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Pacific Cup

Warren,
Best wishes, fair seas, and no round ups.
When are you leaving he dock?
You need a send off!
Let's do this thing!
John
Coast Starlight
#075
 
Since this and my email I sent will be the last contact we have before tomorrow’s race ...I see your start time and have downloaded the tracker so we can follow you...again I sure hope they “modernize” a bit and allow some live from the race boats uploads and or posts. So far looks like great coverage.
I’ve been following weather forecasts so I don’t need to tell you to take it easy for the first part of the trip just offshore with that fresh breeze. You’ve got some good experienced crew. That’s huge. Our thoughts and excitement are with you for a fun safe journey.
John, Joni and a whole bunch of others.
 
Well Warren and his expended crew are on thier way to Hawaii as of 11:15 AM yesterday PST. Doing about 7.5 knots. The Cal 40 is out in front. The Cal has A skag hung rudder, fin keel, flatter hull (bangs a lot) two thousand pounds lighter generally just a faster boat all around. That boat has done this race over 14 times too! So Warren and crew are in good air now. Looks like 20 plus knots up to thirty.
 
How does an Express 27 fit in with two Cal 40's and a Morgan 38?
Rating...they also have a fleet of OD Express 27s and one Santa Cruz 27.
Those Cal 40s have a boat speed if 9 knots plus on reaches. Eliana’s expierienced crew is doing pretty good for thier first time sailing a Morgan to Hawaii. They just need to get the boat in it’s sweet spot for speed...it’s very narrow. I’ve got some pictures I could post.

I remember when we all thought a 27-30 foot boat was all we would ever need. A 38 was a palace!
Go the temp gauge fixed ...they used a switch instead of a sender ...now they have the right one...a sender. Duh...
I’ll post some race photos here...
 
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7F70EBE5-F1C7-46E9-A8EB-6568C29E6B18.png
 
I believe our Morgans strong suit is that they more of reaching boat with its modified full keel and skeg hung rudder for directional stability. They had 20-30 knots of wind maybe more for a while off the coast. They are getting ready to do their more fun RUN with Spin. I know Warren likes that but I don't think its their fastest point of sail. 110 degrees or so is the sweet spot...reaching.


Eliana-wind-position.jpg
 
Here they are leaving SF Bay...

Eliana-close-up-start.jpg


Eliana-leaving-SF.jpg


Need to attend to that headsail trim shape a bit...:))
 
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Warren and crew of Eliana update PAC Cup
Check-in 7/12 1745


Position at 7/12/18 1300 33 55.68 N, 131 48.68 W, 1,561.2 NM to finish

Eliana and crew underway to Hawaii
f26c48_11a8390dc9994fcd91f538763542fc27~mv2.jpg



Warren writes:

I saw a UFO last night. I thought I might be seeing things - hallucinations from lack of sleep and lack of anything else to look at. But I asked Tony and he saw the same thing. It was the one where a light moves through the sky at speeds and angles not possible by aircraft. From a dead stop, to zipping to another location, then dead stop, then up, etc.

While we both saw it, and had several explanations of what it might be, neither of us thought it to be aliens or flying saucers. But, as we could not identify exactly what it was, it remains a UFO.

This morning we set the kite. First the 3/4 oz, but traded down to the shy kite because of occasional squalls and t


he wind angle was too close for the full sized spinnaker. Once we got settled in with that we set the spinnaker staysail as well. The saying goes; when you set it you gain half a knot of speed, and when you take it down you also gain a knot of speed. So we don't know if it is helping, but high points for us looking like pros.

I think we are doing very well race-wise. Time will tell as it isn't even half over yet, but right now I think we are contenders for winning our division on corrected time.

Lastly, I am very pleased with the boat. Everything works, nothing is breaking (crossing fingers I don't jinx it) and she is sailing fast (for a Morgan) and solid.
 
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So, a follow up to Warren’s UFO...I had wondered if someone had a drone onboard. It certainly could be seen from a great distance out there...

“The drone onboard Russ Johnson's Jeanneau 52.2 Blue Moon is reported to have been lost at sea.”

Well there ya go...:))
 
I’m posting this here as an update sent to me for Eliana, Warren and Crew...

“We are taking a much lower course than the other boats. They are all currently on a shorter coarse to the finish line than us. My hope is that in a few days when the wind clocks aft, we will get a lift to a good line to Hawaii, and set the kite with an angle of about 165-170, and the higher boats will get lifted to a course higher than Hawaii increasing the distance they need to sail, forcing them to go way north before they jibe.

It is also interesting that Bombora is 4th overall, we are 10th overall, and there are only 7 minutes between us. That means there are 5 boats between us in those 7 minutes. A very competitive race.

Only time will tell. Winds the past two days have been very light. We have mostly been on a beam reach, but with gusts and lows from all directions. Very tough to sail in. About midday yesterday we caught a small tuna. John made some delicious fish tacos with coleslaw beans and salsa. While pulling in the tuna I found we were dragging a blue line that I did not recognize. We walked the deck and no lines were missing or over. I could grab it with a boat hook but it was caught tight on something. We were concerned that as it was, we could not start our engine and motor to port after the finish, and because winds were so light we decided to stop and I swam on it. It turned out that we stowed our fenders in the propane locker, and one of the whips was pulled out the vent at the bottom of the locker. A knot in the line was also pulled through, so I had to cut the line.

I spend about 2 hours per day on the computer, downloading gribs and weather faxes, studying different routes and options. It is something I am not good at, but find it to be very fun. It adds a whole new dimension to sailboat racing. The skipper of Green Buffalo has sailed this race many times, and is much better at it than I am. It is interesting he took such a different course. I did look at that coarse, and for Eliana, I would have been sailing much faster, but after being headed north (which I expect to happen to them) it would have only been 20 minutes faster than our chosen coarse. It seemed a better gamble to take the coarse with the slower boat speeds, and have more opportunity to sail faster, than the faster course, already be near hull speed and have more opportunity to sail slower.

I have to say that I am very pleased with the Morgan. It sails so nice, if not very fast, handled 35 knot winds the first day and night wonderfully, and we have had only one failure so far. After 5 big men sharing a single head for 5 days, healing hard for most of that, the seat broke off. If that is the only failure after a 2000nm race I will be very happy.”
 
Warren
Looks like you are doing fairly well. The choice of the high route vs the low route seems to be a crap shoot. Hope you have chosen the the winner. Sail safe and have fun.

Jim
 
Warren
Looks like you are doing fairly well. The choice of the high route vs the low route seems to be a crap shoot. Hope you have chosen the the winner. Sail safe and have fun.

Jim
Hi Jim...I don’t think Warren is able to read or post here so I’ve been doing it for him. I expect to get some “from the boat” pictures today to post. They are hoping to catch a “run” to Hawaii today or tomorrow...
 
John
Thanks for doing a relay. Let Warren and his crew know we are rooting for them.

Jim
They really appreciate knowing we are with them in spirit...
They are just coming into some breeze 15-20 knots I believe. Boat speed should pick up. The northern group is losing the air they had.
 
Eliana-crew-somewhere-in-the-pacific.jpg


Warren writes as of 7-15-2018

Today on the luxury racing yacht Eliana, we had BBQ tri-tip and potatoes.

After a few days of very light wind, this afternoon wind started to build and we were able to set the kite again. We are now sailing 7+ knots right at Kaneohe. We have know way of knowing, but we suspect(hope) that the light winds will persist to our north for another day, and we will gain back some ground on the other boats in our division. It looks from the gribs that today they might have had winds in the 3-5 kt range. If that is the case then my route through the slow stuff paid off. If they get wind, then we might get slaughtered.

The race overall looks very slow, with light air behind us for the other starts. Some boats that started on Wednesday are projected to take more than 20 days. Even the fastest boats that started on Friday are projected to take 12 days. It is very exciting to follow what I can, and try to plan strategy. Eliana should by all counts lose, but I think we are in a position that we have a chance, and even if we don't place in our division, I am proud of my crew, and can say we did damn well.
 
Eliana-first-or-secong-place.jpg


7-16-2018
“Warren writes:
We got wonderful news with the 8am position update today.
We gained 26 nm on Green Buffalo, 29 nm on Bombora, and 47 nm on Highlander. Also, I am asking for clarification on the calculation of the corrected time. I think that there is an error and we might actually be in first place in our division as well as in all PHRF. Of course the race is only half over so that could change drastically.

In particular, Bombora can make great downwind speeds. Since the rest of the race is downwind, they could pull way ahead. Today we passed the halfway point and, as per tradition, had a quick party. Tony's wife gave us a gift to open with some dress-up items, squirt guns, and bubbles. The wind was light again this morning, but not as bad as previously, and it picked up in the late afternoon. Hopefully it will hold through the night. I think the northern boats still have another day of light wind, while I expect 15-20 knots for the rest of the race for us.”

Even if this position is only temporary it’s great considering who they are up against. Some real pros. It shows how important knowing and racing your own race is as well as navigating the weather is to racing. They have done well! My two cents...congrats on your “half way party”.
 
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Today's report for Eliana Morgan 382... not too shabby for first timers eh!? Yahoo!... It may not last but hey...quite an accomplishment for first timer.

They cant post here right now but I hope some of you regulars and visitors to the forum take the time to cheer them on...they will appreciate it.

eliana-first.jpg
 
Geez! They did 157 nautical miles the last 24 hrs. That’s pretty dang good “for a Morgan”!
 
Nice little write up on the Pacific Cup Website about Eliana...pretty amazing

Something that could not have been predicted a handful of days ago, the Coral Reef Sailing Apparel A division now sees all four boats in a dead heat on Wednesday morning.

As Green Buffalo got hung out to dry up north and slowed, fellow Cal 40 Highlander began working the south while Bombora tried to do the same and Eliana kept rumbling along to close the gap on what had previously been a large deficit. (That’s are guys!)

The two Cal 40's were tied dead even this morning and are set to cross paths later this afternoon. Green Buffalo has consistently had a speed advantage compared to Highlander whenever the boats are in the same patch of water, and so we fully expect Green Buffalo to once again take command of this division, though it's certainly lining up to be a very close race all the way to the finish.

Currently in last place in division, the Express 27 Bombora is just 1 hour and 4 minutes behind Green Buffalo and Highlander on corrected time, though could easily make up that deficit with half a day of good surfing conditions. Look for the red ultralight to make big moves on the leaderboard as the fleet makes their final approach to the islands where the tradewinds typically get compressed and intensify in strength.
 
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Warren and his crew are having a blast. What an experience for them. Continued luck to Eliana and crew. It surely confirms that our Morgans are a true bluewater sailers and so are these sailors on Eliana!

Give them hell Warren!
 
They do not know their actual current position and we can't tell them. That would be outside assistance...this AM as of 6 hours ago they were in second place. They are making a pretty good VMG of 6.0 knots on the other boats that are doing .2 knots better to the finish line. DTF is predicted to be just roughly 700 miles. They did another 151 miles in 24 hours yesterday. Now ya know why we care about a tenth of a knot!
 
First boats are arriving ...The tracker is now live...
I just got this post from Warren...
Warren writes:
It's been a while since I sent a blog update. Eliana is loving the "shy kite." In winds of about 15kts apparent, with a following swell, she will "catch the wave" and sail much of the time at 8kts plus, with 9kts for 5 to 10 seconds at times, and once in a while we see 10. When this happens, Eliana, doesn't feel like a heavy Morgan at all. It is only for short period that everything lines up and we can sail like that, but when it does, it's quite a rush.

We also got hit by a couple squalls with much higher winds with the kite up. Much less fun. It was work to keep Eliana standing up, and we end up sailing whatever direction the squall wants us to, but Eliana kept us safe. At times it took full rudder to control her course and we would still round up, but we never broached. We made our first jibe 2 nights ago. It happened after a lift turned us to about 40 degrees away from Kaneohe. There was discussion (argument?) about whether wind would shift back or if this was the new wind direction. It was just before sundown, so whatever we chose we would be stuck with it. I made the call to drop the kite, and sail with the Genoa until morning, giving the driver the ability to jibe back and forth if necessary all night without the complexity of jibing the kite. We have been on the new jibe since then.

The race is still close. It looks like there is a good chance we will end 3rd in our division. There is a much smaller, but real chance we could end 2nd or 1st. It is a very close race, against 3 boats much faster then Eliana.
Editors note: Reportedly, Highlander has broken her boom, forcing them to sail by headsails only. Everyone is well aboard, but they are going more slowly than Eliana and dropping to 4th.
 
Coral Reef Sailing Apparel A division is beginning to sort itself out with Jim Quanci’s Cal 40 Green Buffalo well atop the leaderboard and Rebecca Hinden’s Express 27 Bombora about four hours back on corrected time and looking like a shoe-in for second place as these top two boats are just 30-36 hours out from the finish.

Behind them, the Morgan 382 Eliana and the Cal 40 Highlander are duking it out, though Highlander is going ultra low and slow to the finish, as a result of their broken boom.

Looking like Eliana might score a third.
 
Eliana is due to arrive late tomorrow (Monday)

Position at: 21 Jul 2018 22:00 PDT: 23° 51.99 N, 153° 13.38 W, 289.2 NM to finish
Distance (last 24hrs): 138 NM

Warren writes:
“Eliana is currently projected to cross the finish line around 2230 on Monday night. We assume that is HST since that is the official time zone of the race finish, but clarification is tough to come by.

In fact, about 99% of the race is held in the Pacific Standard time zone, no matter what longitude the boats are in. The only time they switch time zones is when they cross the finish line. That is always recorded in Hawaiian time. It makes for some complicated calculations to find total elapsed time. Otherwise, the boats cross longitudes slowly enough that the changes in sunrise and sunset are not too noticeable. After a few days, you might have a vague memory that your shift used to start in full daylight, but now starts just before sunrise.

Today we had our first significant failure. The spinnaker halyard bail at the masthead broke, turning our spinnaker into a sea anchor. Fortunately, a few days before the start, we ran a second halyard. (thank you for helping with that, dad) Within about 20 minutes we had the spinnaker out of the water, back up, and we were racing again.

Fair winds, Eliana. We are implanted at the finish line, doing quality checks on Mai Tais for you.”

Now you know why even just minutes count. As the saying goes many many races done in sailboats are won and lost by inches at a time. The difference between third and fourth is just 45 minutes after a 2000 mile race as of now according to the postion tracker. 12 minutes here and 24 minutes there can be the difference between the podium and last. Go Eliana! You’ve done well.
 
As of this writing Eliana is 65 miles from the finish...it’s gonna be close on corrected time. Only minutes or hour for third spot ...
 
Warren & Crew.

Bravo! Just doing the race is a major accomplishment. To place well in addition is even sweeter. It has been fun following your progress. Enjoy the Mai-Tais. Have a safe passage home.

Jim
 
Warren and crew should be arriving at the finish line any moment, minute or very soon. I’ll post pictures if I get some or I’m sure Warren will...after resting...
 
Less than a mile to go...excruciating but exciting finish...nice going guys! Posted here for years to come I hope. They just finished as I was writing this. What a race. Lots of congratulations in order for a guy that really just started sailing. Inspirational...and yes they were safe. They had a good experienced crew. Now enjoy yourself...be interesting on how you get back! Sail back or ship back.
 
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Congrats guys...well done! I had quite a few people from various sailing clubs out here watching you every moment...was kind of fun...

Eliana-arrival-2-web.jpg
 
After 14d 7h 15m 4s at sea, 2000 plus miles, Eliana came in and finished at 15:30:04 HST on July 23, 3rd in class division, 12th in PHRF. 13th in Pac Cup.

Tales of broaches, squalls and smelly foul weather gear were exchanged over champagne and fruity rum drinks while onlookers admired our crew shirts. Everyone has gone off now to a proper shower and a non-rocking bed for a full 8 to 12 hour sleep.

Congratulations to Warren, Tony, John, Paul and Mark! Well done, crew! Save for catching up with a few more photos, this will be the final post. I hope you enjoyed following along!
 
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It helps maintain or even increase the value of the Morgan 382 as well. The sailing public is exposed to the virtues and toughness of this vessel.
It also demonstrates that the Morgan 382 can successfully compete in a world racing event by sailing over 2000 miles not twenty years ago but now in 2018 and do so in comfort...not bad for a 40 year old boat!
 
Hey Warren, Eliana & Crew: Congratulations!

Warren I know you did a ton of work just to get to the starting line, and now you finished it. Wow.

I also hope you guys get the “best dressed” award. Your fashion designer was clearly marvelous!!

I have to say that Zia is a little jealous of Eliana: she’s all ready to go on a similar jaunt but her owner hasn’t figured out how to get free of this “work” thing.

Guys: I thought Warren said someplace he was going to use this as a springboard to more Pacific explorations?
 
Congratulations Warren and crew and to Eliana! All are impressed with the accomplishment, and true to heart, wished we could have had the experience. At least for me!
 
The latest from Warren on Eliana...

“Im not going back :) Im going to continue cruising. Im looking for crew if anyone you know is interested.

Options are to leave Hawaii fairly quickly while passage to Fiji is still safe, or cruise the islands until next season. Crew availability may affect which i do.

Im planning a lengthy blog update soon, with pics and videos, but maybe not tonight. Lots of drinking and partying going on. But I got into an airbnb and have good internet again.

Thank you for following,
Warren”

You can contact Warren at his blog for now if you think you might like to go on an adventure.

http://www.holybee.net/contact
 
Thank you everyone for the well wishes and support! This has been an amazing experience, and it helped knowing that so many people I didn't even know were rooting for me.

I learned a lot during the race, and certainly could apply that knowledge if I were to race again. However, as much as I would like to race in the Pacific Cup again, not on my boat. Man, was that a lot of abuse. I don't think it can be appreciated until you do it. I have a much greater respect for the Morgan, as it kept taking it, when so many other boats didn't, and showed up with all kinds of problems. Broken booms, broken steering, broken stays.

My list of damage is short, and the most expensive thing is a missing winch handle, which we think was thrown overboard during a jibe, but we are not sure. Also on the list is a broken toilet seat (anyone know of a replacement seat with stainless or bronze hinges? Plastic is just gonna break when a 200 lb man is bouncing on it.) The bail on the spinnaker crane to hold the halyard block. Amazing that that broke and the spinnaker didn't blow out. But not surprising as the night before it failed we were flying the spinnaker squall after squall with winds gusting to 30 kts. My knot meter failed about halfway across. I just replaced the paddlewheel with an airmar sonic transducer before leaving. It didn't work after installing it, then mysteriously started working. I think it is defective. Lastly, I replaced my steering cables not long ago, and they are settling in and stretched a bit, so my steering has a lot of play in it now.

As for the abuse, every time the spinnaker started to collapse and then filled, that shock load is immense. This mostly was not light wind spinnaker flying, this was 20 kts, with squalls gusting much higher. Down below, the bang sounded like something breaking, again, and again, thousands of times. During squalls, there was often a lurch forward enough to knock you down if you weren't holding on. And oh man, the Morgan will surf in these conditions. Often we were over 9 kts for 15 seconds or longer. Hitting 13 knots briefly a number of times. The catch of course is that speed then drops to 5 kts or so after the swell passes under you.

Things I learned. Only one person (the navigator) should ever see the GPS or chart plotter. This was my first PacCup. most of my crew had done it several times before. I don't consider myself a great navigator. So I was sharing information and taking input. Which was great when we all agreed what to do. When I called for our first gybe, it felt like mutiny. We had a wind shift, and we were lifted well off course. All of the information I had from the gribs and weather fax was that the shift would stay. But the rest of the crew was convinced it would shift back in a few hours. One argument is that it shouldn't matter, if it shifts back, we gybe back. But, it was dusk and we were not likely to gybe at night. After some arguing, I opted to dowse the spinnaker and sail all night on white sails. That way, even though we were slower, we could gybe back and forth and follow the shifts. There were none. We stayed on the new gybe for more than 24 hours. We would have best kept the kite up and gybed, as I originally wanted.

Also, we flew the shy kite nearly the entire time. Again, because the crew refused to fly the bigger #2 spinnaker. The shy kite is awesome. If a boat only carries one kite, that is the one to get. When over trimmed, it has a really wide range of sailing angles, is easy to control, and doesn't need an active trimmer. A single driver can easily handle it. The shy kite is also seemingly indestructible. As mentioned before, the stainless steel bail broke before the kite blew out. It did get a dime sized tear at some point, probably be dragging it out of the water over the lifelines after the bail broke. The shy kite handles heavy winds, and will fly in light air as well. But, in light air, the #2 is faster. The crew was concerned that the #2 kite was a 3 person job (driver, trimmer, and grinder) and given that half the crew was off watch we didn't have enough crew to fly it. I disagree, and we flew it for about an hour while I was on the helm. It was certainly more work but I thought it manageable. It was faster, and this was a race.

I also fought with sailing angles. Much of the race was sailed much deeper than optimum for a Morgan. Some of this was decided by the weather routing software, and some of it was by the crew using their own handheld GPS and sailing directly to Hawaii.

We also stopped for about 20 minutes while I swam on the boat and "cleared a line." I didn't know it until I was in the water, but a line went out the vent hole in the bottom of the aft locker. Not seeing any lines overboard, it looked like something caught on the keel.

Plus, we were fishing, and caught a small one. We probably drug it for hours before it was noticed. I don't know how much that slows the boat, but I am sure it makes a noticeable difference over several days.

Thanks again. For those that have facebook, I would appreciate the follow. Many more pictures are there, as i can post them quickly from my phone, even via Satellite while offshore.

https://www.facebook.com/followeliana/
https://www.facebook.com/warren.9999

And my blog:
http://www.holybee.net/blog
 
Thank you everyone for the well wishes and support! This has been an amazing experience, and it helped knowing that so many people I didn't even know were rooting for me.

I learned a lot during the race, and certainly could apply that knowledge if I were to race again. However, as much as I would like to race in the Pacific Cup again, not on my boat. Man, was that a lot of abuse. I don't think it can be appreciated until you do it. I have a much greater respect for the Morgan, as it kept taking it, when so many other boats didn't, and showed up with all kinds of problems. Broken booms, broken steering, broken stays.

My list of damage is short, and the most expensive thing is a missing winch handle, which we think was thrown overboard during a jibe, but we are not sure. Also on the list is a broken toilet seat (anyone know of a replacement seat with stainless or bronze hinges? Plastic is just gonna break when a 200 lb man is bouncing on it.) The bail on the spinnaker crane to hold the halyard block. Amazing that that broke and the spinnaker didn't blow out. But not surprising as the night before it failed we were flying the spinnaker squall after squall with winds gusting to 30 kts. My knot meter failed about halfway across. I just replaced the paddlewheel with an airmar sonic transducer before leaving. It didn't work after installing it, then mysteriously started working. I think it is defective. Lastly, I replaced my steering cables not long ago, and they are settling in and stretched a bit, so my steering has a lot of play in it now.

As for the abuse, every time the spinnaker started to collapse and then filled, that shock load is immense. This mostly was not light wind spinnaker flying, this was 20 kts, with squalls gusting much higher. Down below, the bang sounded like something breaking, again, and again, thousands of times. During squalls, there was often a lurch forward enough to knock you down if you weren't holding on. And oh man, the Morgan will surf in these conditions. Often we were over 9 kts for 15 seconds or longer. Hitting 13 knots briefly a number of times. The catch of course is that speed then drops to 5 kts or so after the swell passes under you.

Things I learned. Only one person (the navigator) should ever see the GPS or chart plotter. This was my first PacCup. most of my crew had done it several times before. I don't consider myself a great navigator. So I was sharing information and taking input. Which was great when we all agreed what to do. When I called for our first gybe, it felt like mutiny. We had a wind shift, and we were lifted well off course. All of the information I had from the gribs and weather fax was that the shift would stay. But the rest of the crew was convinced it would shift back in a few hours. One argument is that it shouldn't matter, if it shifts back, we gybe back. But, it was dusk and we were not likely to gybe at night. After some arguing, I opted to dowse the spinnaker and sail all night on white sails. That way, even though we were slower, we could gybe back and forth and follow the shifts. There were none. We stayed on the new gybe for more than 24 hours. We would have best kept the kite up and gybed, as I originally wanted.

Also, we flew the shy kite nearly the entire time. Again, because the crew refused to fly the bigger #2 spinnaker. The shy kite is awesome. If a boat only carries one kite, that is the one to get. When over trimmed, it has a really wide range of sailing angles, is easy to control, and doesn't need an active trimmer. A single driver can easily handle it. The shy kite is also seemingly indestructible. As mentioned before, the stainless steel bail broke before the kite blew out. It did get a dime sized tear at some point, probably be dragging it out of the water over the lifelines after the bail broke. The shy kite handles heavy winds, and will fly in light air as well. But, in light air, the #2 is faster. The crew was concerned that the #2 kite was a 3 person job (driver, trimmer, and grinder) and given that half the crew was off watch we didn't have enough crew to fly it. I disagree, and we flew it for about an hour while I was on the helm. It was certainly more work but I thought it manageable. It was faster, and this was a race.

I also fought with sailing angles. Much of the race was sailed much deeper than optimum for a Morgan. Some of this was decided by the weather routing software, and some of it was by the crew using their own handheld GPS and sailing directly to Hawaii.

We also stopped for about 20 minutes while I swam on the boat and "cleared a line." I didn't know it until I was in the water, but a line went out the vent hole in the bottom of the aft locker. Not seeing any lines overboard, it looked like something caught on the keel.

Plus, we were fishing, and caught a small one. We probably drug it for hours before it was noticed. I don't know how much that slows the boat, but I am sure it makes a noticeable difference over several days.

Thanks again. For those that have facebook, I would appreciate the follow. Many more pictures are there, as i can post them quickly from my phone, even via Satellite while offshore.

https://www.facebook.com/followeliana/
https://www.facebook.com/warren.9999

And my blog:
http://www.holybee.net/blog
Your welcome...
 
Warren!

A belated congratulations on your run!

(Land-Life has pretty much kept me away from Sailing-Life for the past couple of years ...)

Sounds like a great experience!

So ....

Curious minds want to know ....

Now that you’ve done some serious deep-water sailing in a Morgan 382...

How'd she do?

What’s your opinion of ‘Morgan 38’s as ocean-cruising boats?

The fact that you plan to continue sailing her for more of your Pacific crossing is already a pretty good endorsement.

But ...

What worked and what didn’t?

What are you glad you had with you and what did you wish you had brought?

What equipnenr/gear/provision changes will you make to the boat before your next crossing?

Any design changes you would suggest to the good folks at Morgan if you could take a time machine back to the late 70’s?

Cheers!

Chris
 
Just made landfall in American Samoa this morning. First time with internet in about a month.

The last 36 hrs were 15 ft seas, winds gusting to 40, and pouring rain. The Morgan excelled.

My most significant change would be ventilation. Something that moves lots of air, even when it’s raining.

One of my crew complains there isn’t enough space between the wheel and seat.

The boat is tough, not much else I would change.
 
Hi Warren, very good to hear from you. Congrats on the serious passage and last 36 hours of significant waves!

I should remember this but I don’t & I’m on my phone. I think you have a 382 and I think the 383 & 384s have four dorade boxes & cowl vents to help with air circulation. I’d be happy to ship you gratis a 12V fan if you can private message me an address.

We were in French Polynesia last year, and it was totally lovely but every night I felt like I was being smothered by a warm, wet washcloth. No AC and no air circulation.

Another forum member (Terry) went clockwise down the west coast to Mexico, to French Poly, Hawaii, then Portland, OR. You’ve been more counter clockwise so far.

Enjoy American Samoa! And I’m jealous ;)
 
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Warren,
Great news on your long passage! I'm happy to hear it went well.
My 383 does have 2 Dorades, but I think they were installed by a previous owner. I could be wrong. All the ports are opening types. BOTH features help. But the ports must be closed when it is raining.
Have Fun!
Mitchell
 
Ventilation works fine as long as the outside air is dryer/cooler than the inside air.

In hot/humid climates, this is typically not the case, and ventilation alone gains you nothing: A/C is the only way to go.

Of course this requires lots of power, so it leads to all kinds of other considerations and adjustments (generators ... more fuel capacity ... etc)

Many of the boats I visited or spent time on in the Tropics had A/C. All had to use it sparingly.

When at anchor, or sailing on the open ocean in good weather, with mild seas, and any sort of decent wind, a “wind-scoop” can be set up over an open hatch... but again, if the outside air is as bad as the inside air, there is no gain...

Some links for wind-scoops:


https://www.defender.com/category.jsp?id=2290156

https://store.marinebeam.com/breeze-bandit-wind-scoop-hatch-wind-catcher-bb-01/

Question: Could these designs be modified to work like dorades? so they could be used in rainy weather?

Chris
 
Warren Congratulations , You mentioned the head seat plastic hinges. I replaced mine with Stainless steel . I ordered the hinges off the internet. They take all new holes so you will have to epoxy the old ones and repaint . Its stronger and there is no wiggle now. ! Just another easy boat job that takes all day !!!!
 
Chris (sorry, this is delayed a month!) ... we have found that *any* air moving is a big help, even if it is not cooler than the inside temperature. The worst is when it's super hot & humid with no moving air. That's what we experienced in French Polynesia. One notch better is to have a 12V fan or a scoop like you mentioned to at least get the air moving. The ultimate is to have AC, but that hasn't been in the cards for us ;-)
 
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I'm back online for a short bit. Currently in Fiji. :)

I don't think I need A/C at all, at least this time of year. The issue is vents that can be opened when it is raining or when blue water is coming over the bow. When the cabin is sealed tight, it gets VERY humid and VERY hot. Dorade vents like the 383/384 would probably be sufficent. Powered 12 volt fans in them would be nice too.

Another thing I would change, the quarter berth is nearly impossible to keep dry. Just the few seconds to open the companionway when it is pouring, then someone changing out of foulies into dry clothes right there, and it becomes too wet to sleep on comfortably. I will probably install a curtain.

I have a windscoop, which is great a anchor, but not so much while under way.
 
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