she floats! Koloa maoli launched and now preparing for sea trials
After a handful of delays in getting launched, Class 40 Koloa Maoli is now in the water with her mast up, and can begin being prepared for her first sea-trials under my ownership. It’s very exciting for me, even more so after two delays in splashing. In late May, it was a late-season Nor’easter that rolled through on my expected splash date and closed the marina for storm preps. We then shot for June 18 and lifted the boat off the cradle to put it in the water, only to discover a small crack in the bottom of the boat that had been perfectly hidden by the cradle. Finally, on Wednesday June 25, Koloa Maoli was launched on a beautiful, sunny and hot summer day in Maine on the 11:30 am high tide. An hour later, the mast was stepped and the boat could be motored to a slip. I can now finish re-assembling the boat and getting it ready for initial sea-trials and then some offshore training, to come very soon. Could not be more stoked, and I am incredibly grateful for Maine Yacht Center’s assistance. I am so blessed to have them as a campaign sponsor now, and it is a huge privilege to be able to base my Class 40 at this yard with such a pedigree for preparing American solo round-the-world boats.
Koloa Maoli touching the water for the first time under my ownership. Pretty exciting to have a boat in the water again!
Massive appreciation to Maine Yacht Center, and Steve, for fixing a small crack that had developed during Dave’s GSC race around the world. Dave thought it was a scratch and touched it up with bottom paint in Spain, after his race, and then sailed across the Atlantic back to Maine. The boat was put on the cradle, where I bought it, and the crack was totally concealed by the cradle. The crack was actually caused by a small production flaw that just eventually worked it’s way loose and started moving, and eventually cracked. Steve ground out the crack and then intalled new core, around the crack, and re-glassed it. This was a very isolated crack, the only one on the boat, after 30,000 miles. We have deemed it to not be impact damage, but rather a production flaw that eventually failed. Steve’s repair came out totally pro - he has worked on America’s Cup boats and top-tier ocean racers - and so it was really cool to have this repair executed so skillfully.
Once the boat is up and sailing, which I am anticipating to be less than a week, i’m planning to get into it pretty quickly. Hopefully I can get everything hooked back up, installed and working pretty quickly so that we can go do some training. While there will inevitably be some technical issue and setbacks, Koloa is a pretty dialed-in boat that is nicely set up and well proven, and for the most part, still in great shape after about 30,000 miles of recent sailing. Huge credit to Dave Linger, Lillian and Maine Yacht Center that the boat was so nice and well put together, and so well maintained when I got it. I have a good friend coming to town, and we had been eyeing up a run to Nova Scotia and back around 4 July, and despite the setbacks we’ve had, that should still be quite possible.
After that, I plan to continue sailing the boat a lot locally and dialing it in, before campaigning the boat and moving it to some different locations to engage with community and build awareness for the campaign. The plan is to hit a couple yacht clubs in Maine in August before heading down to Newport for the boat show in September. Then continue on down to Annapolis for the October boat show there, with a handful of yacht club tour stops and speaking gigs/ boat presentations along the way. Koloa and I will be featured on the docks at the Annapolis Boat Show (and hopefully Newport too), and that will be a good time for me to build awareness for the campaign and engage with potential supporters, media and sponsors. Building community is a huge goal for this campaign, and I hope to engage with a lot of sailors, sponsors, yacht club junior programs, etc and get a lot of folks out on the water on Koloa Maoli. Feel free to ping me if you want to host the boat for a speaking gig and boat tour between Maine and Annapolis.
Actual racing plans for this first year are minimal, though I may or may not participate in the Monhegan Island doublehanded race. This is a 140 mile overnight race around a local island, that is usually conducted in light wind. That race is at the end of July, and would be dependent on my level of preparation with the boat, etc, and other variables, but it could be a cool race if it all lined up.
The goals this 1st season are very clear: Spend a minimum of money, do a lot of sailing, build community, and put ourselves in a position to find the right funding and support so that we can work on the boat in 2026 and do hardcore training and race prep, before executing in 2027 and sailing in the Global Solo Challenge and to/ from Spain.
Koloa Maoli preparing to splash on a beautiful summer day in Portland, Maine. Thanks again to Maine Yacht Center for all of their help and support with the launch and being home base for us.
Thanks so much to everyone who has followed along and offered words of encouragement thus far. It’s very exciting to actually have the boat in the water and to be sailing soon, and really kicking off this campaign from a fundraising, marketing and sailing standpoint. There is now an online store where we’ve been slinging some merchandise to do some community building and fundraising, so check that out. We have some great tech shirts nd sun hoodies, and have two styles of new hats we’re adding to the store any day now, when they arrive. Please feel free to contact me via email or social media if you’d like to get involved, make a contribution, schedule a yacht club event, or if you have any potential sponsorship leads or connections. It’s community that’s going to make this campaign be a success, and we’ve got some stuff going behind the scenes that is exciting. Go the Koloa Maoli!
