Race Strategy
With the meander of the Gulf Stream flowing along the rhumb line for 150 miles, it was obvious that choosing our course through it would be to our advantage. Other boats would clearly do the same.
Jennifer Clark is a Gulf Stream specialist who runs an update seminar for racers on the morning of the start. The skipper attended this and brought back various gulf stream imagery, current velocity analysis, positioning, and a recommended course to take advantage of the positive currents and minimize the negative ones. Before the race started we decided that there was no reason not to use this suggested course.
However, this information is not written in stone, just because the course is the best through the water doesn't make it a winner. Locations and flow currents could change faster than expected and depending on the wind, we might not be able to sail the recommendation. We followed the given course to the end of the ride in the stream and then instead of riding the stream into the rhumb line we tacked to increase our westward position. Later when the winds became more favorable we entered the cold eddy back on the given course, and took that to the finish.