Vic-Maui: Good Winds, Good Times

The 2308 nm Victoria to Maui International Yacht Race is hosted by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and the Lahaina Yacht Club. The fleet of 22 entrants had four staggered starts on July 9, 10, 11, and 12. Here is a report from the race office on July 14…

With only a couple of exceptions, the 1200 Hawaiian time Daily Roll indicates that all boats sailing in winds over 20 knots. And it shows on the boat speed on the Race Tracker. The bigger winds are pushing the bigger boats faster and the high performance boats are making big gains.

The last four starters have finally found their legs and are logging boat speeds in excess of 14 kts. But it is Longboard who is enjoying the advantage of a day head start – she has already overtaken many boats in the earlier fleets and is currently in first, based on her recent position updates. But the others are not going to take that sitting down. Mountain, Rain Drop, Miles, Kraken, Equus and String Theory all have good boat speed, some right side leverage to shorten the distance and keeping up. If the High does not move any further eastward, the shorter distanced sailed is a winning strategy.

But things ahead will be interesting. Tropical Storm Cecilia is dissipating east of Hilo and Tropical Storm Darby has formed in Cecila’s wake and is trending northward. These low pressure zones have the ability to weaken the trade winds and make the crossing from 130 W to 150 W longitude somewhat tedious.

Event details – Tracker – Facebook

Source: Vic-Maui Race