Project Management
I have been luck to been able to put race boats together for 35 years. My first one was a little ¼ tonner named Spread Eagle in 1975. Plan was to qualify and win the ¼ Ton Cup in Corpus Christi I 1976. I worked with the designer, the late Gary Mull, boat builder and spar builder to produce a winning boat. We won many races with this little boat and it was a great learning curve for me. As skipper, we ended up 6th in out of over 40 boats at the worlds.
It is great to be a member of a team from the beginning to have an influence on the boat through the design and build. I believe it is the sailors input that makes a great boat. Designers don’t spend as much time on the water as really good sailors. This is the reason you will find the best teams winning more often, they have great sailors working with designers to push the design in the right direction.
Over my career I have been involved with many new boats, all have been successful, and some winning races all races for over a year. Boats like Innovision, won Admiral’s Cup and 2 World Championships, Morning Glory 50’, won Cape to Rio and Trans-Pac, plus every race in a year sailed. Then there was my favorite project, Morning Glory 86. She won all races for 2.5 years and set records. My most resent project job and is still ongoing is Bella Mente. She was a dog when Hap asked if I could help. We ended up rebuilding the boat into a winner. You can check out what we did in a Seahorse article I wrote by clicking here…
Project managing can be from concept to finish line or as little as putting one event together on a boat that has a crew. It really is about understanding what needs to be done on a overall scale. Then making sure there is no excuse to lose.
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