Before I totally prep 101 for racing to Hawaii, i'm working on some of the basics. I've been working a lot over the past week on deck layout and location of deck hardware. I plan on beginning a major deck repair next week. All in all, things are going really well. The weather has been mostly cooperative, Moore's are well buitl and simple, and West Marine is right aorund the corner. To be hoenst, I much prefer working on this little boat than doing just about anything else right now! Moore <3...

101 after some deck-layout modifications. The boom vang is now led aft to both sides. New halyard clutches have been installed, and i've added a couple of cam cleats and a new deck organizer on the port side. I still have several things planned, but we're well on our way.

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Moore 24's will be racing one-design to Hawaii this summer! As of today, there are 3 Moore's registered in the race. Not only that, but all 3 of us are Singlehanded Transpac veterans, so the class should be ultra-competitive. This is the first one-design Moore 24 start since 2004.

The entries are:

"Cookie Jar"- George McKay. George finished 2nd out of 3 Moore's in 2004.

"Rushmoore"- Ruben Gabriel. Ruben was dismasted in 2008 in a Pearson Electra "Sparky", and finished under jury-rig.

"US 101"- Ronnie Simpson. Ronnie raced a Mount Gay 30 to 2nd in class in 2010.

I'm extremely excited to be racing one-design to Hawaii this summer. Just the possibility of racing identical boats to Hawaii is one of the reasons I bought a Moore. Ruben and I are close friends, and i've yet to meet George, but i'm sure we'll become close friends during the race and our time in Hanalei. Go the Moore 24! More than 30 years old and racing OD to Hawaii!

Had a a great few days days in Seattle, and i’m coming home riding an amazing wave of positive energy. I hung out in the Quantum booth at the show and did a lot to promote Hope for the Warriors® and what we’re working on in this campaign. After a 30-minute radio interview, a television news interview and a public speaking gig at the boat show, I was able to drum up a lot of support in the Seattle sailing community. We are now planning on holding a wounded-veteran sailing clinic there in September, in addition to the two wounded veteran clinics in April and October. I also managed to escape the show a bit and do some cycling and sailing. And the weather was great!

Here’s a photo of the Quantum booth at the show. It was really cool to meet and hang out with Bill O’Malley from corporate, and Dan Kessler and the crew from Quantum Sails NW. Got to meet customers, learn about the product, and I think I lined up some sailing with Dan from the loft!

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Couple of quick updates aboard US 101. I figured out what the issue was, and my new Raymarine X-5 autopilot appears to working as it should. I haven’t given a proper sea-trial, nor full calibration but I did confirm that it’s working and motored around while calibrating the compass, and then also did some light-air reaching and the pilot held the boat on course beautifully. The boat is on the trailer while i’m in Seattle, so I pulled the rudder off and took some measurements, so that I can give them to Ron Moore before he builds my new rudder. Apparently, Moore rudders had slight differences in the rudder posts over the years. I also took some measurements off of the boom and gooseneck, and will be giving those to Ballenger Spars so that I can have the new double-reefed slotted offshore boom built. A short week with me having to head out of town, but over the course of the next month, the boat should be almost fully-prepped to begin heading offshore by March

US 101 sitting back on the trailer for the first time in a while. Notice that the rudder is currently out of the boat. The bottom paint is doing an excellent job of staying clean while the boat is in the water.

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