#9 - Bruce Schwab

This episode's guest is Bruce Schwab, the first American sailor to ever complete the legendary Vendée Globe race. Bruce sailed the Tom Wylie designed Open 60 Ocean Planet in the 2004-2005 edition of the race to a ninth place finish. After his race, he settled in Maine and founded the company Ocean Planet Energy, which specializes in lithium batteries, marine charging systems and renewable energy systems. He is currently splitting his time between Maine and the Pacific Northwest as he prepares his vintage racer cruiser Improbable for upcoming voyages. 

We also recap the Newport - Bermuda race, the Solitaire du Figaro and take a look at Ronnie's campaign for the 2027 Global Solo Challenge, which is now kicking into high gear for summer. Finally, we take a look at the Pacific Cup race, which Ronnie will be participating in from San Francisco to Hawaii on the Schumacher 39 Recidivist.` For more info, go to www.ronniesimpsonracing.com or reach out at capehorntoport@gmail.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hello, listeners, and welcome to Cape Horn to Port, a sailing podcast. I'm your host, Ronnie Simpson. I have to admit, I almost uh forgot how to rattle off my little intro there. It's been so long. So uh I do apologize. I've I've been getting hit up, which is great and it's inspiring. Everyone's been saying, hey man, when's that next podcast coming out? So we did take a long break as spring and summer hit. It wasn't a planned break. I really do appreciate everyone that reached out, uh, like I said, and encouraged me to keep on recording. So um thank you guys so much for that. Um but we're back, and it is uh Saturday, the 4th of July, right now, getting ready to go fly out of town and do some sailing. But uh I wanted to drop this podcast before I go to sea. I I just recorded an interview with Bruce Schwab a couple of days ago after a fantastic day of mountain biking and camaraderie and checking out my class 40. So uh really excited to get that up and try to get some momentum back and try to get this podcast back underway. But without much further ado, you know, we're gonna jump into a bit of a race recap. It's the middle of summer, and if you're on the east coast and it's an even number year, that means one thing: Newport Bermuda. So, Newport Bermuda race just went down uh about two weeks ago, and that's that's like the East Coast classic 636-mile ocean race, that that nice kind of sweet spot just like uh Sydney Hobart or Caribbean 600 or Middle Sea Race or something like that. One of those middle distance, 600-mile classic races that really attracts the top boats, top teams, top sailors uh from around the world. Uh really, really impressive fleet this year, and it was definitely headlined by Black Jack 100. And um that boat's under newer European ownership, but a boat that was uh in Australia and then in Europe and then back in Australia, and I guess it's now back in Europe, but it came over and did Newport Bermuda and 100-foot, canteen keel, super maxi, you know, a sister ship to Wild Oats 11, one of the most famous hundred footers of all time. So for Blackjack 100 to come over to the Bermuda race, uh obviously they were a bit of a shoe-in for line honors, barring any unforeseen uh challenges, and that is the way it went down. But not only is that the way it didn't went down, it's the matter in how things happened. Um the first half of the race or so was extremely fast. Uh, so with breeze aft of the beam and strong pressure, uh the first, but it was a really hot spinnaker angle. So a lot of boats were kind of in that 120 true wind angle, 130 true wind angle, you know, flying some kind of sail with a reef in the main and just going ballistically fast. So if you followed the race, you saw during the first 36 hours, everyone was posting via Starlink. They were all posting on social media and they were showing, hey, top boat speed for this boat ever, you know, those those kind of things. It was one of those races for the first day and a half. Even the slowest boats in the fleet were going way above whole speed. Everyone was just ripping to Bermuda. And so it was it was really the classic conditions for Blackjack 100 to take a shot at the course record, and they came very, very close. Um, at the end of the day, Black Jack 100 took line honors in a time of one day, 11 hours and 26 minutes, um, which is less than an hour off Comanche's record time from 2016, and it's only a couple hours off the fastest time to Bermuda ever. I think uh uh it was one of the mod 70s. So Black Jack 100, line honors, nearly a monohall course record. Um and then also with that they took uh first place in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division, which is the division that your most high performance boats race in in Newport, Bermuda. So as the breeze was only really cooking for that first 36 hours or so, that's as many hours as it took for Blackjack to get to Bermuda, basically. So basically, as soon as Blackjack got into Bermuda, uh just under 36 hours after leaving Newport, uh, the breeze shut down. So it was a picture perfect, tailor-made scenario for a 100-footer to take out the overall handicap victory, which really isn't something that happens very often. You know, we we all watch races like Sydney Hobart or some of these big middle distance ocean races, and it's always the hundred-footer that claims line honors and sets a course record, but they almost never correct out. So um huge props to Blackjack 100. Obviously, it took a little bit of good luck for them to correct out. Um, but yeah, major, major congratulations to them. Um, and then unfortunately, there was quite a controversy. The Newport Bermuda Race Committee um made some errors in how they scored the race. So they kind of said Denali was second, and then said they were third, and then said they were second, and it was an unfortunate scenario. I don't get too caught up in the politics, but there was an unfortunate scenario that made the race committee and made a lot of people not look so great. Um, I don't really focus on that too much, but once the dust settled, there was just 10 minutes corrected time between second place and third place, and that was the Mills 58 Denali 4 as well as the Mills 68 Space Monkey. Uh Denali 4, very, very new, modern cutting edge boat. Space Monkey is a boat that has been around for quite a long time. Uh it used to be known as Prospector. I saw it on the West Coast and on the East Coast as Prospector. Um, really, really cool boat, but at the end of the day, Mills 58 and a Mills 68, second and third in the uh Gibbs Hill Lighthouse divisions. So another great race for Mark Mills designed boats. Um fantastic job with those guys, and also I want to give a big shout out to some of my homies on Velocity. Uh, Marty Resch, really, really nice guy from uh Annapolis area. They had Carter on board. Um they had a Spanish guy, Telmo, on board, really good sailor. I believe they also had the original skipper of that boat when it was over in France. Uh, and then also Marty's daughter Elizabeth, and uh so great job by them. They they held off Scowling Dragon in the double-handed division. Uh, they held off the other scal class 40 um with an older boat, number 145. It's a Sam Manuard design. I believe it's a Mach 40.3 with a retrofitted bow, but at any rate, um, fantastic job by Velocity number 145. It was really, really fun to watch them hang with a lot of the huge boats and uh and get a pretty good corrected result of ninth place. So great job to them. And then as you go over to uh the biggest division, the St. David's Lighthouse Division, that's where you're gonna find a little bit more of your traditional racer cruisers, not your carbon canting keel crazy boats and your class 40s. But this is where you're gonna find your, you know, your J40s and your Cal 40s and your Hinckley's and stuff like that. And so in the St. David's Lighthouse Division, the Cal 40 Nicole took first place on corrected time, just 17 minutes over Selkie, a McCurdy and Rhodes 38, with Tauhee, another Cal 40, rounding out the podium. And uh, you know, I've got a lot of West Coast roots, and I've had a lot of uh Bill Lapworth design Cal Yachts, and I'm about to go out and do Pac Cup, you know, and you see these Cal 40s, man. It's so awesome to see Cal 40s still winning Bermuda overall, still winning Trans Pac overall, still picking up class divisional wins in major ocean races, not just on the West Coast, but the East Coast and now all over the world. So for a 60-year-old, really classic revolutionary production racer cruiser, um, I really, really love seeing the success that not just you know Stan Honey has had over in Bermuda, but also seeing California is in first and third place in the St. David's Lighthouse division this year in Bermuda. That is just the coolest thing ever uh to see those legendary boats still collecting hardware uh in major ocean races like the Newport Bermuda. And then in the double-handed division, uh you had a pretty strong fleet. I had contemplated doing the double-handed division. So whenever I was watching the tracker quite obsessively for three or four days, uh there was just this little bit of disappointment that I wasn't out there on the race course, but I did have a lot of friends out there on the race course, and I was following all of them with um with a lot of interest and wishing them all well. Uh, the winner of the double-handed division is a Hinckley Southwest 52 called Bella. Uh and Bella corrected out more than five hours ahead of the competition. So um clearly they sailed a great race. They must have a pretty good rating as well. But uh congratulations to Bella on a on a dominance victory in the double-handed division. And then the J99 Evan Tier, followed by the J40 Artemisia. I love those boats. I would love to own one of those. The J40 Artemisia, and then a special shout-out, honorable mention to the J44 Kanai in fourth place. Uh, my friend Catherine was on that boat, uh, Cat Chimney, good class 40 sailor. And uh I enjoyed following her Instagram. And uh, yeah, I was watching them, and again, case in point, they were one of the many Instagram accounts I was following where they had a J44 up to just absolute terminal velocity for those first 24 to 36 hours. So that was really exciting to watch. Uh, unfortunately, the class 40 is corrected out all the way at the bottom. So uh as the race went on, if you were not one of the hundred-footers or the 70-foot space monkey, you know, if you weren't one of those boats that got in before the breeze shut down, you had to deal with basically the big downwind breeze for the first half of the race, and then you had a huge light spot, and then you had a new fill from a new direction, and then there was some other flukey breeze. So there was a bit of a restart there in the middle. Some boats that were looking really, really hot ended up getting swallowed by the fleet and then correcting out poorly. And I think that's what happened with the class 40s because you look at Scowling Dragon and um double-handed Michael Hennessey and Christopher Skinner, you know, they were absolutely launched and gaining on huge boats, you know. 40-foot little class 40 just ripping, and then um, you know, they hit the big light spot, the rest of the fleet caught up, and then they had to go upwind and light air on a 40-foot boat with a scow bow, and they got crushed on handicap. So I think that was a big part of the story with the class 40s. Uh, they just corrected out very, very, very poorly due to that light air restart and then having to go upwind and light air uh before they could get going again. So, really an exciting race to follow the Newport Bermuda. Uh, still a bucket list for me. I've I've sailed uh to and from Bermuda and around Bermuda, but I I've never done the race. So at some point I do want to knock that out. Uh, congratulations to all of the sailors who did the Newport Bermuda. Uh, and then another big thing of the summer we're gonna get into the Solitaire du Figaro. Uh pardon again how late we are with our break that we took from the podcast, but the solitaire du Figaro happened over over a month ago. I believe it was uh like the very end of May. And it was an absolute thriller from start to finish. Umgratulations to Nicholas Lundvin, the PRB Von Day Globe skipper. So Nico Lundvin, Von Day Globe skipper, went out there and won the Figaro. Um I I would have to look at, I'm actually I'm not quite sure if he's won it before or not. I think he has won it before. Uh, but he has always been a player at every level that he's at. He's always super competitive. Uh, but one of the big stories, I think arguably even a bigger story than Nico Lundvin winning, was I think the manner in which it happened. Uh Irishman Tom Dolan, which if you're an American following the Figaro, I think obviously you're a Tom Dolan fan because every time that you have a an Anglo speaker, every time you have a non-French sailor win at that level, it's something that is very special and very unique and and something that gains a lot of attention. And so Tom Dolan, always one of the very, very top sailors in the Figaro, uh former winner of the Solitaire du Figaro, Tom Dolan was leading, probably gonna win the Figaro, battling for the lead, and he just barely clipped a reef and put the boat on a reef during the race on the final leg. So on the the third leg out of three, Tom Dolan put it on the bricks, and I r amazingly, incredibly, the boat is totally fine. So they did a they did a rescue mission a few days later, they got the boat off the reef, they got it to the boat yard, they did repairs, everything's gonna be fine. I can't believe it, but the boat is literally just like fine. I think maybe they had to replace the rudder or two and maybe do some glass work, but I think the keel's even fine. So um, really, really incredible to watch that. I remember I saw that late at night, it just ruined my night. I couldn't sleep, and I was just watching this fantastic occurrence in ocean racing take place. And uh to watch what happened with Tom Dolan, um absolutely devastating. I can definitely relate after dismastering while in third place near the end of the race in the global solo challenge. I can definitely um uh sympathize with Tom Dolan. So, anyways, really, really uh unfortunate occurrence, but very exciting nonetheless. Second place, Alexis Thomas, third place, Paul Morvan. He's really a Figaro specialist, and um, he's had an incredible career the last handful of years. And then a newcomer to me, Paul Loiseau, in fourth place, and he was the top Bezuth or or rookie, so the top rookie skipper in the Figaro, fourth place, absolutely incredible result uh for a Bezoth to get fourth. Uh Lowy Berry, Lowy Berrehar on Bonc Populaire in fifth, always following him. Uh Lowy's a fantastic uh skipper, and his career is um absolutely going huge places with Bonk Populaire, seventh place. Uh I'm always a fan of Adrian Hardy, just a phenomenal sailor. And then Hugo Dalin, uh Skipper Massif 2025 in eighth place. Um, so really, really interesting Figara race, always one of the more exciting races to follow. But without any further ado, we're gonna get into our interview for this week. I am really, really excited to have uh I'm honored to have uh the first American official finisher in Von Day Globe history, Bruce Schwab. Uh, but not only is Bruce Schwab the first American to finish the Vonde Globe, uh we share a lot of similarities just in our upbringing. You know, we were actually both riggers in Alameda, California, working in various rig shops and campaigning for the single-handed trans pack before our own ocean racing endeavors. Obviously, uh Bruce is an incredible sailor of uh a legendary caliber who did really well in the single-handed trans pack and and then managed to put together a Vondae Globe campaign, the first American to go build a new boat, do the Vondee Globe, and actually finish it. Um you know, we all know Mike Plant and we all know Rich Wilson who did it after Bruce. But Bruce was the first American finisher, and I think it's uh incredibly unique and incredibly special, and we're just so honored to have him here as a great guest. But I think more important than that, Bruce is a personal friend and someone I've known for a very long time. And he's someone who uh not only is a personal friend, but he's been a huge supporter. He's he's always like, you know, if you're an American in this sport, um, there's not a lot of us. And so when you have someone like Bruce that sends you a text message or an email or a phone call and says, hey man, you got this. Hey, here's some good advice, etc. etc. You know, he's just always been a really uh a really big cheerleader for the sport, and he's he's been uh very supportive of several Americans that have followed in his wake. So without any further delay, we're gonna go ahead and get right into it with Bruce Schwab.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

I'll start talking clearly and I'll trail off into a mutter of uh that's a habit of mine I gotta try and get around.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Well, um man, we've been trying to get together for a few months. I think we've we were chatting about doing this like months ago. It's about time, it's summertime. Well, you went off went sailing and stuff, so yeah, you've been you've been away in Washington as well.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

I've been out working out west.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

But we finally got together and did some good uh did some good mountain biking.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Yeah, once every 20 years we go biking, it seems like.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, we gotta we gotta try to increase the frequency. Otherwise, we're both gonna be old next time.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

That's right. Um well, cool man. Thanks again for for coming over.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

It's uh it's been really it's been really interesting and and really fun having a friendship and a relationship with you for so many years now and seeing you in different places, and uh yeah, it's good uh good to run into fun to watch you, you know, because when we got first met a long time ago, you were banging around the Pacific a little bit, and you know, one of those guys kind of getting into the the short-handed racing scene on the west coast, like which is where I come from. That's what I got me into it, and you're kind of doing the same thing to watch you then you know go for around the world and get to that level of stuff that that I did. It's been fun to watch.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Well, that's kind of one of the the crazy ironies with our particular dynamic and situation is that we kind of both you know cut our teeth in uh in Alameda, California, and both kind of came up through the same small community out in Alameda, and then somehow both ended up in Maine.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Yeah. Well, but you know, both places are hotbeds of of you know interesting, cool sailing endeavors, and uh, you know, we're not the only ones to come out of the single-handed sailing society out west, you know. Stan Honey was one of the regulars there. A lot of you know, great sailors are in that in that game. And some of them just you know did the thing on the West Coast, you know, maybe won a single-handed trans pack. Lots of folks out there have done that. And but uh some of them, you know, we we wound up going around the world.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Now, I kind of uh you you just jogged my memory a bit. Um the single-handed trans pack, which is really where you could say I got my start in solo sailing, was the single-handed trans pack and the races that lead up to that.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Right. It's a whole cool network out there.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Oh, super cool scene. And then I I know that was definitely very formative in your earlier years, but tell me about your what year did you do the single-handed trans pack? Well, I did it in 2010 and 12, but you did it, don't tell me, was it like the late 90s on an 11 meter called Rumble Seat or something?

SPEAKER_02 21:24

96 on a 30 square meter. 30 square meter. Right, it's a sail area based rule. There were cool boats, the square meter boats, as we could that's a whole crazy tangent we could go off on as a square meter boats, but it was very light and it was fast downwind, so it looked like a six meter, but the thing would surf. And I knew it'd be good in a race to Hawaii from the get go. And was that like an old wooden boat or something? Yeah, it was built in 1930.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

1930.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yep, and I rebuilt the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Thirty square meter that looked like an old six meter, and you raced that solo to Hawaii in nineteen ninety six in the single headed. Trans Pack. Was that your first ever solo race across an ocean?

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Yes. It was my first solo race. I've been to Hawaii several times beforehand and done deliveries back and stuff. But uh that was my first solo, big solo ocean race. I've been racing around the barrier. Like you say, there's that whole feeder race is leading up to that race, and it's a good little network of crazy people doing those races out there.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Uh crazy people doing those races. They they affectionately call the single-handed Trans Pack its nickname as a bug light for weirdos.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

I was trying to remember that. I'm glad you remember that. I was trying to remember that phrase.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

A bug light for weirdos, and you spend however much money you spend to get a belt buckle. It's so different.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

It's so different than the French solo racing scene, the farm league there of all the you know the minis and the figaros and that huge farm league with just gods of people going after that. It's our American scene, it's you know, it's all individuals doing their own crazy stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

And so 30 years ago, 1996, crazy to think. So from 96 You did your Von Day Globe eight or nine years later. Um how what what got you into solo sailing? What got you what got you like inspired to take on the single-handed trans pack?

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Probably started with my dad, because he was an avid member of the SSS, the Single Handed Sailing Society, and he knew you know uh Shama and uh Peter Hogg and the folks that were running it back in the day, and and uh in my early 20s, like a lot of us young sailors, you know, I had my own ideas about how to do everything, and I would try and tell my dad, well, you should do this or do this, or you should do this to the boat, and blah, blah, blah. And he was always like, Okay, ace, smart ass, once you get your own boat and you come do the single hand, you do one of these races in Seattle, you'll do, you'll get your tit in the ringer, is what's his thing you'd always say if you're you're too cocky, get your tit in the ringer, get in trouble. And uh, so I borrowed my in 1984. I borrowed my boss, Sven Svensen. He had this cool old fractional rigged uh fiberglass boat from Sweden. Was it a folk boat? No, no, it wasn't folk boat, so it was a higher performance boat. It was, I think it was called uh Carrera 38 or something like that. And uh uh 38 feet long, skinny, high ballast ratio, fractionally rigged, and uh I said to Sven, hey, I want to do this, the three-bridge fiasco racing my dad says, okay, well if you break it, do fix it, you know. It's like okay, so I did one practice sail on it to get the hang of solo sailing. No autopilot, just use a steering line around the boat, one of the things my dad taught me. And uh, we bet the entry fee. This is 1984. It's my first solo race around the bay, and you've heard the three-bridge fiasco, that's a that race is epic.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

I did that race, that race is so fun.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

It's so cool. It's like 300 boats in this race, you know, starting going different directions and everything, because you can choose which way you want to go. And I won the single-handed division and was second overall. One double-handed boat beat me. This is my first single-handed race. So, well, this is cool. And uh, a couple years later, I won the whole thing. I was I beat all the double handers, I beat all the multi-holes, had the fastest lapse time, just completely killed it on that that his on Sven's boat, that old that old uh production fiberglass skinny thing. And I raced with Sven, you know, we did some races down to the Pacific, uh no, the the Coastal Cup down to Catalina and stuff, and and uh you know, he let me get away with the murder once I ran the rigging shop and working on my own boat, my 30 square meter, you know, because I worked on that from 1980 till it was launched at the end of 93. You know, I ran the rigging shop there, but you know, my boat was a thorn into side, he had to keep moving it from shop to shop. And you know, the joke was he couldn't fire me because then he'd be stuck with the boat, you know. So I was working on that thing for all those years, but when I finally launched it, there was probably no one more proud of that than Sven. And uh my dad was proud of my my solo sailing too, even though he was kind of pissed I beat him in that first race.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

And so so you got it all ready, and then 1996. That's I think the record breaking year was like '94, right? With like read overshiner on a folk boat and Stan Honey on a Cal 40. Yes. Wasn't that 1990?

SPEAKER_02 26:36

The record year.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

I think it was, and Stan had the record because we always used to joke that Stan Honey was so good at navigating that when he just showed up, it started nuking because that was the record-breaking year because he was at it.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Just because he was there, he was that good. Yeah, he was so good.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Uh so you did it two years later in '96. Yep. And how did that uh how did that race go?

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Um, I had totally modified the boat for that race. I raced it for you know around the Bay Area for a couple years, but then I cut the keel off and I modified it, put it on a fin keel and a bulb. So even though it was a traditional looking boat above the water, it had increased the draft and had a bulb on there. Designer Jim Antrim helped me out with that, put a different rudder on it. It was very tricked out for an old, for a 1930 wooden boat, right? So the thing would get up and surf downwind like crazy. Um, so I think I averaged like almost eight knots through the water on a boat, 27-foot water line, but had lots of overhang, so it would use that overhang very effectively when it sailed on it. And uh I put a masted kite on it, took a rating, took a bunch of rating penalties for things I did on it, but it wasn't enough because I won by uncorrected time by a day and a half. Wow. It's the biggest, I think it's the largest margin of victory. Obviously, you know, they probably could have given me a harsher rating, but but that boat could steer under autopilot with the kite up. And back then, most of the boats in the race couldn't do that, right? They'd you'd fly the spinnaker during the day when you could drive, then you'd sleep and take it down, but that boat I could just push it, and that made a huge difference. Little fractional kites too, which which made it much more controllable.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Amazing. Um so you were you know, because again, I was it's it's so many, so many uh similarities in our paths because I was also What did you you what boat did you race? Well, I had a Mount K 30. I had a bar I had a borrowed Mount K 30 in 2010, and then I bought a more 24 for the 2012 race.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Oh yeah. More 24. That's like the that's like the Swiss Army knife or starting to race.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

And it was like kind of similar because I was rigging boats in Alameda as well, and like we had my rig in the shop, and I'd be like, you know, building Halyards after work and all this kind of stuff with all all of my uh preparations going on in the rig shop as well, and uh um yeah, yeah, a lot of good memories there in Alameda getting ready and huge shout out to the SSS. It's a fantastic community as well, and they do so much to uh inspire other sailors but also educate other sailors and get them going.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

They have a good, really good program of training, training events they have as people prepare for those races. And uh and I hope to go when I get Improbable done, if we haven't even mentioned what Improbable is, that's my current boat. Um that might that's the boat my dad raced in '84. When I raced Svendel. My dad had Improbable then. He'd bought it in in uh 76. It was built in 70, my dad bought it in 76, and he got into the short-handed racing. But I have that boat now. My dad passed away in 2018. What kind of boat is that again? It's a cold it's uh 42-foot sloop. It was cold molded in New Zealand out of cowrie wood in 1970, and it was dreamt up by some great sailors like Commodore Tompkins and Skip Allen, and there's a bunch of Bay Area legends.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Uh so it's like a Bay Area boat that was built in New Zealand. Yeah. It's so funny because I'm about to do pack cup on the Schumacher 39 Recidivist, and that's a Bay Area boat that was also built in New Zealand. Oh, I didn't know. It's a Schumacher designed boat, but it was built in New Zealand as well. I didn't know Recidivist was built in New Zealand. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

It's got like around the Bay Area for a long, long time.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

It's been around, yeah. Yeah. It's still a good boat. I mean, she's built in New Zealand, very, very well built boat. Um still a fast boat, too.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

So the problem was built out of carry wood, which you can't get anymore. It's impossible wood to get. Um and uh I when my dad passed away, I should have known better, right? Been around the world a couple times and you know, thought it was over the boat thing. I sailed on it once and it all came rushing back, and I just had to tear into it and it's got a new rudder, a new rig, redo the interior, structural changes, just all getting really dialed in the way I've always dreamed of doing it. And my dad can't stop me now. He's gone, so I'm just but I'm sure he's laughing his ass off at me, you know, somewhere. Me going at it. Um but I I love to go do uh I I dream of going to do some of those races again.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Just just to see who's still around of the old crowd, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

I mean, this'll be my first Hawaii race that I've participated in in ten years.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

All of those races. Some of those single-handed races, the three-bridge fiasco, I mean, I'll do some maybe some racing in the northwest too. But I mean, I really want to cruise the boat, but I I won't be able to resist doing some of these races that we've been talking about and revisiting all that stuff that where I grew grew up doing that. You know, the Ferrons race, and then I do that. And uh not I don't need to do the single-hand trans pack again, you know, the single-handed stuff. Um hopefully I'm over that. But I'd like to do pack up, maybe trans pack, and before we go cruising, and uh, and yeah, we were before we we start started the interview here, we talked a little bit about uh uh dream crew I'd like to put together to do pack up on. And uh you're on my list for that, so I think we could have yeah, it's that could be fun.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

It's actually really funny, you know, is is uh as much as as much as some things come full circle in life, you know. Uh I've I've also fairly recently just been having these dreams of getting just another little simple boat and doing single-handed Trans Pack and some of those races again just to go be part of the community and sail some of these iconic courses. It's always such a for me, it's always such a thrill to go back out to the bay and just sail underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and be back around. I'll have the boat.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

I'll have a boat that we can do it on. So, because I know what you're going through now. I mean, any listener here that doesn't know what you're ramping up due to the global solo challenge again, and uh and how close you came to pulling it off last time until the rig fell down. And uh so you're going through that, you know, you're spending a lot of time going through the challenges I did trying to prepare for my round-the-world race, trying to raise the money and trying to get it together, and trying to get all this you know the support to pull it off. It's just such a struggle, and that's that's why it's so attractive to go back to these races that we grew up doing a long time ago. They're lower key, they're lower budget, um, and you know, there's a bunch of weirdos doing it.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

You know, on that on that topic though, it's incredible what you accomplished, and obviously, I'm gonna give a little bit of an intro before our interview on the podcast, but everyone's gonna know that that you're the first American to do the Vondae Globe, uh, to finish the Vondae Globe, I should say. Um, but when you say like what you went through and raising the money and the preparation and everything else, it's really it's absolutely incredible what you did. Um, it's absolutely incredible that you built a one-off custom brand new boat for the Vondae Globe, and then became the first American to ever go officially finish the Von Day Globe.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Like, yeah, it's hard for me to even believe. I was just really lucky, and I hadn't dreamed of doing it. A lot of people, the dream was to go do the Vondae Globe, but I until I won the single TransPack and some of my clients and people I worked with, and they're like, Hey, you should why why don't you go around the world? I'm like, huh? What? Oh, hmm. Maybe, yeah. And uh then we started the whole process of trying to raise the money to do it. But I was so lucky to connect with so a whole bunch of people that that pitched in money to send me around the world. Where did you make most of those connections? Um some of them were clients that we had at Svenson's. You know, some of the very first uh I'm still friends with uh one of our clients, Adrian Fournier. He had a great uh big Tyana that we worked on there at Svenson's, and he was one of the guys that said, Yeah, yeah, we'll go we'll maybe put in some put in some seed money, and then um luckily I met Kevin and Shauna Flanagan up in up in Oregon. We were we decided we wanted Schooner Creek Boatworks to build it through Tom Wiley, who was the designer, and Tom Wiley kind of pushed me because he thought, well, you could do pretty good in this race, and he wanted to have his boat do it. And he had designed Norton Smith's mini that was one of the first American Express. American Express. That was a Tom Wiley design that won the Mini Transat, right? It was just unheard of.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

It's so crazy that no one knows about this guy. Norton Smith from Mill Valley went and won the mini transat. Was it 79, I think? It was a long time ago. American Express.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

So with that, knowing and I've known I'd known Tom for many, many years. He's still a good friend. And uh so he had a lot of we both had a lot of ideas about what kind of boat we would do design and and uh it was valid. You know, Ocean Plan was skinny, it was like one of the last skinny Open 60s or IMOCA 60s, whatever you want to call it. And my goal was to get to the 2000 race, which I didn't make, but that design, there people were still sorting out the canning keels and the wide boats and the water ballots, they're still getting rid of it out.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

That's interesting because you I forgot that you had been trying to do the 2000 race and you ended up doing a different race before. I did I didn't make it.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

It's a good thing I didn't. I never would have finished then. I did the around alone in 02-03.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

But that period that you're talking about, like you said, that was before they really figured out what an IMOCO was supposed to be. Yeah, that's when people were going wild. Like they started doing canting keels, you know, they were doing 50s and 60s. I think a couple people did like canting rigs, even. Yeah. There were obviously a lot of rotating rigs, but the boats were like all over the map. And then you showed up a skinny boat with a skinny single rudder boat with an unstayed mast like full-blown, like Tom Wiley, nutter design. But it was a super cool boat. It was a cool boat.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

And if I if it had been a fully realized program, but I never raised the money like you're struggling now. It's so hard to get the money to do it that way. And we had been in the 2000 race, it would have done quite, I think it could have done quite well. But you know, even by 2004 when I got in there, you know, like like we were talking about a little while ago, uh, not here, but before we we came up here, the uh I was one of my key sales was like did the previous round the world race, you know. I mean, I was racing with old sales, had some new sales, but you know, it just wasn't a fully realized program. So my goal became I was doing pretty good in the race early on, but you know, the goal became to just to finish. And I was ninth, you know, I was ninth.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Now step back a little bit. Um it was the around alone race, is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 37:39

That was the first round the world race I did, yeah. I call that my training race. That's the around the world with stopovers.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

And so tell us a little bit about that and like getting to the start, getting to the race, and then like such a struggle.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

It's like everybody in that race is trying to raise the money and pull it off. There were a few higher profile programs there, but you know, that race uh uh I have to give a shout out to Billy Black, who was documented that event really for all those years. Super nice guy. He put me up in his house in Portsmouth, Rhode Island while I was working on the boat. I mean, the whole process of getting there, building the boat, getting it through the Panama Canal, you know, preparing it in Charleston for my qualifier to the Azores and qualifying and then trying to get ready to go in the race, and then you know, made the start, which was huge, and then broke the boom on the first leg to England and had the you know, if it wasn't for all the people around swirling around that boat program in our ocean planet. How did how did the boom break? Well, it turned out there was some dry lamb in it maybe in there, but we had this pusher vang. It was a very novel thing where uh there was some struts coming down from the mast that held so the they were in compressions. So it was like a GNAV. G NAV? It was the backwards vang? Yeah, it was a backwards vang. Yeah, so the boom's pushing up against it, so it's very, very stiff, and I was in one of my first heavy weather downwind things when I probably should have been in a third reef, but I was in a second reef, and there was a hull in the mail, and boom, it broke, had to clean up the whole mess and sail the next thousand miles to England without a mainsail.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

And then they incredibly the guys that built this stuff, Ted Van Dusen and Oh my god, that's so funny because Ted Van Dusen built my rig that was on shipyard brewing, and that when that when that boat was new, it had a GNAV as well. You could see these uh you could see these like parts that were painted over that were laminated, but you could see this pusher vanks work really, really well. I guess you're calling it a pusher vang. We would call it a G Nav because it was like a backwards vang. Right. Like V, like V N G, they called it a G Nav. So you see what's so you call it a pusher vang, what we call it, you know, backwards vang. G Nav. That's so funny though. What a small world that uh yeah, Ted Van Doozen built moose bars, which unfortunately didn't work uh or or broke, but that was 25 years after he built it. Exactly. I mean he built those things for the leap way back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Bringing fatigue is my guess. Who knows?

SPEAKER_01 40:07

He's building like super cool uh rowing shells now.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

He might be retired. I don't know if he's still doing that.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

He's um looked like he still was. Really? He's super. He sold the mast building business. He sold the mass building business, but he was building really custom, super high-end carbon rowing shells.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

But that the mast in Ocean Planet was just a work of art. It was spectacular. My mast was super nice.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

It's a real shame that it um it's a real shame it failed. I'm definitely in in no way blaming Ted Van Dusan. It was a 25-year-old rig. Yeah, right. But it was uh it was it the fact that it was 25 years old, that rig was badass. Yeah. It was a super cool rig.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Exactly. And the Ocean Planet rig, the unstayed concept was just that blew people's away, people's minds away. It was I think I was one of the only sailors in both those round-the-world races, I never had to go up the rig. You see all these videos of me, oh, I had to go up the rig to fix this, or this broke off, or you know, this blah blah blah. Never had to go.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

I mean, you had a literal tree trunk, though. Yeah, yeah. I mean, an unstayed, literal tree trunk. I see some of these unstayed boats and some of these funky wily boats that are unstayed, and the masts are just so big, especially at the base, you can't even wrap your arms around them.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Well, they're not that big, but they're big. They're big. But in if you added up since it was a skinny boat, we didn't have the wide shroud base anyway. So by putting the shrouds on there, they add so much compression that for that particular boat being skinny, it really wasn't that much heavier to just take the shrouds off. And uh it was rotating, which was another cool feature, made it work quite quite a bit better. It was a cool rig. You know, I I miss I miss that rig. Lots of cool things about it. And uh it was a good boat. Um obviously we could have done more with it if we'd had, you know, the budget back in the day, but that's kind of what made the thing so beautiful. The whole exercise so beautiful is the fact that we had so many volunteers. You know, they they got a new boom built and somehow got it on a plane to take to England England before I started one day late on for leg two. But the fact they got that boom to England and drove it like in rush out traffic through London, you know, before it was even painted, like they pulled it out of the shop and the epoxy was like still carrying them. It was like a budget.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

And that and that's that's the amazing thing. But what's so amazing is that you did it. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

And then I broke it. I mean, the around that whole the Around Alone Race was such an experience for me to do all those legs and all the adventures I had and and uh disaster. I broke the boom again about a thousand miles before Cape Horn and had to stop in the Falkland Islands. And Eric Chase, who'd worked with with uh Ted on the whole rig thing, he flew on the one weekly plane to the Falkland Islands. I spent a week there, we passed up the boom and uh and sailed, uh you know, fin I finished the race, and you know, I like I like I've said at uh in the show the little presentations I used to do, I was never so proud of getting last place because I managed to finish, I learned a lot, and then I had two years to prepare for the Von Day after that. And so it's good that I didn't make the Vondae in 2000 because I was not prepared. The boat wasn't ready, I wasn't ready, but by doing the around alone, breaking everything, you know, making it around the world, then I had a shot to finish in the Von Day in 2004, 2005, and even then I had to, you know, hold back and not push too hard when it was obvious I wasn't gonna make the podium, and I just had to make sure I finished and uh and managed to pull it off. But you know, we were talking about how hard it is to get there and do it on a shoestring budget and do it like you know, the adventure away that that we you know you're having to do now that I that I did then. When I talk years later, I wound up working for uh the Spanish team, the Movie Star, and uh one of the Open60 Pokemon. programs and also on a on a Volvo 70 program selling them lithium batteries like on energy systems sold those guys and I was in Spain and we were at a crew dinner and some of these French guys that were part of the team were like well who's that guy and they're like uh that's Bushwab he did the Von de Globe Von the Globe oh the Vende Globe so I think it would get their attention but I remember talking to some pro sailor a French guy he said what was your boujet you know how much did you you spent I said well we built that boat new and raced around the world twice for a total of about two point one million people and I told people that I raised one point seven million dollars they go oh that's plenty of money it must have had no no I there was no it was no when I told the French guy who knew what was going on that we built that boat and raced around the world twice for 2.1 million he looked at me and goes impossible he thought it was full of shit he didn't think we could even do it it's and here in the American you're like you're facing now trying to get sponsorship people don't can't believe how much it you know it costs to go and it's just the fact that I did that pulled it off we only raised one point one point six or one point seven million and spent two point one so the rest can't fell on me right now I had to face the financial pitfalls afterwards um but when you realize now like we're talking about a little while ago how much it's gone the new boats and anyone listening to this you might find this hard to believe but you're talking if you don't have 15 to 20 million like euros you have virtually no chance of getting the top 10 of the Vonday globe now.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Yeah it's just yeah it's it's a whole different game now it's like formula and it's a bargain compared to Formula One racing and that's the reason why that's what we keep on trying to tell everyone you know it's yeah such a bargain compared to F1 but you know just for the the the listeners at home you know um last well I guess it was two years ago when I decided I wanted to go for the GSC again uh I was doing some work with the emoca class and and I actually spoke with other skippers and put together a line item budget and looked at other line item budgets and adapted them for our needs and all that and we came to the conclusion that to have a chance to win the Vonday Globe now and these are two year old numbers to have a chance to win the Vunday Globe now it was 30 million euros for a four year budget with a new boat. It was 10 million euros to have a chance at getting a top 10 with a used boat on a used boat. Yeah and I was like all right so 10 million euros for a chance at a top 10 we can potentially go win the GSC for a million bucks in US dollars. So I was like all right well that's seems when you look at the exposure seems way more feasible.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Obviously that includes in hindsight you know I got my picture in Sports Illustrated magazine you know I got I mean it in hindsight if I'd had a title sponsor other than all nonprofit foundation the wonderful people that put in all that money to to for me to go in hindsight if we'd had a title sponsor it would have been great exposure for them it would have been great and and uh but it's it's it's so hard to convince people to look forward enough to do that now right I mean it's always in hindsight it looks good.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

That was like I mean just like look at you know we were talking about Cole earlier just look at just look at how much exposure she did agree and so that if you count the value of the boat that would have been right at a million bucks as well um in a short amount of time but that would have been like a million bucks as well but when she crossed the finish line and was in those iconic photos there wasn't a single sponsor photo or not a single sponsor on the boat because it was all a nameless it was a nameless two individuals that were just writing blank checks but there were no sponsors such a great example because if Cole had had a title sponsor she had private support right to pull it off we know she had a lot of private support to pull that off but she'd had a brand on there that would have been an incredible value right I mean it would it would have been definitely a a positive ROI for sure.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Exactly I mean no one even remembers you who's name the guy who won that race Philippe de Lamer. Okay good for you but how many people could name his name I know and I kind of feel bad for him he absolutely crushed he was a great on the boat that was like no special deal well I wouldn't say that it was a wise choice it was a good boat there's a production performance crew that was a really really cool boat but it wasn't like the real class 40 race boat or wasn't like a real no but it is a handicap race is the exact and so when you really when you really look at sailing the boat you know my boat was was a good potential choice as well an old school fixed keel fiberglass skinny open 50 yeah you know I I didn't have to push to as high a percentage of my polars.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

That was a cool boat to be able to run it was a super cool boat.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

It's super side story I actually sailed on that boat ages and ages ago before you ever ever saw it. That was the funny thing about uh that boat is that boat had had been around the block and uh Newbar raced around the world Brad Van Lou raced around the world Philippe Cunn then stooped it all up and then donated to someone someone else souped it all up and then donated to someone you know when I first got my hands on that boat it was like every single person I ran into was telling me stories about sailing on my old boat.

SPEAKER_01 49:20

And then they were like oh I sailed your boat and so the the first six months I had it I had this like imposter syndrome where I was like basically every person I run into has done more miles on my boat than you had.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

Yeah we finally got those miles in there yeah it's too bad that that's gone. But anyway Cole Bro did a great job she raised the game and I think she you know back the the social media platform when I did the race was just email right I had an email list and we had thousands of followers and we I I'd pump out stories and send all those and I got them all online still all the stories I wrote hundreds of stories it's on oceanplanet.org and probably no one reads this stuff anymore but I saved them all because I wanted to save all those stories I wrote of the from the from the beginning to the end of both around the world races that building the boat everything it's all online but that was the platform now but now I look at what what like you and Cole were doing with the videos and the Instagram and it's like it's just the it's it's so much more live now. Yeah it's really come a long way and she did a great job with the presentation of all that and I mean I I have no idea how to even edit an Instagram video. It's like you I it's uh it's a whole new game.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Yeah I just there's pros and cons. There's pros and cons. And um but yeah amazing that you were the first to to go finish the Vonday Globe. Tell us uh like what's a couple stories that stick out in your mind from the actual circumnavigation itself. First off just to put in perspective did you take about 109 days? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

109 days right yeah actually was 109 days and like 19 hours so it was really just under 110.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

The funny thing is uh I actually didn't you know I'm not like a podcast host that that does all the research on the guest before they arrive I actually did pull that out from my mind I'm like I'm pretty sure Bruce Schwab did 109 I was wondering how the heck he knew 109 but what's what's crazy now is that they're going around in like 70 days. It's insane. And I mean that says 39 days off so they've gotten you know a third 50% faster faster so so fast. But but just yeah tell tell us a couple stories that like stick out from your mind.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

I want to hear some like Bruce Schwab story time Von day globe circa 04, 05 Oh man there's so many different things that kind of rush through my like how is how is your run down the Atlantic?

SPEAKER_01 51:46

How was the start and the run down the Atlantic you were jockeying for position I was doing pretty good because it was light air running and that's your skinny you're skinny and you're just probably easily driven.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

Right. And it was I was in actually in top five for a while but then I had to pull in kind of behind Cape Verity Islands I think it was and work on my boom the reef I had to get in lighter air because in spite of the years of preparation we didn't have enough time. You never have enough time we were still ironing out some rig stuff and I had a rigging friend helping me and I still had to redo some stuff on the boom and I had to slow down and start dealing with it so I fell back and then we get to the South Atlantic I get to Doldham's okay but uh I actually caught up a fair bit I did a big end run around the Atlantic high we were able to fly the kite it was good the group boat was really good in VMG light air running because it's very light and skinny you could do pretty well and so I caught up a fair bit and uh and then the first one a little side story about one of the cool things about that unstayed rig is that in that when I was flying the big kite and light air running on it since it was unstayed I could take down the head soles entirely and the four triangle was completely open I could jibe this monster kite on an 85 foot mast by myself pretty easily. It was pretty cool. As long as it wasn't too windy. But that rights it was unstayed but you could get the force out of the way as well yeah because the the four stay was a furling jib with a torque rope in it so it was a 41 halard on it because now nowadays it'd be a locking one but 401 halard just would pull the whole thing down the deck and just be flaked down the deck so there was nothing forward to the mast.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 53:24

Oh I did have a stal stay that was kind of there but that was really small and kind of for a storm jib that's back a ways. So jibing the masthead kite it was asymmetrical on a sprit so you just would just dive like a big jib work like a charm. And the unstayed mast you didn't have to even pull the main in because you would just you'd just go down way by the lee you let the kite come over on the new side and you could be wing and wing for a moment and then the main would come across you wouldn't even pull the sheet in you just stay out of the way and it would go into a luff behind the the back wind of the kite. So the main when it came across it didn't go it didn't come too dramatic crash at all. It worked and it's really eerie how cool it was the boat just kept sliding along with a masted kite. It was a little spooky when you let the runners out because it had runners up there to stabilize the rig. But you obviously had to have the runners off when you're driving it so that rig was completely holding itself up. No runners no nothing just just the bearings are like five and a half feet apart between the the step and the deck that would hold the whole 85 rig up was on that. So when you let the run out you keep letting it out and letting it out and letting it out because the mast would kind of be pulling the rig forward once you know I asked Ted once we're talking about Ted Van Dusen once in the early days of selling the bus how far can I bend that rig? Because it bends a lot. He goes don't worry about it. I said well give me a figure you know I mean I mean we're bending it you know when the main's up it's bending like four or five feet you know says you bend that mast 20 feet let me know. He said just don't worry about it. So when you jibed it you just let the runner out and the mast was pulling it way forward is bending way forward which made it harder on the mainsail bands. That's one of the things we had to iron out we used to break the mainsail bands a lot when we jive it because when the when the mast was basically inverted they had a lot of camber in the bands and when they'd pop through and they'd break but he Ted came up with braiding custom braided bands out of S glass instead of carbon and those didn't break. And so that worked great on there. But um so after I caught up a little bit in the South Atlantic I got in my first southern ocean it was actually very we I don't think we're even south of Cape of Good Hope yet but uh a storm a low pressure system came through and uh I was very nervous about it even though I mean I'd broken the boom twice in the around alone so it's like oh what's gonna happen but we built a whole new boom for the Vonday it was much shorter it was a much taller section and uh we built that oh at Maine Yacht Center did you uh did you ever break that boom?

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Nope that boom you built your boom at Maine Yacht Center yep but you prepped your boat in the shad over uh Portland Yacht isn't correct yeah yeah but uh Will Rooks helped me do that Will Rooks yeah yeah Will Rooks is one of the Yeah big shout out to Will Rooks yeah I knew he was your he helped me a ton he came to France tell me get ready to go your name your name always comes up whenever I see Will we always talk about how he was the preparator for Bruce Schwab oh he was Bonda Globe he was a godsend and he is one of the guys that was so instrumental in getting Maine Yacht center going really yeah he's been in there for I mean Maine is just a it's so you read a great article in uh what magazine was that in it was this I was in Sale magazine that was a great article about it was a really good article I'm actually really proud of that uh but you got a big shout out in there obviously but so did Brian Harris but so did Will Rooks. Yep and it was a good quote from Brian like Will Rooks was one of the first guys that came into Maine Yacht Center and just right off the bat having Will Rooks there gives them a ton of street cred.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

And the fact that that Rich Wilson who's now done the Vonday twice after I did it he came he did it twice both times he had all his prep done right there at Maine Yacht Center.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

That's like the place to get this stuff yeah for those that are listening if you if you go to Google and you type in sale magazine made in Maine there's a a really cool article that I wrote I think it was sometime around March of 2025 that it went to print and it's just about sort of the the very sneaky solo ocean racing heritage of the Portland Maine area and just like the the the the Walter Green you know trimarans and the O Star like I think my favorite my favorite line in that whole thing is kind of like uh you know when solo ocean racing really became a thing the fastest boats in the world were not coming out of France and England they were coming out of Portland Maine. It's just like crazy to think about so I got when solo ocean racing really became a thing the fastest boats in the world were coming out of Portland Maine.

SPEAKER_02 57:51

That's insane. So when I was in France in the final throws of preparing for the Vendée Globe we'll get back to uh my my sea story in a while but uh the director of the race Denny Harrow who was an avid sailor who now was running the Vendée Globe back then so so this is the guy he had to enforce all the rules and there's all these safety things and all these inspections we had to go through all this but one day we're getting closer to the race and things are getting more under control it comes up to me when no one else around he goes so Bruce you are from Maine yes I go yeah yeah I did the big prep there do you know Walter Green I'm like yeah yeah I kind of know Walter Green he's got a little boat here I do I said Walter Green when we were first getting into ocean racing he was the the the god that was the Mecca when we raced across the Atlantic and like the O Star we always had to go to see Walter Green. It's like that guy's a god to the French and now we're talking about the French pro sailors that whole scene started really in Maine in New England before it even really got going in France where it's just now the hotbed of it now. So Maine's history in this and what your article led into is really really rich and goes back a long long way yeah um unfortunately Walter passed away last year. Yeah was it this last year yeah 2025 so uh he lasted a he had Parkinson's really bad for a long time yeah and uh considering how bad it was when you saw him you know 20 years ago uh the fact that he went that long was pretty amazing you had to be one tough guy yeah to go for that long with really bad Parkinson's amazing sailor and naval architect and boat builder and Green Marine was still right over there just just north of here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

And it's really cool actually even just to take a drive 15 minutes up the road and you can go see all these old school classic trimarants and you just wonder kind of which boat's which and which one has the history and everything else but there's these old classic triborants that to the casual observer um they would look like who's the Canadian guy that he was friends with there's this Canadian guy who was also here in France.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:05

Well those two guys would be hanging out with each other building boats you know you know and this there'd be huge in in France if there there would have been building Mike Birch Mike Birch Mike Birch would go down there to even kill Marine and I walked in there once just to visit Walter and this I didn't even know who he might I didn't know who it was until I realized because Mike Birch looked oh he's super younger than he really was and so Mike Birch because after he had the Walter green boats a couple years later he had the big formula tag catamaran that was the first he's a legend in France too the first boat to ever break through the 500 mile and 24 hour barrier.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

Oh my gosh in the like 1984 Quebec St. Malo which is insane when you think about it because in 1984 so 42 years ago boats weren't going that fast then 500 nautical miles in 24 hours. Yeah 24 times 20 is 480.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:59

So like they were averaging around the clock over 20 in 1984 was in France like this was like 10 years ago whenever I was visiting then there would have been scores of young French sailors there hanging out just trying to learn everything they could from those guys right but they're in Maine and like no one knew they were there just doing their own thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

It's like under the radar under the radar yeah yeah so where was I?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:23

Oh yeah so we were entering the Southern Ocean and uh I was scared I was gonna break my boom. I was getting used to thinking I still wasn't fully confident in the autopilot and there was a stretch where I was super it's the fastest I went the whole race. I didn't go fast or before or after and uh one cool thing you could do on Ocean Planet when it was really windy and V and G running you could let the main weigh out because unstayed rig rotating mass you let it weigh out and you could heal it to windward like a laser and just go just down the pipe really fast. But I didn't trust the autopilot so I got some great footage from this the boat like slicing through waves water sluicing over the whole deck and I averaged um like 18 knots for like that I was the fastest boat in the fleet for that period of time um for like six hours you know which it was excessively exciting for me though nowadays it's like that's slow, right? I mean they got class 40s going that fast now. But but back then that was pretty exciting for me and uh and made for some great footage. But after that things were a little bit mellower. But I didn't catch up enough in the race to be shooting for the podium so my focus became just don't break anything, fix everything. I'd look after every creek and groan. I went I actually intentionally sailed further north when we're in the in Indian ocean to be able to you know inspect the keel because it the keel was in a big box and it was creaking and I was worried about it. So I had these wedges system in there. So I spent a lot of time dealing with stuff just to make sure that I was going to finish. And uh Conrad Humphreys great story he put in his own rudder he a when he was anchored he put it on his own rudder by himself. I passed him and then he passed me back and uh rather than try and keep up with him and risk breaking something coming up the Atlantic you know I tried to keep it under control and uh y when you get around Cape Horn and you think oh you know great and I've made it around you know to some extent but then you've got 7,000 miles more to go mostly upwind that's full of potential pitfalls. Like you right because those low pressure systems come off of South America and they're wicked. And uh so that was still very stressful for me to get from Cape Horn to the finish. And you know and the closer I got to the finish the more I was worried that something's still going to go wrong I'm not gonna make it because it's a dream I pursued for so many years. But uh eventually did did make it there.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

And uh yeah it's gonna be interesting for you next time around to get past that zone you know yeah I mean obviously I can relate to that and so it's like you get past Cape Horn and you really you really feel like you're on the home stretch and and you are on the home stretch but uh hard statistically speaking so many boats don't make it get broken after the horn because do you know Nick Maloney?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Yeah he was in the race he's a great sailor great sailor yeah great sailor Australian guy hard tough as nails guy he windsurf bass straight you know and the guy's just tough as nails his keel bulb fell off and he was sailing El MacArthur's old boat off Argentina whatever he had to pull out you know and he had to get the boat fixed somehow and he he's he went back and he sailed it to finish himself he wasn't official over but oh so he didn't flip when the keel bulb fell off didn't flip wow amazing yeah and Mike Golding I think it's in this is in that race that I was in I think it was oh four.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Dude Mike Golding was in like every race he was in every okay you're right it could have been any race but his keel fell off too and he got third I've I've had the I've I've had the uh distinct pleasure and the privilege of of meeting Mike Golding a number of times he is the coolest dude but he is it's so funny because you look at every race like Mike Golding was in it. Mike Golding he was the guy he did so many Vonday Globes he did so many other races and I've listened to some fantastic podcasts with him and and like I said had the pleasure of meeting him several times. What a great guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:27

Yeah yeah he's definitely I think he's uh he's either an OBE or a knight in England you know he's he earned it he was he really kept the UK on the map yeah for sure racing for sure now you got uh man now you got Sam Goodchild.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

Oh he's really good Sam Goodchild is I mean you know it's always Alex Thompson came so close to sort of being the like who's gonna be the first English speaking guy Anglo guy to really go beat all the French heads up. And he was right in there and but now and Alex Thompson Thompson was so good and so close. But as far as an Anglo that can go beat all the French, I mean Sam Goodchild is like I think pound for pound, dollar for dollar, like Sam Goodchild, I think he's as good as anyone.

unknown 1:06:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:17

So if any of you listening to this later are looking to follow all these sailing superstars, and there's a whole bunch of French ones and a lot of people in the race, but uh Sam Goodschild is one to follow. That's a that's a tip, you know. It's because uh like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:30

I mean it's crazy. I mean, we were just talking about uh Charlie Dalin, who oh man, it was you know, it's he passed away and it's so tragic, but at the and I'm about to like just tear up here and get emotional, but he's only 42. I mean but like he lived such an amazing life, and he left behind this story and this legacy that will persevere for eternity about what he accomplished on his way out the door at such a young age with such a rich life at the top of the sailing world.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

He went on and and won the Vendée Globe in an incredible battle with Rishon.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:13

Incredible, and no, and so he's in this incredible battle.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:16

His rivals didn't even know he didn't know he was in a treatment for for cancer.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

I don't even think they knew he was ill. But what's crazy now is that like it's one of the most uh French sponsors, but now you have an Englishman with Sam Goodchild as Dolin's old sponsor.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:31

Well, he earned it. Goodchild's earned it, really good.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:33

But like what a you know, what a uh just what a like I think we're gonna dedicate this episode to Charlie Dalin. That's one of the most one of the most amazing, I think, solo ocean racing stories of just like the human adventure and the spirit and the courage and like the perseverance.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

Having done the skill, having done the Von Day, I was on edge for you know that whole race watching all the competitors there, and especially since we we our company, my my my job, WhatsApp Energy, we helped supply uh Sebastian Simone, who was leading the race for a while, and then was in third after he broke a foil off, but then the battle watching him trying to hang on to third, and then the battle between uh Rachom on Arkea and Charlie Dalin was just uh it was a nail biter. I was I was uh I was totally hooked.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:33

Yeah, I mean the the Von Day Globe and what it's become now, it's just it's such an incredible product, just even as a casual observer of sport, and that's why I still I I still don't know why it's so hard. I'm I'm biased, but yeah, you've got guys of trying to eat it. You've got guys that'll never even sniff a Super Bowl that aren't that good, they get 50 million bucks to be a starting quarterback in the NFL now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's like when people are like, oh, there's no money for ocean racing. I'm like, really? There's guys on the bench making eight million bucks a year in the NBA and the NFL on the bench.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

Yeah. It's easy to complain about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:07

And it's you're you're like, you can't find a few million bucks for like a real ocean racing campaign.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:13

Um, I mean, even after the Vondae, first after the Vonday, I was like, I'm never gonna do that again, but then you know, the finish is such a crazy scene with so many people, and you're like, wow, oh my god, so we'll do it again.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25

So for anyone, uh go go go search on YouTube and search like Bruce Schwab Vonde Globe finish. But when you came in, you it was ninth place, and there were thousands and thousands, but they were yelling, we love Bruce. Vila Bruce, Vila Bruce, which is like Vila Bruce. It sounded like we love Bruce. I thought that's V Love Bruce. Okay, yeah. And uh just go go on YouTube and and and search Bruce Schwab's Von Day Globe finish. It's phenomenal. It'll it'll it'll make the hairs in the back of your neck stand up.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

Uh the finish is incredible. The fin a finish there with the crowd. I mean, the start's incredible, but the for every boat that finishes, thousands of people come out. Even the last finisher, whoever it is, uh, the reception in Les Abdel Delon is just it's just insane. So so I went and tried to get sponsorship again after a while. I was like, oh man, maybe I want to try this again. And uh man, we went, we beat the bushes at every lead and corporate thing. We had I I had volunteer friends trying to raise money who were in the business of trying to do, you know, we didn't couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. But I was which is why when I look back, uh realizing how incredibly lucky I was to have the support of individuals. We created a nonprofit foundation, so it was tax-deductible, you know. I mean, that helped a lot. Um but it wasn't for some a few key people, especially Kevin and Shauna Flanagan, but Philippe Kahn put in a bunch. I mean, a whole lot of people pitched in and uh I never would have pulled it off. But it was never enough, right? It's never enough, right? Uh but uh I'll give you one of the lines that uh I used to this is a long time ago I did this stuff. For a while I had a full audio video presentation I would get hired to do at Chambers of Commerce and stuff like that, inspirational talking about one of the lines that I say, which is 100% true. If people look you in the eye and write you a check, or you sit down with someone and who talk to you, I'm gonna give you some money, and they slide that check across the table and they say, I believe you're gonna pull this off. Enough people do that, and you don't have enough money, you still didn't get enough, you still have to go, right? I mean, I couldn't not go, and I knew I was in debt of you know, like of the yin-yang at the start, you know, start of the race, and we could barely afford the liability insurance that we're required to have. And uh I was during some Lile Devon Day, while I'm sailing and dealing with the weather and communication and trying to do my stories and all this stuff, I'd be sending emails to our volunteer bookkeeper to shift the debt from this card to this card before this one ran out to take the promotional interest rate on that. That was doing financial finagling, you know, while I'm sailing around the world to keep things afloat. And in the end, after the Vonday, I mean I'll admit now, you know, we tried to keep the boat for a while, which was impossible. We couldn't afford to keep it. And in 2008, I wasn't the only one to go bankrupt, you know. So um, you know, there was a while after Vonda Globe.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

I was so you eventually went bankrupt? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

2008? I was down to 50 bucks, and but through the bankruptcy laws, I was able to keep my house because I'd gone down in value below what the whatever the ceiling was. Um and then I just started from scratch, and but you know, the good I wouldn't change a thing because the the Vondae Globe taught me so much, and I was able to leverage what I'd learned about energy systems and watching my energy and the solar panels and watching my battery monitor and knowing what I had to charge and all that stuff. And uh I was a rigor before that, right? I wasn't an energy guy at all. My job now, running a marine energy systems company, isn't what I did. I grew up uh splicing ropes, you know, uh working first fan. So uh the Vondeglow gave me the street cred, and I had to try and live up to that, and I'd learned a lot, and uh I plus I was interested in it, you know. I became a I became a nerd about energy stuff. Um so it all worked out in the end, and and I came back to the right place. You know, I I left, I was really a Californian beforehand, but when I came back uh to Maine, I decided to stay in Maine because for all the reasons we were talking about a while ago. And uh I taught rigging classes, advanced rigging classes for a while to make some more, and I started selling solar panels out of my garage, and then eventually had a small office, and then I got lucky with some good employees to help me out, and uh now we've you know got five employees and and uh you know it's always hard to stay competitive, it's a tough, tough business, but uh um it's very gratifying to run your own business and I think the Von Day Globe in in a new field. I learned a new field after I was forty years old.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:13

And uh and so that's uh that's a really, really nice like segue there. Um tell us about Ocean Planet Energy and and what you did after the Von Day Globe, how you got back on your feet and and what you did, because now you've had this thing that's been gone for I guess close to 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:30

Has it been that long? Well, I think uh I we were I was schwab ringing and systems or something for a while, but the under the name Ocean Planet Energy, we actually became incorporated in 2013, so it's been 13 years, I guess. Um but uh we moved from a little office in downtown Bath, Maine, to uh our partner, uh Nigel Calder, who's a legend in the marine energy world. He uh he's been a sort of a guru to me and my team helping helping out over the years, and he bought an old Grange Hall right there in Woolwich by the old flea market, and it was just about to fall down, and he completely rebuilt the whole thing. And uh that's our offices now. We have a loading dock so we can ship lithium batteries in and out of there, and we stock a bunch of Victron stuff, and we we import uh from North America the Sol Band solar panels, which I started selling you know one of the way back when they first started doing flexible solar panels. And uh it's a competitive world now, but uh we've always been at the leading edge of of getting the best stuff, and we're more into selling quality energy storage and charging systems. Um not always trying to find the cheapest way to do it, but trying to use the stuff that lasts the longest and does rely the most reliable systems. You know, having done the Vonday Globe, you know, you always have to think about what can go wrong and how do you what kind of redundancy do you need? How do you prevent being stuck out there without an energy system working, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:12

You know, I'll tell you a story. I think you've probably heard this because you came to one of my speaking presentations um at Shipyard brewing in April of like 2024 after I got back from dismastering. But uh, you know, when I was getting ready for my race, obviously, you know, I'm buddies with Bruce Schwab, and Bruce Schwab has ocean planet energy energy and all this, and it was sort of like a no-brainer of especially being in Maine. It's like, all right, I'm gonna do my charging system. I need to connect with Bruce and like get really dialed in on the charging system.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:47

You had so much on your mind at the time dealing with so much but I knew you needed a good energy system.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:53

Yeah, and so I was actually this is a funny story. You're you're you're probably gonna like this. So um, you know, we had just gotten some bit of money, and and I and I knew I wanted to do my charging system, and I had my uh had my good friend Chris Passis, uh rest in peace. Chris was helping me out, and um so we were going through the boat, we came up with this great plan, uh, very heavily facilitated by yourself, and you got us a good sponsorship with Solbian so that we weren't, you know, they didn't give us the panels, but we got a great deal on the panels, and then you got us a deal through APS, American Performance Systems. American Power Systems or American Power Systems Alternator, yeah. So APS, they they did give us that alternator, and then we got batteries from you, and then you were very gracious with your time, and you did all the engineering and the design work for us and everything else. And so we got all the kit from you with your blueprints and your plans, and I had Chris passes going on it for like a month with with Devin, the electrician, as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:07

That's right, Devin.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:08

Getting everything installed. He's a great guy, and it was like basically I was throwing all of my money and my manpower into the charging system for like.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:17

And and and you had other things to worry about too. I remember you had so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:22

I had so much going on, and I remember like I was like a little bit irked at you, and I was like for dragging you into that situation. I was like, Bruce got us into this overly complex, super expensive energy system.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:37

That's just what it seems like until you get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:39

Blah blah blah. And I was like, not mad at you, but I was just like frustrated with the situation where I was just like, I got so much going on. Yeah, I knew you didn't. And I was like, we're we're like all in on this energy system, and then man, that thing worked so well. And it's a new for my whole race, I didn't want to worry about that. That Bruce Schwab energy system was amazing. And so you can't worry about that when you're out there. I mean, it's but it happens in so many boats.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:09

Even these high budget friends that worked. It's not gonna be a good one. It worked flawlessly. Sometimes they they cut cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:14

It worked flawlessly, and so with that old that you know, that beta engine was like 25 years old, and I had rebuilt it myself in a garage in North Carolina. So that beta was super old. I rebuilt it myself, which I was a bit proud of, thanks to beta USA for their support on the on the parts. And um put it back in the boat, and then we like totally took out that lithium battery that was home-built that was in there, which was like a time bomb.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:42

Oh, yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:43

That was pretty dangerous and pretty sketchy. But then we had the full Ocean Planet Energy package with the American Power Systems Alternator, the Solbian solar panels, lithium batteries, the Victron batteries, that whole cool CAN bus system and everything else. And it worked incredibly well. And so as I was racing around the world at the very start of the race, I was still in Europe in autumn, so it wasn't that sunny out. So I had to charge some. But as soon as I got out of Europe and I got south going down the Atlantic, it was sunny, days got longer, and I never had to charge at all because I had so much solar. We did put quite a bit on there, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:25

I'd forgotten about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:26

We put 1,290 watts of sodium power. Okay. So we had twelve hundred and ninety watts for comparison. My boat now has 660 of the same panel. So I actually I actually didn't have to run the generator at all for. And that was the crazy thing, was we budgeted for like X amount of power, and I thought, oh, I had never raced around the world. I thought, oh, it's gonna be cloudy in the south, et cetera, et cetera.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:50

Well, you probably still have to charge in the south, because right? And the solar probably didn't do that much there. No, never had to charge. Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:56

Like I shouldn't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't say never, but I should say infrequently that I have to charge. And so, you know, I would very strategically be like, all right, I need to I need to charge right now. I would fire the motor up and the thing would dump 200 amps into the batteries because it was a 240 amp alternator that UD tunes to like 180, but it still actually put in like 195. So I would fire it up and it would put in 195 amp hours into the lithiums or 195 amps into the lithiums, and after 45 minutes, I was like, all right, I'm good. I'd shut it back off, and then I would just strategically pop my hydrogenator down in the water whenever I was going 10 knots and it was like flat out. I'd put that in sometimes, but I barely even used that. And so the moral systems, dude. Yeah, we actually ended up putting a wind generator on the boat too in Spain last minute. So we like put a wind generator on the boat the last week before the start, I was like, I can afford it. I'm gonna put a wind generator on just for reliability and redundancy.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:07

Probably hard.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:07

In case I need it coming back up the Atlantic, right? I was like, I'll be up wind in case everything's broken. I'll be able to like unhook that wind generator and go, and it'll get me to the finish. And so, anyways, I pulled into Hobart, Tasmania, after 67 days at sea, halfway around the world. I made a pit stop basically to fix my sales and take on some more supplies. And so I went to the fuel dock. I took on four gallons of diesel. That was it, and I took on four gallons of diesel fuel, but I used one and a half gallons getting into the diesel.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

Right, just getting in and out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:41

So the moral of the story was that I went halfway around the world on two and a half gallons of fuel.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:46

Because you engineered such a bulletproof solid system. It was so efficient that I never needed the motor. And when I did, I needed it for like 45 minutes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:59

Yeah, well, we're really psyched about, you know, we were talking about uh I think I don't can't remember if we mentioned him or not, but Sebastian Simone, who got third in the last Monday Globe, had our systems in in that one. And uh we are he's building a new boat, and we're doing uh full-on lithionics American Power Systems uh you know uh energy system for him too for the next one of the new boats. So we're really psyched about that for the next Von Day. We'll really be watching him.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:25

So you've got um Sebastian Simone who shout out to him, great, great sailor. I also love his uh He's a biker too, like us. Well he's a surfer. Oh, he's a surfer too. So you'll see like after after a period of doing a bunch of sailing, he'll go like he'll go hang out in like endo for a month, and you see photos of him getting barreled and stuff. Um so so you've got you've got him using your stuff, but uh and and I'm and I'm sure everything's working very well, but like most of our market's cruising boats. Uh do any of the other programs like how how did how does his system differ from some of the other systems on the French emokas? Like, what are they doing a bit different than the Ocean Planet Energy Client?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:08

I don't know. I would like to uh probably should beat the bushes a little bit more on the other French programs to see who we could get involved with. But uh I think he kind of feels like he's got a little edge on on the other competitors because he's probably getting really tailored, really just custom, you know. Well we researched all the options and the battery options. I mean, the lithionics ones we're using are they're absolutely bomb-proof. There's there's just the most rugged ones you can possibly have. We got a dual BMS system for extra redundancy. And he went with a uh this is where we're doing on the high-end cruising boats now, too, 51 volts. Like you were talking about 200 amps on a 12-volt system being a lot of power, and it is, but we now he has dual 170 amp, 48 volts, and each one of those is the equivalent of a 500 amp 12 volt. So he's basically able to charge at the equivalent of you charging at a thousand amps. Five times as much power. So when he starts his engine, I mean oh, and the fuel that they're trying to make the Vonde greener, right? Yeah, and use less fuel, and there's a there's a limit out how much fuel they can bring. I was trying to remember what it was when we were talking earlier. I think it's like it's only like 60 liters or something. It's not very much because they because of these flying boats now and the fact that hydrogen is a drag, they're hydrogen everyone used to have them, right? And now even if they bring them, they try not to use them. Um so they they want to charge with their engine, but uh now they're limited on fuel. So I think they're all gonna we in the math we did, everyone's gonna have a hard time getting to the end with the fuel that they're allowed to bring. So that's one reason why he went to 51 volts and said twelve twenty-four is more efficient than twelve, fifty-one's that much more efficient than twenty-four. Um so that he's got the best chance of having extra fuel left at the end, but you know, doesn't want to bring any more than necessary, but making sure he doesn't get to run out of energy, because that's that's something actually it's gonna be real interesting to watch. The next Von Day, that's something that could very likely happen on a number of boats. They might run out of fuel. So interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:27

But I mean they still have so much solar on the boat.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:30

Yep, they do have a lot of solar. That that that definitely helps and they're pushing.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:33

You know, I wonder if now that the boats like the hydrogenerators are really cool, but once the boat physically gets out of the water, that creates a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:39

They're foiling so much better now that hydrogen doesn't work very well.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:44

You know, uh Watt and C is building a wind generator now for the big trimarts. I wonder if that's gonna become like something.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:53

We used to be a just a dealer distributor for Watt and C, and we've actually started talking to them again about it. Um but uh we can only have so many so many things to handle, you know, we've got a limited bandwidth, but um it's tempting to carry them again. They're a great product, and and uh what's cool is that in the Vondae before the last one, Yannick Pestaban, who's the Watt and Sea guy, he wound up winning because he got a credit for uh for that some of the credit for the rescue time. It was so close in the the Vondae four years before the last one. And so that is the Watt and Sea guy. He's the guy, Yannick Pestaban is the guy that started Watt and Sea. And uh so he's one of the sailors. So it's cool to support, you know, work with the business.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:34

We actually uh we actually hung out with them and their entire team at a little yacht club in South uh when was that? Was it was it was it South South Brooklyn or when they did the trans at CIC in 2024. Oh, they're all right when I got back. So I was uh I was doing some stuff with I was driving like support ribs. I was going out to the finish line of the race and I was meeting them and I was escorting them to the docks either in like Brooklyn or South Brooklyn. Right? South Brooklyn was like another planet. There was this marina, which I'm not gonna get in trouble for saying this. There was this marina that was like completely empty. It was called like Moonbeam. I've never heard of it. It was completely empty, and it had a bunch of huge slips with plenty of depth for emokas. The whole thing was empty, and there were like Russian guys in purple tracksuits. Like, so you can do the math. There was some kind of like weird mob run marina. Oh, weird. In like South Brooklyn, and that's where we were putting a lot of the emokas. Some were going to 115 marina in Brooklyn, some were going to this like not gonna say it's mob run, but this is very this very unique marina called Moonbeam. And others were going to Newport.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:01

Right, right, right. Yeah, I want to get down there when that when those boats are in town and super cool boats, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:08

The boats have gotten so extreme now. And just when you see like like we were saying earlier with Formula One and the parallels between that, just when you see the level of professionalism, the fleet has changed from certainly I saw it in 2012, but to see it a dozen years later in 2024, and I mean from where from when you were there in 2004, it's just changed so significantly. And so when you go there and you look at the boats on the dock, it really is like being at like an F1 race. Yeah, it is the technology of the parking lot of the absolutely top-tier global sport.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:41

Which is cool to see. I mean, it's it's they're awesome machines. They're awesome machines, and boats have gotten a lot of things. It's like America's Cup on the Ocean, you know. Yeah, yeah, they're incredible machines. I mean, when I think back when I was, you know, just just about soil my foul weather gear to try and you know hold 18 knots for six hours, and these guys are you know close to sitting on 30 knots.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:02

Well, like you said, so much faster. Twenty years later, you now have fixed keel fiberglass 40 footers going quicker. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:12

Class 40s are now quicker than emokas from your from my era. Yeah, both did so much. Which is insane to think about.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:21

What was Seb's Seb Sebastian Simone, like Seb Sim Simone? He before he broke his foil in the last Von Day, he said a new 24 hour speed record. I'm trying to remember what it was, but it was over 600 miles, like 630 miles.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:35

Oh, they're way they're way over 600. And in that race, it was uh a few of them were going back and forth on one weather system setting the setting the record, but it was up to like 650 or something because Comanche did like 619. And then although I think uh I'd have to look again. I think the solo record might be still in the fives.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:55

I think the No, I think he'd be like to the sixes, yeah. I mean it's absolutely incredible how how quick the new boats are the ride when you watch the videos now, the feeds of you know they're they're wearing helmets, you know, they're hanging on. It's you don't you can't go that fast. Like go that fast in a powerboat, right? You know, people can damage your kidneys, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:22

It's the these the shock loading on these machines going at that speed in the ocean is just well it was really interesting when I was uh when I was doing that little project I was just telling you about where I was working with the emoka class just for a week or two in New York two two years ago, uh my my boss was Jan Ellias. Oh wow, he's one of the guys. Yeah, Jan Elliott was like my boss for ten days. It was great and uh super cool dude. But we'd be talking at breakfast and stuff, and the crazy thing was that he said that basically um the crazy the craziest thing was just the noise. The noise that it was just so loud inside the boat because of the foiling, and that like that was the interesting thing talking to him was he was like, Oh, the noise is just insane, and yeah, you gotta wear helmets, and there's just constant where you're ear protection and yeah, ear protection and helmets and everything else, and it's just it's it's become so brutal. And what was really interesting was that I was hearing from them how they were at this crossroads that was sort of reminiscent of like open-wheel race cars back in the 90s and and motorcycles at certain points in time, and like some guys wanted to keep on going faster and faster and faster, and some people were like yo, these things have actually gotten too fast, getting too dangerous. We actually have to slow them down some, and there's now this very contentious debate, this very heated, passionate debate about some people like Jeremy Bayou. So apparently, Jeremy Bayou, the Chirral skipper, was always like, We must always go faster, like we must go faster. And other people were like, dude, someone's gonna die. Like, this is just they've gotten too crazy too fast. Because the big thing was about adding the T-foils to the rudders. If they add the T-foils to the rudder, they get way faster.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:14

But yeah, it gets too much.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:15

Guillaume Verdier says they can go six knots faster around the clock if you just add a T-foil. So you're looking at 140 miles, now you're looking at 800 mile days almost. Right. Let's call it conservatively 750 mile days. So you're doing 750 miles in a day on a 60-foot monohold.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:31

Because expensive as these programs are, like we were talking about earlier. If you go to T foils, that just adds a whole pile more.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:39

Well, one guy did it, Louis Louis Burton did it, he put some on just as a test. Louis Burton, the uh Bureau Valley guy, the which is like the Office Max of France.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:50

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:51

I s I saw them do a test, they put T foils on the boat and they went out sailing and it looks sick. Yeah, it was foiling level and steady, just going 30 knots, just just eating up miles, just level and steady.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:04

I can just watch those videos, those drone footage videos of those things singing along, especially the the stuff that Militia did in the last uh ocean race. They got some of the best selling footage. I could watch that stuff just I'm just transfixed at those boats you know going on ocean waves at over 30 knots, just zipping along. Incredible machines. It's incredible stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:27

As a as a drone enthusiast and drone pilot myself, whenever I see those videos of the Yamocha going 30 knots, I always just think about the guy that having to fly the drone and catch the drone. I'm like, yeah, that's so wild. Like as a couple of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:43

That guy was a hero. He did a great job. I mean, they they like broke the mold on uh raised the game for the sailing footage stuff. I mean, it's it's incredible stuff. And I think that we're talking about how hard it is to get sponsorship and stuff, but that footage from the ocean of these things sailing, uh I mean it's captivating to me. I'm not I can't be the only one, you know, that loves to follow this stuff. And we'll see what happens. But hopefully, hopefully you can get the support that you have earned like trying to go around the world already and get that for the next go-round.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:20

Well, I gotta I gotta figure out a way to to get this class 40 funded and do the GSC. That's really all I'm concerned about. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:27

Yeah. So um but and hey, like we'll do what we can do to help too from Ocean Planet Energy. So we'll do do we can't.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:37

All right, we got it on the record. Bruce Schwab Ocean Planet Energy. They're gonna write a big fat check and be the title sponsor.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:42

Oh, we can't do that, but we can we can make it cheaper for that title sponsor by covering some of the stuff they would otherwise have to buy.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:48

No, um it would be it would be really great, actually. Um, you know, I'm I'm going out of town in a couple of days, but uh yeah, we have all winter. The race is next year, but we should we should definitely go through my charging system with a bit of a fine tooth comb. Yep. Because I I I don't I don't even have lithium batteries yet. And and I'm definitely gonna go to lithium batteries before the race. Yep. Uh but um definitely I'll I'll take you up on that, and we definitely want to go through my charging system for sure. Yep. And make it the the the good news is is uh again again. Um shout out to to Dave Linger, the old owner of my boat and man yacht center and ocean planet energy. Um those guys set it up great last time. I mean, so it's it's really a pretty well set up boat, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:34

Well with Dave, we want to see you pull it off.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:37

I wanna I want to add more solar for sure. Right on. Again, with this boat having like some I think it was like 660 and shipyard brewing. You can't have too much solar.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:47

It's very light, doesn't it doesn't add much weight?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:49

It's very light, no drag, there's no downside to adding more solar. I just want to add more solar and uh lithium batteries because the lithium batteries are gonna be the biggest thing I can do to save weight. Yeah, because I'm not gonna go with composite rigging, I'm gonna stay with steel rigging, rod rigging. Um, but yeah, saving lithium batteries. I had run the numbers last year, it's gonna save like 200 pounds, which is super significant when you're racing around.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:15

And they'll allow you to carry less fuel because you'll be able to charge faster and for less time charging and use less fuel, which is more weight saved. So it all works out. Most of our market is cruising boats because most most racing boats don't have that high of loads, you know. But you know, the Von Day Glove boats and the they are limited on fuel, so fuel efficiency is a big part of it. So that's you know, our tech the same tech is applicable to them, that's applicable to to uh the cruising boats that we we set up. Because people want to have induction cooking and they want to have air conditioning, they have all this stuff on their boat, but you know, you can't just run a generator all the time to do that. It's not very much fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:58

Yeah. Yeah. And so you're back here in Maine right now, but you have been on the West Coast quite a bit. So I know that uh I'm leaving town soon and and so are you as well. Um when do you head back to Washington? I think around the fourth.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:14

Uh yep, we fly on the fourth. And uh going back there with Rosalie, my partner, and her parents. They're visiting other family out there. Um but uh if for anyone listeners that don't know, I've been restoring that boat improbable out there for for years now. And uh it's it's coming together. I hope to launch next year. Um, but it's a classical boat that I'd like to do. Next summer or next next summer, 20, yeah, yeah, 2027 sometime. And uh but it's coming out beautiful. It's gonna be a work of art in addition to being a high performance sailboat. Um but uh it'll be pretty. I want to have a boat, an old wooden boat that can surf downwind and take a hot shower on, too. So nice combination.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:59

So yeah, we'll we'll be talking more about uh like a pack up with trans cup like 2032 or something, man. Just let me know. Hopefully sooner. 2030.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:09

Yeah. Well, you get the round-the-world race out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:12

I got yeah, I got my plate full right now. Yeah. Um doing pack cup here in a week or ten days, though, so I'm actually pretty excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:19

It'll be fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:20

Yeah, we should have a should be a fun ride.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:22

Like we were talking about earlier, getting back to some of those West Coast routes adventures.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:29

Yeah. And um, and what else you got going on? I know you've been doing a ton of cycling. We actually just went on a on a really killer mountain bike ride with you and and and your partner Rosalie and your buddy Eric. I know that you've been a lot of people maybe don't know, but I know a a lot do that you're you're an avid cyclist.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:49

So since finishing the Vonday Globe, like you don't I've gotten into cyclocross racing, which is pretty kind of fun. It's like a cross between mountain biking and road biking, where you uh ride on grassy fields and up steep hills and run up hills and jump over barriers and jump back on your bike. It's a nutty nutty sport, but you could Google cyclocross racing and see how wacko it is. But uh um I race in master stuff because I'm you know I'm a lot older than I used to be. But um I got top ten at Nashals a couple years ago and sixty five plus, and I was that was good fun for me. Yeah, a bunch of old guys sliding around the mud having fun. So that was one of my goals to get top ten.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:30

Wait, you're sixty five plus? How old are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:32

Oh, I'm 66 now.

unknown 1:40:33

Jeez.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:34

A couple years ago. But uh so yeah, in three years my racing age will be 70, and I'll get to uh be a baby vet in the next category. Every five years, all those old guys make a big come back, start training again. Or training more.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:48

Yeah to try and I'm I'm eyeing up like the the 50th birthday. I want to try to get fit for my 50th and then and then go start racing bikes together or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:58

Oh yeah. Those guys are kids.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:00

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:01

Young kids. Yeah. But it's great fun. It's uh we have a saying uh cyclocross is uh it's not about winning, it's about beating your friends. And uh another saying is uh cyclocross racing isn't about life, isn't life and death, it's more important than either one.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:21

Well, awesome, Bruce.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:22

Uh we should do some more mountain biking. It's great fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:25

Dude, the mountain biking is funny. I would love to go ride again. Uh that was that was a great ride. And I was telling my my partner when I got back, I was like, you know, I'm a little bit rusty. I haven't been riding as much as you guys, so it was it was fun because you guys were a little bit quicker than me. So that was pushing me a little bit out of my comfort zone just to really rail the corners harder. And and um, but yeah, it was really fun, man. That was fun. That was a great ride. Uh a lot of a lot of good mountain biking in Maine.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:56

So yes, my I was just thinking about that. Maine is being inside from all being a sailing hotbed, the mountain biking scene has grown like crazy. The number of trails, parks, and stuff they're out there to ride at has increased like crazy in the last few years. So it's uh it's great fun. And a lot of sailors are mountain bikers too. I run into more and more people I know out mountain biking. And I ride out west a lot too when I'm out there when I'm not working on the boat. Just good a good escape.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:23

Riding in the woods is kind of like solo sailing in a way, when you're out by yourself in the early morning, no one's out there.

unknown 1:42:29

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:29

Paying out on the trails.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:31

I've been uh I've been escaping to the woods to to go fast and find peace since I was a kid. So I definitely uh I think you are actually you and I we email back and forth and you had said something. You were like a modern full suspension mountain bike is one of the most amazing creations of man or something, but you we were having like a random.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:53

It's much more affordable than an open Mocha 60, but uh, but still very, very cool tech, you know. Oh, it's incredibly cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:59

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Well, Bruce, um, yeah, thanks again. I'm I'm I'm glad that we were able to get together. I know we've been talking about it for a few months. So uh and and we took a break from the podcast here as spring and summer hit.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:14

So I'm honored to do it. We've got the great packets out there. I've been f I've become a fan of your I've been following your interviews with some great sailors and murphone, and it's it's good stuff. So I'm glad I'm honored to get on the get on the list.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:28

Glad to get another uh another Cape Horn veteran and Vondig Lobe veteran on the on the podcast. So thank you so much for joining us and uh yeah, best of luck with improbable, and we can't wait to see her on the water. And uh I certainly hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Bruce Schwab. Uh talking with Bruce is always exciting and interesting and entertaining and fun. Um so it was really great to catch up with Bruce and uh great to reconnect with him and also to uh check out my class 40 Kaloa Mayole and make some plans on our charging system, but also to do some some really fun bicycle riding and mountain biking. Bruce and I are both uh lifelong cyclists, so it's it's always been fun to share that bond um and onto my own boat and my own campaign. Uh we haven't updated this podcast here in quite some time, so needless to say, Kahlomeoli is in the water. Uh so kiloa's in the water. We put the boat in the water in uh, I guess it was maybe sometime in May. We put the keel back on probably in April. I was out of town on a delivery, and then uh when the keel went back on, and then I got back and did a whole new bottom job with uh Axo Nobel and Seahawk Paints. So big shout out to them, big thank you to them for supporting the program with some bottom paint. Uh, got the fresh bottom on there, did some other maintenance. Uh I installed a new radar as the rig went up, uh, put a new chart plotter in over the winter, uh, did some other various maintenance. We had all of our furlers maintained by Wishard and Faknor. I rebuilt my mainsail cars with Ron Stan. We did quite a lot of running rigging work with Marlow ropes and you know, a number of other small technical jobs on the boat, as well as added a new laptop and tablet uh, courtesy of G-Tac Computers, G-E-T-A-C. Uh, huge, huge shout out to them. So I've had a number of sponsors that have come on board and really helped out the campaign. Um, and we have the boat in the water. Uh, everything is running well. I had a couple of weeks where I was having some autopilot problems and I was having issues with my speed sensor, which was throwing the true wind angle calibration haywire. And the part that's really unfortunate and really um perplexing is that even with my speed sensor malfunctioning, I was able, I was not able to put it on speed over ground using GPS data as a speed reference. And you should be able to do that. So the system is not working as it's supposed to, um, which is something that we definitely want to rectify, and at least we know it's doing this now. But but we did get the speed sensor working again. So at least now we have proper instruments, proper autopilot, everything's working, but still not working quite as it should. So we we need to figure that out. Uh, needless to say, I really hope to do new electronics and new sales and new other stuff over the winter before the global solo challenge. But the boat is up and running. Uh, I've done a number of sailing, uh, number of days of sailing on it, put some decals on it, done some branding work on the boat, done some more maintenance on the boat. I just went out this week and did a solo 24-hour training sale. Um, I'm preparing for my qualifier. I planned on knocking out my qualifier about right now, if not a bit earlier, but I ended up putting that on delay because I'm leaving town right now to go race to Hawaii in the Pacific Cup, which is uh which is a work trip. So something I gotta do so I can it's a great opportunity and I'm really looking forward to it, but something I gotta squeeze in so I can uh you know afford the rest of my summer to go do a lot of sailing. Um and when I get back from Pack Cup, pretty much we're right into it with Kahloa Maoli. That's it is on to Camden or excuse me, Rockland for the main boats, Homes and Harbor show in Rockland. That's gonna be August 7th, 8th, 9th. Uh, and then a week later, we're gonna have the boat in Newport, gonna sail the boat to Newport, like August 14th, 15th, and that's gonna be for the Ida Lewis race. And then uh with the Ida Lewis race, we are then going to I might do my qualifier right then, but then after that, Connecticut for the vineyard race, and then after the vineyard race is the Newport Boat Show in September as well. I might do my qualifier again after the Newport boat show. That might be my window where I do it. And then we're down to Annapolis for the October, uh, Annapolis sailboat show. So quite a busy August, September, October for Kahlameoli, doing another little East Coast tour down to Annapolis and back for the boat shows, promotional tour, trying to connect with sponsors, but also speaking engagements, getting people out on the boat, just trying to build energy around the campaign and and put together the necessary support and funding and sponsorship that we need because we're nowhere near where we need to be, uh, to be brutally honest with you. So um please do reach out Ronnie Simpson Racing at gmail.com or CapeHorn Deport at gmail.com. Um, but reach out to me and let me know if uh if something might fit into where we can pop into Connecticut or New York or somewhere along the way and do some speaking gigs or uh or do some campaign stops and just get to know some people and build community. So uh if you are listening to this, feel free to reach out and uh there there could be a good chance that we can get involved and and uh create an event somewhere. Um as well as my own campaign. As I mentioned, I've been doing a fair amount of sailing out on the West Coast with uh the Schumacher 39 recidivists, uh gentleman named Rob Rice, great dude. Uh I've ended up doing some sailing with him this summer, really, really stoked to be helping him out. Uh, long story short, it's uh quite a new team. First time race boat owner, first time crossing the ocean, first time pack cup team uh for for the owner. He's new at ocean racing, and I am helping getting helping to get him going. But we've got great, he's a great sailor. We got a great boat, we've got a bunch of new sales from Will Paxton and Quantum Sales San Francisco, and now we've actually put together a really good crew where four of us have uh a lot of Trans Pack and Pack Cup experience. So we've actually now got a really experienced Hawaii crew with a lot of crossings between us. Uh, we got a really capable uh other couple of sailors with uh the owner and our our last crew member John there, and um we we have a really good team, and so it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm doing a lot of weather routing right now and figuring out which way we're gonna go. And uh yeah, getting ready to fly out there tonight from Portland to Boston to San Francisco, um, and then go race to Hawaii. So we're gonna have another gap of a couple of weeks. I'm gonna try to get this episode out tonight, uh, late night on the 4th of July. So again, have a great summer. My apologies for the uh for the long gap, but hopefully we're gonna sporadically put out some more episodes here during the summer. And um, I'm sure we'll do more with with my class 40 tour going on. I'm sure we'll link up with some people and probably do some cool podcasts right from the boat. I'll just bring my microphones and stuff. So um thank you guys again for all of your support. Thank you to everyone who did reach out over the last couple of months and say, hey man, when's when's the podcast making a new episode? Uh that really helped get me back on track and um thanks for keeping me going. And I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Again, any questions, comments, feedbacks, criticisms, concerns, hate mail, please do send it over to CapeHornToPort at gmail.com. Also, feel free just to reach out. My general inquiries are Ronnie Simpson Racing at gmail.com. Please do check out uh Instagram, social media, or YouTube or um my website, Ronnie SimpsonRacing.com or Ronnie Simpson Racing on various uh platforms. So thank you guys again. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you to Bruce Schwab. Uh follow us in the Pack Cup on the Schumacher39 Recidivists, and we will uh put out another episode soon. Uh happy 4th of July, happy 250th birthday to America, and I hope you guys are getting out on the water and having a great summer and having a lot of fun. A lot.