Pacific Cup: Cashing in the chips

(July 19, 2018) – Twenty-four more hours into this 20th edition of the Pacific Cup and we have continued to gain clarity on how much of the fleet may end up once all is said and done.

With several boats beginning to line up their final approaches to the Hawaiian Islands, Charles Devanneaux and co-skipper Matthieu Damnerval on the Beneteau Figaro 3 A Fond Le Girafon look to have re-staked their claim to being the first boat over the finish line.

After much uncertainty due to temporarily slowing down in light winds while the fleet’s fastest boat came screaming up from behind, the two Frenchman on the revolutionary foiler now look set to finish what they started and be the first boat into Kaneohe.

Just behind them, plenty of other storylines continue to play themselves out. Prospector may not be the first boat into the barn, but with the fleet’s scratch boat still making 15 knots and now under 500 miles out, she should be in late tomorrow or early the following day and remain in pole position to claim the Pacific Cup overall victory.

Behind the Mark Mills designed mini-maxi, Hector Velarde’s Andrews 70 Runaway has now just barely moved into second overall in the Pac Cup rankings, having displaced the leading Express 27, Loose Cannon, overnight.

While Prospector and Runaway have moved into podium positions in the overall rankings, it’s still Roy Pat Disney’s Andrews 68 Pyewacket which sits atop the race’s premier BMW of San Rafael E division (ORR >1.099), though that lead is no longer insurmountable as Michael Schoendorf’s Riptide 41 Blue has made massive inroads into Pyewacket’s corrected time lead and now sits just eight and a half hours back on corrected time; not ultra-close but not out of striking distance either.

With both boats having multi-time Olympic medallists aboard and stacked deep with talent, this is a fascinating race between two very well sailed boats. A reminder that Pyewacket and Blue are not eligible for ‘overall’ Pacific Cup honors at they are using new specialty reaching sails sometimes called “tweeners” that are recently approved under ORR but not permitted under PHRF, which is being used to score the Pac Cup overall.

Prospector remains third in division with Runaway in fourth.

Working back down through the fleet, we see that the Pasha Hawaii D division (ORR tcf <= 1.099) has even further compressed and for the first time since departing San Francisco, there may soon be a new leader. After jumping out to a resounding lead in the very early stages of the race and then maintaining for much of it, Gregory Mullins’ Farr 52 Zamazaan, stocked with several of San Francisco’s top professional sailors, is now relegated to play defense against the pair of ultra-quick 32-footers that look destined to shake up the rankings in D division.

Once past the light upwind and sheets-cracked reaching stages of this Pacific Cup, Chris Kramer’s Six Brothers and Rufus Sjoberg’s Rufless have been on a steady rise up through the ranks, and with both boats reveling in the off-the-breeze surfing conditions that define the latter stages of the Pacific Cup, are now attempting to take ownership of the D division’s top spot.

As of this morning, Six Brothers and Rufless were just 4 hours and 7 hours behind Zamazaan on corrected time, after both displacing J World’s Hula Girl, and knocking this division’s defending champion off the podium and into fourth place.

With the D fleet boats passing the halfway point yesterday, there should still be plenty of race track left for the Columbia Carbon 32 Six Brothers and Melges 32 Rufless to burn past Zamazaan, though we don’t know which order they’ll be in when they do it. Rufless and her crew certainly know the way to Hawaii, but Six Brothers won’t be easy to pass, with the oftentimes under-appreciated Tim Kernan design having proven itself to be an absolute weapon in the ocean.

Alaska Airlines C division (DW PHRF 582 to 550) was predicted to be a barn-burner from the get-go, and it has exceeded even our wildest expectations. Phil Wampold’s J/92 Zaff, full of young Melges sailing Canadians, has sailed an absolutely incredible race thus far, but as we have been long anticipating, she is beginning to have a hard time handling her competition in the dead-downwind running stages of the Pacific Cup.

Morale is certainly high on Alex Simanis’ Evelyn 32-2 Poke and Destroy, with the Seattle based crew beginning to look unstoppable in their quest to move atop the leaderboard in one of this year’s most competitive divisions. The team is having the time of their life as they continually chip away at Zaff’s lead after doing the same to Sweet Okole earlier this week. Poke and Destroy is now more than seven and a half hours clear of Okole, and less than three and a half hours behind Zaff on corrected, and moving very well under their A2 spinnaker in 12-15 knots of breeze.

Karl Haflinger’s J/35 Shearwater remains atop the big Weems & Plath B division (DW PHRF 614 to 583), which still has more than half the race to sail. Since being the slower division to start on arguably the slowest day of starts, this Pacific Cup is proving to be the race where the fun just won’t stop as B division’s backmarkers are now in a race against the clock if they are even to make it into Kaneohe before the awards. Wyatt Jones’ Davidson 44 Imagine isn’t far off the pace, just four hours back as of this writing, while The Fugitive, Alessandra and Free also remain well in contention.

Coral Reef Sailing Apparel A division (PHRF-DW <= 615) is once again led by race stalwart Jim Quanci and his classic Cal 40 Green Buffalo. After compressing and consolidating for days with Bob Horton’s Highlander, the two Cal 40’s briefly engaged in a match race yesterday, which predictably went in favor of veteran skipper Quanci and crew. Again displaying how close this A division is, recent division leader Highlander has moved from first place to last place, as there’s virtually nothing in it on corrected time, with second through fourth virtually tied.

As anticipated, Rebecca Hinden’s Express 27 Bombora is again beginning to make moves up the leaderboard in the closing stages, and we would suspect the little red ultralight to pull away from Morgan 382 Eliana and Highlander. With close to 600 miles left to sail for the A fleet boats, there’s still plenty of time for one good day of surfing – or even a prolonged squall – to help eat up the two and a half hour deficit to division leader Green Buffalo.

The fleet’s two doublehanded divisions continue to excite with both divisions still up for grabs after a number of lead changes. Loose Cannon remains atop Pau Maui Vodka/ DH1 (and in third overall) with a lead of nearly five hours over Motorcycle Irene, though Irene has begun her late race charge and now sits firmly in second place with nearly 500 miles left to sail for this fleet of doublehanded Express 27s.

Irene co-skipper and professional sailor Will Paxton has been a part of countless divisional and overall winning efforts in both the Pac Cup and the Transpac, and can never be counted out in a Hawaii race. While we lauded Motorcycle Irene as heavy pre-race favorites, and were vindicated in that prediction in the early reaching stages of this race, Loose Cannon, Alternate Reality and Fired Up! have all proven that the level of competition in this fleet is incredibly high, even higher than we thought, and all of the crews deserve a heck of a lot of credit for sailing absolutely phenomenal races.

Mount Gay Rum/ DH2 has finally seen pre-race favorite and two-time defending division champion Wolfpack, piloted by husband/ wife duo Bill and Melinda Erkelens make their move and assume the lead over Lester Robertson’s Moore 24 Foamy. Both crews have been racing to Hawaii longer than much of their competition has been alive, and it shows.

Playing the south hard since day one, they faded deep down the rankings early on with the J/105 Abstract looking good up north. As is usually the case, however, the northerly boats faded and on cue, these ultra-experienced race veterans cashed in their chips to make late race moves to the top of the leaderboard.

Separated by less than an hour on corrected time as of this writing, Wolfpack has under 400 miles left to sail, while Foamy is about a day further back. Frederic Berg and Mikey Bacon have been playing the middle ground on the Antrim 27 Bacon Berger for nearly the entire race and still have an outside shot at winning the division, and currently fill the final podium position in this hard-fought race.

The quickest cruisers in the Kolea cruising division are now under 500 miles from Kaneohe, and it is beginning to look more and more like Matt Solhjem’s Hanse 505 Anais is going to pull of the upset and take down sistership Outremer; a result of Outremer’s northerly routing and parking it up in the big wind hole that claimed many of the first wave of starter’s top boats including Green Buffalo, Abstract and A Fond le Girafon. Paul Koenig’s Jeannuea Sun Odyssey 40.3 Bear Boat rounds out the podium with the first arrivals scheduled to be get in over the weekend.

Race details – Entry list – Start times – Tracker – Results – Facebook

Background: This is the 20th edition of the 2,070 nm Pacific Cup Race from San Francisco to Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. The start of the fleet was staggered with divisions beginning on July 9, 11, 12, and 13.

Note: Like a few other boats, Pyewacket and Blue are not eligible for ‘overall’ Pacific Cup honors. They are using new specialty reaching sails sometimes called “tweeners.” These sails are recently approved under ORR but not permitted under PHRF, which is being used to score the Pac Cup overall.

When using multiple ratings systems, as is done in Pacific Cup to provide broad competition between divisions, these kinds of strategic choices can arise. This will get attention for the 2020 edition of the race with that hindsight.

Source, Ronnie Simpson, Pacific Cup