Introduction to the Neri Family

	Karen, Dan, Matt (12), and Dani (13). Photo thanks to North Sails.

Dan and Karen Neri, along with kids Matt (12) and Dani (13), are cruising the West Indies. Their boat, Calvin, is a 38-foot high-performance design from the board of Roger Martin. Although the Neri family is new to long-term cruising, they have an extensive background in competitive sailing. Dan is a world-renowned sail designer, and is currently testing prototype cruising sail products for North Sails in North America. He has raced extensively. His style of writing offers the reader a blend of humor and hard information.

Why did you decide to take this family trip?

Karen and I have talked about taking the kids to the Caribbean for a number of years. We met in the Islands and lived there for four years after we were married. The kids are 12 and 13 so we felt it's now or never. We want to give them a school year "off the grid" so that they can develop their identity and independence and hopefully return with a broader perspective. Matt is in 7th grade and Danielle is in 8th grade. They are both currently enrolled in the Newport School system for the month of September. We'll continue their curriculum through home schooling, and they'll attend the last month of school when we return. It seems like the only time we really get to sit and talk with them is when we are anchored on a boat for the night. So we're going to have them trapped for seven months! My wife Karen is an accomplished sailor. She won the Lightning World Championships crewing for Bill Shore and the Rolex Women's J-24 World Championships four times sailing with Betsy Alison.

None of us has extensive offshore sailing experience - although I've sailed distance races and made offshore deliveries - so we've signed up for the West Marine Caribbean 1500 Rally which leaves Virginia on October 31.

What is your planned route?

We leave Newport around the 1st of October bound for Annapolis. While in Annapolis the boat will be on display at the Annapolis show and BOTY contest. During that time we we'll take the kids to Washington D.C. and spend a week at the Smithsonian. That should satisfy a large chunk of the science requirement for their home schooling. From Annapolis we go to Hampton, VA for the seminar week of the Caribbean 1500 rally, then on to Virgin Gorda. We intend to reach St. Thomas around the end of November to provision, visit friends and pick up a sailboard. The first week in December Karen is instructing at a Women's Sailing Clinic at Bitter End Yacht Club in Virgin Gorda. I'll be the full time teacher that week. From there we are going down island, hoping to avoid any New Year's Eve craziness. We intend to be in the Grenadines during February school vacations and hope to get as far south as Trinidad before heading back to Newport via Bermuda in May.

Tell us about your boat.

Calvin is an Aerodyne 38, designed by Rodger Martin and built by Aerodyne Technologies. The hull and appendages are derived from Rodger's work with Around Alone-style solo race boats. It's big for its length, but on the small, light side for the distance we are sailing. The interior is fine for our purposes.

The boat is set up very well for short handed sailing. My son Matt and I entered it in a 100-mile double-handed race this summer and were first to finish against boats as large as a J/160. It has a carbon fiber rig, a powerful autopilot, single-line reefing for the first and second reefs allowing one person to reef and unreef from under the dodger and a non-overlapping, roller furling jib with the furler recessed below the deck. The kites are set from a retractable sprit. With a full main and Whomper flying, the boat can achieve hull speed in very light winds. The cockpit is large enough for sleeping. The open transom looks a little scary for offshore but will make a great swimming and fishing platform once we're down there.

For the trip we've added SSB radio, a small Furuno radar and a DC refrigeration plate. The tankage is not sufficient (50 gallons of fresh water and 25 gallons of diesel) so we will be lashing on plenty of jerry jugs along with the life raft and dinghy.

Describe the sail inventory.

For the Caribbean trip we are taking a prototype 3DL Cruising Laminate mainsail with three reefs and five full-length RBS epoxy battens with Sailman 3000 luff adjuster boxes. We're also taking a prototype 3DL Cruising Laminate all-purpose roller furling jib. This sail will have a reduced roach and slightly higher clew than the Regatta AP jib, three vertical battens and a RopeLuff furling pad. The 3DL yarn passes are laid down in a special roller reefing arrangement which provides a complete structure at predetermined reef positions. We will also be carrying a NorDac inner staysail for 25-35 apparent wind speed and a NorDac storm jib which will also set from the inner stay. For downwind work, we're taking one of the new 1.5 oz Whompers (see p. 18), which will see a lot of duty.

(Thanks to North News for letting us post this interview)