Desk Racers

[Travieso]

I'm surprised its been so quiet in the forums.... I know I'm checking at least twice a day to see how the race is progressing. After a couple of days of light stuff it now seems to be shaping up to be a few competitive contest within the fleet. I haven't yet entered the data to project the winners but hopefully I can find some time to do that.

Looks to be a great contest between Dogbark and Hecla for line honors.

The High seems to be settled in which should give some good conditions to make up for the tough start.

Good luck to all the racers. Wish I was out there. Happy tracking...

dan

[www]

I think everyone's too busy looking at the incredibly cool Google app and reading the logs to post to, or maybe even to read, the forums.

My hat is way, way off to the "web dude", and anyone else who helped get this set up and running!

I'm really enjoying the log reports. Maybe someday...

www

ps - Hecla and Dogbark are leading, but Polar Bear looks to be in a good position right now, too!

pps - I'm pleased to see Ankle Biter is doing well! Looking forward to hearing more from him when the sun comes out and his batteries get some juice.

[Travieso]

Do folks know if the racers are mostly relying on sat comm for email? Or is it mostly sailmail?

[Robert Stodieck]

I believe that most of this fleet is still using Sail Mail on marine SSB. The various satellite based systems in use are still mostly left overs from the great "dot-com" crashes of 1999 and 2001. They are all imperfect for this race in various ways. Iridium seems to be the most usable but is expensive. (Built at a cost $12 billion plus, sold at bankruptcy in 1999 for ~$30 million.)

The market needed (and still needs) simple, cheap, store-and-forward satellite SMS. The would-be-barons of the sat industry all bet on voice.

[Travieso]

Anyone else having problems connecting to the main site?

[Libations Too]

Dan,

I have not had any trouble connecting to the log or position reports...and I have been checking several times a day.

I also was able to listen in on SSB communications for the first couple of days, and then again after the fleet briefly switched up to 8185 kHz. When the fleet switched back to 4021 I was no longer able to hear, so have been getting all my news from the log and position reports lately.

I think Mark's summary pretty much says it all: "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" as the winds lighten up at the back of the fleet where the slower boats are.

Best wishes and good luck to all.

[Travieso]

Don't shoot the messanger... But I've tried to leverage the scoring software used by the Pac Cup race (thanks to John Clauser & Bobbi Tosse) to give standings for our SSS race. Here are the current standings as produced by that software. Again these are UNOFFICIAL and just for our amusement on land. The last number on each boat line is the overall position. Enjoy!

Positions & Standings, as of July20 (Day# 9):
(Sorted by Division)
Race definition file = PcupS8.ini


Division J (start: July 12 @ 09:25:00 HST):

Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa
or Finish (HST)
Hecla 28-28N 145-59W 832.7 (12:21:10:55) (00:00:00:00) 1 6
Hecla2 - no posn. report DNF/DNC/Ret


Division G (start: July 12 @ 09:05:00 HST):

Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa
or Finish (HST)
Polar Bear 29-01N 143-12W 979.1 (14:12:57:06) (00:00:00:00) 1 2
Ragtime! 28-34N 141-20W 1060.3 (15:15:20:00) (00:13:25:34) 2 3
Warr Wish 31-00N 142-08W 1080.9 (15:22:38:59) (01:22:03:53) 3 10
AnkleBiter 30-57N 138-15W 1261.2 (19:05:36:10) (03:11:47:44) 4 13


Division F (start: July 12 @ 09:05:00 HST):

Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa
or Finish (HST)
Alchera 29-15N 143-37W 965.1 (14:08:45:46) (00:00:00:00) 1 4
Chesapeake 29-17N 141-12W 1082.0 (15:23:02:55) (00:23:33:49) 2 7
Dogbark 29-01N 147-11W 794.1 (12:12:48:21) (01:06:14:35) 3 9
NaNa 31-21N 133-21W 1506.6 (26:17:57:21) (11:22:00:15) 4 20
Wenlemir - no posn. report


Division E (start: July 12 @ 09:15:00 HST):

Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa
or Finish (HST)
Harrier 29-53N 139-09W 1194.7 (17:20:37:03) (00:00:00:00) 1 5
Haulback 30-10N 138-24W 1237.2 (18:16:52:36) (00:14:22:13) 2 8
DreamChase 30-29N 137-54W 1268.0 (19:08:50:49) (02:18:15:46) 3 14
Feolena 32-09N 136-22W 1377.3 (22:03:55:59) (04:08:29:36) 4 18
Sunquest 31-46N 135-53W 1391.9 (22:14:22:06) (04:08:55:03) 5 19
Islander - no posn. report


Division D (start: July 12 @ 09:15:00 HST):

Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa
or Finish (HST)
Wildflower 29-12N 140-14W 1127.6 (16:16:01:47) (00:00:00:00) 1 1
Kali o Kal 32-01N 138-42W 1265.3 (19:07:24:40) (03:00:12:53) 2 11
Sparky 32-26N 136-25W 1381.5 (22:06:50:31) (03:16:52:44) 3 12
Carroll E 32-03N 136-22W 1375.1 (22:02:21:58) (04:14:54:11) 4 15
BlackFeath 31-08N 134-41W 1437.5 (24:01:46:42) (05:17:42:15) 5 16
Feral 33-07N 135-59W 1417.7 (23:09:50:58) (05:19:26:31) 6 17


MadeGood=nm @ Deg(True)
ET = Elapsed time @ finish, () = projection.
CT = Corrected time @ finish, () = projection.
Late position reports are in parentheses.
Standings and Elapsed-Times
DO NOT include penalties for missed reports.

[solosailor]

I've been watching the race closely and it's almost painful to watch most of the fleet being blanketed with light winds..... again! The idea of moving the race start to a later date to provide more consistent winds has backfired. Don't fix what ain't broken I guess. It is nice to have more people with the ability to post their logs this time around - good stuff. As I expected Wildflower is up front. Great to see the General doing so well in his "last" Singlehanded Transpac.

[tiger beetle]

I've been watching the race closely and it's almost painful to watch most of the fleet being blanketed with light winds..... again! The idea of moving the race start to a later date to provide more consistent winds has backfired. Don't fix what ain't broken I guess.

I'm not sure it's fair to blame the RC for a light air start, nor is it fair to expect a start three weeks earlier would be any better.

If you really want the fleet to go rocketing out of San Francisco it is required that you stage the fleet in San Francisco and then wait for the Pacific High to set up off the coast - and then release the boats. There is a low probability of forecasting to the day what the winds will be like off the coast 18 month in advance - the best wind could be June 26, or July 12... or, more likely, somewhere in between.

- beetle

[Deep6]

I'm surprised its been so quiet in the forums.... I know I'm checking at least twice a day to see how the race is progressing. After a couple of days of light stuff it now seems to be shaping up to be a few competitive contest within the fleet. I haven't yet entered the data to project the winners but hopefully I can find some time to do that.

Looks to be a great contest between Dogbark and Hecla for line honors.

The High seems to be settled in which should give some good conditions to make up for the tough start.

Good luck to all the racers. Wish I was out there. Happy tracking...

dan

Some news:
After the tree party, had a great dinner at RCHQ "race committee head quarters", Al Hughes was there with some friends of the RCHQ, After lighting the BBQ with a wooden chopstick held to a hot plate "no lighters, or flame of any kind", we all had some great cheese burgers "Al had 2", we set out for the finish of Heckla, Sly went to the finish line on top of princevill, Synthia and I went out to greet Heckla on the Zodiack in the pitch black night, with Ms.Heckla as well.
check the prop shaft seal "good" and pulled down the main, Dogbark was helping by pointing out the unlit boats and find a safe place to set the hook... All is well and waiting for the next boat to arrive....

Photos of the day are at:
picasaweb.google.com/rnutball/SSSfinish

Gotta go get in the water. by for now....

Rich---