Gryphon Solo 2 completes solo circumnavigation

Maine Yacht Center would like to congratulate and welcome home Joe Harris onboard Gryphon Solo 2 after completing his solo circumnavigation via the Southern Ocean !!!

Joe completed his solo circumnavigation at 08:27:48 EDT, Thursday May 5, 2016 off of Castle Hill in Newport, RI. Total days at sea excluding 2 stops, 152 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes.

GS2 spent last winter inside at MYC undergoing a significant refit and upgrades in preparation for the solo circumnavigation.

Amhas competes in Miami-Cuba yacht race

Amhas #127, an Akilaria RC3 Class 40 that was completed and commissioned by MYC in 2013 participated in the Miami to Havana, Cuba yacht race in February.

This was the first time the legendary SORC event was held since 1959.

It was a downwind start in light air but by late afternoon the breeze filled in from the East at 20 -25 knots, providing great sailing conditions to Cuba.

Amhas finished second in class and third overall in a fleet of 40 boats.

There was also a coastal race organized by the Havana Yacht Club that sailed along the stunning “Malecon” Havana’s down town waterfront area.

Amhas finished second in the coastal race.

Brian Harris, GM of MYC sailed onboard as navigator and reported that Cuba is a beautiful and fascinating country………like the land that time forgot.

A success recognized - in 6 pages of Cruising World!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick pre-holiday check in to say one reason we are thankful this is year is you and the American Promise renewables project that 11th Hour Racing set the foundation for through a generous grant, Eclectic Energy helped along and Maine Yacht Center made a reality. 

In the end, we traveled over 890 miles during 8 weeks of operations without ever turning the generator on or hooking up to shore power! Previously, we would run the generator for 1-2 hours every morning and another 1-2 hours every night. Throughout this summer, people stopped us on the dock, rowed up in dinghies and emailed or posted on Facebook to tell us they loved what we had done, loved the way AmPro looked and wanted to know how everything worked!

We are thrilled with the results and excited to share them (which was always part of the plan). To that end, we are very happy to pass along the article in this month’s Cruising World that tells our story (all of it). Dave Powlison, the writer, did a great job capturing the experience of being onboard with us and we finally got some great photos of the boat under full sail. They gave us 6 pages, the headline on the cover and heaps of photos.

Out of respect for Cruising World, we are not going to put this on the web until they do or the edition is no longer available in stores - but we are encouraging everyone to grab a copy and have had lots of calls from excited friends of Rozalia Project who’ve seen the article. We couldn’t wait, however, to share it with you, the team who made it happen. We can say that American Promise is the greenest sailing research vessel in the world!

Thank you again. We hope you have a happy, delicious and fun Thanksgiving (in the US) and a good typical Thursday for those of you in the UK!

For a clean ocean,

rzm

Rachael Z. Miller
Co-Founder/Executive Director/Chief Ocean Lover
Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean

A Great End to the 2015 Boating Season!

The fantastic weather we’ve had in September and October has made for a great ending to this year’s boating season. With Fall now in full swing, there is lots of activity at MYC.

In addition to boats returning for winter storage we have several interesting refit projects that are in the final stages of completion and sea trials so the boats can head south before the weather turns too cold.

  • Hound, a 60’ aluminum sloop will be sailing to Antigua for the winter. Her rig was pulled for work, new engine driven refrigeration system was installed along with new 12VDC and 32VDC charging systems and batteries. New satellite communication hardware and a computer system was set up.

  • Caroline B, a 65’ TaShing motor yacht will be heading to Florida for the winter. This vessel had engine, generator, water maker and exhaust work done, was hauled for bottom work and varnish and a new electronics package was installed.

  • Gryphon Solo 2, an Akilaria RC2 Class 40 will be departing in a few weeks for Newport. In November, GS2 will set off on a single-handed non stop voyage around the world to try and beat the current record set by a Class 40 of 130 days. GS2 received a complete refit at MYC including keel removal and inspection, removal and service of the rudders, rig inspection, hardware and systems upgrades, water makers, hydro generators, solar panels,  as well as the usual satellite communication and computer systems required for around the world sailing.

  • Great American 4, an Open 60 will be departing for France in October. GA4 will spend the next 12 months in Europe for final preparation and training leading up to the Vendee Globe, a single-handed, non stop race around the world which starts in November of 2016. GA4 received a complete refit at MYC which included the same type of work and upgrades done to GS2 plus much more !!!! We were out test sailing last weekend in strong conditions for final tests to the boat and systems. See video.

Great American 4 Test Sail

MYC would like to welcome home and congratulate the crew of Alpheratz on their successful circumnavigation !!!!

Alpheratz is a 1985 Swan 51 that was originally purchased by Dr. Gregory Carroll in 2006 and brought to MYC for a significant refit prior to Greg’s successful circumnavigation. Greg left Maine in September of 2007 and returned in April of 2010.

The boat was then hauled and put on the hard at MYC. The new crew acquired Alpheratz in the summer of 2012 and with minimal maintenance launched the boat and sailed her to the Caribbean for the season returning to Maine for the summer of 2013. They departed Maine in October of 2013 and returned to MYC in April of 2015 after completing their successful west bound circumnavigation.

Nearly back to back circumnavigations, +/- 60,000 nm with a trip to the Caribbean and back thrown in…………….. a true testament to the Frers design, Swan build, MYC refit and to the skippers and crew of each of the circumnavigations.

“Like a bad penny, so returns Alpheratz with another 30,000 miles under her keel. Great tribute to you and your staff that we had very few breakdowns or problems.”
— Skipper Tom Toohey 4/22/15

Amhas triumphs in 2015 Pineapple Cup

Amhas, an Akilaria Class 40 RC3, completed and commissioned by Maine Yacht Center and co-skippered by MYC GM Brian Harris finished first in Class and second in fleet in the 2015 Pineapple Cup. The Pineapple Cup is an 811 mile, bi-annual ocean race from Fort Lauderdale to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

In this edition of the race the fleet experienced strong upwind conditions at the start followed by a rough crossing of the Gulf Stream before heading east and then south through the Bahamas towards the eastern tip of Cuba and then on to Jamaica.  Strong upwind and reaching conditions prevailed for the race.

Other than Shockwave, the scratch boat, Amhas led the fleet from start to finish.

The expert commissioning and preparation of Amhas by MYC allowed the crew to push the boat hard in rough conditions, experience no breakages or gear failure and produce a win!!!

MYC completes refit on Class 40 "Dragon"

Maine Yacht Center has completed the refit on Dragon, an Owen Clarke designed Class 40 offshore racing yacht. Dragon was refit during the winter of 2013-14 in preparation for the Route du Rhum, a single-handed trans-Atlantic race from France to Guadeloupe which starts in November. The main focus of the refit was to make the boat more competitive and lighter. Design and engineering services were provided by Owen Clarke design, U.K.


The refit included:

  • New Articulating Bowsprit to improve downwind VMG’s. The fixed bowsprit was removed and a section of the bow was cut away. A new bow section was built to incorporate a bearing for the sprit to rotate on as well as receive the strop for the head stay. The foredeck was cut away and a new section was built with a step to accommodate the inboard arms of the sprit when they travel transversely. A new bow pulpit was fabricated to fit the new bow sprit.
  • Mast – Original carbon mast was replaced with a new carbon mast to reduce weight and lower center of gravity. Mast was built by Axxon Composites in Romania and shipped as deck cargo direct to Portland, Maine.
  • Keel Bulb – As a result of global weight savings achieved during the refit, 140 kg of lead was cut off from the trailing edge of the bulb. A composite cone was built and installed to retain the as designed bulb profile.
  • Water Ballast System – plumbing was modified and a new, custom built, high volume pump was installed to increase tank fill and transfer times.
  • Hatches – Custom, cored panel construction hatches were built to save weight.
  • Deck – new non-skid paint was applied to the deck, cabin and cockpit.
  • Rudders – new self-aligning upper rudder bearings were installed.
  • Bottom – new race finish anti-foul. White on bottom and orange to keel and rudders.
  • 90 Degree Test – Because of the significant weight savings achieved during the refit a new stability test was required to empirically prove that the pull up force at the mast head was still within Class 40 rules.


Dragon will compete in the Atlantic Cup and the Newport-Bermuda race this summer before sailing to France for the Route du Rhum.

For more details, see our PROJECT PAGE here.

Great American 4 hauled for 2016 Vendee Globe refit at Maine Yacht Center

Rich Wilson, who succesfully completed the 2008 Vendee Globe (a single-handed nonstop race around the world,) has set his sights on the 2016 Vendee Globe.
Wilson finished the 2008 race in 9th place of 11 finishers of 30 starters !!!!!  
Wilson's previous Open 60, Great American 3, was refit at MYC prior to the 2008 race (see details of this project here.).  He has returned to MYC with Great American 4 for a refit prior to the 2016 event.
GA4 is a new boat to Wilson. GA4 is the ex "Mirabaud", an Owen Clarke designed Open 60 built in NZ by Southern Ocean Marine.


The refit will include:

  • Rig modifications and inspection.
  • Removal of canting keel, inspection of keel pivot bearings, keel hydraulics and service.
  • Removal of twin assymetric daggerboards and replacement of bearings.
  • Removal of rudders and bearing service.
  • Deck hardware modification.
  • Construction of an ergonomic chart table, bench seat and custom chair.
  • All new electronics and wiring including sailing instrumentation, satellite communication and computers.
  • New Lithium Ion battery bank.
  • New charging system to include custom direct drive engine alternator/regulator, hydro-generators and solar.
  • New stantions, bow pulpit and pushpits for higher life line configuration.
  • New race bottom job

For more details and pictures see our PROJECT PAGE here.

Maine Yacht Center launches new Akilaria RC3 Class 40

MYC has just launched the first of two new Akilaria RC3s. The Class 40 is a box rule, water ballasted, fixed keel, twin rudder, hard chine offshore racing boat. The fleet has grown well beyond 100 strong, with the majority of the fleet residing in Europe.

Since 2007, MYC has been collaborating with French designer Marc Lombard and Tunisian builder, MC-Tec to import parts for completion at the Portland Maine yard. To date, MYC has imported, completed and sold previous Akilaria versions, RC1 and RC2’s. Using all the experience and knowledge gained from the highly successful Akilaria RC1 and RC2 versions, we are extremely proud to introduce the new Akilaria RC3 version.

The RC3 is a completely new design that utilizes and builds upon all the empirical data from previous RC1 and RC2 generation boats. New tooling was built for all components as well as new appendage design, mast design and interior layout. The RC3 is now built to the minimum Class 40 weight of 4,500kg in a Category O configuration. The RC3 incorporates all the latest design features of Generation 3 Class 40’s, such as an articulating bow sprit to achieve deeper downwind sailing angles. The objective is to produce a boat that is optimized as closely as possible to the current limits of the Class 40 rule and to be competitive across a wide range of sailing conditions and race formats.