ronnie_simpson

I was the 'return' delivery skipper of the 'Squealer' from Fiji to Tauranga, NZ after the race long battle they had in 2014 with Django. That boat is awesome! Someone should definitely pick it up. New carbon mast after the 2013 dismasting, new sails, a very extensive re-fit in (i believe) 2011 that was overseen by Greg Elliott himself. One of the 7 owners owns a boat yard in Tauranga, and the boat was impeccably maintained as a result. Other than needing new batteries and a couple of other small things that i'm sure have since been addressed, the boat was in top condition. Not to mention, that boat sails great! Sailed well to weather, had plenty of beam and hull-form stability when reaching and was fairly slippery down hill as well. Nice big open transom for landing huge mahi mahi too. Saw a really solid blow about halfway to New Zealand where both storm sails were used for about 12 hours and always felt plenty safe in the little green boat. Great boat! aloha

This is Ryan Finn's project that he has been working on for quite some time. Anything he puts his mind to can be accomplished. Can't wait to follow this incredible journey.

If you are looking for something approaching a quality product reporting on the sport, this is not the place. High School level grammar and manner? This is the place. They are correct they are not journalists. Wrong. Simply wrong. It's a different type of journalism and coverage of the sport, but to say that SA doesn't provide a quality product in regards to covering the sport is simply not true. I'm biased, obviously, since I have strong ties to both Scot and Clean, and occasionally work for SA. But with more people reading (and contributing) to the site than anyone else in the game, and with Scot and Clean having more media contacts than anyone else in the game, they are breaking killer stories on an almost daily basis, not to mention sharing hilarious videos, great photos, reader opinion, etc etc etc that you would otherwise never see. Before you'll ever see a homogenized press release on a lot of the biggest scoops in the sport, you'll get the real down-low, sometimes with a bit of colorful language and opinion, on the front page for free. just like in the real world, you can't get the entire story or every angle of every race from one site. if you want to be informed about the world of sailing (or news), you need to read SA, alongside others like Daily Sail or any of the dozens of sites that merely copy/ paste official press releases, just like you need to read left wing, right wing, major news outlets, editorial blogs, etc to even attempt to have any clue what goes on in the real world.

has anyone mentioned the Cal 2-27 or Cal 29? i have been extremely impressed with my 2-27, and the boats are available everywhere for cheap (for a nice one) and practically free for a project boat.They are massively spacious, simple, well-performing, well-built boats that are offshore capable and offer a ton of value for dollar.

i'm being grouped and compared with Rimas. fuck.

IMOCA keels are fixed only in the aspect of being one-design. They're still canters.

if Rimas sails his engineless boat into New Zealand without a tow, like I did last week, then he will have gained my respect and I will do whatever I can to help him continue his quest around the world. including some assistance with charts, food, boat prep and more, at my own personal expense. if he continues drifting aimlessly around the Pacific, I have little to offer him...

what if Rimas is still working for the Russians? hacking the Delorme is not beyond the scope of the Russians he has gained the attention of the entire sailing world and has us all distracted with his record-breaking journey. do not be surprised is you see the Russians strike soon, perhaps as early as a last-minute entry in the second leg of the VOR tomorrow. check the front page for an announcement any minute now.

not having an engine definitely limits me a bit, but not as much as one may think. after 4 Hawaiian Islands, Palmyra Atoll and a lot of cruising in western Fiji, i have found that proper charts (or lack thereof in Fiji...) are the biggest issue for me. it's easy not to hit something if you know where it's at, but when you don't know where it's at (ie the unmarked, uncharted reef phenomena of Fiji) then things become much more challenging. sailing between the hours of 8 am and 3 pm are my general guideline when i'm around reefs, especially if i'm navigating by sight and not relying on charts. i've heard and seen multiple cruising boats here motor right into a reef at 7 knots because their chart plotter told them to. there can be some current in the reef passes, but it usually is self-regulating. on a big ebb, you won't even make it in the pass and the cross swells will be so gnarly that you'll turn back. on a big flood, you'll get sucked in before you even realize it. water takes the path of least resistance and usually goes straight in or out the pass, so no real threat of getting pushed onto the reef itself if you can sail your boat. besides, tides are much smaller in the tropics than in the high latitudes. i have long oars for the boat and they have helped immensely when i need to push the boat a few hundred meters. the biggest thing other than charts that limits me here with no engine is anchoring. i am very selective where i anchor and i often grab a mooring if it is available. most of these issues though - reef watch, anchor watch, anchoring, etc are easier done when not singlehanded. if you are contemplating cruising the south pacific, i would say GO! I can not comment on most of it, though i have heard a lot of great things from other cruisers and friends, but I can comment on Fiji and it is a spectacular cruising ground!

In defense of the aforementioned wankers (and of boaters and their insurers who may become involved) I'd point out that it's not YOU sailing through the harbor that is objectionable. It is ANYONE doing it. Because ANYONE might include Rimas, or even people with fewer sailing skills. Bad things can happen to good boats. Or docks, or people. Injured people attract expensive lawyers in some places... If you are allowed to do it, why isn't everyone? everyone is allowed to sail, and at the end of the day we are all responsible for our own actions. there is no doubt that sailing and/ or cruising without an engine requires a fair bit of skill, but more than skill, it requires planning ahead and being ready for anything, such as wind shutting off, building, current, boats coming in and out, etc making a Rimas reference isn't really relevant to this discussion because he is NOT an engineless sailor. he gets towed in and out of ports and merely drift sails without an engine on the boat. as far as people with fewer sailing skills, as you mentioned, they shouldn't be sailing without an engine in the harbor if they don't have the skills necessary to do so. sailing engineless (or with an engine) is just like surfing, driving a car or doing anything else in life. if you make poor decisions and get yourself in over your head, then you will likely have some type of consequence to pay. either in the insurance/ legal sense or in damage to your own vessel. the engineless crowd seems to me to be a small one, but generally pretty considerate and skilled from what i've seen.

good write-up and thread BPW and congratulations on the cruising that you are doing. i am also cruising engineless and am constantly surprised at how few boats are doing it this way, though most other cruisers have been very friendly and supportive of my engineless sailing. (though i have had a few wankers every now and again demand that i drop my sails when sailing through the mooring field or in the harbor....) having no engine on the boat hasn't bothered me in the least bit, i quite enjoy it. the only problem is not having a planing dinghy with an outboard (i use a kayak as tender), because it makes it hard to access the surf!!! my current cruise is from California to Australia (in Fiji at the moment, leaving for Oz in a few days...) and i have sold 3 magazine articles to one of the big cruising magazines. (they will be published beginning Feb 2015) it has taken me a few years of freelancing for various pubs to make the contacts and develop the skills necessary to sell these articles, but i would urge you to shoot out some emails to various mags and tell your stories. cruising in the high latitudes and beautiful places such as you are, with no engine, is certainly different and more interesting than the generic cookie-cutter production boats in tropical anchorages that seem to dominate the pages of many glossy-print sailing magazines. writing about your sailing adventures for $$$ is nothing new. countless cruisers have done it for a very long time and with advances in mobile internet and laptops, it is pretty feasible to set up a revenue stream - albeit a small one - while cruising. i don't think i have to tell you how valuable this is... and NoJoke - nice sailing comic strip! I dig it! sell that stuff to a magazine as well! ps - i keep a blog at www.openbluehorizon.com and it's documented my journey from Seattle to Fiji

I hate to be a doomsday advocate and immediately jump to the worst-case.... if so, i really feel for rimas. be safe out there buddy.

if Rimas dies, it won't be a tragedy. it will be natural selection

i disagree bro. a year ago i would have been with you and happily contributed $10 or $20 or better yet, pimped his plight in Latitude 38 or on the front page of SA or other pubs as i've done for several other friends, olympic hopefuls and other people i respect, but Rimas' CONSCIOUS DECISION to avoid prudent advice, refusal to learn even the most basic sailing skills and then his most recent decision to bypass Hawaii sealed the deal in my mind. no longer a fan or supporter. money and food won't help him right now, given his current location. Rimas made his bed, unfortunately he now has to lay in it.

I've done several solo passages of 2+ weeks, with a longest solo passage of 28 days. My mental state was fine, as I imagine any competent sailor's would be. If you're constantly knocking out miles towards the mark and know what you're doing, then it's just business as usual. Once you settle into the routine, the solo long-distance thing can be extremely rewarding. If you have absolutely no fucking clue what you are doing, and are merely drifting around, one only needs to look at sailors like Donald Crowhurst and Reid Stowe to see how far one's mental state can deteriorate. I would guess that Rimas is pretty far out there right now and his stubbornness has been masking a lot of his concern and lack of current mental health. His most recent food/ passing ships Delorme post is beginning to really show concern. I think he may start unraveling soon.