hunter 37 racing to mexico from St. pete fl.

[Ed A]

Blaise Pearson is at it again in his very quick Hunter 37 c.

His boat is pretty tricked out for ocean sailing and he is now on his way to mexicos Isla mejares. The race is about 450 miles across the gulf of mexico. The race has been run for many years by The Saint Petersburg Yacht Club.

You can watch the race progress on the intenet thru "IBOAT TRACKER" then click on REGATTA DEL SOL AL SOL 2009.

Blaise is sailing an older model hunter 37c that has been converted to a sloop rig. He has converted to double spreaders and rod rigging. The boat name is Midnight Sun and has been raced succesfully for many years inluding to bermuda, and a couple of Boat of the Year Awards on the west coast of Florida. Wish them well and follow the link to see the progress of all the entries. This race is a navigators challenge in that warm loop currents circle the gulf with lots of current flow and weather is unpredictable. It blew in the 40 to 50 range in a storm here last week.


It is fun to see the tracks of each boat and the different tactics used.

Enjoy!

 

[Ed Schenck]

Thanks for the heads up Ed. Just happens to be a boat day in NE Ohio, 80+ degrees if you can believe it. Sailors mtg at the club and step the Highlander mast, fun day. Then tonight I can check on Blaise's progress. How many times did you do that crossing? What were the worst conditions? I expect the Gulf can get pretty nasty.

 

[dvideohd]

What is a MacGregor 72?

--jr

 

[Ed Schenck]

If I am reading it right then "Midnight Sun" is in second place behind a Mason 53. Unbelievably they have the same "average" PHRF of 159 in US Sailing. I can't open the West Florida PHRF chart to see how they are actually rated.

Blaise is right next to a Tartan 37, Cool Change. Ed, isn't that the boat that you brought down from Oriental?

The MacGregor 72, Enigma, is a spin class boat and the first finisher. Check it out:
http://maps.iboattrack.com/races/2009_regatadelsolalsol/htdocs/ .

 

[Ed Schenck]

Swine flu?

I see that a couple of the Regata boats are in home port. And I see one that appears to be returning. I wonder if they heard of the swine flu problem in Mexico and turned around.

Looks like my favorite H37C, Midnight Sun, will finish third of four "non-spin" boats:
http://maps.iboattrack.com/races/2009_regatadelsolalsol/htdocs/leader_board.php? I think the winning "XTC", a Bene 46, is the boat that sailed way north of the rhumb line. Ed A was telling me once about knowing the currents in that part of the Gulf. Guess XTC knew.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Regata del Sol al Sol results

Did you see that Blaise Pearson won on time with his 37-cutter?
http://www.regatadelsolalsol.org/2009/RaceResultsdvov.pdf

Not sure how he got a rating of '212' but the third and fourth place boats were about the same. And he was more than fourteen hours ahead of third.

Way to go Blaise and Midnight Sun!!

 

[Ed A]

interesting race, sorry ive been out of town, lots of interesting developments. The owner of the 72 macgreggor which i think is a modified 65 died on the way across. Sad deal but i guess thats the way id like to go. They did win.

The hunter 37 won there class. Blaise Pearson is the owner.

Cool change, my friends Tartan 37 had problems, not sure of the details yet but i think they lost a stay on the way over. One boat hit a bouy and was holed above the water line. They had already droped out and were returning under power. Crew had a problem with disengaging the autohelm and smacked a big red bouy. All ok, they motored in and its under repair.

ED, yes i brought cool change from oriental to tampa and also from Isla majures to tampa. nice boat, the owner has made lots of nice upgrades...

hope all is good in n.c.

Ed a

 

[RB]

Midnight Sun

I want to thank Ed for his kind words. We did infact win non-spin setting a new corrected record by 5 hours. We also corrected over all of the spinnaker boats. Someone mentioned the rating on the boat. When we won back to back non spin boat of the year, the boat was rated 153. A few years later, Suncoast PHRF raised everyones ratings by the same amount To try to get rid of so many ratings that were negative numbers. They also now have seperate ratings for open water, bouy racing, and point to point. They are al close to each other.

Ed was wrong on one thing. We do NOT have double spreaders. We do have 9/32 rod rigging and added intermediats to the top panel of the mast. They go from the spreader tips to the attachment points where the running backstays once were.

If you are going to race, great sails are everything. Mine are made by Gregg Knighton of Knighton Sailmakers in Sarasota.

Someone was asking about the weather. Right after the start, the wind died and we anchored to keep us from going backward through the start line. A couple hours later the wind slowly filled in as we headed offshore. After a light night the find finally switched to a beam reach in the mid twenties. The last 36 hours it increased to the mid thirties for the rest of the trip. The seas were 8 to 10 with the occaisional 12. Very short and steep. One wave broke over the cockpit and took the horshoe bouy off the stern pulpit. It was the roughest passage I can remember. We flew a 135% genoa and a full main. We did reef the main for a couple of hours.

If anyone has come up with a way to seal the mast please let me know. The starboard settee was known as the waterboarding position.

The Mcgregor 72 Enigma (it is a streched 65) Posed some interesting issues for Mexican Customs since the owner died a day and a half from finishing. Made crew pictures a challenge.

Any more questions?
Blaise Pierson 941.518.8815 rbsails@aol.com