Father and son ready to embark on the journey of a lifetime
by Matt Sheley - newportri.com on 22 Feb 2015
Jason McGlashan and his father, Reg, stand aboard the Sedona in Jamestown last weekend. The two were rescued by the Coast Guard early Sunday morning off the coast of Nantucket - The Newport Daily News Dave Hansen
In three newspaper articles a couple of Australians made it big on the US East Coast- but then they unravelled.
Here is Part One.
Reg and Jason McGlashan spent the weekend getting ready to embark on the journey of a lifetime. In freezing weather, the father-and-son team prepared the 43-foot sailboat 'Sedona' for their 8,600-nautical-mile trip back home to Port Macquarie, Australia.
Aboard one of the three boats in the water at Conanicut Marina, the McGlashans said they’re looking forward to the warmer environs of Bermuda and beyond.
'We’ve never done anything like this. Dad’s not even a sailor, but he’s a quick study,' said Jason McGlashan in his Australian accent. 'We’ve got plenty of food, plenty of booze, good sails and all the safety gear you could ever need, so we’re going to be OK.'
'I can’t wait to get out and sun myself on the deck in my swim trunks,' joked Reg McGlashan. 'It’s a little bit rugged up here, too much for my taste at least.'
The younger McGlashan has sailed since childhood from the port city of Port Macquarie, located between Brisbane and Sydney on the east coast of Australia. He first set eyes on Sedona when it appeared on eBay, the online auction site.
He bought the sailboat with a winning bid of $10,000, U.S. currency. He already had a racing boat that needed work, McGlashan acknowledged, but Sedona’s lines were too beautiful and her asking price was too good to pass up.
'I like to shop local as much as the next guy, but so many things are so much cheaper in America,' he said. 'A sailboat like this back home, in the condition it was in, would go for $150,000 American, at least. New, we’re talking $300,000, easily.'
A miner by trade, Jason McGlashan originally intended to make the trip to America to pick up the boat a solo vacation. But then his mom, Lee, got wind of the adventure and said it would be best if his father went along too.
Before leaving for the States, Jason McGlashan reached out to Len Hubbard of Jamestown, who had Sedona built in 1995 at the former Carroll Marine in Bristol. The sailboat, which he described as fast and durable, raced competitively with a full crew and finished fourth in the Newport Bermuda Race one year, Hubbard said.
He lost his enthusiasm for sailboat racing as it became more about bankrolled professional teams than crews of individual amateurs, he said. He donated Sedona to a charitable organization that he does not wish to name, and the boat eventually ended up on eBay, he said.
Now he and his wife, Jill, have their eyes on a powerboat they can can cruise on in style without all the work of a sailboat, Hubbard said.
'Jason called and said, ‘Hey mate, I just bought your boat,’' said Hubbard, who visited the Sedona with his wife one last time during the weekend bearing a cartload of food for the McGlashans before they pushed off.
'I figured he was in Connecticut. They said Australians are insane, but this is a little too much for even them.'
Over the past few weeks, the McGlashans used the Rodeway Inn on West Main Road in Middletown as their home base when they weren’t sleeping aboard Sedona. The boat required more work than he expected, Jason McGlashan said, but he and his dad shared the labor as they prepared for their once in a lifetime adventure.
The more they worked, the more people learned about their upcoming voyage. The Aussies said they learned the first names of most of the staff at West Marine boat supply, located about a mile up the road from their motel.
'Our story seems to have spread pretty quickly here,' Reg McGlashan said. 'I’ve had more than one person come up to me and say ‘Oh, you’re the guys in from Australia. Good luck!’ and then give us a funny look.'
This is the first time either the father or son has been to the Ocean State.
'I don’t know what you people feed your seagulls around here, but they’re huge,' Reg said, referring to one of the plump shorebirds that helped itself to some lasagna the Hubbards had brought to be added to the provisions in the galley.
'We don’t see them like that and they’re not shy.'
Jason McGlashan said the plan is to leave Narragansett Bay and sail south to Bermuda, a trip that should take about four days if the wind is right. After a brief stay there, the captain — Jason — and first mate — Reg — will head further south, round the tip of South Africa and take a straight shot home across the Indian Ocean, he said.
They expect the trip Down Under to take six to eight weeks to complete, depending on the weather. The original plan was to catch the tail end of the Volvo Ocean Race, the round-the-the-world race that includes a layover in Newport in mid-May, but unexpected repairs to Sedona made that impossible, Jason McGlashan said.
'If we can’t do 150 miles a day, there’s something wrong with us,' he said. 'Maybe, we’re doing too much fishing off the side or something.'
As for being nervous about the trip through multiple oceans, the McGlashans acknowledge the risks but say they’re prepared and have taken as many precautions as possible. There’s a life raft, flotations devices, flares and a phone aboard in case of any trouble, they said.
Asked if living in such close quarters, with only each other for company, might make them sick of each, the duo answered almost in unison: 'We already are!' before breaking out in another round of laughs.
Once home, Jason McGlashan plans to paint Sedona and then get her racing in the southern hemisphere, he said. One of his goals is to break the record for a solo sail around Australia, he said.
'A number of people have tried it, and I want to break that record,' McGlashan said. 'That’s part of the reason we’re doing this. Although she might look a little rough, boats like this aren’t in my price range back home. I’ve got big things in store for her.'
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