Ten boats set sail from Hollywood last Saturday morning. The morning was bright and clear. The crews were in high spirits. With that many Tradewind brigantines on the water it was no wonder that as race director I had my doubts how the start would go. Well, it went GREAT.
Before the crews raised anchor and made sail, the fleet was briefed on changes that had been made to the Passages Contest rules. Highlighting those changes were: 1) a revised start sequence that reduced congestion at the start line; 2) the addition of the ISF rules of sailing that are used in our regular regattas, and 3) a tweak to the Eastern option course.
As a result more boats selected the Western option than the eastern, including last week winner Oliphant Ming, who went East last week for his victory.
This week victory belonged to Epicurus Emmons, who also opted west. Epicurus finished in 53.20 minutes (that’s digital minutes, not seconds). Oli was a very close second at 53.43 minutes. Bea Woodget in her gourgeous White brigantine finished third at 54.61 minutes. Bato B was fifth, fininshing  at just under an hour at 59.70 minutes. oepie Korobase came in at 61.00 minutes while Yuu Nakamachi rounded out the fleet action at 66.08 minutes.
I was able to get some good photos which are here. I also got some awesome video which I will be editing into a special Passages Video very soon.