Pac Cup: 966 finishes and counting

According to our records, there have been 966 recorded Pac Cup finishes before this edition of the “Fun Race to Hawaii.” This year, we will see our thousandth. Looking at the past records, we’ve compiled a few statistics about exactly what boats have completed the race and how long it took. We identified over 440 different models from 19-foot Mini Transats to 160-foot racing monsters.

Clocking in at 43 crossings finished (to be 45 in a few days) is the venerable Santa Cruz 50. This Bill Lee design, embodying his “Fast is Fun” philosophy, was designed for this kind of race. It’s an ideal platform for the crossing and has averaged about nine days eighteen hours for the crossing.

Next in popularity, with their counts and average times, are Cal 40 (26: 13.18 days), Express 27 (26: 13.62 days), Santa Cruz 52 (20: 9.94 days), Express 37 (18: 12.32 days), Moore 24 (18: 13.88 days), Olson 30 (15: 12.85 days), Santa Cruz 40 (14: 11.93 days), Farr 36 (12: 12.36 days), and the Santa Cruz 27 (12: 14.34 days).

It’s no surprise that Bill Lee’s boats appear three times at the top of the list, and Pac Cup awards a trophy to the top performing Bill Lee designed boat, with a similar honor accorded to Carl Schumacher, designer of the Express 27 and 37, among others.

These repeat offenders all share the characteristics of being light and nimble for their size, able to take advantage of the thrilling surfing conditions that offshore racing offers. We would not generally consider them to be comfortable cruisers, although some of them, the Santa Cruz 52 in particular, can serve that role well.

A standout among our veterans, regrettably not represented this year, is the tiny Moore 24. This pocket rocket, specifically designed for ocean racing, has carried many two or three person teams across the Pacific to a welcome finish at Kaneohe.

The sentimental core of the Pac Cup has always been felt to be the family cruiser, the Passports, Valiants, Beneteaus and more, in the 40 foot range. These boats, making the crossing in twelve to fifteen days, have provided many racers with once (or twice or more) in a lifetime experiences. The Cal 40, our second most popular design, nicely bridges the race/cruise gap. This has been the boat of choice for Stan Honey (Illusion) and Jim Quanci (Green Buffalo) among others and has performed brilliantly in its outings.

We should give a shout out to Jim Antrim’s designs. ‘Io, an Antrim 27 is simply burning up the race course this year even under a crushing ratings handicap. We can expect to see more Antrim designs in coming races.

J boats collectively number 75 finishes, a little behind Santa Cruz yachts’ 99. A spreadsheet of all the numbers is attached so you can do your own research!

Looking to the future, we can expect an extension of the trend toward lighter faster boats. Likely with full foiling and powered winches (both considered abominations by traditionalists!). In the 1990s and early 2000s, a Cal 40 was near the middle of the fleet for weight and speed, today, it’s in the “slow boats” category. Progress marches ever onward.

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Source: Event media