HC50 trip
Sailed from KW to Miami with Richard Clary of LaVida Starships and on a HC50. I knew richard from when I lived in Texas and purchased my P42 from him. This boat had carbon spars and spectra sails and was really neat. Richard brought the boat down from St.Pete stopping in KW on a delivery run to Miami for the boat show. He was docked right in the middle of all the big go fast guys in town for the race week. Before we left I wired his computer and GPS to the A/P so he could use the software and course I brought along. He sailed down from StPete with no interface, just using the AP to steer and a handheld GPS to tell them where they were. Other than that, the boat is all set up from the factory for long trips, genset, A/C, watermaker, 200A alternator, washer/dryer, jib/staysail, genoa and Spinnaker, and an arch mounted GPS. As has been mentioned, the boat is built for passagmaking - fast. Wish I had 600k.Winds were fickle so we motored from KW to Matecumbe, just above Marathon in the chain. Then as the course turned a bit more northward the wind cooperated by moving a bit south of east so we could unfurl the spectra sails and sail a starboard tack the rest of the way. The main is huge with a massive roach. We used the small jib. The wind averaged about 10kts true and we sailed about 7+kts SOG all through the night sometimes hitting 8 and more when the course put us on a close reach rather than a beat. At one point we were sailing about 6.5 kts, healing about 10 or 15 degrees when richard filled the starboard water ballast. the boat sat straight up and took off at 7.5. It was pretty amazing sailing through the darkness in 15-20ft of water at 7.5 kts. As we neared Miami about 5am, the wind shifted a bit more and we hit 8.5 SOG. It took us 20 hrs including time for me to dive in and remove a lobster trap I snagged on my watch ( while not watching). I think one could tke this boat a long way in a short time.Still, there are some things I'd change if I was ordering one. There are only a pair of bow cleats, no others. This made docking difficult when we arrived.