Music's crew
Music's crew was 50% Canadian and 50% US. Three quarters live in the Pacific Northwest and only 25% are local to San Francisco. Our Canadian contingent regards our US contingent as "honorary" Canadians, and in that we are honored. Half of my crew and I met racing on other (big) boats such as Kokopelli 2 (actually Kokopelli squared) and Marda Gras, both Santa Cruz 52's. And most of my crew and I came to know each other and became friends while Music was berthed in Bellingham, WA.
Boat Prep
Because Music is a 20 year old boat, boat prep took on a life of it's own. Despite the fact that Gail and I had made many upgrades to Music over the years, and had already done many tasks necessary to make Music ready for the ocean, Music needed a lot of work, a lot of work. Everyone contributed as much as possible, but because most of our crew are from the Northwest, the lions share of prep fell to Gail, George Bean and myself. Even so, those from out of town who could help put in as much as they could.
John and Sharon Denny from Brentwood Bay, just north of Victoria, BC, for example, came down for a 9 day period and helped get us through one of the toughest projects: removing and rebedding the jib car tracks.
Steve Jacobsen and Bob Peters, Seattle/Tacoma area, made multiple trips down over the months of boat prep. Kim, Georges wife, became a boat widow bceause of all of his unremitting help. Even my wife's fingerprint are all over Music in terms of boat prep. From designing and sewing sheet bags to hanging curtains seperating the galley and navigation areas form the main saloon (sleeping accomodations for most of the crew during the race) Gail worked tirelessly to help make sure Music was ready for the ocean with a few creature comforts.
Simon Walker and Lesley Hesford, both from Victoria, came down over an extended weekend in June to assist with installing the Duogen, a combination wind and towing generator used on the race. And, Simon came back down a week before the race start to help with "final" boat prep which itself took on a life of its own.
Provisioning
Menu planning, provisioning, and cooking was handled almost exclusively by John Denny and Gordon (Gord) Irving, both from Brentwood Bay. Gail assisted with buying unrefrigerated vegetables locally, a suggestion by Diana Jessie, one of our boat neighbors. Those vegetables were a real blessing on the race. Because they'd never been refrigerated they didn't need refrigeraion and lasted throughout the entire race, only suffering minimal spoilage.
Additional Help and Mentor
Jim Jessie, Diana's husband, with his 70 plus years of boat work and cruising experience was a constant source of information, and his knowledge and skills were an invaluable resource throughout our boat prep.
Navigation
Our navigator, Simon Walker, trained in meteorology in college, and who now works in avalanche forcasting and control in British Columbia, downloaded and analyzed grib files (wind and wave forcast files) throughout the race. He worked absolutely as hard as possible to postion Music where we could take best advantage of the existing conditions. Additionally, Simon was the main driving force behind making the most of our sail inventory and keeping Music moving regardless of changing wind direction and force. It is largely through Simon's efforts that Music finished as well she did in the standings!
Watches
For those who know ocean sailing not much needs to be said here, but for those not familiar with it, you sail 24/7. No stopping, no anchoring. The boat simply keeps moving around the clock. This means you sail in shifts, or watches. Due to their prior ocean experience, Bob Peters and Steve Jacobsen were watch captains, and watches were split into "Port"and "Starboard". Each watch consisted of a crew of three. Additionally, watches rotated in 6 hour increments during the day and 4 hour increments at night.
Simon and I had our own watch schedule, which ran mid watch to mid watch, splitting the port and starboard watches in half. This meant that during watch change someone was on deck who was familiar with the existing sea conditions and was able to drive the boat while the new watch which in many cases was waking up had time to get oriented to the conditions on deck before taking the helm.
My Role
Aside from assiting Simon with navigation, my role was really making the numerous repairs (and in some cases over seeing the repairs) necessary to keep the boat sailing. In many cases we were able to avoid large repairs by addressing them while they were still small. In the case of significant repairs, the repair was really a group effort, and those repairs were monitored daily for the duration of the race.
What does it all mean?
In the end, as mentioned in the beginning, this race was a total group effort. We could have never made it to the start line without everyones sweat effort. And, we could have never had the kind of race we did without everyones contribution on the water. Not one of us stands out above the others in terms of effort and self sacrifice. I am proud to say that over the years I came to know a group of really great sailors, and that in the period leading up to and throughout our race it was a total team effort all the way! Because of this I am proud of our entire team. They all deserve a huge round of applause and heart felt thanks!!
Music's Crew
Port Watch
- Bob Peters - watch captain
- Gord Irving - crew, health and safety officer, chef
- Lesley Hesford - crew
- Steve Jacobsen - watch captain
- John Denny - crew, chef
- George Bean - crew
John McCartney - Skipper
Helms Persons: Everyone
Slackers: None
