Daily Report - July 13 - The Table is Set. But Who Wants to Dine

by Race Committee, July 13th, 2014

(NOTE: number in parentheses ( ) is the distance to finish in nautical miles)

As Roll Call finishes, it is apparent that the 3 boats in Class 1 – Longboard (856), New Haven (926), and JAM (1206) are moving well and are stretching south of the Zone of Death; finding the first zephyrs of the trade winds. They are reporting winds close to 10 kts and the tracker shows boat speeds of in 7-8 knot range. But they are still sailing south and Hawaii is southwest.

The boats on the west side of the high – Turnagain (1034), Passepartout (1077), Turicum (1089), String Theory (1120) and Alegria (1155) – are in front of a low pressure ridge and are all seeing winds strength in the low teens and showing good boat speed. The problem is that they have white sails up, are on starboard tack, and pointed towards Guam. 1000 miles of beating to Hawaii in not in the brochure, and is not fast.

That leaves the boats in the skoogy middle – Kahuna (1129), Kinetic (1215), Losloper (1264), Family Affair (1270), Avalon (1304) and Bedlam II (1376). Kahuna and Kinetic are further south and may finally be finding some wind to carry them away from the Zone of Death. Avalon is still slightly to the north of it and hoping it passes them by. Losloper, Family Affair and Bedlam II are ooching south to catch the stronger winds that are just now touching Kinetic and Kahuna. 

Who is going to win is anyone’s guess. Boat speed in the direction Hawaii is the name of the game. Some boats have speed, but no boats are heading towards Hawaii. The first boats to find good wind that allows progress in the right direction will be the ones moving to the front.

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