Reality Sailing

SAIL Magazine Profile

jrowse — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:00:31 +0000

SAIL magazine managed to squeeze in an interview with me immediately following the Transat Jacques Vabre. In fact we did the interview via email while I was sailing 40 Degrees upwind from Costa Rica to Antigua. The folks at SAIL turned it into a really well done full page Q&A that was published in the February edition of the magazine. Just enlarge the image in the post here and you can check it out!

Podium in the Jacques Vabre!!!!

jrowse — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:32:25 +0000

Me and Hannah crossed the Transat Jacques Vabre finish line here in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica last night to complete the podium of the Transat Jacques Vabre in third place. This is a magnificent result for us and the first time an American has every finished on the podium of a European Class 40 event and the first time in years that any American has finished on the podium of any major shorthanded Transatlantic race.

I am ecstatic about our performance, had a wonderful time racing and want nothing more than to be able to carry on with my plans for a Class 40 project for the coming season. I will try to do a bit of a writeup on the race in the near future but don’t have tons of time as we will be leaving Costa Rica to sail to the Caribbean in only a few days time and will be very busy preparing the boat and of course eating and sleeping lots!

Game On!

jrowse — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:33:31 +0000

After all the back and forth we are finally heading out to race to Costa Rica tomorrow. The start is at 1500 local time in Le Havre and the race tracker will be updating every 3 minutes for the first 30 miles followed by every 3 hours thereafter. The boat is prepared, we are well rested and the weather looks like it will be wet wild and fast for the first few days. Follow the tracker at http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/ and like our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/40DegreesSailingTeam to get our updates from on board during the race. Have a nice November everyone!

Wednesday at 1500 cet

jrowse — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:47:29 +0000

After the postponement was made official a formal announcement has been made to have the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre on Wednesday the 2nd of November at 1500 local time. This allows the worst of a massive depression, described as a “bomb” by the race meteorologist, to dissipate before we head off. We will still be starting the race in windy and squally conditions with a confused sea state. However these conditions are what we all should be prepared to expect while heading out across the North Atlantic in November and they do not pose the risk that starting on Sunday did. Here is a screenshot of a weather file showing the “bomb” that caused the postponement. It is the same storm that dropped feet of wet snow in northern New England wreaking havoc in that region.

Start Tomorrow????

jrowse — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:19:37 +0000

After having countless discussions amongst the Class 40 fleet regarding the idea of postponing our own start due to the weather the race directors have decided to consider the option and we will be finding out at our briefing at 0930 tomorrow morning if we actually are starting. If we do in fact take the start on schedule make sure to follow the race tracker on the official TJV website at, http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/, and check in our facebook page often for updates from on board during the race, http://www.facebook.com/40DegreesSailingTeam.

Lovely Weather….

jrowse — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:39:35 +0000

Things are coming along nicely with all our final preparations and provisioning and we are feeling very ready to go. The weather is looking sort of classic for one of the late fall Transats that start in the English Channel. Meaning that we are going to be battling our way through a succession of strong depressions before getting any relief and hopefully seeing some sunshine and spinnakers. There is one particularly menacing looking depression that we are menat to be meeting up with on late Tuesday and sailing through for what will probably be a couple days. I’ve attached a screen shot of a GRIB file that shows barometric pressure gradients, wind strength and precipitation for the area we will be in at 0300 utc on Wednesday. The important things to know when looking at one of these files, for those of you not familiar with them, is that the blue is rain and the little feather looking things denote strength and direction of the wind. Basically every little feather on the arrow equals 10kts of wind, so most of those on the south side of this low are denoting between 30-40 kts of sustained wind. Make sure to think of us slogging it out next week from your dry, warm homes on land!

Follow us on Facebook

jrowse — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:04:57 +0000

We will be updating the 40 Degrees Sailing Team Facebook page from on board throughout the race and in the days leading up to the start. Make sure to “like” us and follow along.

http://www.facebook.com/40DegreesSailingTeam

T-5 Days and nearly ready

jrowse — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:33:34 +0000

The race village here in Le Havre is incredible. Between the IMOCA 60′s, Multi 50′s and our fleet of Class 40′s it is quite a scene and the number of visitors to the race village is impressive. Today while working on some jobs on board 40 Degrees I was even asked for my autograph in a race program by some people checking out the fleet. We have ticked off almost everything on our job list and once we buy two more red handheld flares we will have checked every box on our security inspection and be basically ready to go. It is a great feeling to be here and even better to be feeling prepared and on schedule with all the logistics required by the race organizers. The next few days involve a few briefings and last bits of organization and provisioning on board the boat but I’m hoping to spend some time chilling out, looking at weather and maybe even taking some time away from the boat before the start on Sunday.

Here is a photo of the cockpit of 40 Degrees from the dock, with IMOCA 60′s in the background and another of the better part of the food for this 5000 mile race before it was organized and stowed.

Transat Jacques Vabre

jrowse — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:26:01 +0000

The next month is going to be interesting. I will be racing the Owen Clarke Design Class 40, 40 Degrees, from Le Havre, France to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica in the Transat Jacques Vabre with co-skipper Hannah Jenner. The Transat Jacques Vabre, commonly known as the TJV, is one of the great French ocean races with a rich history dating back 18 years. This year’s fleet is stacked with professional sailors from all over the world and will surely be an extremely challenging and exciting race. Me and Hannah are a bit of a last minute team but we both have many thousands of miles of offshore sailing under our belts and have a very complimentary set of skills so are hoping to be competitive in the 16 boat Class 40 fleet. I will be posting updates here regularly in the buildup to the start of the race on October 30th. For more info on the race itself check out http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/english-section and keep checking back for photos and the latest on our preparations.

Welcome to the new face of RealitySailing

jrowse — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:24:24 +0000

It’s been a long time coming but I have FINALLY redesigned RealitySailing.com to better represent what RealitySailing has become since the finish of the Mini Transat two long years ago. There is lots going on, the news updates will come regularly and all the detailed content will be filled in as quickly as I can manage.