Marspeed is way back in the fleet according the tracker - that lightweight Marstrom probably had intertia issues trying to get through that surf on starboard.

Excellent vids by brother Bob! Really miss Bonnie and Rick, Im sure Craig is probably a little too busy to report every 2 minutes like we need it...
Jakes investigative work on the RC tracker is impressive, hope they pull into the Asian massage parlor on 95, not that I would know anything about that

Capt Kirk still rocking it out, his liver and his sailing is legendary!

I still don't know how science can explain Capt Kirk's liver.

Ha! I just noticed they put the boat type in the spotter name. Yay RC!

I bet something broke in the surf. That area has ninja sand bars that can sneak up on an unwary banana board.

Last data shows 13.2kts. Doubt anything is broken.

the newest data shows everyone at 11knts or better, Capt Kirk 15 kts, they must be cracked off a fuzz and trucking!

I saw that this morning and thought I had just missed it before. That's handy.

Am I missing the distance legend on the tracker map or is there none?

Looks like a couple guys are heading out a bit further offshore - perhaps in hopes of riding the chute in? How does that work out on a combined VMG?

rehumbo: In my experience it rarely works and its a good way of wearing out your crew. Only if the angle is awesome can it really pay off.

As for marspeed breaking something... they could have fixed it yaknow :P

Duct tape and bubblegum

Following this thread is great - I have no experience with this kind of long distance offnear-shore sailing. I'm in full-on learning mode for the future

Looks like Newkirk either figured something out or brought a crew whip with him this morning. It's a little hard to tell but I don't think Marspeed is closing on them at all.

Yeah, some guys are pointed offshore - I get the thought but I agree with Tad that it is probably not going to give them any advantage. If it was flat water, maybe...but even with the kite up in that breeze, the waves are going to keep them from going much faster than they would be if they just cracked off onto the same reach as everyone else. Couple that with the fact that there will start to be a 1 to 2 knot difference in the breeze on the beach vs. 1/4 or 1/2 mile out, it's a play that has a LOT of risk for very little reward.

Dave, yeah, I've been lamenting the lack of a scale on that map. I'll sometimes overlay a google map with a similar zoom so I can get some sort of sense of scale.

A dumb question but, is the race scored on elapsed time or points won? The Florida 300 web site shows both time and points won. I thought I read that the races was on ET.

The port start was a smart call. It helped to be in the second start to see the trouble that the first starters were having getting through the surf.

Key sailing is currently 2.2 miles ahead of Royal yellow - so still in sight but getting smaller.

Key Sailing also appears to be 5 miles ahead of Marspeed - so JC and Bret have a big hill to climb today if they want to finish in the number 1 spot. From Bret's point of view, Key Sailing is a small stick on the horizon.

The tracker time stamps are pretty similar between these boats so you can count on the leaderboard distances.

That's a good question - I wondered that last night. The NOR has this to say so it sounds like it's all on elapsed.

The SI's have this to say:



So there is a first to finish race, Open Fleet (handicap), F18 fleet (finish position), and presumably a Nacra 20 fleet?

I was doing the same thing but I did it because I wanted to see where they were sailing in relation to the reef/drop-off.