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We recently told you how Seth Radow, who obviously has great financial resources at his disposal, is putting together his race to Hawaii with his Sydney 40. Now we have, if not the other side of that coin, certainly a less-heeled effort. Mike Amirault, who has a Synergy 1000, Synge, was kind enough to give us his perspective. Enjoy /ED After reading Seth's article I thought you might want to know how the other half lives from another boat in his same Pacific Cup division. To say I feel a little out-gunned right now is an understatement. My crew and I are in the final stages of preparations for our 2002 Pacific Cup campaign. None of us are fortunate enough to have gobs of disposable cash and we're doing everything we can to beg, borrow and steal our way to the starting line. The initial class breaks came out today and it was nice to see us racing in the same division as BULL and their new suite of CF sails. We'll be putting up our vintage (classic?) 1998 set. Hey, '98 was a good year for sails! We're also in the same division as 2000 Pacific Cup Division D winner E.T., an Antrim 27, an internationally ranked Mumm 30, Rainbow, and the West Marine pros aboard ProMotion. Combined on my boat we might have about 20 years of racing experience spread amongst the 5 of us with only our navigator having TransPac experience.
What do we have going for us? Synge, a Synergy 1000, one heck of a fast downwind boat. This boat is one hell of a ride off the wind as long as you're upright and not going sideways, broached six ways from Sunday. We thought about putting in seat belts. Probably the only other thing we have going for us is that we're not smart enough to know any better. Can we reasonably expect to compete? We'll see. Let's just say that if you expect to lose than you're halfway there and you won't be racing on my boat. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. We're outgunned every weekend here in Seattle so this will be nothing new to my crew. Getting a Synergy ready for an ORC Category 1 race is no small feat. There are literally boatloads of safety requirements that are difficult to adhere to without ruining our one undeniable advantage over our competition - we're light! At 4300 pounds, the Synergy is a big dinghy. Crew accommodations? Forget about it! With a 5.5' headroom and carrying all of the prescribed amount of water there is barely enough room in the boat to sit down. It's funny to hear of folks stripping all of the stuff out of their boat to make it lighter. There's nothing to strip out of a Synergy, we have the undesirable task of having to add things like a sink, stove, water tanks, etc. I could feel Synge getting upset with me every time I carried another box of "required gear" aboard the boat. It's like attaching a trailer to a formula 1 race car.
So we're heavily out-gunned financially and experience-wise. Why do it? Are you kidding me? The chance to race across the ocean, white knuckled from S.F. to Hawaii, pushing the fun meter past 20 knots, against some of the best sailors around - adventure of a lifetime baby! How could we *not* do it? Would you rather be a rock star or try to beat the rock stars? |
