Start tomorrow

It’s 10:40 at night, and I just finished packing my gear and getting sorted. We had another long and busy day. We met up at 9 am to work on the boat until about 1. At 1 we went sailing for a few hours to look at some more sails and a few small details. It all went well but as soon as we hit the dock, it was time to load the boat with food, sails, spares… There was quite a large list of “todo’s” in order to get the boat ready for some offshore sailing. There is quite a lot left to do before Transpac, but we felt that we have done the best we can to get the boat ready for this event.
For a quick overview, 7 weeks ago, the boat arrived into Palm Beach from Key West Race Week. From that point on, the boat was lengthened 5 feet, 2 bigger kites and 1 new Fractional 0 were built, mast rake was changed enough so that we had to redesign some parts and get them built, installed, and tested, mast tuned to the new rake, new kite sheets built, countless strops, slices, reinforced boom and all locking reefs, changes on the underwater appendages, kelp cutters installed, water maker intake rebuilt, endoscope system installed, stacking system sorted… The list goes on and needless to say the team has been busy.
We are all anxious to get started on the race so that we can focus on racing and learning the boat for Transpac. The start is tomorrow at noon. There will be tracker so you should be able to follow at http://cloud.iboattrack.com/r/start.php?r=2011_newportbeach_cabo
The are some different forecast with one being a quick race and the other being a slow one. So we will see but either way, we will be working hard to pass the boats that started today. Time for me to get some rest.
Later,
Doogie