Kinetic V Wins Vic-Maui 2016

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 25…

Who Broke What, Who Beat Who
It was a madcap day that saw the finish of Expresso, Starblazer, Ion, Salient, and Miles this morning. The Pioneer Inn was full of racers, families, greeters, well-wishers and to top it all off, Elvis was in the Building at the Waiting Wahine luncheon.

First in was George Bishop’s Express 37 Expresso at 5:01. Bob Hennessy’s Frist 40.7 Starblazer followed at 6:53. Next was Expresso’s Nanaimo Yacht Club rival – Bill Jones’ Beneteau 43 Ion at 7:36. But the fun did not stop. Brad Marchant’s First 40.7 Salient was a little bit behind Ion at 9:56 followed by Andrew Buttjes’ Jeanneau at 10:30.

It was fun to hear the stories and tales of adventure and carnage. But fundamentally these production cruising boats weathered the days of 20+ kt winds quite well with minor complaints of broken halyards, sheets and disposable spinnakers. The boats performed well and appeared ready for the delivery home with a re-stock of food, water, fuel and fresh kits. More importantly, there were a lot first time ocean voyagers making up crews and despite travails most unhesitatingly say “absolutely” when ask about more ocean sailing.

There were lots of interesting personal stories as the skippers and crews leapt off their boats to the waiting arms of spouses and children. Interesting angles were the crew of Expresso – father, twin daughters, a newly minted son-in-law, a son-in-law to be in a few weeks and an old salty friend. Apparently the sons in law are going to stick around. There were tears of joy form the Hennessy family seeing Bob arrive – mother, father, spouse, kids the whole plane load. Mile was full of Buttjes family and even more crowded the dock to see dad and grandpa. Bill Jones was fresh off his birthday yesterday talking about how the departure present lucky rabbit’s foot got them through. It was personally great to see Adam Thompson (whom Race Committee has shared many other adventures) arrive in good spirits aboard Brad Marchant’s Salient.

And that is the tale of Vic-Maui. While the high performance flyers get the headlines, it is the emotional welcome of family after the adventure of a lifetime with all the challenge that good teamwork overcomes that is headline for most finishers. And the Mai Tais are not bad either.

Kinetic V Wins Vic-Maui 2016
Kinetic V Wins Vic-Maui 2016, Valkyrie wins Line Honours and 2nd Overall, Longboard takes 3rd Overall

With most of the competitors are now finished, it is clear that Kinetic V, a TP-52 owned by David Sutcliffe and sailing for co-host Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, will be the Overall Winner of Vic-Maui 2016. David, a 6-time Vic-Maui veteran, previously won the Overall prize in Vic-Maui in 2010 in Kinetic II. Kinetic V completed the course in 8d 14h 16 m and corrected out 2h 30m ahead of Valkyrie at 8d 3h 57m.

In addition to smashing the Elapsed Time record in an unbelievable time of 8d 9h 17m, Jason Rhodes’ TP-52, also from Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and skippered by Gavin Brackett, came Second Overall and Second in Division 1 with a corrected time of 8d 6h 27m

2012 Overall Champion and Elapsed winner Longboard, the Riptide 35 sailed by Peter Salusbury of West Vancovuer Yacht Club was 3rd Overall and 3rd in Division 1 with a corrected time of 8d 8h 35m.

First in Division 2 was String Theory, John Mortimer’s Beneteau First 47.7 sailing for Vancouver Rowing Club and the 2nd Overall in 2014. String Theory’s corrected time was 8d 19h 45m.

Second in Division 2 was Equus, Dean Conti’s brand new Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 509 from Three Tree Yacht Club in Des Moines, WA with a corrected time of 9d 6h 7m.

Third in Division 3 was Kraken, a Beneteau First 40.7 from West Vancouver Yacht Club sailed by Mark and Annette Malacek with a corrected time of 9d 9h 49m.

Division 3 will not be settled until Canard finishes later tonight still with a chance for 2nd. But winning Division 3 is the Cascade 36, Rain Drop, a 2008 Pacific Cup winner owned by Joby Easton of Rose City Yacht Club. The corrected time for Rain Drop was 8d 19m 12h.

While not yet finished, Chris Read’s Amiskwi a Sabre 386 from Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club will win the first Vic-Maui has had a Double-Handed division with the retirement of Mountain.

A battle with drama remaining is in Cruising Division with both Turnagain and Forty still out on the ocean. Remember that Turnagain joined Forty in the Class after a rudder equipment failure and need to use the auto-helm. Their race was re-started on July 18th, 1006 miles from the Finish with a wager of fish and fruity drinks.

This is Crazy
Are you kidding me? All boats flew at top speed across the Pacific, followed by an anxious wait for Tropical Storm Darby to approach Maui and the fleet. Then we watched the poor anchor watch on Atlanta and Kinetic V suffer the 35 kts of wind and associated waves in the Lahaina Roadstead. But wind was a constant. At least it was until Expresso approached the finish line. After more than 5 painful hours without wind off of Kaanapali, George Bishop’s Express 37 out of Nanaimo Yacht Club crossed the finish line around 5:30 am local time.

As if that was not painful enough, Bob Hennessy’s Starblazer kept the offshore wind and closed a 40 mile gap. Starblazer, sailing for West Sound Corinthian Yacht Club finished just behind at 6:53.

And Ion finished shortly after that. And Salient is in sight of the finish, and Mile right behind them. It is going to be a wild day at the Pioneer Inn.

One Design Racing
There are many Vic-Maui sub-plots in a larger story. There was the race for the elapsed time record between the TP-52s, Old School vs. New School, and Tropical Storm Darby. Another story out of many is the One Design race between three almost identical Beneteau First 40.7s. While they have slight differences in ORC ratings for this race, in the minds of the skippers and crew they are racing each other boat for boat. At stake are big bragging rights.

The winner of this race was clearly Kraken. The Malaceks sailed an almost direct line to Maui wasting only 52 miles on the way, beating Darby into Lahaina and her rivals by almost 2 days.

With supremacy established, Bob Hennessy’s Starblazer and Brad Marchant’s Salient had a restart after dodging Darby and waiting for it to pass and a 300 mile sprint to the finish. Starblazer had a small amount of distance leverage and put the pedal to the metal to get in front of Salient and stay there.

But the clear winner was Beneteau. One third of the 2016 fleet are Beneteau yachts. The percentage rises to half when the sister-brand Jeanneaus are included. Not everyone likes Brie cheese, but clearly lots of people like the boats the French are building.

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Source: Vic-Maui Race