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The Race is On - Cruising Style

by Richard Ballantyne, July 18th, 2016



Travis McGregor’s Beneteau 50 Turnagain suffered a failure of their steering quadrant today. Based on their available options, steering the last 1000 miles to Maui in 20 kts of breeze with a short emergency tiller did not seem like the best one. They decided to retire from the race and start using the auto-helm. Until they mentioned the upcoming lamb roast, Race Committee was almost feeling sorry for them.

But then the crew got thinking – sailing with lamb, mint sauce, and autohelm sounds just like the Cruising Class – a race currently with only 1 boat. Why couldn't Turnagain just join Forty and make a 2 boat match race.

Forty replied “why not?” With the inclusion of reasonable conditions like a prize of fruity rum drinks they accepted.

Because Turnagain is 270 miles away from Forty, it is difficult to re-start together. But they have both agreed to a 1011.7 mile race that started at 1700 PST (1400 HST) today. Race Committee will take Forty’s time when Turnagain crosses the finish line and make the necessary handicap corrections to determine a winner.

That is unless Forty beats Turnagain to Maui. Now that Michael Boldt and his crew aboard the Tartan 4100 have a real race objective, who knows what they can make their boat do. The Race is On.

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