(Victoria, BC, Canada)- Next week, the biennial Vic-Maui Race will start
on Thursday, July 7th and send the fleet of just forty boats on a
2,308nm journey across the Pacific to the beautiful island of Maui.
Hosted by the Royal Vancouver YC and Lahaina YC, the fleet starts off
Victoria Harbor in British Columbia, heads northwest out the treacherous
Straits of Juan de Fuca, then turn left and head straight to the finish
line just outside the reef line at Lahaina YC. The game, as always, is
to play the edge of the enormous Pacific High to maintain as fast a VMG
angle as possible for most of the race; as a result, most boats end up
sailing not the direct “great circle route”, but a course that looks
like half an ellipsoid.The time allowances for the fleet will be calculated from the ORC velocity prediction program, the Vic-Maui Weather Matrix, and a course length of 2,308 nautical miles. This will result in a single time allowance for each boat for use in the 2016 Vic-Maui Race.
Reed Bernhard’s J/109 MOUNTAIN from Sloop Tavern YC in Seattle, WA will race the Double-handed Class. The skipper and navigator have ten TransPac races between them, and they look forward to sailing from the great city of Victoria.
In the Swiftsure Lightship Classic Race, Bernhard’s MOUNTAIN took first in ORC Division I in the Swiftsure Lightship Classic Race earlier in the year. Not only was the race a “qualifier” for the Vic-Maui Race, but it was also a good indicator of the thorough preparation that Bernhard has put into his J/109; all that hard work paid off with their division win. With the Vic-Maui fleet racing ORC rating rule using a single number, the J/109 could very well be a strong contender for both class and overall honors. For more Vic-Maui Race sailing information
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