And now for a change of pace. I no longer race sail boats but look in on some of the more interesting sailing events. For a number of years now, a major ocean racing event was first the Whitbread Round the World Race which was superceeded by the Volvo Round the World Race. It consists of about 45,000 nautical miles with stop-overs at half a dozen or so world ports. Last weekend one of the last legs began in Newport Rhode Island to the next stopover at Cardiff, Wales. I drove over to the venue at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, a short drive for me and was very impressed with the amount of Euros Volvo has put into the event and the effort put into the show at "race village". I was also very impressed with the boats themselves which have stood up well under the stress of hard ocean racing.

There is a nice video of the start of the Atlantic leg of the race. The early part of the video is almost a travelogue about Newport, a picturesque New England sailing town where I used to live. The racing part of the video shows the maneuvering and tactics involved at the start crews try to outsmart each other in playing wind and tidal currents to gain advantage.