History of the Pacific Cup

Cup History
The West Marine Pacific Cup
by Louis Ickler

The Pacific Cup was born January 1979, after a meeting of the membership at the Ballena Bay Yacht Club. Hal Nelson approached Vytas Pazemenas, Commodore, with the idea of starting a low-key, fun race for fully-crewed boats from San Francisco to Hawaii.

The first singlehanded race to Hawaii had just been successfully completed the previous summer and the club had a nucleus of members interested in ocean racing, so the timing appeared right. Berthing space in Oahu appeared to be unavailable, Maui already had the Victoria-Maui race finishing at Lahaina, and Hanalei Bay on Kauai could not handle a large number of boats. The best compromise appeared to be Nawiliwili on the southeast corner of Kauai, and with the support of a small but enthusiastic group of volunteers from the Nawiliwili Yacht Club a finish line was found. It was a small group of six who put the race together originally, but interest increased rapidly and more volunteers showed up. Hal was the first chairman, but the hat soon passed to Vytas, and then, in the year of the start of the first race, to Joe Oakley, then Commodore of the Ballena Bay Yacht Club, who with Emmett Ramey, worked tirelessly to perform a myriad of tasks.

The first Pacific Cup started on June 15, 1980 with 40 yachts. In one of the roughest races to Hawaii, only 32 of the boats finished. The three Santana 35s in the race all had damage to their rudders during the first several days: Friendship was picked up by a Navy ship and Raccoon Straights returned to San Francisco with water pouring in a cracked rudder bearing, leaving Wild Hair the only Santana to finish in Hawaii. The 63-foot yawl Corsair retired from the race and was lost on a shoal on her way back. After the rough weather of the first few days, the winds diminished and only Merlin, the 67-foot Lee Custom, had the speed to outrun the high pressure area which moved down on the rest of the fleet. She reached Nawiliwili more than four days ahead of the rest of the fleet, to win first to finish as well as first on corrected timing.

In 1982, the competition intensified among the big boats, although the number of boats racing under the International Ocean Racing (IOR) rule had declined to eight boats from 13 in 1980. Merlin was there again and beat her previous record by 1 hour and 28 minutes in elapsed time but was only able to place sixth on corrected time. The race was won by Temptress, a Swede 55, in the PHRF division and overall, with Zamazaan winning the IOR division.

In 1984 Merlin again beat her old record and set a new record in elapsed time for the Pacific Cup of 9 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes. The winners on corrected time were Surefire in the IOR division and Magic Carpet in PHRF. In the newly-added doublehanded division, Light’n Up won, arriving only six hours behind Magic Carpet.

In 1986 Merlin again set a new elapsed time record of 8 days, 14 hours, 53 minutes, followed by Swiftsure III only 40 minutes later, and Charley less than 6 hours later. Magic Carpet won on corrected time in 11 days, 9 hours while the IOR division was won by Sweet Okole.

By the end of the 1986 race the Pacific Cup was well established as a race, although only 15 boats had entered in 1984. It was clear that the really big boats racing under IOR rules were finding it difficult to include this race in their busy schedules, and since the Pacific Cup ws not part of the established group of races which count toward season championship points, fewer of the IOR boats were showing up each year. At the same time, the attraction of the Pacific Cup as a race for cruising boats as well as aggressive racers, and the only offshore race out of San Francisco, was making it increasingly popular. The Ballena Bay Yacht Club was finding it more difficult to administer what was turning into a major event with volunteer help - especially in a club with a number of competing activities. Some of the members were becoming worried about the legal liabilities of ocean racing. The 1986 race had taxed the facilities of the Nawiliwili harbor and a number of sailors had begun to talk about some other finishing point in Hawaii.
It began to look as if the race might fade away unless someone could organize a committed group to keep it going. At this point George Barrett decided to get involved, and on August 4, 1987, he assembled a number of sailors in an organizational meeting at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. With the support of some leading participants from prior races and the Ballena Bay Yacht Club, he drafted the Articles of Incorporation for a new club, The Pacific Cup Yacht Club, whose function would be to take over the race.

One of the first items of business was the choice of a new finishing line. Talks with Kaneohe Yacht Club, one of the three principal clubs on Oahu that had handled the finish of the Transpac race from Los Angeles, led to the important and happy choice of Kaneohe as the new finishing line.

George R. Barrett had sailed the race as the chartering skipper of Charley, a Holland 67, which won third place in 1986. Although he looked forward eagerly to doing the 1988 race, his health began to deteriorate and when the boat he wanted to charter was committed to another race, he ran the race from the shore. He ran it well. It was George that made the 1988 race the first with a major sponsor, West Marine Products, the first to be governed by a yacht club set up soley for the purpose of running this race, and the first to have Kaneohe Bay as a destination. George died in the fall of 1988, and the West Marine Pacific Cup continues as a living memorial to him.

In 1988 winds were lighter than usual at 15 to 22 knots, and the seas were smooth. With the Pacific high pressure stretched out in an east-west oval, boats that started out on the rhumb line soon began to fear that they were too close to the high, and by fourth day most boats had turned more to the south. The winner on corrected time was Saraband, a Westsail 32 that had sailed a consistent pace for 14 days, 17 hours elapsed time, an amazing feat in relatively light winds. Second and third places went to the veteran boats Wild Goose and Magic Carpet, while Kathmandu took first in IOR after her competition got caught too far north and suffered from light winds.

The 1990 race had generally nice conditions except for light wind for the first few days. This race had a number of firsts, such as staggered starts over a four-day period and a record number of entries (peaked at 53 with 45 crossing the starting line). The idea of using staggered starts was to have most of the fleet sailing in the same weather conditions and for all entrants to finish within a few days of each other. Hopefully this would result in a fairer, closer, and more fun race. All in all, the new format was a great success. Most entrants finished within three days of each other, and the first five boats overall represented all four crewed classes. In fact, the first three boats overall represented a complete range of sailboat types with first being an ultralight, second a medium displacement racer-cruiser, and third a heavy displacement cruiser. The first three boats overall in order of finish were Oaxaca (Santa Cruz 50), Heart of Gold (Schumacher 50) and Saraband (Westsail 32).

The 1992 race continued to grow: 46 boats starting and 43 finishing. The first start was windy and the next starts were very slow. Overall, the race was relatively fast. It proved to be a rhumb line race because the high was quite far north. Some boats successfully chose a great circle route. The two largest boats in the race (ultralight 70’s) were doublehanded. The smallest boat in the fleet, Team Bonzi, a Moore 24, did a sweep, taking both the doublehanded and the overall Cup trophy. Fleet second place went to Ghost, a Morgan 38 from Kaneohe.

The 1994 race saw records fall. First, an all-time high of 58 boats participated. Second, 52 finished, and third, Steve Rander’s Rage broke Merlin’s long standing elapsed time record of 8 days, 11 hours and 1 minute by finishing it in 8 days, 7 hours and 13 minutes. Probably another first was a proposal of marriage during one morning’s roll call. The small boats dominated the corrected time standings, with Bill and Melinda Erkelen’s home-built Dogpatch 26, Moonshine, winning overall, Division B and the Double-handed class. Chimera, an Express 27, took second and the Olson 25, Siva, took third in the fleet.

The starting conditions for the 1996 Pacific Cup were a repeat of 1992. The first day saw the boats blasting away from the coast, while the next three divisions were wondering if they would ever make it past the Farallones. Conditions were right for Rage which broke her own record of 8 days, 7 hours set in 1994 with a new record of 7 days 22 hours. Not only did the speed record fall, a record 60 boats made it to Kaneohe. Among them was Illusion, a tried-and-true California to Hawaii veteran Cal 40, sailed by Stan Honey and Sally Lindsay, who captured the overall corrected time honors and led a doublehanded sweep of the fleet. The Moore 24 Kangaroo Court took second overall, followed by the Custom 27 Wildflower.

In 1998 the speed record was demolished by Roy Disney’s boat Pyewacket as she took more than a full day off the record, finishing in 6 days, 14 hours, and 23 minutes. Pacific Cup veteran Bob Nance won first overall on handicap in Water Pik. The records are getting tougher to beat every year, and just to make it a real challenge Bob traded his Newport 30 Water Pik for a Santa Cruz 50 for this try. It’s still too early to guess if the weather will make 2000 a fast race, but a look at the list of entries makes it clear that from small to mega boats, and from heavy cruisers to sleds, this will be another great race with something for every entrant. Truly the FUN race to Hawaii.