Caribbean racing on Hogfish Maximus and other sailboats

 The leeward and Windward islands of the Caribbean Sea host enough sailing regattas to satisfy any and all sailboat types , skippers and crews. From flat out racing to casual fun class kinda racing, classic boats , mega yachts , multi hull , local traditional boats and racing for charter boats.

Along with the racing comes all the partying , meeting other crews, and getting to know the island you are anchored off of and being hosted by.

I have been able to race in many of the great regattas as crew on other boats . This I like best as I do not have to worry about what will break and how the race is to be run. I like just having a job to do , watch the unfolding drama , scenery ,some times chaos , and just by being at sea on really fast sailing machines. These boats are always way above my pay grade and ambition so its great to be on them at their best. Its also nice to be with winning crews. 

For one season I was crew on a J109 racing in most of the regattas as the spinnaker sheet trimmer when running, and the jib sheet tender when on the wind. This kept me in the companion way and the cockpit. A safe place. It was always a drama when approaching the leeward mark with the chute up doing 10-12 knots with the owner skipper steering saying he wanted to lower the chute within a boat length of the mark while we would be re hoisting the jib and sheeting in to weather in 20 plus knots of wind with at least 8 other boats next to us thinking the same thing.

We always had a pick up crew of at least 7 different nationalitys on board that all spoke English but had different meanings for all parts on the boats and maneuvers . 

I would in my mind at these times wondered what it would be like to be on a professional all New Zealand run crew.

For me in my safe spot my job was to ease the chute sheets, lower the chute , retract the bowsprit, and start sheeting in the jib. The fordeck guys would be hauling in the chute through the forward hatch,  

At the same time hoisting the jib tru its foil head stay slot , the main sheet guy who would be the strongest crew on board was supposed to be keeping the boat on its feet by letting out and sheeting in , the rail crew were to ease the vangs and start leaning out. 

During all this the skippers job was to speak calmly giving directions to where we were headed with all the other boats a few feet away going like a bat out of hell alonside us.....

What would happen was a boat in front would get a huge gust at the same time as us ,loose control and just flat lay over on its side in front of us so we would then head up a bit which would cause us to do the same and over we would go with the chute flailing away trying to dismast us with  the cockpit in the water , the foredeck guys trying to not slide over the side the skipper yelling to dump the main , get the chute in, the jib up and why the hell is everything taking so long.

I liked my central spot and knowing I only had to do something when told to so never got in trouble . 

I could just scrunch up my ball sack and watch the madness ensue.

Not all races were like this. Having a tacking duel with a similar boat going to weather in good strong Caribbean winds and sea with good crew and boats that could point to weather 20 degrees higher than most all other cruising boats doing 71/2 knots plus was a joy to behold.

 The Hogfish Maximus is not a boat fast enough for racing in that her weak point is in going to weather she is a bit slower than needed to be competitive. Reaching she can hold her own and beat most similar cruisers . If all races were close hauled or reaching we would be in the money.

I like to race the Hogfish in local island races for many reasons knowing that we will never be competitive. First off when entering a race you pay a small fee which is less than a $100.00 . For these fees you are then given a case of beer , a bottle of good rum ,some tee shirts and other stuff. You are also adding to the number of boats racing and that adds clout to the local island in the papers. There are tons of boats at anchor off these islands but most owners do not want to know how slow their boats are so stay at anchor. I race to see how fast my boat is against others , to learn how to try and catch up to the others that are faster. We have invited a lot of other people to crew for us and have a blast just by being out there.

The times we have done really well were when top notch racing helmsmen were steering the Hogfish with me trimming the main. 

You can learn more about your sailing skills and the speed of your boat by having other crew aboard and chasing faster boats.

After all the racing comes the partying ashore. Nothing like being on the winning boat.

One of the best prizes awarded to a boat I was on was for a second place finish in the Grenada round the island race on the  J109 " Pocket Rocket". First place got a one night stay in an apartment room on island and we received a case of Gernadas best aged Rum !!! Life is good. 

So if down island with your cruiser sign up to race , hold back a bit at the start to let the real racers get away and then just sail,learn but have a good time as there are no losers when it comes to the party ashore.

Heineken Regatta in St. Martin  on Pocket Rocket J109

That me on the stern peeing, we are still doing 71/2 knots to weather in the close to 30 we were racing in. Main tore as we did our last tack around the leeward side but boat speed is so good in the Jboats we just kept going. Came in fourth place .

Thats me in the red hat!

Crew party afterwards. Italian, Englih, Irish ,Scot, New Zealand, my daughter Kalessin, and Tony 

Another Irishman.

Kalessin standing watch as the two of us sail the J109 back to its home in Grenada. 168 miles the first 

Day towing a huge inflatable. What a boat, but like ridding a horse all day as she would wear you out with the motion.

We have just won the best dressed Pirate crew when racing on the Farr 60 Farrfly.

A case of rum for second place !

 Our glory day having won first place in the fun class.

Racing our friends on Grace May an old Prout cat. Shes overhauling us here.

All 16 and under kids placing 3 rd in the Grenada series of big boat racing. The skipper steered the one off Swan 42 while these kids did all the sail work including the spinnaker. This was against hard sailing adults including the boat that I was crewing on. The crew consisted of the three boys in black with my daughter Kalessin here holding the prize of Gin. The kid with the hat behind her is Sam Goodchild who has gone on to be a very successful offshore racer. Look his name up you will be amazed.

Size is relative they say ,but bigger sure goes faster.

On the Farr 60 Farrfly we are smoking by this very heavy cutter during Antigua race week.

These guys sailed all the way from Austrlia to race at Antigua and beat us to boot.

Some good deals to be found ... A cheap mainmast for a Bolger ?

Crew rail meat feet.

Hogfish going to weather in the Bequia Round island Race.

Rounding the point with the whole Atlantic out front.

The seas are about 6-8 here rounding the weather point in Bequia. 

If only it drew 27"

See you out there this winter as Hogfish Maximus will be in the West Indies for this winter sailing about chasing boats.

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Capsizing Big Sailboats

The article about our January capsize in the Cape to Rio Race is now in print in Professional Boatbuilder magazine. It is also available in digital form to print subscribers. This publication is free but is only available to members of the boating industry. Click to see the contents of the current issue.

Graphic from Professional Boatbuilder magazine of the start of the capsize.

In retrospect, the thing that amazes me most about this event is this. I was upright, walking through the boat at the time, heading for the cockpit. I was unaware that we were being capsized until the cabin roof hit the water at the bottom of the wave, with the boat well rotated toward upside-down. It happened very fast, with the boat moving through an arc that must have applied large centrifugal forces, enough for me to be well past horizontal and still walking on the cabin sole. Everything else in the boat stayed in place through that process as well, only becoming dislodged when we impacted the bottom of the wave.

Those who dont have access to the magazine can read about our capsize in my January posts on this blog.

Visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/.

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Chine runners for flat bottomed sailboats some thoughts

32 years ago I owned a 21 San Juan centerboard sloop. I had bought it for $1,000.00 with the mind to clean it up sail it a bit and resell her. This fiberglass design had a long drop cast iron keel that you would hoist up with a hand crank trailer boat winch through a big hole in its trunk. I learned very quickly that this set up was a nightmare to try and stop the ingress of water into its cabin. I also learned that when you hit the bottom with this heavy metal keel it would shake the boat like you had just lost all the ocean out from under you and dropped to the sea bed. Needless to say when in anything that looked like shallow water up it went and away would we start sliding to leeward on our crabbing passage to our anchorage. I learned I would never want this set up. I sold the boat for $3,000.00 which you could still do back then. I at times owned up to 8 boats that I was buying with the mind to fix up , learn it bit and then resell. Ive never lost money on a boat... Yet.

When I met and sailed with Jim Melchor on his Phil Bolger designed Mannatee yawl I got hooked on shallow water capable sailing vessels. I loved the way he could just sail about in 2-1/2 -3 of water without worry. The mizzen sail offset on the stern was so radical. Who was this guy Bolger that said you could do this and not follow convention ?

Jim sailing Alert in shallow water. The leeboard acts like a a simple long low aspect keel. Its design has been around for centuries.

Jim Melchor asked if he could finish one of his sons Bolger Black Skimmer leeboard Yawl designs in my custom boat building shop " Back Bay Boats" in Tavernier in Key Largo. Sure! After Jim launched we sailed that boat every chance we got.

I loved just watching the water flow around its simple exterior 2x4 chine logs. Who would of thought of doing this to make it easier for amature builders. Oh yea, to hell with convention.

I owned a Herrshoff Prudence sloop at time that I had built with all matching bronze hardware. Here was a designer I could follow in my own personal life. 

This boat was very stiff and fun to sail but had a wicked weather helm at times. The hull scantlings were way too light for me. The hull looked like it would not last long if not looked after carefully. In reality it did not. These boats with butt blocked plywood panels and one layer of Dynel cloth just do not hold up.

The next intresting boat I came across I had only heard about through my sailing  friends Michel and Idda Little. They had built a smaller Bolger double ended leeboard cat rigged 30re. They only sailed it a very short distance from Key West to the Marquesas keys to camp out on for the winter. You could do that back in those days. They have written a great book on camp cruising small boats.

From them I heard of this kid that they had met named Matt Layden. They said he was living aboard and crusing in a 13 cat rigged flat bottom dinghy that had a cabin top. And the thing that they wanted me to know was that it had no Keel, leeboard, daggerboard or anything. They said he sailed everywhere on just the chine !

It would take many years later before Matt and I finally met up in the Exumas. 

See pictures in an earlier blog.

During this time frame I decided to design and build my own shoal draft yawl. I wanted a very ocean capable boat but also very capable to really sail across very shoal waters with out the need for an engine. Between this time frame I looked up Henry Scheels keel design for reducing draft on production standard keels. The Austrailans had won the Americas cup with a wing keel. 

I had seen how easy the water flowed around the Bolger 2x4s.

This guy Matt was sailing all over with just his Chines. 

So what I figured was that I would kjust spread out a Scheel keel to both sides of the hull bottom.

The boat only sails on one side of its keel at a time. The hull sides would act like a leewards low slung flat surface... Except that I could use the whole side of the boat.

I ended up putting this chine edge down the whole length of the first Hogfish design. Pete Culler in his book on Skiffs and Schooners goes on to say you should never have a hard chine boat with a protruding exterior chine or the boat will trip and be very unsafe. Well Bolger must have not read Petes book. 

This chine protrusion, lip, extension, winggy thing what ever I feel works very well to stop the slipping you would otherwise get with out it. I have learned much since meeting Matt Laden, comparing boats and ideas. Now mine are very short. As in 12 long on HFM. Not too big. 

I can see how they work when I pull up my daggerboard or when I raise the centerboards on the other two Hogfish designs. 

BUT they do not give lift, not like some wing Keels can. They work best when the boat is hard pressed and heeling over in a breeze. If its light winds and we are trying to sail to weather in 4 of water the sails cannot be sheeted in too tight. As the breeze increases then you can see and feel the dig. You can see the grip by looking over the stern at the wake.

This is very low tech stuff here.

Lots of people dreaming of a shoal water simple boat would love to not have to build a board into their boat and also give up that space.

A Chine keel- wing like this WILL NOT WORK in anything bigger than maybe 18.

Why because you will need to use human ballast to lean the boat over to get it to dig in. This is impractical. Windage comes in to play. 

Its a good addition for gunk holers as a simple thing to add when building your boat.

This is what I would suggest putting on my H-28 for about 8-10

Heres showing what I feel is the difference between a traditional vee bottom and the Hogfish types.

See the difference in vee in going to windward in a decent breeze. The vee bottoms bow gets flatter.

Notice the freeboard. Must reef earlier in the upper boat.

Thats as far over as the HFM sails in 20-28 knts with one reef in the main.

Showing a box boat. Ive never seen a picture of one in strong winds so Iam only speculating here.

If you have some pictures in a strong breeze please send me some. 

To finish up heres some thoughts on rudder depths. Some loose drawings of contemporay designs and their rudder depths. Ill go offshore in any of those that go below the hull bottom. The others will be very hard pressed in a breeze as they will have to shorten their sail to handle the speeds and loads.

If you have no offshore sailing plans than no big deal. 

Rained all this afternoon today so no more work re installing Wild Birds deck Hardware. Time to write a post while Rachel cooks dinner.

Its Movember , mustache month. Rachel and I having lunch between squalls today.

Later...

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Intresting sailboats multihulls and skiffs in the Caribbean

So far we have logged 2,000 miles of sailing since leaving The Bahamas on this cruise. I love all types of boats so the islands down here provide me with a kaleidoscope of vessels to see. Each island nation has a different type of local fishing skiff. The French islands are the places to find cool trimarans from days gone by. Antigua in season has the best mega yachts and big sailing vessels.

Heres a bunch that caught my eye.

Latest gun boat foiler

Well, shes attached to a boat!

Aluminum bilge keeler from Germany

Complicated rudder on an Ovini sloop. I dont care for this as it uses a hydraulic ram to move the rudder blade.

Another bilge keeler. To much draft but it needs no cradle!

Nice looking french centerboarder. But with a very small rudder. Its for sale for $70,000.00 euros.

See, the rudder is way too small.

French racing sloop

New and very nice plywood skiff built in Carriacou

Carriacou two bow racing dinghy

Boat building in Windward, Carriacou

Alwin Eno the builder

Supposed to be done by August

Nice fixer upper, kinda like a Jay Benford in the making

Beautiful Paul Johnson ketch built in steel from Ireland

Trimaran in Martinique thats using Val floats

Another Dick Newick tri just yards away. Lovely

French racing day boat

These boats are sailed with large sprit sails and all crew use trapezes

Another French center boarder

Interesting sloop with twin dagger boards at the sheer and twin rudders

20 long but it has it all on board

All aluminum Piver like tri

Tiny Newick tri in wood

Couple of rotting Pogos in the bushes. They are for sale.

Huge French going to rot in the same bay, so sad

Fast racing sloop collecting mold

Interesting aluminum tri

And last a chopped off Lazer bow being used as the shortest dinghy seen on this cruise

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