Carl...
It must have been about 9:30 pm. We were ripping along in the 20's about 20 miles offshore. I saw a light in the distance. Brendan and I argued about wheather it was a bouy or boat. As you know the night thing plays with your mind a bit. As we got close enough we saw it was an old cruiser. We I then lit the main up with the flashlight so they knew we were there. We then crossed their stern within 3 feet and heard cheers. Two days later I got an e-mail from the editor of sail mag. He said he knew the race was going by and didn't think he was going to see any boats that far offshore. He thanked us for the fly by and letting them cheer like nascar fans 20 mile offshore.
As far as safety and the helmet... I have to thank sailsafety.com for the gear. they gave us the helmets in 2001 but we did some testing with the old ones and were not very happy with them.. This year they came out with a new style that is very comfortable. I wore it for at least 10 of the legs. There were 2 times this year when I found myself hitting the boat very hard and was glad to have it on.I find that as well as the safety factor it added a great deal of warmth during the night legs. Out of all the people who raced last year. I was surprised when Davis said to me he wished he had one. The racing was so close last year it made the nights even that much more dangerous. I would only hope safety is of greater concern......
I think this year won't be as close with the new boat and all the newbees to the race trying to figure out how to sail it. There are alot of big boat sailors going for it this year and without a great deal of time on a cat I think there will be alot of boat in need of serious repairs. I'm not saying they are not good sailors They have all proven their sailing skills in the big boat world. My advise to them is unless they know how to make a cat go full speed ALL THE TIME. They need to do ALOT of sailing between now and race day. I think there will only be about 18-20 boats come race day.... On another note we are having our "Worrell" baby boy in three weeks...Who ever said you get tired during that race.....

cheers JIM