Shadow Gets a Hand

Getting by with a little help from our friends

Shadow II draws 14 feet and decided that, like Pyewacket, they’d rather tie up on Honolulu’s Waikiki Yacht Club. The posh destination has deeper drafts and is much closer to fashionable Waikiki. Pacific Cup’s KYC volunteers and race committee were happy to make the trek to greet them there.

Things did not work out that way.

After a mid-evening finish, Shadow II dipped the finish line and headed out around Mokumanu Island for the run down Oahu’s coast. While this was looking like a wee-hours arrival time, we were still on track to greet them. Then, one presumes, there was a “klunk” as their propellor sucked up a line (spinnaker sheet) and came to a halt.

Conditions made freeing the line underway impractical (middle of night, lumpy seas, big boat), and Shadow II reached out to Coast Guard Sector Honolulu. The coasties agreed to tow our intrepid sailors in… but not to Waikiki Yacht Club.

At about 4:30 am HST, they made fast to a concrete side-tie. As they tidied up the boat, our Principal Race Officer [writing this report] tumbled out of his cozy Waikiki hotel room, picked up a box of 7-11 donuts, and met them at the Coast Guard base where they’d ended up. A sad, but welcome, substitute for the mai-tais and pineapple that normally greet the boats.

We accepted the Coast Guard inspection done on the stricken vessel in lieu of our usual finish checklist, though half their safety gear was strewn about the cockpit!

The crew is in great spirits, happy to be on land, and looking forward to make-up maitais at KYC later!