the dt’s
The final word on the J/125 Double Trouble troubles in the Pac Cup. This from owner Any Costello…
I feel I need to start this by saying you can take a trophy away from us but really, to quote the late Roy Disney, "In the end it’s about the journey."
You have read Skip’s post as to what we did and all I can say is shame on us for not knowing the rules. But I have nothing but proud and happy feelings for the experience we shared.
We sailed our J125 across the Pacific in 7 days, sailed 2 consecutive 24-hour 300+ mile days, and 611 miles in 48 hours. Not one other boat in the entire race even sailed a 300 mile day in this race; not even the 66 foot Icon. I’d like to thank my crew and call them out individually along with everybody who helped us with this adventure.
Skip Mc Cormack, my navigator, well he’s not just an awesome navigator he was our team’s motivation, our cheer leader cracking jokes and his contagious laughter kept us smiling while charging hard. He is the guy who had our food and coffee ready for us when we got up for battle at all hours of the night and day. His patience and strength when being pushed by our strategist (Trevor) his ability to make great decisions even when being willed by the team to do things maybe before it was time! I will sail with him anywhere there is a race anytime! By the way did I mention he can drive a sailboat at warp speed extremely smooth, he sees his racetrack and puts the boat where it needs to be to blast.
Trevor Baylis, a great friend and coach! I am 10 times the sailor for knowing him and sailing with him. I was so fortunate that he and I sailed our watch together the whole way a across the Pacific. He pushed me to drive when it was bordering on crazy and showed me that I’m a better sailor than I thought I was. Watching him drive a boat, linking waves into 5 minute 20 knot blast’s in winds where the boat is barely planing – it makes you great. We have our own sign language at this point. By the end of the race he and I were sailing DT like an I-14 team; trimming and driving as if we were one person. Trevor has spent 3 years helping me set up DT’s sailing modes, and we have an arsenal to say the least.
Matt Noble the guy you want on your team even though he’s not the bow guy! He is one hell of a sailor on the pointy end. Even more so, he brings quiet humble professionalism to any tem. He can drive DT like he stole her, all night long cracking jokes with Jody. This was my first experience trying to sleep below in my carbon boat and let me tell you the laughing and cracking up as they bursted at speeds over 20 knots on deck did not go with what I was feeling down below. I thought DT was going to rip apart. By the end of the race, asleep below, you could tell who was driving as each driver had a unique sound the boat would make but they were all crazy and white-knuckle sounding.
Jody Mcormack is the toughest girl I know hands down. She could drive DT as fast as the boys, in fact she got top speed for the race even though I think our knot meter is on on crack at 20.8 – she went faster. She prepared our team and our boat for this race to perfection and didn’t miss a beast. Nothing was left unthought of thanks to supreme organization and work lists and timelines.
I want to also thank Jeff Thorpe, Jenafer Anderson and Ben Mercer from Quantum Sails Pacific. Jeff has helped us build an awesome inventory of sails for every mode.
Gilles from GC Composites and Rigging for bombproof lighter solutions that helped DT get on the step earlier and made DT sweeter to sail. (by the way DT was weighed for ORR with these mods so not to start another scandal about why we sailed so fast 😉
Bay Marine Boat Works, thanks Erik and Ran for our sick race bottom and all our last minute little projects!
Okay I’ve said enough about our race! You get the picture it was epic and I will remember it for a long time. Thank you guys for all of this!
My only frustration is the penalty given. 24 hrs. Hmm….well at our average boat speed for the race I look at the penalty as a 300-mile deduction or 13 percent of the mileage we sailed in the race. All for accessing 4 hour old position data to provide nightly news to our team and family and friends on shore. Look at our track and see if you think we used it. We sailed our own race from the start.
I guess we could have stayed in San Francisco for an additional 24 hours, reading our sailing instructions properly, then set sail for Hawaii and we still would have placed 5th in our Division, 9th overall and beat our sistership, Warrior, to Hawaii boat for boat. This may sound cocky, but after thinking you have won the race for five days and then being protested, many scenarios run through your head. This one I feel paints the picture of how well our team performed.
Last but not least I want to apologize to all the racers in this year’s fleet that we may have offended.
Congratulations to Sebastian and his crew; Carlos, Seadon, Campbell and the rest of Swazik – you sailed a great race and not a better bunch of guys deserved to win!
Until DT hits the ocean again at full tilt and on the step.
Aloha from Kaneohe,
Andy Costello
Skipper
Double Trouble
