Hello from the crew of Horizon!

We WON!  It matter of fact we pulverized the entire fleet!  We won 1st in class, 1st in fleet, 1st to finish and we set the mark for the SC 50’s by breaking the record.  That’s called a broom sweep.  The rumors at the Kaneohe Yacht Club, a gorgeous Hawaiian Yacht Club, is that their commodore is going to present us with the broom for the clean sweep!

I am so proud and I can’t say enough about our crew!  It seems that I always say that it can’t get any better but some how we raise the bar!!  Yes I’m gloating a little and guess what you’re right!  Everyone has their dreams and vision! I can’t express how I feel at this moment and how I am truly blessed!  Thanks Ei!  OK enough of that!

Yesterday was once again was a nail biter as we approached the finish.  We knew we had a lead but we weren’t sure if the wind Gods would be kind to us and if Horizon could continue to be the jewel of the fleet.  As it turned out we had spectacular weather.  Sunny, winds averaging 16 knots and the seas were relatively calm.  Our stomachs were tied up in knots because we knew that the competition was very tough and at any time the winds can change.

As it turned out we finished just after 1:00 am PST and thankfully the bar was still open when we got to our dock at KYC!  When we arrived there were 40-50 people that wanted to welcome us and congratulate us on our win.. A few of then actually flew in from the neighboring islands to welcome us and have a few Mai Tais.  After many Mai Tais and numerous high fives we all literally passed out!

Right know it’s just after 8am PST.  We’re up with Bloody Mary’s in hand celebrating our accomplishment.  Horizon is docked at a beautiful bay on the East side of Oahu that is right out of a Hemmingway novel.  Beautiful!  A little slice of heaven.

We’ll be here for another week.  Trophies are next Friday and our entire crew, spouses and best friends are here.  What more can I say but thanks to everyone involved in making this happen!

I hope you enjoyed the ride!

Aloha from the crew of Horizon!!!!!!

1st in class, 1st in fleet, and first boat to finish!!!

If anyone wants to send the guys a message or congrats to anyone on Horizon there is a message board on the home page http://www.pacificcup.org/ (follow directions below).

• Go to home page
• Click on follow fleet
• Greetings to sailors
• Click on Horizon
• post a note on right side of page
• Preview
• Save
• send

Hello from the crew of Horizon!

We are so excited we can’t sleep anymore!  As of this E-mail we still have 90 miles to go and we should finish by 1:30 pm PST.  This morning’s role call had us 1st in Class, 1st in Fleet, 1st to Finish and possibly we can break the SC 50 class record for the Pacific Cup Race which was set back in 1998 by Rollercoaster @ 8 days 15 hours 21 minutes and 5 seconds.  There might even be a few more that we are not sure of!!  WOW!  This is huge and as soon as we cross the finish line and confirm the win we will!

Currently the weather is once again the sunny, hot and muggy trade winds that you would expect off of Hawaii.  The winds are between 13-20 knots and our speeds are averaging 10 -16.  The swells are only 2-4 feet so our surfing is minimal.  The sailing is beautiful and in comparison of what we experience over the last 7 days pretty mellow!

Currently we are flying our #2 Spinnaker and are on Port Tack.  We actually might lay the finish line with out jibing.  That would mean that hippie called the lay line over three days out!  Absolutely crazy!

Last night we had Tom’s Beef Stroganoff and this evening we will be having Eileen’s Fritata.  Once again the food has been 5 star and we are very happy spoiled campers!

Yesterday evening we had millions of stars show us the way.  There was one small squall but tonight it looks like it is shaping up to be squall city.  They are real nasty.  Their nick name is “Scappers” because they are usually cloud formations that are very low to the water that have formed during the hot humid afternoon.  Once it starts to cool down they actually become severe storm cells with winds averaging 25-35 knots.  In addition to the wind they bring blinding rain.  They can last 10 -30 minutes and all I can say is hold on when you are in one because it is truly a puckering experience.  Once again you are driving in a black hole with no visibility at very high speeds exceeding 20 knots.  We are hoping to by pass it all and finish before the squalls become real active.

The garbage report is much better today.  Thank God.  Maybe if some of this junk wound up on the Hawaiian Island beaches someone would do something about it.

OK off my soap box and off to racing to a win.

Looking forward to sending our last report after we finish the race.  Go Horizon!!!!!

Hello from the crew of Horizon!

We just completed day seven and as of this morning’s role call we are still #1 in Class and #1 in fleet!  Yes we are totally stoked and as the miles click off the better are our chances of holding off the bigger and faster boats.  We currently have 333 miles to go and we anticipate finishing some time Saturday mid day.  The winds have backed off a little,12-15, knots and our boat speeds have been averaging 10 knots.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the rest of the fleet is in the same wind.  If they are our chances are very good for a multiple trophy win.  We’ll have a better idea in the morning!  As you can imagine we are very very excited and anxious as hell!

Horizon and her crew are doing great!  Everyone is dong everything possible to squeeze out every knot of boat speed.  We are flying our #2 Spinnaker and I would suspect that we will be flying this sail for the remainder of the race.  We even have a friendly competition between drivers on the mileage covered while driving.  It’s keeping everyone on there toes because no one wants to be the bottom dog!!  So far the times have been pretty even so its working.

The weather is hot, sunny and little muggy!  Big change from the past 6 days!  Horizon is completely dried out and yesterday afternoon we did a little house cleaning so she’ll be presentable when we finish the race.

We have had the normal wear and tear such as chafed spinnaker sheets and a few problems with a couple of blocks!  All good!

Last night we had Eric’s Lasagne, thanks Jennifer, and this evening its Tom’s Beef Stroganoff!  Once again dinner is one of the high lights of the day and I can’t wait!

By the way the garbage in the water has thinned out a little but its still disgusting!  Something needs to be done!

Lastly I just learned that my daughter Danielle just got engaged to a pretty good guy Matt!  Kind of funny that they waited until I was so out of reach so I couldn’t be there for my reaction.  Matt you can have her and good luck!  Just kidding!

We that’s it for know!  My turn at the wheel!  Once again please keep us in your thoughts.  Until Tomorrow Go Horizon!

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php

onboard

the win?

It is the rare race where a boat jumps out and dominates a race like the SC 50 Horizon is doing on the current Pac Cup. They are flat kicking ass, and the father son team of Jon and Erik Shampain are the driving forces. Jon is a skilled and thorough boat captain and navigator, and Erik has established himself as one of the best sailors on the west coast. Here is Jon’s most recent report:

Evening of day 5 and we’ve finally gybed to what we hope will be our final approach to the islands and Kaneoe Yacht Clubs finish line. We have less than 800nm to go and in 18 kt of breeze with a 3A we’re cooking. So far it’s been a great race for Horizon. We’ve been 1st in class and first overall for 3 morning roll. As of this AM we only have 2 smaller boats in front of us boat for boat, and now that we’ve gybed only 1 remains, a mini Transat being doublehanded. 2 nights ago, during the big breeze this 21′ boat sailed 250nm+ in a 24 hour period. Incredible! It’s 21 fuckin feet!

The big boat class which started behind us by 48 hours seemed to struggle their first 36 hours, but as of this morning the are on fire. The Criminals sailed 347nm and Pegasus turned in a 377nm 24 hour run! If the present breeze holds we should finish late Friday, early Saturday for what will be my best time to Hawaii for a Pacific Race, a little over 8 days. We will see if that pace will hold off the big boys.

There have been many broken parts during these past 2 days of breeze on; a headstay & vang for Recidivist, a boom for a Passport 40, a backstay for a Quest 33, rudder trouble for a Beneteau 423, Deception a SC 50 was taking on water thru the bottom rudder bearing, and both of the brand new Antrim boats have serious rudder damage with Rapid Transit returning to California and California Condor having lost both of her rudder is continuing on to Hawaii from the race’s Pacific mid point steering with a drogue. Having been in that situation once in the past delivering an Aerodyne 38 home from Hawaii my heart goes out to them.

We’ve had a great race so far and being competitive certainly helps keep the crews moral high. Our immediate goals; get in front of the Mini before the finish and hope the big boats slow down somewhere along the way.

hip out

Hello from the crew of Horizon!

To say the least we are getting very excited.  Today we were once again 1st in class and 1st in fleet!  That in itself is a major accomplishment.  In addition we might be the 1st boat to finish for a clean sweep.  In order to do this we will need to pass all the remaining boats that are a head of us as well as hold off the faster boats that started behind us.  As of this afternoon we have 570 miles to go and the next 48 hours will tell the tale.  If you want to see more details on our track please go to the web site and check it out.

Last night was the typical trade wind race.  Even though it was still dark as hell it was manageable.  The winds were a little shifty and averaged in the mid to upper teens with gusts in the lower 20’s.  The key to last night was the sea state.  Pretty sable and predictable.  Normal conditions and everyone had a great time driving.

Horizon is steaming to the finish.  I’m very happy with her performance and coupled with all the other carnage on the race course her prep once again has paid off in a big way.  It’s nice to know and be confident that under the most severe conditions we can hold it together as long as we don’t do anything foolish.

Speaking of foolish we as a society should be ashamed as to how we are treating our ocean.  This is my 5th crossing to Hawaii and I can honestly say the most embarrassing as far as all the garbage that we have had to duck and probably hit during the middle of the night.  Trash such as plastic buckets, coolers, cups, rope and just about anything that won’t disintegrate over time is swirling around in our waters.  On the average we are passing foreign objects multiple times per hour.  Not only are they dangerous and can damage our boat it’s just awful to see what we are doing to our oceans.  We need to wake up!

Today our weather is the typical tropics.  Sunny, hot and finally after six days we are drying out.  Our hatches are open and Horizon is starting to air out.  Thank God!

Last night we had Jambalaya not Lasagne.  My mistake.  It was great Peter did a super job and this evening we’ll  be having the Lasagne.

Currently we are under our 2A Spinnaker and are averaging 10 knotts per hour.  Not fast but quick enough to do the job.  Hopefully we’ll have another great evening and have a another great report tomorrow.

That’s it for know.  Pretty anxious that we can hold our position.  Until tomorrow go Horizon!

Hello from the crew of Horizon!

We once again found our selves 1st in Class and 1st in Fleet.  As of this E-mail we have approximately 800 miles to go to the finish.  Everyone is as happy as hell but once gain we have a lot of race course to cover!

Yesterday I mentioned how challenging Sunday night was.  Last night was relatively calm as compared to Sunday.  Difference being force 3 Hurricane versus force 5.  Still a total black hole at night!  Winds were a little lighter averaging in the mid teens to low 20’s and our boat speeds were in the low the mid teens.  Still surfing in the low 20’s.  We carried our 4A spinnaker all evening and early this afternoon we changed over to our 2A Spinnaker.  The 2A is for lighter breeze that ranges in the mid to low 20,s.  The 4A is your aggressive heavy wind Spinnaker that can take up to 30 knotts and then it’s our 6A or our Oh My God Spinnaker!  Obviously we keep that one hidden away!

I mentioned that this was a very aggressive yacht race that requires considerable skill, crew work and a well prepared boat.  I’m saying this because there has been considerable carnage over the last two days.  There are 54 boats on the course and in addition to five boats dropping out because of various issues other than a broken boat we have an additional six boats that have more serious problems.  They range from broken rudders to broken back stays, booms, broken head stays and serious rudder bearing malfunctions.  While none of these boats are totally disabled its a serious matter of them trying to make port.  Issues such as provisions especially water can really wear heavy on the most experienced crew.  Once again this is serious sport and lives can be in the balance if a boat is not properly prepared and the crew is not capable of handling the challenges of Mother Nature.

Horizon is very fortunate to have a great crew and a very well prepared boat thanks to Hip!

OK!  Now for the fun stuff.  Yes we are having a blast and everyone is getting along extremely well.  Lots of joking around, story telling and just great conversation among 8 guys that have sworn to keep all our conversations between the life lines and never to leave Horizon.

Last night we had Ei’s Ziti, a real hit, and this evening we are having Lasagne.  Should be great!

We also held our half way party in which Jason was our Master of Ceremonies!  He did a great job.  Hula Skirt, Coconut Bras, Leis and Funky Sun Glasses.  We even had a few very week Jello shots.  We have pictures and this we’ll share on our web once we can get them posted.

Currently we are screaming to the finish uNder our 2A Spinnaker and we’re screaming towards the finish!

Got to go and race!  keep us in your thoughts and Go Horizon!!!!!!

Hello from the crew of Horizon!

This morning brought great news!  We were once again 1st in class and 1st in fleet!  Even more important was the distance we put on our class and fleet!

It all boiled down to last night and having the nerve to fly our 4a in extremely challenging conditions.  The wind was howling in the mid to upper 20’s, it was pitch black, our boat speeds were constantly in the low 20’s and the slightest mistake by the helmsman and trimmers put Horizon in crash mode.  We had a number of round ups and the anxiety level was through the roof.  If you weren’t nervous then it was time to seek help because it was down right scary!  We made it through without anyone hurting themselves and Horizon just did her thing!

Little Hip (Eric) has the current speed record.  It’s 24.4 knotts or over 28 mph.  That’s blistering!

Once again everyone is having a blast!  One of my goals was to make sure that every crew member had a chance to break 20 knotts of boat speed while driving.  Everyone has and for some it’s their personal best!

The weather is still cool but it has started to warm up and I’m actually in a pair of shorts.  Still very cloudy with intermittent sun.  Maybe tomorrow will bring the traditional tropics that we have been waiting for.  Horizon is still soaked.  We have so much humidity on board that we actually need an on board meteorologist to predict the boats weather.  There is so much humidity inside Horizon that it is actually raining inside the boat!

We are currently half way to Hawaii.  The winds are starting to increase again.  We just saw 26 knotts and out boat speeds are hitting 20’s.  Another thrill ride this evening.  OH BOY!  We usually have our half way part to mark the vent but because of the winds and challenging sailing conditions we’re having it tomorrow.  You’ll get the full report in tomorrow’s E-mail.  It should be good.

This evening we are having Eileen’s baked Ziti, Garlic Bread and Salad.  A definite crew favorite.  Thanks Ei!

That’s it for now.  If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact us through our website.  Until then Go Horizon!

Hello from the crew of Horizon!

We just finished day three and as of this mornings roll call we were 1st in Class and 1st in fleet.  We are cautiously optimistic because as of this E-mail we have 1350 miles to go.  A lot can happen.  In addition we have a very fast boat named Condor in our class.  She is flying as well.  She owes us a pile of time and at this point we have her on corrected time.

The big boys started Saturday.  They spotted us two days.  We would love to hold them off and beat them to the finish line.  Once again a lot of race course to go!

Our strategy of going the Great Circle route is paying off.  We ran with a reefed main, the #2 Jib Top and a Stay Sail all last night.  Our speeds were in the teens and a few us us touched 20 knotts plus.  I had the record of 20.8 knotts until Hip broke it this afternoon.  The new record is 22.8 knotts or just over 26 miles per hour!  Our goal is to break that as well.

This morning we shook out the reef in the main and this afternoon we were finally able to fly our spinnakers.  Currently we are on our 4A Spinnaker and the wind speeds are in the high teens to low 20’s.  We are very fast and were hoping to really put a hurt on the rest of the fleet!

Weather has been miserable!  We had some sun yesterday afternoon and then the fog rolled in.  We have had over cast skies all day and while the fog lifted its still wet, cold and foulee time!  The good news is that it’s a little warmer but everything is wet.  Inside and out!

Last night we had Robert’s Pot Pie and it was excellent.  Tonight is John ‘s Chicken Enchiladas and I’m sure it will be a hit!

Crew work has been super and once again were having a ball!

Tomorrow’s role call will be interesting.  Until then Go Horizon!