Hi All,

In recent years the belt buckles were brass plated pewter so if you actually wore them the brass plating wore off and they looked crappy. I am in charge of arranging belt buckles for this race and think I have located a source for "solid" brass belt buckles. My intent here was to have something that you could actually wear and it would look better not worse with wear. I have done two transpacs and am going to exchange my two pewter buckles for solid brass buckles. If any of you previous vets have the pewter buckles and would like to exchange them for solid brass, it will cost you $26 per buckle (our cost). I am doing this at my expense so if you want one and commit to it, I *really* expect you to reimburse me.......... Thanks......

For those of you "old old" time vets, you might appreciate this. The belt buckles were solid brass in the old days. One of the old vets of the race was Ray Jason (who also used to juggle bowling balls on Pier 39). My brother had dinner with him in the restaurant in the Bocas Marina in Bocas Del Toro, Panama about two years ago. My doing the transpac came up in the conversation and Ray said he had done it too. My brother said "you did it for the belt buckle, right?" Ray said yes and stood up and showed it off and said "it's the only belt buckle I ever wear."

I don't know if any of you all care or want to wear your buckles and racers this year will have solid brass buckles anyway, but if you do, let me know and I will add to the order for buckles for this race.

You can respond via this forum (I will try to get better at checking) or you can email me at john1903@intergate.com

John Hayward
Dream Chaser
Valiant 40