Race To Alaska

Interesting event.  Tracker link http://tracker.r2ak.com/

I see that the two most heavily media flogged boats, the Bieker proa and the little cat from Port Townsend have dropped out and never did well.

It really only looked like a very long Shaw Island Classic to me.  Agility would be far more important than speed as I see it.   The wind will be from 10 different directions in 10 minutes and you may have to tack 5 times in that ten minutes to dodge eddies or kelp beds.  And typically it all seems to be uphill.  Short tacking is often the rule.  In this kind of race I expect that the old 34′ Smoholla might have been quicker than the F40 Geko.  Imagine having to move the mast every tack as on the Bieker proa?  What were they thinking?

That says 30′  or so trimaran to me.  They tack faster than the cats.  You see it firsthand at races in the San Juans.  And with all the kelp I’m sure a foiler is off the menu most of the time.

And when there is no wind, I learned in the Tasmania race that you can move a small multi pretty well rowing.

2 thoughts on “Race To Alaska”

  1. Interesting that a rowboat race has turned into a race between small, maneuverable trimarans! Weather is what you see, not what your history book says it should be.

    I’ve always said its better to be lucky than smart! And having lots of breeze to push you through the inland tidal maze is certainly lucky.

    Of course it helps not to do something completely stupid like choosing a proa for the mission!

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