2018 Blog

2018 Blog

2018 found us working on several insteresting boat projects. Off and on during the spring and summer we worked on a Westsail 32 that was hauled out at the local Two-Way boatyard near Darien, Georgia and then later at one of the marinas near St Simons Island. We added new rigging, including replacing the bobstay and whisker stays for the bowsprit, replaced the boomkin, added a Monitor windvane, and numerous other jobs to get her ready for an island cruise. Unfortunately, the owner got tangled up in a bridge in south Florida and the boat was brought back for rigging repairs. The Westsail 32 is one tough boat and damage was minimal.

Working on the heavy double-ender got me daydreaming about rounding Cape Horn and crossing the southern ocean. In 2018 the retro Golden Globe sailboat race was underway, which I followed daily online as the entrants positions were updated by satelitte trackers. The race was a recreation of the 1968 Golden Globe race for the first person to sail alone and nonstop around the world.

Recalling that race took me back to whn I was aboard Atom in South Africa’s Richards bay in 1995. I came on deck one morning to see an unusual sailboat moored at the opposite end of the quay. The chunky, wooden vessel with a long bowsprit and an orange-painted hull stood out distinctly from the sleek, modern cruising yachts moored next to it. Going over for a closer look, I met the barrel-chested, French-American skipper, Guy Bernardin, his wife Annick, and their six year old son Briac, aboard their Spray replica, Spray of St. Briac. Guy had just descended to the deck in his bosun’s chair after working all morning under the blistering sun fitting new chafing gear to his mast and rigging in preparation for their upcoming passage around the South African cape.

Guy Bernardin was well known in the sailing community from his campaigns in the OSTAR (Observer Singlehanded Trans-Atlantic Race) and BOC Challenge (sponsored by British Oxygen Company) races of the 1980s and the Vendee Globe in 1990. In an astounding change for a high tech racing sailor, in 1992 Guy gave up solo yacht racing and bought a replica of Joshua Slocum’s venerable Spray. The change from a stripped-out Southern Ocean racing machine to the heavy, antiquated Spray took him from one extreme to the other. In 1995, exactly 100 years after Slocum set out on the first-ever solo circumnavigation, Guy embarked with his family on their own three-year circumnavigation. His plan was to retrace the crafty master mariner’s voyage made famous in his book Sailing Alone Around the World.

Guy had told me then, “Looking ahead, to a certain degree, I’m fatalistic. You must prepare yourself and your boat as best you can. After that, don’t worry—it’s in the hands of God.”

In 2017 I heard from friends that Guy had been lost overboard off the US east coast while on a solo passage to France with a new boat. He had bought the boat to participate the following year in a sailing event he was organizing called Longue Route 2018, a 50-year anniversary tribute to Bernard Moitessier and his 1968 singlehanded voyage around the world. Moitessier’s voyage began as part of the Golden Globe race to be the first person to circumnavigate alone and nonstop. When halfway through the race he turned his back on the finish line in England and the commercialization of the event. In order to “save my soul” he continued nonstop around the great southern ocean capes a second time to finish in Tahiti where he wrote The Long Way, a popular book about his physical and spiritual journey.

Bernardin may have created the event as a response to the more commercial and rule-laden tribute Golden Globe Race 2018 that was being organized at the same time. In the GGR 2018 there was a fixed start time and place, boat type and equipment restrictions, a large entry fee and mandatory safety equipment that put the event out of reach of most sailors. In contrast, Bernardin described the Longue Route 2018 thus: “On this occasion, Guy invites other sailors to join him on this passage, in the same state of mind as Bernard Moitessier. This is not a race, there are no rules, nor constraints or obligations, or awards. It is a return to true values, individual and human responsibilities of the sailor and the man. Freedom and serenity to be alone at sea.”

Guy had a great affinity for Moitessier and that other inspiring pioneer of voyaging, Joshua Slocum. Guy’s ultimate fate was bound to Moitessier as he endeavored to follow the Longue Route and was eerily similar to that of Slocum who also disappeared in these same waters a century earlier while on a solo passage from New England to the West Indies. It was a fitting end for both of these steadfast sailors whose passion was to return alone to the sea they loved.

Guy Bernardin aboard Spray of St Briaac in South Africa.

We also worked on an Able 32 also known as the Whistler 32. The previous owner had done some major modifications such as removing the swing keel and adding external lead ballast to the keel. He also converted from wheel to tiller steering and removed the broken inboard engine and installed an open-faced outboard well in the aft cockpit. The new owner trucked the boat to me from New England to make the boat ready for offshore passages. The main job we did was to remove the heavy 15 hp outboard and install a more manageable 9.8 hp motor and enclosed the well by rebuilding the aft end of the cockpit. You can see the transorfamtion in the Able 32 Outboard Well Modification video.


Able 32 with Atom 6.5 pram dinghy.

The improved outboard well.

Stern view of outboard well, solar-trackers and Monitor windvane.

Due to the owner’s personal issues this year the Alberg 30 Lora that we had done a complete Voyager Editon makeover was sold to a guy named Jason who sailed the boat offshore back to Cheseapeake Bay. He plans a longer voyage beginning when he retires from his job next year. He was fortunate to find a boat like this that has been completely upgraded and ready to go.


The Alberg 30 Lora

Here’s a video of us escorting Jason out of St Simons Inlet to begin his passage around Cape Hatteras and back to the Chesapeake:

Sailing the Alberg 30 Lora      

 
In January we were visited by Chris, Annie and their two young children who trucked their Pearson Triton Belis down from North Carolina. Since his boat had no functioning inboard engine before getting here he had copied my outboard well design. Chris and I worked to finish off his low-budget refit of the bare-bones Triton, installing new rigging, a used Monitor windvane I had in stock, and several other jobs including giving him Atom’s old solar-tracker mount. Despite not having much sailing experience and Annie having to look after a baby, by June they had sailed down the coast of Florida, visited Cuba and Mexico and were anchored in Rio Dulce, Guatamala. From there the family travelled inland to the highlands where they were homesteading. An amazing couple who proved you can still go cruising on a shoestring.

 Chris, Annie and kids in Brunswick

Triton Belis departs for Guatemala.