Ahh the bareaways.....a stressful time in a skiff, especially once you've made it and your crew leave you out on the wing by yourself for a few seconds while hoisting.

A very cool perspective on how big the wing sail is on BMW Oracle. Of course the oracle boat doesn't go 300 knots or so like airplanes hence the difference in size of the wings, but still very impressive.

Absolutely amazing!!! The most advanced design in sailing history to date. It's in the same advancment category as the trapeze, assymetrical kite, full batten sails, and hydrofoils. It's 80% bigger than a 747 airplane wing!

Did the Great Pumpkin Pursuit race this last sunday. There were 200 boats racing. the rules are that the slowest boats start and than the fastest boats. Among the fastest were Adrenaline and Tuki. The course is you have to round angel island and Alcatraz. You can go either way, but on sunday there was absolutely no wind in between Tiburon and Angel so pretty much everyone went around Alcatraz first. There were a few boats that for some reason went the wrong way and never even came close to finishing. The coolest part of the race was coming downwind through Racoon Straits and the wind shutting off and having pretty close to 200 boats battling through a narrow channel.

Just found these shots on sailingscuttlebutt.com....I guess this happens when your mid guy decides to turn a 3 person boat into a 2 person boat without telling anyone. His trap line broke and fell off and this is what happened. I was wondering what it looked like outside of the boat. Its nice to see i'm improving my skydiving skills. As opposed to the flying fetus shot that is on the 2010 Dr.Crash calendar that just came out. You can also see coopers shadow on the jib!!!

Some more shots from the regatta

I know I promised a recap of the weeks event, but honestly after recovering and coaching my kids today it will have to wait until tomorrow, but here is the money shot preceding yesterdays blog photo. Who said 18's only leave the water downwind. Out of the top seven boats to hit this freighter wake we were the only ones that caught complete air and we came out clean.

Well before I get into the final day of racing, I'll leave this image to your imagination.

Today was a rough day of sailing. We just couldn't get into the groove. Our pace was completely off today and a breakdown during the 2nd race hasn't helped things much.

We know what we need to do..We just need to take a moment, step back and make it happen. Thats the tricky part in sailing. So many things need to go your way to make it a good day. Not everything needs to go your way, just a few things. We are focused for tomorrows races and I hope that we will get back on top of our sailing. We have 4 races to go in the event and each one counts to move us up in the placings.

heres a shot from when things were going well and we were moving into the hunt.

We had a good day for the most part...our upwind speed is picking up and our downwind smarts are keeping us in the hunt. We placed 6th the first race and the second race rounded the top mark in 4th but our kite halyard had a couple of things to say about that. It dropped 3 times and the last time the whole kite went under the boat. We had to flip to clean it up and the kite in the process ripped on the rudder. We didn't want to risk a massive rip so we decided to get a DNF for that race. We still are in 8th but a little further away from 6th place than we want at the moment. Plenty of racing and gnarly conditions to come so I'm confident we will be moving up.

The first day of the event went well. We are 2nd american team and 8th overall. Not to bad for the first day of the event and the competition. I know when we find our upwind speed tomorrow we can move up a place or two.

Heres a shot of Cooper getting the boat ready for todays racing and the boats put away at the end of the day ready for some more tomorrow.

The scene in the boat park was awesome today.....The forecast for the week is 18-20+ with a decent ebb tide. Should make for some spectacular airborne rides downwind. I know that at some point this week we will all be ejected off the boat.

Todays practice run was crazy...big waves and puffy. Which is heck-tic enough especially when hauling through a bunch of folk boats and IC's.

Be sure to check out our track on www.findmespot.com. It's should be under my name: danbrandt or Ronstan International event

ARE YOU READY TO REGATTA!!!!!!!!!!! It's only a few days until our big event....we have been training and double checking everything on our boat in hopes that everything holds together. The event starts Monday and goes until Friday. We will be posting everyday after racing and be sure to watch us on our spot satellite tracking site while we race.

The team has been training some and we got some cool pics of us. We've been working on maneuvers and feeling pretty good about them. I did the other day pretty much fall off the back of the boat after a tack. I wasn't on my toes and the excelleration after the tack sent me back. The rudder gantry did stop me from going all the way down which is nice, but left a really good bruise below my knee. At least i didn't loose control and stayed on the tack that we were on. Good times in the breeze on san fran bay

A cool pic from last wednesday night beer can race, on the left is one of the many big boats that we ducked, rolled over and under on our way to the top mark.

Hey everyone, check this out. You can watch our training and racing from the SPOT adventures site. Go to www.findmespot.com, than click on spot adventures. Click on the sailing category and either type in my name (danbrandt) or type in the event. For example if you wanted to check out last wednesday nights race you would put RYC wednesday night race. Also if you can't make it to one of our events or want to see how our training is going you can watch us real time from this site as well. Very Cool.

The boat up and skipping...we finished second in tonights RYC beer can race.

A little- before and after shot

The boat ready to skip off the waves, she looks great.

Unfortunately we had a minor break down on sunday which turned into a potential big one so we hit the beach to prevent something big from breaking.

We're looking forward to the next few weeks of training before our next event.

Thanks to our sponsors Spot Messenger/Toyota Sunnyvale and the private donations for making this all happen.

Some sailing to keep me on my game during the downtime of the 18 being put back together.

Oh yeah!!!!!......Our Team Gear has just arrived and in time for our first event coming up May 30-31 off of Pier 39.

It will be a little bit of a scramble to get the boat completed but we should have everything done and a few days of practice in before the event.

Its our new spinnaker!!!

With Toyota Sunnyvale across the middle ready to crush past our competition.

Oh what could it be?

Dry fitting the wings, plan on putting them together friday. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.

Christmas came early this year, a shot of the mast, tillers, and the parts for the wings

Finally the boat has been completely faired and sanded smooth. Now its ready for its final coat of paint. Its really going to be tempting to show pics of the final paint job, but i think we are going to wait until the practice ASL event april 25-26 to show it off.

Went to the shop today to check out the latest layer of primer. Gave it a good sanding to smooth it out for the next coat of primer.

Layer of primer has been put on the bottom of the boat and we're about to flip it and do the topside. Should be completely painted within the next week or so.

Making sure the hull is nice and fair for the paint job its about to receive.

The boat getting prepped by Ricky Mathews for a new paint job in the Chris Craft warehouse. very exciting!!!!

Spot Satellite Messenger has joined the Team. We are very excited in having them as a partial sponsor along with Toyota Sunnyvale. At this seasons events we will be registered and announced as Spot Satellite/ Toyota Sunnyvale. They fit into high speed skiff sailing very well. Everyone should check out their website www.findemespot.com

Toyota Sunnyvale joins the Team as a partial sponsor. Thanks to their support we have been able to upgrade the boat with new gear and get the boat up to speed with the top 18's out there. We are approaching the 2009 American Sailing League series and looking forward to solid finishes. Thanks very much Toyota Sunnyvale

WELCOME TO SKIFF PROJECT SPONSORED BY SPOT SATELLITE MESSENGER AND TOYOTA SUNNYVALE

The idea behind our project is to involve the new generation of sailors into the thrill and excitement of Australian 18 foot skiff racing. The boats are fun, fast, and require a great amount of teamwork. The project is meant to promote the Australian 18 foot skiff fleet in the United States, and ensure that if continues its positive growth around the world. In addition, it gives the opportunity to young talent to race against some of the world's best sailors. Dan has been sailing for 20 years and is very motivated in sharing his talent and knowledge of skiff racing with the up and coming generation. This project gives the youth a chance to explore new limits of racing both locally and internationally. With continued support of our sponsors, Skiff Project plans on expanding the racing calendar of 2010 to include international locations such as Europe and Australia.