Fall 2022 qualifier for SHTP?

[talonf4u]

Hey folks, couple questions for the crowd here...

1) How late in the season would one of you experienced guys plan a 400 mile SHTP qualifier? Sadly, I will not be around for next year's LongPac, so I'll have to get it done on my own. Obviously I'd be cautious as the worst enemy of safe offshore sailing is a schedule, but I'm also a regular working stiff and some certiantly is very helpful. If I was thinking September or October, you think I'd be good planning 6 days to get 3-4 on the water? Wouldn't imagine it'd take more than that to get 400nm off of SF in my boat.

2) If I tried to knock out a little ocean trip next fall, does anyone want to join me? The more the merrier/safer...

 

[Black Jack]

I like that option if for any reason one of us can not make the LongPac this summer.

 

[BobJ]

I sailed my first SHTP qualifier at the end of October. That was pushing it and sure enough, the first storm of the season was approaching when I finished. But September or October weather is more reliably-pleasant than during the LongPac in July. The last LongPac was tough and many boats turned back.

Regarding how much time to allow, it depends on what you want to accomplish. You could knock out 400nm pretty quickly on your boat if you just sail out and back. But since you're not racing, you have time to test your reaching and downwind set-ups and try different combinations. It's valuable time that is hard to find in most people's schedules. BTW, that can be a reason to go out there by yourself so you can take as much time as you need.

 

[talonf4u]

That's a good point, Bob. Taking time to test stuff out is probably worth more than just trying to knock out miles ASAP. Worth a thought! I was thinking of some kind of trapezoidal or triangular course for the trip to give myself a reason to practice some different setups...

 

[DaveH]

I've done one qualifier in September (2020 for 2021), one in May (for 2014) and one Long Pac 2015... all started out light to moderate (epically light for the LongPac) and all ended with in 20-25 knots on the inbound leg.
Perhaps obviously, 2014 and 2020 were by design, and having the ability to wait for the right weather window... the LongPac just worked out that way.
As Bob said, probably your best odds are in the Labor day to mid October... but the even better way is to leave yourself enough time and flexibility to pick your window.
Example... in 2020 I left on a Wednesday afternoon and ghosted into the bay on Saturday morning. Alan Hebert left that same morning and had an epic drift-a-thon for nearly a week IIRC.

DH

 

[AlanH]

Dave is right. I left the day he sailed in and had a somewhat lumpy but fast ride out to 180 miles. I turned around in the wee hours, to discover that my autopilot had packed it in, so that meant some rather stressful driving off the wind for about 5-6 hours in pretty stiff breeze and high fog. And then....it died. And the fog came in thick. And then the wind came up again, into the teens for another long night of sheet-to-tiller steering, and then died to nothing for over 48 hours. I finally ghosted in quite a bit more than 5 days after I left... getting on to six days. However, the birds and whale watching were awesome while I sat there going nowhere.

You never know.

 

[Philpott]

i replied to a separate test. There were about 8 lines of gobbly gook.
I am replying to Test 2 in this thread now.

Thank you to David Nabors, the only one in the Universe who seems able to fix this. For those of you who don't know, David did the 2016 SHTP aboard his Olson 34 Temerity. David is a big wig high up computer engineer at a big wig place in Silicon Valley. Really big. Nose bleed high. We are very lucky that he happens to respond to old friends. Thanks again, David.

 

[pogen]

Thank you to David Nabors, the only one in the Universe who seems able to fix this. For those of you who don't know, David did the 2016 SHTP aboard his Olson 34 Temerity. David is a big wig high up computer engineer at a big wig place in Silicon Valley. Really big. Nose bleed high. We are very lucky that he happens to respond to old friends. Thanks again, David.

Happy to help friends. And I'm not a computer guy really. Mostly I run meetings and attempt to overcome the internal friction of an intensely bureaucratic organization. It's a living.