In case you have been curious which boats I was looking at, we will be sailing a boat currently in Seattle named Glory.  Up until October 2006, she was known as Mean Machine and is the newest boat available, launched in 2003 and is hull #105 (P3 was a 2001 #83).  Candidly, she is far better than new...and has been repainted white from the traditional Mean Machine pink.  Once you see the boat you will understand why this was the best boat available at any price and a step up from P3.  It is simply immaculate in condition and detail of preparation.  Of the boats available, this is the one that was truly world class and we will need to bring a "Worlds" level of intensity to our racing to match! 

Thanks to Tink at Stagg Yachts for helping to make this happen so quickly.

Photos: http://www.staggyachts.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=14

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THE WRECK OF PIRANHA 3

Some of you may not have heard and for all of you let me say it is official, Piranha is no more.  Seems that it was driven up on the beach by the delivery crew, but for now, that doesn't matter.  No one was hurt, and I hope to be in a new boat very shortly after dealing with insurance, etc., etc.

 

Just back - four days spent in Cabo arranging recovery team and battling to try to get - in order of preference - personal gear for the crew on the race down left onboard for the delivery back, sails, spinnaker pole, sheets + guys etc.  We all got cut (lots of broken pieces of fiberglass and carbon sheets hiding in the sand) bruised and exhausted.  After four full long hard days even using a large 3" diameter pump to blow sand out of the boat, we got almost nothing - in fact, even though we could see and pull on the code zero and a jib, we could get neither out of the sand.  We even put a rope around the jib, hooked it to a tow cable on a winch on a Mercedes 4WD and pumped sea water in the sand around it, we were only able to tow the car eight feet closer to the boat.  Very frustrating to be able to see sails and spinnaker pole and not be able to get them out of the maddeningly fine sand.  Even more frustrating that these were the items that should have been and could have been easily removed from the boat immediately instead of just abandoning her.  What a waste.

 

Just getting to the wreck site was an adventure.  When I say this was the middle of nowhere, it is a massive understatement.  Two hours North of Cabo you enter part of the Baja 1000 race course, then turn down a series of cow tracks and eventually across the berms of a shrimp farm to a very soft sand beach where only specialty vehicles - a Rhino, an ATV a Baja Modified truck and the Mercedes - could get down the two miles of beach to the site.  We buried the Ford up to the differential, and almost lost the Rhino in the surf trying to get the pole.  I saw my first chunks of red hull almost two miles from the wreck and more as you got closer.  Ultimately we figured out that basically the starboard side was no longer there and the boat was settling in the sand as it crushed in.  We could feel things deep in the sand using the hose, but just couldn't get them out - anchors, kelp stick, sheets, etc. just wouldn't budge.  Even stuff sticking out the surface - like the boom, just wouldn't move.  The mast snapped in at least two places - though it was initially intact when the team first got there.  As you can see, the surf - which was apparently much bigger before I got there - was pounding the hull hard.  My photos were at low tide and up to three hours after low tide - none of them are at high tide.

 

SO, more to follow about the adventure, and stories to tell for years to come, but I know you are all anxious to see photos and I am more than a little tired - so here they are.

 

Thanks for the dozens of emails of support - you have all been great.  I have 20+ voice mails I haven't heard yet, so please bear with me as I try to get back to you all.

 

May I suggest that if you actually read this far without succumbing to the temptation of opening photos first, start with 1445!

 

I had some of the best times of my life with all of you on this boat (on and off the water) and look forward to many more on Piranha 4!