March 17th, 2017 UPDATE

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  Always fun to celebrate at the LYC with current and former crew as well as other ocean racers out of the Club. Christopher Dragon was on site as were many individuals who have been an inspiration to me and/or part of the program in one way or another.

Some solid progress these past weeks.  

First and foremost a huge warm welcome to Pat Slattery.  Pat and I had a chance to catch up in person today.   Everyone of you knows him well and I believe have sailed with him.   It seems there is little Pat hasn't done.   I am thrilled and grateful that Pat has agreed to join Warrior Won for 2017.

The new trailer arrived three days ago.   Thank you Chris Simon for sourcing and spec'ing it. Thank you Ryan for towing it off my front lawn before the snow melted!  The plan is for Chad and Chris Simon to decide on the build-out of the interior.  Apparently I am in charge of installing a draft system for Carlsberg on tap.  I am working on a truck in the coming weeks.  

The rudder is in the hands of DHL Express.  The Italian fabricators had extreme difficulty determining how to ship to an individual boat owner versus a company. I am tracking the wooden "box" every step of the way via DHL.  It is currently in the air over the Atlantic.  It has to clear customs before DHL Ground can deliver it to McMichael's.  It's complicated, I'll leave it at that. 

Most hotel and slip or mooring reservations have been made for Annapolis, Newport, Marblehead and Halifax.  I will most likely book Captain Andrew Burton from Newport to perform all deliveries that team members can't.  I will be doing a few.  Andrew delivered the boat home from Bermuda last year.

Carter Holliday and Peter Bauer continue to review that safety check lists for all races.  There are subtle differences between them all.  I will be purchasing a new Winslow 4 man life raft.  We have a 10 man but given our preference to sail with 11 in most cases it is smart to have a 4 man as well. 

Chad is working steadily on the sheets, halyards and aspects of the rig that need replacement or upgrading.  He has also begun the process of having a cradle fabricated at DERECKTORS to transport the boat in on the ship to Australia.  He will be looking into reserving a spot mid summer on a container ship for a September / October departure.  It will apparently take five to six weeks.

I have been in contact with David Kellett the General Manager of the Woolwich Dock Yard in Sydney. Woolwich will put the keel on, the rig in and perform all other work on the boat when she arrives.  Triple Lindy, the Swan 45 from City Island who did the race last year used Woolwich and was thrilled with their service as were other NY locals who have used them.  David's son Brad and daughter in-law Tori will make the delivery home from Hobart to Sydney after the race.     

H.L. has arranged for himself, Chris Simon and I to take the online single side band radio exam, a S2H requirement.   There is a website that offers the study portion.  Where we are required to sit and take the exam according to the Cruising Club of Australia has yet to be determined.  We may have to take it in Australia when we arrive in December.  We are required to have two licensed operators so we will have three or four since Ryan's certification is apparently acceptable.             

Carter Holliday has signed up for Safety at Sea Level 200.  I plan to sign up as well.  I would encourage anyone who has completed Level 100 to consider Level 200 at SUNY Maritime.  If you have never taken Level 100 you should.

I trust that the sails are going to be ready by the first week of April and delivered and tested with Paul and Phillip from North.  Soon thereafter we will be submitting measurements for our 2017 PHRF, IRC and ORCi certificates. 

I am in contact with Zhik, South Carolina to put together an order.  I will be reaching out to each of you for sizes.     

As soon as I have hard dates for the rudder and sails which will dictate launch date I will put together a practice schedule and post it in the calendar.

I hope everyone is learning to navigate their way around the crew site.  It's not fancy but is meant to only be functional.

If you are having any difficulty email myself, Simon or H.L.   The more you use it and populate it the easier it is on everyone.