July 6 Roll Call and Lurline, Peligroso, Phoenix Started

by Charlotte Gann & Race Committee, July 6th, 2022

Today’s race start was a near-drifter. Glassy waters, hints of wind that didn’t materialize in time for the start. In sailboat racing you get what you get. The 3 boats today are the fast Division 1 yachts and their higher sail coverage grabs wind that doesn’t reach the sea surface so they kept some momentum. Race Committee's Rich and Chris didn’t have any over-early boats to call.

By roll call today of noon HST, all 3 were through Race Passage and into slightly better wind, though the direction was pretty much on the nose.

Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet is off the Oregon coast and ghosting along in light mostly-following winds – some spinnakers are flying! At this early stage, the rhumb line looks like a good call, with Outbreak out front (recall she’s a Lahaina Class boat who used her engine to get out of the strait and down the Washington coast) followed by the very experienced Vic-Maui race boat Red Sheilla – this is Jim Innes’ 5^th Vic-Maui. The rest of the fleet are rather more landward of the rhumb line, and Amun-Ra and Millennium Seagull look to have wind on the nose. The boats regulary download GRIB files (GRIdded Binary) to analyze the next 24, 48, 96 hours of winds at the surface, then planning their route according to their analysis. As has been the case so far, no clear pattern appears to be emerging until the weekend. The wind gods will prevail.

Red Sheilla has seen sharks! Amun-Ra has seen dolphins with bioluminescent trails. Planet Express has a fruit fly invasion in the cockpit. Flow’s crew have gone for a swim (no wind). Annie M caught a 3’ great white shark that ate the flagpole. And Outbreak has seen great Dall’s porpoise shows.

Roll Call at noon HST today from the fleet:

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