Per my previous post, getting the boat home is probably the main reason I’d think twice about another HI race in my own boat. If I did do another one, here are some thoughts about what I’d do differently (besides race on someone else’s boat):
1. Consider a trailer-sailer. This is sort of a joke, but I sure was jealous of the Hobie 33 and Fast 40 guys who had their boats hauled and ready in a morning. And they were able to pick up at the Pasha yard with a F-350 and go home.
2. Consider sailing home or hiring a delivery skipper.
3. Use a different boatyard.
4. Stay later or buy a ticket to HI to oversee the (complete) de-rigging/loading myself.
5. Arrange the Pasha shipping myself. Dealing with them can’t be any more difficult than anyone else in this process. Handle the “documentation” myself.
6. Arrange the CA shipping myself, using uShip or references to get a couple quotes.
7. Motor or sail up from Long Beach over a couple weekends, rather than ship this last distance. (This is kind of a no-brainer in retrospect, but we considered it and decided not to based on the original half-price estimate).