| Erik Schwartz Rusalka Santa Cruz 40 www.rusalka.net |
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A veteran of the '02 race, Erik is going more for speed and less for the experience this time (although the experience is still amazing). He at least wants to better his 14 day trip last time. To that end, he has a new kite, a new autopilot with a rate gyro, a dedicated weather fax, and some custom software he's written for analyzing and optimizing boat performance. He's spent a lot of time over the past two years learning more about weather and routing. "In 2002 I didn't pay enough attention to what the Pacific high was doing and I really got burned". Before the 2002 race he was promised there were these things called "tradewinds" out there in the Pacific, constant 20 knot winds from astern that you could surf the waves on. He didn't find any tradewinds in 2002 so he's going looking for them again.After 6000 shorthanded miles on her, Erik feels he has Rusalka pretty well set up for singlehanded racing. The twin 120's jibs on twin poles worked really well last time. He got soaked on the first night out (and the first week on the way back), so Rusalka now sports a companionway dodger. "It takes a while to get Rusalka set up singlehanded, but once she's in the groove she sails herself."
After spending 15 years in Silicon Valley working for technology companies, Erik and his family recently moved east to Bath, Maine (the city of ships). Erik now spends his time raising his two year old daughter (with another due in the fall), writing a little software, writing a novel (very slowly), and restoring a 155 year old shipbuilding magnate's mansion overlooking the Kennebec River. Erik is also looking forward to the post-race festivities, with long afternoons at the tree in Hanalei and hanging out with competitors, family and friends.
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