And a ray of sunshine...

And just like that, when a bit of negativity enters my world I am innundated with a heap o' wonderful. The Dyneema Experience is not a sprint, it is a test of your endurance. I will admit that I was feeling down to begin the day. I had just lost my computer and the full week worth's of work for DET with it when Mr. Killjoy came along and shared his negativity. It was perfect timing to really annoy me. Just losing 40 hours worth of editing time alone was enough to set my teeth on edge but to have someone who obviously had no idea of what the DET is, or what has been happening or how hard we all have been working for the past 5 months- well, that did it.

And just like that I was reminded of why I am so happy- no GRATEFUL for DET and the people involved. You want to know who offered encouragement to not let the turkeys get me down? My competitors. That's right, once again the skippers and Dyneema representatives stepped in with encouragement. Have I mentioned what an incredible community sailors are?

My good friends the Giulietta sailing team have also helped me keep an even keel- pun totally intended. They have been nothing short of amazing in their support of me when I most needed it. Offering support and encouragement even though they have been extremely busy competing in the Quebramar trophy. I kid a lot about racers needing to learn how to slow down from the cruisers but in this instance, it was the racers who reminded me of what is important.

After almost losing their rudder in an early race, being besieged with equipment failures and knowing before the final races that the most they could hope for was 5th or 6th place, they gave it their all. The odds were stacked against them and still they fought on because it is easy to start strong but its much harder to finish strong. Finishing strong despite huge obstacles is an indication of character and if nothing else, i want to be known for my integrity and character. So thanks for the reminder Alex and Giulietta. I shall strive to finish as strong as I started.

Oh- and that is some mighty tasty running rigging you're wearing Giulietta. ;)

Dyneema Experience- GOBSMACKED!

The title of this image should be "Things I never in a million years ever expected to see". The standings after Challenge 4 of the Dyneema Experience were released on Wednesday. I am in first poition just now. Its taken me a few days to absorb this fact because I am absolutely, utterly shocked. I never thought it would be possible to even be in the hunt for the Grand Prize a trip to Spain.

I have had so many things working against me- I didn't receive my rigging until a few days ago after sailing season had ended, the other top teams  are racers who have competed with their new rigging. They are TEAMS with many contributors- I am just one person juggling Mom duties with boat refit duties and trying to participate in the Dyneema Experience in a meaningful way.  I've got no media group to do my videos. The other teams do beautifully edited, slickly programmed videos while I'm still learning the basics of the most simple editing. The other teams are incredible sailors, I'm still a baby sailor and the book I'd write with all I know about sailing would be a short one, while the book I'd write about all the things I'm trying to learn would rival War and Peace for length. To say I've felt a bit like David versus Goliath would be a huge understatement. So you see, I'm still a bit dazed.

Challenge 5 has been given. We are to talk about our experiences with the Dyneema Experience 2011. How can I write one blog post about something that has been a major focus of my life for 5 months? I can't, there are too many aspects of the whole experience to neatly package it in one post. Ups, downs, discoveries, surprises but mostly- really really good things. Things for which I am grateful and its more than just being grateful for the amazing rigging we have received. I'm opting instead to do a few posts to answer Challenge 5. I hope I can convey what a wild, strange and exhilirating ride it has been so far.

In the mean time, I thought it might be fun to turn the focus on YOUR Dyneema Experience. All of you who have been along with me for the ride, comment please! If you knew about Dyneema previously, tell me what you like about Dyneema. If you had never heard about Dyneema before I entered this, let me know (I am shocked by the number of sailors who never thought about what was inside their rigging). If you've just had fun watching the competition unfold, tell me. I look forward to reading about your Dyneema Experience and I hope you enjoy reading about ours. 

We will be writing a bit next year, long after the 2011 Dyneema Experience is over as to how our rigging is holding up and performing. Until then, I'm signing it over to you while I try to catch my breath...

Dyneema Experience Chapter 4- in which we finally get our rigging and explain what all the fuss is about.

Is that not the loveliest thing you have seen in a while? It is to me. That my friends is a box full of the long awaited, much desired Dyneema cored running rigging from New England Ropes. I've worked harder for that rigging than I imagined and am thrilled to finally have it in hand, ready to be rigged.

In the latest Dyneema Experience Challenge, we are supposed to convince you to use Dyneema. Huh. I'm not one for a heavy handed sales pitch for products but in this case, we can tell you honestly why we so wanted Dyneema rigging for our boat. If that convinces you to try Dyneema- great, but truthfully we do believe in the superiority of Dyneema so I am able to write this with out feeling like I've sold out the blog and my dignity( or what's left of my dignity. Learning to sail is great for increasing humility).

There are a whole slew of Dyneema Experience participants who are racers and therefore very familiar with what makes Dyneema such a fantastic product for their application. But I'm not a racer. Never will be, that requires too much hurrying and scurrying and I like to take things easy. I'm most definitely in the cruiser camp and so what qualities Dyneema posesses that we will value are different. Cruisers haven't really embraced Dyneema as much as the racers. I think this is in large part because...well...cruisers  tend to be cheap ( I might be only speaking of us so don't be offended!) and a Dyneema core ups the cost of the line.When you are balancing a budget with the goal of running your boat year round every little bit of extra cash outlayed matters, so that extra expense has to add value.

Mark at the office with some serious Dyneema line.

It is used to anchor the Perdido platform he works
on to the ocean floor. It withstands hurricanes.

They are not playing around...Impressive!

I can truthfully say that had we not won a complete rerigging of our boat, we would have splashed out on Dyneema line at the expense of  some equipment that we would like to have that falls in the "Be Nice" category. The main reason for this is that Dyneema is the strongest fiber available. We want rigging that is strong and so less likely to fail. There are some trade offs we have to make in order to accommodate the increased strength- i.e. shackles and block size, etc. but for our application we want the strength and the increased longevity of the rigging that comes with it. Rigging with a longer life span is definitely added value.

There are some quirks we've noticed on our newly delivered as yet to be installed Sta Set X lines. Namely, this is some pretty slick and slippy rope. I'm not certain how we are going to deal with this but we will figure it out and let you know what we find. I do know that gloves are mandatory with Dyneema lines so if you are dead set against wearing sailing gloves, its probably not the line for you, unless you happen to like shredded hands. I suppose torn up hands would look "salty" and make you look kinda tough ( maybe even salty enough that you could get away with wearing a twee white skipper's cap without being laughed at) but again, I am into being comfortable so gloves it shall be.

One of the things we were most looking forward to was decreasing the diameter of our lines (which you can do with careful research into load capacities because of the strength of Dyneema). Unfortunately, New England Ropes either ignored our carefully researched line order or they just lost it. Either way, we have the manufacturers suggested diameter and not what we requested so we can't tell you if in fact going down in line size affects longevity or performance. I suppose we could send the line back and ask for replacement but I'm pretty sure we'd end up with Maura in college before we get the replacement.

There are many rigging manufacturers who use Dyneema core and if you are going to be paying the extra 

The line trolley Mark made from left over marine plywood is
no longer looking sad and forlorn with no line on it. Please note,
we did not request "green vomit" colored rope. That was
a surprise from our line supplier. :)

dosh for Dyneema, it makes sense to check with the manufacturer's site to find the right line for your  application. Some folks buy the wrong size line and then complain about Dyneema not living up to the manufacturers claims. The fault ddoesn't lie with the rope but with putting the wrong rope in the wrong application, so choose carefully.

We'll have more about the line later. This will be the first time we have ever rigged a boat by ourselves so not only should I have some illuminating information about rigging a boat with Dyneema but with the way I bumble through life I mean sailing it ,should provide some amusement as well. I think I'll make Mark climb the mast though...

Tired of Refit Photos?

Yeah. Me too. If you would prefer to have beautiful photos of an exotic location as well as photos of a boat doing a bit more than sitting at the dock having her guts ripped out, you can make that happen. While we still haven't gotten our Dyneema rigging yet ( I suspect is being woven from the tail hairs of a unicorn by magical elves in an enchanted forest which has lousy postal service) we are still in it to win it. You can make photos of Spain magically appear on this blog by following this link Yes, I am bored of refit photos too!. Click on the Follow Me tab and fill er out (No spam, honest!). Our content is counting on you.

An oldie, but at least its not another refit pic!

Dog days of Summer indeed

Ok, while it might technically NOT be Summer just yet we've been enduring precocious weather around here. Temperatures have regularly been hitting just shy of 100 farenheit and we've only been teased by rain. This has slowed down to the progress quite a bit. Despite having lived in Texas for more than a few years, Mark still does better in condtions similar to home. When its bitter cold, blustery and raining, Mark accomplishes tons of work. When its hotter than a $2 dollar pistol, his output diminishes.

He is managing to move onward with the portlights and we've now gotten the 150 genoa off to the loft for repairs and recutting. We took the genny off with only a little bit of excitement. I had the clew in hand, struggling against the breeze a bit when a little micro burst started approaching from behind. I was afraid for a moment that I would be doing a bit of unintended dockside parasailing but Mark managed to get it furled in enough to prevent me from flying away. As we wheeled the genny up the dock in a cart, one of the local professional captains commentedthat he thought for sure I'd be going up, up and away. I told him people paid a lot of money in the carribbean for such excitement and here I was getting it for free.

We got the genny laid out, Mark made some careful notes for the Quantum loft and off she went for repairs. I'm hoping to receive our new Dyneema rigging we won from the 2011 Dyneema experience before the repairs are done. It'll be a good thing to get all the running rigging and sails up on the same day.

The Rigging Rigamarole

With the completion of chainplate bulkheads ticked off the list, we are moving on to addressing the standing and running rigging. Since we've been so very fortunate to have new Dyneema running rigging coming from New England Ropes we get to use all of our brainpower (skint as that might be) to figuring out what we want to have holding up the rig.

Since this is Capt. Perfecto's boat, we can not just replace what we have without considering every possible type of rigging to ensure that we have "the best" for our purposes. Swaged, swageless, Norseman, Sta-Lok, Hi Mod, metric, imperial- it all begins to sound like a recitation of the Odyssey in the origanl Greek after a bit. Never mind, decisions are being made and parts ordered and I'll regale you with tales of exactly what we went with and why once its all figured out.

Meanwhile, Kitty is just happy to play with the shiny bits. Maura is keeping me on my toes trying tok eep up with the never ending end of school year ramp up of activities- parties, programs, performances, etc. Come to think of it, I think I'd much rather debate the merits of stainless versus chromed bronze fittings.

WOOT! We are on the Dyneema Experience team!!

What's better than entering a contest along with some of your friends and winning? Having your friends win too! We are honored and humbled and ever so grateful to Dyneema for choosing Ceol Mor as member of the 2011 Dyneema experience team along with our good pals SV Majestic , SV Excellent Adventure , and SV Conviva . Its nice to win but its even nicer when your friends win as well.

So thanks to all of you for following us on the Dyneema site, on FB and twitter (SVCeolMor). Your support made all the difference and we are so very, very grateful to you!

Sailors come in a few different types but the two most common subtypes are Racer and Cruiser. Racers not only want their boats to go fast, they are also the first to tryout new technologies and new products  looking for any performance advantage they can find. This is why Dyneema has been well known in the racing community for quite some time. Dyneema made a product that was stronger, lighter and less likely to stretch out of shape and no racer wanted to be left behind, which is why you will find Dyneema on any serious racing sailboat.

Now cruisers are a bit more laid back in their approach to sailing and to technology. They aren't in a hurry to get where they are going, they just want to arrive safely and comfortably. Cruisers tend to like tried and true equipment so are a little less likely to run with the latest advances in equipment until its been proven. Since we definitely fall into the cruiser subgroup, its going to be interesting to see how a high performance product- such as Dyneema works on a heavier cruising sailboat. I have a sneaking suspicion we are going to love it.

Who knows, there's well known overnight offhore race in these parts in October that would be the perfect opportunity to do a shakedown. Maybe with her new spiffy Dyneema rigging, we might just be feeling our oats enough to enter. Now all we need is a racing stripe on the hull to go with our new rigging...

The Dyneema Experience!

UPDATE- The site is STILL accepting crew members. Please sign up to "Follow Me" to help us out. While you are there, you might send some love to the crews of  SV Majestic, SV Excellent Adventure and SV Conviva.

A big thank you to all who have supported us in our bid to win Dyneema rigging for the boat. The winners are announced on the 17th and its too close to say whether or not we will be hurrying up to order a new main sail to go with the new rigging. We have our fingers crossed and are spitting like mad because Dyneema really is the best line available on the market and will goa long way in keeping us safe as we plow through the waters of the Carribbean and Atlantic.

We've had a lot of fun particpating in the competition and loved the opportunity to over think this with our pals the crews of SV Conviva, SV Majestic, and last but certainly not least SV Excellent Adventure. In the immortal words of Cindy, from SV Majestic "its a bit like running for office". It IS like running for office. A ton of work but exciting as well.

Again, a big thank you to all of you for your support and thanks to Dyneema for sponsoring this competition. Now lets keep our fingers crossed because if we win, the next stage begins and will give Mark the opportunity to get all engineery on you all in articles on the structural properties of Dyneema and I know you want to see Mark break it down, Mr. Wizard style for you.

Only you can prevent...

left brain engineers from hand plaiting their own running rigging from Alpacas they have hand raised themselves in order to acheive 'superior strength' in a 'cost effective manner'.

We are entered in the 2011 Dyneema Experience and could really, really use your help. Up for grabs is to have Dyneema rerig the winning boats for FREE and for the team members to write about their experiences. Now I'm not one to ask for much, but I would really appreiciate you helping us out for a few reasons.

First of all, we absolutely have to have the boat rerigged and soon. This is a huge safety issue and until the boat is rerigged we can not safely leave. If Dyneema rigs the boat for us, that's one less task that Mark will do over and over until he is satisfied and we will be able to head out much sooner- probably 3 months sooner. This means better content on this blog, I assure you!

Secondly and most importantly, this is a chance for me to be able to say to Mark that my Blogging isn't a pointless hobby, it is actively contributing to our journey. This means he will have to happily ensure we have internet/sat phone access at all times, but that's beside the point. Nothing would make me happier than have an active hand in getting us out on the ocean sooner rather than later.

So here is my plea. Please follow the link below and sign up to be a crew member. You will have to click on a acceptance link in a confirmation email. Share the link with your friends, post it on Facebook, etc. If I've ever made you laugh, or done something nice for you here is your chance to say "Thanks"! On the other hand, if I've annoyed you this is a handy way to get me out of the States sooner. Either way, your assistance is appreciated.

http://www.dyneemaexperience.com/profile/cidniecarroll.htm

And now, your moment of Zen. Foggy morning on Galveston Bay.