Vic-Maui: New Kid Bested Old Girl

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 22…

Old School vs. New School
Both Longboard, Peter Salusbury’s Riptide 35 and 2014 Vic-Maui Overall winner, and Atalanta, the 74 ft, Tripp designed Maxi and 5 time Vic-Maui veteran skippered by Louis Hoffer arrived on Thursday ending their battle of Old-School – New School that started 10 days ago in Victoria

Both had their share of adventures in this buster of a race. Longboard had witnesses to a broach and uncontrollable gybe situation that bruised the crew’s confidence. And Atalanta’s massive 5000 sq ft spinnaker ended being the cause of a serious broach and overloaded the hydraulic cylinder seal and compromising steering. Added to that were other issues on both boats such as frayed halyards and sheets, broken boom gooseneck that limited the number of gybes, and very wet conditions below.

Both boats rumbled along the course as fast they could possibly be driven and both set new best times for Vic-Maui. In the end Longboard came in at 11 am on Jul 21, 13 hours ahead of Atalanta. That difference could be almost all traced to light conditions on the day after the Start where Longboard’s 6000 lbs could still make good progress, while Atalanta’s 110,000 lbs of displacement could not.

It was a very interesting battle to follow from shore. In the end the new kid bested the old girl. But just barely.

Hurricane Darby Update
National Hurricane Center issued a new update at 1100 HST today. The update has the centre of Darby approaching the Big Island at 2 pm on Saturday July 23 – tomorrow. It is forecast to pass just north of Maui around 2 am early on Sunday.

At a 0900 HST update provided to the U.S. Coast Guard RCC in Honolulu, there were:

Five boats already in port – Valkyrie, Kinetic, Westerly, Longboard, Atalanta. Westerly has reported that they are proceeding to Honolulu to weather Darby arrival.

Three boats are expected to arrive in the next 12 hours, prior to the arrival of Darby – Equus, String Theory, Rain Drop.

Well to north of Darby are Forty, Amiskwi, Red Sheilla, with the nearest currently 630 miles NNE of Maui. Six boats from the fleet are planning to pass east of storm track – Salient, Miles, Starblazer, Turnagain, Ion, Canard. The nearest of these boats is currently 500 mi NE of Maui.

Three boats had an ETA at finish on Sat Jul 23 night and were asked to re-confirm strategy. Expresso is currently 330 miles NNE of Maui and planning to slow down and let storm pass. Kraken currently 230 mi NNE of Maui and AlegriaX 290 mi NNE of Maui. Their present intention is to run fast for the finish, but re-evaluate after the next forecast.

String Theory Follow Equus In
Looking like winners in Div 2, String Theory arrived at 4:25 pm local time on Friday. John Mortimer’s Beneteau First 47.7 from Vancouver Rowing Club came in 4 hours behind Dean Conti’s Jeanneau 50 Equus sailing for 3 Tree Yacht Club in Des Moine, WA. But with the handicap it is likely that String Theory will correct ahead of Equus, very close rivals for Div 2.

Sporting the same cowboy hats that they displayed at the Start on Jul 10, the Equus crowd looked like their brand of fun continued all of the way to Maui. it is certainly the right way to race with trips up the mast being rewarded with ice cream and the crew being treated to luxuries like showers and BBQ steaks. And other than factory items that the brand-new Equus did not have time to change, the boats behaved incredibly well.

String Theory, or Stink Theory as some of the crew referring to her, looked pretty good on arrival with only the usual list of broken things – it helps to have done Vic Maui recently – String Theory was 2nd Overall in 2014. John and his crew joined the tail end of the Equus welcome party and it turned into great afternoon social at the Pioneer Inn.

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Source: Vic-Maui Race