A couple of weeks ago, the stars aligned and we had an opportunity to attend a sailing event in Lake Havasu City AZ. With ten days notice, we threw together an expedition in the spirit of Shackleton and headed south.
Sail Havasu is the brainchild of Havasu City FF/Medic Sean Mulligan. He started this mess four years ago with an open invitation to trailerable sailboats. He got fifteen the first year. Every year since, the numbers have roughly doubled. It is a week long event with activities and presentations every day.
The trip would cover about 1200 miles one way.
With the help of my wife and two daughters, we threw everything in the boat and tow vehicle.
Two and a half days of driving later, we arrived. The boats are berthed at several marinas in the area. We were in a marina with 1000 slips which is 950 more than we are used to... The parking lot was full of folks setting up boats with friendly people chipping in to help everywhere.
We helped where we could, and got launched ourselves. The next day, we motored up the canal to the London Bridge Resort which serves as the base for most of the event's activities.
The resort sits next to the actual WWII era London Bridge which was moved, rock by rock, to this location by the site developers. During the event, there is a "Parade of Sail" where the participants sail under the bridge. A beautiful procession.
Over the next several days we sailed, attended seminars, got our first taste of racing a sailboat, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The start for the long distance race had sixty four boats all starting at the same time.
We motored out, looked at the starting line chaos, and decided to let everyone go. There were two collisions and some gelcoat swapping while we watched. When everyone had cleared, we went through the start of a sailboat race for the first time. In light air, we chased the pack around the main island.
Keith, one of the competitors and organizers, was nice enough to share this photo from the main downwind leg. Many of the shots were shared by event participants. There is a flickr site set up for participants to create collections and share photos and video. Links at the bottom.
We ended up 34th out of 64 which got the girls pretty enthused. There were some grins from the crew every time that we passed someone.
The next days race saw stronger winds so we put in a reef to keep the heeling and crew squeaking to a minimum. We mixed in more at the start, but I still kept us out of the main crush of the fifty plus participants. There was more bump-and-grind at this start as well. We started roughly in the middle of the pack without scaring anyone. (Sail #487 in the photo).
All the way around the course, there was another boat that seemed always near. It was great fun jousting with these folks.
As we got close to the upwind buoy, the lake narrows and the winds got even more gusty and confused. The hours that my wife and I have spent competing on sailboards came in very handy when it came to reading the water for impending strength and direction of the fickle winds. We got lucky with a couple of gust predictions and gained a few positions at the upwind mark.
This is us finishing. We were in the middle of the pack for our class and in the top fifteen overall.
One of the highlights of the trip was for my oldest daughter to be able to interview Howard Rice for her research paper. Howard was attending as a presenter. He was gracious, thoughtful, and attentive while being interviewed.
If you have never heard of Howard, give google or wikipedia a shot. You will learn that among other achievements, Howard was the first person to double Cape Horn solo in a sailing canoe.
Sean and his cast of volunteers do an awesome job. We had a great time, made many friends, learned a lot, saw lots of boats, relaxed, sailed, and given that memories of the drive will fade, will probably do this again next year if possible. Getting there a couple of days early, helping with the event setup, and attending the pre-event barbecue at Steamboat Cove are our goals. Highly recommended.
Stats from the event (from the HPCC site):
Geography:
States - 26
Canadian Provinces - 4
Countries - 5
Boats:
Total Boats - 195
Total Attendees - 389 (Skippers, crew, and hopeful crew)
Boat Brands - 56
Most of a Brand - Montgomery with 32 boats
Boat Models - 78
Most of a model - MacGregor 26 with 23
Singletons - 49 - Models w/only one boat
Driving distances one way towing a boat:
Driving Average - 659 Miles
Thousand Mile Club - 33 Yes, 33 Boats towing over 1000 miles one way!
2000 Mile Club - 6 - And Yes, 6 Boats towing over 2000 miles one way!
Most Miles - 2,833 Miles!!!
Lots of photos and some video at: HPCC 2012 Flickr
One particular collection has consistently wonderful (magazine quality) images: Dere
Several videos (including one of a starting line crash) at facebook. Search for "Sail Havasu"
Thanks for watching...
Regards
Sail Havasu is the brainchild of Havasu City FF/Medic Sean Mulligan. He started this mess four years ago with an open invitation to trailerable sailboats. He got fifteen the first year. Every year since, the numbers have roughly doubled. It is a week long event with activities and presentations every day.
The trip would cover about 1200 miles one way.
With the help of my wife and two daughters, we threw everything in the boat and tow vehicle.
Two and a half days of driving later, we arrived. The boats are berthed at several marinas in the area. We were in a marina with 1000 slips which is 950 more than we are used to... The parking lot was full of folks setting up boats with friendly people chipping in to help everywhere.
We helped where we could, and got launched ourselves. The next day, we motored up the canal to the London Bridge Resort which serves as the base for most of the event's activities.
The resort sits next to the actual WWII era London Bridge which was moved, rock by rock, to this location by the site developers. During the event, there is a "Parade of Sail" where the participants sail under the bridge. A beautiful procession.
Over the next several days we sailed, attended seminars, got our first taste of racing a sailboat, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The start for the long distance race had sixty four boats all starting at the same time.
We motored out, looked at the starting line chaos, and decided to let everyone go. There were two collisions and some gelcoat swapping while we watched. When everyone had cleared, we went through the start of a sailboat race for the first time. In light air, we chased the pack around the main island.
Keith, one of the competitors and organizers, was nice enough to share this photo from the main downwind leg. Many of the shots were shared by event participants. There is a flickr site set up for participants to create collections and share photos and video. Links at the bottom.
We ended up 34th out of 64 which got the girls pretty enthused. There were some grins from the crew every time that we passed someone.
The next days race saw stronger winds so we put in a reef to keep the heeling and crew squeaking to a minimum. We mixed in more at the start, but I still kept us out of the main crush of the fifty plus participants. There was more bump-and-grind at this start as well. We started roughly in the middle of the pack without scaring anyone. (Sail #487 in the photo).
All the way around the course, there was another boat that seemed always near. It was great fun jousting with these folks.
As we got close to the upwind buoy, the lake narrows and the winds got even more gusty and confused. The hours that my wife and I have spent competing on sailboards came in very handy when it came to reading the water for impending strength and direction of the fickle winds. We got lucky with a couple of gust predictions and gained a few positions at the upwind mark.
This is us finishing. We were in the middle of the pack for our class and in the top fifteen overall.
One of the highlights of the trip was for my oldest daughter to be able to interview Howard Rice for her research paper. Howard was attending as a presenter. He was gracious, thoughtful, and attentive while being interviewed.
If you have never heard of Howard, give google or wikipedia a shot. You will learn that among other achievements, Howard was the first person to double Cape Horn solo in a sailing canoe.
Sean and his cast of volunteers do an awesome job. We had a great time, made many friends, learned a lot, saw lots of boats, relaxed, sailed, and given that memories of the drive will fade, will probably do this again next year if possible. Getting there a couple of days early, helping with the event setup, and attending the pre-event barbecue at Steamboat Cove are our goals. Highly recommended.
Stats from the event (from the HPCC site):
Geography:
States - 26
Canadian Provinces - 4
Countries - 5
Boats:
Total Boats - 195
Total Attendees - 389 (Skippers, crew, and hopeful crew)
Boat Brands - 56
Most of a Brand - Montgomery with 32 boats
Boat Models - 78
Most of a model - MacGregor 26 with 23
Singletons - 49 - Models w/only one boat
Driving distances one way towing a boat:
Driving Average - 659 Miles
Thousand Mile Club - 33 Yes, 33 Boats towing over 1000 miles one way!
2000 Mile Club - 6 - And Yes, 6 Boats towing over 2000 miles one way!
Most Miles - 2,833 Miles!!!
Lots of photos and some video at: HPCC 2012 Flickr
One particular collection has consistently wonderful (magazine quality) images: Dere
Several videos (including one of a starting line crash) at facebook. Search for "Sail Havasu"
Thanks for watching...
Regards
