Reality Sailing

Lorient could probably be called the center of shorthanded offshore sailing in the world. There are 4 Open 60 campaigns based here and countless Figaro and Mini campaigns as well. This was home to the majority of the ORMA 60 Trimarans before the class dissolved and now they are sitting in all of their respective compound buildings. All of this is taking place within the confines of this immense German built WWII submarine base. It is hard to convey the scale of the partially derilect buildings and old submarine pens and drydocks that make up the compound. AOS (An Oriant Sail) is a facility within the Sub Base that provides secure dry storage for the smaller boats (Minis, Figaro II’s and Mumm 30’s…sorry Farr 30’s) along with dockage and any crane work needed to launch the boats and deal with the masts. The amazing thing about AOS is that there is also a communal workshop, power tools to borrow, a shower and internet. It is pretty much designed for Mini sailors like me to have an infrastructure to base their campaign upon.

subbase

The submarine in this photo gives a little bit of a scale to the buildings and those moulds in the grass are for Groupama 3, a 105 foot maxi trimaran

I spent my first week here getting my boat ready to go in the water which included about 30 hours of fairing and painting my keel while it hung from a hydraulic hoist. I’m trying to go at all my projects this year with the Mini Transat in mind so that I don’t have to do them again. I then went out and did the Chrono 6.50 this past weekend which consisted of time trials around Ile de Groix. We had 3 days to sail 4 times around the island either direction we wanted and starting whenever we wanted. The line was open at 8am and closed at 8pm Friday and Saturday and 2pm on Sunday. Friday was a bit crazy for me as I was still finishing putting the boat together that morning and filling out my entry paperwork so had no time to look at the current situation, there is up to 4 kts of current in parts of the course, so my time was not so good. Saturday I was determined to post a good result and my morning run was within 20 minutes of the top run of the weekend and my afternoon run, although a bit slower in lighter wind, was the 5th fastest in the fleet out of all the afternoon laps.

atdock

Reality at the dock in between a Class 40 a Figaro II and another Mini

I’m now in the midst of getting the boat ready for the Trophee MAP which starts on the 4th of June in Douarnenez. I have to make sure that everything about the boat is class legal after the work I did this past winter, like reinstalling the compass and making the companionway door actually latch shut. I’m then off to Vannes to complete a first aid course required for the Mini Fastnet on Thursday and Friday before sailing the boat 100 miles up to Douarnenez for the security checks which start on Saturday. The race will have a tracker and you can follow along on the races website by clicking here. Busy busy as always but will try my best to update the site again after the MAP and before the start of the Mini Fastnet on the 14th of June.

Check out my new blog on SailMagazine.com

http://www.sailmagazine.com/blogs/

I will be trying to update both my website and the new blog as much as possible.

aosyard “Reality” in the yard at AOS just after arrival

So after an arduous 3 day journey by plane, train, car and ship I have finally arrived in Lorient. It’s really great to be back in a place where the culture revolves almost entirely around offshore sailing. Lorient is a unique place, even to France, and is home to the largest concentration of Minis and probably Open 60s and Figaros as well. I’m seeing all my friends from last year and making some new ones which is great. I have a few weeks to get the boat ready and then am heading off to Douarnenez for the start of the MAP on June 4th.

Van My French “summer home”

rig up

Stepped the rig with a gin pole thanks to much help from my buddies Jay and Nick. The boat is feeling very sorted as I put it together this year and I’m really looking forward to sailing.

bowshot

at dock

It’s been a little while but Reality is finally floating again. We launched the boat today in lovely New England spring weather, 45 degrees, rainy and blowing 25 kts. I spent the afternoon hiding down below working on some electrical projects and re-plumbing the water ballast system. It felt a bit like coming home after a long trip to be back on my boat floating in the ocean instead of sitting on a trailer. I was extremely pleased to see that after rebedding my windows and half my deck hardware that there was not one single deck leak, I’m really looking forward to sailing on a slightly drier boat. It was too windy to try to step the mast today so I’m going to do that tomorrow evening and hopefully be sailing by the end of the week. I’ll get some close up photos on the site soon showing everything I’ve done this winter.

travellift

If there is one thing I have learned about my boat it is that she is most definitely not nearly as powerful as I would like. This lack of righting moment is mainly due to the shape of the hull but I can always make it better by taking weight out of the rig and figuring out better ways to stack. Stacking is the extremely important act of putting everything in the boat, including yourself, as far outboard as possible.
spreadertips1

The big ugly piece of metal that I am holding up top is my old spreader tip and below it is the new carbon/g-10 fitting that I fabricated in place on the spreader. Not only did I shed something in the range of 2 pounds between the two spreaders I also made the fitting much more streamlined and sail friendly.
spreadertips2

Another shot with the 12 meter Northern Light in the background.
racksdown

This is the new stacking rack arrangement in the down position. The opening is big enough for me to climb in and out of and load large bits of gear in.
racksup

Here the rack is almost all the way up and my body or a big pile of gear or both are as far outboard as possible…while still being inside the boat.