Author Archive
What a crazy tough race! We weren’t last also hahahah. We’re spent tired, so I’ll do a proper post and recap of all the exciting stuff!
Diane
April 14, 2012
We’re in the race basin this morning getting towed out with all 50 minis at 0830. The Demi-Cle race is the Atlantic coast’s “season opener”, much like our Susan Hood back on lake Ontario. It’s 150 miles of back and forthing and sailing around an Island and then finishes in Pornichet. It looks like some great competition, and we’re going to have a blast going fast in the north 25 knot winds. There’s no tracker for this race, but we’ll try to get the Spot tracker working. You can click on the spot tracker from the One Girl’s Ocean Challenge.com home page.
Diane
April 10, 2012
TADA! It’s been a very successful day. We stepped the mast, launched and then mnotored down the narrow river with the little 4hp engine against a flooding tide that was almost ready to turn and a strong headwind. At times we were only making just under 2 knots. We made it though, and then tied up and went for Pizza. Tomorrow I pick Nick up at the airport and then Thursday it’s inspection day. The big race starts Saturday! A BIG thank you goes out to the NautyMor yard in Hennebont for being sooooooo amazing. He’s a one man operation that does an outstanding job. Check out the pictures on the One Girl’s Ocean Challenge Facebook. I’ll upload them here tomorrow when I get to a Wifi.
Diane
April 7, 2012
Hey to everyone. Seems my last post didn’t get populated, so I’m going to recap the last few days for everyone. The boat arrived on Friday at 9am. We offloaded her with some fantastic skill from Davy the owner of the Nauty’more yard here in Hennebont. He’s an amazing one man operation! He also came in 5th in the Transat race last year. Needless to say the yard is FULL of minis. It’s a great place to be. Today we were able to get OGOC off of the canted cradle and onto her keel. We’ve sorted through some of the gear and tomorrow more “stuff” will get reinstated. She has to be fully rigged and ready to go for Tuesday when we launch. This isn’t like Lake Ontario. In this river there is a 17 foot tide and basically a ditch that it runs through. Once we launch we turn and head for Port St. Catherine which is the basin for the start of the Demi-Cle. The race rules require us to be in the basin by Wednesday at 9am. Our race inspection is Thursday and the race starts Friday!
Diane
April 5, 2012
The boat arrives tomorrow morning at 9am! We’ve been in France for a few days now and have had an endless amount of road trips back and forth to Lorient getting things sorted out with Class Mini, the boat’s arrival, and trying to get an internet connection. We’re making good progress though. After the boat arrives tomorrow we’ll prep the keel and put the staunchions back on along with a few other things, and then Saturday morning we’ll get back on her keel. Then the really long list starts and we work day in and day out until Tuesday night when we launch and I’ll take her down the river to Port St. Catherine where the Demi-Cle race starts. Check out what’s sitting outside of the window at Class Mini!
Diane
April 1, 2012
Wind Athletes Canada promotes the sport of sailing in Canada as well as supports promising sailors from the grass roots level of the sport through to national and international levels. They are a great organization supporting sailors at a grass roots level, and have recently become part of the OGOC Team. Our Team is really growing these days and we couldn’t be in France right now without the whole team behind the program! Check out the Wind Athletes link below. Soon you will see OGOC added to their team!
March 30th, 2012
Next stop….Antwerp Belgium! Apparently OGOC is taking the “scenic” route to France. I’m going to take the much more direct route and fly there tomorrow. OGOC should arrive to France on the 4th and then the yard where she will be offloaded on the 5th. You can track the boat. One more sleep!
Diane
March 23, 2012
OGOC is on her way to France as we speak. She’s taking the luxury cruise approach aboard the container ship Alyssa and I’m sure ordering room service as we speak! When we get to France we will have to clear customs, remove her from her container, put her on her keel, do a whole new layer of bottom paint and some major sanding, and then fully rig and tune. Plus there’s all of the shore work. The liferaft needs to get certified, files need to be sorted with Class Mini, and loads and loads of other “stuff” to get done. We have new running rigging and gear to install and lots of race homework before the first race April 14th! Phew!!! 🙂
Diane
March 18, 2012
March 16, 2012
Well you’re probably all wondering how things went? It’s been a busy week to say the least. The short version of the long story is that we successfully got the mini into her cradle and she’s on her way to France as we speak. Our first race is April 14th. It’s a 150 Mile race double handed in the Bay of Biscay. More to come soon, but in the meantime here are some pictures of “how to get a mini into a shipping container”!
