Whatever Happend to Project Amazon?

SAILBOAT DESIGNS

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PROJECT AMAZON?

Project Amazon is my open class 60 cat ketch that entered the 1998 Around Alone Race with its Hungarian-German-Canadian-South American owner, Sebastian Reidl. I began the design in 1995, and she started construction late in 1996 in South Africa. Reidl had once lived in South Africa, and he felt the prices for construction were better there than in the United States. I am not sure this was true, especially considering what was lost merely in the logistics of monitoring construction and sending American and European-made hardware to South Africa.

In January 1998, Reidl sailed Project Amazon on his qualifying sail from South Africa to the U.S. There is a funny story about that trip. Back during the design, we hired the late Lars Bergstrom of B&R Mast & Rigging to consult on the development of the air lubrication system that we wanted to build into the bottom of Project Amazon’s hull. Lars had designed a similar system for Hunter’s Child, the open class 60 built and sailed by Warren Luhrs for his record-setting voyage From New York around Cape Horn to San Francisco. Steve Pettengill later sailed Hunter’s Child, with the air lubrication system installed, to a second-place finish in the 1994 Around Alone Race. Lars called me on the phone after he’d spec’d the lubrication system to tell me that he thought there was a problem with the boat. In his sing-song Swedish accent, he said, “Eric, I think Project Amazon is going to be too fast!” I said, “Lars, if being too fast is a problem, it is a pretty nice problem to have. That is what we are trying to accomplish.”

So Reidl was finishing his 10,000+ miles from Cape Town to Ft. Lauderdale, and as he approached the American coast, a powerful, 60+ mph wind blew off the coast and across the Gulf Stream. Reidl got pounded for a few days, and then he opted to head to Puerto Rico for refuge. As soon as he got in, he called me on the phone, and I swear, the very first words out of his mouth were, in his heavy Hungarian accent: “Ed-ic, ve have a problem vit dis boat.” I said, “Sebastian, what kind of problem?” He said, “It’s too fast!” He said, “She always goes 25 knots. Sometimes you don’t vant to go 25 knots, you only vant to go 12 knots. But she just up and goes anyvay!”

Mission accomplished! He just had to learn how to tame her.

We all gathered at the start of the 1998 Around Alone in Charleston, SC, and thoroughly enjoyed the dockside festivities. Reidl and his crew came up with the brilliant idea of selling name space on the side of the hull to garner grass-roots support and cash for Project Amazon and her campaign. For $25.00, you could have your own name cut out of adhesive vinyl and stuck right on the side of the hull. Your name would go around the world. Project Amazon’s topsides were pretty high, so we had lots of acreage to sell and place names. This gave the people of Charleston, the US, and anyone else in the world who may have been visiting a chance to actively participate in the race. The family of Harry Mitchell, who had disappeared in the previous Around Alone, were given a special position for Harry’s name on Project Amazon’s transom. In five days, between selling names, hats, and T-shirts, we raised over $14,000 which covered Reidl’s expenses in Charleston.

But alas, it was not enough. Halfway through the first leg, Reidl retired from the race with contaminated fuel and very little remaining funds. After returning to Puerto Rico, Project Amazon went up for sale.

George Stricker, also a competitor in the 1998 Around Alone aboard the 50’-class Rapscallion, became Project Amazon’s new owner. George was fascinated with Project Amazon’s rig and the fact that “she’s too fast!”, according to Reidl. This was just the kind of boat George wanted. George outfitted Project Amazon under her new name, Tin Can, in preparation for entry in the 2002 Around Alone.

Preparing for and participating in the Around Alone Race requires a certain minimum commitment of time and, more importantly, money. You cannot run the race on a shoestring. But like Reidl, unfortunately, that is what Stricker tried to do. By the time Tin Can was relaunched, she still had damage on deck and in the hull that had never been repaired from four years previously. She had a new engine and propeller, which was good, and she had new wishbone booms and new sails. But in my opinion, Stricker did not spend enough money on her to get her properly ready. Four hundred miles into his qualifying voyage round trip from Newport to the Azores, he damaged the rig and had to return to Newport. He did not want to spend any more money, and so never started the race two months later. Six months after that, Stricker was sailing in a gale in the Gulf Stream off Norfolk, VA, on a demonstration sail to sell the boat, with the mast loaded way too high on just the headsail—no mainsail, and totally in compression and not bending—and he snapped the forward mast in half. As far as I know, Tin Can is still sitting in Norfolk waiting for a new owner or to be donated for scrap.

As the designer, of course, one hates to hear of such fates. But the boats belong to their owners, and designers have no control over the destinies of their designs—unless one wants to put his own money toward saving them. But like her first two owners, I don’t have that kind of cash; I am still putting a child through college. One does not get rich in yacht design. We do it to make a living--respectable and fun living--but we don’t make a fortune.

For detailed information on the design of Project Amazon, you can refer to the following articles that I wrote about her:

“Project Amazon and the Unstayed Rig,” Professional Boatbuilder, No. 55, October/November 1998, pp. 44-57.

“Project Amazon: An Open Class 60 Sailboat for Single-handed Round-the-World Racing,” Marine Technology, Vol. 37, No. 2, Spring 2000, pp. 65-78, from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.