Aren’t you sailing around the world? Cruising boats can’t race, right? Well, sort of. As sailors that enjoy high-performance sailboats and are used to racing with the bare minimum, surrounded by carbon fiber and Dyneema, it is hard to envision racing a full-fledged cruising sailboat. Cruising is very fulfilling and challenging, but sometimes we miss the adrenaline and spike of mental energy in the rush of close-quarters sailing.

Enter our new Brazilian friends Wellington and Paola aboard the Samoa 30 TXAI (the name of the boat means “brother” in an indigenous language). We ran into them while anchored off of Sao Sebastiao and as we sipped Cuba Libres and practiced our Spanish and Portuguese they let us know that one of Brazil’s most important race series was now offering doublehanded and cruising boat classes this season.
Of course, this piqued our interest as racing sailors and we promptly clicked the link to the notice of race Wellington WhatsApped to us the next day. We were in! Just a few short minutes later we had filled out the entry form and our entry was accepted pending payment of the entry fees. This had to be done in person as we do not have a Brazilian bank account to do transfers within the country.

We headed over to Yacht Club Ilhabela to meet Ann, the regatta organizer. Luckily our Portuguese is getting much better, especially Kate’s, and Ann spoke very good English. She has been involved in some worldwide racing programs so she was helpful and easy to communicate with. She knew what it was like to race in a foreign country not knowing the details of the language. Let us tell you, Google Translate does not know sailing terms. For example, sail or vela in Portuguese translates to candle in English.

The yacht club and the race sponsor, Mitsubishi, put on a great pre-race party. An authentic Brazilian fishing canoe was filled with ice and beer for the sailors to enjoy. Champagne was served with the trophies on display at the bar under an awning of palm leaves next to the ocean while sailors told racing stories in excitement for the week’s coming events.

Yacht Racing in Brazil

Now, we didn’t know much about racing in Brazil. We have only met other South American racers once before at the 2016 Melges 24 World Championships in Miami. Let us tell you this, they take racing very seriously down here. There is a ton of skill and boats are very well prepared. As hardcore racers back home we have lots of respect for “pro” level racing, and this certainly fits the bill. What is better than learning from the best? After meeting a few of the sailors, including Mr. Eduardo de Souza Ramos (a past Olympic sailor and TP52 MedCup competitor), and seeing the boats (Botin 44 Phoenix, C30 Caballo Loco, Soto 40s, HPE 25s, and others) we were thoroughly impressed and excited to see some awesome racing.

Our doublehanded (Duplos) class was only scheduled to race on one day of the event, which was perfect as it gave us time to go out in the boat and watch the high-end racing as well as fly the drone to get some awesome aerial shots of the boats in action. We sucked through 5 drone batteries and GB of video on day one as we chased boats upwind and downwind. Needless to say, there will be some very cool footage of all of this racing, including shots from our 3 onboard cameras in the upcoming YouTube video covering this part of our time in Brazil. https://www.youtube.com/c/sailingsweetruca

Let’s Go Racing

On Saturday morning it was our turn to hit the racecourse, and we were amped for our first racing experience since the Bayview Mackinac race aboard Chico 2 last July. It was time to get out the Go-Pros to document this all for YouTube. Before we could get started we had to shift the boat from cruising mode to racing mode. This meant ditching some extra canvass, securing items inside, ditching the dinghy at the dock, and most importantly getting the spinnakers out!

We wanted to ditch more weight, including our oversized 73 lb Rocna anchor on the bow and its associated 218 feet of 10mm chain as well as our extra 100 gallons of diesel fuel (40 in jerry cans), 30 days of food & water, storm sails, canvas covers and lazy jacks, and scuba tanks. YCI was accommodating to allow us to do this, but we just ran out of time. We were going to race in full-on offshore cruising dress!

Our biggest decision was whether to leave our #3 dacron jib on the roller furler or make the switch to our Expedition Membrane Carbon cruising genoa. We watched the forecast carefully. A front was moving in and the wind started to build the morning of the race. This made the normally light 5-15 knot breeze we were expecting change to 15-25 knots with gusts to 30. Our fantasies of pointing extra high with the new carbon sail on the bow were fading fast.

Sailing double-handed upwind in a shipping channel and pre-race starts would put a lot of wear on headsails. It is very hard to sheet in an overlapping sail quickly with only two people. We really need to keep our best sail for our intended purpose, sailing around the world, rather than drag it back and forth across the spreaders and flog it to death racing. So, the old #3 was the last-minute decision.

The Start

Racing in an unknown area always has challenges. Apart from the standard wind shift and current issues we also had a huge language barrier to overcome. The racecourse was to be announced over the VHF radio, a problem to hear sometimes in the best conditions in our native language, let alone in Portuguese. Luckily the race committee agreed to send the course information to all competitors via WhatsApp as well, a welcome reprieve.

Our race was to start promptly at 1230 hrs local time. We jockeyed for position a bit, but after watching the previous classes start, we realized a start on port tack at the pin would be heavily favored in the strong current of the 100ft deep Sao Sebastiao channel. We pinged the line in our H5000 and set our clocks. Kate watched the clock closely as I burned some time. 23 seconds, she said, let’s GO!

We turned the wheel down and sheeted in. We glided over the starting line at our full 7-knot upwind speed, turning the winches and sheeting in hard as we brought the boat to its max angles. Did we just nail an on-the-line port tack pin start dead on time double-handed in a 46-foot cruising sailboat? Yup! We were pretty surprised ourselves and checked the committee boat for the OCS flag and listened to the radio just in case. We were good to go! Looking back, because of the current we were crossing everyone. Holy smokes, a perfect start in our first race in over 6 months!

Upwind Leg

Because we launched so hard we only had one other true contender in our start to deal with. Technically they were not in our class, as they were a fully crewed cruising class boat, not doublehanded, but they were a formidable and well-sailed opponent. The Grand Large 500 Nautilus was hot on our heels. We had a wonderful duel, tacking up the channel, both choosing different sides to seek current relief and checking in with each other in the middle. The Nautilus, skippered by Aziz Constantino, is a 50-foot performance cruiser and had good speed. They pushed us, and we had to work very hard to stay ahead. Short tacking a 46’ cruiser was hard work!

As we approached the windward mark, while avoiding max current, we strayed into some shallow water and tacked away just in time. Thank goodness for the J/46 shoal draft keel at that moment. We gave the red buoy just a little extra room as we rounded it to port, making sure we wouldn’t drift into it in the strong current.

Downwind Leg

Time for the spinnaker! As the wind was puffing to the 30s at times and was sustained around 20 this was going to be a challenge double-handed on a windward-leeward course filled with high-performance fully crewed race boats. We decided to use the G3 cruising kite in the sock, rather than the R2 race runner out of the hatch. We were in full race mode but had to check ourselves, we were racing our house and could not afford to break things.

We gybe set at the mark as we rode a lift into it. This set us on a great layline for the finish. With any luck, we wouldn’t have to gybe again, which is a tough task for a 1700+ square foot asym without a bowsprit. We were hitting speeds in the high 9’s downwind in the flat water. Awesome sailing.

The Finish

The finish was tricky. We were coming into the line just as the ORC 1 fleet was starting. This put a stunning wall of carbon boats with black sails in front of us. Our Rocna anchor looked pretty intimidating to those on the rail of the upwind boats. We decided to start stuffing away our kite early as we had enough lead to be safe and not push things. I ran to the bow while Kate took the helm.

We had a little twist start to happen as we steered quickly between the upwind boats to avoid them. BIG PROBLEM! In this breeze, if we wrap the kite on the forestay we are pretty screwed. Quickly I spiked the tack line and started unwrapping from the bottom up, flagged it, and jumped onto the sock while Kate played chicken with crossing boats. She stuffed it up to be safe just as I was able to get the sock to the deck. Phew!!!

We crossed the finish line under mainsail only, but safely. Line honors for our start, first in our class, and first for cruising boats overall. Nautilus followed closely behind, catching us a bit under the spinnaker, handling it beautifully with their full family crew but the course was not long enough for them. Whoa, what fun!

The Party

Time to clean up the boat and head to the most important part of the race, the Apos Regatta Party! There we would get to see our friends Wellington and Paula again, and grab some much-needed ice-cold beers from the wooden canoe. An excellent band played, awards were given, smiles, hugs, and handshakes were shared.

We can’t thank Mitsubishi enough for sponsoring this regatta, and we are hugely impressed with not only the pro sailing here but the way that racers and yacht clubs are building the grassroots. There is an amazing atmosphere here that is hard to compare, but we found it is similar to the wonderful experiences we have had racing in the Melges 24 one-design class. Passionate sailors that want to build the sport and pass on knowledge, racing hard, while having a wonderful time with friends. We also have to extend a huge thank you to Armando, who has become a wonderful friend and has been instrumental in helping us navigate Brazil. Last but not least we want to give a shout-out to all of our new friends from YCI in Brazil, if you are ever in the USA and feel the need for some racing, look us up at Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, we have a feeling you would enjoy the famous freshwater races to Mackinac Island (the Ilhabela of the Great Lakes)!

Official Race Write Up, Photos, and Results: https://circuitoilhabela.com.br/termina-de-forma-antecipada-a-primeira-etapa-do-circuito-ilhabela-2022/

Some photos By: Aline Bassi/Balaio: https://balaiodeideias.com.br/ and Wellington & Paola (Velerio/Yacht TXAI)

WTH, We Thought You Would Be in Patagonia?

There is enough here to fill a complete blog post about this. We are still headed there, but plans have been thrown completely out the window due to Coronavirus border closures and a mechanical failure and associated repairs. Sometimes we think though, someone is secretly looking out for us, as we wouldn’t have and be able to share these amazing experiences and have met all of our new wonderful friends. We are going with the flow and don’t even know what will happen next ourselves as the weather and countries policies are continually changing.

The post Lets Go Racing! What??? The 2022 Copa Mitsubishi appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

0:00 Intro

0:36 Bahamas Sailing

We raise our anchor at the deserted island in North Eleuthera Bahamas and head west. We sail through the crystal clear but shallow water of the Bahama Banks to Chub Cay, Whale Key, Bimini, and then on to Miami.

3:49 Gulf Stream Crossing

We crossed the gulf stream with a northeast wind, perfect for some downwind spinnaker sailing on the way to Miami and Biscayne Bay. We hit 10.9 knots of boat speed during some great and fun sailing conditions.

7:00 Stiltsville

We entered Biscayne National Park through the Stiltsville Cut. It was pretty cool to sail between the old houses and buildings on stilts, which have been long since abandoned. This is a tricky entrance and we must be careful as we draw over six feet.

7:25 Coconut Grove Sailing Club

We got the last open mooring ball at CGSG, which thankfully was the only one that would fit our 46 foot sailboat. We were very thankful for the clubs hospitality. What an amazing place with excellent staff and friendly members. It helped that they were a racing club and we had visited there before while racing Melges 24’s.

7:41 Sail Loft

One of the main reasons for coming to Miami was to get our staysail fixed up. When it was originally re-cut down from a #4 jib in Annapolis the sail loft there made a mistake and made the sail longer than the hoist. So we were able to have the sail re-recut and fixed in under a week. We were super thankful to get this done.

8:39 Melges 20 and Bacardi Winter Series in Miami

It just so happened that the Melges 20 Winter Series and Bacardi Miami Winter Series was going on. Was this planned? Well, it certainly was a good enough reason to sail back to the USA and see all of our racing friends. On top of that, the race committee boat broke down, so we volunteered to be the RC boat for the day. It was lots of fun, but there were a few close calls. Luckily no boats were harmed in the filming of this video and SV Sweet Ruca came away without a scratch in her Awlgrip!

12:52 Coconut Grove

We ended our time in Miami with a stroll through Coconut Grove. It is a lovely little suburb on the south side. We took advantage of this time to get our last meals out in the USA for what we be a long time. We were also invited to go to the CGSC staff Christmas party, so we celebrated the holiday in style with our new friends before we sail away again to the Bahamas.

#sailing #boatlife #bahamas #sail #sea #boat #yacht #sailboat #yachting #travel #ocean #sailor #yachtlife #boating #boats #sailingboat #sailingyacht #adventure #yachts #vlogger #youtubesailing #vlog #rescuedog #sailingdog #boatdog #snorkeling #paddleboarding #desertedisland #jboats #saltydog #saltlife #sailingvlog #liveaboardlifestyle #rocna #anchoring #cruising #sailaway

The post [Ep 15] Hard Decisions…Do We Turn Around? appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

0:00 Annapolis

We start out this youtube sailing video where the last one left off. We left the dock at Bert Jabins in Annapolis, Marlyand in the cold November rain! We had a deadline though, our goal was to be at anchor in the warm, clear blue waters of the Bahamas to celebrate Thanksgiving.

0:31 Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay was a mess on the way out. We dodged fishing gear and huge cargo ships and freighters as we motored upwind to make our weather window. The next morning we were sailing, almost to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean. After months of being coupled up in a boatyard, we have finally headed to sea again. We raised our sails and reached down the coast, headed toward Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1:19 Cape Hatteras

Late that leaving, or should we say early the next morning, we rounded Cape Hatteras in the dark. We dealt with the choppy and confused seas driving at weird angles by the relentless current. We made it through, rounding America’s Great Cape at roughly 2:00 AM. The next morning, as if to celebrate our achievement, we were greeted by dolphins swimming off of our bow. Our first Bow Dolphins on Sweet Ruca!!!

4:20 Dolphins & Fishing for Mahi Mahi

After we crossed into the Gulf Stream the next morning the conditions subsided. And, at times even went to flat calm. We decided to do some fishing and nailed our first Mahi Mahi. Thankful to the gods of the sea for the fabulous dinner. Fish tacos for days!

7:34 Cape Fear, North Carolina

After our first offshore fishing experience, we saw the weather was shifting. To get ahead of it, and make some time in the calm, we decided to tack back to shore and head to Cape Fear, NC. A wonderful little town on the Intercoastal Waterway. We stayed the night and re-filled with diesel and icecream!

8:33 Gulf Stream in Big Breeze

We headed back out to do battle with the Gulf Stream once more. It was the only thing left between us and warm weather. The problem was, the wind was blowing from the direction we wanted to go. We saw big breeze up to 35 knots and Kate experienced a bout of seasickness as we had spray into the cockpit.

12:21 The Morning After

We made it through, but we weren’t to the Bahamas just yet. The trip would continue. We show you what the inside of the boat looks the morning after bashing into big seas offshore. Bluewater sailing at its best. Kate talks about her seasickness and Curtis is having fun discussing autopilot. He is really happy he is finally wearing shorts, a sign we are sailing closer to the Caribbean!

#sailingvlog #capehatteras #gulfstream #chesapeakebay #sailing #atlantic #bahamas #caribbean #sail #3rdreef #sailinglife #sail #sea #boat #yacht #sailboat #yachting #travel #ocean #boatlife #sailor #yachtlife #boating #summer #boats #sailingboat #sailingyacht #adventure #yachts #vlogger #youtubesailing #vlog #rescuedog #sailingdog #boatdog

The post [Ep. 13] Gulf Stream Crossing – Sailing Offshore to Bahamas in November appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

Kate gives a detailed explanation of how the rudder bearings work, and why we are changing them out.

1:47 Gooping

This is a really big project, including lots of fiberglass work and “gooping”. Meaning, it’s messy! We use lots of different glues and sealants as we time-lapse the rudder bearings back in the boat. We also add an extra fiberglass layer, with the help of Beasley Marine making them extra secure offshore. https://www.beasleymarine.me/ – Their website is lame, but their composite work and knowledge are top-notch. If you need composite, fiberglass repair, or carbon fiber work done on the east coast, Mike Beasley and his experienced team are highly recommended!

2:47 Rudder Installation

We slide the rudder back up into the boat. Carefully aligning it. We narrowly miss the wind generator with the travel lift as we maneuver the boat over the rudder. The rudder quadrant, steering cables, and autopilot are bolted in and tested.

5:38 Roxy the Sailing Dog Meets a Deer

We took Roxy for a walk in the local park. She saw a deer for the first time. She was a bit confused, and we think she thought it was another large dog that she could play with. It was really funny watching her try to jump and play with the whitetail deer.

6:15 Mast Mods and Installation

We modified the carbon fiber mast and rig to include a removable Dyneema inner forestay. This would allow us to have a cutter rig when we wished, and change back to a sloop as needed. A staysail jib which will also double as our storm headsail is hanked on and flies in high winds, or with double headsails when reaching. Once again, we enlisted the professionals at Beasley Marine for this composite work.

7:43 Back Together and In the Water

We finally get the boat back together and the travel lift comes to launch the boat on a cold November day. Thanksgiving is approaching as we prep for our next ocean sailing passage.

10:03 Tech Talk

We take a few moments to talk about how all the boat work we did in the yard has held up over the last 4000 miles as we have sailed to the Bahamas, USVI, BVI, Grenada & West Indies. We touch on the rudder bearings, carbon fiber mast, LifePO4 batteries, solar panels, boat life, and more.

#sailingvlog #annapolis #sail #sailing #sailinglife #sail #sea #boat #yacht #sailboat #yachting #travel #ocean #boatlife #sailor #yachtlife #boating #summer #boats #sailingboat #sailingyacht #adventure #yachts #vlogger #youtubesailing #vlog #rescuedog #sailingdog #boatdog

The post [Ep. 12] Back Together appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

0:23 Boatyard Fire

There is a fire in the boatyard, just one row upwind from our boat. It was a potentially dangerous situation that our friend Brian on the boat next to us noticed first and sprung into immediate action. We were working on our electrical system and could smell that it was an electrical type of fire. Worried that it was us we quickly shut everything down on our boat and gave it a full inspection. It was on another boat, but it is a sad story. The owner of the boat had been preparing his yacht for a circumnavigation for five years. He was due to finish and launch this winter. Errant current in an undersized solar panel wire likely caused the fire based on our visual inspection. The good of the story, fellow liveaboard cruisers in the marina saved the day, and likely the boatyard with their quick response.

0:53 Trip Home

We ran a few errands in Annapolis before heading home. We had to drop off our mainsail and #4 jib at the sailmaker to have an additional reef installed, reinforcements put on, and cut down the #4 to a storm staysail which would hank on our to-be-installed removable inner forestay. First, we had to return our borrowed jeep to our new friend and fellow Annapolis boater and boatyard neighbor Eric. Thank you!!!!! Then we picked up our rental car to make the 1000 mile road trip back to Toledo Ohio to see family and go to the Chicago Mackinac Awards party.

2:35 Chicago-Mackinac Race Finish

A short clip of the finish of the 333 mile long 2019 Chicago to Mackinac Race. In July, we sailed aboard Jim Weyand’s 1D35 Turbo sailboat Chico 2, hailing from Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, MI. Kate was a driver and I was the navigator. For more about our experience on the race, see the link to our blog: https://sweetruca.com/routing-for-the…

4:26 Chicago-Mackinac Trophy

We traveled to Chicago to attend the awards party for the race in November at the Chicago Yacht Club. We were very happy to meet up with our friends from the Chico 2 crew and accept the 100+ year old Chicago-Mackinac Trophy along with the rest of the team. There just aren’t enough good things to say about Jim and his team of amazing sailors. Official results: https://cycracetomackinac.com/results…

5:38 Mast Removal

Our time in Chicago and home with friends was awesome, but now we had to shift modes from vacation and party mode back into boatyard work mode. We were doing some major re-fit work to our monohull sailboat in preparation of further offshore voyaging. First up was removing the carbon fiber mast and rig to install the Dyneema inner forestay. This would allow us to shift between a sloop and cutter rig as needed. It would also centralize the sail plan in big breeze if we were to encounter a storm in the ocean.

9:19 Rudder Removal

Next up was removing the rudder. We had decided to replace the rudder bearings. Ours were serviceable as is, but knowing that we plan to put on 25000 miles, we found it prudent to do sooner rather than later. Bert Jabin Yacht Yard in Annapolis would make our work easier as well, rather than trying to do these major projects in a far-flung tropical island.

11:54 Rudder Bearing Replacement Part 1

After we had the rudder out, a major job requiring heavy machinery. It was time to remove the old bearings. They simply had to be pounded out. Before we install the new bearings, we first must change the bearing race on the rudder itself, from composite to stainless steel. This required quite a bit of cutting, grinding, and sanding. It is always nerve-wracking to cut into such expensive parts.

#sailingvlog #CYCRTM #sail #sailing #sailinglife #sail #sea #boat #yacht #sailboat #yachting #travel #ocean #boatlife #sailor #yachtlife #boating #summer #boats #sailingboat #sailingyacht #adventure #yachts #vlogger #youtubesailing #vlog

The post [Ep. 11] What Could Go Wrong? – Champagne Sailing, Parties & Boatyard Grit appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.