Round the County 2008

Third in our division, Eighth overall. Yeah Canada! All results can be found here. What a trip.

Thanks Super Dave for putting together the video!

Swiftsure 2008

Holy cow. Preliminary results indicate a 1st place in this years Swiftsure, and 2nd overall. Once again, the team fought hard against kairos (kairos being a common sight from madmax ever since last years Van Isle 360).

http://www.swiftsure.org

This year was a bit of a driftsure, in contrast to the last several Swiftsures that were characterized by 40-knot night time passages through Race Rocks.

Although winds were lighter this year, MadMax managed to split a spinnaker while racing to the finish line.

Great work team!

Southern Straits 2008

A hard fought, and finally won, first place for MadMax in this years Southern Straits. Well done team!

http://www.southernstraits.ca/results/Straits2008LongCourseResults.htm

post cadillac van isle 360 bbq celebration

Madmaxians celebrate victory in the 2007 Cadillac Van Isle 360. Sweet.

Cadillac Van Isle 360

June 15 is finally here...Yay.

MadMax and crew is ready and pumped for the Van Isle 360!

Steve and Sarah drove MadMax to Nanaimo from Vancouver. All went well.

Next come the safety inspections, crew arrivals, land support crew (Barb and dogs), and the start of the race on Saturday June 16!

Swiftsure 2007

This year's race was so fast, it felt like a day regatta!

MadMax raced to Cape Flattery (our normal course), and completed it in 15 hours and 39 minutes!

The race began with a lousy start, but that start then had a total recall (yay).

We got our act together for the second start, and made the most of it with clear air at the pin (south) end.

We barely made any tacks on our way to and through Race Rocks, leading our fleet. Then, decided there was no benefit in hugging the Van Isle shore, and headed straight to Flattery.

Duked it out with Declaration of Independence as we approached the Washington coast, and fought them off :-)

Then the fateful moment...a black cloud...Declaration headed out in front of the cloud, we headed behind it to shore. Oops. No wind, and the fleet caught up to us as DI and Time Bandit headed to the mark ahead of us.

We regrouped, got our focus back, and had a fantastic downwind leg running with spinnaker all the way to Race Rocks. (Had some close calls as the wind built from 10, to 15, to 20, then 25 knots as we approached Race. The boats around us had gone to white sails, while we were still gunning along with spinnaker. What a ride!)

We tried to make it back to Victoria before last call in the bars, but 2:30 AM all is closed.

Final results have us as 2nd in division (a good result, since we had to make a bit of a comeback after the dreaded black cloud).

Another great Swiftsure!

Southern Straits 2007

First regatta of the year after the winter overhaul.

Sweet to finally be on the water racing again!

Great boatspeed at all points of sail.

Geat to be out with the team.

The regatta was characterized by light winds throughout, persistent south easterly forecast (although all of Friday saw north westerly), starry night with 3/4 moon, a hazy low/no wind day on Saturday.

After last mark of the long course (Ballenas Island), Max was well in the lead...then...

Light winds and strong currents conspired, and hit us after sun rise in the middle of the strait.

The rest of the fleet sailed the great circle route along Vancouver Island to Entrance then across, and caught up to us. All we could do was watch. Although tried everything to keep it moving.

Finished after dark, and after ducking a tug and log boom crossing directly in fron of the finish line. (Only Harwar was able to beat the tug, although only 100 meters in front of us. Took another 20 minutes for the rest of the fleet to duck the boom.)

Not a great final result. But great moments on the water. Crew and vessel are sailing well.

Ready for 2007 regatta season.