Close Battles Mark the Next Few Days
As Friday’s dawn breaks in Hawaii, just one boat is happily nestled in the barn while the rest of the fleet is lining up their approaches to the islands. The next competitor to finish should be Alan Lubner’s Seattle based R/P 55 Zvi, though they are not slated to arrive until the early hours of Saturday. After Zvi, we should see a handful of boats also cross the finish some time on Saturday night before the floodgate gets thrown wide open on Sunday.
On Thursday morning at approximately 11:05 AM HST, Roy Pat Disney’s turbo Volvo 70 Pyewacket 70 came ripping across the finish line just off Kaneohe Bay to claim not just the fastest elapsed time and first to finish honors, but likely the Alaska Airlines F Division and the overall race win as well. Accelerating into the finish as the wind strengthened closer to the islands, Pyewacket 70 blasted through their final night and morning at sea and made up a lot of time on their rivals in the process. “We gybed to port probably an hour too late, maybe less”, explained legendary Australian sailor Kyle Langford. “We came in HOT. We were really ripping last night!”, Langford added with a laugh.
Once Pyewacket crossed the line they furled their downwind sails and tucked a reef into the main before sailing around to Honolulu. Due to draft limitations, Pyewacket doesn’t quite fit into Kaneohe Yacht Club and is instead berthed at Rainbow Tower in Honolulu Harbor. Even on a ’slow’ year, this incredible new addition to the Pyewacket story sailed the course less than 24 hours off of record pace. Given a better weather window, we have no doubt she could make a run at Rio 100’s existing course record.
An incredible voyage to Hawaii and accomplishment by Roy P. Disney and his entire team of talented sailors and shore crew, we would like to extend our most heartfelt congratulations and Aloha. Thank you for being a part of this race. The incredible images and the many stories of your boat ripping through the fleet and warmly chatting with competitors on the radio is the stuff of yacht racing legend. Mahalo for being a part of the ‘Fun race to Hawaii’.
For the other nearly dozen five boats that are still on the race course, there is still a lot of sailing to be done and many divisions are still up for grabs. In Alaska Airlines F Division, Stu Dahlgren’s Santa Cruz 70 Westerly is looking solid for a second place in division {with a razor thin chance at first) and likely second place overall. Alan Lubner’s R/P 55 Zvi and David Raney’s Wylie 70 Rage are virtually tied on the leaderboard to round out the podium in the Pacific Cup’s premier division. With the remnants of Hurricane Darby passing over the weekend however, these fast boats that are in Pyewacket’s wake could see an increase in breeze that could also re-shuffle the rankings while sailing into the finish.
The BMW of San Rafael Division remains red hot with Jason Andrews and Shawn Dougherty’s J/125 Hamachi still holding a small corrected time lead over Rufus Sjoberg and crew the J/125 Rufless. With renowned Navigator Skip McCormack onboard, watch closely to see if Rufless can manage to out maneuver her rival and sneak back into the lead. The final podium spot is again being hotly contested in the BMW of San Rafael Division by the Riptide 41 Blue and the J/125 Velvet Hammer.
In the Goslings Rum G Division, Bob Hinden’s Schumacher 46 Surprise is still looking solid to take out the divisional win, though fellow Richmond Yacht Club boat Kahoots is coming on strong. Based on our calculations and what is posted on the YB leaderboard, there are no fewer than five boats competing for second place. Separated by just minutes or hours on the leaderboard, one good squall or one mistake could re-shuffle the leaderboard in the few days of racing left.
Weems and Plath W Division sees Eric Hopper and Douglas Schenk’s J/105 Free Bowl of Soup maintaining their lead in division, though a three-way battle is shaping up for second place between the Express 34 Double Espresso, the Beneteau First 40 Vera Cruz and the Olson 30 Concussion.
The North Sails Division looks like it may end up as a to-the-wire battle between Andy Schwenk’s Express 37 Spindrift V and Chad Stenwick’s J/35 the Boss. Sailing in close formation since leaving the Golden Gate, the duo is just an hour apart on corrected time (about three hours apart on the water). As of this writing, Spindrift V holds a slight lead. Behind them, Shawn Ivie’s Express 37 Limitless will be trying to dig themselves out of a hole that they dug when they lost out on the initial North/ South gamble. There is still plenty of race track left for these boats, so keep a close watch on this fantastic battle.
Christina and Justin Wolfe have impressed this writer immensely since day one. At every check in, their J/111 Raku seems to hitting above her weight and moving as well as one could expect a J/111 to go. Right now they are making 11 knots and holding pace with faster-rated boats. Respect. For these multi-time Pac Cup doublehanded veterans, it looks as though the third time in this race may be a charm. Sailing a masterful race from the start, the husband and wife team look set to take home some well deserved First Place hardware for their efforts. Behind them, Andy Hamilton’s Donovan 30 Wolfpack is looking good in second place while Erwan Menard’s Pogo 30 eskoriñ is locked into a close corrected time battle with Buzz Blackett’s Antim 27C ‘io.
In Kolea DH1, we’re all about that Dogpatch 26 Moonshine. Working the North early, Marc Andrea Klimaschewski and David Rogers have sailed a stellar race. This writer will be the first to admit that he did not have the most confidence in Moonshine’s early routing choices. In the mid to late stages of this race however, it has become clear that new Moonshine owner Marc and his co-skipper David have played their hand beautifully. The duo now appear to be sailing their ultra-famous and pedigree’d plywood boat to yet another win in the Pacific Cup. Amanda and Brian Turner’s Beneteau First 10R CruzSea Baby is looking good in second place, while the revered husband and wife team of Bill and Melinda Erkelens are looking to round out the podium with Foamy.
In the Ocean Navigator Division, Rodney Pimentel’s Cal 40 Azure looks to be extending her lead over fellow Cal 40 Duende, with the Islander 36 Galatea maintaining position in third place.
There is still a lot of racing left for some of the slower boats that set off on Monday and Tuesday, and these boats are now finding themselves in a race against the clock to make the party! We are wishing these boats a solid breeze and nice following swells on their last week at sea.
This weekend will be a big weekend for the Pacific Cup, so stay tuned to this page, our tracker, our website, and to all of our social media channels.
Aloha,
Ronnie Simpson
Pacific Cup Yacht Club