Sorry in advance for the long post. With safety being such a hot topic lately, especially 1st change safety, I though I'd give my impressions of how the new 1st changes rules worked for the Na Wahine O Ke Kai. This is primarily from the perspective of the escort boat I was on, but I talked to a few other people who seemed to agree.
The new stuff was basically:
-The #'s of the canoes in the back pack were announced over the radio 20 minutes into the race.
-The #'s of the canoes in the front pack were announced 25 minutes into the race.