Well Friends, what a ride it’s been so far!!

It’s now been a bit more than week since the end of the Atlantic Cup and I’m back home catching up on everyday life.  Bodacious Dream sits waiting in Jamestown for me to return in a week or so to begin preparing her for our trans-Atlantic crossing as we head over to France to compete in two upcoming races.

What a great time in Newport. The racing was very competitive and as you saw, we had respectable finishes in the inshore racing that kept us in second place overall. We learned a lot about the boat and know we have a lot more to learn about handling these Class 40 boats in inshore races. What’s so interesting is that given the different designs and ages, that there are so many different ways to sail these boats and that any boat on any given day can win a race. It’s obvious that certain boats seem to consistently creep into the top five, but all the boats seem to be of comparable speeds. This makes for some really exciting sailing and great camaraderie after the events.

Bodacious Dream spent three days at the Newport Shipyard among the other boats just relaxing and putting things back in place. Many of the boats headed up to Portland, Maine on their way to Quebec City for the start of the Transat Quebec/St. Malo race which goes off in the middle of July. You can follow our friends in that race at http://www.transatquebecstmalo.com/. When I look at the list of things I want to do before heading to France, it doesn’t appear as though we’d have the time to make the race so we will join our friends in France a bit later in August. Good luck to everyone in that race, and you’ll find Bodacious Dream’s sister ship (same boat) Roaring Forty sailed by Michel Kleinjans in the mix as well.

Here’s what’s coming up for us in Europe.

The first race we will do is over the first weekend in September and is called the Normandy Channel Race. It begins and ends in Caen, France and takes a course across the English Channel and out to Fastnet Rock and back, a distance of 1000 miles. This is a big event in France and no doubt will bring out the best sailors once again.

Late in September and early October, we will be preparing for the Class 40 World Championships in La Rochelle. This will be a series of course races over a weekend and the winner will be the Class 40 Champion.

In the meantime, I will be getting Bodacious Dream ready for her trip across the Atlantic by doing some regular maintenance procedures, checking out the mast, keel structure and making sure all the equipment is working properly.  We’ll also be working on building some water diverting wings for the cockpit, these are very important in rough and fast sailing in order to keep the crew more comfortable from the onrush of water and wind over long periods of time.  We’ve got some new graphics coming up to feature our other sponsors and give us a cooler look…….as if Bodacious Dream isn’t cool enough already!

So, stay tuned.  More to come soon.  Sorry this update is so late in getting out…..I understand from a few of you that you miss regular information. I’ll work on doing better in the coming months.

Dave <rearickd@aol.com>