bermuda bound
It’s a few hours before the start of the Newport Bermuda Race, and rather than write some rambling tome about the race, I’ll just give you a few facts:
- Distance: 635 NM
- Boat: Carkeek 40 “Decision”
- Crew: 8
- Max wind forecast: 30 knots
- Max Gulf Stream current: 5 knots
- Current routing elapsed time: 54 hours
We may not get there before Monday like our routing predicts, but we are most definitely going to be wet, cold, and grinning from ear to ear with big-air downwind sailing for at least the first day and a half. Depending on where a Chesapeake Bay low pressure system goes, it may be a record setting year for the big boats, and you’ll be able to follow along extensively.
First, you should keep an eye on the Bermuda Race thread in Ocean Racing Anarchy for posts from my crew and me, as well as from the Class 40 Dragon, featuring Mike Hennessy (the man who will soon owe me a bottle of Gosling) and hopefully from ‘Left Hook’ on Donnybrook. Quick note: I’ve got a sweet Decision shirt for the most helpful Anarchist in the Bermuda thread; whoever posts the most news, forecasts, photos about the race gets it.
Next, check the front page each morning at 1200 EDT/900 PDT/1600 UTC for either a fully live video chat with footage from the day and night, or a produced video posted to Youtube like the one you see here; we’ll know if we can go live after some more testing tomorrow morning. We’ll run off the Justin.TV On-The-Water Anarchy channel for live stuff, and via our Youtube page if we can’t go live. I’ll also be sending in written reports as often as I can; I am supposed to be driving the boat occasionally, and there’s even a Decision Facebook page if you are so inclined.
You can follow the YellowBrick tracker here (with a 6-hour delay for the first 36 hours), and get notified by Twitter when random reports from some excellent writers hit the race office. The Scratch Sheet and other docs are here, and when results are up, they’ll be here.
Pre-race vid here.
Wish us luck!
