Caribbean 600

Greg Slyngstad’s mighty Paul Bieker designed 53-footer Fujin catamaran tearing it up on this year’s Caribbean 600 race.

The 600-mile race is a gathering for some of the coolest boats on the planet winding their way in a complex course around the islands at Antigua. With stiff tradewinds and warm waters, it’s an epic race.

Last year Fujin, with a crew of hotshot Seattle sailors onboard, capsized in dramatic fashion on the first night. The boat has been put back together and is certainly at least as fast as it ever was.

That was last year. This year after the first night they’re in third place on the water with only the two Mod 70 trimarans ahead. Fujin’s leading on the multihulls on corrected time. Just behind Fujin is a Volvo 70 monohull skippered by Charlie Enright.

As we did last year, we’ll followup Fujin’s exploits. In the meantime, check out the Caribbean 600 website. There’s a Facebook feed that shows updates from some of the boats, including audio. (I just listened to Pip Hare describing her race on Class 40 Hydra. The website is caribbean600.rorc.org where you’ll find the tracker and FB feed.

Kurt Hoehne

Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.

Fujin is of course a sailish.com favorite, and several Northwest sailors are lucky enough to race on the high performance Paul Bieker catamaran. In the Caribbean, no less. So it was a little scary when the news came through that Fujin had capsized in the Caribbean 600, but fortunately the news came with the rather important detail that all were safe.

Brad Baker took the time to chat with me between flights on his way home this evening. It was pretty clear that while the capsize certainly caught everyone’s attention, the level of preparation and the skills of those onboard made the whole thing a lot less traumatic than it could have been.

At about 2200 local time Fujin was in a very competitive position, rounding Saba Island while avoiding a nearby reef. Baker was in the salon helping navigate – at ~20 knots there’s not a lot of room for error. It was puffy and shifty, and when a big puff of about 35 knots hit, combined with a big lift, Fujin flipped, and quickly. Dumping the main in such a situation is of course the primary way to depower, but it happened so quickly, Brad said, “I’m not even sure we could have dumped the main fast enough.”

While all the details are not clear, Baker remembers thinking “Ah, crap, we’re going to tip over. My first thought wasn’t about survival, it was we weren’t going to finish the race. It didn’t take long to switch to survival mode though” Brad and Mike Leslie were in the Salon. The owner Greg Slyngstad who had been driving, made his way to the salon as well. They then migrated to the cockpit and did a head count, to make sure all were accounted for. Then out the back of the boat where Fritz Lanzinger was already atop of the overturned boat and was able to help the others up. Personal EPIRBs were activated and rescuers came quickly. One of the keys was that Mike Leslie had the composure to flip the outside lights breaker before leaving the cabin. That extra light helped the situation enormously.

A fishing boat came out, got the crew onboard and towed the overturned boat to Saba. All of Fujin’s crew (Greg Slyngstad, Brad Baker, Fritz Johnston, Paul Bieker, Gina Borza, Fritz Lanzinger, Michael Leslie, Jonathan McKee) were rescued with no major injuries.

One key was clearly the preparation. They had a safety meeting before they left the dock so they knew what to do and where the safety gear was located. “I learned a lot – about myself – in those situations. I learned I don’t freak out. I learned it really is important to have the tools we need to get through an event like that.” It was the first time Baker and Jonathan McKee had been rescued before.

Has this experience soured Baker on catamarans? An emphatic no, although he points out that “the reality is the high performance ones can go past the point of no return and flip. The cruising catamarans are very hard to flip.” Now when Baker teaches the Safety at Sea Course, he’ll have quite a first person story to tell.

Baker and Bieker are confident that Fujin will fly again. I’m planning on talking to Paul Bieker as Fujin is righted and he can fully assess what needs to be done, plus any lessons learned.

Kurt Hoehne

Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.