Excitableboy and Runswithbeers has been added to the live-feed blog-roll on the left sidebar. I encourage you to keep tabs on Luke and Gary for the next few months. Sure to be entertaining and enlightening.
My interest in this duo is their boat. They are each well established racers with several decades of experience and are likely to set up the Sea Pearl 21 for optimum efficiency. This could be a bonus for non-racers as well.
It's been suggested I do the Everglades Challenge myself and must admit it is intriguing until someone points out that two thirds of the contestants never finish.
In Luke's words:
"Those of you who are interested in attempting an EC or some other type of endurance/expedition event in the future may actually learn something or make the decision to stick to tennis or golf. It should be an interesting ride."
If I was going to be in the Everglades Challenge next spring, I'd get a fix on these guys and stay as close to them as I could.
Many thanks to the Small Craft Advisor for suggesting this gem.
7 comments:
I cannot, for the life of me, understand the appeal of this event. I would so much rather do a long challenging trip solos or with a few friends without the contrived time pressure of a race format.
You said it yourself - it's the challenge. These two have a good attitude, which I think pervades the event. The first goal is to finish, not to win.
The constraints of the race format motivate the entrants to perform at their optimum level. Not all sailors are as self-motivated as you and appreciate the opportunity to excel beyond normal limits.
The "tribe" aspect appeals to a lot of people. With a lot of people around, keeping track of each other, it's safer in case of an emergency.
It's a matter of personal style and opinion, I suppose. There are any number of instances of the constraints of competition motivating people to make poor decisions as well. Certainly the tribal aspect is attractive, I don't dispute that.
your point is well taken, though, and I don't want to discourage or disparage anyone making the considerable and impressive effort to participate in an event like the EC.
My apologies for coming across as a nay sayer.
I think this will be a learning experience for all of us.
I personally would love to do it. I even have a boat in mind: a Mackinaw. It's like a marathon. Some runners don't see the point of them, some live for them. Different strokes.
It certainly is a beautiful — and challenging — place to sail.
John, we look forward to seeing your Mackinaw. Alec Jordan has a kit, as you probably know.
Good analogy. I once did long distance endurance bike rides and trained like a fool everyday. Seemed the right thing to do at the time.
I'm still trying to figure out how to launch a 3,000 lb. boat from the beach ;-)
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