Awards Tonight
Nearly three weeks since our bon voyage party and Skippers’ briefing at Richmond Yacht Club, we prepare to say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. Whether as a racer, a volunteer at KYC, a PCYC race official, or the Media Guy behind this keyboard it’s been a heck of a journey. Now it’s time to wrap up the 21st edition of this great yacht race. Clean up after yourself on the way out, shut off the lights when you’re done, and we’ll see you all in a couple of years.
But first, the awards!!! This evening at Kaneohe Yacht Club will be a very special one for all of us. The stories, the photos, the mental images and memories of this race are something that many of us hold a bit more dear after missing out two years ago. While a picture is often times worth a thousand words, a First Place trophy on the mantle is something entirely different.
Obviously, the biggest winners in this year’s race are the Pyewacket crew. With the fastest boat and the most accomplished crew of any in the race, Roy P. Disney’s Pyewacket crew completed the clean sweep of first to finish, first in Division A, first place overall and fastest elapsed time. An impressive accomplishment for this experienced yachtsman and his world class crew who will take home the Pacific Cup and a host of other awards.
Just behind Pyewacket was Stu Dahlgren’s Santa Cruz 70 Westerly, who claimed second place in the Alaska Airlines A Division and also second place overall. Westerly will also win the Bill Lee award for the fastest of the Bill Lee designed yachts. Not a bad result for a boat that was in the boat yard with keel damage just days before the start!
Winning the BMW of San Rafael B Division and also taking home the J/125 award is Jason Andrews and Shawn Dougherty’s J/125 Hamachi. After an intense battle against top-tier competition, Hamachi claimed first in division B and third overall just three years after winning the Transpac race overall. An incredible record for this Seattle based program, and yet another successful result for the venerable J/125.
Bob Hinden’s Schumacher 46 Surprise is also set to take in a serious haul of hardware after claiming not just the Goslings Rum G Division, but also claiming the Carl Schumacher Trophy and being part of the winning team for team trophy alongside Azure and Duende. Eric Hopper and Douglas Schenk’s Free Bowl of Soup will take home the Weems and Plath W Division trophy.
Andy Schwenk’s Richmond based Express 37 Spindrift V will be awarded the trophy for winning the hotly contested North Sails S Division. They will also win the Express 37 Prize. Andy Hamilton’s Donovan 30 Wolfpack will take home the Mahina DH2 Division award after staging an epic comeback victory against the J/111 Raku.
In Kolea DH1, Marc Andrea Klimaschewski and David Rogers will take home Divisional Honors after a hard-fought battle across the Pacific. Bill and Melinda Erkelens on Foamy will take home the Moore 24 trophy for being the first of three Moore’s to finish the race.
In Ocean Navigator A, David Herring’s Islander 36 Galatea will take home the Islander 36 award while Giuseppe Lavelle’s Cal 40 Duende will take home the team trophy alongside Azure and Surprise. The big winners in Ocean Navigator A will be Rodney Pimentel and his crew on Azure. They will not only take home the team trophy, but also claimed divisional honors and Best PHRF Boat award.
Commodore Quanci has a couple of special awards to hand out as well the family and rookie awards. To view the almost final race results (two boats are still on course), visit https://2022.pacificcup.org/standings
See you this evening between 5-7 pm for the awards ceremony!
Aloha,
Ronnie Simpson
Pacific Cup Yacht Club
Kyle Langford photo credit for drone shot