Dyneema Experience Draws to a Close

The Dyneema Experience ends officially on Friday. I've given it my all and the results will be what they will be. I've had a great time and no matter how it ends, I am so grateful to each and everyone of your for your support and encouragement along the way!

Thank you to Dyneema, DET 2011 team members, Gleistein Ropes, New England Ropes, Gottifredi Maffioli, Lancelin, Marlow, FSE Robline, Unlimited Rope Solutions, Anything Sailing, Sailnet, Cruisers Forum, Zero to Cruising, Forgeover, Zach Aboard, Dock Six Chronicles, Excellent Adventure, SV Totem, West Marine Rigging Services San Diego, Crunchy Couture, Kemah Boardwalk Marina and The Bungalow. Most especially, thank you to every single one of sailors who have discussed Dyneema rigging in depth, at length and over and over again for months on end. To everyone of you who followed us, offered encouragement and shared of your time to make this a great run- THANK YOU!

And on Monday, its back to very sexy photos of electrical wiring and battery banks.

*We came in second! Thanks all! Now no more Dyneema posts, I promise!*

DET Challenge 5- Dyneema Queen, what?

Every autumn in the United States, there is a certain set of girls in the high schools who begin a long campaign to be crowned their local schools Homecoming Queen. These girls start off by plastering the schools walls with posters emblazoned with a photo of themselves which list why they are the bee's knees , why they are full of win and why they should be crowned Homecoming Queen. The student body elects the Homecoming Queen and you would think that with all the posturing and bragging that goes on that they were winning something more than a crown, a sash and a photo in the school yearbook. The winner is usually the one to begin her camapaign 3 years before she is eligible and culminates with her baking cookies for the entire school. to say "Thanks!". During her crowning, she has to first look surprised " Who? ME?!?!", then as the crown is placed on her head she is expected to cry and finally she poses with a self satisfied, yet demure smile for her yearbook photo.

 I never ran for Homecoming Queen. The very thought of lauding my attributes and accomplishments in such an overt way just went against everything I was taught, namely that if you do good things you don't have to point them out to others. Actions will always speak louder than words. Answering the final point in Challenge 5 makes me feel awkward, a bit as if I am running for Homecoming Queen...or Dyneema Queen.....or something.

The final point in the Dyneema Experience Challenge 5 is to explain why Dyneema should send you to the Puma boat in Spain. That is something a heck of a lot more enticing than a crown and a sash. My discomfort at crowing "I am fabulous!" is dwarfed by my desire to take the master class in Spain. I'm getting ready to cast off the lines and sail far, far away and boy oh boy do I think I can learn some useful information from Team Puma. The only way I can do this is because in reality, the reason my campaign has been so beneficial to me and to Dyneema is because it has never been about me.

Just a few of the amazing cruisers who have been along for the ride-Canadians, Americans, Kuwaitis, Brits

During the entirety of DET, I've been nothing but myself. I know that I'm quirky, with a big, offbeat sense of humor and my video submissionsand writing illustrate that. Another quality that is just me all over is my tendency to be very sociable. People are some of my favorite people, after all and its this point that enables me to say " Yes, I did do a good job for DET". You see, the reason the Dyneema Experience has been such a success from my end, is because of the huge cruising community that I have been involved with for several years. Sailors that I am pleased as punch to be associated with.

from Portugal to Alaska, from Norway to the Midwest

In sailing forums, message boards, private Facebook groups and chat rooms, my participation in the Dyneema Experience brought conversation after conversation to Dyneema and not so much what I was doing with it but more importantly, how Dyneema could be beneficial to their boats. It never really was about me, I was just the catalyst for the conversation because they had known me online for so very long. Sailors who had experience with Dyneema offered advice, help and just talked about the qualities of Dyneema to myself and a huge contigent of cruisers who had previously never given much thought to what was inside their rigging. It was an amazing thing to see and to be a part of and I know without a doubt that the coolest thing of all is that my Dyneema Experience has been made up not of slick videos, or clever advertising but about sailors talking to other sailors. Conversation can be a very powerful thing.

There simply isn't enough bandwidth to include photos of all but I will not forget a single one of you!

So why do I deserve to go to Alicante? I don't, the hundreds of cruisers who supported, followed and encouraged me do. The sailors and cruisers who answered question after question from me and a plethora of other sailors about selecting the right Dyneema for the right application, about splices and alternative uses and about more rigging topics than you could imagine do. As it turns out, I'm the person representing these folks, so if I win, I'm the one who gets the privilege of sailing on Puma but I will not go alone. I will take everyone of these amazing sailors with me in my heart because it is all thanks to them.

Win or lose, I have a lot tobe thankful for. Looks like I am going to have to bake a metric butt load of cookies...

Texas is Burning...

Photo courtesy of Reuters

I should be submitting my final Dyneema Experience post in which I campaign hard to be chosen for the Master Class in Spain. I should be writing another blog post telling you all about the turning point we have reached in the refit. We will file those under "low priority" just now.  Instead, I'm trying to locate friends and family who have been evacuated, finding safe haven for their animals and livestock and keeping a watchful eye on our local conditions.

Yesterday we had a grass fire 3 miles away. Our house smelled of wood fire and was surrounded by haze but we were lucky. The fire was contained. 2 months ago we had a fire break out just 500 yards from our home. Thick clouds of smoke blanketed our street but once again, we were lucky and the fire was contained. There are other areas that have not been so fortunate.I'm keeping my fingers crossed as the Tropical Storm Lee winds which have fueled these fires have quieted down today.

To put it in perspective, Texas has lost an an area equivalent to the State of Connecticut or to the island of Jamaica. Not only have we had 2 deaths reported but countless forests, wildlife, homes, businesses and livestock are just- gone. So while I wait to hear the status of friends and family, I'm a bit distracted. If you want to know what you can do to help those who have lost their homes, donate here: Central Texas Red Cross . Yes, it really is that bad.

Oh and if you can send rain, that would be even better.

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. ;)

2011 Dyneema Experience- The good, the not so good and the awesome.

Challenge 5 has been issued and I have been tasked with summing up our 2011 Dyneema Experience. All of it- the good, the bad and everything in between. Dyneema really seems to want to improve the experience for the next Dyneema Experience Team and are looking for input into what they can do to make that happen. So here goes...

I'm not a negative person. Asked if the glass is half empty or half full, I'm likely to say it has more than I deserve and there is plenty enough to share. So recounting the less than stellar aspects of DET 2011 is a tough one for me but the only way to improve things is to look at things that didn't go as planned.

The concept of the Dyneema Experience was a fantastic one. Choose 40 skippers to test line with Dyneema rigging, write about their experiences with it and have a little competition to win a grand prize- a master class on the PUMA VOR boat. Unfortunately, the logistics of rigging 40 boats was perhaps underestimated. We did not receive our rigging until a couple of weeks ago, long after the sailing season in our area had ended. Now we have 106 degree weather and average wind speeds of 5 mph, not exactly ideal conditions to test rigging unless someone is interested in how the rigging looks on a boat while motor sailing. This really wasn't Dyneema's fault. As  our line supplier New England Ropes kept sending us emails asking us to be patient, saying that the line was out for splicing etc, it became clear that Dyneema was as frustrated at the delays as we were.

Going forward, it would probably help to select the next team in the autumn to allow a lot more time to get the participants their line. It would also probably be good to be certain the line suppliers are really committed to DET. Some of the line suppliers for other boats did a fantastic job of going over technical specifications for line selection, even sending out new ropes when it became clear that the originally selected lines where not suitable for that boats particular use. I never felt that from my supplier. There was some back and forth with New England Ropes to choose the right line and splices for our boat. I spent days going over tech specs for our line, carefully selecting line that would work for our usage and that would offer us a chance to try out some new ideas, like using a smaller diameter line in some instances to allow us to keep our deck hardware sizes. New England Ropes got our finalized line order, thanked us and assured us we would be getting the ordered line soon. Didn't happen that way. We waited months only to receive the line NER had suggested in the first place, never mind all the time spent going over the specs, etc.

Another way the DET could be improved is by increasing the level of communication. It would have been really helpful to have a designated person from Dyneema to answer technical questions. I was new to Dyneema and needed a bit more technical guidance. The lack of this did provide a benefit though. It forced me to engage much more with fellow cruisers.  We as a group tend to share information so I was helped quite a bit by cruisers who have Dyneema on their boats. These Dyneema savvy sailors also reached out to other cruisers who weren't a part of DET but who have been following along with me and answered the many questions that they had about Dyneema lines. So what was an obstacle turned out to be a benefit for the overall effectiveness of DET. Behind the scenes, there was a whole lot of discussion about the benefits of Dyneema cored lines on a cruising yacht. So in the end I did end up with a really solid rigging education, just not from where I expected to get it.

Which brings me to my final point and the thing that will stay with me long after DET 2011 is over. I was hesitant to mention how truly frustrated I was with my line supplier. Not the quality of the line, but their apparent lack of urgency in getting me my line. I was very aware that there were a lot of boats who would have loved to have been selected and rerigged. To complain would have made me seem ungrateful for the benefits I have received and  I am really, really grateful. Grateful to Dyneema for providing rigging that is superior in performance and will serve us well as we take off to cross oceans, grateful for fellow DET competitors who displayed an amazing level of good sportsmanship- helping, encouraging and supporting me when it seemed to be such an uphill slog  and to the international community of cruisers that I am so very pleased to be a part of who supported, encouraged and answered endless questions.

So the quesion is, would I do it again? The answer is an unequivocable yes. Overall, my experience with Dyneema has been a positive one. To be sure there have been frustrations and challenges and I'm not even going to be able to really write about testing Dyneema line for a few months yet but all of this pales in comparasion to what I have gained. So to Dyneema, to my fellow DET members and to you, the amazing community who never fails to rally aournd  to help a fellow cruiser- Thank you. I could not have done it with out you. It has been an amazing experience I will never forget.

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!

Dyneema Experience 2011 or Sometimes S%&T happens.

The 2011 Dyneema Experience is heating up. Teams are answering the challenges and fiercely competing for the grand prize- a trip to Spain complete with a 2 day training sail with the Puma racing Team. Nice, huh? Racing teams are posting professionally filmed videos of their boats competing in races with their new Dyneema running rigging. Lots of professional photos are appearing on Flickr of the boats resplendant in their new Dyneema rigging. This is a competition based on social media exposure after all. with the winner being announced after the close of the competition on Sept. 21.

So why have I been so quiet? Don't I want to win the grand prize? While the answer to the latter question is a definite and resounding YES! My answer to the former question is that its hard to write about waiting. and waiting.

See, through nobody's fault we've not received our Dyneema rigging yet. Nor have the crews of Majestic , Excellent Adventure and Zero to Cruising. We are all trying to remain upbeat and positive because the worst case scenario is still pretty great- we will all eventually have our boats rerigged with Dyneema. Despite being determined to remain positive, its a little bit of a bummer to feel that you are being handicapped in the competition for the grand prize before you even had a chance to get started.

As I see it, I have three options. The first option is to not compete for the grand prize, keep silent and just be happy when the rigging arrives. Well, that doesn't work for me. Firstly I feel that I owe Dyneema a big one in exchange for the rigging I will eventually be receiving. All that they have asked for in return for the rigging is for us to promote Dyneema by blogging, tweeting and sharing our experiences with the line. Its not a small thing getting free Dyneema rigging for the boat- its actually pretty darned big. Dyneema is absolutely the best line on the market and it is also not inexpensive. WInning the rigging really is helping our refit budget. Secondly, I've got enough competitive spirit in me to not be able to just throw in the towel. I've still got some fight in me.

The second option is to be bitter and angry and go on and on about how unfair Dyneema is. That doesn't work because quite frankly, every one at Dyneema has been fantastically nice and helpful. They are as flummoxed as we are at the delays we are experiencing. I just can't bad mouth a product I know I'm gonna love and a group of people who I believe to be really, really good peeps.

So I've decided to go with option three. Option three is to make a good show of it by laughing about the delays, making light of the frustration and competing for the grand prize with nothing more than a Dyneema burgee, a sticker and sheer chutzpah.

Option three is definitely more my style so in that spirit, here is my entry for Challenge 3 of the 2011 Dyneema Experience. There are some people who are able to make lemonade when life hands them lemons. I've always prided myself on being able to pop a paper umbrella in a glass of water and pretend its lemonade when life refuses to even give me lemons in the first place.

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...