What a difference a day makes! Overnight, clouds moved in on the race course and the wind started to blow. By race time the wind had subsided, but the forecast called for a 25 to 30 knot westerly around noon. We were on the media boat at 0430 and thanks to skipper Christopher Cowman we had a nice view of the start. If there was any drama on the dock this year, we missed it.
This was the calmest start of any of the R2AK races. Both of the earlier races had more wind at the start. As a result, the human powered craft had the advantage. As I write, Colin Angus, who is only doing the first leg this year, is reprising his match with French Team Liteboat. Team Oaracle and the pedal powered ‘Take Me to the Volcano’ are in hot pursuit. Karl Kruger and two other stand up paddleboards are also among the front runners for now. Can they all hold on and beat the trimarans before the wind builds?
The start itself was a quiet, drippy affair. Delayed by 10 minutes, the teams checked in one by one and assembled on the western side of the line in front of the shore based crowd. There were no low flying helicopters today.
Given the forecast, a few teams opted to start, then promptly go ashore to have breakfast. After the start I bumped into Jake Beattie and he remarked how unique R2AK was where a viable strategy was to schedule breakfast 20 minutes after the start. The reason for stopping certainly has merit. Given the forecast, there were two viable options to avoid the leading edge of the front. Get over to Victoria before the blow or hang out on the US side and cross after the wind quieted down. For the slow boats, getting caught in the predicted westerly would be punishing. Jake indicated his appreciation for the seamanship shown by those who chose to wait for better weather. Other teams seem to have chosen Dungeness Spit for a safe haven from the front while the main portion of the fleet will be about dead center in the straits when the front hits. Hopefully all will be safe.
Update: As of 2 pm PST many boats have finished in Victoria with Team Liteboat, Team Take Me to the Volcano and Team Angus Rowboats taking one, two and three respectively.
Go to the tracker for ongoing updates.
The post Go time: R2AK gets underway towards Victoria appeared first on YachtAweigh.
source http://yachtaweigh.com/go-time-r2ak-gets-underway-towards-victoria/
No comments:
Post a Comment