Breezing home: Van Liew's sleek new racing weapon arrives from France

Editor's note: The Post and Courier is following Brad Van Liew's quest to win the 2010-11 Velux 5 Oceans Race.

Brad Van Liew is quickly learning a few things about his new racing boat.

For instance, the hydro-generators don't cause any drag, the Open 60 can sniff out the breeze like a bloodhound, and it can handle 30-foot waves without any trouble.

And that's just what the Mount Pleasant resident picked up from a 7,000-mile round-about trip home.

On Monday, Van Liew's entry for the 2010-11 Velux 5 Oceans Race sailed into Charleston Harbor on the light winds that afflicted it most of the way here from France.

"They had to go down to 13 degrees (latitude) to catch what trade winds there were," Van Liew said. "But the boat's fast. It hauls."

Van Liew sailed the boat from La Rochelle to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, where he had to disembark and fly home for business meetings. His shore crew took it from there, sailing down the coast of Africa -- within 40 miles of Dakar, Senegal -- before hanging a right, crossing the Atlantic and skirting the Caribbean islands and the East Coast of the United States.

"There were pretty light winds all the way," said J.C. Caso, one of three guys who sailed the boat into port Monday. "Because we were delivering instead of racing, we played it safe. We ran into 10-meter waves and just turned around. We said, 'OK, she doesn't want us here.' "

The boat, named Pro-Forms is a 1998 Marc Lombard-designed 60-foot yacht that shares much in common with the Finots used in the 1998-99 Around Alone race that was based in Charleston. The vessel's name will change when Van Liew secures a primary sponsor.

But this boat is wider, with a sleeker design and more bells and whistles than those boats. It has been refitted in the last five years and carries a 97-foot mast. Van Liew said the boat will do 25 knots easily and will be even faster when it is re-configured to suit his sailing style.

"We've got to get it fluffed and buffed," Van Liew said. "We're hoping to have it refit in about three months."

Part of that refit will add several solar panels along the deck. Van Liew plans to run the entire 30,000-mile race without the use of fossil fuels, using solar energy and the hydro-generators to provide his electrical power.

Jeffrey Wargo, another of Van Liew's shore crew/buddies, said that on the five-week run from France, the crew went 17 days without running the battery.

This race, which begins in October and stops in Charleston in the spring of 2011, will be Van Liew's third solo circumnavigation race. He won his class in the 2002-03 Around Alone (the previous name of the Velux 5 Oceans) and came in third in the 1998-99 race that began and ended in Charleston.

Van Liew expects to have the refitted boat out sailing again by summer, in time to make all the adjustment he needs before the starting gun fires in October.