2000 – 2001
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Pacific Cup Updates
|
July 20, 2000 |
San Francisco, CA |
Rage update 7-20
Position: 25 00N 144 49W
Speed: 13.5kts
Course: 223 degrees magnetic
Wind: Propietary information, sorry.
Hi there race fans,
The battle for first to finish is shaping up to be real battle with Pegasus. They hauled ass again last night to take a 32 mile lead closer to Hawaii. But there are more details here for you to know than what meets the eye.
Pegasus is now fully commited to a southerly route. Although they are going really fast, if they jibed right now they would cross behind us. And they must jibe or get a huge header to get to the finish. Our course routes are a about a 100 miles apart. If you assume their jibe angle will be 90 degrees, they need to continue to gain about 20 miles a day to jibe and intersect us. That is assuming no major windshift.
There is traditionally a header (a right shift on port jibe) as you get nearer to the islands, so if that happens soon, that may allow them to narrow the distance between our two different routes. The die is cast for both of us, we simply need to sail as absolutely as fast as we can. Each morning we will wait for the positions in a somewhat anxious state! How much did they gain? Can we hold on?
As the tension increases, I have been working on rallying our mostly corinthian team to work hard. There was a shortage of bunks for the off watch to sleep on the weather side, so at least one of each off watch has been sleeping in a leeward bunk. This is something my racing nature will not allow me to do, so I decided to set an example and have been sleeping on deck on the weather rail when off watch. Don’t worry Jeanie, I stay tethered in so as not to fall off in my sleep! Now that we may have a chance to beat the awesome group of pros on Pegasus, all have joined up to move to the weather side whenever possible. Morale is great, and the nightwatch stories and jokes are hilarious.
Besides, it’s cooler to sleep on deck anyway. It is pretty much a sauna inside!
Speaking of sleep, I’m rather short on it right now.
The water is flying by, but is it flyin fast enough?
Bruce
Rocketship Rage
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