Both the Pacific Cup Yacht Club (PCYC) and Horizon Marine (creators of the iBoattrack service) are interested in testing the ability to track competitors via GPS Transponders between San Francisco and Hawaii. Horizon Marine has generously provided a free GPS transponder for one boat in each division. A few additional transponders have been rented for the race.

No! This information is being provided for the enjoyment of those ashore during the race and for the racers AFTER they have finished the race. The West Marine Pacific Cup Notice of Race specifically states that this website and all of the data presented is off limits to racers while they are competing. Please be careful if you communicate with boats during the race NOT to inadvertently provide them with information that you have learned while visiting any part of www.iboattrack.com and its associated pages.

The 9AM PDT rollcall positions for ALL boats will be plotted each day. All boats carrying GPS transponders will have their positions plotted for both roll call, and in two hour intervals throughout the race. There are only eleven (perhaps 12 by race time) boats carrying GPS Transponders for this race.

Keeli Quinn, Slim, Sonata, Jam, Cayenne, Cassiopeia, Morpheus, Relentless, Bequia, Kyrnos, and Synge

The tracker is a 5" by 38" cylinder, mounted to the stern rail with hose clamps.

The trackers collect a GPS position every hour and then transmit any new positions to satellites when they pass overhead. Once the positions are recorded, it may take up to 40 minutes for them to show up on the mapper and leaderboard. Although the positions are recorded hourly, the mapper only displays positions from every other hour.

The boat tracking service is for fun only and is not a safely device. It is not unusual to see a few trackers miss a position update. We do not and can not guarantee our services. Please read the Disclaimer. All boats should have safety equipment as required by the Race Committee. The trackers transmit at a power level well below one watt for a fraction of a second. There are many possible reasons why a position is not received. The trackers must have a clear view of the sky. We have had sailors place sail bags over the trackers, sit on them, or cover them with a hatch cover. In addition, under windy conditions, when the boat is tilted way over, the tracker may not have a clear view of the sky and thus fail to report a position.

Yes. Visit here.

Only the Race Committee will be posting official results. See the Race's home pages for office race results.

The leaderboard does not account for handicaps. Its position ranking is based simply on which boat is closest to the finish and the posted time.

The trackers do not report the positions at exactly the same time. We use interpolation to determine the "estimate position" at the selected hour so that the boat positions can be directly compared. This differs from the "distance to finish" reported for a specific position and time report in the mouseovers on the maps.

The estimated finish time is a simple projection from the current location to the finish line. First, the daily average speed-made-good is calculated from the historical positions. Then, the projected finish time is calculated by taking the distance to finish, dividing by the average speed-made-good, and then adding to the present time. The actual finish time is as reported by the Race Committee sometime after the boat has finished the race. In this case, the "Estimated Distance to the Finish" will indicate "Finished". Note that this is not the "official" finish time which will only be available from the Race Committee.

The Race Committee may elect to post which boats have withdrawn from the race. In this case, the "Estimated Distance to the Finish" will indicate "Withdrawn". The boat will still continue to be tracked and shown on the tracking maps.

The wind data is from a numerical weather prediction model called NAM that is run by the Nation Center for Environmental Prediction at the National Weather Service.

The Gulf Stream layer shows the sea surface temperate from the AVHRR imager on the NOAA polar orbiting satellites. We receive the data from either NOAA directly or from the Ocean Remote Sensing Group at Johns Hopkins University.