* Glen Gustaffson is sailing his J/46
this year in the Caribbean 1500. He says, "There are two J/46's and I
believe one J/44 in the event, which has a record turnout this year. We
are pumped up and looking for a fast ride to the Islands. I'll see if I
can get a story together on the J's in the event, and send it on after
we reach Tortola. There is live tracking on the website- http://www.carib1500.com.
Here's the latest update from Glenn- "Three J/Boats participated in the
Caribbean 1500 this year. Our boat, WINDARA, a J/46 owned by Glenn
& Elsa Gustafson of Chicago, SKITTERY GUSSETT a J/46 owned by Chris
Holm of Wayzata, MN and ZAFU a modified J/44 owned by Mike Scott of
Kingston, Ontario, Canada.The Caribbean 1500 is a "rally" that runs from Hampton, VA to Tortola, BVI. This year was the 21st running of the event. 66 boats participated this year, 27 in the "rally class" which means they were being timed, and 39 in the cruise group, which means they were not being timed. Being a rally, you are allowed to run your engine in gear in the light stuff, with your engine hours added to your time.
After a weather delay for Hurricane Tomas to decide where it wanted to go, we finally left Hampton on November 8th. Weather was dominated by a large offshore atlantic low to that was slowly moving in a southwest direction toward Bermuda. As a result, we had strong winds from 20 to 35 during the first 5 days of the event, as we raced south trying to stay ahead of the really big swells further north. The J/46 was really in her element, surfing down the 10' to 15' swells at speeds up to 14 knots at times, using a poled out 100% jib and full main or single reefed main when it piped up over 28 to 30 knots. Never saw any nasty weather, just a few rain squalls with +5 knots of wind and some rain.
6 days of downwind sailing was a blast. We averaged 220 miles a day for the first 5 days, with our largest day being 239 NM. The wind lightened up to less than 10 knots the last 2 days so we flew the Asymmetrical and heated up a little from rhumb line to keep the speed up.
We ended up second in Class 2, 4 hours behind a Leopard 46 cat, and with the 6th fastest elapsed time in the fleet. Avg speed was 8.4 knots and averaged over 200 nm per day for the entire trip.
After a day to unwind, we took the crew to the Baths and Virgin Gorda before they headed back home. All in all, we had a terrific time. Plan to spend the winter in the Caribbean, and will head south from the Virgins in another week or two. Best Regards, Glenn"
