FULL RACE- Port Townsend to Ketchikan
Team name- Team Puffin
Team captain: Michael Dougherty & Sam Rayachoti
Total crew: 2
Race vessel: Wharram Tiki 21
Right after naming their team after the swiftest bird in the puffin family, Team Puffin chose the fastest vessel from their quiver of options. The runners up: an inflatable SUP and a Boston Whaler. Decisions like these betray keen minds that bring more to the table than years of experience, adventures that span oceans and and a willingness to go to Alaska in what is little more than two canoes lashed together with two by fours. It’s hard not to notice the brains on these guys.
Their secret weapon: Math. There are allegedly several server farms that have been reassigned from mining Bit Coin to crunch the numbers and churn out weather pattern models based on decades of history, the evolution of global warming, changes in ocean currents, Groundhog Day- they are even monitoring whether or not that butterfly in China flaps its wings. Everything, literally everything has been accounted for to create the most sophisticated weather model and allow Team Puffin to choose the most efficient route up the inside passage. While they won’t give us the details, they did say their route has something to do with “North”. Impressive work, truly evil genius stuff. We can’t even spell data moddeling.
While it might not be the spirit of bare knuckle human struggle that we imagined when we thought this up, it’s possible that these guys will use all of their maths and glide effortlessly all the way to Alaska.
We might only be in our first year, but it’s possible the R2AK just got Moneyballed.
Welcome aboard Team Puffin- may your minds be keen, your data be true and your balls be moneyed.