J/122E JOYRIDE Amongst The Leaders!(Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)- The Victoria to Maui International Yacht Race, hosted by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and the Lahaina Yacht Club, got underway July 1st. The 2,308nm course goes from Victoria, British Columbia to Maui, Hawaii.
The lone J/Crew sailing the race is the gorgeous J/122E JOYRIDE from Seattle, WA skippered by her owner- John Murkowski. They are one of the most successful offshore racing teams in the Pacific Northwest. Here are the latest updates below.
Day 5
Day 5 Roll Call finds the boats generally about 550 miles west of the Oregon/California border and the leaders are now about 1500 miles from Hawaii. But the winds are easing. This is definitely the Middle Sea and the most difficult part of the race to figure out. The fleet continues to chase the sweet spot between the Pacific High and Low Pressure trough well west of the Rhumb Line; with most boats 75 miles west of the direct route and Anjo and Serenite another 75 miles west of that.
The wind was generally strong overnight after the trough passed and most boats were beam-reaching speeds of 8 kts or more. But the wind has now abated with most boats seeing wind from the NW about 15 kts, and speeds have slowed accordingly. JOY RIDE is still vying for the lead for line honors, while winning on handicap.
Day 6
Day 6 Roll Call finds the fleet well offshore and now about 750 miles off Cape Mendocino and still sailing west of the direct route to Maui. But this morning’s Weather Eye lays out the myriad of issues facing the fleet as all boats look to pick the right weather route, with choosing the wrong window likely to be costly.
Boats are reporting sailing in lighter conditions that yesterday. But, more importantly, the “Tuna Challenge” was issued yesterday by Oxomoxo, and it was answered on JOY RIDE within minutes of putting out the lure. No word on how bloody the decks got. Also, reporting tuna on board are Turnagain and Kraken again.
Day 7
This afternoon, the fleet looks to be sailing on starboard tack with W-NW winds in the 7-13 knot range. Barometric pressures reportedly range from 1022 – 1025, with some dubious outlier readings from boats whose barometer calibrations may have fallen off the pre-start job list. All the boats appear to be navigating a fine line to avoid light air on their left (to the East) and to stay in pressure either ahead or to their right, on the slope of the High (to the West).
Conditions onboard the boats are reported as warmer and drier, with a more-than-faint whiff of tuna on some boats and gray whales near other boats. It looks like tomorrow will be the half way mark for a number of boats; traditionally there are some wild and wacky celebrations that are sometimes akin to a sailor’s traditional equatorial crossing. With the magic of modern wireless communications, photographs, including drone images, and stories have been coming ashore from the boats and appearing on blogs and social media including the Vic-Maui Facebook group at www.facebook.com/vmiyr/
Day 8
Most of the fleet reached the halfway point in last 24 hours, or will shortly. It is certainly a time for celebrations aboard (and perhaps the first shower in a week). But it is also time to contemplate how far the boats are from anything - nearest land is over 1000 miles away. But from now on, the nearest land will be Hawaii – how good is that?
The weather seems to have improved and with boats now at the latitude of Carmel, it is certainly warmer and most boats report that the foulies are finally starting to come off. There are some complaints about the lack of spinnaker sailing (as promised in the brochure) with boats reporting they are close reaching with Code 0 sails in 10-15 kts of wind. And they could use more wind.
The trade winds and the promised spinnaker run to Hawaii are out there, but there is still a zone of changeable winds ahead that needs to be navigated. This race to Maui will be determined by who gets to those trade winds and hoist the spinnaker first.
Day 9
The trade wind run under spinnaker to Hawaii beckons, but more changeable winds are still in the way of the Vic-Maui fleet. The boats are stuck in a form of purgatory close reaching in wind speeds are fluctuating from non-existent to 12 kts – not exactly prime conditions for an ocean race. And the boats are soooo tired of seeing the white sails hoisted on a perpetual starboard tack and are getting frustrated by the time it is taking to make southing to the trade wind latitudes. And they are getting nervous, as everyone has now figured out that the boat that finds the right path to the trades will likely win the race.
And they are now clearly in the North Pacific Gyre (aka the Garbage Patch) with JOY RIDE quite surprised by the amount of plastic garbage floating by. With Salient also report seeing lots of whales, you have to wonder how our leviathan friends are faring in a sea of fish nets, plastic cups and other urban detritus. And, JOY RIDE is about 923nm away from Hawaii.
Day 10
Day 10 finds the boats doing everything to eek out a mile and get closer to the promised trade winds. At one time this morning, the three leading boats were all pointed to Baja, doing 1 kt with an ETA sometime next year! LOL!
As the Weather Eye said this morning, "the cookie will crumble based on hard work, skill, and luck". Follow the Vic-Maui Race here on Facebook Watch “live” real-time YB Tracker of the fleet here For more Vic-Maui Offshore Race sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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