Second Wave Faces Light Wind Challenges
The third day of the 2022 Pacific Cup arrives with no shortage of action. A second wave of boats is now on the race course and sailing to Hawaii. The Monday fleet, heavily split between North and South, now sees the more southerly boats beginning to break out into pressure. One of the Monday starters - the Freedom 40/40 cruising boat Circe - returned to port, while one of the race’s most prestigious entries - the Volvo 70 Wizard - withdrew from their Friday start with delivery-related keel issues.
A standout boat among the Monday starters thus far appears to be Bill and Melinda Erkelens on the Moore 24 Foamy. Committing hard to the south early, the legendary husband/wife duo has shown consistently good boat speed during these first 44 hours at sea. Interestingly, Foamy carries both a Genoa and a Code 0, which could both prove to be very valuable sails during these first few days. As of this writing, Foamy was the quickest boat among the Monday starters and was making 6.5 knots on the tracker.
Just a tick off Foamy’s pace, many of the Monday starters are beginning to reach the breeze and sail at more than 5 knots of boat speed including a trio of Express 27’s, the Moore 24 Puffin and the Alerion Express 38 Surprise!. Off Foamy’s hip is the Hans Christian Cruising boat Solis, though it’s important to note that this boat is in the Cruising Division and used ten hours of allowed motoring to punch through the light stuff. That ten hours will be added to their elapsed time, but we think it will have been worth it.
Up North among the Monday starters, Rodney Pimentel’s Cal 40 Azure and Amanda and Brian Turner’s Beneteau 10R CruzSea Baby had been sailing nearTony Bourque’s Freedom 40/40 Circe. Unfortunately for Bourque and crew, they experienced a handful of technical issues including a leaking prop shaft, which prompted them to return to the Bay and withdraw from the race. All crew are safe and accounted for.
For Azure and CruzSea Baby however, the race is still very much on. While the two boats looked good in the early going and began to power up and stretch their legs, they have now firmly hit the brakes and tacked to the south, making very low boat speeds as of this writing. Going from hero to zero in the blink of an eye, these northerly boats’ saving grace could be that when the northwesterly finally fills in, they reach it first and make gains. As of this writing however, it appears that the dramatic North/South split that occurred is beginning to fall into the hands of the Southerly boats.
For the Tuesday starters, 19 boats made their way out the Gate in very light conditions with significant fog and moisture that just lingered in the atmosphere due to the distinct lack of a clearing breeze. Once into the Pacific, the second wave of boats didn’t seem to fare much better with boat speeds consistently registering sub-3 knots for much of the fleet during their first 12 hours. How things have changed on a Wednesday morning however! Beginning to hook into the same pressure that is propelling the southerly boats from the Monday start, the Tuesday starters are beginning to zoom along… relatively speaking.
Justin and Christina Wolfe’s J/111 Raku from Orcas Island, Washington, leads the charge to the south with Shawn Ivie’s Express 37 Limitless and Chad Stenwick’s J35 the Boss not far behind. Andy Hamilton’s Donovan 30 Wolfpack and Tracy Rogers’ J120 Hokulani are a bit further north in the lead pack, while the two Express 37’s Perplexity and Spindrift V are furthest north in this pack. All the boats on this NNW to SSE line that form the lead pack are making roughly 6 knots of boat speed as of this writing.
While the fleet struggles through light air that is just beginning to build, they are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the long-anticipated breeze that will actually take them to the trades and on to Hawaii. That breeze should arrive some time today, likely during daylight hours. Once that breeze does arrive however, there appears to be a pretty big incentive to head south before turning west. If the GRIBs prove to be accurate, boats will be setting spinnakers today to skirt the elongated High and stay in pressure, which makes the South look even more heavily favored.
Meanwhile, in the Bay, two more fleets of boats are preparing for their starts tomorrow and the final fleet is scheduled to start on Friday. Both fleets are forecast to start in much quicker conditions than the Monday and Tuesday starters, per the original forecast that was relayed at last weekend’s Skipper’s Meeting, which has proved to be more or less accurate up to this point.
Down South, many viewers will notice a cyclone spinning up and beginning to track towards Hawaii. This system is forecast to dissipate into a mere disturbance, though could throw up a ‘cross’ swell from the South which challenges the fleet and causes boats to round up. Another cyclone is predicted to form in this current system’s wake, and we will closely monitor that.
How to follow the race -
Website pacificcup.org
Instagram @paccuprace
Facebook - Pacific Cup Yacht Club
YB Tracker on the YB Races app or at yb.tl/paccup2022
Starts are broadcast LIVE on Facebook, beginning at 12:30 pm PDT on Thursday and 1:15 pm PDT on Friday.
Aloha until tomorrow,
Ronnie Simpson
Pacific Cup Yacht Club