Chris Museler reports from Grundoon, Jim Grundy’s new Carkeek 47 racing in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division.
Newport, June 19, 2014 — One year over schedule and delivered less than three months before this year’s RORC Caribbean 600—that’s the auspicious start to the racing life of Grundoom, Jim Grundy’s Carkeek 47. Designed to the fledgling High Performance Rule, the boat is the end product of a family’s history in the Newport Bermuda Race that last saw several thrashes to the Onion Patch in an exquisite 1967 Columbia 50 of the same name.
The contrast between racing to Bermuda in the sweeping Columbia and hammering along under roller-furling Code sails in a boat with no standing headroom is something that this journalist will be documenting all the way to that rock out in the Atlantic over the next four or so days. “I am within seconds of having nothing to do on the boat,” declared Jim Grundy as I stepped aboard. There is a metric ton of hubris in his words, tempting fate in an arena where you never finish your preparations.
With a rocket ship he sails with family and friends (instead of the cadre of Category 3 professionals usually needed to sail such a rapid and strenuous ride), Jim has an ace in his hand: he’s already had one race to Bermuda this year. He used last week’s Annapolis to Bermuda Race to deliver Grundoom’s mother ship: the 90-foot Alden schooner Summerwind.
“I feel like I’m sailing to one of my typical summertime locations,” said Grundy about his passage to Bermuda. “Usually you have to reorient yourself to the geography when you get there. But North Rock, Kitchen Shoals—it’s all in my visualization like I was sailing into Oxford, near where I keep our boats.”
After a punishing, largely upwind Caribbean 600 and an around the buoys test in the HPR class at Charleston Race Week, Grundoom was taken to her home in Baltimore to sort out some growing pains that included loose shims in the keel box, mast partner adjustments, and some deck leaks.
Grundoom also underwent a useful round of Bermuda Race pre-inspections that allowed the team to fit out the boat before arriving in Newport last week. On the eve of the race, the few jobs left to do include freezing meals prepared by Grundy’s daughter, Meghan, and a wife of a crewmember. The Grundy family is well represented on the boat, with son Sam and son-in-law Kurt in the roster. Close friends from previous Bermuda races and their Annapolis to Bermuda run round out the crew. “I wish we could count my daughter doing all the logistics and food as part of the crew so we could be eligible for the Glenn Family Participation Prize,” said Grundy.
The family and friend aspect of this campaign is surprising considering that Grundoom rates with much larger racing boats. But even more compelling is the contrast between their recent experiences: the Columbia 50, then the schooner, and now this cutting-edge carbon skimming dish. “The biggest problem we had last week was we forgot to turn on the generator and the forward staterooms lost AC,” Jim said. “There was almost a riot. But on Grundoom, the computer is constantly telling you how fast you should be going. You can’t be complacent. The computer is throwing it at you the whole time.”
Young Sam Grundy, who graduated college just a month ago, was looking forward to the switch from luxury to roughing it. “I was bored on the big boat,” said Sam. “The biggest thing we looked forward to each day was the menu. I’m looking forward to the intensity of sailing Grundoom.”
