Comments On The Maui Race From A First Timer’s Perspective
Aug 9, 2018
An accomplished sailboat racer and writer Alex Fox is also the manager of the sailing shop at Trotac Marine. Alex was a member of the victorious crew on Joy Ride in the 2018 Vic-Maui Race.
“Going in I was quite curious how I and the rest of the crew would adjust to the day to day grind of the watch system and the general rigors of life on a boat. Happy to say that everyone found their way very nicely. We paired up using a buddy watch system, meaning one of the buddies was always on deck. This worked well. We adjusted the system slightly during the last five days to ensure we always had a fresh driver at night, switching off hourly.”
“Conditions were not quite what was advertised in the brochure, as we had lots rain squalls and chilly conditions, close-hauled and slightly cracked off close reaching in the first week. Once we broke through to the more traditional reaching conditions, and warmer days and nights, all that pain disappeared. The final four days and nights featured 15-25 knots winds with an apparent wind angle between 90 and 130 degrees. perfect for either the Code Zero or the A3 spinnaker…perfect conditions for Joy Ride!”
Alex Fox had these general observations and surprises: “It was fascinating just how much cloud cover there was, plus the sky was ever changing, and very quickly. Compass heading and apparent wind angle had to be referenced continuously. Night sailing was a real challenge and the binnacle compass was a very valuable tool. The nights were pitch black and so it took extreme concentration on the helm to stay in the groove.”
“On the disappointing front, I was dismayed to see the amount of plastic and garbage floating in the water. From day four on, at any given moment, we could see stuff in the water. bottles, buckets, floats, fishing nets, plastic milk cartons aarrghh! We never picked anything up, but we came close to a few nets.”
“Great time, would do it again tomorrow.”
Alex
