Bosunator Challenge - Recap

(2 video links at the end of this post)

"Scout" beating upwind on the last 14 mile leg of the trip

The Bosunator Challenge is in the history books. About 7 other boats took it upon themselves to join me and Scout and try the challenge.  What I intended to do was to try the first, engine-less sail of Scout that really had some distance, and also required multiple points of sail and possibly Paddling or Yulohing. I got exactly what I was looking for. :-)

The forecast was for winds to come out of the north, starting in around 8am and to blow all day and into the evening. The strongest breezes, as usual, were forecast for the late afternoon hours, then gradually diminishing through the evening. The forecast ended up being pretty close but not exact. Also, as usual.

   


The route was to sail most of the usable length of Lake Havasu. We would start at a local resort dock that is easy to sail in/out of, push off  and sail to the South end of the lake, and then back. Sometime during the trip, either the beginning or end, it was required to circumnavigate "The Island" which included traversing the channel under the London Bridge.  The skipper could make the call at what point in the trip to do this, but this task had to be completed before The Challenge was to be called complete. Some chose to do it right off the bat, others saved that aspect of the sail for the tail end of the journey.

The boat was allowed to be propelled by wind or any human powered means. That's it. Doing so would earn you a green Bosun Pawprint decal....indicating that you completed the challenge "green".

To make the journey more palatable we decided that should the need arise, for anchoring, docking, or safety sake..that a motor could be used for those purposes...so long as when the vessel resumed navigation down the course....the forward progress was resumed from the point where the initial application of motor power began.  In other words....no forward progress down the course was allowed under power. Following this rule, if the course was completed...and motor used.... a Black Bosun Pawprint decal would be awarded, indicating completion of the Challenge, although with the use of some external power.

For those that started the Challenge but did not finish, a Blue Bosun Pawprint decal would be awarded to indicate...that "hey!  They got our there and gave it a shot! " and joined on the adventure. And after all...getting out there is what its all about. There is no shame in not making it, especially it turns out with the size of some of the boats that decided to participate.

"Scout's" Trip

I elected to take advantage of the morning calm and to immediately paddle north through the channel, under the London Bridge and out into the North Basin of the lake. By the time I would arrive the forecast said I would have a North wind. Exiting the channel puts you at about the Northern most point of the course, So I figured , "Heck yeah, I'll paddle through during the calm....and then immediately exit into the North basin and be on a reach and downwind run for about 17 miles before having to turn to come back upwind.




 Well.... it kind of worked out that way...except the forecast was off by about two or three hours. I paddled the channel,

exited into the North Basin....and just kept paddling. No wind. Ended up paddling all the way around the island and a bit further South before a great North breeze filled in from behind. All in all I probably paddled 4-5 miles.

The boats that had started Southbound immediately were still in view, almost becalmed ahead of me about 5 miles. The breeze was perfect. Within minutes I was making a steady 5+ knots on a deep reach reeling them in. They had no chance as I was on the leading edge of the breeze they needed...and by the time the breeze reached them, I was only a half mile behind. Off we went.

Being that I was chasing a sloop, dead downwind was not their strong point as it was blanketing their jib. Meanwhile Scout's barndoor lugsail was out 90 degrees and catching as much wind as possible. I was able to crawl up to Doug and Katie's 25 Seaward....but then they started reaching and jibing to up their VMG...a good move on their part. We jousted back and forth for hours. Sometimes I could pass them, then they would catch and pass me. I was able to take full advantage of cutting close corners around beds in the lake not worried about shallow water. This went on for over 10 miles all the way to the turn mark at the South end. Imagine my delight that my 13'10" micro was footing a 25' er!  Max speed I saw was 5.6knots with an apparent windspeed downwind of 15.

Of course when we rounded the mark and headed back upwind (14 miles) that was a different story.

Although Scout seemed to be able to point with the big boat, there was a large discrepancy in speed. She walked away from us as you would expect. This was exacerbated when the apparent wind exceeded 25mph for about an hour. This built a pretty good wind chop in the larger basins we were sailing through. Although Scout had no problem staying on her feet and making headway....the constant wave bashing slowed us down to about 2 knots when pointing. Doug and Katie disappeared. LOL

After an hour or so the winds backed off a bit. it was getting into evening now. The sailing was superb. The water flattened out and our speeds again rose to about 3.5 knots hard on the wind. The sun set. Thing started getting dark, and then ...a beautiful full moon rose. It was incredibly bright and lit up everything. The shoreline was 100% visible as were the lee side telltales through the sail material!!!...just like in daytime!!!....it was that bright. Temps were perfect. My friend Jan caught up with me in his Balboa 20. He dropped his headsail to slow his speed and we sailed together through a perfect evening.

A radio call late that evening from Doug and Katie indicated that they were 3-4 miles ahead and in decreasing winds. Sure enough, an hour later when we arrived in the same location..the breeze started dropping. It continually slowed until we were ghosting along around midnight. At this point we were near Pilot Rock...probably 4-5 miles from the end. The wind died completely.

I broke out the paddle and yuloh and started paddling a beeline for the finish dock at the resort at about 1am. Jan had a set of long sweeps on his boat and did the same thing. We paddled together for about 2 hours. As we entered the last little bay, Thompson Bay, a little zephyr arose and we gleefully sailed the last quarter mile to the finish, arriving at 3am.

I had a fantastic time. I was beat dog tired....and actually pretty sore. I learned a lot about the boat...and myself and I am looking forward to the next long distance challenge. I plan on a few mods here an there based on what I experienced...and I will continue to work on my own conditioning. The paddling was tiresome for sure and I only paddled 9-10 miles. Of course, the Paradox is not the ideal paddle boat at nearly 1500lbs. LOL  I did jettison the water ballast for the last paddle episode but I was so tired I don't really know how much difference it made.

Thanks to Kiko Oliver and Nate Adler who made these two AWESOME videos and Jan Maslikowski for the photos of Scout.

Nate and Fred's video from "Club Fred"

Orange Crush's Bosunator Challenge Video

 I took a video and still camera , and multiple batteries for both planning on documenting the whole trip. Left the sd cards sitting on the counter at home.  UGH! 

It was a great time sailing with great friends. Learned a lot as always.  Plan to use some of what I learned to make the next time even better. Still lovin' the Paradox!