Rocket Boats - Rocket 22

2009-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

On April 4, the STYC’s Blakely Rock Benefit race took off with over a hundred boats registered. It was a light air day, and both the SLUT, 2201, and Red Fish Blue Fish, 2208 had a tough time at the rounding of the rock. However, in the end we did very to the rest of the fleet. It was fantastic weather and a great start to the spring sailing season. We should have three rockets at the Seattle NOODs in May.

Final Goosebumps series

2009-02-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

For the second week in a row, John Plut and his Rocket 22 took a second in Seattle's Lake Union winter series, Goosebumps. In a shifty 10 to 15 knot breeze, he pulled away from the pack on the second of three laps of the lake. Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzJbP501KJo for some video of him racing. Also out on the course was Paul Kalina's Pocket Rocket (see below). And go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv0ZGkUldWA for a shot of his racing.

2009-01-21T07:52:00.001-08:00

In the midst of recent winter weather throughout North America, it seemed like we got a bit of a reprieve in Seattle. The past two weekends it was bright, hot sunshine and upper 40’s and lower 50’s temp with a gentle breeze. Perfect time to get the Rockets out for a spin around the Lake. Last week we had three Rocket 22s plus a Pocket Rocket out for Seattle’s Goosebumps series (every Sunday in January and February). This weekend, Mike Mechales and I took out the MV Slack Alice and watched John Plut and his Rocket 22, and Paul Kalina and his Pocket Rocket rip around the course. What a great way to start the year.

2008-09-08T08:48:00.001-07:00

Well, it was a beautiful weekend in Seattle this past weekend. Bright sunny skies, in the 70’s, perfect wind, and some great sailing. I took my boat, Redfish Bluefish aka Slack Alice, out for a practice sail Friday evening, and watched a beautiful sunset over the Olympic Mountains. Saturday was the Sloop Tavern’s Jack & Jill race (http://www.slooptavern.org/). After a not-so-perfect start, I got into the upwind groove and closely followed a Riptide 35 and a J105 all the way up to the weather mark. We had an excellent set, and proceeded to take off on a reach in about 12 knots of wind at 8.5 knots through the water. We hung with the J105 and put major distance on the rest of the fleet. In the end, we beat the J105 by almost two minutes over the line and corrected over the Riptide by more than four minutes, winning both the division and the overall trophy. Once again showing that the Rocket 22 is outstanding in double-handed racing. On Sunday I took the boat out again for a fun sail with Rocket #1, South Lake Union Trolley. Go to the following site for a little clip of the SLUT up on a plane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmk6L8NKfsc
Unfortunately, it’s back to work today – but the fall season is just beginning. Enjoy!

Delta Ditch 2008 Photos

2008-06-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Peter Lyons from www.lyonsimaging.com once again shows his superb photography skills with these excellent shots from the Delta Ditch Run this year. His site is well worth a visit as he didn't only take pictures of the Rocket, but hey, these are the ones we like!

The Alan and Jonathan Road Show Continues to the Delta Ditch Run 2008

2008-06-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

These guys are true road warriors all in the name of sailing, beer and everything else that goes with living in the back of a van! Thanks for another great post and your ongoing support of our fantastic little boat. Next is Whidbey Island Race Week, July 20th to 25th. Hope to see everyone there.

Well, this past weekend I loaded up the car, hitched up the Rocket, and headed south to the fabulous San Francisco bay to compete in the famous Delta Ditch run. This is one of those competitions that was conceived over a few too many rum and cokes as a sort of “dare to do this” event. The idea is to launch the boat in Richmond and then drive the trailer an hour and a half east to Stockton. Spend the night, and then take a chartered bus back to Richmond in the morning. The race starts just off the breakwater from the Richmond Yacht Club, and then heads north (downwind) into San Pablo bay. At the north end of the bay, the race turns east (also downwind) up the Sacramento River, and then up into the delta of the very narrow San Joaquin River. Total length of the race is 67 miles or so to the Stockton Sailing Club, give or take about 300 jibes -- that extends the race another several miles. Except for one short reaching leg, you basically put up the chute for 8-10 hours, and enjoy the ride and flat water.

We left Seattle where it was raining and in the 50’s. and by the time we got to Richmond it was in the upper 80’s, no clouds to be seen, and it felt like someone had turned on a overheat heat lamp! We started in the second wave with ten Melges 24s, a few Mumm 30s, Cheetah 30s, and other light, downwind roadsters. During the first leg up to Benicia Bridge it was fairly light, and we managed to be ahead of just about everyone in our start except one Melges. Entering the delta, the wind started to come up, and the river began to get narrow. Doing jibe after jibe, we started to lose distance to more polished crews and boats flying symmetrical chutes.

We had a few rookie mistakes and equipment issues, but we managed to stay out of the mud and away from other hazards (there was some major carnage out there). It was a fun race and an event not to miss in one’s sailing career. Have a look the following YouTube videos for a few scenes from the start of the race. Sorry we were too tired at the end of day to pull out the camera for the finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZrVx5y-7rE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GBvc3jXt1U

Also go to Peter Lyons site for some great photos of the event.

http://lyonsimaging.smugmug.com/gallery/5119711_5ok4w#309747826_5uKvW

Big thanks to Sandra for crewing in the race and helping drive the 1750 miles down and back. And also to Alan for coming down to the bay to make my boat go fast.

The Mighty Johnson

2008-05-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, the might Johnson 3.5. Loved by none and hated by many. BUT when the wind pooped out at the end of the 3rd day of the Seattle NOODs, who they turn to??
But wait a minute. Do I see young men on the front of a Rocket flashing skin in the hopes of a tan? In May? This can't be Seattle!! The home of moss and people who wear socks and sandals at the same time.
But it's true, the 1st annual NOODs will probably never be repeated. People were thanking me for bringing the weather from the Sunny Okanagan, but I think it was because it was the first time 6 Rockets had come together to do battle. Zeus himself must saw it fit to pull in all his godly markers to to make the wind and weather perfect for such a momentous occasion.
OK, OK I might be over stating it a bit, but it sure warmed my heart to see 6 Rockets on the line. At first there was a bit of feeling out period. (maybe too much on Mike's part!) Nobody had done this before. Would the boats be equal? What's the best way to tack and gybe. Do you foot, pinch, full sails, flat sails? How do you get that honking big chute down at the the leeward mark while on a full plane?
The first day was definitely a day of teething. Little things, like easing the main before you duck a Starboard tacker and giving the crew lots of time to get the chute down at the leeward mark. By the end of the first day you could see signs that things were being work out and people were starting to get their heads out of the boat. Full cudos to the race committee for putting 4 races in the first day with the attitude of "making hay while the sunshines". At the end of the day there were a lot of tired and thirsty people in the Mt. Gay tent. Those veterans of Whidbey quickly figured out to double up on the drinks and go to the back of the line guaranteeing maximum fluid replenishing .
Next day the wind was a little more kind and gentle and from the opposite direction. This put a little less strain on the crew work and little more on strategy. A trend started, it was great to get to the windward mark 1st but the big gains were for those that figured out the downwind gybe angles and controlling the left. The boat that figured it out 1st was the team of Andy, Mike and Bev. Rarely was "For Sail" at the front of the pack at the first weather mark but because of their experience sailing Rockets at Whidbey last year, and some impressive jets, they seemed have the ability to come out ahead at the leeward mark. The other was Jonathan and crew. They had always had the jets but were starting to figure out the tactics as well. Racing was getting tighter and tighter! A mistake at the leeward mark instantly became a 2-3 position loss (I know 1st hand).
So after another 4 race day, things were getting interesting. People were coming in and yaking about "mast screw tension" and "role tacks and gybes" and twist. At the tent that night, Jonathan actually wanted to show his fellow sailors from other classes, what was meant by "twist" on the dance floor. I don't think the Moore girls understood but gamely tried to keep up.
Day three got even lighter and probably was painful on some of the under powered, over weight lead mines that shared our starting line but it was business as usual with the Rockets. At the end of the second day you could see the light bulb had come on and was shining brightly in Paul and Matts Rocket. Sunday was the their day to show there stuff and capped it off with a bullet on the last race.
In closing I would like to thank the Dave Read for having the vision to bring the NOODs to the PNW, the race committee for packing in 11 races in three days, Andy, Mike and Bev for winning the regatta but mostly I would like to thank all of you that made the effort to take part in the regatta and lets do it again at the NAs at Whidbey.

Seattle NOODs 2008

2008-05-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Little, the Rocket 22 owner of Ref Fish Blue Fish from Seattle did an excellent job working with Alan Barnes from Rocket Boats, and all the other owners, in getting a OD fleet at this year's Seattle NOODs. It was an excellent weekend and I know we'll be hearing more from Alan and Jonathan , who will also have some more pictures to share, but here is a good one for today's blog. Jonathan and Alan are also working on having a class start at this year's Whidbey Island Race Week so stay tuned.

Smith Mountain Lake Spring Series

2008-04-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

More owners more pictures. These are taken on Smith Mountain Lake of Jan Arps Rocket 22 "Liftoff" competing in the Spring Series which looks more like a winter series to me. Bring on the hot rums! Jan gets out often and is one of those great owners that keeps us up to date on his sailing adventures with pictures always attached. Thanks Jan!

Seattle Rocket Racing

2008-03-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

The Rockets are alive and well in Seattle! Jonathan Little has been getting his Rocket, "Red Fish Blue Fish" out on a regular basis and turning heads with some excellent results. He has also been working very hard promoting the class and we're getting serious inquiries from the PNW as a result. As everyone knows, building an OD fleet anywhere is never an easy task and would never in a million years succeed unless there were owners like Jonathan out there taking the time to answer questions and take folks for a sail. We are very lucky to have him as a supporter of the Rocket and are already witnessing the results of his hard work. For anyone in the Pacific Northwest who wants to meet up with Jonathan or go for a sail please send me an email at adutton@rocketboats.com and I'll connect you.

2007-11-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

Team Raptor and the Kelowna Blossom Time Regatta

Well we did it, Team Raptor hijacked Rocket Science with the blessings of Al Barnes and Anthony Dutton , added some Decals from some leftover vinyl and sailed the KELONA BLOSSOM TIME CHARITY REGATTA. It was an excellent and well-attended event with 31 boats racing in four divisions.

The wind gods were not real helpful and while trying for the race committee to get fair races off, but race we did. Our fleet consisting of a nicely equipped Dash 34, three aggressive Laser 28’s, and a Sonic 30 that lives up to its name, a brand new Rocket 22 just delivered to its new owner and us. This was a very aggressive hard fighting group on the course but a great bunch on the dock and a big thanks to Dave Hayes for coming up with a batten to replace the one that got punted into the lake during set up.

My crew, I, Al and anyone that stood around (Fred Troutman) got dragooned into helping prep and install the brand new mast for Rocket Science. We got it done Thursday night. Friday afternoon Al and I stepped the mast – yes two people can drop the mast without a lot of trauma (carbon fiber is wonderful) tied up the loose ends and drove to Kelowna,

My full crew helped put the rig up on both Rockets but two people could do it, it’s quite neat. After Al did a preliminary tune of the rig and wasn’t watching we added our graphics for the race – Martin works for Back Alley Designs and they love boat graphics. None of us except Martin have ever sailed a new Rocket before but I thought that since it looks quite similar to my boat it shouldn’t be too much of a step. Well new Raptor (Rocket Science) compared to old Raptor (my boat) is a completely different weapon. While easy to sail it takes some adjusting to get it to really go and most of that adjusting is of the mental type an added plus is that with three people on a powered up 22 foot boat we did not ever hang off the rail, feet in all the time, kind of different than what I’m used to. While we didn’t take home any hardware overall we did pull off a second and a third in individual races, which showed the boat can do it and if we weren’t close to the front, we new it was probably us. It was truly a great time in Kelowna and I recommend the Regatta to everyone. As for the boat I had to respond to everyone that thought I got a new Rocket that regrettably, no it wasn’t mine and I wish it were and to anyone that can afford one….do get one….. for the price it has to be one of the faster, easier handling fun weapons Oh yeah, I towed it easily with my 1989 Toyota truck.

What's She Rate?

2007-10-06T19:25:00.001-07:00

It has been an interesting experience seeing the show from the exhibitor's perspective. Without going into whole lot of detail let me say that Alan Barnes is one dedicated guy when it come to the Rocket. You folks who have bought a boat already know what I mean. A lot of other folks are finding out. Notwithstanding the long days at the show and the necessary schmoozing with industry contacts that are necessary to confirm the relationship with suppliers that would be enough to exhaust most people, Alan is starting and ending his day on the internet answering questions from those folks interested about the technical aspects of the boat before and after the show.

The stream of people going buy has been steady and it has been interesting to watch the crowd change from day to day. On day one it was exhibitors and V.I.P's. The trade was interested in making connections that would support their own business while connecting with the public through the retail sale of product. In the meantime the V.I.P's were a dedicated lot. They knew what they wanted to see and made a bee line for it. those who get it when it comes to sports boats in general and the Rocket in particular have insightful questions about the boat and its operation that show the research has already been done before they showed up at the show. That meant plenty of interested traffic at the Rocket and at least half a dozen solid connections were made with the public that first day. Lots of comparisons trying to be made between different boats in the sorts boat genre, many of which were more imagined then real.

Day two saw those sailors specifically looking at certain boats and doing comparison shopping giving us a close scrutiny. At times I found myself addressing six or seven people at once. In the meantime a familiar pattern of questions arises: How long? How wide? What's she draw? How much (either bare boat or all up)? And inevitably, "What's she rate?" Once again a good number of interesting leads developed out of this day.

Saturday, day three, saw the complexion of the crowd change again. Lots of guys and gals out for an interesting day of looking at boats. Fewer people were directly drawn to the the boat as a performance boat (a larger crowd, so it seemed the number of people we talked to remained about the same but the level of knowledge was lower, so a lot of time was spent with them on the learning curve). However, the people who got it were very knowledgeable about the boat and very focused on what they wanted. Interestingly we also saw more people from the trade then we did on day one, including a dealer from the Netherlands as well as dealers from both coasts making serious inquiries in that direction.

Most interesting for me were the guys from Viper, representing the Viper 640. These guys really got it. They know what sports boats are all about. They all showed a genuine appreciation for the Rocket while at the same time recognizing that the two boats serve very different different constituencies. Consequently there was a good feeling of camaraderie as opposed to competition coming from them and we had several very productive conversations with them.

The other guys who it has been interesting to talk to are the crew from Forte Spars. They are having a good show themselves, and they have dropped by the boat several times and each time the conversation in terms of where the sports boat industry is going has gotten more in depth and detailed. These guys know their industry and getting an insiders view has been fascinating. Without going into detail, it is clear that they are dedicated to high performance sport boats and the Rocket in their view is a leading exemplar of the kind. The impression I get is that the Rocket is on the verge of a major break through with the sailing public. The first year it was at the show it was a curiosity. The second year it was a novelty. This year it is a recognized commodity. The cognoscenti are getting it: a high performance purpose built boat. You want to go fast, you have to look at the Rocket. Only after the fast question is answered are people getting into he other questions of comfort, ease of launching etc.

OK, its not all work. Some time has to be spent replenishing those precious bodily fluids we sweat out sitting in the sun all day. As they say, a tough dirty job, but someone has to do it.

WORK,WORK,WORK!!!

2007-10-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

I know, it's tough all over. Here we are standing in the hot sun, sweat on our brows, trying to stay focused on the endless stream of questions. Isn't nice to see these two girls from Sunsail who understand where we are coming from and cheerfully handing us out a couple of perfectly chilled Red stripes!! You know, it's almost worth all the hard work!!
This is exactly what I mean. Look closely at Brian putting on a brave face when he is faced with tough questions like " How fast is she??" "What is that black thing that is sticking out in front of the boat??" and "What she rate"??"
Luckily, near by, there is a stand selling a curious drink call a "Painkiller" with large amounts of Pusser's Rum in it !!
I know, life's tough all over. Luckily there are places for us over worked and under paid sales people to have a place to de-compress.

Sea of Madness

2007-10-04T18:52:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the Annapolis Boat Show!! The biggest sailboat show in the world! This is my third time at the show with the Rocket and even in that time you can see that Sportboats are making a dent in the otherwise ultra conservative east coast market. Along with the Rocket is the Viper 640, SB3, FT10 and the Cross Current 33. The powerhouses Beneteau/ Jeanneau, J, Dufour, Catalina, Hunter, Tartan/ C&C, Sabre plus more cruising cats than you shake a stick at. Guest appearances from the NYYC sanctioned Swan 45, Gunhouse cats, Oyster and Alerion.
Brian (Rocket #11) and I agreed that the prettiest boat odf the show id definitely the Cross Current 33. At a base price of $360,000, this Italian made "day sailor" was a true labor of love.

She is not super quick (PHRF 66) but not a ride I would ever turn down, if given the opportunity.
The weather is expected to stay warm and muggy (89F/ 89 Humidity). Thank God for the Rocket's cooler!!!

Annapolis 2007

2007-10-03T08:22:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again. Put on your boat shoes, take a day or two and head to what we think is the best sailboat show in North America. The last time I looked the weather was supposed to cooperate with sunny skies forecast through the weekend. But who knows, in our experience the Annapolis weather can change in matter of seconds and the seasoned visitors will all remember last year with flooded tents and backed up storm drains. Even so, the crowds still came and it was another good show.

This year we are showing our most recently delivered Rocket 22 thanks to the owner, Brian Pickton, who hails from Nova Scotia. He will also be at the show with Alan and will be happy to answer any questions from an owner's perspective. Find us on the dock, stay for a while and even try to book a demo sail after the show wraps on Monday.

48 North - September 2007

2007-09-06T13:59:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Richard Hazelton at 48 North for featuring this shot of the Whidbey 2007 Rockets and also thanks to the photographer Kerri Lether. We had a great time and look forward to seeing everyone again in 2008.

Loving it at Whidbey 2007

2007-07-31T10:35:00.001-07:00

This picture from the 2007 Whidbey Island Race Week could be interpreted all kinds of way but I'll just leave it up to your imagination. We had three Rockets on the line this year and as always lots of interest on the docks and at the beer garden. Alan will be hopefully putting together a regatta report for us in the next few days before he leaves for the CORK Regatta in Kingston, Ontario starting on the 9th of August. The new owner of the boat being sailed at CORK will be coming up from his home in Nova Scotia to sail with Al at this premier event and both of them will be available to chat about the Rocket and also hopefully for demo sails in between the racing.

A Texan Rocket Family

2007-07-17T15:35:00.001-07:00

Jim Lanter, our Texan owner, has put up an excellent family sailing and racing piece on our owner's blog which is well worth reading. Please click here to be redirected.

Lazy Day on Lake Okanagan

2007-06-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

One of the fringe benefits of working near a body of water are the sailing opportunities every day! Here is Al out doing a bit product testing and preparing for Whidbey Island Race Week coming up later in July.

Pirates of the Pacific Northwest

2007-06-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Jonathan continues to be an excellent Ambassador for Rocket Boats in the Pacific Northwest showing and sailing his boat as often as he can. He has taken several interested parties out for demo sails in recent weeks, including two couples from Oregon. They've both been in contact with us with a range of questions and I hope that we'll have some additions to the PNW fleet soon. When Jonathan isn't showing his boat he is racing and below is a recent email he sent about the Duck Dodge Race.

"On Tuesday night I motored my boat around through the locks and into Lake Union for the famed Duck Dodge race. Another beautiful day with 8-12 knots of wind with gusts in the upper teens. I got to the start a bit late, and missed the first start (Synergy 1000, C&C 99, Custom 40, and one Melges 24). Then started back in the pack, in the second start (J22s, J24s, Custom 30, Santana 27, Paul Kalina's Rocket, T-birds, M242). It took me one up-wind and then one down-wind leg to move to the front. On the next second down-wind leg, we got a nice breeze, got the Rocket up on a plane at 9.5 knots and pulled away. I even caught a few of the stragglers in the first start. Oh, and by the way, the Duck Dodge theme for this Tuesday night was quite fitting: Pirate night. I even had a meter-square sized Jolly Rogers flag flying."

Thanks for the updates and photos Jonathan!!

"I've been everywhere, Man"

2007-05-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Me and my trusty mare, Edna, my customized 3/4 ton Chevy van, have really packed on the miles, 27,430 be precise!!! With the inclusion of the Sirius satelite radio and "Nigel/ Jessica" the GPS, Edna is truly my home away from home.
My first stint this year was to race in the SoCal Mid Winters in February. I convinced Mike that he needed to get away from the bitter cold of Calgary and fly down to LA and race his boat in the Mid Winters. I said "I will have it there and all you have to do is step on". So Mike agreed. He applied and got his PHRF cert and then registered in the "Sport boat B" fleet. B fleet, in theory, consisted of light diplacement boats in the 90-135 PHRF range. That would include: B 25, M 24, Tripp 26, R 22, Capri 23.5, Viper 640 to mention few. What a great fleet!!! As it turned out no one showed and we were thrown into a PHRF fleet that ranged from a J 109 to a MacGregor 25!
I got down there early to tune and get the bugs out of a new boat. Mike got a new set of North 3DR and I was eager see how they looked. Ever since we got the new rig in 2005, I have been tinkering and playing with the rig. My challenge was to make the boat de-powered in heavy air. I looked to the M24 class and they gave me some clues like " the helm should be neutal" "de-power the main by making it flat" "get lift off of both foils". I didn't have the luxury of 2 boat testing so I had to do the "trial and eror".
Fast forward to Mike's boat and the 3DR. I had already concluded that rake was good so I maxed out Mike's at 27in at the gooseneck. Then put the sails on. They seemed OK in the light stuff but was still too full even in 12-14kts. I needed to flatten the sail. I had kept in constant touch with Dave Cross at Quantum and he was pushing LOTS of tension on the rig and rake before we resort to recutting sails. So with my trusty (newly aquired) Loos gauge, I started to put "the screws" to the rig. Below are the same mains.

The interesting thing is that the cap shrouds on the left rig is tighter than on the right. The solution is in the D2 or intermediates. The rig on the right, I started with only the cap shrouds until I got the bend of the mast to match the sail. The loos guage was at 26 or 1030lb. I then tightened the D2 and lowers to eliminate pumping and side deflection. The D2 ended up at 15 or barely 400lb and the lowers were just hand tight. The sail on the right actually had 2 turns off the mast screw because it was 8-10kts. There is still a lot of work to be done and it would really speed up with 2 boat testing in a variety of wind strengths and waves.
We ended up taking out 1" out of the luff of the main for Jim Lanter's #10 and it really look good in heavy air (20-29kts) and flat water. It's the main above. We were able to "put the sail to sleep" or neutralize it without flogging when we didn't need the power.
Last week I used all this information and took a couple of M24 sailors for a test sail on the infamous Berkeley Circle. I didn't won't Mike to shoot me so I put on Rocket Science's sails. The circle wasn't at its best but it was still 20kts plus with short waves because of the adverse current and shallow waters. I had the screw cranked to flattenen the main and reduce headstay sage. At first the guys sailed it like a M24 and we pounded a bit but once we pulled the barberhaulers out and dropped the traveller we were able to widen our groove so we could play the waves and put the main to sleep. The guys were amazed that we were going unhill so nicely with only 3 on board and NO HIKING. They were also surprised at how dry the Rocket is. I think one of them said that "on a M24 they would gotten close and personal with every wave".
Oh ya, the downhill ride wasn't bad neither!!!

San Francisco Bay Slide Show

2007-04-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our uber helpful webmaster, who is also my brother law and doesn't mind working into the night for only food and pocket change, we now have a slide show up on our site using Peter Lyons pictures taken earlier this week right after the boat show. Looks like fun! Click here if you haven't already seen them - or want to see them again!!

The Rocket on SF Bay Part 2

2007-04-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here area few more shots taken of the Rocket by Peter Lyons on San Francisco Bay earlier this week. Al said it was an absolute blast with the breeze kicking up to 25 knots. He should be home by tomorrow and I expect he'll be uploading his longer road report sometime next week. I will also have all the pictures taken in this series up on our main website very soon.

Strictly Sail Update

2007-04-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

The show has now wrapped but Al will be staying in San Francisco for a couple of days before heading home to Penticton. It was an excellent 5 days in spite of some crazy weather on Saturday. Sunday was perfect with sun all day and a strong NW breeze coming straight down the estuary by early afternoon. Al and Jonathan sailed all day with one interested buyer after another and I dealt with the constant buzz on the dock. It was an excellent show and I'm glad that we made the decision to have the boat on the water. The Rocket begs to be sailed and after popping the asymmetrical and blasting off everyone we took sailing was converted. The highlight of Sunday was seeing the Rocket hitting 14.8 knots with the asso and Al, ever the showman, buzzing the dock and demonstrating perfect gybing technique. I've seen it all before but even so, I was impressed!

These great pictures were taken by Peter Lyons from Lyons Imaging who we first met last year at the Montana Cup. Peter is based in San Francisco and works as as marine photographer primarily in the the Bay Area. Al is taking the Rocket out to the Berkeley Circle on Tuesday with a couple of M24 guys and Rusty Canada from Doyle Sails who are building the next set of Rocket sails for our newest owner in New Mexico. Check back here as I hope to have some shots from their sail later this week.

Strictly Sail Day 3 - Can it get any better?

2007-04-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

Sun, sun and more sun today. My ears are sun burned! Oh yeah, and there was a great breeze to boot. An essential ingredient for a good boat show where sailing demos are the order of the day. All in all today was perfect. Al did an excellent job of spending as little time as possible at the dock and was out on the water with prospective buyers virtually all day. And there were a lot of them. So far we know of at least two orders that we can count on and I'm sure a few more will come as a result of the show. Al was joined today by Jonathan Little, one of our Seattle owners, who flew down to help us out over the weekend. It is always good to have an owner's perspective nearby and Jonathan is an fantastic ambassador for the Rocket 22.

We also owe a big debt of gratitude to Mike Seth, the owner of the show Rocket, who has so kindly let us use his boat for the duration of the show. It is owners like Mike and Jonathan that remind Al and I why we do what we do. They are great, supportive, generous with their time and boats and Al and I are both very grateful to them as well as all our other owners who have all helped us get to where we are today.

Scot from Sailing Anarchy also dropped by today with his son Tracy who happily walked off with a Rocket hat. Scot has also been a big supporter of our project from the very beginning and it was good to have him see the boat finally sailing. He said he was impressed and I believe him. After all, isn't everything on Sailing Anarchy the gospel truth?!

We're also getting a lot of interest and a few early sign ups for our Summer Sailing Clinic Program that is basically all about sailing and booze. We use all kinds of correct language like "gourmet", "sailing clinic" and "winery tours", but lets face it, it is really about sailing all day and drinking at night. What more could a sailor ask for! For anyone who doesn't know about this program click here.

Apparently the weather is supposed to change tomorrow with a bit less sun but I'll be dockside and looking forward to getting anyone interested out for a Rocket Ride!!

Anthony

A Cold Thursday in Oakland

2007-04-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

For a total of 8 hours today I don't think Al was on the dock at Strictly Sail for more than 15 minutes. We had a steady stream of people out sailing the Rocket on a cold and overcast day at the Thursday of the boat show. Wednesday was a bust for all the exhibitors with pitiful attendance and to be honest I haven't a clue why they even open for Wednesdays. All the Sail America folks are great and cheery trying to tell everyone that we're on our way to another record attendance, but I don't think so. The day was basically one exhibitor talking to another and moaning about the lack of traffic. At least all the exhibitors are great and there is always something to talk about.

Today was another story though. The line ups to go Rocket sailing were great with a couple of guys coming back for more and I expect tomorrow and the weekend to be even better. That is if the weather holds out. It is pissing with rain right now and cold. I thought this was California not British Columbia. Ah well, sailors are a hardy bunch and I doubt a little rain will put them off. At best it will keep the tire kickers at home.

On the dock today I had a chance to talk with a lot of people and was pleased at how many knew the Rocket and have been watching our progress. It was great to know that our Newsletters are being read and that people are taking a real interest in what we're up to. Al and I knew since the start that we had to prove ourselves in the market, both from a boat performance standpoint, but also from a "corporate staying power" point of view. No one wants to buy a boat only to find they've been orphaned by a company gone under. Sadly there are ample examples of this, but I think that now after 2 years and 14 boats we're well on our way to proving the skeptics wrong. We're going to be around for a while!!

I'm exhausted after a very busy day, but I'll try and get some more photos up tomorrow and let everyone know what Friday may bring. Thanks to everyone who came by today and we're looking forward to meeting more of you tomorrow.

By the way, if you haven't yet read the recent Rocket review in the April issue of SAIL Magazine please click here.

A Family Day on the Rocket

2007-04-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of sailing story we love to get as it shows the other side of Rocket sailing when a family can go out and enjoy racing together and even kick some butt at the same time. Well done Jim! Looking forward to getting the pictures.

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Hi Anthony,

Here’s a story for you.

This past weekend our club, the Grapevine Sailing Club, held its annual Mayor’s Cup Regatta which typically brings boats from neighboring lakes to compete, so for our club it is a fairly big event. This year we had a number of sailors from the Fort Worth Boat Club and surrounding area join us for the event. We registered, and were put in Division 1 which would be the fastest handicapped boats (boats with ratings of 105 to 120).

As the weekend approached, I had two sets of crew bail on me for several reasons which left me in somewhat of a bind. As of last Friday, the boat crew remaining was me and one other person. With winds forecast for Saturday in the high 20s to low 30s and cold temperatures that wasn’t going to work. Having exhausted my search for crew, I decided not to race on Saturday so I could attend my kids’ volleyball and baseball games. I also decided that since the forecast for Sunday was for light winds and mild temperatures, we would just race that day with me, Allison, and our two kids, Amanda and Jonathan, on the boat. I figured it would just be for fun and that we would not be competitive against fully crewed boats, but Amanda really wanted to get into a race on the new Rocket.

We went to the lake later on Saturday afternoon to attend the dinner and Saturday night party to find out that all races scheduled for Saturday had been cancelled due to the high winds (mid 30s) and low temps (low 40s). All of a sudden we were in contention for first place!

Sunday morning rolls around, and we get on the water. The winds start out in the low to mid teens, and we sail upwind and down with the asymmetrical with no problems. By race time the wind has dropped down to just under 10. Our crew positions are Allison on jib and spin, Amanda (age 10) on foredeck, Jonathan (age 8) on the sprit and tack lines, and me on helm, main and spin halyard. The course was a three leg windward/leeward. We got upwind nicely, round the windward mark and hoist the asymmetrical. We had a fouled lazy sheet on the spinnaker so I handed the helm to Amanda while I cleared the foul, and she drove most of the downwind leg. At the upwind finish, we are in third place and watch the boat behind us fail to correct over us. We were all excited that we finished that well since it was our first race as a family, and being able to race together was one of the primary reasons for buying the Rocket.

The second race scheduled for Sunday was abandoned because the wind went to essentially zero at the weather mark, time had run out, and the wind shifted about 180 degrees when it filled back in. We were all stoked with our third place trophy, and the kids were on top of the world. We were beat by an Olson 30 and J80, and finished ahead of a Santana 30/30GP and Olson 30.

Now, this was not an important regatta in the sailing world, but it was important for us in that it proved that in light to moderate winds the four of us can take the boat out and race it easily and competitively in our club with the kids having an active role. We found that our primary purchase criteria for this boat had been met. The kids are not relegated to fetching drinks (we get our own now that they are at our feet!), but are actively involved in sailing the boat. We all love the speed, acceleration, responsiveness, and stability of the boat. Sure, we made mistakes Sunday, we were conservative on hoists and drops, and need more time on the boat to smooth things out (this was the first time just the four of us sailed the boat), but we had a blast.

I should be getting a picture of us receiving our pickle dish, and I’ll forward that to you when I get it.

Jim

From our friend Kristen at Gale Force Sailing

2007-04-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of good links for anyone in the Annapolis area. Kristen and Gale Force Sailing are big supporters of the Rocket 22 and are doing a great job of representing us on the east coast. Kristen began his venture earlier this year but is already booked out through to the end of May and is working on his schedule for the summer. He has also been sailing the Rocket regularly on the Chesapeake and turning heads on the water. Here is a link back to his site about the Rocket specifically. Make sure to get in touch with him if you are in the Annapolis area. He'd love to get you out for a Rocket ride.

There are also rumors that we may have a Florida representative in the not too distant future. We've had a huge number of inquiries from Florida and would like to get some early action going there soon. If we move ahead with our plans you can expect to see us at Strictly Sail St. Petersburg in November. It is early days yet, but I'll keep everyone posted.

And for everyone on the West Coast, be sure to drop by and see us at Strictly Sail Pacific beginning April 18th at Jack London Square in Oakland.

California Update

2007-04-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Al has been busy doing the rounds in Southern California sailing in Marina del Rey, Long Beach and everywhere in between. I get these periodic sunny sailing pictures and have to remind myself that he is actually working! And doing a great job I should add. He has been meeting a lot of good people on this trip who are showing fantastic interest in our little boat. We actually sold another one yesterday and we know there are a couple more not far behind.

This shot is the Rocket off Long Beach with Bob Kettenhoffen from North Sails and friends on board. I spoke to Bob yesterday and he said they had a great afternoon and were very impressed with the boat. Always nice to get positive feedback from guys that have been around for a while. Bob is actually taking over the boat this weekend for the Ensenada Tune Up race which is sponsored by the Dana Point Yacht Club and the South Shore Yacht Club. After the racing Al will once again pack up the boat and start up the coast for a leisurely drive to Oakland for the Strictly Sail Pacific boat show which begins on the 18th of April at Jack London Square. We've been given an outside berth and will be able to get folks out for rides during the show and look forward seeing everyone then.

Rocket Racing Texas Style

2007-03-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Our new Texan owner had his first experience of Rocket racing on the weekend and what a weekend it turned out to be! Even with some pretty blustery conditions and a new crew they managed a couple of bullets. Al from Rocket Boats was on board helping out, but said that Jim and his crew did a fantastic job and will do the Rocket proud. For the complete results click here.

These are the comments from the race committee which give a taste of the conditions and we're happy to report the Rocket stood up admirably. Must be all the testing Al did on San Francisco Bay last year!

Spring series started March 24th with 15-20 mph gusts to 25
Lots of excitement with the Rocket 22 blasting off.
The Olsen 25 hit the committee boat and lost the leeward mark position.
Two Catalina 22s going crunch on the starting line
Wavelength 24 blew out a spinnaker
The Hobie guy pitched pole on a screaming reach and then turtled the boat.

We're very happy to have Jim and his family with us as a new Rocket owners and wish them fair Texan winds.

Kristen Berry - Our Intrepid East Coast Partner

2007-03-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering just what our mysterious east coast representative looks like, well here he is! Kristen has a long racing and sailing history all along the east coast and is a fixture in the Annapolis sailing scene. His new venture, Gale Force Sailing, is now up and running and which Kristen is marketing as a sailing adventure company providing corporate team building, coaching, and yacht management services. Kristen has already booked several major accounts and is looking forward to an excellent year. As well as representing the Rocket 22 on the east coast, he will also be incorporating several sport boat modules into his programs which he will run using the Rocket. As if this isn't enough, Kristen will also be participating in our summer sailing clinic and gourmet winery tour programs.

You may contact Kristen about either Gale Force Sailing or scheduling a Rocket 22 demo sail by email at kristen@galeforcesailing.com or by phone at 202.549.1032

Rocket 22 Sighted in Texas

2007-03-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Texan Rocket has arrived! Al and his son Nick left Penticton late last week and arrived at Lake Grapevine on Saturday. They were met by the new owner and his family who will be keeping their new Rocket at Scott's Landing Marina. As you can see a hydralift is being used to store the boat and keep the bottom clean. We’re very happy to welcome Jim and his family into the Rocket club and look forward to lots of updates and pictures! Jim has very kindly offered to show his Rocket to anyone interested so please send me an email at adutton@rocketboats.com if you’d like to meet up with Jim.

The Rocket 22 East Coast Representative

2007-03-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

It is always a pleasure to receive emails like this:

"I am writing to compliment you on your choice of Kristen Berry as a representative. I met Kristen at the St. Petersburg NOOD and when I expressed interest in the Rocket 22 - I had seen it last year at Sail Chicago - he immediately volunteered to show me the boat and do a demo sail. (This in spite of what I took to be a full schedule of other commitments.) He is an excellent sailor, as I'm sure you're aware, and a very able spokesman. If I decide to go ahead with a boat in this category - I already own an offshore racer/cruiser and I am considering adding a sport-boat to the "fleet" - the Rocket 22 will certainly be on the short list. "

For anyone in the Annapolis area Kristen can be reached at kristen@galeforcesailing.com or by phone at 202.549.1032

Rocket Slide Show

2007-03-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

Rocket 22 and the Ultimate 20. Plus our interior

2007-02-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

Below is Al’s recent response to someone interested in comparing the Rocket to an Ultimate 20. This is a boat we are often compared to, I think simply because we are in a similar length overall band. I've also added a couple of interior pictures of the Rocket. The usual response when people poke their heads down below is "are you sure this boat is 22 feet!!".

********************************************

Hi Jim,

I just finished driving a Rocket 22 from Penticton BC to LA last night, so hopefully I will make sense. First of all the U20 is a great boat. The fundamental difference is that the U20 is a large dinghy and the Rocket is a small keelboat. The difference is much bigger than the 2ft LOA suggests. The Rocket has more freeboard making it a drier boat in waves. The freeboard also helps in the volume down below. I compare below to a J24, Merit 25 or a Capri 25. The Rocket has both the Asymmetrical and symmetrical spinnakers. The mast, sprit and spin pole are all carbon.

The stock Rocket comes ready to race. It is really down to engine, electronics (Tacktick T075 is my choice), boat cover and cushions (I wouldn't take them because I wouldn’t need them to race). The stock Rocket 22 has all Sampson racing lines and adjustments that you would ever need. Main halyard, spin sheets are all tapered and 1/8" spectra is used on the traveler, jib halyard, topping lift, outhaul, twings, barberhauler, vang and Cunningham for less resistance.

All the lines have been hand spliced with one end open with extra line so that you can make fine adjustments before finalizing the length. The tiller is carbon fiber and the tiller extension is an adjustable Ronstan "Battle stick". The rudder is "infused" and weighs around 15lbs. The roller furling has a dedicated "Facnor" halyard swivel so that you have the ability to adjust the jib halyard, from the pod, with a 4:1 purchase and still be able to furl the jib. No other "stock" boat that I know of has that feature.

The spin pole is carbon fiber with light weight Forespar fittings custom finished with spectra line. The stanchions are PHRF "legal" at 18" and no further than 7Ft apart. The only thing we don't put on is the pulpit. The life lines have a 2" strap in the cockpit area so it doesn't hurt you back when you lean on it. The strap is fastened by 1800lb test spectra and adjusted at the factory so that there is slack and then a bungie cord is tied on to it to take up the slack.

The only thing that would be needed on the Rocket is for "special" racing like single or double handed racing, offshore or cruising. The Rocket's PHRF # in SoCal is 102 and in the NW its 105 which is the same as a J105 so it is considerably faster than the U20.

The Rocket can be either crane or trailer launched and since the mast is carbon it’s not a problem to drop due to its very light weight.

If you have any questions please get back to me and I will be happy to help you.

Alan Barnes

The Best of the Okanagan - Summer 2007

2007-01-30T13:14:00.000-08:00

For blog visitors that came through our website you've probably seen the recently added information about our Summer 2007 program - The Best of the Okanagan. If you missed it click here. We'll post regular updates on this and hope it will be a big success and that we'll have sufficient demand to expand next year. We've had offers already from local businessess to add in golf programs, hiking and biking trips and of course more winery visits. You could stay in the Okanagan the whole summer and still not visit all the wineries dotted about. There is all sorts of information about Okanagan Wines available on the intenet and elsewhere and one of the best resources we know of is right here. Enjoy and Cheers!!

On the program itself, I've been getting emails and calls all morning wanting clarrification on a couple of things. First, the price. It is $2,195.00 per person, but all hotel rooms are booked for double occupancy so if you want to bring a wife, friend or other(!?!) then the price remains the same except there will be an additional charge for meals.

We are also offering group discounts which will depend on the size of the group. Each Rocket will have a maximum of 4 people and we will only use 2 boats to get the most out of the sailing which means that groups can't be bigger than 8 people.

Also, as we've posted, we will credit the full price of the program to anyone that signs a purchase agreement for a new Rocket within 21 days of the end of the program. But we're also flipping this around so that anyone signing a purchase agreement prior to the August start dates will get the full program for no additional cost.

This event will be fun and it would be worthwhile to hang around for more than 3 days to enloy all there is to do in the Okanagan Valley.

Greetings from San Francisco

2007-01-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hello Alan!

It's been five months since I met you in the burrito line at the North Flathead YC during the Montana Cup Regatta. I've checked out your website a couple times since then, looking over the Rocket 22, but only today found your blog. I see that just before racing in Montana you'd been on San Francisco Bay at the Berkeley Circle with OCSC. I'm amused because after leaving Montana in October, I relocated here in San Francisco and have become a member of OCSC! So I'm working through some sailing certifications there, and am having a great time with it. I've also launched a marine photogaphy business, and am working hard on getting known and getting published.

I'm sending you a couple photos of Count Down from the Montana Cup. If you like them and find them useful feel free to use them on your website or however you please (I can send larger copies by request, if needed). I hope if you'll look me up next time you're in the bay area. It would be a pleasure to do some sailing or even just have a couple beers and talk about it!

Peter Lyons
www.lyonsimaging.com

Happy Holidays and Fair Winds for 2007

2006-12-22T00:31:00.000-08:00

All the best for the Holiday Season from the Rocket Boats team! We wish everyone a wonderful and prosperous New Year with fair winds for 2007. We will begin traveling again with the Rocket after the holidays with scheduled appearances on both coasts as well as Florida. We look forward to meeting up with old friends and making some new ones as we all set our sails for a New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Charlotte, Sheldon, Darin, Alan, Don & Anthony

News Release - Price Changes for 2007

2006-11-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

Vancouver, B.C., November 9th, 2006 - Rocket Boats is pleased to announce that thanks to some key production changes and improved manufacturing efficiencies we are able to reduce the Rocket 22's price for 2007. Our old price of $39,950 will drop to a new price $34,950 effective January 1st, 2007. And as an extra bonus we will also take an additional 15% off the new 2007 price for any order received by December 31st, 2006.

Earlier this year Rocket Boats made two significant changes allowing us to make this price reduction. First, we moved into our own dedicated manufacturing facility where we now produce every aspect of the Rocket except for sails, trailer, electronics and spars, although we now do our own rigging in-house. This has reduced our cost structure, improved our production efficiencies and importantly, given us much better quality control.

The second change we made was in the production process itself. We are now producing the Rocket using vacuum bagged vinylester resin infusion rather than hand lay up. This has greatly improved the GRP production process with both time and materials savings. The end result is a better, stronger and more consistent product built in an environmentally friendly manner. For more information on resin infusion please click here.

We are very excited about these changes and are looking forward to providing you with the best Rocket possible. We are now taking orders for Spring 2007 delivery. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you might have and find out how you can be sailing your own Rocket soon!

Also, please contact us about additional savings on fleet purchases of two or more Rockets.

Seattle Owner Rockin with his Rocket

2006-10-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

No matter what kind of business you're in it is always good to hear from people who like what you are doing and get enthusiastic about your product. The Annapolis boat show was no exception and thoughout the show we had constant positive feedback from everyone from existing owners, to potential owners to sailors in general who continue to respond positively to the Rocket.

Our new Seattle owner has been getting a lot of use out of his new boat and just sent this email about his race last weekend. We've also been getting more calls from the Seattle area from folks who have seen Jonathan out on the water and I hope we'll have our third Rocket there soon.

*****

Anthony,

Just a quick little note to say that this past weekend I raced my new Rocket in the final race of the year for Seattle's famous 'Duck Dodge - Rum Run'. This race was a point to point race starting from Shilshole Marina, around a few buoys, and then across the Puget Sound to Port Madison Harbor. It was a beautiful day with a consistent wind out of the north between 12 and 15 knots. We started in the second start with various boats from 40 feet in length, down to the Rocket 22. We were about third at the first weather mark and put up the spinnaker for a short ride down to the West Point buoy. We rounded in second, having a few moments of planing at ten knots. On the way back up to the Meadow Point buoy, we were passed by a C&C 115 (having about 11 feet more waterline). Across the sound on a close reach we stay even with all the boats ahead and immediately behind us. Within a mile of the finish we were able to bear off enough to raise the asymmetrical chute and take off on a plane at about 12 knots. The boat was solid and felt like it was on rails. We caught up and passed the C&C 115, dropped the sails, and motored into Port Madison for the famous Duck Dodge post race raft-up and refreshments (remember, it's Rum Run!). The attached photo is from the raft-up. The nearest boat finishing to us that was under 30 feet (and not that far behind us), was Paul Kalina's Pocket Rocket! What a fun afternoon on the water!

Jonathan

Annapolis 2006 - Or is this Vancouver Rain?

2006-10-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

OK, today’s great Annapolis weather was worse than last year with horizontal rain and wind whipping a mess on the outer reaches of the docks. I felt sorry for the folks working out there as some of the docks were more active than my two kids jumping on a water bed. You needed to down a couple of Gravols just to walk out and gawk at the Oysters. But they are beautiful boats and it was worth almost being tossed into the harbor. I did a mental calculation on the way out and concluded that we would have to sell approximately 650 gazillion Rocket 22s and then I could afford to buy an Oyster. We’re on our way!!

The difference between this year’s show and 2005 is huge for the Rocket. The level of awareness is much higher with many people coming over to say hello from last year and many others announcing that we are one of the main reasons they came to this years show. Tuesday could be very busy for Al as we’ve already lined up a day of demo sails for some serious prospects and we aren’t half way through the show yet. I’m guessing that we could be around for a few days next week as the full thrust of the show hasn’t really started yet.

The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow and we are looking forward to a good three days. This show is really an experience that shouldn’t be missed and I for one would like to spend some more time wandering around looking at the other boats and exhibits. There are some great boats here, the Esse 850 comes to mind, and some equally good booths. But most of all, this place is wall to wall with great people, both exhibitors and visitors alike. Everyone is friendly, supportive and full of encouragement for the smaller and newer companies like ours. For me coming to these shows always reminds me why Al and I do what we do – it’s the people. Hope to meet you over the next few days.

Rocket in Seattle Update

2006-09-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

It is always good to get email like the one below from happy owners! Jonathan has also agreed to take any Seattle area sailors out for a spin, so if this is you, please send me an email at adutton@rocketboats and I'll put you in touch with Jonathan.

Anthony and Alan,

Yesterday was a bit busy for me, so I am finally getting around to responding to your emails. Yes that photo of me (and Paul Kalina) with a big grin, is the face of a happy sailor and customer! It sure was a long wait, but I know the wait will be worth it. Sailing that boat Sunday in 10 or so knots of wind was the smooth, effortless feel that makes the Rocket a shining star.

I really appreciate Alan coming down and spending the day with me to put the boat together. There are always lots of details with a new boat and I was really happy to have the support and guidance.

Thanks again for having the boat delivered. Darin and Charlotte seem to be very nice folks as well. I told Darin that I may come up and do some skiing this winter with you and see the Rocket factory.

As I have said from the beginning, I love the boat, and I am very willing to be an integral part of the sales team as I show this boat off to the Pacific Northwest. I have a complete respect for how hard it is to bring a new boat to a very competitive market, and I know how hard you guys have been working to gain the attention and respect from the sailing community.

I enjoy working with you both very much and I look forward to many years of sailing my Rocket.

Sincerely,

Jonathan

Rocket #8 on Puget Sound!

2006-09-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Now here is a man with the patience of job. Jonathan Little, the proud new owner of Rocket #8 had given up telling curious sailors when his boat was arriving. Thank goodness he understood the trials and tribulations that Rocket Boats has had in re-tooling the molds in order to build the boats with the Vacuum Infused Process (VIP) and the delays needed in production to achieve this. Anyway the big grin on his face shows me that it was well worth it!

The only down side to the day was that we didn't get the chance to use the self draining cooler.

The Red Fox Regatta

2006-09-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

After the Montana Cup, the next planned stop was American Yacht Club in Rye, New York. That meant driving for 2800 miles, by my self, without a break. That's too much solitaire confinement for anyone. So Anthony got back onto Sailing Anarchy and asked for suggestions of which regatta, in the Mid West, on the September Long Weekend, that we should race in. Mr Clean came back immediately and said "The Red Fox Regatta in Charlevoix, Michigan" and "bring your drinking hat"!

The 36th running of the Red Fox is basically one race on Saturday to Boyne City at the other end of the lake with a few marks thrown in along the way. You then raft up in Boyne City where there is a BBQ dinner, a Mount Gay hospitality tent and local beer on tap. On the Sunday morning, with a hangover, you do it all over again only in reverse back to Charlevoix.

I arrived on Wednesday night (thanks to mapquest) which gave me time to recuperate from the drive, set up the boat and doing a little touristing. Charlevoix is a small (pop 3500)waterfront town situated at the channel that connects Lake Charlevoix to Lake Michigan. In the summer it swells to 10,000 and my first impression was that it reminded me of one of the back harbors of Annapolis including estate homes and 40fters! As I found out, this is the area that the rich and famous from Chicago and Detriot fly in on their private jets to play. No recession here!!

Friday night, CYC ran a warmup race and it gave myself and my new crew a chance to figure where the front end of the boat was. Alan (Mr. Clean) had jumped ship from his normal ride, Cujo (Melges 24) and brought along with him, Meredith (his girlfriend) and Anne (her girlfriend).

Registration showed that there were 84 boats ranging from Hobie 17s in the Portsmouth division all the way up to Equation (Andrews 68) in PHRF. There was one OD class and that was a fleet of 13 Melges 24s. In our fleet, we were scratch boat at 105 with the slowest being at 135. In the mix was a real cross section of boats; B-25, S2 9.1, Beneteau 25.5(Farr), Frers 33 and a Pearson Flyer. We felt we needed some downwind planing in order to compensate for everybody's up wind waterline length advantage. Our other concern were the Melges. After jumping ship, Alan had been doing some serious "trash talking" and he was hoping that he wouldn't be eating "crow" on the Saturday night! I looked forward to sailing along side the Melges and maybe I can learn some of their speed secrets. They were starting two classes back so we had a ten minute head start. The race was about 18 miles so there was a good chance the front runners would catch us. The question was, how many?

Before the start we checked out the course and if would be mainly up hill and close hauled fetching, with very little downwind work. Not what we were looking for.

By the fourth mark we had done two beats and two close hauled fetches and we weren't saving our time on the S2 and the Flyer. We had a beam to broad reach and then a run for our next two legs and it was questionable whether we could carry the asso on the first one. We wre 3/4 through the race and the first three Melges were right behind us. If they popped their chutes so would we and they did! We broached one or two times more than they did and by the second off wind leg, three of the Melges were just ahead of us and we put a bit of time on our fleet.

We turned the corner to go up wind and Alan gave a bit of advice that has become a revelation to my Rocket upwind performance. He said "They sail the Melges with no helm." I started re-adjusting my mainsheet, vang and traveller until the helm went dead and low and behold I was going the same speed as the Melges. For the rest of the race I worked the main and the traveller and compared our speed and got one of the first three Melges back before losing him at the finish. I was stoked!!! Afterwards I talked to a couple of the top Melges guys and they expanded on this principal. In a nut shell the foils are so skinny that if you have any helm that means cavitation= slow. If you heal, your foils load up=cavitation=slow.

We saved our time on everyone in our fleet except the well sailed S2. Next day we woke to a 180 degee wind change and instead a nice run home, it would be another uphill race. I din't mind because I could put the "dead helm" theory to work on the Rocket. It started out light and built to 15-17kts. As the wind built, Alan played the twist in the jib and I concentrated on the feel. In puffy conditions the Melges use their backstay to open up their leach to stop their helm from loading up. On the Rocket we have a fully stayed rig and no backstay, so we use a nice , long traveller that the Melges guys would die for. In our fleet the Farr 25.5 and the B-25 were fighting out behind us about 7-9minutes behind, but I was watching the Melges to see if they would catch us. By the weather mark none of the Melges had caught us and the only one within five minutes had banged the other side of the lake and had a huge lead on the rest of his fleet. We were much quicker upwind than yesterday!
In the end we snuck out a win by 5 seconds over the B-25 with the Farr 25.5 was a close third.

The Red Fox Regatta is one of those hidden gems, that are scattered throughout North America, that demonstrates the true reason why we love this sport, its the people!!

Great Rocket Review - Read On!!

2006-09-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

This review comes from www.windchaseryachts.com/gybe_mark.asp and is required reading for anyone seriously interested in the Rocket. Rudy is a very experienced sailor and has put a lot of thought into his review and we thank him for his efforts.

The new Rocket 22 Review

When I first formerly reviewed the original Pocket Rocket design close to a decade ago for the Pacific Yachting “Race West” magazine, I remarked that legendary designer Gary Mull was easily some 17 years ahead of his time with this classic 22’ design. Little did I know that Mull may well have been 25 years ahead of the game, after a carefully executed Don Martin supervised re-fit that would apply the latest in cutting edge design and technology to produce the third and most advanced version of what is now called the Rocket 22. For those of you unfamiliar with Don Martin, aside from keeping up to date on the latest technological breakthroughs as an official Americas Cup class measurer, Mr. Martin is also a well known builder and designer with a reputation for pushing the performance envelope well beyond conventional thinking of the day. His design pedigree of the original Martin 24, the highly successful Martin 242 OD, and the breathtakingly fast Martin 243 were all boats that offered groundbreaking performance in their respective era’s. Thus when the opportunity arose to do a formal review on the new Rocket 22 I certainly welcomed the opportunity with open arms.

What’s different? Well in fairness quite allot. It’s one thing to change to a new lighter weight and stiffer laminate schedule, in fact in today’s day and age, it’s basically an expected requirement. Likewise to add a backstayless, taller carbon rig with a flush furling, non overlapping sailplan is also a given; as is new, more modern, higher lift, lower drag foils. Dual kites? Once again not uncommon in a new modern day sportboat and yes the new Rocket 22 has both. In fact most every sportboat on the market these days will boast ALL of these features. However like most good things in life, it is always those little things that make all the difference and that is precisely what set’s the new Rocket 22 apart from the pack. For most sportboats; the focus is on performance and convenience features as just listed above and other than that little else. While speed and ease of sailing are important considerations, for those of us who enjoy the fine art of tuning and tweaking, this is where the new Rocket 22 really excels.

Unlike most sportboats, the new Rocket 22 has a well designed “center pod” that not only houses all basic controls, it also offers controls largely ignored by most other boats in the class. Jib luff, mainsail Cunningham, are just some of the controls neatly led under deck to the console. Likewise the Rocket 22 also boasts underdeck barber haulers for the jib, and adjustable jib car fairleads; ideal for optimized sail trim and to assist in de-powering the large sailplan, There is also an adjustable mast base step to easily and effectively add rig tension and pre-bend to the large carbon rig; a nice touch given the lack of a backstay. Most every control line that can be led cleanly under the deck or through the hull is and most every exit and entry point has a special catch basin that will deposit accumulated water back out of the hull. In addition, the 2:1 jib sheets, much like the spinnaker sheets, can be easily and properly sheeted from either side of the boat without winches or the need for cross winching; another clever touch given the boats rather gargantum 9’8” beam. There is no question that a rather considerable amount of time was spent throughout the boat in finding innovative solutions to age old problems. For example the spinnakers are launched from a flush mounted bow hatch that is connect directly to specially shaped spinnaker bags down below; aside from creating quick hoists; it also keeps the cockpit and companionway area clear and makes for easy kite changes. Another flush mounted hatch that met with my approval is a special cockpit housed cooler – that’s right, hidden beneath the cockpit and easily accessible by all, is your very own built in cooler. Finding this one full of ice cold glacial fresh Kokanne clearly meant it was time to go sailing.

Wind conditions included an unstable South Easterly puffing sporadically in the 15-20 range and offering reasonably flat water, not the greatest conditions for racing, but great conditions for testing. While most every boat has come up with a different system for lifting the keel, the Rockets is easily the most creative utilizing the 2:1 main halyard and a clever winch system that attaches directly to the boom. Once the keel was secure the lifting gear was stored and the main hoisted leaving only the headsail to be unfurled, another quick and easy process I might add. We waited all of five minutes before extending the carbon-fibre bowsprit and hoisting the massive masthead asymmetrical spinnaker, once again easily and quickly done courtesy of the ability to launch directly from the bow without having to skirt the kite around the shrouds like on other boats.

Once the kite is up the Rocket effectively launches; instant acceleration is evident and the powerful hull shape wants nothing more than to break out on a full on plane. Before long we were doing exactly that and clipping along effortlessly between 10-11 knots, and I do mean without breaking a sweat whatsoever. There is not a ton of rudder under the boat and with every puff you need to bear down sharply where you will be rewarded with an adrenaline rush of pure speed as the bow rises, the knotmeter climbs, and you suddenly feel like an addict waiting for the next puff to come along, hopefully bigger than the last one. Gybes? No problem, and more so without fear of having the heavily roached main getting caught on the backstay, again a luxury of a backstay free rig. Yes, the boat also has a symmetrical kite, and a much as I am a huge fan of symmetricals, when you have a platform that is this efficient and fast with an asso. I can see the old school (but dead sexy carbon) spin. pole as being little more than a nice fire place mantle sitting next to your 8 track player. In short I could have easily sailed this boat downhill all the way to Kelowna and felt like Ricardo Montalban in a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba along the way….the ride was so silky smooth as Ricardo would have said. However I am also an uphill fanatic and wanted to turn around and see how the new Rocket 22 handles breeze, so after a quick douse, we were on our way.

I have to admit, given the generous sail area I expected we would be aggressively de-powering the boat, however I was very surprised that this was entirely not the case. Aside from having a 750 lb lead bulb some 6’ under the boat for impressive RM (righting moment), one of the huge upsides in having a gigantic 9’8” beam is that you can achieve extremely effective crew weight transfer when all that body mass is hiking over 4’6” away from centerline. While I had earlier questioned the Rocket 22’s at the Whidbey Island Race Week for sailing with just 3 people against Melges 24’s carrying 5 people, I can now better support the mantra of three’s company and four (or more) is a crowd. The boat drives easily and one of the most pleasant attributes is the ability to tack on a dime – literally. With a non overlapping sailplan and no backstay to hang the generous main on, you can tack instantaneously and be back up to speed in no time, and more importantly about five times faster than most anything you would be racing against in a PHRF rating band. On the whole a fairly pleasing upwind boat with nice manners.

Dislikes? I had a few. You cannot help but notice the rather massive 9’ of traveler mounted at the extreme aft end of the boat. While this arrangement does help to create a stiffer overall platform, you have more traveler than five J/24’s combined. Naturally you would expect such a formidable traveler to be a key part of the program, however the traveler car controls are mounted rather awkwardly in the aft end of the center pod, given the 9’8” beam, it is a long way back in to the pod to adjust the traveler, not to mention it is fairly close to the floor and it not easily adjusted within a conventional arms reach while on the rail. The dual sided arrangement also creates some added complexity during your tacks. I think if the controls were mounted on the top of the pod with some wedged cam cleats; just aft of the extremely well located mainsheet swivel, this problem would be solved. My only other beef is a small one with the spinnaker halyard cleat; it is mounted rather awkwardly in front of the cabin entry. From a routing standpoint the halyard makes several friction adding turns to get there. From my perspective this cleat would be better mounted either directly on to the mast, or even under the deck with a fairlead keeping it close to the hatch entry.

Summary. In short The Rocket 22 is a very cool and unique boat; there is no question that it is a distinctive offering in a competitive market that offers all of the performance and features required to be a bonafide sportboat and yet also boats an uncommon amount of tweakability to keep even the most technical of sailors happy. I think what was most surprising is that the new Rocket 22 comes across as far more than simply an update on a proven design, and likewise it is also a fairly dramatic departure from the keep it simple One Design concept of either the Melges 24 or Ultimate 20. That is not to suggest that the Rocket 22 is a complex boat, rather it is a more diverse boat, capable of meeting the needs of a more varied group of sailors. I think what I like most about the new Rocket 22 is how versatile it is by modern day sportboat standards; for a more seasoned sailor this is a fun boat that will easily keep you entertained every moment you spend on the water. The ease of trailering is also an asset, more so as the Rocket is far more suited towards daysailing and racing as opposed to weekending. On the whole it is a sailor’s boat; that is to say it is a boat that should be seen and sailed to be appreciated and that is precisely what designer Gary Mull became famous for, or “really nice boats” as Mull often observed, never go out of style, and the Rocket 22 design is truly no exception.

The Montana Cup

2006-08-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

We packed up the Rocket and headed to our next destination, Flathead Lake and the Montana Cup. We were invited there by Mike Seth (proud owner of Rocket #9, completion date early October) and his crew Rod and Jed. My son and I were looking forward to a little less wind and fresh water and that is exactly what we got! After 21 hours of driving we couldn't get into that lake quick enough! Flathead Lake reminds me a lot of our home Lake, Okanagan. Both have crystal clean, warm water, warm sunny weather and the lake is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

We arrived on Thursday and put the Rocket into the water which gave us time relax and catch up on some sleep. It also gave me a bit of time to look at changes to the club that Mike had talked about. The host club, North Flathead Lake Yacht Club (NFLYC) had previously that winter, put in new moorage, landscaping and now had a top notch marina and clubhouse.

I also got a chance to observe our competition as they arrived from across the lake and neighboring states. We were put in "A" fleet, boats like the J-24's and Ultimate 20's were in "B" fleet and J-22's and SR21's in "C" fleet. The local boats in our fleet, a Schock 35 "Limerick", an Olson 30 "Jolie Blon' " and a Santa Cruz 33 "Maria" were already at the Marina. One by one the visiting boats arrived. Last years winner a Hobie 33 "Spirit", then the J 90 "Eye Eye", a Frers "Dream Catcher" arrived from the other end of the lake. Then, what I thought was the boat of the week was the extremely well preserved 38ft A-Scow "Camel" followed by her junior cousin a 28ft E-Scow "Sympathy for the Devil". To say it lightly, a very diverse fleet!!

They had a warm up race on Friday night which gave the boys a good chance to get familiar with the boat. As tactician, I ignored the one thing you always do when you come into a new club and unfamiliar waters and that was "follow the locals"! Quite simply, we got slaughtered.

As I was having a beer after the race Mike suggested that we "Hit the Hay", white flag comes early. How early I ask? Skipper's Meeting 6:30, white flag 7:30. I couldn't believe it!! WHY?? Mike explained, at the north end of the lake you have early morning thermals from the north, as it warms up the breeze fades, so by noon its calm. Later in the day it switches and blows from the south and by evening its coming from the west!

Next morning true to their word, a nice 10-12kt breeze and a 7:30 white flag. Quick out of the gates were the Olson 30, Hobie 33 and much to our surprise we corrected over the Schock 35 for third. For the rest of the day (morning) as the wind got lighter we got quicker, especially down wind with the asso. Our philosophy was to try and hang up wind and motor down hill, which we did. As I quickly discovered, even though the boats were diverse, it was a very talented fleet. We were very aware that it was our wind, if it got stronger and wavier the results would be quite different and that is the nature of the one number PHRF beast.

Next morning, the beast had indeed changed. Wind was stronger and the Greyhounds were flying!! When the J-90 got clear of the fleet she was gone, luckily for the rest of the fleet it only happened a couple of times but everyone saw her potential. The Hobie 33 started to hit last years form but the boat of the day was the Olson 30. All we could do was hang around and stay close enough to correct over on handicap. Things that helped us was the ability to tack as soon as we got a shift and not slow down. Once again our downwind speed put us back in contention. In the end, the Olson couldn't overcome its 5th the day before and since its a "no drop" regatta, we managed to win on a tie breaker with that 5th being their "double edged sword".

If anybody has the ability to tow their boat to regattas you have to consider this regatta www.nfyc.org. The location is phenomenal, competition is excellent, the famous Montana hospitality shines but I will never get used to a 6:30 Skippers Meeting.

Bayview's Monday Madness

2006-08-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

I was also invited to the Bayview Yacht!!! Sorry Boating Club"s Monday Madness. Over the weekend, every time I mentioned the club's name, I would get, from those who knew the club, laughs and giggles and often a story associated with their annual "Plastic Classic" regatta(thanks Max). Something about overly enthusiastic female spectators at the weather mark trying to distract the participants and apparently succeeding!! I thought to myself "why would they want to invite a brand new, asso strutting, sport boat to a club that prides itself in the promotion of "older is better!!"

For the race I needed crew that knew how to get to the club from Berkeley Marina and the body of water that we were going to sail in. Once again we went to Sailing Anarchy for help and got a quick reply from Max. I then called Tim, an OCSC instructor that had Monday off and he was keen! They were both available for a little practice time before the race. After a couple of tacks and some nice screaming broad reaches it was time for the trip to Bayview.

For those of you not familiar with the bay area and love bridges, this is the place for you!! We had to go under two bridges to get to Bayview. One was the old "S.F- Oakland Bay" bridge and the new "hugely over budget and highly controversial" bridge. Thank goodness Max came with us because the club was "shoe horned" between a couple rusted, out of service, old military ships and hidden behind a pier. We sailed in, docked and I went up to register for the race.

What I found was one of the friendliest, funky looking clubs I had ever seen. I had to do a double take!! It was as if I just walked into an old "raw" bar in Key West. There I was standing in the middle of the bar, with my fashionable Helly Hansen inshore, baby blue, breathable state of the art sailing gear and rap-around RayBan sunglasses. There was a sudden hush, like the one you would see on a spaghetti western when the bad guy walks in. Looking back at me were a dozen or so Gerry Garcia and Jimmy Buffet look alikes. I didn't know that pony tails were in fashion!! Boy did I feel out of place!! I mumbled something about a race and was directed to the patio and the race committee. I registered and went back to the boat.

The race, for us, was rather anti climatic. We started on a fairly tight broad reach and as the gusts shot out between the warehouses along the waterfront we would franticly try and bare off. On the third broach we broke our lower pintle and after a successful "fireman's drill" we sat there like a cork and watched the fleet of "classic" boats sail by.

Funny enough, the first thing that came to mind was that I wouldn't be able to get back to the Bayview Boat Club and tip back a few and spend some quality time with the locals. The next time I'm back in the Bay area I want to find out why they call it "Monday Madness"!!

Berkeley Circle

2006-08-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

After a week of racing the new resin infused Rocket 22 at Whidbey, it was time to really put her through her paces and what better place than on the Berkeley Circle. The Berkeley Circle is a group of 8 bouys placed in a circular fashion (points on a compass) with x mark(start mark) at the hub of the wheel. No matter what direction the wind is blowing there will always be a windward/leeward/reach mark set. These are not the property of one club so that on any given day or evening one of the many clubs in the Bay area will have a race going on. In the summer, when a high pressure is firmly entrenched over the Northern California coast, the sun warms up the Sacramento Valley. The warm air rises and it sucks the cool ocean air in to replace it. The wild card to how strong it blows is the morning fog. If there isn't very much fog in the morning or it burns off quickly, watch out, its going to "blow the dog off the chain"!

Our gracious host for the next five days was Anthony, the owner of OCSC, the largest sailing school in the Bay area. I can't thank you enough Anthony, for opening up your phenomenal facilities for us to use.

We (my son and I) rigged and launched the Rocket and prepared her for the Berkeley Yacht Club Friday night race. My son took one look at the 25kts and said "find another crew" so I walked the OCSC docks and threw out the invitation. Immediately Jimmy, one of the maintenance guys, jumped up and volunteered and said he had a friend, Meredith, that would like to come. At the same time I got a message from a local hotshot Dominique that I met and sailed with at the Oakland boat show and he was up for the race . Alright!! We are ready to race!
Remember, this is a brand new boat that has never seen anything over 12kts. I had visions of disaster running through my head. We arrived at the line and in a blur were off. Thanks to the internet a Megles 24 got wind that we were going to race and showed up from Richmond.

Our fleet consisted of a couple of OCSC Ultimate 24s, a few J24s (one of which was very well sailed) the Melges and us. It quickly became a three boat race. The first beat we played around with the barberhaulers and the jib tracks and did our best to stay with the Melges. The first run was uneventful. The next beat Dominique had got the boat nicely dialed in and we felt that the Rocket started to settle in and go fast. For the final run, all the gloves were off and up went the asso. Next thing we new we were on a screaming broad reach with the Melges close on our heels! This was great, exchanging gybes to the finish and not giving an inch! Now came the tricky part, the finish was inside the breakwater at the entrance of this huge, super busy marina. At the last minute I chickened out and took the chute down and let the Melges beat us across the line by 15-20 sec. I couldn't help but think back, as I watched the Melges doing 13+kts into the entrance and remembered the grief I got three weeks earlier for coming into the Penticton Marina with my main up while under power. The J 24 corrected over us but it was a great boost to know that the Rocket can live quite happily and thrive on the Berkeley Circle!

Whidbey Island Race Week 2006

2006-08-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

The month leading up to Whidbey was a blurrr!! The boys in the shop had just finished #7 and were starting on hull #8. I was in the process of trying to pull together 4 Rockets and crews together in order to have a presence at Whidbey. The logisics of replacing old rigs with the new ones, making sure that all the sails were One Design size, getting their PHRF-NW certs and delivering them, grew exponentially larger, the closer the time came to leave for the regatta.

The burdon fell squarely on the shoulders of Ken, Sheldon and Darin in the shop with a special thanks (have I thanked you guys yet?) to Bryce and Terry coming in at the last minute to get us over the top! If you have a couple of hours to spare, any one of them can fill you in on the details.

After talking to the owners, it was decided to race the regatta with the class assos only. After much consultation with Charles Tolman, the bean counter for PHRF-NW the magic number came to 96!! What the He--!! We OWE 3 sec to Melges 24 and Olson 30!! But as someone said "you can't fight beaurocracy"! We assumed the position that made Kevin Bacon famous and said "Thankyou Sir, may I have another".

NOTE: This is the first regatta that a Rocket has raced with an asso. The learning curve was vertical. Do we sail hot? Deep? When do you pull out the sprit? What's a sprit?? Out of the 4 crews only one had sailed together before as a unit.

The fleet consisted of 2 Melges 24, 2 Olson 30, a Sonic 30, J 27,Humbolt 30 and 4 Rockets. Besides the J 27 the gap was only 12 sec from quickest to slowest.

From the onset, two trends appeared. The two Melges, the Olson Lunchbox and the Sonic, Violator were doing exactly that to the rest of us!

The other trend that became apparently clear to me, as I religiously rushed to the right side of the course, was that someone forgot to flush the tiolet!! I have come to believe in two things in my many trips to Whidbey Race Week: 1/ You WILL have a hangover every morning and 2/ Penn Cove acts like a tiolet bowl being flushed (counter clockwise). The first was still happening but what the Hell happened to the second!! I was confused. Comments from the winners were alien to me, like "playing the shifts up the middle" and even more outlandish things like "playing the shore up Coopsville!!". Global warming must have something to do with it.

One by one the rest of the of the fleet started to click in. The J 27 Stranger started to make a move, then it was the Rocket Diavola from Calafornia and even the inconsistent Olson, Deuces Wild had flashes of brilliance. But not I!! The only thing to save my ass was the asso. I was astounded by how much distance I could make up down hill!!

By the end of day three, Gary Stuntz in his Melges 24 "Cool Beans" was giving the rest of us a clinic on "How to win regatta and make it look easy". You know, the boring old stuff like clean, conservative starts, play the shifts, loose cover the fleet and great boathandling. The other boat that thorughly impressed me was Violator. From my view in the cheap seats, whenever I looked up they were always in the right place on the lifted tack.

By day 4 Penn Cove started to flush but the writing was on the wall, the pecking order had been established. One comment I heard over coffee at around the middle of the week " WIRW is just like the movie 'Ground Hog Day 'you wake up and its the same as the day before and the day before that."

PS Sorry about the lack of photos but the photographer didn't take one down wind shot of the Rockets with their new assos. I will work on that.

Trip to the East Coast and New York

2006-05-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

We were invited to American Yacht Club (AMC) for a "demo" weekend of the Rocket 22. The AMC has set up a committee to try and find the next fleet boat for the Long Island Sound area. The committee is headed up by the long time I-14 sailor/ builder Stu Saffer. In one of their early meetings, Drew Shea suggested that they take a look at the new Rocket 22. One thing led to another and Ken and I were on the red eye to Boston.
We also had a little unfinished business to take care of. Last fall we brought a boat out to the Annapolis Boat Show, that was then to be delivered to its proud new owner, Mark Ceres, in NJ but we never had the chance to do the final delivery. Mark graciously let us use his boat for the demos and we got a chance to do a few improvements on his boat that we had worked on over the winter before the demos and the delivery to Jersey.
We picked up our trusty rental steed (a sub compact that became known as the "little S--tbox"!) and away we went on a little sight seeing tour. Our first stop was at Newport RI. From about 3 miles away we saw that there was a rather large sled on the hard and dry. Sure enough, it was "Morning Glory"!

After we picked our jaws off the dock we hopped in our untrusty steed "S--tbox away!!" and left for Forte RTS in Ledyard Conn.
Tony and the gang at Forte welcomed us with open arms (figuratively speaking)! Every time I go to this shop it never ceases to amaze me how they build our carbon fiber masts.We brought the Rocket inside from her winter storage in the back compound and started doing the finishing touches to her. As soon as we arrived it started raining! It rained and rained and by Friday when we drove the Rocket to AMC we were getting pretty sick of the East Coast weather. Just think, in the two trips east, it rained a total of 26ins while we were there.!!

Just as we arrived at the club, it stopped raining!! We got the boat rigged and launched and then had a look around at the club. No wonder it's hailed as one of the top clubs in America, it has it all!! The clubhouse is situated on a point with a magnificent 270 degree view of Long Island Sound and a protected deep water anchorage for the membership. The club has two cranes for dry storage but we decided to use the good old fashioned ramp.
After a demo sail with Drew Shea, Stu Saffer said that he had to go to Seawanahaka Corinthian YC to do some team racing on Long Island and that we should meet him over there. We looked out into the fog and said "where??" He pointed his finger into the fog and said "there". So Ken put some fresh batteries in his GPS and we were off! Two and a half hours later we emerged from the fog at SCYS. We buzzed the fleet of Sonars that were team racing. Meanwhile the breeze started building. We did a couple of demo sails, so by the time we were ready to leave, the wind was a healthy 25-30 kts and the fog had cleared. Stu came down onto the docks and said "Lets see what this boat can do" and off we went for a downwind ride back to AMC. The ride lasted one hour and fifteen minutes and I don't think we went below 12kts except for beating out of the mouth of the club and probably hit the high teens a couple of times. Ken's GPS said 21.6 but we all dismissed it. A pretty good shake down cruise though!

Next day, Stu organized demo sails for the membership and if there was one theme that came out loud and clear it was that they were looking for a boat that both the young and their parents could both enjoy. It had to be a light planing hull, modern in design and build, have the ability to play with the running and standing rigging, yet have a keel boat feel upwind without having to hike hard. They wanted a "little keelboat" not a "big dinghy". I know I'm biased but the Rocket seemed to be a perfect fit!!

That night we said our goodbyes and headed south through NYC to a reservoir in NJ. Next morning we set the boat up for the not so new owner, Mark Ceres. Last time he saw his boat was at the Annapolis Boat Show in October.

So with bags under our eyes, we hopped back in our untrusty steed and said "S--tbox away!" back to Boston and another red eye special!

More Owner Feedback

2006-05-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Jan Arps and his new Rocket "LiftOff" have been getting out most weekends and tearing up the race course on Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. We love seeing photos back from owners and hearing how they doing and from the sounds of things Jan and his crew are doing great. Jan's last comments and photos are below.

"The more Mike and I sail the boat, the more we love it. You guys have done a great job in designing a sailor's boat! We raced last weekend short-handed again because of a last-minute crew dropout so with 2 people we couldn't use the chute. But we did very well upwind and held our own downwind reasonably well against the other spinnaker boats."

Rocket Owner Sails on Movistar

2006-05-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a great shot of Rocket owner, Zev Shafran, on board Movistar on Chesapeake Bay as they pulled off an impressive victory in front of an estimated 200,000 spectators last weekend. Zev, from Vancouver BC, was lucky enough to be invited on board Movistar as well as the Volvo Extreme 40 cats. What a fantastic experience!

Charleston Race Week - Owner Report

2006-04-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

Jan Arps, the new owner of Liftoff, the Rocket 22 delivered to Charleston Race Week sent us the piece below along with the photos. Great to hear they had such an excellent time. We are looking forward to returning next year and plan to have several Rockets on the starting line.

Smith Mountain Lake Sailor takes 4th Place at Charleston Race Week

Shifting, blustery winds, strong tide currents and tornado warnings made the racing at Charleston Race Week, April 6-9, 2006 quite exciting. 140+ sailboats signed up for the races on the beautiful waters of Charleston Harbor. By week's end, the fleet had been reduced by over 30% through attrition, damage and dropouts.

Smith Mountain Lake was represented by skipper Jan Arps in his brand-new Rocket 22 sailboat, "Liftoff", with a crew consisting of Jan Arps and Mike Fowler from the Blackwater Yacht Racing Association, together with Alan Barnes and Ken Hope of Rocket Boats, Inc. from Penticton, British Columbia.

Sailing seven races over three days in Charleston Harbor, "Liftoff" competed in PHRF Class "C". In addition to the Rocket 22, this fleet included a J-27, a J-29, a J-92, a Tartan 10, a Donovan 27, an Olsen 30, a Corby 29, an Elliott 770, and an Evelyn 22. At the end of the day, Arps' team garnered a fourth place. "We were thrilled to place as high as we did", said Arps with a broad smile. "The three boats that beat us were all sailed by the national champions of their respective classes, and we gave them a run for their money. Managing the many wind shifts while maintaining top boat speed were the key factors for our racing success."

For most of the regatta the 20+ mph winds were very challenging, with strong puffs blasting across the course, kicking up a steep chop. Coupled with a strong tidal current, it created wild and wooly conditions that could be conservatively described as "a rough weekend". Nonetheless, the Rocket 22 held together like a champ, taking on all that the weather gods could dish out and slicing its way through the fleet unharmed. Exclaimed Arps breathlessly about the Rocket after one particularly strenuous race, "This is one fast, stable, rugged sailboat! I love it!"

Arps and his crew will be sailing "Liftoff" in the bi-weekly BYRA racing series at SML as well as in the upcoming SunTrust Invitational Regatta to be held at Pelican Point Yacht Club on the weekend of May 6 & 7.

Owner's Comments

2006-04-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

We've just delivered a new Rocket to an owner in North Carolina who sailed "Liftoff" for the first time last weekend in the Smith Mountain Lake Spring Series. This is the same boat the new owner, Jan Arps, is looking forward to sailing this year at Charleston Race Week.

Jan has sent us the brief report below along with these photos. We're looking forward to hearing his report from Charleston.

Hello, Anthony,

Thought you might like to see Liftoff flying the Asymmetric. This was taken when the wind died a little bit, but for much of this leg we were just honkin’. A close-hauled sailor going in the opposite direction close abeam while we were surfing downwind said after the race that that was the first time he had ever been doused by the stern wake of a sailboat! We had a great time, and it was exciting to skunk the Olson and J-80, as well as all the J-24’s for a first place in the first race, thanks to Alan’s skilful boat handling. My ostensible “local knowledge” got us a little bit off course in the second race, causing us to finish in third place boat for boat but sixth on adjusted time.

The Rocket 22 definitely outpointed all the other boats in the fleet, and when the wind piped up we out-surfed all the other boats in the fleet downwind. In my 60 years of sailing, I’ve never sailed as fast in any other monohull.

I am really enjoying spending time with Alan and look forward to some fun times and exciting racing in Charleston this weekend.

Jan

Charleston Race Week 2006

2006-03-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

We're looking forward to some sun, good racing and southern hospitality as we bring a Rocket 22 to Charleston Race Week this year. Al Barnes and Ken Hope from Rocket Boats will be sailing with the owner and one of his crew as the boat debuts on the East Coast racing scene. Even out here on the west coast Charleston has an excellent reputation for great sailing and good parties and I know Ken and Al are ready to go. Al should be blogging from Charleston if has enough time. They've already got some demo sails set up while they are there and I'm sure they'll be some more soon. Call or email if you'd like to be added to the list.

From Sailing Anarchy - February 22nd, 2006

2006-02-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

Our friends at Sailing Anarchy posted our review of the Chicago boat show as well as our position on the Rocket versus Melges 24 debate. We've already had a few emails on this subject and would love to hear your thoughts.

Rocket Boats is back from a very successful trip to the Chicago boat show. The interest in the Rocket 22 continues to grow and each trip is better than the last. It was great to speak to so many Rocket enthusiasts and it seemed like every second person learned about the Rocket from Sailing Anarchy. And speaking of SA, a big thanks to Mr. Clean who checked out the Rocket summing up his review with, and I quote here, “Of everything new at the show, I think the Rocket was the most impressive”. Thanks!

Chicago area sailors are very knowledgeable and passionate about their sport and it was a pleasure speaking to them all. We also met quite a few hard core Rocket fans who had come a considerable distance to see the boat. In particular, a couple of great guys from Kentucky who Amtracked overnight to get to the show. It shouldn’t be too long before we’ll have couple of Rockets in the Bluegrass state!

As a result of the boat show we’ve left a Rocket in Chicago for demo sails later this spring. The boat is at Larsen Marine in Waukegan, just north of Chicago, and we already have quite a few demo sails lined up. If you want to be included please let us know. We’ll probably schedule the demos for some time after Charleston Race Week where we will be racing two Rockets.

One thing that came up a few times in Chicago, and has been following us around since we began this project, is the comparison to the Melges 24. Most people seem to get it, but still, there is some confusion or misunderstanding around our response. The truth is that we think the Melges is a great boat. If we were younger, had more money and wanted to race hard in an aggressive OD fleet with more and more semi pro crews then we would buy a Melges. But this isn’t us and this isn’t where the Rocket is being sold.

Our typical buyers are guys 35 and over with a racing background who want a boat that will satisfy their need for speed but with the characteristics of a bigger more stable platform. The Melges 24 is a high performance boat for grown up dinghy sailors, the Rocket 22 is a scaled down 40 footer for mature racing sailors who are looking to get back into some fast, enjoyable and uncomplicated racing. No 25 year old rock star athleticism needed here! The Melges 24 and the Rocket 22 are two great, but different boats, that serve different sailors.

We’ve never seen the Melges 24 as competition for the Rocket and we’ve never pretended the Rocket is a Melges wannabe. We like the Melges guys and believe both our boats can happily co-exist serving their respective markets. In fact, some of our best friends and customers are experienced Melges sailors who campaigned hard for a number of years, including Key West and other grand prix events. They will be the first to say they had a blast doing it, but now want something easier on their bodies that they can sail competitively on Wednesday nights, weekend regattas and in OD races with their families or like-minded crews.

Before we launched this venture we spent a lot of time talking to sailors to get a better handle on our market and who was going to be interested in a Rocket. We saw a hole for the boomer market that still wanted the thrill of high performance sailing but on a boat that wouldn’t leave them bruised and which they could sail easily. The Rocket is designed and built for this market and judging by the response so far we are on to something.

Mr. Clean Goes to Chicago - An Anarchist's View of the Rocket

2006-02-14T11:37:00.000-08:00

Mr. Clean, a diehard Sailing Anarchist, hard core sailor and his better half, Meredith, dropped by for a visit in Chicago. They spent a lot of time going over the boat, asking questions and didn't leave until Meredith squeezed herself into the cockpit cooler. This is their report. Thanks guys and look forward to catching up on the circuit.

Both Meredith and I loved the Rocket 22, and the biggest part of that may have simply been Anthony Dutton and his excellent crew showing off the boat. While the Melges 24 is the definitive sportboat in the US and Europe, there’s no denying that it’s a bit long in the tooth and appeals to a very specific audience. The Rocket takes a lot of what’s great about the Melges and makes it much more comfortable and intuitive, catering less to the hardcore alpha-male crowd and more toward those who have mellowed with age or never were that psychotic to begin with. I really believe that Dutton doesn’t care all that much how the Rocket compares to the Melges, and I like that confidence. He has obviously thought the compromises out well. The ability to put the conventional kite on when conditions are right gives the boat more versatility and caters more to the tinkering sailor than the Melges can. The utter simplicity of M-24s means that your heads stay out of the boat, and this is one of the reasons that M-24 sailors get so good at fleet races. The Rocket is much more adjustable and much more tweakable, with not a whole lot less speed. The ability to play with lines and optimize sail shape with easy adjustments is important to a large portion of the sailing world, and is important for distance and reachy races. I never sailed the Rocket’s predecessor, the Pocket Rocket, but I think this boat will scorch PHRF fleets until the rating catches up. Some of my M-24 friends will give me crap for it, but I think a well-sailed Rocket can beat an M-24 boat for boat in the right conditions. All the sail controls on a big boat are on the Rocket, and the cabin was a surprise: it’s actually usable and downright luxurious compared to the Melges. I think mast jacks and backstayless rigs will always make me a little nervous though. Of everything new at the show, I think the Rocket was the most impressive.

Alan's favourite pics

2006-02-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

Hi. Look Ma no backstay!!! This is our new mast from Forte with spanking new North 3DL rags. The asso was designed by North. We gave them the measurements and the only instructions were "gybing angles between M24 and J80". We sailed the new rig and sails for 5 days with the last day blowing up to 25-28kts (photo day). We were amazed with the range the asso had. From super deep to almost close hauled. We added a foot (5 to 6ft) to the sprit extension. The combination of the larger sail and the extra foot on the sprit neutralized the helm so even at 15-16kts there was zero helm.
Alan

Chicago Boat Show Review

2006-02-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

The emails and calls coming in after Chicago have been great. Thanks to everyone who dropped by the show and contacted us afterwards. We will be returning to Chicago for a few days of demo sails sometime later this spring. Probably after Charleston Race Week where we will be racing two Rockets. If you would like to come out for a sail please send us an email or call and we'll let you know the exact dates soon. We can also take people out sailing in Charleston if this more convenient.

Also, for a good review of the Rocket, and a few other boats in the Chicago Show, check out Destination One Design. Thanks to Wally Cross for this.

Rocket 22 - SoCal Champagne Series

2006-02-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

Gray Marshall, on his Marina del Rey based Rocket, has been moving up recently with some good finishes locally. The most recent regetta was the Champagne series, http://www.sbyrc.org/html/events.html, where his Rocket 22, Diavola, placed 2nd overall in PHRF B with 10 points (1-3-3-1-2). His rating is 102, which is the most aggressive rating for a Rocket in the country. In the PNW we are rated 108. Gray's competition for the series was a Capri 30 (108), Laser 28 (132), Morgan 36 (129), Jenneau SF3 (111) and a SAN 30 (123). Gray is now preparing for the Mid Winters which begin in a couple of weeks.

Photo Credit: Pat Reynolds

News Flash - Al Barnes on TV, Full Story at 11

2006-02-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

What a crazy day. None of us had time to stop. Nobody ate. Al and Rocket Boats were interviewed for European TV. A couple of magazines came by for interviews and photos and a non stop stream of people were around the boat from start to finish. Almost too many folks were coming by so that we couldn't really spend as much time with them as we would have liked. But before anyone asks, there were no contracts signed today, although we did get some very firm commitments from a couple of guys for later in the year. And then there were the folks who kept coming back with more questions or to take photos or to show someone else the boat. We're learning from some of the other companies here that unless you are a Beneteau or Catalina, for example, most people follow up later. This has been our experience at other shows like Annapolis where we sold a couple of boats but didn't sign any contracts until a few weeks after the show. And also a lot of people want to go for a test sail first, which is not unreasonable. We will be coming to Charleston Race Week in April and then will be around for a couple of weeks after that for demo sails. If anyone wants to work a sail in then please let us know as soon as possible so that we can coordinate schedules.

Chicago Friday February 3

2006-02-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

The first proper day - Friday - here has been great. Thursday starts are often pretty dead with only the exhibitors walking the floor. But in our case that is usually good as we have a lot of support from across the industry. The Quantum, North, Harken and Samson guys all came by with quite a few others as well. Today the show really opened up and tomorrow should be even better. Sunday will be interesting with the Super Bowl. How many sailors are also football fans? We'll have to wait and see. We are situtated directly across from the bar which works well for us. We like beer and we don't have to go far to get it! And apparently lots of other people like beer too as we find ourselves talking to sailors with bags in one hand and a beer in the other. The flow of lookers was very consistent today with several interested buyers coming back quite a few times. Always a good sign when you are selling something. We're all hoping they'll be back again tomorrow.

Blogging on the Road

2006-01-31T09:44:00.000-08:00

Now this is cool! Just sent in a note from my Palm and presto, an uploaded blog. This will be very useful on the floor of the boat show. See everyone in a couple of days.

Anthony Dutton

Chicago Here We Come!!

2006-01-30T10:02:00.000-08:00

On our way to the windy city! We've been looking forward to the Chicago Boat Show for some time. We've had a lot of interest in the Rocket from the Midwest and its going to be great to meet some of the folks on the floor. But first we've got to get there. The weather reports are not good between BC and Eastern Washington with updates of heavy snow and road closures. We left earlier than planned in case this happened, but so far so good. Once we get out of the mountains, through Montana and on to the Dakotas it should be much better. Gotta be in Chicago by 2 on Wednesday afternoon which at this point looks good.

Penticton Production Facility

2006-01-29T22:10:00.000-08:00

While I was in Penticton I got a chance to see our new production facility. WOW! It is right next door to where we are now, but the last time I saw it a few weeks ago it was nothing more than a concrete pad. They are now almost done and we should be in by the time we get back from Chicago. It is going to be a huge step up from where we are now. We'll have almost 3,000 square feet giving us the room to easily work on 4 boats at the same time. There is great office and storage space as well as lots of rigging room. The actual glass work is being done about 100 meters away at another facility so this place will be clean.

Working for Chicago

2006-01-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

I spent the weekend up in Penticton with Ken and Al getting the boat ready for the Chicago Show. They had done a stupendous job and so there wasn't much for me to do other than stand around and admire their great work with the next Rocket off the production line. Luckily I am pretty good at standing around! I do have a special skill though in ordering pizza. The drive back to Vancouver was brutal with snow virtually the whole way. Crazy ass drivers whizzing by me and sure enough one of them was being pulled out of the ditch 25 kms down the road. They looked OK, but a bit shaken up.

One of My Favourite Shots

2006-01-16T15:27:00.000-08:00

Here is one of my favourite shots. Sailing on English Bay on a cold winter day. Nice mood shot.

Where Have We Been!!!

2006-01-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

OK, OK, OK .........so I didn't blog for a whole year, but not because I had nothing to say, but because it takes me a while, like a year, to wrap my head around these new technology things. After 3 more posts, I'll be able to say I am a "Blogger".

Rocket Boats and the Rocket 22 have been across the continent and back over the last 12 months. Annapolis to San Francisco, Conneticut and New Jersey are some the places we've been. Next stop is Chicago for the 2006 Boat Show in early Februay. Come by for a visit.

Here is a great shot of us flying the new North Aso on Lake Okanagon just before Christmas. The ground is now covered in snow, but no ice in the lake, so we'll probaby been out there again soon.

The New Rocket 22 is Unveiled at the Vancouver International Boat Show

2005-02-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

Rocket Boats Introduces the New Rocket 22 Sportboat at the 2005 Vancouver International Boat Show February 10th – 13th at BC Place Stadium.

Vancouver, B.C., February 10th, 2005- Rocket Boats Inc. (http://www.rocketboats.com) is proud to introduce the new Rocket 22 at the Vancouver International Boat Show February 10th – 13th at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver. The Rocket 22 is featured in the SailFest area on the main floor of the show where the Rocket Team will be available to answer your questions and to make arrangements for demonstration sails.

The Rocket 22 is a highly competitive sportboat with excellent all round sailing characteristics and is being introduced to fill a gap in the market for an affordable, stable and exhilarating high performance sport boat with comfortable overnight accommodation.

The Rocket 22 has a base starting price, not including sails and trailer, of US$34,950.00 and the company is offering a special boat show discount. For more information, and to review the new Rocket 22 in more detail, please visit our website at http://www.rocketboats.com

Contact Information

Anthony Dutton,
adutton@rocketboats.com
Toll Free: 866.379.SAIL (7245)
Local: 604.264.SAIL (7245)
Cell: 604.649.7787