Hemingway Cup 2000 (Stef's Story)

Easter Sunday of 2000 is the start day. This race was initially supposed to start in Havana but the politics surrounding the custody of a 6 year old boy caused the start line to be moved to Key West. The original fleet of about 17 boats is now down to 7 at the start line. I guess most people were planning to do this one for the chance to get to Cuba. But it didn't stop Javelin from jumping in on the action!

Javelin is a Frers 77 built in 1981 and solid as can be. All aluminum with a 115' mast and 17 winches, 2 are primaries that go to the coffee grinders. As Pit Boss for this trip, 9 of those were my domain in the middle of the boat. Halyard tails and lines everywhere to keep track of and keep tidy! Don't screw up and release the wrong one at the wrong time

With the crew of 20 guys and 2 gals, all aboard and primed and ready, the start was postponed for an hour while the RC waited for wind. Not that we had much more than an hour before but I suppose with a race over 1000 miles there was no reason to hold off any longer so off we went in fluky light drifting conditions under hot Key West sunshine.

My plan was to soak up as much heat as possible because I knew there was cold weather in my near future and as a long time Floridian, I don't do COLD very well!

It was a slow go for the first few hours but we stayed on our course to try to find the northbound current of the Gulfstream as quickly as possible. The new breeze finally began to fill in at about 4pm and by 7pm we were finally in the stream. A 4.5 to 5k kick was a great help to or speed over the bottom! We were sailing under full main and light #1 and the big stays'l. Javelin was moving along nicely!

By Monday morning the wind was up to 21k and we were making 12.5k over the bottom. We put the kite up with little difficulty and all was well until about noon when our navigator decided it was time to jibe. Everyone was in place and was sure they knew their job. Well… the best laid plans… and all that.

The kite got a wrap around the headstay from the middle and then things went from bad to worse. It was wrapping one way at the middle and the other way at the top and bottom and no matter what we did, it just got worse and worse. Finally Tom went up the mast and down the headstay to the top of the middle wrap and tried to kick it around the headstay with his feet but it just tried to wrap him up inside it! Pretty scary and no success. Two other crew ended up going up there to try with no luck until finally our big strong Russian had a go at it. He spent an hour working on it but finally after a total of 5.5 hours it was down and still in one piece! Well done Dimitriy!

Mind you that as Pit Boss, I was there tailing halyards for each of these guys to go up there. They were nearly has heavy as the sails to hoist and much more breakable if I didn't hang on! Happy to report I didn't lose any of them!

Finally the chore was done, but in the process, the spin halyard ended up at the top of the mast, and the topping lift had to be cut and was up at its topmost point with a stopper knot keeping it safe, and a jib halyard was wrapped a couple of times around the headstay. Needless to say, someone still had to go up and get them all down! We had exhausted all the willing crew and I figure I'm the lightest so it must be my turn to go up. I had to remind my mast men that I only weigh about half of the weight they are used to pulling up there and they needed to slow down so I could grab on to rigging on the way up and not get bashed around too much. They started out too fast but a few yells from me slowed them to a manageable speed and I must say it was pretty exciting up there! If it had been a much calmer day I'd have loved to bring the camera up with me but it was all I could do to hang on and get the job done and get back to the safety of the deck. By now the wind was up to about 30k.

We put the heavy #1 up and the stays'l and eventually reefed the main to keep the helm balanced. Javelin was a happy boat flying down the big waves! The seas were about 15' by this time. The temperature was starting to drop. Monday evening was down in the 60's.

Tuesday morning (50 degrees ambient air temp) brought more adventure when we noticed a horizontal rip in the main…about 1 foot long, just above the first draft stripe. We debated the possibilities of how to repair it while losing the least amount of time on the race and finally when the tear started to run vertically as well, we knew we had no choice but to get it down and fix it. This time the other of our Russian crew was there to save us. We dropped the main enough for him to reach the tear and he put sticky-back tape on it and then sewed a nice little border all the way around the rip to keep it from spreading. Then, less than a half hour later, the main was up and drawing again and the repair held to the end!

At the Noon check-in, our navigator gave us the good news: We had come within 8 miles of beating Flyer's (our sistership) Whitbread record for miles traveled in 24 hours! In 1981, Flyer had set an ocean racing record of 325 miles in 24 hours in the Southern Ocean. We had 317 miles under the keel between Florida and South Carolina! The current record is over 450 miles in 24 hours, but for a 20 year old boat, 317 was pretty impressive.

By Wednesday we were up near Cape Hatteras and conditions held true to all the stories we've heard about that neighborhood. It was cold as hell (48 degrees) and the seas were sharp and steep. The noon check-in with the R/C brought us news that 2 of our competitors had now lost their masts. One went in at Moorehead City, and the other at Charleston. The winds picked up to about 40kts and the seas were 20' or better. We had several runs over 16 knots over water and up to 20 knots over ground! The new boat speed record for Javelin was set by Jan at 16.88 knots. This took its toll on our crew too. At my last count we had 10 of them sick at one time or another. I'm happy to say Tom and I were not among them and great credit goes to our cook, Mary, who managed to care for all of them and keep the rest of us eating hot home-cooked meals even in the worst of conditions! She also was not sick! Not only that, but she found time to help out on deck grinding, driving, and working the pit. Sometime during the night while I was off watch (wind-chill now down to 10 degrees), the heavy #1 was torn out of the foredeck crew's hands as they were trying to get it down. The entire luff tape pealed off the sail, and was now rolled up and tied neatly for its trip to the sailmaker. The rest of the sail was flaked and rolled and tied as well.

After going to the #3 (from which all the battens had ripped out of their pockets) and then the #4 (battens torn out of that one too), we finally ended up sailing under the #5 and reefed main and the storm stays'l.

Sometime Thursday the winds lightened some and the seas calmed enough for most of the sickly crew to recover and get back to work. Great relief to the others of us who weren't sick and had to take extra watches on the helm, trim, grind, and foredeck in the very cold wet weather to cover for them! We put another kite up and this time managed to fly it without any mishaps. Even the jibes were fine!

We turned the corner into the bay and the air was cold but even lighter. After weaving our way through the crab pots on our way up the bay, we hoisted the light #1 and did a beautiful "Whitbread" takedown and sailed under the bridge. We'd have put the kite back up but there was an awful lot of shipping traffic to dodge and it was getting dark so we decided to play it safe and stick with the light #1. We sailed the rest of the way up the bay to the inner harbor to a great finish at 3:38am when we heard the gun! The R/C was on the dock to greet us and true to form and in the finest of Corinthian traditions brought lots of Rum along to help with our celebration!

Some of us partied well into the next day! Of the 4 boats in our class that started, only 2 finished and Blue Yankee handily beat us. So second in class and third overall was the final result.