Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Pacific Cup Update

(San Francisco, CA)- As of Wednesday, July 16th, the Pacific Cup race from San Francisco Bay to Kaneohe, Hawaii is at the halfway point for most of the sixty boats on their way in the 18th edition of the “Fun Race to Hawaii”- a 2,070nm adventure from San Francisco to Oahu.

The fleet has not exactly had riveting, epic conditions to sail in yet.  The first two fleets have had difficult times with breeze, but the good news in the most recent forecast is that the Pacific High is finally moving north and all boats along the rhumbline have seen good breezes since Monday.

In the Weems & Plath PHRF Division B, the J/105 FREE BOWL OF SOUP from the Corinthian YC Portland, OR (Eric Hopper skipper with crew of Eric Albertson, Scott Davey, Keith Sheets, and Doug Schenk as Navigator) is currently 2nd in class.  In the Matson’s PHRF C Division, the J/109 BLUE CRUSH (Eric, Will, Yong, Ken and Eric Devaney with Scott Prysi as a watch captain) is hot on their heels and is 4th in class!  Also tagging along at a rapid pace in the Kolea PHRF Double-Handed Division is Bob Johnston’s J/92 RAGTIME from Richmond YC, with crew Tracy Rodgers (sitting in 7th but with a much hotter angle to play over their class in the next few days) and their classmate, the J/120 SHEARWATER sailed by Justin & Christina Wolfe from Seattle, WA, sitting 4th in class and in a similar position to RAGTIME.

In the SONNEN BMW Division D ORR fleet, featuring the battle of the J/125s- Greg Slyngstad’s J/125 HAMACHI from Corinthian YC Seattle and Tom Garnier’s J/125 REINRAG 2 from Los Angeles YC are both amongst their fleet leaders boat-for-boat with about 1,000nm from the finish! At their current projected speeds, Yellowbrick shows HAMACHI 1st and REINRAG 2 in 2nd! They are leading Santa Cruz 50s, a Swan 45 and a Riptide 35 boat-for-boat!  This will be a fun match-race to watch over the final 1,000nm to the finish!  Yellowbrick is providing the tracking.    For more Pacific Cup sailing information