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Haulback

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Haulback    Spencer 35  Hull 51
.                 ................  Skipper / Owner - Jim Kellam

San Francisco Bay 2004 Single-handed Transpac
Photo by Mariah's Eyes Photography
Inset Photo - Jim Kellam
Photo by Mariah's Eyes  www.mariahseyesphotography.com

2002

Interesting Fact
Jim celebrated his 50th Birthday during the Race
The Hull Number for Haulback is 50
Jim won the Race on Canada Day.

Haulback at the Start of the 2002 Transpac

Preparation of Haulback

 
Months on the Hard to dry her out.
Every connection is perfect and well laid out.
The Fuel System was given priority

Wing and Wing
From the Cockpit of Haulback

 
Red Sky about 300 miles off Hawaii and Rainbow when 10 miles from Kauai.

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In 2004 Jim decided to enter the Transpac a second time.
This time, upon his completion of the event, he would continue on to various parts
of the world from Hawaii. 

2004

San Francisco to Hanalei Bay, Hawaii 2004

It seems that when the rules and requirements were established at the beginning of the 2004 event
it was quite satisfactory.  However, undesired finishes require "adjustments"

Some of the Ports of Call for Haulback

Rarotonga

Rarotonga - Capital Island in the Cook Islands.  More on Rarotonga
Check out this site on Rarotonga     Great Photos of Rarotonga

Tied stern-to on a really nasty looking cement and rock wall with only a few feet of water under the keel. One look  at the wall prompted me to deploy both sets of ground tackle to hold me off with 100-plus feet of scope on each. The stern is about 50 or 60 feet from aforementioned wall, so I feel fairly secure with the set-up I have.

 

Haulback in New Zealand
 

After clearing in to the country I took a berth in the marina there to chip and scrub the salt accumulation out of the cabin and lockers, get some sail maintenance/repairs seen to, change oil, refill propane bottles and a number of other chores that needed to be caught up on. I also sprung for a store-bought haircut... up to this point I had been cutting it myself with varying degrees of success. The lady who cut it did not seem overly impressed with my efforts, she actually said that the back was, in her own words, "pretty ugly" ....just imagine!! 

As some of you know, it was my original intention to carry on from New Zealand and head off into the Southern Ocean for what would certainly have been 5 months, to sail eastabout through the roaring forties and fifties around Cape Horn and back to NZ.
I have been kicking this around now for a couple of months and have decided instead that I would much rather prefer to spend that time checking out New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia instead. Tackling the Southern Ocean route would leave me no time to do this. My commitment to completing a singlehanded circumnavigation has not changed or diminished in the least. Nor will it......
Am I hesitant about tempting fate??....perhaps.... Or maybe after 4 1/2 months and almost 10,000 miles sailed since leaving BC I am simply ready to slow down for a bit. Whatever... I will split your northern winter between NZ and Australia, probably heading across the Tasman Sea early in the new year for a month or so in Tasmania, during what passes for summer there.
Enjoying New Zealand so far. Sailed down to Auckland for a few days, ordered a stack of charts for the next part of the trip, doing a couple of days of touristy stuff then heading off to some outlaying islands for a look around. Sure is lots of Kiwis here......

 

TROUBLE FOR HAULBACK

Tuesday January 25, 2005  1:15AM  PST
Hello to all:
I left Sydney this morning at 0800 for Tasmania. At 0930, just outside Sydney heads the mast buckled at the spreaders and went over the side....
I got the anchor down so as not to drag up on the very jagged headland less than 1/2 mile to leeward, sort of got things under control and eventually got a tow in to a mooring buoy in Sydney harbour with the rig dragging along under and behind me.
Got hold of a small crane barge that came alongside and we lifted both sections of mast and the boom on the deck. Tomorrow will have to dive on the boat to chop a line off the prop shaft then will have to sort out where to go to build a new mast.  Tomorrow is Australia Day, so nothing will start to happen 'til the day after.
Not as bad as it could have been, I was close enough to a large city to get dragged in so was able to salvage most of the rig. I will be able to re-use most of the fittings and hardware, and transfer them to a new mast section. the boom appears to be OK, I am missing a couple of stays that I had to cut loose so the mast would stop attacking the boat, the mainsail is toast and I am not sure about the jib, I will need all new foils for the roller furling, but I think the drum and bearings survived. All the halyards and most control lines have to be replaced.
I am OK, a few gouges and scrapes, but nothing serious.  The topsides are in about the same state, a few scrapes and gouges, not sure yet about below the waterline, but we aren't taking on water.
This happened in actually pretty good conditions, beating into about 18 knots of wind, nothing spectacular, just tired iron, or aluminum, as the case may be.

 

THE TWO LAST EMAILS FROM JIM

Friday, June 23, 2006  1:06AM
Hello All Stations
Arrived Hilo Hawaii June 16, 36 days and 5100 miles out of panama. Not a bad ride all things considered. Tied to the wall in Radio Bay, i was here in 1999 on my first foray offshore with my Gulf Island 29, Molly Hogan - not much has changed!!

Onrust, a Spencer 35 out of San Francisco arrived here a day or so after I did, Jamie and I did the tour of each others boats and got to know one another a little, he left this morning for the other side of the island.

All well here, a few jobs as is normal but nothing too drastic, to be honest, most of it is 'make work' to keep myself occupied. Will head over to Hanalei bay in another week or so, to be there for the finish of the
'06 Transpac and see all the guys and hang out for a while before heading home sometime mid-July.

Bye for now.....Jim

Wednesday, August 9, 2006  9:53PM
Hello to Everyone

Good news is that this will be the second-to-last Hello all Stations letter, the next one will be an ETA for my arrival dockside in another 8 or 9 days from now.

The Bad News is that this means I will have to stop sailing and park Haulback someplace where the warm ocean currents and steady tradewinds won't have her tugging on her anchor rode for a while. Such is life, as they say...

As you have probably guessed, I have fast-forwarded from somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, when I last wrote one of these, to my current position, in the North-eastern Pacific about 800 miles WSW of Cape Flattery and the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Had a good trip the rest of the way up the Atlantic and across the southern Caribbean Sea, 6650 miles non-stop Cape Town to Panama, where I spent the better part of a month, most of it waiting to transit the canal, and the last week on the Pacific side getting ready for the passage to Hawaii. My main goal was to get to Hawaii in time for the finish of the 2006 Singlehanded Transpac race. As you probably know, I think this race is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and if I couldn't be a participant the '06 running, I was determined to be there for the finish of it at least.

So, it was another longish run from Balboa, Panama to Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, 5100 miles, mostly uneventful, but a bit of a let-down after the perfect conditions experienced along the passage from Cape Town to Panama. Still, all in all a very nice sail. The routing along this course was very interesting though. To find the most favourable winds and currents I ended up sailing 800 miles further than the 'great circle route' would have been. Somehow, things always seem bit out of whack when you start out a passage sailing AWAY, rather than towards, your destination.

It was nice to visit Hilo again, as it was there, where I finished my first ever solo offshore passage, with my last boat 'Molly Hogan' in 1999. Spent a few weeks hanging around looking for trouble, then had a very pleasant 2 day sail over to Hanalei Bay, Kauai, where I crossed my outbound track and I suppose you could say, officially 'closed the circle' of my circumnavigation. Although to me, my trip will not be complete until I enter home waters in British Columbia, crossing your outbound track is a big deal with us round-the-world-types.

I had a ball in Hanalei Bay watching the finishers of the SSS Transpac cross the  finish line of this year's race. Added a very different perspective, being an observer rather than  a participant as I have been in the past. As enjoyable as it was to watch, nothing compares to being one of the singlehanded racers in the event. All the same, had good fun re-newing old friendships and making new ones.

Put off leaving as long as I could, but with the deadline for returning to work fast approaching, and probably 3,000 miles yet to sail to get there, I hoisted and stowed the anchor aboard on the afternoon of July 24. After spending a couple hours sailing west along the coast of Kauai,  I could not put off the inevitable any longer, and turned our bows northwards for what proved to be a 1000 mile beat north away from the Islands.  Talk about pain and suffering...then to add insult to injury, it started to get COLD!!! Now in long underwear, a wool sweater and wearing socks, of all things. Just imagine....

Kind of thinking I should be somewhere in the Lower Mainland by the 17 or 18 (give or take a day) of this month. As I said earlier, will let everyone know once I have a firm ETA. Probably a couple days from arrival.

I have NO idea where I will be landing as I have not yet found a place to keep the boat on my return. If anyone knows of a 35 to 40 foot slip available on any basis, weekly, monthly, or longer, please let me know soonest....

Bye for now......Jim/Haulback

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Not long after this last email, Jim arrived in Vancouver.

Comment:

The entire membership has followed Jim's travels.  He and Haulback performed well and was a first class representative for our Group.  Thanks Jim.   You and other Spencer Owners in our group that take to the sea have proven once again what is capable of our vessels and what wondrous times can be found on the other side of the horizon.

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