Kudos….

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You know, we are proud of our alumni.  It really is impressive what some of you have gone on to accomplish…  and there is nothing cooler than when someone walks up to us in the tent at, say, Key West Race Week, swings cup of rum punch our way, and says, “hey you taught me how to race!”  It makes what we do very gratifying.  Case in point:  

Hi guys,
 
I wanted give you an update on our first full season with the boat.  As you can see from the pic we did really well and you deserve huge kudos for your great training and coaching.  In just a few years you’ve helped me progress from knowing nothing about sailing to club champion.  Thank you, I appreciate all your hard work and hope to see you again soon.  And have a very Merry Christmas!
 
New Years Day Race – 1st overall.
Summer Shorts – 1St in division.
Last Chance Regatta – 1st in division.
Division 2 Club Champion.
 
 
That email came in from Kevin the other day…  Kevin has done a number of courses and events with us, from J80 racing to doing foredeck on the mighty Hula Girl in MEXORC.  He has demonstrated precisely what we have always said:  sailing is like anything else in life….  you get out of it what you put into it.  Kevin has put a lot of time and energy into bettering himself as a sailor, and it really shows.  
 
So as this year is wrapping up, we want to offer a hearty congratulations to ALL our alumni who went out last season and won…  or did well…  or just barely made it around the course but had a great time.  Don’t forget to check in every now and then…  we love to hear stories of your successes, trials, tribulations, whatever…
 
 
Cheers!
 
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team



Hula Girl Goes Under the Knife…

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So a friend sent me this shot of our Hula Girl in Hawaii, keel off, ready to be shipped home after the race to the Islands.  Looks like an auspicious sign for our turboed 50 footer.  We are excited to report the the Girl is undergoing a full refit and will hit the water early next year shiny, clean, updated, faster, and sweeter than ever.

Hula Girl, keel off, ready for shipping home from Hawaii

What are the projects?  Well, the BIG one is a new rig.  After an extensive look at all the options around the world, we selected Hall Spars to build one of their beautiful grand-prix one piece (!) carbon masts.  Not only do they turn our real works of art, but the team at Hall are great to deal with.  With lots of assistance and input from some of the best-in-the business, we have also re-engineered the rig plan and are moving the chainplates back to sweep the spreaders about 12 degrees, making it a more stable, forgiving, and modern rig with less dependency on the checkstays.  Man, it’s going to be sweet.

Also on tap is a full new steering system, from pedestal, to idler blocks, to quadrant.  Just to be sure.  We’ll be replacing and/or rebuilding all the windows and hatches.  We are getting rid of the aluminum toerail around the bow, and replacing the tracks aft.  New deck hardware throughout.  EVERY single piece of hardware is already off the boat, all the holes are being reamed out and filled with G10 rods, and the whole package will be re-bedded.  And, of course, she is getting a full paint job.

We know what we want for Christmas…
a nice and shiny better-than-new turboed Santa Cruz 50.
I think we are going to need a bigger tree.

J World chose KKMI in Richmond to oversee the refit.  Not only are they renowned for their exceptional work, but they have also been the custodians of Hula Girl for…  well, decades now, since before she was Gone With the Wind.  In fact, they oversaw the 2000 refit, including the installation of the strut/bulb keel, and the outfitting that Paul Cayard did when he owned the boat.  Their staff have always been fantastically knowledgeable and helpful to us in many ways, so taking her to KKMI was pretty much the easiest decision…  now what color do we paint her??

We are also thankful to a selection of sponsors and providers who are helping to outfit the Girl with the best marine equipment available anywhere in the world.  Stay tuned for a full list as we update on the project progress.

So the first outing for the newly gussied up Girl will be the 2013 Newport to Cabo Race in March.  Due to a cancellation, we have a couple of berths still available (if you miss this, she is sold out for a while and the next opportunity to sail on her won’t be until 2014!).  More info is here.  Seriously.  Get on this one.

And in the meantime, all our classes are running full-tilt….  the season in Puerto Vallarta is kicking in, San Diego has been beautiful (as always), and despite the rain this week, San Francisco Bay has had a lot going on.  Stay tuned for details on the So Cal Midwinters in our J/80s, our new Yachting Cup Clinic and Regatta, and more!

All the best,

Wayne Zittel and the J World Team

Newport to Cabo Race

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Every two years, Newport Harbor Yacht Club hosts the classic West Coast sprint from California to the beautiful tropical wonderland and land’s end:  Cabo San Lucas.  This is offshore racing at its best.  The event draws a great fleet each running, and we are proud to be heading down the coast in a true legend.  Hula Girl, a turboed Santa Cruz 50, is renowned for her speed and many successes.
In the last running of the Cabo Race, a team comprised of three J World coaches and six clients placed third, and in March of 2013 we are looking to better that!  This event was sold out six months ago, however a group cancellation has made some berths available.  Contact us now to receive a Team brief and learn more about this fantastic opportunity.

The Ha!

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Anyone up for a quick trip down to Baja?

All you sailors know the Baja-Ha-Ha, the world renown cruisers rally from San Deigo to Cabo San Lucas.  J World loves doing the trip, but alas, there is simply too much going on this year for us to commit to the full trip.  But we won’t give up that easily.  We are going to do the first half of the event, the Ha. We’ll start in San Diego with the fleet on October 28, sail to Turtle Bay where we will join the festivities, then on November 3 when the rest of the fleet heads south, we will turn northward back to San Diego.

J World made the cover in the 2007 Baja Ha Ha

Two J World coaches will be aboard, and we have space for three clients, so if you want a quick getaway, let us know!

Wayne Zittel and the J World Team

ALOHA!

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Pretty cool. Just awesome sailing right now in perfect conditions, and the Hawaiian Islands are coming up fast.

And there is more: from Wednesday morning at 8 am to Thursday morning 8am, Hula Girl covered more miles than any other boat out here, with the exception of the big Icon. That’s pretty impressive for a team that never sailed together before, and never sailed this boat before. In fact, most of the crew didn’t even know each other two weeks ago. They came from all around the US and Canada to race in the 2012 Pacific Cup from San Francisco to Hawaii. Add to the mix three coaches from J World Performance Sailing, and you have Team Hula Girl.

In the course of an event like this, we (coaches) work hard to try to get everyone aboard to do all the heavy lifting. Everyone is an equal team member, and gets equal time doing all the jobs onboard an offshore racer, from trimming to grinding to driving. I’m not going to candy-coat anything. It can be really rough going for the first couple of days. The crew is learning the boat and getting acclimated to onboard life in the toughest possible setting: an actual offshore race on a real offshore boat competing against numerous grand-prix level teams. And it’s not uncommon that we get fairly beat up by the competition in those early days.

But then something pretty cool happens. The team gels. They learn how to drive the boat better, the early signs of being too high (or to low) and how much to respond. How the pitch and roll and yaw of the Pacific swells effect the boat and the sails. The trimming gets crisper, faster to respond to the driver and the wind. The team goes from being re-active to pro-active. The boat sails ‘in the groove’ longer, smoother, faster. Case in point: yesterday. As mentioned before, Team Hula Girl did an impressive job posting high miles and gains (some significant) on many teams out here with pro sailors, long term programs, and seasoned vets. Nicely done!!

We are about 100 miles out right now, on the final push to the finish. We are expecting a fifth place in our class, and a fifth place overall. Not too shabby. And, what’s even better, is that it’s shaping up to be one final beautiful evening. We’ll have a waxing moon, and mostly clear skies. With about 14 knots of breeze, we are surfing small swells under spinnaker at about 12 knots. Tonight, as we run towards Kaneohe Bay on the north shore of Oahu looking at an early morning finish, I am really proud to have sailed with everyone on this team. Not only did they do a truly fantastic job, but they were also an absolute blast to be with. Many thanks to coaches Geoff (the Governor) and Chris (the Dude) for their tireless efforts and keeping the proverbial ‘wheels on the wagon,’ and of course thanks to Tom (the Tominator), Tim (the Bishop), Les (Field Marshal Serge), Brendan (the Cowboy), Martha (Trixie), and John (Bux Money) for making this such an enjoyable and memorable passage.

Clearly we have been out here too long. Now we need to get ready for our finish. And I’m looking forward to sampling the local refreshments. I hear they have something delicious called a Mai Tai and that it is terribly difficult to have only one. There are some challenges I am not ready or willing to face, so I am fine if they give me a couple…

Aloha,

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Team

www.saiing-jworld.com

800-910-1101

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Summer Sleigh Rides

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Well it’s been a wild couple of days in the 2012 Pacific Cup. Early Tuesday morning, we entered a solid band of breeze which lasted for about two days. Winds were moistly 20-25 knots, with occasional squalls pushing things to around 30. Hula Girl was dancing with the waves, ticking off prolonged runs at 15, 16 knots and occasional leaps over 20. Just a complete blast, but nerve wracking… the squalls come on fast, and last a loooong time. You see the darkness come up behind you. Then you feel the rain. Then the wind is on you, the boat literally takes off, and your sleigh ride has begun. You’d better bring your A game.

But we have taken some lumps too. We blew up a kite (my favorite 2A). We broke a gooseneck pin (good on the sharp eyes of Tim for noticing it before it became a big issue). We got some debris (polypropelene line… fishing gear??) caught on the prop and strut, then later caught a sheet down there… had to drop the kite and park it for a bit to clear the.tangle. We broke an after guy (that was ‘exciting’). And so on. Radio chatter indicates that more than a couple boats have has issues, but luckily nothing sounds too major.

Once again, the J125 Double Trouble tore things up. Icon, the speedy Perry 66 did 273 miles yesterday. DT a little over 40 feet, did 300. That is absolutely rocking. THey are only 40 mile behind the big boat today. Could they actually beat Goliath and capture a clean sweep??? It would be an amazing accomplishment… so be sure to stay tuned. Other than that, Medusa the SC52 pulled on us, California Condor gained a bit (as expected), but we pulled on every other boat out here. Daily corrected standings haven’t been sent out yet, and there are still 650 miles to go… can we put enough time on Swazik and Hana Ho to correct out over them?? Lord know were gonna try. We are all on port tack , finally, more or less pointed straight at the Islands. A bit of a drag race now.

Life onboard has been nice. Today is the first day with good sunshine, so we still have a lot of wet sails and gear. But it’s a lot warmer now, and we are drying out nicely. I’m about to head to the cockpit to take a nice warm shower (oh yes, I very much need it), and our bellies are full from the gourmet wraps that Martha made for lunch. Then I’m going to take a nap and recharge the batteries for tonight. The night have been challenging, and even though the wind is a bit lighter at the moment, I have comer to expect the unexpected.

Cheers all, and wish us good speed and fortune on the sleigh ride to the barn!

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Team

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Lucky

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It’s a little after 3 am out here in the middle of nowhere.

Well, actually we aren’t in any proverbial nowhere, we are out in the beautiful Pacific Ocean on a fantastic evening., so that part might be a little misleading. But the middle part is wholly accurate: we have just passed the halfway point in the 2012 Pacific Cup race from San Francisco to Hawaii. Out here, right now, we are farther from any speck of dry land than you can get anywhere else on the planet. 1035 miles, if you want to be exact. So if ‘somewhere’ for you equates to terra firma, then I guess indeed we might be in the middle of nowhere after all.

Out here we are pushing into the tradewinds where the breeze comes on stronger and steadier. Earlier, the sliver of a moon pushed thru the patchy clouds, a welcome sight after a couple of dark dark nights out here. The way the reflected light plays off the water in a shimmery streak off the side of the boat which masks the speeds we are hitting as Hula Girl surfs, then loads up on the back of a wave, then surfs again. The darkness can almost fool you into thinking that we are stationary, a snapshot with all the trappings of speed, but frozen… unless you look down and see the water rushing by, or hear the hissing of the searing past the hull, or catch a glimpse of the spray thrown by the bow. Then it’s pretty clear we are trucking along. The moon has set now, and it;s all stars.

I just spent an hour driving. It’s just glorious out there. I snuck the earbuds in and fired up the tunes. It’s about my favorite thing in the world: driving a fast boat with the kite up at night on shuffle play. It will never get old.

It’ wont be getting light out here for a while… we are somewhere between Pacific TIme and Hawaiian time, where civic distinctions don’t exist and the mariners only deal with their own language, differences from Zulu, GMT, and the like. Life is good aboard… we are having a blast. Great company, great sailing, great competition. We have been underway a little over four and a half days, with about 4 to go, if we are lucky.

But who am I kidding…. we are already lucky.

Time to get some sleep before the next watch. Have a great night, and we’ll .see you all when the sun comes ’round again…

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Team

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33.33%

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That’s about how far thru the 2012 Pacific Cup from San Francisco to Hawaii we are at the moment. We had a beautiful day, sailing in 15-18 knots, small waves, deep blue water. It’s looking a bit more like the brochure. Onboard Hula Girl we have a mix-and-match crew from various corners of North America, and even though this is the first time the group has sailed together, I have to say they are doing an impressive job…. even the Canadians… (whoa now, easy guys, it’s just a joke…)

Ok, that was close, but I’m back….

So our fleet is mixing it up a bit. Double Trouble, the J/125, has punched out nicely on a southern line, and is currently sitting in first in class, first overall. California Condor was down there too, but thru the night they reached up and are now north of us, near the smoking SC52 Medusa. Meanwhile, we have maintained a bit of leverage to the south. The breeze we are seeing out here for the past two days does not at all match the forecast models, so we have been paying increased attention to the NWS weatherfaxes and, even though they don’t match the reality out here, they are closer. If we had to guess (and we do), we’ll roll the dice that it will be a bit lighter and lifted to the north, so for now, we like our position relative to the competition. But there’s a lot of racecourse left… and plenty of time to keep us humble!

Life onboard has slipped into a fine downwind routine. Sleep, trim, drive, grind. Rinse and repeat. As everyone gets more time in the various roles, our sailing just gets better and better. Driving is smoother. Trimmers are more active. Boat is faster. All good. And a special tip of the hat to Martha, who currently holds the speed record of a blistering 17.4 knots! Nicely done!!

We just wrapped up dinner. John is driving, Tom is trimming. There are random crew sleeping about in bunks with Island dreams, no doubt. The breeze has backed down to a mild 14-16 knots, and it’s looking like a mellow evening. More soon…

Wayne ZIttel and the Hula Girl Team

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The Simple Life

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Well, what can I say? It’s all been pretty straightforward in the 2012 Pac Cup so far.

We are now into day two and scooting along. The daily run yesterday was a mediocre 215, but not horrible given the conditions that plagued the area earlier in the week. So I am definitely not complaining. As of the 8am roll call on Friday, we were 5th in class, 5th overall in our extremely competitive fleet… Medusa, the SC52 with a full contingent of talented crew punched out to claim an early lead in class and overall. And with Swazik, Double Trouble, Condor, and the rest, the team rosters read like a who’s-who of West Coast racing. This is going to be a tough fleet.

Most of the day yesterday was spent reaching with the Code 0. We saw Condor with their spinnaker up off our starboard side, but over the course of the afternoon they dropped down below us to the south, and eventually disappeared overt he horizon. Their heading was WAY south and I wasn’t comfortable with that, so we kept reaching with the Zero. In the late afternoon the breeze had not yet shifted to the north and had come up to about 14-15 knots, so we dropped the Code 0 and went back to the Jib Top and GS, which we carried thru the night.

First light. Breeze shifting right, to due north. That can only mean one thing in a Hawaii race: Spin-time. We went straight to the 2A, and with a bow pointed almost directly at the Islands, took off at about 11-12 knots in about 16 knots of breeze. We are riding a wave of new pressure onto the course, coming into the fleet with the new breeze. This should mean that we are closing with the smaller boats ahead of us very quickly, and that we are in for a good amount of unstable wind. And sure enough, it’s been shifty and puffy, but the team has been handling it well.

At the 8am roll call today, we found we had snuck into 4th place. Encouraging news for the team, even if the early standings don’t really mean too much (1600 miles to go!). Well to the north are Swazik and the other SC50, while well to the south are the J125 Double Trouble and Condor. Interesting to note that the leader is way south. Second place is in the middle. Third place is in the north. And fourth back in the middle. So there seems to be a lot of potential lanes out here, but as I said, it’s still very early. What I do know is that we have a bit of a drag race going, and we need to sail the boat well to keep up with these guys.

Freeze dried lasagne for dinner tonight, and probably a bit of salad. Then into our first night with the kite up. It’s pretty clear today (patchy clouds) but not much of a moon so it will be a dark one. Beautiful right now, 15 knots and flat seas, and we are looking forward to a fun evening.

More soon…

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Team

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2012 Pac Cup Report – Feeling A Bit Lucky

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2012 Pac Cup Report – Feeling A Bit Lucky

Yes indeed. We here aboard J World’s Hula Girl in the 2012 Pacific Cup are feeling a bit lucky, and we aren’t even 24 hours into the race yet. We’re not sure how we sit in the standings, we aren’t sure this breeze will hold, we aren’t sure about much at all, in fact, except this one thing: we are sure that we were able to get away from the California coast a LOT less painfully than our brethren aboard the smaller boats that started before us! Pure luck of the drew, to be sure, but still we are happy we didn’t hit the hole they found. Some of those boats did a fantastic job punching thru it… nicely done… now we have to catch them.

It was a mild departure from SF Bay yesterday. Maybe 15 knots out the gate. Mostly flat water at the end of the flood. We started with a #3 and full main, and kept good company as we tacked out the channel and into the band of fog offshore. We were happy to still beholding good breeze, as we watched the ghostly shapes of the other racers alternately disappear, and then re-emerge from the patchy low clouds. Finally, we all punched out the other side and were in clearing skies with good visibility. Past the Pilot boat sitting out by the SF Buoy. Past the Farallone Islands. And into the blue Pacific.

Icon, the biggest boat in the race, punched out to an early lead. We won’t be seeing them again. The SC52 Medusa was straight in front of us, with the Swan 45 about even to the north, the other SC50 off our hip to the north, and Condor plus the two J125’s were drawing a line to the south. But I expect it all got shuffled last night.

The breeze went right (as expected) in the early evening, and about 11pm we awoke our new crew to their first middle-of-the-night-you-must-be-kidding-me sail change. Smooth as silk, and we were on our way with the Blast Reacher and Genoa Staysail. We carried that thru the night, but just a couple hours ago this morning, the breeze started to back down a bit so we shifted up to the Code 0 (with GS). All good now. Doing 9 knots or so pointed in a very good direction in about 10-11 knots of breeze. We expect this to be building into the afternoon, so hopefully we can get the Hula Girl back into the double digits boatspeeds.

Life aboard is great. It’s been mild, which lets our team acclimate to the new-to-them boat, and their new-to-them crew mates. We have run a couple full rotations, so everyone has had a bit of dance time with the Hula Girl. It’s always nice to get comfy before the spinnakers go up.

That’s all I got for now (less than 20 hours into it, after all!)…. but I’ll fire away with more details as we get deeper into the race.

All the best,

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Team

* J World’s Hula Girl is the offshore training program for J World Performance Sailing School. We enter a number of grand-prix sailing events each year with a mix of our professional coaches and a crew of amateurs from around the world. To learn more, visit www.sailing-jworld.com.

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