2000 – 2001
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Pacific Cup Updates
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July 18, 2000 |
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San Francisco, CA |
Subject: Just like baseball…
Rage Pac Cup day 5 update: What a difference a day makes. It never ceases to amaze me that in this vast ocean, sailboat racing is still a game of inches, just like baseball!
When we left you yesterday morning, Taxi Dancer was on the horizon behind us. We were working with 2 small mist squalls, one on either side of us. We were moving well, but the water 100 yards ahead was totally glassy. Amazingly this contined for about 20 minutes with the wind we were in moving with us. Heading straight for what looked like a skating rink. As we finally ran up to the “great mirror” we saw more ripples to port and a possible escape route. George was on the helm, and declared that “Our Salvation lay to Port”. We fought desparately to sail as high as possible to get around the corner and latch on to the squall to port. Bit by bit it worked.
We we able to the drive off across the squall with the header it gave us. On the horizon behind, Taxi Dancer continued helplessly to the south without the header. After the squall the wind was light, but our westerly position worked to our advantage. The wind had turned a corner and allowed us to sail closer to rhumbline, while still working south. But what about Pegasus?
They had been much further to the south. Would they get the shift? We sailed hard all day and into a beautiful night. Full moon, smooth seas, and a light but steady wind. Shortly before dawn we positioned ourselves in front of a big squall. No wimpy “mist squall”, this gave us 20kts true. The most wind with our super Doyle “Turbo kite” so far. The result: 14-16kts directly for Hawaii for what seemed like an hour. The watch change came, breakfast, then all hands stayed up to listen to the morning roll call.
We gained 65 miles towards Hawaii on Pegasus since yesterday morning!! Rage is now 50 miles closer to the finish than them.
It is far, far, from over, and Pegasus has more leverage to the south. But they have a race on their hands. Taxi Dancer is 88 miles behind.
More later,
Bruce
Wylie Wocket One
Rage
Subject: Rage Position update
Howdy from the Pacific again.
Attached are a couple pics of life aboard. Steve went up the rig to check things out, and says my rigging work looks good.
The wind is filling in today, hopefully we are in the “trades”.To give you a perspective on what sailing on Rage is like, the true wind is off our quarter at about 15 kts. But the apparent wind (the way the wind is actually blowing in our faces) is just forward of the beam at about 7. We are moving at 10. I feel a bit quilty, knowing how hard it is for most of the fleet to get moving. The majority are still on a more northerly route and have difficulty escaping to where we are. We are “Ragin” right by them.
The mileage differences this am were a bit off, due to some goofy software, but we are still doin great.
Lead on Pegasus: 25 miles
Lead on Taxi Dancer: 74 miles
Happily wriden the wooden wocket,
Bruce
Special thanks to our Pacific Cup Sponsors!:
Doyle Sails Alameda: Official Supplier of sails to Made in America
Titan winch handles: Makers of the superlight “Viper” carbon winch handles
Forespar Mfg: Makers of our badass 32ft “Turbo” spinnaker pole
Samson Cordage: Suppliers of “Amsteel Blue” running rigging, the strongest and most durable line
MAS Epoxies: Suppliers of Epoxy resin to Made in America
Nobeltec: Providing World-Wide charting software to Made in America
Complete Cruising Solutions:
Waypoint: Knowledgable dealers of Navigation and Weather software, charts, and books
HF Radio on Board: Experts in Marine Communication