Tomorrow, I will be racing single-handed in the Leukemia Cup Regatta hosted by Larchmont Yacht Club, not only to get in some needed practice, but to support a worthy cause--helping to raise money and awareness in an effort to cure cancer.

If you have the means, please donate to the cause here. Every little bit helps.

According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society:

"Nearly 1,012,533 Americans currently battle blood cancers. Every four minutes, someone is diagnosed. They are men, women, children, of every race and every age. Every ten minutes, someone dies from these cancers."

"An estimated combined total of 156,420 people in the US are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2014."

Also known as the Fall Edlu, the race is relatively short--about 32 nautical miles from just off the LYC breakwater to Eatons Neck and back. However, according to the sailing instructions, the RC could choose instead to have the boats go around one or more of 17 government marks. So I'll be sure to have those plugged into my iPad before Saturday, which will allow my DMK Box to help me to optimize my course and maneuvering with iNavX and iRegatta Pro using my onboard instrument data.

According to PredictWind, the breeze is forecasted to be from the SW. Assuming that I'll be racing the traditional Edlu course, I expect a downwind start and broad reach down to the mark with the big kite and genoa followed by a close-hauled course back to the breakwater. I'm excited to use my new outboard lead and tweaker setup to open up the clew and tighten up the leech on the genoa downwind, which hopefully will give a little more punch to our downwind speed. To plot my track, I'll be using my Bad Elf GPS Pro module.

The overall goal of the regatta is to focus on boat management (including proper weight distribution), and limiting maneuvers, just as I would do if I were offshore.

See you out on the water.

We are excited to announce that DMK Yacht Instruments will be partnering with Abilyn Racing on its ocean racing campaign. DMK Yacht Instruments, based in Seattle, Washington, is the developer of the DMK Box, which enables wireless access to on-board instrument data for use essentially with any application that accepts NMEA data, including routing software such as Expedition, or other robust navigation and performance analysis applications like iNavX and iRegatta Pro.

Abilyn Racing will be using a DMK Box to link up on-board data generated by Raymarine instruments with an iPad running iNavX and iRegatta Pro. This setup will allow Abilyn Racing not only to pinpoint its location and its AIS targets, but also to analyze sailing performance with significantly greater precision than is available through our cockpit display.

The DMK Box is ideal for small race boats like Abilyn, which crave the same type of data as the big race boats, but cannot afford the full-on information centers delivering that data. With a full set of electronics, the DMK Box offers an elegantly simple solution that opens up boat data for precision analysis in a compact and affordable package.

As our sailing program gets underway this season, we hope to share with you what information the DMK Box opens up for us and what it will tell us about our sailing performance.

Check out DMK Yacht Instruments at www.dmkyacht.com.