The Sleds Turn It On, but the Little Boats Still Lead

2026 PACIFIC CUP ·  SAN FRANCISCO TO KANEOHE BAY

Race Update  ·  Saturday, July 11, 2026

Day six, and the 2026 Pacific Cup has stretched itself right across the ocean. The big boats that started Friday spent their first full day charging down the coast at 12 and 13 knots. Out ahead, though, the picture is upside down in the best way: the boats physically closest to Hawaii tonight are two of the smallest in the fleet. And in the middle, a few crews are learning exactly what a Pacific parking lot feels like.

The weather picture

The engine of this whole race, the North Pacific High, has settled well out to the northwest, parked in the mid-ocean with a ridge of high pressure reaching all the way back to the California coast. It is staying put through the 13th, then nudges a little further north on the 14th. That leaves the fleet living in two very different worlds. Up near the coast, where the Friday sleds are still charging, the squeeze between the High's ridge and a thermal trough is pumping out a strong northwesterly, low to high 20s gusting near 31, lumpy and under a small-craft advisory, and it actually builds a touch tonight. That is better miles-eating reaching for the big boats.

Farther out toward Hawaii, where the early fleet and the leaders are, the trough goes quiet and the air turns light. That sounds lovely, and the sunrises have been gorgeous, but light also means slow, and tonight several boats in the middle are barely ghosting along at a knot or two. There is a lumpy swell band to punch through out there as well, with sets running up to two meters. The prize is in the southwest corner of the course, where the northeast trades are filling in and building. That is the downwind highway to Hawaii, and it is exactly where the front-runners are arriving, having done the hard work of getting south around the underside of the High to find it. For the next few days, expect more of the same: the High parked through the 13th before lifting a touch north, the coast windy, the middle soft, and the trades slowly strengthening in the south.

Where things stand

As ever, there are a few ways to read the board, and today they tell very different stories.

If you ask who is closest to Hawaii, the answer will make you grin: Rahan, Charly Devanneaux's doublehanded FIRST 36, is physically leading the entire Pacific Cup tonight, with the fewest miles left to run of anyone in the race. Right behind her sit Viva, True Love and the little Antrim ʻio, with Duende close by. The whole front of the westbound fleet is small boats, every one of them well south of the rhumb line and closing on the trades.

If you ask who is quickest right now, it is the boats we watched leave the dock yesterday. The ORR 1 sleds have well and truly turned it on, with Zeus at the front of the speed charts near 13 knots and Merlin, Pyewacket, Vitesse, Gem and Ragtime all in double digits. That is exactly the takeover we predicted when they started. 

On corrected time, the results that hand out the silverware, Viva has taken over the top of the combined PHRF fleet from Flashgirl. Here is how the classes line up at time of posting:

Doublehanded PHRF (Holokai): Surf

PHRF 2 (Bridger Marine): Viva

PHRF 1 (Naos Yachts): Flashgirl

Doublehanded ORR (Bobbi Tosse): Rahan

ORR 3 (Weems and Plath): TC

ORR 4 (Goslings Rum): Dorado

ORR 2 (UK Sailmakers): Halawa

ORR 1 (Pasha Hawaii): Zeus

One number worth flagging: ʻio, dead last in her ORR 3 class on handicap just yesterday, has climbed to third today. As the breeze frees her up, the little Antrim is finally getting paid for her speed. The flip side of that soft middle showed up on the tracker tonight as well, with a handful of the early boats, Bazinga, Akumu and Green Buffalo among them, all but stopped in single-digit puffs. In this race the ocean gives and the ocean takes away, sometimes in the same afternoon.

The little boats that could: RAHAN and ʻio

Which brings us back to the best subplot in the race. Yesterday we figured the newly-started sleds would swipe the daily-mileage crown from the little guys, and on raw speed they have. But nobody told Rahan and ʻio. The 36-foot Rahan is leading the whole fleet to Hawaii, and the 27-foot ʻio is right there in the top handful, two pocket rockets refusing to let the big boats have all the fun.

And they are clearly enjoying themselves. Rahan, sailed doublehanded by Charly Devanneaux, filed the most French dispatch imaginable:

The daily report from Rahan

And Rahan is not only leading on the water; she tops her Doublehanded ORR class on corrected time as well, a clean sweep of the day for the little First 36.

Words from the fleet

The morning reports are, as always, the heart of it, and this batch is a good one.

ʻio wins the day for honesty. After days of being soaked, the crew is finally drying out and taking stock of the things that really matter:

ʻio

Not everyone is flying. Bazinga, sitting in light air with the dice already cast on their strategy, spent the morning troubleshooting a fussy autopilot and pulling a wad of plastic off the hydrogenerator prop, all while keeping the most important system running:

Bazinga

Up at the front on speed, Zeus is having the time of its life. The Infiniti 52 deployed its DSS foil early, lit the afterburners, and got a proper send-off from the ocean:

Jake Sorosky, Zeus

Elsewhere the ocean kept everyone entertained. Duende drove straight through a feeding frenzy of tuna trailing its lures, came up empty this time, but caught its first sunrise of the trip and is now “ready for high speed surfing.” Wolfpack summed up offshore life perfectly: “we have dried out, got wet again and are drying out again.” And Sun Dragon has taken to turning its daily check-ins into little found poems drawn from whatever is playing on board, today tipping its hat to Bob Dylan.

What’s next

So the shape of the next few days is set. The High stays parked, the coast stays windy, and the fast boats will keep grinding into the lead while the front-runners slip into the trades and, with any luck, start to stretch away downwind. Whether the sleds can reel in a pair of pocket rockets before Hawaii is the question worth staying up for. More soon.

Racer update

One happy footnote to yesterday's news. Free Bowl of Soup, the Club Swan 42 that turned back on Friday with a shroud problem, got it sorted and is back out racing. They rejoined the course this morning in good spirits and even better company:

Free Bowl of Soup

Great to have them back out there. We will keep you posted as the fleet pushes on toward the islands.

About this report

Weather from the Weather Routing Inc. Pacific Cup brief of July 11, 2026; standings and racer reports from the official 2026 Pacific Cup leaderboard and daily position reports. Positions are given relative to the San Francisco to Hawaii rhumb line rather than by coordinates. Standings are provisional; see the official Pacific Cup tracker for current results.