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Interested in a boat for 2018 TransPac

I've been running a spreadsheet with cost for the race. Note that this includes insurance and slip fees. I did not track every single items.

Including the money from the sales the spreadsheet shows a number of $26,000 (rounded). All in all my guess is that the final number is more like $28,000, or round up to $30,000. I may collect some more funds by selling some of the stuff.

Oh and the trailer is for sale here: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/tro/d/boat-trailer-6000-lbs/6635618835.html
 
jamottep said:
or round up to $30,000.
Click to expand...

Makes me thing of a rule of thumb ... $1,000 per foot of LOA ...

I've watched my GoPro shots ... And for the life of me I can't remember anything! I know what happened for the most part but I cannot remember when it happened.
 
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jamottep said:
Yes ... Already have a few ... First two days or so. Raw, no editing.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwEANckghhNIy-Ujd41xPq-4Ck0IBHcVw
Click to expand...

47 videos if you care, including dubious butt shots of when I did a bit of Tai Chi (very helpful!). All in the playlist above ...

I'll say in passing that besides writing a lot before the race I also watched as many videos of previous SHTPers as I could. Looking for hints, signs and to familiarize myself with the environment ...

About writing ... I wrote a lot about all the shitty talk going in my head (you know: how I was a nobody, everybody was better, my boat sucked, I had no experience, many skippers don't even start, etc ... aka "Reality checks") and replaced them with more reasonable and positive statements, which I read regularly. I also wrote a story of "how I won the SHTP" (I kid you not; happy to share it here). That writing was, for me, essential in creating a world where a good outcome would be possible.

I watched videos about overcoming the inner critic, about positive thinking, about sport coaching focused on the process.

I tried to engrain one mantra in my mind: move about with purpose. In other words know what you want to do, how to do it and proceed calmly in full control of your abilities.

I wrote here about those last 2-3 months being very emotional. That's what I was doing: training this monkey's mind.

My daily check sheet said: "donne-toi et la chance te sourira" ...

Oh, and I was also regular about annoying a couple folks with my negative self-talk, which inevitably led them to be very encouraging. Thank you for allowing me to believe in me.

If anyone is interested I'm happy to share some of these amateur documents. Just PM ...
 
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Oh, and I would sit in the sofa, eyes closed, mentally rehearsing sail changes ... Forgot about that one.

The one area I did very little preparation was fitness. Mostly I installed a chin up bar in the garage and did some of that regularly; nothing fancy, I think I built up to 5 or so full chin up ... No aerobic training, zero. There's room for improvement there :-)
 
I received a good question a few days ago:

My question to you is- would you mind sharing with me some of the more valuable videos you watched on Youtube (or any other reading) about the Transpac or even just single-handing as well as some of the positive reinforcement stuff- any videos or even your written work?

I thought I'd respond here in case anyone else is interested. I can't recall everything I looked at. When it comes to sailing I regularly Googled "Olson 30 transpac" or "Olson 30 SHTP" or "Olson 30 spinnaker" and would watch what ever came out. I think Adrian's Idefix videos were nice: look for cafemontaigne on YouTube. You now also have my shots :-)

I didn't really watch motivational videos. I was motivated; what I needed to do was find tools to overcome negativity. Again I googled topics like inner critic, growth mindset, positive coaching ...

I liked these and many more - repetition works!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ft2qxcaJk
I watched a few others of this guy too.

I spent many hours on Ted Talks.
https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

Also "Process not results" yielded good videos, although I can't find the one I liked anymore.

Of course I read Joshua Slocum and Moitessier.

The key thing for me was to write things down and counterbalance all the negativity/fear with realistic, positive statements. And to remember that luck is more likely to strike where there's a lot of hard work. I also wrote a lot of positive affirmations. Here are a few examples:

I will have a good time and a great outcome.
I will manage myself wisely, staying healthy, strong, well fed and hydrated, mentally capable of making sound decisions and executing sail evolutions smoothly, allowing micro meditative moments to uplift my mood when necessary.

To each his own ... like I wrote before the race and based on my reading I was concerned that I would suffer from mental breakdowns so I prepared tools to fight ... During the race daily writing and the few times I did Tai Chi were the best tools. The key breakthrough for me was to realize that, well, yes things could go poorly, but things could also go well ... After that it was a matter of allowing that thought to overtake the others ...

I hope I'm not lecturing. The truth is ... I know very little and welcome any suggestions ... Talking with friends who want to see you succeed helps too. Having someone who believes in you is immensely valuable.
 
Closure

I guess it's time to close this book/thread. All that follows has been said before; it's just nice for me to close this project with a summary, an acronym and an old quote.

I joined the forum in May 2015. This thread started January 2016 and it sat with no response for 3.5 months. Starting May I received suggestions for a boat and in July Adam (oceanslogic) mentioned Double Espresso. I checked the boat in September and went for a test sail mid December. Late January 2017 I bought her. Throughout that time I received supportive and not so supportive comments. The most important stuff to remember from that period is:

1. Buy a boat that's ready to go ... or not: I chose to buy a boat that was ready to go for the following reasons, which I encourage you to seriously consider if you contemplate doing this race, even if you already have a boat:

a. I think I've heard it said that it takes on average 6 years for a bug lighter to get her/his boat ready, on the starting line and out the Golden Gate on to Kauai (including many false starts). I didn't want to do that.
b. I had/have no experience with boat projects. I'd have gotten lost in that business.
c. In hindsight the key benefit was that I didn't have to worry about the boat's readiness. Instead I spent time sailing. I may have paid more initially but what I really bought was time, time to sail with the boat I'd race with.

2. Believe in yourself and don't let detractors derail you (I was advised to not do the SHTP because I was not ready). Assess your starting point, develop a training plan, follow through and pat yourself on the back once in a while. It's important to develop a positive mindset, just as important as learning to sail.

After that it was time to learn to sail Double Espresso. I created a bunch of goals and sailed offshore in Santa Cruz for a while to progressively meet these goals. Mid March I sailed DE alone for the first time. Early April I had the spinnaker up for the first time. It's fun to remember how every time I went out I tried to tack up to the Coast a little further and how that seemed so intimidating; 9 months later I'd sail all the way to Richmond. I'm also impressed with the progress I made over time with simple things such as rolling the main alone.

Mid April 2017 I lost my job, which made room for more sailing. I didn't sail much more but I did have more time to think about the whole thing. I continued to ask for help and received more contacts, to whom I reached with questions and sometimes got answers. I was persistent.

Early June 2017 I sailed 80nm, 14 hours to mimic a race to the Farallon Islands. End of June I had another long outing and discovered the joys of surfing fast. Sometime throughout those days of sailing I was getting angry and I learned to manage anger better. It's not worth it; it's tiring and often causes more trouble.

In July I went to the UK for two weeks of Clipper training. As I read through my report here I can say that one thing hasn't changed: I'm a loner. I don't think so much that it's because I don't want to see people as I don't think people want to see me. I think I fail at building relationships. Anyways ... it is what it is and I've learned to live with it.

End of August I did my qualifier, which was done more as a formality than anything else. I only wanted to "pass" and didn't do much during the sail. When I was slow I didn't care ...

In September 2017 I started looking for buyers for DE in SF, LA and HI. And in October I sailed the South Atlantic Eastward with Clipper. In November 2017 I wrote about sailing around the world solo for the first time. Late December I sailed DE to Pt Richmond and proceeded to learn to race with the SSS races. Sailing in San Francisco Bay there were several close calls with markers I hadn't seen.

There were plenty of small projects along the way and at some point I decided to significantly slow down the spending. I also picked up the SailGrib app for weather routing.

In February 2018 I decided to cancel my participation in Leg 6 of the Clipper race. Mid March is when I truly realized that I needed to work on mindset and learn to see things positively, all the while remaining OCD about everything. I also went on a minimalist fitness program. On 03/22/2018 I started a count down to race day and built up checklists. My visits to the marina accelerated during those few months leading to the race start. From my beginning days in Santa Cruz every outing was work, a lot of work alone; that probably helped build a bit of endurance.

As I've written many times, besides receiving advice from a lot of people, for which I am grateful, I also did a lot of reading throughout those 18 months of preparation.

Late April I started considering that the SHTP is a race and ponder what I would do about that, which further launched me into "mental research". At that point, boat wise, I was ready, except for pre-race prep (loading mostly), and spent the last 4-6 weeks focused on "inside jobs".

Two weeks away from race start I engaged my "two week pre-departure checklist". And then race day came. I won't re-hash what I said already about the race itself, except to say that a few weeks ago it dawned on me that this will always be with me: I will always have won the SHTP 2018. And that is cool and humbling.

I would like to suggest a simple motto for anyone looking to prepare. I'm not an expert; I worked hard, got help and got lucky but I did learn that these 4 things matter when going off-shore:

Simplicity
Practice
Attitude
Redundancy

A simple acronym to remember ... SPAR.

In February 2017 I wrote:

"I'm starting to feel the excitement, the rawness of what I'm embarking on. I don't really find much pleasure in all that preparation stuff but the thought of being out there, bobbing around on oceans, that's moving my soul ... Or maybe I'm a romantic and once I'll be out there for a couple of days I'll go back to day dreaming. There's only one way to find out ..."

What will you find out?
 
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Thanks for posting so much during your journey. I've been following from the beginning and it's been great to read.

Just a lurker here, dreaming of some day doing the race.
 
Greg of Nightmare took a few very nice pictures of DE ... The B&W is on my phone and has me dreaming every time I check it ... I wanna go ...

IMG_1735.jpg

IMG_1743.jpg

IMG_1805.jpg

IMG_1742.jpg
 
A few weeks ago, at the Spinnaker Sailing school of Redwood City's instructors' meeting, I did a presentation on my little adventure: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LRhbPXdtqu3FOjSCaOfw0JJuGwxLGzGEn0OoLXVM0lw

As a follow-up I was invited to present at the NASA sailing club in November.

I miss sailing my boat and having a goal ... These days I sail from South Bay on a Merit 25, heading for the San Mateo bridge, hoping for the sea's horizon. Then turn around and sail home to ... To what? I think Moitessier's "to save my soul" is resonating now.
 
Ah, did you join Spinnaker Sailing? You know, you have the skillset and experience to work for them and teach ASA Basic sailing 101 and 103. I did, fifteen years ago.
 
jamottep said:
A few weeks ago, at the Spinnaker Sailing school of Redwood City's instructors' meeting, I did a presentation on my little adventure: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LRhbPXdtqu3FOjSCaOfw0JJuGwxLGzGEn0OoLXVM0lw

As a follow-up I was invited to present at the NASA sailing club in November.

I miss sailing my boat and having a goal ... These days I sail from South Bay on a Merit 25, heading for the San Mateo bridge, hoping for the sea's horizon. Then turn around and sail home to ... To what? I think Moitessier's "to save my soul" is resonating now.
Click to expand...

Here Here, Brother
 
AlanH said:
Ah, did you join Spinnaker Sailing? You know, you have the skillset and experience to work for them and teach ASA Basic sailing 101 and 103. I did, fifteen years ago.
Click to expand...

Spinnaker Sailing is where I learned to sail and later got my credentials to teach ASA 101/103 ... It's not paying much :-)
 
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