As if the Newport to Bermuda race isn't cool enough, this year's race features an online tracking feature.

Follow the boats in near-real time (the race committee has imposed a four hour time delay for tactical purposes) as they make their way from Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island to St. David's Head, Bermuda. The online view does more than show positions, too. Pick your favorite boats and view only them. Zoom in or out. Turn on overlays for wind speed and direction as well as water temperature.

For all you armchair navigators, this is it. Plot the Gulf Stream, find favorable eddies, make the call for "rhumbline" (a straight shot) to Bermuda or playing the stream. Forget fantasy football, this is fantasy sailing. It's like being the navigator on one of the boats (go ahead, pick a fast one) except for the cold beer and hot showers. Click here for the online viewer.

And while we're on the subject of cool sailboat races, four very cool boats of past and present glory set sail Sunday in the Transpacific Yacht Club's 13th running of the 3,571-nautical mile race to Tahiti. Doug Baker's Andrews 80, Magnitude 80; Bob Lane's Andrews 63, Medicine Man; Chris Welsh's Spencer 65, Ragtime, and Jim Morgan's Santa Cruz 50, Fortaleza, will start the race at 1 p.m. off Point Fermin in San Pedro, just outside the Los Angeles Harbor. The finish line is offshore from the Pointe Venus lighthouse near Papeete.

Magnitude 80 is expected to break the record of 14 days 21 hours 15 minutes 26 seconds set by the late Fred Kirschner's Santa Cruz 70, Kathmandu, in the most recent race in 1994. Magnitude 80 is pegged to finish in 10 days 7 hours, Medicine Man in 11:21, Ragtime in 13:20---all under the record---and Fortaleza in 15:06, only nine hours over the record.

Sailing Instructions and more Tahiti Race information is available from transpacificyc.org

Photo: Erik J Burckart / Flickr