By thefluidpen

By now, in early January, many of us are quite desparate to trade frostbite for sunblock, heavy boots for flipflops and down jackets for T-shirts. Knowing that not everyone can escape winter at the drop of a hat, I decided to sacrifice myself and take you to balmy Southern Florida for a good time and some spirited sailing on C Squared, a brand-new Wyliecat 44 racing yacht that just won the The convenient excuse is the 2006 Acura Key West Race Week, an annual event that has gained popularity among professional and amateur sailors who want to cheat the weather at home and need an excuse to party in one of "Papa" Hemingway's favorite haunts.

To get there, the vessel has to be towed 3,100 miles from Richmond, Calif. to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. where it will be reassembled and launched. Then C Squared participates in a feeder race from Lauderdale to Key West, an overnight run through (hopefully) warm waters that are tricky to navigate because they are strewn with reefs. The on-board navigator will keep a close watch on the screen of the GPS chart plotter and the depth sounder so we won't find "thin water" where we don't expect it.

Cross-country trips with an 8,000-pound, 44-foot sailboat are about logistics and last-minute hustle. For this trip, the boat, which is 10 feet and 7 inches wide on deck, had to be placed on a custom-built trailer in a heeled position, so it would not exceed the maximum permissible width of 8 feet 6 inches.

To accomplish this, the boat's rudder and keel had to be removed. Four tons is light for a boat this size, but too much for a regular trailer, so the folks at Wyliecat, assisted by metal workers and welding experts, toiled between Christmas and New Year to make a Fifth Wheel for the towing vehicle, a full-size pickup.

As soon as they were done, they loaded up on soda, chips and sandwiches and pulled out of the KKMI boatyard, heading for the sunny beaches of Southern Florida, where this blog will catch up with the boat.

The next installment will introduce the boat and the team.