Le Pingouin

Allow me to introduce Le Pingouin. This name is actually not new to the boat. Back in 1998 when the boat was built in France Catherine Chabaud registered the boat with officials as Le Pingouin, although her sponsor Whirlpool took the large share of branding. Although the boat changed hands several times and donned the graphics of many corporate sponsors, it has always been technically registered as Le Pingouin. Having circled the globe three times already, I think she has a rich heritage in the world of ocean racing.

Despite an enormous amount of time and effort in seeking a Title/Naming Sponsor for the upcoming race, we have not secured a company wishing to brand the 10,000 square feet of space available on the sails and hull and enjoy the vast media and hospitality perks. So without an all-American brand or global company involved, we went back to the roots of the boat, just as I have gone back to my roots of ocean racing after years of land-based activities. We hope the graphics, designed by cre843, showcase the potential for creative branding onboard. When we land a Title/Naming Sponsor, the name of the boat and lion’s share of graphics will be changed to reflect the graphic choices of the sponsor.

So what about that penguin? Meg thinks he looks angry. I say he is determined. The prospect of sailing 30,000 miles alone in some of the roughest ocean terrain is intimidating, and I think you need a certain amount of tension to face the challenges. A perky, happy penguin image would not be right for the race. I expressed my emotions about the race and preparations for the event with Brian Zimmerman of cre843, a design firm based in Charleston. He developed the friendly but fierce penguin and the design of the hull, deck and sails.

You might see our tagline in some of the photos which states “FULL NOISE OR NO NOISE.” It takes extreme measures to get a boat race-ready with a small team and limited funding. We are either pushing really hard or chilling out. We do it right or we don’t do it at all. Offshore, this translates into an attitude of determination and using every ounce of physical and mental energy I have to compete well and be the first American to officially complete three solo races around the world.

We will get more great photos as the branding is complete and we roll Le Pingouin out of the shed. Thanks to all the individuals and companies that have been supportive of our efforts thus far, including B&G, Simrad, Gill, Samson, Awlgrip, Harken, High and Dry Boatworks, Alpine Aire, Detyens, CMMC Machine, Charleston Rigging, and many others. Thanks for checking in!

Cheers,
Brad

Photos below by Tim Eble:

My son Wyatt checking out the boat - Photo by Meaghan

Come Visit Us This Thursday

Hi All,

Many local businesses have been supportive of the Lazarus Project and getting us (almost) through the refit and race-ready. West Marine has been a great help and will host a casual reception this Thursday evening starting at 6:30pm at their West Ashley location. I'll show some video from the last race and also provide a personal update on the current project with photos of our progress. Come down for a visit and check it out before we launch the boat in August and take off for the start of the Velux 5 Oceans in France on October 17. The race will not visit Charleston until April/May 2011, so it should be fun to get together now and tell you more about the upcoming race and the fleet to expect next year. Food and beverages will be served courtesy of West Marine.

West Marine in West Ashley
Thursday July 15, at 6:30pm
975 Savannah Hwy. (by the Coburg Cow)

If you have any questions, feel free to call West Marine at 843.573.0123

Refit Continues at Full Throttle

We are slammed at the shop right now trying to wrap up all the work on the boat while she is off the keel.  We are starting to make real headway on putting the boat back together at this point.  I am fully absorbed in the wiring and installation of the new B&G system at the moment, while others are working on a complete new deck layout.  I wish we were rolling out of the shed now but it will probably be the 1st of August at this point.  The work also continues with having to re-fair the keel. A pretty serious survey required taking the fairing off the keel to conduct the necessary ultrasound, flex test, and die penetration testing. The really great news is that the boat will be fantastic and I feel very confident in the work Jeffrey and all the boys have put in.

Outside of the boatyard, the last two weeks have been busy with media commitments. A videography crew from England came in for three days to capture all the pre-race preparations and the lifestyle of getting ready for the big race. Charleston Magazine also sent over a photographer for a feature coming out in their August issue. It is quite a balancing act with the hard core work at the yard, sponsorship talks and making sure we keep the story rolling out for all to see. The start is just three months away, so it feels like there is still a lot to accomplish. Thanks to my shore support team, volunteers and supporting sponsors for all the hard work that is going into this endeavor!

Thanks for checking in. I will keep news posted as we make progress.

Cheers,
Brad

TV News and a Bright New Paint Job

Big news this week!  First, the announcement of the reality TV show for the North American market related to the Velux 5 oceans is a HUGE step forward for getting attention to the sport of single-handed racing in the US market. Phil Keoghan is a big name in Hollywood and he is committed to hosting and producing a show that brings major exposure to the sport. Can we actually get the sport to the same revered status here in the US as in France and England? If so, then Katy bar the door on the future of this sport!

Second, the boat will be very yellow.  At least until a title sponsor tells us to cover it with their branding.  We are talking bright yellow… “watch out, here I am yellow.”  Things are going well and thankfully we have some supporters that feel the passion of what we are trying to do for the sport of sailing and allowing the project to stay on track.  However, we do need to secure a Title/Naming Sponsor that sees the value in 10,000 square feet of branding and 12 months of media exposure worldwide. Supporting sponsors are a big help and collectively make a big impact, plus add credibility to all we intend to do. There is no doubt we have real evidence of the media return and benefits to sponsors, with Balance Bar and Tommy Hilfiger seeing $25 million+ in media value.

For now the campaign is about all of us that love the sport of sailing and what it offers in so many ways.  Please take pride in the bold and brash statement this boat will make when it comes out of the shed.  Race cars have nothing on the adventure of sailing the world’s oceans. It is time for the rest of the world to reunite with the sport that spawned the way the world was explored and traded upon for thousands of years!

Regards and more info soon,
Brad

Photos courtesy of Kurt Oberle, High and Dry Boat Works and Awlgrip

Paint is Flying

At this point we have really turned the corner with the refit of the boat.  We are putting new paint on and next we will be putting all the systems back together.  This will involve electronics, deck hardware, rudder bearings, standing rigging, running rigging and everything else that makes a race boat ready, right down to the line bags in the cockpit.  While we are behind our original schedule, we are still very much focused on getting the boat launched with plenty of time to be fully up to speed for the delivery back to France later this summer. 

The fun part over the next two weeks or so will be sharing the re branding of the boat as the paint continues to fly.  As with any paint job, the rewarding part is to see the primers and colors start to go down. After weeks of prep work the payoff is when you lay paint on the boat to see the fruits of all the labor that went into sanding, filling, sanding again and again and then finally prepping for the color. Thanks to Awlgrip for their support and the many others that have contributed to the refit.

More pictures of the painting will come soon.

All the best,
Brad

Shop Talk

Sailing Anarchy stopped by the shop for a 19-minute interview about the campaign, the challenging nature of corporate sponsorship in ocean racing, and the meaning of 'Full Noise or No Noise!', Team Lazarus's slogan.  Check out the Sailing Anarchy Innerview below!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=406307449338&saved

Or visit www.sailinganarchy.com. 

Down to the Bones of the Boat - Time to Rebuild

May 10, 2010

At this point we are deep into the refit of the ECO 60 for the upcoming VELUX 5 OCEANS race. Considering the start is merely five months away, we still have a whole lot to get done. The location we have in North Charleston is proving to be a great shop, albeit hot and getting hotter by the day. You will see by the photos posted that we are at a stage where the boat is completely deconstructed. There is nothing left on deck. A huge hole was cut out to remove the housing for the old Fleet 77 satellite gear. This bulbous techno-ball of communication will be replaced by something about 1/8th the size and weight thanks to modern technology. The winches are all off and we are rebuilding the winch package and replacing parts as needed. There is exposed carbon fiber (itchy!) and we are building carbon parts to facilitate the new deck layout. It has been hard work for all involved, but also refreshing as we have turned the corner and can begin reconstruction. We are anxiously awaiting some new gear from Harken and Spinlock, who have been super-supportive.

The workspace we created at the warehouse includes some work benches we built, stairs to get up on deck, and ample space for all the gear coming off the boat. We brought in some retired luxuries from home as well, including a mini-refrigerator and old BBQ grill. So half-way through the day we all take a short break and someone is in charge of mastering some hot dogs, hamburgers, or hunting treats like venison and wild hog. Too bad we don’t have that awesome custom of siestas here in the U.S. By the end of the afternoon we are all pretty much shagged. There is only one place to go when covered in grease, carbon fiber, and other goodies… the shower!

Thanks for checking in.

Cheers,
Brad

Off the Keel and in the Shed

It has been another couple very busy days at the shipyard, getting the keel removed from the race boat and moving her into the shed. The keel has not been removed from the boat since 2004, and the good news is that it was terribly difficult to detach from the hull… hard for the crew yet reassuring that it was built right and should never be easily separately from the bottom of the boat! It took a great deal of physical labor, with the guys banging on the different plates that hold it into the boat, lots of wiggling, and the final use of hydraulic jacks to lower the keel out.

Once the massive tungsten keel was detached from the hull, we lifted the boat out of her cradle and onto a flatbed trailer. Once again, the skilled crew at Detyens Shipyard proved invaluable, helping us carefully move the boat into the warehouse in North Charleston. We then devised a system using chainfalls from Charleston Rigging to hang the boat from the rafters of the building, which allowed us to get the boat off the trailer and lower it down onto the bunks from the cradle. Essentially this whole process will allow for the shore team to have reasonable access to the boat in a safe and shaded space. We are ready for the refit to begin!

Cheers and thanks for keeping up with our progress,
Brad

The Refit Begins

An enormous shipbuilding crane hauled our ECO 60 out of the water at Detyens Shipyard in North Charleston yesterday, where hardworking shipbuilders and technicians supervised the gentle placement of the racing yacht in a custom-built cradle nearby.Yes, it made us all a bit nervous seeing the light, thin skinned carbon baby swinging from water to land, but thankfully we had experts on hand! We will conduct a comprehensive refit over the next three months in a building on the old Charleston Navy Base in preparation for the VELUX 5 OCEANS 2010-11 race.

The complete refit will include extensive work disassembling the rig, rudders, keel and daggerboards, while the entire deck layout and sail handling systems will be modified to suit my sailing style and the intricacies of sailing a 60-foot boat competitively alone. The electronics package is one of the most important performance tools on a modern racing yacht, and we will replace the entire system currently aboard the boat. The new system of radar, chart plotters, autopilots, and communications gear will be from B&G, with the latest high-performance chipsets and software.

A special thanks to Charleston Rigging, Pierside Boatworks, Seabreeze Marina, and Urban Electric for their support offered to the project.

Thanks for keeping up with our progress,
Brad

Photos by Meredith Block, blocksail.com

Final Sail Before Haul & Refit

Today marks a significant milestone for our team as we proceed into boat rebuilding mode rather than acquire and evaluate the boat mode.  Tomorrow we plan to haul the boat out of the water and disassemble the rig, rudders, keel and dagger boards. That gear, along with the hull, will be safely at home in the shed where the refit will take place.  I will report with pictures on that process later this week.

While Meaghan and the rest of her team continue to pound the pavement for financial support and sponsorship, the boat side of our team had some serious things to consider for the upcoming refit.  We had to evaluate what to change and what not to change in an effort to make the boat as competitive as possible without busting our slim budget.  That process included going out for a sail off Charleston harbor one last time to finalize a few decisions before we haul the boat out of the water.  The good news is that we need to do fewer modifications than I initially thought. The list is still considerable.

The entire deck layout will be modified to accommodate a more current layout with reefing system lead aft, more adjustable jib lead systems and many more tweaks being able to happen from the cockpit.  We are even going to move the utility winches inboard and tie them to the coffee grinder in an effort to make the boat more “adjustable on the fly.”  This process will involve the special project teams from both Spinlock and Harken, in an effort to establish a think tank of resources to make sure things all mesh at the cockpit in an ergonomic and reliable way.  The other big job is that we will be replacing the electronics package.  The newer B&G pilots with the latest software have an uncanny knack for driving an Open 60 in the Southern Ocean and will be at the heart of our modernization of the boat from a performance point of view.  There is also going to be a long list of “freshen up” items as well.  The boat has done a Vendee Globe and a handful of Transatlantics since its last serious “fluff and buff” so that represents a significant portion of the work list.  Our final sail ended up being a great exercise in finalizing a work list and now it is time to execute!

Thanks for checking in,
Brad