(San Francisco, CA)- What an amazing outcome for one of the slower and
crazier trans-Pacific races in a long, long time. This year’s Pacific
Cup that runs from San Francisco to Hawaii was not exactly a
barn-burner. Many in the fleet suffered light airs in the beginning of
the race and at least midway through the race due to the wobbly Pacific
High that couldn’t make up its mind which way to move next.After 13 days at sea, the big winner in the Weems & Plath PHRF Division B, was 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)! What a fantastic achievement for this brazen crew from Oregon who believed after surviving gale forces winds and winning their “warm-up” event, the Oregon Offshore, that they could continue to cross the Pacific and vanquish all competition!
In
PHRF C Division, the J/109 BLUE CRUSH (Eric, Will, Yong, Ken and Eric
Devaney with Scott Prysi as a watch captain) managed a fourth overall in
their division.The Kolea PHRF Double-Handed Division saw the J/120 SHEARWATER sailed by Justin & Christina Wolfe from Seattle, WA, scouring for breeze headed west all week long and managed to score a 4th overall, too.
Finally, 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 was, indeed, a “rope a dope” to the most for the entire 2,070nm race. In the end, HAMACHI sailed near flawlessly to win line honors in their class by over 9 hours, also taking handicap honors along the way. Second in an equally awesome performance was REINRAG 2’s family crew! Sailing photo credits- Leslie Richter/ Rockskipper.com For more Pacific Cup sailing information
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