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Two A long time participant here at SA, Mike Amirault owner of one of our all-time favorite boats, a Synergy 1000 named Synge, got so royally screwed by his crew for the '02 Pacific Cup that it was unbelievable. He is back for another try, and we are pulling for him to have a great race. Here is his story. Enjoy, and give Synge some love! - Ed.
July 2nd, 2002. St. Francis Yacht Club, 40 minutes before the start of Class D for the Pacific Cup Race to Hawaii. One of my crew approaches me and says,"Mike, I'm not going." Dumbfounded, I turned to my navigator and he replied, "If he's not going than I'm not going." And just like that it was over, 2 years worth of planning, a ton of money, and a dream of racing to Hawaii was flushed down the toilet. I was heartbroken. My fourth crew wanted to continue anyway and find some other crew to go with us. But it was over for me. I wanted to *race* to Hawaii and as I sat on the dock at St. Francis I could hear the horn squawk out signifying the start of my fleet. The dream was over. The next few days remain a nightmare. I had to have the boat hauled again, retrieved my trailer from Matson and tow the boat back up to Seattle. I also had to go through the embarrassment of having crew quit on me in a very public way in a major race. The news spread on Sailing Anarchy rather quickly (within hours) since we had been in a featured story and I did my best to squash the rumors. To this day no one really understands the reasoning of why the crew member quit. None of the reasons ever made sense. No matter how senseless it was though, I'm still the skipper and the one in charge and ultimately it all reflects poorly on me. I spent the long towing trip back to Seattle with my wife figuring out what to do. I figured the news would be all over Seattle and no one would ever want to crew with me again. After all, I must have done *something* wrong to have someone quit at the starting line, right? By the time I pulled the truck back in to Seattle I was resolved to rebuild my program and return to do the Pacific Cup in 2004. I would find new crew and I would rebuild things from the ground up. I was determined to find sailors that shared my vision on racing so that we could build a cohesive team. A few weeks after returning to Seattle we had our first practice with our new crew. I'm thrilled to report that 4 of the 5 crew from that first day are still core members of the crew today. As for crew for the Pacific Cup, I have been extra careful. I wanted to make positively sure everyone knew what they were getting into and shared the same vision for what we are trying to accomplish - light, light, light, no frills, think backpacking on the ocean for 10 days - as hard as we can for as long as we can. The Synergy is not a cruiser, it's a racer. And we're not sailing to Hawaii, we're racing. There's a certain level of uncomfortableness that exists with doing a trip like this on a Synergy that you need to accept. The boat is what it is: a 33' ULDB downwind rocket. It ain't a J Boat. If you can't accept that - don't come. Where do you find crew like that? Why the Army of course! Two of my crew, Darren and Braden, are brothers and Captains in the Army. So they're used to cramped conditions and the freeze-dried food will be a step up for them. My fourth crew Jamie is drooling at the chance to surf down the big waves while in the Trades. We're
back and we're ready. The boat has been meticulously prepped, reinforcing
in areas and lightening in others. We're approximately 500 pounds lighter
than we were for the race in 2002. This year we even have a bit of sponsorship
from We
still lack the deep pockets and experience of our competitors, but make
no mistake, on June 30th, 1:55pm, just off the St. Francis Yacht Club,
Synge is putting the pedal down and we're not taking our foot off until
we run into DanW on The
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