The Tracks Tell a Tale

Veterans of the 2026 race will all share a common narrative: how they avoided, or dealt with, the patch of light air that dominated the middle of the course.  The earliest starters had little choice but to slog through it, as in "so wide you can't get around it." The navigator of Lightspeed summed it up: "Gotta say, this navigator appreciates how hard the crew worked to keep the boat moving when the wind dropped to single digits and swung within a 40 degree arc. We never stopped pushing to get every last tenth of a knot out of this girl."

In general, the early starters took a pretty standard path, arcing a bit to the south to catch possibly stronger winds, if not by much.

Then came the Friday racers, the greyhounds of the fleet, ready to scream toward Hawaii at 20 knots or better. Well, not so fast... They too got caught by the light air. With the blob moving south, they opted uniformly to arc OVER the light stuff, though this puts them at risk of being caught by the low velocities in the Pacific High. But really, it was the only path. The "greyhounds" are ambling along with speeds in the low tens. Great numbers for the early starters, but not quite what these sleds are hoping for.

Time will tell if they can collect their lost hours once they get to the tradewinds.