The trackers are flat and gray. The size is approximately 9x7x1 inches and the case is weather tight. They have an internal battery and must be mounted face up with a clear view of the sky. Some boats use sticky back Velcro and others tie the unit in place on the deck.

The trackers collect a GPS position every two hours and then transmit that position to the satellites. There is some "dither" from the time we receive the actual position reports. Thus, most positions will be reported sometime between the hour and 20 minutes after the hour. Also, it may take up to 40 minutes for a position to show up on the mapper and leaderboard.

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 the Leaderboard page, click on a boat name, and follow the link on the report page.

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

The leaderboard calculates corrected times based on IRC and PHRF values. In the event that both IRC and PHRF figures are available for a given vessel, the IRC value is used.

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The Race Committee may elect to post which boats have withdrawn from the race.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 and wave data are 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.