Everything has just finally come together in this campaign, and i’m stoked! Hope for the Warriors has fully committed to supporting my campaign as the title sponsor, and Quantum Sail Design Group has awarded us a huge sail sponsorship! West Marine Rigging Service will be hooking up the running and standing rigging, and Marina Village Yacht Harbor is affording me a guest slip while I train for the race and work on the boat.
In addition to all of this, Quantum is flying me up to Seattle to speak at the Seattle Boat Show, and there is some television and internet media lined up to promote the campaign and the campaign’s mission. Not only is US 101 racing to Hawaii this summer, but we’re going to be teaching wounded veterans how to sail. I am in the early stages of working with Hope for the Warriors to hold two wounded veteran sailing clinics right here in San Francisco Bay where we will fly some vets out here from around the country, put them up for a week and teach them how to sail! I’m extremely happy to be able to focus on the race, and on the bigger picture.
Things are really coming along. As you can see, the site is being updated, and we will also be launching a new site just to cover this campaign. The new site will be linked to a new Facebook page, a new YouTube channel and a new Twitter feed. We’re going to rig up the GoPro’s and get some great footage and write some great content over the next few months!!!
Stay tuned....
Boat preps and sailing
As far as boat preps, now that I have some funds to work with, my first priority is to line up my autopilot, batteries and solar power. For an autopilot, I have contacted NKE about a pilot, and will hopefully be purchasing one soon.
For batteries, I thought that Lithiums were going to be out of my price range, but Greg Nelsen has a Race Cell solution that is less than half what I thought Lithium’s would cost. Lithium batteries are the single biggest thing I can do to my Moore 24 to reduce weight for this race, so I think I have to extend a bit and get the Lithium’s.
For solar power, I am getting my panels from Southbound Solar very soon. The panels are in stock, but to be honest, I can’t decide if I want to hang two 50 watt panels off the back, or a larger, single panel off the back, and then have another small panel somewhere else on the boat. Going over a lot of potential mounting options...
For back-up autopilot, I have gone with a Raymarine X-5 unit. I just got the X-5 today and hopefully I will have it installed by the end of the weekend, weather permitting. With this unit, I will have a complete stand-alone system that has it’s own computer, gyro-compensated compass and head unit. In addition, i’m designing my autopilot system to SHARE rams, so that I only have to bring a couple spares of one design. It will be a trick set up between my primary and secondary autopilots.
At the same time, I will be going with a new DC distribution panel and one of those neat little Xantrex battery monitors.
As you can see, my first priority in the boat’s refit is the electrical system and self-steering system. Once I have all of this in place, and get my new Quantum’s, i’ll be ready to begin going offshore and training. Without real self-steering, and a with non-reefable Moore 24 class mainsail, i’ve been a bit hesitant to really pound around offshore...
This is the perfect opportunity to put my boat together and do some real sailing, while i’ve got a lot of time on my hands! Really happy to finally be making big progress on this campaign!