Maine Sailing Partners

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Maine's own Pete Levesque, nominated for Rolex Sailor of the Year (and former Maine Sailing Partner).

His 2007 accomplishments as listed on the US Sailing website:

- ISAF Team Racing World Championship, Gandia, Spain (1st/17 teams)
- U.S. Team Racing Championship, Oyster Bay, N.Y. (1st/21 teams)
- Road Range Wilson Trophy, West Kirby, England (1st/32 teams)
- Charles River Open Team Race, Cambridge, MA (1st/42 teams)
- V-15 Mid-Atlantic Championships, Annapolis, Md. (2nd/19 boats)
- NYYC V-15 Team Race Championship, Newport, R.I. (1st/15 teams – crew)
- NYYC Annual Regatta, Newport, R.I. (3rd/8 IRC 1 “T-Squared – crew)
- InterClub Midwinters, Annapolis, Md. (1st/18 boats – B Division)
- Halfway Rock Regatta, Newport, R.I. (1st/8 – IRC "T Squared" – crew)
- Antigua Sailing Week, Antigua (2nd/9 Racing 1 “Chieftain” – crew)

I should add that Pete's whole ;Silver Panda  team was nominated.  In addition to Pete the team includes Clay Bischoff, Colin Merrick, Amanda Callahan, Liz Hall, and Lisa Keith (the last three for Yachtswoman of the Year.)  Too bad they can't all win and win as a team, since that is how they sailed.

Marine Industry

Our perennial employee Sam Carter starts his first full day of Marine Corps OCS in Quantico, Virginia, today.  Sam worked at Maine Sailing Partners while on vacation from school at the University of New Hampshire where he was captain of the sailing team.  Provided he doesn't infuriate his drill instructors with his wit, Sam will be commissioned as a 2nd. lieutenant in about 10 weeks.  Click Download sams_email.doc to read part of his farewell email.  Good luck Sam!  Don't laugh at the drill instructor!

Letter from Miami

Former Maine Sailing Partner Pete writes:

So, I am down here in Miami getting ready to sail the Mumm 30 Worlds with Barking Mad.  We were measuring our sails in today and our main and S2 didn't measure in.  So we went to the local UK loft with our coach, Coach Bill Shore (whom we were calling Dad in the West Marine to try and freak him out) and I got a chance to show off my sail making skillzzzzzzz.  Yep, stitch ripping, hand work, seizing, bolt ropes and the lot.  I wasn't able to get on a machine, only the loft owner did that.  There were three of us, Bill, myself and the tactician (who had never been in a loft before).  The loft owner only charged us for 2.5 people and unless Bill counted as 2, I am pretty sure I was not the 1/2 person.  Anyway, just thought I'd check in and let you guys know your patience on the floor didn't go TOTALLY wasted.  Oh yeah, and I'm engaged.  Other than that, not much is new.

 

Pete

Silver Panda

MSP alumnus Pete Levesque and his future sister-in-law Liz Hall (thank you Scott for the correction) helped their team race syndicate, The Silver Pandas, to a convincing win over nine other teams in the NYYC Vanguard 15 Team Race Regatta last weekend.  The Silver Pandas had 30 - 1 record over the weekend and were undefeated in the two gold medal round robins.

Claire Hindle

This is Claire Hindle.  Claire was born in November to friends and sailors Tom and Tammy Hindle.  Claire died Friday night in her parents' arms at Children's Hospital in Boston after a brave struggle with a rare form of leukemia.

Claire, Tom, and Tammy showed everyone who met them how to fight and how to love.  Few parents have loved a daughter as much as Tom and Tammy loved Claire.  Claire will be sorely missed and fondly remembered.

Participate in the Leukemia Cup Regattas.  You can view the schedule here.

Tipsy

Same boat different day.  Thanks again to Liz Hall for bringing this to our attention.  Picture courtesy of The Daily Sail.  Sail fast Pete!

Turkey

The last time MSP alumnus Pete Levesque sailed in Key West Race Week he found himself in the protest room after the J/105 he was riding on broke its bowsprit off in the pushpit of another J/105 at a crowded mark rounding.  The discussion of the incident in Sailing Anarchy's forum was, as you might expect, very entertaining.  To his credit, Pete refrained from joining the fray . . . the skipper of this local boat couldn't resist and paid the price.

Now fast forward to KWRW 2006:

In this photo Pete second from the right and that's a turkey vulture vomiting on the deck.  Thanks to Sailing Anarchy for the picture.  You can read the entire story at Sailing Anarchy.  Thanks to Liz Hall for the tip.

Frostbite 2

While many of our customers have hauled their boats or sailed south for the winter, a hearty few are still racing and sailing here in Maine.  One customer recently tested his mettle on an overnight trip to Jewell Island on his DC-10, Auk:

Rob,

I finally got to head out for a 24 hour cruise in Auk, and have attached some photos of that trip in the cold this past weekend, and of her when I was first setting her up with the reef you created. The reef worked quite well; I was very glad to have it Saturday as there must have been some 25-30 knot gusts that the full sail wouldn't have handled as well. It was certainly a cold trip, and I was thankful for my drysuit since I got thoroughly doused by spray.

I'll be talking to you soon, I'm sure, about my somewhat larger mainsail.

Regards,

Alex Abbott

I'm sure that Alex's other boat, a Paine designed 30-foot Morris Annie, is a little more comfortable in the snow.

Letter from down under

Almost a year ago we built a HydraNet jib for some folks cruising the South Pacific, which we had some difficulty delivering to Pohnpei.  Just received the following update:

Hi Win,
We are in Australia, just finished a two month refit in Bundaberg and are now headed for Sydney. We have done about 4000 miles since leaving Pohnpei, mostly off the wind but have done enough beating with the new jib to see how it performs. So far we are very happy with the shape of the jib and its performance. Going down in size has given us an extra couple knots of range on the top end where we needed it. It does not seem to have lost much, if anything in light air. We had the sail off while we were hauled and the cloth still looks new. From what I have seen I would definitely use this cloth again. In way of comparison, our new North dacron main that has about 7000 miles on it in the last year, is headed for a recut. We had it cut extra flat and it has stretched way out. It does see more use than the jib as we use it alone for running in the trades at deep angles and with the staysail or spinnaker depending on conditions. The size of the new jib allows us to pole it out without having to reef it. Merry Xmas and have a great new year.

Letter from Guatamala

In this morning's mail:

Hi Win-

...You guys built a beautiful cruising jib for my boat, and now I need a mainsail...

The jib you built for us has performed well, and still looks brand new.  Our boat is in the Rio Dulce in Guatamala.  I have attached a couple of pictures of our boat under sail on Lago Izabel, the headwater of the Rio Dulce, and it shows off the jib you built for us nicely. 

I hope your summer is going well, and I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience...

Sincerely,

Gold!

Congratulations to MSP alumnus Dave Hughes and skipper Mikee Anderson-Mitterling on winning the 470 class at Kiel Week.  As Skip Whyte points out here,  Dave and Mikee join Paul Foerster and Bob Merrick as the only Americans to ever win Kiel Week.  Check out the final results with Dave and Mikee at the top of the pyramid here.  You can find out more about Team USA 1734 at teamusa1734.org.

Bruce is back

Bruce Schwab sailed Ocean Planet back into Portland Harbor today with his MSP Cuben Fiber mainsail still looking good. This was our first chance to see the sail flying since we sent it off to France last October.  So we all piled in the Mako and set out to greet Bruce and welcome him home.

Unfortunately, he arrived to nothing like the adulation given him in France when he finished the Vendee Globe.  Still, Maine did give him a hearty welcome.  A couple of dozen boats greeted him at Portland Head Light, including the Portland fireboat and a ferry full of kids from Brunswick Junior High School who had faithfully followed him around the globe.  Slugger the Sea Dog greeted him on the dock at Portland Yacht Services.  The Governor declared today 'Bruce Schwab Day' in Maine.  The Mayor gave him a book of Portland history.  Miss Maine sang him the Star Spangled Banner.  Dodge Morgan declared him an ocean racing hero.  Welcome home, Bruce.

Downeast (by water)

Sometimes, in the mad spring rush to assemble sails for our all-too-short sailing season, we forget how our products help our customers enjoy the beauty of Maine.  Inspired by our post on traveling downeast, one of our readers recently reminded us with the following message.

I love your website, and thought I would send this on to you for your "downeast" link.  Your sails carried us about 1000nm of the Maine coast last year.  Thanks for all your help and here's to another great season!

Attached was this shot of the converted Coast Guard lifeboat station on Damariscove Island.  Thanks, Maya!

A message from Pohnpei

via SailMail:

Hi Win, the sail got here in good shape and we have it on the rig. The hoist is a few inches shorter but the shackle is past the wrap stop so all is ok. We have only taken a quick sail in the harbor but it looks great. Thanks for putting the sun cover on with gore tex as normal thread goes in 2 years. Have a great season. Thanks again.

So ends the saga of the wandering genoa.

The saga began in December when we built a HydraNet genoa for a couple sailing the Pacific in their Bill Tripp Jr 55' aluminum cutter.  In mid-January we turned the sail over to the minions of our freight forwarder in the expectation that the sail would arrive in Pohnpei when our customers did, about two week hence.  But, in fact, the sail bounced between airports in New York, Florida, and Texas before Amerijet admitted that they hadn't succeeded in getting the sail out of the country. 

Meanwhile, our customers endured paradise with waning patience, and we heard excuses ranging from snowstorms in New York to Chinese New Year revels in Guam.  Finally, the sail was rescued from Amerijet and turned over to Continental Airlines, who apparently actually know how to find Micronesia.  Happy ending and much relief for all. 

Bruce Schwab finishes Vendee

MSP is proud of our contribution to Bruce's new American solo nonstop circumnavigation record.

Ocean Planet Vendee update
February 28, 2005
From Les Sables d´Olonne
Race time: 109 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes, 57 seconds.

"Over the past several years, I have stubbornly struggled to achieve the impossible fantasy of finishing the legendary Vendee Globe race. During this time I had heard several times that the reception the finishers receive in Les Sables is really something. But never could I have possibly imagined the magnitude of the tumultuous greeting that was given to myself and Ocean Planet on Friday, February 25, 2005 after 109 days at sea.

Early on a very cold, but beautiful morning, we approached the finish with great anticipation.

Despite the cold there were many of our enthusiastic supporters out on the press boats, whooping it up for last couple hours as we reached the end of the journey. Minutes before the line, we were enveloped in a cold fog that added a bit of a sense of mystery and suspense. But nothing could stop the feeling of accomplishment that I felt as my finishing time blasted over the radio and the blasting of horns began.

We moored on a buoy outside the harbour for a few hours, waiting for high tide before entering the channel. At 1500 local time, we released our mooring, and began our way down the channel. Nothing could have prepared me for the next several hours.....

THOUSANDS of people lined the channel as we slowly paraded into the harbor amid deafening horns, cheering, and bell ringing! It was UNBELIEVABLE.
This was just the beginning! When we arrived to the pontoon, it was nearly sinking with hundred of kids chanting "We love Bruce", along with all the reporters, officials, and everyone else. What a scene.

After spraying everyone within range with champagne, I was then brought up on an outdoor stage for the first press conference.

This part finished with rocking out on the stage with about a hundred kids to a tune that I had previously selected by local musician Stephan Kolodiez. What fun!

Then we went inside to an absolutely PACKED auditorium for the next press conference. I was joined on stage by two special friends of Ocean Planet, Alice and Melissa, two young French students who sent me great emails for the entire trip around the world. They also had been aboard for our trip down the channel! This finished with my playing of a tune on the guitar (by popular demand....) and with our entire team onstage.

We did it!
Yes, I mean WE.  Ocean Planet carried a lot more hopes and dreams around the world than those of my own! 

My thanks go out to all of YOU who have supported this dream in so many ways, especially the Ocean Planet Official Supplier Sponsors and partners of our Ocean Sciences program! There are countless others that have made this possible....stay tuned (www.bruceschwab.com) for more updates about them and upcoming special shows I will be doing about this once in a lifetime adventure!

Why did I race the Vendee Globe? I hardly remember what started me on the path. But now I truly know why. It is hard to explain but perhaps the faces of Alice and Melissa, who followed me around the world, said it all.

Thanks to all,
Bruce and Ocean Planet"

MSP mainsail powers Ocean Planet - photo by Bruce

Inspiration

In Scuttlebutt 1744, Brad Read writes of the impact that Ellen MacArthur's record setting, solo circumnavigation has made in non-sailing circles.  Brad's second grader's non-sailing, school librarian chose MacArthur's feat as the topic of the day.  All the kids were very impressed.

Ellen has also been featured in USA Today, The New York Times, and on NBC Nightly News.  MacArthur's accomplishment is not only astounding, it is easily understood by everyone.  What can be simpler than "fastest around the world?"

We've noticed for some time that there seems to be fewer and fewer new sailors joining our sport.  Organizations like Sail Maine make a good effort at reaching new sailors, but it's difficult for them to reach large numbers on a limited budget.  Local college programs like the Bates College Sailing Team and the University of Southern Maine Sailing Team also do a decent job of promoting the sport through recreational programs open to all students, but they don't reach prospective new sailors outside of school.

Perhaps Ellen MacArthur's greatest accomplishment isn't smashing the solo around-the-world record, but is the positive publicity she has created for our sport.

From the Trenches

As we mentioned earlier, a couple of former Maine Sailing Partners have thrown their hats into the Olympic rings for 2008.  There are many months and many hard miles of sailing to go before the Olympic Trials, but it wouldn't surprise us to see both these teams duking it out there.  For a revealing look at what the first steps on the road to the Olympics are like, click here.

One Tough Cuben

Another nice mention from Bruce, now in the home stretch of his Vendee Globe experience, of his MSP Cuben Fiber Mainsail

"Ocean Planet update
January 28, 2005
From 32 41S, 38 16W @ 1000 UT.

...
We also had a new mainsail for the race which was a special effort by Cuben Fiber and Maine Sailing Partners. The Cuben Fiber material is amazingly tough and durable, I think the main will be able to go around the world again!

...
That´s it for today.  Thanks for all the great emails to Ocean Planet from all over the world!

Bruce and Ocean Planet"

Distinguished Alumni

A number of MSP alumni have distinguished themselves in the wider sailing world.  Two of them have Olympic aspirations.  Former employees Dave Hughes and Pete Levesque are separately vying to represent the US in the 470 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Dave worked at Maine Sailing Partners during high school and after graduate school in Wales.  He also spent many late nights at the loft measuring masts and sails for his 2004 campaign.  Dave (Young David, YD, or even Violent D)  is part of top-ranked Team 2008 based in San Diego, CA.

Pete worked in the loft during breaks from Tufts and after receiving his masters degree in naval architecture from Michigan.  Pete (Pedro) was an All-American sailor at Tufts and is a skipper for the Silver Panda team racing team.  He's now part of Annapolis based Team Levesque Buckley. 

Dave and Pete finished in 1st and 4th places respectively at the Quadrennium Kickoff Regatta on Monday and will be competing in the Miami OCR beginning January 24th.  Check out their websites and wish them luck.

E-mail from the Southern Ocean

Nice to have a happy customer, even if he's far away:

---- Original Message -----

From: win

To: Bruce Schwab

Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 8:58 PM

Subject: Hello from Maine SP

Hi Bruce,

Just want you to know that we are avidly following your progress and rooting for you here at MSP.  At least twice a day the troops gather round the monitor to peruse the Vendee Globe and Ocean Planet web sites.  Sorry the reef webs let you down. 

Word from the loft floor is, “don’t let that damn motel by, and watch out for falling anchors.”

Win

From: Oceanplanet
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 4:20 PM
To: win
Subject: [work] Re: Hello from Maine SP

Hey Win & Team!

 

Reef webs no fault of yours.  Yet another one of my crazy ideas was run the spectra reef line right through the webbing without a block with the theory that it was static loading. 

 

Well if it WAS static it would have worked, but there was some wiggling since it is difficult to get the fore/aft position of the tie-down to the boom perfect.  So some movement under load, over thousands of cycles....and boom!

 

The mainsail is AWESOME.  I really like it.  The Cuben is really good on chafe, too. Which is nice on this setup with the pusher vangs and all.

 

No more falling anchors I hope.  Also, no icebergs, which will cost me miles.  But we'll see how the gybe angles work out closer to the Horn and after that there's still a LONG way to go.

 

B & OP