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Around the World from West coast?

I could I suppose, but Romance. Rounding a natural, significant island rather than a buoy. Why do it at all, if not for romance?
 
jamottep said:
Rule:
A vessel starting from any point where the direct orthodromic distance is too short shall pass one single island or other fixed point on a required side so as to lengthen his orthodromic track to the minimum distance. Why not round one of the windward buoy instead?
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No cigar, PJ. There are no government maintained buoys on the north or east coasts of the Big Island of Hawaii (unless one sails into Hilo Bay.) When rounding the Big Island, avoiding the lee of the volcanoes is not an impossibility. Been there, done that.
 
sleddog said:
No cigar, PJ. There are no government maintained buoys on the north or east coasts of the Big Island of Hawaii (unless one sails into Hilo Bay.) When rounding the Big Island, avoiding the lee of the volcanoes is not an impossibility. Been there, done that.
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Yes ... was thinking of the one in Hilo Bay :-)
 
jamottep said:
I can't measure this route to meet the WSSRC requirements ... I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
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I have spoken to Guo's router. The way they managed to get the distance is by going around a buoy off Argentina. Really smart move! Although I haven't re-calculated ..
 
Daydreamer said:
https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2007/class-40-akilaria-class-40-3219081/?refSource=browse listing

Here's one under 100k.
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For now I think I'll stay away from Class40 boats. They're great but ... From my conversation with a French owner of two (Marc Lepesqueux) they are very capable boats but not considered circumnavigators. Several modifications are required. I do know Joe Harris sailed RTW, and others have tried. The key concern is that in a capsize they would stay inverted. Some boat designs would require changes. Please don't go quoting this on other forums. This is just this man's interpretation, a man of limited knowledge and experience.

Saturday I fly to France for six days of sailing on a Pogo 40S3. The weather looks promising, unlike what the RdR skippers are suffering through.

I've continued my research. At this time I'm considering going RTW West. My very optimistic, cheap-O budget is around 200k, and a realistic one is more like 300k+.

This project is putting enormous stress on the marriage, to the point of breakage. There's nobody around us who is supportive. I don't care so much; my wife on the other hand ... From what I read this is not uncommon. Some dreams are too big.

If anyone has a contact for sponsors, however partial, please let me know. I've managed to fund my project to about 30%; I'm hoping to sell a tiny piece of real estate to bring that up to 60% or more, enough to acquire a boat, have a thorough inspection, and get it over here.

I cannot stop myself from observing that I'm still very much an amateur, when compared to the sailors of high caliber such as J-L VDH, who still got trashed on his leg home. The big unknown remains big seas; I have yet to see and experience that. I had hoped that sailing on Skip Novak's boats would have helped but not so.

Maybe in two weeks I'll come back recharged or demolished ...
 
Fair winds, Philippe! Send us photos and updates. We read everything and you are my favorite Belgian. Regards to Jo. Yes, you are nuts, but you are our nut.
 
The key concern is that in a capsize they would stay inverted.
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I have never heard of this being a concern on C40s. There was an around the world race on Class 40s already, the Global Ocean Race. You can buy an older Class 40 (great boats but not competitive agains the latest generation = not a concern of yours) for $100-125k. You should be able to do the voyage for well under $200k with a fully revamped boat or even much less.
 
Is this worth blowing up a marriage?

i can't answer that question, only you know the answer to that.
 
One thing I was wondering is if maybe I should present my experience at yacht clubs and follow with a call for sponsors.
I did my presentation at NASA. I asked for a show of hands at the end to see who would donate for this other crazy adventure. Not one went up. My host did suggest I should try the St Francis Yacht Club; maybe I'd get luckier there :-)
 
jamottep said:
One thing I was wondering is if maybe I should present my experience at yacht clubs and follow with a call for sponsors.
I did my presentation at NASA. I asked for a show of hands at the end to see who would donate for this other crazy adventure. Not one went up. My host did suggest I should try the St Francis Yacht Club; maybe I'd get luckier there :-)
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I don't know what your presentation at NASA looked like, but I'm guessing from your posts recently that your plan is still rather hypothetical. I think that is a major draw back. If you're looking for individual donors for an event that is just your voyage, the model Randall Reeves is using for the Figure Eight Voyage seems to be working. He had a unique idea (the Figure 8) and the boat for it, built a nice website which laid out a clear vision, and solicited contributions. Thinking about the crowd you would draw at my yacht club, I don't think you'd get much love for a hypothetical solo romp.

If you are looking for corporate sponsorship, having the boat and a concrete plan is still probably the minimum. Reeves lists a number of corporate partners, but no telling if that's real money or just gear and tech support. Randall's pretty well wired up out there, so you could send him an email through his website.

For real corporate money (like, buy the boat money) my guess is you would need to be campaigning in a known event, like Route du Rhum or Vendee Globe. Your victory in your rookie SHTP would be a pretty good calling card, I would think. But again, you would need to have a pretty well designed business plan and marketing pitch to make that work.

Just thoughts.
 
Philippe, I would have a serious talk with Bruce Schwab about trying to do this from the US. Bruce got farther than anyone I know, but had to make tremendous personal and financial sacrifices to get as far as he did.

https://www.bruceschwab.com/about-us/
.
 
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Yes, the plans are hypothetical. Yes, I emailed with Bruce (and others). I have done a fair amount of armchair research. I just looked at my other thread and from the first time I posted about my interest to the time I bought Double Espresso there was about a full year of thinking there. And that's not including all the reading I had done before that ... If it takes me one year to make up my mind to sail to Hawaii ... Then what's it going to take me to sail RTW!?!?

I have not yet decided to do this. I'm researching. This is a major decision. I don't want to haphazardly buy a boat and then find that I don't really want to go through the trouble of preparing and sailing. It's one thing to romanticize the idea of being a solo non stop circumnavigator .... it's another thing to imagine oneself doing it one day after another, with all the pain it entails. Thinking through the what ifs and being ok with those. Watching documentary of skippers crying their brain out when things go awry, keels drop, masts come down, hulls are breached, etc ... And I'm not even talking about being lonely, cold, scared, tired, hungry, wet, hurt, depressed, injured. Statistically the shit hits the fan every day out there, multiple times a day. I think most of you have discovered that. Do I really want this? This is not champagne sailing ... I would have to learn so much about boat repair ... And I'm not sure who would teach me. 2020 seems pretty close ...

At this time the most likely plan, as discussed with a French weather router, is to sail West out of San Francisco, North of Australia, round South Africa, back up North, round Cape Horn and back home, on a 40 foot or less sailboat. The only safe, sturdy, fast'ish boat that fits my small budget for this sort of trip is that not so old Open 40 Anasazi Girl. If you know of another please let me know. There are still a few things that I'm trying to get confirmation on before I finalize that plan. I am slowly lining up all that matters; in no particular order: the route, the boat, the surveyor, the budget, ways to fill up the budget, the family, the berth over here (where do you keep a boat with a little over 11 ft of draft, right?), the sailmaker, etc.

But yeah ... how hard do I want to do this? If I don't lose steam while researching then maybe at the end of that research I'll have a plan, and I'll feel ready to execute. It would be so easy to stop here, and move on to something else. Who wants to be a boat repair slave for 5-7 months? Why would I want to be that slave? I think I need to answer that question to build a solid mental and emotional foundation first. If I keep talking all the crap out of this project and I still want to do it when I'm done then maybe I should. I'm not there yet. There's more shit to dig out :-)

The closest foundation I have found so far is Moitessier's "pour sauver mon ame", which I don't think is strong enough; it's not a "positive" foundation. So what's it going to be? My walkabout? It is a f***ing selfish project ... And I need so much support.

I'd better find out all this before I drop money on a boat that's not practical and nobody wants to buy! Now I'll pack up for France and (very?) light air sailing ...
 
Your search for sponsorship will be more than a challenge. First, many (like Bruce Schwab) had 20+ years of competitive ocean racing with a very impressive race record before they started knocking on doors. He was raising money to race in known international races with good exposure for ROI. Since you are going after a non-record (ie, no one has done it and it's not on the radar for any record setters) I would change your approach. Speed is not needed since you are not racing so I'd drop the idea of a Class 40 or other highly strung race boat. I don't think you've been on a fast ocean race boat yet so your experience of a wing on wing Olson 30 is a far cry from being offshore in a racing machine. I would look at a solid 40'ish footer that is well built. Slow and steady would be the choice for your intended course voyage. There are a lot of boats on the west coast that could do the trip with some refreshing. You could do it on a shoestring budget since again, you are not racing. Hope you get some breeze on the C40 boot camp.
 
solosailor said:
Speed is not needed since you are not racing so I'd drop the idea of a Class 40 or other highly strung race boat. I don't think you've been on a fast ocean race boat yet so your experience of a wing on wing Olson 30 is a far cry from being offshore in a racing machine. I would look at a solid 40'ish footer that is well built. Slow and steady would be the choice for your intended course voyage. There are a lot of boats on the west coast that could do the trip with some refreshing. You could do it on a shoestring budget since again, you are not racing. Hope you get some breeze on the C40 boot camp.
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Yep, I know that my experience on that kind of boat is very limited. That's why I am lining up a training program on Class40 boats. That's 10k in my budget.

I am also considering what you're proposing. From what I know it's a lottery out there. I need to put as many chances on my side. As examples I think it took JL VDH 4 attempts to go round westward. Considering the original and currently active Golden Globe races many boats simply didn't/don't survive the beating. Even Randal's boat, which is a purpose built sailboat, didn't make it the first time. And that's going East.

Such a boat would then need to be designed/refit to survive pitchpoling, rolling 360, repetitive knockdowns, likely with some sails up, and keep the rig intact. That's some serious re-fitting for any boat, bumping the budget.

There is still the third option of going East from the East Coast with a Class40 boats, but that is more expensive and less practical.

I'm not sure how I can do this on a budget. Here's a tentative budget: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hwIsl3nGu6ix7E6kLrgBMgPJRr8RiywJwo99vRLo9Ls/edit?usp=sharing

The reality is that all these choices are possible and could work/get me home. I need to figure out what I am most comfortable with.
 
jamottep said:
Yes, the plans are hypothetical.
At this time the most likely plan, as discussed with a French weather router, is to sail West out of San Francisco, North of Australia, round South Africa, back up North, round Cape Horn and back home, on a 40 foot or less sailboat. The only safe, sturdy, fast'ish boat that fits my small budget for this sort of trip is that not so old Open 40 Anasazi Girl. If you ...
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Above proposed route is 75% off-the-wind, and basically follows Webb Chiles route on the Moore-24 GANNET in his ongoing circumnavigation, at least as far as St. Helena in the S. Atlantic. Chiles has made some stops and detours, but did go north of Aussie, and rounded Cape Agulhas. No weather routing for Chiles..he'd leave at an opportune time, and take it as it comes. https://my.yb.tl/gannet/7708/

Difficulty I see is ANASAZI GIRL has a wing mast and has to sail "hot" angles, gybing downwind, as there are currently no whisker poles to wing out a foresail or twins...Though "hot" angles likely gets one downwind faster on a Class 40, you're also sailing a ton more miles if the wind is dead aft and doing a lot of hand steering with a spinny to boot. AP's and spinnakers singlehanded on a high performance boat is not always a good mix.

Anchoring on this proposed route is also a possibility for rest and relief. As long as one stays aboard and doesn't accept help, anchoring still counts as "non-stop." Anchoring = good skill and equipment to have aboard.....
 
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everydaysailor said:
There are 2 Freya 39's for sale in the area.
Keep the wheels on the bus and complete the course.
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Philippe, This is good advice. This may not be your current vision, but it it’s worth considering. Freya 39’s are very capable boats that have a remarkable history. For what you are considering, they would get you there with reasonably good speed and not a lot of drama.

Best, Tom
 
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