Not everything about offshore sailing is about race results; there is a lot of seamanship and teamwork that are learned by the KP Offshore Team sailors. A perfect example of this was the 2017 Vineyard Race.
PHANTOM and HIGH NOON were racing, and while things were going pretty smoothly for the crew of PHANTOM, the crew of HIGH NOON were dealing with some adversity. They had broken both masthead spinnaker halyards on the 90-mile leg out to the turning point at Buzzard’s Tower.
Now, the only way to get to the top of the mast at sea is on the mainsail halyard, but that would mean a drastic reduction in speed, by lowering the mainsail, to hoist a crewmember on that halyard. Using some KP ingenuity, the crew fashioned a makeshift boathook 20+ feet long to reach the top of the mast using the fractional jib halyard, spare battens and a coat hook.
Ben White (’20) went up the rig, managed to delicately rig the halyard, while rolling about some 60 feet off the deck, and return safely so the team could once again fly a spinnaker, hoping to get back in the race.
Now that is a lesson on seamanship and teamwork!
