing us down in arriving in Bermuda and drinking Dark and Stormy’s!
As Eddie and his friends are continuously on the move, we’ve been tracking them for the last few weeks to get a feel of where they are headed and where they will be by the time we get to meet them. And so we can be on their right side!
So far, we seem to have done reasonably well, although the wind is not really playing our game…
When you put the whole stream, meanders and Eddies on a chart in colours, she looks like a Chinese dragon, that I’m battling daily to stay on top of!
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Chinese Dragon
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Gotta run now, have to meet up with Eddie again !
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Sunday 20 June – 06.00 boat time, 12.00 UTC
38.07N 69.57W – 449 nm to go – Boat speed 0.11kn, Speed over ground 1.6kn
Wind
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Firstly, Happy Birthday to Janine from the whole crew!
Well what can we say. We’re drifting. No wind. 5kn true. Good thing we’re in the right spot so that at least we’re drifting in the general direction of Bermuda.
It wasn’t like this the whole night though!
After some more very good food, we eased into the night with steadily building winds. So much so, that at 2300 we went for a head sail change: No2 down and No3 up. Still doing high nines even with the No3 so all was good!
It wasn’t to last though. Just before the next watch change at 0400, the wind dropped, so we did the exercise in reverse, No3 down, No2 up. Team’s getting pretty good at it!
Angles not quite right though, so we even tried the Asym quickly but no good. Team’s getting pretty good at packing the spinnie as well!
We’re now back to full main and No2, with a lot of ‘flapflaptickkaboeng’ going on as the seas have become a bit more agitated.
Susan’s famous breakfasts are going down a treat; they are some sort of porridge, oats, yoghurt fruitie thing that even has me, the ‘you-gotta-have-been-raised-in-a-commonwealth-country-to-appreciate-porridge’ devotee, eating porridge now! Maybe we should start a Star Chaser ocean cooking book!
Foz is inimitable as always and entertaining both his own and the off watch with dire tales and outrageous statements. Just imagine the damage he can do as we have a cool father with his even cooler 22 year old daughter on board!
We’re slowly moving again, after having done a few involuntary 360s – no boat speed does that to you!
The ambiance on board remains great though, despite us going slow. All last night’s wet stuff is drying in the sun under a blue blue sky so how bad can it be?
Back with more later!
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Saturday 19 June – 12.00 boat time, 18.00 UTC
39.40N 70.40W – 565 nm to go – Boat speed 2.6kn, Speed over ground 3.3kn
Turtles!
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It has been a very interesting last 24 hours, with about everything that you could imagine (not quite everything you’d want though!).
After our great start, we had some really good sailing: on the wind, but not quite on the nose, doing good speeds (high nines) and generally having a fantastic time!
We had a little try out with the screamer (a loose luffed colourful and thin sail, that we can sail fairly high with) but quickly concluded it was not what we needed.
Food was what we needed! This sailing business makes hungry! Our first race meal was absolutely wonderful, a fantastic tomato pasta sauce that had been pre cooked before the start by Jacques with little bow tie pasta. Delicious!
Dessert was a witty and funny affair: we had Turtles!!! In honour of Fozzie!
Now before anybody gets all excited about Animal welfare and Greenpeace action, rest assured that no turtles were hurt in the making of this dessert, nor was Fozzie (well maybe mentally but he can take that).
But there is a funny story behind it. When Fozzie was in the ice cream shop, he got all upset as they were selling turtle cheesecake ice-cream! It was a yellowish ice-cream with brown blobs in it and poor Foz immediately assumed the brown blobs were little bits of dead turtle…the cute girl serving him quickly explained that Turtles are actually a bit of candy: 4 pecan nuts held together with caramel and topped with chocolate!
Obviously the turtle jokes have been abounding ever since.
The night went on with sail changes, good winds, no wind, zero boat speed (Nooooooo!), tiptoeing around the boat so as not to disturb the balance and speed when we slowly started to get going again. Just before dawn got the asym up and did some wicked sailing into the dawn.
Back down just before breakfast and watch change at 6 because of too little wind and since we’ve had the No2 up again. Wind keeps on coming and going.
Came through a few more wind holes and 60 degree wind shifts, and water temp steadily increasing and we are well on our way to meet Eddie. A nice guy as long as you stay on the right side of him, we don’t want to get on his wrong side!
Trucking along nicely now, with blazing sunshine, flat seas and great spirits!
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Friday 18 June – 15.30 boat time, 21.30 UTC
41.21N 71.23W – 629 nm to go – Boat speed 8.9 knots
GREAT START!!!!
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Early start this morning as we had some tidying up to do before we were due for the weather and Gulf stream briefing from the routing people.
By 8am Boogie and me were at the briefing and the rest of the crew was rigging the boat, stowing their gear and doing last minute race prep things.
Off the dock at 12.20 but not without Boogie having got a new haircut! Let’s hope it’s a lucky one!!!
Magnificent sight to see all the boats out on the bay. Not long to wait either, as we were the 4th out of 16 classes to start (1430).
With about 12 boats in our class, mostly J boats, a couple Beneteau First (40.7 and 44.7) and a very pretty older 60 ftr, it was busy without being crowded in the start area and we took well advantage of that…We were at the committee boat end of the line with some of the J-boats but higher and faster. We all choose to be slightly late on the gun: no use being OCS (too early over the line) on a race of 635 nm!
In short, BEST START OF THE FLEET!
Let’s see if we can have the same for the finish!
We’re all very stoked with our good start and totally hyped up and excited!
We’re off racing to Bermuda!
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Thursday 17 June
Newport
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We’re all ready! Boat is ready, crew is ready and we have had some fantastic days together. The crew have really gelled well together and the ambiance both on and off the water has been incredible. There has not been one night where we did not have sore tummies from laughing so much!
We have a few avid Star Chaser sailors on board, who are returning to race this epic event with us as well as some very good sailors who are new to the boat, but definitely not to (ocean) racing and sailing. We have a crew of 13, divided in 2 watches of 6, with Marlies acting as the navigator, outside the watch system. She keeps on talking about Eddies, we’ve all started to wonder how many guys she could possible know that are called Eddie!
Tomorrow we will set off, we are in Class 4 and will start at 14.30. It looks like it might be a relatively light weather race, but weather and the forecast have been volatile this week, so right now it’s anybody’s guess when we will arrive. Next blog will be from the race course, so get your armchairs out and start tracking us!
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Thursday 14 June
Newport
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Most of Star Chaser’s race crew for the Newport Bermuda Race have arrived in Newport today for their training and the prepping of the boat for the race. We’ll get a couple more arriving tomorrow and Wednesday.
Although the boat is race ready, we will be fine tuning lots of things to get the best out of her during this epic and famous race to this beautiful island in the middle of the Atlantic. Tuesday and Wednesday will be training days for us to try and form all these sailors into a team that will be racing the ‘Trash to the Onion Patch’.
In the evening and during the boat prep, there will be plenty of time to get to know each other before the race and tonight we have our first crew dinner.
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INFORMATION
The yacht: Star Chaser Swan 51
Star Chaser is a beautiful, fast Swan 51 (1981 – complete refit 2006/07), well equipped for racing, with a great sails wardrobe (new sails 2008 and 2007) The sails that we use for our Atlantic passages are our Carbon/Aramid Endurance sails and we decide upon spinnaker or asymmetrical depending on the conditions. As with all Swans, Star Chaser is extremely comfortable and she sails beautifully.
Depending on the level of experience of the crew and the weather we will determine the sail combinations.
The boat has comfortable bunks and a good galley where you can safely cook, even in any weather.
Star Chaser is coded by the MCA and holds a UK MCA Category 0 charter licence. This code sets out requirements for Small Commercial Vessel and covers construction, stability, outfit standards, safety equipment and manning. The requirements for Category 0 are particularly demanding and allow the yacht to operate in an unrestricted area (i.e. ocean crossings).
She is fitted out superbly with EPIRB, SART, VHF/GMDSS, SSB/GMDSS Radio, satellite phone for voice calls and emails, Navtex, water maker, generator, superb navigation system, CD player (that also allows for iPod connection) with cockpit speakers, fridge and freezer and is well suited for ocean crossings.
The skipper: Boogie
Our skipper/owner Boogie is a qualified RYA/MCA Ocean Yacht master and Cruising Instructor. He runs the boat professionally as a charter boat for cruising, ocean crossings and racing events. Boogie is a passionate sailor and racer who has been sailing and racing since he was about 4 years old. He is tremendously enthusiastic and knowledgeable and loves teaching people about his passion, sailing. Since he started sailing, he has sailed in numerous places and regattas around the world and is always loved by all crews, not only for his racing skills, but also for his enthusiasm and his relaxed, confident way of running the boat!
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26 May - Star Chaser has arrived in Newport after a great sail up from the Caribbean. That is, they had 2 fantastic sailing days blasting their way north followed by lots of motorsailing mixed with some good sailing under the screamer. Her crew was extremely excited to arrive after what for some was their first big offshore passage. Congratulations to all of the crew for a fantastic achievement!
