L'Orca Update

Well, it's been awhile since I posted anything on this blog and unfortunatley this blog was short lived due to the whale incident. We ended up selling L'Orca with her salvaged title to a fellow crew member that has plans to rebuild her rig for river sailing. Sadly, Orca will prolly never see blue waters again. My dad ended up buying a NY 36 "Desperado" from the Tacoma area and has been slowly getting her ready for the 2013 Oregon Offshore, visit www.oregonoffshore.com for more information on this awesome race! I am the official race captain this year for the Oregon Offshore, so I will most likely be sitting on Ogden Point in my 73' Chevy van finishing boats. Most of the same crew from L'Orca will be on Desperado this year as well. L'Orca and Orca Racing is now just a set of awesome memories and unfortunatley this blog's story has come to an end. Thank you for reading and following the awesome time we had on this fine boat, she will be missed!

We Can Rebuild Her, We Have The Technology!

L'Orca has been totalled, the repair estimates were roughly 81k! The insurance company is giving us the full agreed upon amount though. And, I have purchased the salvage title and will be moving aboard L'Orca this September and the work to rebuild her starts now! Stay tuned to this blog for updates on my progress and pictures of the rebuild! This will be a long term project, possibly over the next 2-3 years. She will sail and race again though if I have anything to say about it! Ryan

Swiftsure in 4 days!

2011 Swiftsure starts this coming Saturday at 10:00 am! My dad and I will both be crewing on Rage! Follow our progress online by following this link: http://tracker.swiftsure.org/ and look for Rage. Don will be racing in Swiftsure this year as well, I'm not sure of the boat name right now, but will post later. Stay tuned to our blog as my dad and I are looking at boats to fill L'Orca's berth in the event she is totaled. Still waiting on the numbers!

And We Wait!

Well folks, the initial survey has been done by expert local marine surveyor Alison Mazon and an initial estimate is in the works by Steve Rander, owner of Schooner Creek Boat Works. Now we wait to find out what our insurance settlement will look like and if the boat will be a total or not. So, it looks to me as we mind find ourselves looking for a new boat, the damage is pretty extensive! In addition to the damage I listed in the post on the front page of SA other damage we have found after our survey is as follows; the forward bulkhead is cracked/ fractured in multiple places, cracks throughout the inner headliner, cracks around starboard ports, cracks around keel bolts and severe keel bolt stress (think the keel might have hit the whale on the roll back), and complete through and through 3 foot crack on topside deck starboard bow side where the whale landed lengthwise.

So, in the case that we need to purchase another boat, let me know your thoughts! What boat should be our next racing platform? Please feel free to comment!

Sailing Anarchy Front Page Posting:

whale of a time
Ryan Barnes, the helmsman onboard at the time of this amazing story shares it with us...
We were racing in the Oregon Offshore International Yacht race on our Beneteau 35s5 in 20 kts of breeze with 1.5 oz north sails kite up. About 30 min. after the start a grey or humpback whale approximately 30 feet in length breeched off our starboard beam and hit approximately halfway to three quarters up our rig past first spreader, then rolled off the starboard side of the boat, taking out the lifelines and crushing the toe rail as well as dropping the whole rig, thankfully it was deck stepped. Here usa link to a coast guard video of post carnage and local news article.
Rig is gone/ deep sixed after cutting it away, lifelines are destroyed, toe rail bent/ flattened on starboard side deck, fibreglass cracks on the topside starboard vberth, fracture cracks around starboard cabin windows, bow pulpit bent to shit, and toe rail delimitation around 60% of the boat! No water leaks, except when the coast guard towed us at 18 knots against an ebb tide across the columbia river bar, which was a little fast, but got a new speed record on the boat! Lots of kudos to our coast guard though, those guys are awesome! No injuries, everyone is safe, my dad and I are motoring the boat up the river back to home port in Portland, OR at Rose City Yacht Club. Story here.

05/14/11

Put a whale on it!

Well, not much to say, we literally were hit by a whale a half hour into the Oregon Offshore this year! It is so crazy all of us are still in shock and the boat just may be a total with the insurance. Will post more soon (pics and video, no whale footage unfortunately), just got back in port from the long haul up the Columbia river last two days. Thanks for everyone's support! A special thanks to the skipper and crew's of Cool Change, Thirsty, Sol Pacifico, Kokopelli, and the US Coast Guard!

The following is a link to our story:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2011/05/breaching-whale-crushes-sailboat.html

Thank you and stay tuned for more!

Ryan

Welcome to Orca Racing!

Welcome to our blog following the crew and boat that make up L'Orca. Stay tuned as I update photos, results, video, and other information related to our racing schedule and plans! Feel free to post comments and let us know what you think! Thanks! Ryan

Oregon Offshore 2011 in 4 days!

The 2011 Oregon Offshore is coming up soon! We start at bouy 2 1030 Thursday May 12th! Follow our progress on http://www.oregonoffshore.blogspot.com/!