Cutlass/11th Hour Racing.

I love the Jamaica Race and this year's event with slightly less than ideal conditions did not change the fact that sailing on the Class 40 Cutlass/11th Hour Racing is always a great experience.  We sailed the 811nm race this year with four people on-board: Nick Halmos (owner), Hugh Piggin, Terry Halpin and Rob MacMillan. The following is a more detailed account of our race.

We started from Ft Lauderdale in a south, southeast breeze and we were able to fly our large Code 0 for the first full-day of the race as we reached across the Gulf Stream.  Our basic plan was to sail as fast an angle as possible to cross the Stream even if it meant sailing a slightly lower course than the rhumb-line. We were anticipating the breeze softening as we sailed on (which it did during this race many, many, many times) and wanted to ensure we were bow-forward on our competition as we approached the next shift (which we assumed would be from the east). 

As we approached our first big right turn at Eleuthera we found ourselves ahead of all the boats in our class except for the much larger Donnybrook (72' sled) but more importantly we were ahead of our rival for the race, Ahmas, a fellow Class 40.  Being ahead of them at this point was crucial because at this time the wind basically shut down and we were forced to now sail dead upwind in approximately 5 knots.  Our game plan from here on was to remain bow-out to weather on Amhas and protect our advantage. 

We were also sailing next to Clover (a Swan 56) and Renegade (a SC 52) and having boats around makes things a bit more exciting and energetic and raises the intensity a bit.  During a long ocean race, it is often easy to get lulled into a sense of comfort because you can't really see your competition. 

Our setup for this section of the race consisted of a full mainsail and a smaller "Code 0." Basically this sail acts as a masthead genoa that we are able to tack to the bowsprit and sheet firmly as you would any upwind sail  This setup was key as it allowed for enough power to get the back end of the boat out of the water and tip us over a bit.

The Class 40 has a bunch of wetted surface that you need to overcome to sail the boat effectively upwind in light air.  In fact, despite their reputation as poor performers upwind we found that the upwind part of the course to be where we made out biggest gains.  Essentially having the correct wardrobe of sails, but more importantly sailing in the correct pressure can overcome any perceived boat weakness.   We were able to greatly stretch our lead at this point and got into a weak easterly (although stronger than 5 kts) and began tight-reaching towards our first big navigational decision… Cat Island. 

Based on the southeast wind direction and the fact that it seemed like a straighter course, we decided to go "inside" the island (leave it to the east) while a majority of the fleet stayed outside.  This proved to be a tactical breakthrough as our lead stretched from 8 miles to almost 30 when we re-emerged further south.  As it turns out,  we re-passed Clover (who we had in sight almost the whole race) and were feeling pretty smart.  The boat was sailing great and our crew work and boat schedule regarding sleep and driving was going very smoothly.  As we only sail with four people everyone is equally responsible for navigation/driving/tactics/trim etc.  In order to make sure we are mentally and physically able to perform without "crashing" we maintained a pretty rigorous schedule of 2 people on deck at night 3 hrs on, 3 hours off with one person rotating each 1.5 hours. Considering how long this race took us (102+ hrs) it was crucial to rest when you could, although life on a small boat with 4 guys and no showers in heat and humidity is slightly less than awesome…

After getting ahead and feeling pretty good we had our second large wind hole during the third evening just of off aptly named Long Island.  We had some of the all time most epic "flatspins" I've experienced floundering along at 0.2kts boat speed as the current pushed us miles north. Our only solace is that we knew everybody was suffering and our little game of skirt as close to the reef as possible at maybe 1.5kts of boatspeed, tack when about to hit and flounder away in current away from the reef at .5kts.  It was very entertaining but I don't need to experience that again for a while. The key for Cutlass here was despite the conditions, really trying to push the boat forward as we knew that somewhere ahead of us there was some wind. I mean it is the Caribbean, right?

Well, sort of right, we survived that night with our lead intact if not having grown a bit and finally managed to get into some breeze that allowed us to put up a spinnaker (a sail that I was beginning to be convinced we were never going to see).  This allowed a course basically straight towards Cuba and we began to see the remaining mileage actually coming down.  We still had 375 miles ahead of us after 3 long days of sailing but spirits were up and PB&J still tasted good to me. 

As we proceeded south, the breeze freshened from 8 to 12 to 16 kts and moved forward slightly.  We hoisted the large Code 0 and reached along at 12+kts towards Cuba.  The fourth night was really beautiful for sailing and the ability to sail a boat fully water-ballasted up with one person on deck in the middle of the night reaching in the mid-teens in big seas is pretty magical.  Finally we were going to get closer to our case of Red Stripe and our Rum and Ting.  Finally we were going to have a blast reaching through the Windward Passage.  Finally we were going get off the boat and take a shower.  Finally we were going to see the Windward Passage.  Well sort of. 

We did get to round Cuba under full spinnaker and blasted southwest at 15-18kts of boat speed, but as we should have expected, we ran full into a wall of high pressure and the boat hit the brakes.  We ended up sailing the last 24 hours in very light trade winds gybing towards the west when we thought there might be more pressure whenever we got enough of a shift to justify the awful angle we had to sail. During the last evening our perfectly running machine broke down as we were far too jazzed up to sleep at the prospect of being in a position to win our class and as a result the watch schedule broke down completely.  With the amount of maneuvers we did it would have been great to video and watch 4 stumbling sailors gybing a 40 footer on each shift.  We had added a spin pole to the boat in order to pole back the spinnaker for more effective VMG sailing and this added a funny amount of macrame to the cockpit and made manuevers at night interesting. 

Sunrise of the last day found us pointing straight at "home" with 30 miles to go and our competition 50 miles behind, although sailing in stronger breeze.  We had lost the chance to win the race as Donnybrook was able to finish the evening before but felt good about our position on Renegade and were far ahead of Amhas.  The last 7 hours of the race turned out to be just as "fun" as our "flatspin" evening as "home" simply did not want to get any closer.  It took us 6 hours to sail the last 25 miles which in a Class 40 is not particularly good progress.  We couldn't escape the clutches of the high pressure that had dogged us for much of the trip and finished at 14:07:25 on the 10th, over five days after we had started.  During this time, Amhas and Renegade were sailing in almost 20kts and our "huge" lead was reduced to only 2 hours on each boat. We still beat Amhas but couldn't correct on Renegade.  We did however feel pretty good about how we sailed and we eeked as much speed out of the boat as we could and the conditions we were dealt.  Also, Rum still tastes good despite your PHRF rating.

All in all, our race was a great success on many fronts.  First and foremost we had a great time with four good friends who worked hard for each other and backed each other up whenever needed.  Being 11th Hour Racing and representing Sailors for the Seas, we tried to race in a way to minimize our impact on the ocean while still performing at the highest level possible.  In this regard we carried a Hydro-generator onboard to help recharge our batteries and supplemental solar panels without using the engine as well as to help reduce the drain of the instruments.  Most notably we did not use any single use plastic water bottles during the race, rather we had refillable bottles and used our water tank. This meant that we didn't have to buy HUNDREDS of bottles that would just end up in a landfill (or worse) someday.  It also greatly reduced the amount of trash  and kept things very tidy on-board.  Not having to clean up and dispose of tons of empty bottles was pretty nice.  As it was, we only created one half full bag of trash between us for the whole trip, something we are all very proud of. 

Lastly, we were able to have a presentation for some youth sailors from Jamaica after we arrived and they were able to crawl over the boat and see how we sailed and lived (and how delicious freeze dried chili mac and cheese really is…)  Being able to share our sailing experience with kids who someday might have the chance to do this race was pretty special as well.  In addition to placing third in class, the Montego Bay Yacht Club awarded Cutlass/11th Hour Racing with an "Eco-Award" as a recognition of these efforts and interestingly enough, this received the highest level of applause of the evening.  Could it be the sailors might actually be concerned about the health of our waters...

Thanks to my fellow crew Hugh, Terry and to owner Nick for the great times onboard and to Quantum Sails for building such viciously quick sails. Also, special thanks to Sailors for the Sea and 11th Hour Racing for providing tremendous insight on how we can still race boats successfully while minimizing our impact on the ocean.