As the leaders close on the finish of the San Francisco-Hawaii Pacific Cup in the coming hours, it’s fun to report that the Pacific Northwest boats are more than holding their own.
First off, Poke and Destroy has taken over the lead of The Alaska Airlines Division (C). The Seattle Evelyn 32-2, skippered by Ballard Sails’ Alex Simanis, has shown conservative tactics and solid boatspeed, playing it close to the rhumb line. At the bottom of this post see the reports filed from onboard P&D. Second in that division is currently (and the boat that recently relinquished first) is the Victoria based J/92 Zaff. Here’s a little video about the Zaff team:
In the Weems and Plath Division B, the Tacoma-based J/35 Shearwater is holding onto 1st place on corrected time. It’s pretty remarkable in that Shearwater‘s the smallest boat, giving away lots of waterline to the rest of the boats in class.
In the big/fast boat E. BMW Division the Canadian based Westerly and Blue (from Milwaukee but lots of NW connections) are pulling up the tail end of the class on the water, though Blue is currently hanging onto third on corrected time. Another PNW boat, Rage from Portland, is still headed for the Islands, but has a broken spreader, so they’re doing it VERY carefully. Here’s the report from the Pac Cup media team: Of note in the E division is that the Wylie 70 Ragehas broken a spreader and suspended racing. They are not by any means retired, but they are now in a mission to sail the boat conservatively and get the boat to Hawaii in one piece. Interestingly, the team relates that the carbon fiber mast was originally designed to be un-stayed and free standing, so they are likely not in danger of losing the mast.
Other PNW boats hanging in there include Zipper, Alternate Reality and Gusto. I’m sure they’re all looking forward to mai tais soft beds. If any sailish readers are watching the finish, it would be great to get some photos and quotes to share here!
Check out the Pacific Cup Tracker here.
Poke & Destroy’s Reports
Here are the last three reports (in reverse order) from Dennis Palmer on the P&D team:
7/20/18
Poke and destroy, charging along the rhumb line, has moved into first place in Division C of the Pacific Cup race to Hawaii! 762 miles now separate her from the finish line of this 2069 mile race.
As of the standings report on the morning 7/20/18, Poke and Destroy has a 1 hour 35-minute lead on corrected time over second place Zaff, and have extended their lead over Sweet Okole, in third place at 5 hours and 55 minutes behind Poke and Destroy.
Poke and destroy continues to stay on the southern side of the fleet in Division C, with Sweet Okole still claiming the north side of the pack, even after gybing to come closer to the rhumb line.
The wind forecast continues to show light areas of wind developing that could strongly influence the outcome of the race. This race does not yet have a foregone conclusion.
The wind direction will be blowing the boats straight to Oahu, so they will be sailing deeply downwind. This presents a challenge for second-place Zaff, because the forward, lower corner of their spinnaker is tacked to a bowsprit extending straight in front of the bow, and cannot be pulled back to move the spinnaker out of the wind shadow of the mainsail. Poke and Destroy can pull their spinnaker pole back, allowing the wind to fill the spinnaker so she can sail faster while aiming deeper downwind, which happens to be the direction of the finish line at Kanoehe Bay.
Aloha, the Hobie 33, is in fourth place, 9 hours behind Poke and Destroy on corrected time. Aloha sailed the most miles of all the boats in Division C in the past 24 hours, covering 171 nautical miles. Poke and Destroy sailed 168 miles in the past 24 hours, good enough to be the second greatest distance covered by Division C boats. Aloha has a faster speed potential than Poke and Destroy, so they are assigned with a less advantageous handicap. Their elapsed time is corrected by their handicap, so even though they sailed a few more miles, Aloha still dropped back on corrected time compared to Poke and Destroy.
7/19/18
Poke and Destroy has solidified its second-place position in Division C of the Pacific Cup race by increasing their lead over third place Sweet Okole to 3 hours and 25 minutes as of the standings report on 7/19 at 1:10 a.m. PDT. Poke and Destroy has closed to within 4 hours and 41 minutes of the Division C leader, Zaff. In the past 24 hours, Poke and Destroy has outdistance their competitors by sailing 173 miles, compared to 153 miles for the leader Zaff, and 155 miles for Sweet Okole.
Poke and Destroy had their half-way celebration yesterday by opening a box of surprises and gifts from family and friends. As of the standings report on 7/19 at 0700 hours, Poke and Destroy had 945 miles to go before enjoying mai tais at the finish line.
The lateral separation between the boats in Division C is increasing, with Sweet Okole in the northernmost position, and Poke and Destroy more than 90 miles to the south near the rhumb line. The wind forecast for the next several days shows big changes in pressure in different locations. With so much lateral separation, these boats may find themselves in very different conditions when the wind changes.
Alex Simanis, owner and skipper reports in this morning via sat phone from Poke and Destroy:
Good morning. Yesterday brought us our halfway party. We got plenty of wonderful treats and trinkets. A special shout out to everyone who contributed to our halfway party.
Mid-way through our party a big 25 to 30 knot breeze came. We had a blast for a few hours. Later, as the wind subsided, we decided to jibe to port to consolidate with the rhumb line. Seemed like a good move.
The P&D crew settled in for a beautiful starlit evening with a nice sliver of moon and 19 to 25 knots of wind. From midnight to 7 am was very, very wet, at times very windy and at times lacking wind. It was a very tough early morning with all four of us on deck for this as we did kite peels and sail transitions.
The breeze is back to our usual 12 to 15 knots and we are rolling along with the rock solid A2 we have named Sunshine. Bitchin’ workhorse of a sail. Now we had our morning breakfast treat of biscuits and gravy and trying to get things dried out.
We made a good move yesterday – the boat is moving well.
– Alex
7/18/18
The wind for the boats in Division C of the Pacific Cup race has been fluctuating, but continues to push the boats from behind at speeds almost as fast as yesterday. Poke and Destroy is still in third place in Division C on corrected time, but has closed to within 8 hours and 34 minutes of the leader Zaff. Yesterday, their deficit was 10 hours, 24 minutes, and the day before was 13 hours 25 minutes, so they are gradually improving their position. Today, Poke and Destroy has closed to within 27 minutes of the boat in second place, Sweet Okole!
Poke and Destroy covered 193 miles in the past 24 hours and was 1085 miles from the finish line, sailing at 7.4 knots as of 0500 PDT on 7/18/18. The total distance of the race is 2069 nautical miles.
Some of the boats in Division C, including Zaff and Poke and Destroy, have climbed north of the rhumb line to avoid lighter winds ahead and keep their speed up in the current wind. The forecast for the rest of the race is pock-marked with random areas of light wind, so the boat that has the best relationship with the weather gods will do well. The areas of light wind will be so unpredictable that is will take as much luck as skill to call the wind shifts.
Here’s an update from onboard Poke and Destroy by crew member Skyler Palmer:
Good morning from Poke and Destroy.
Here we are just a few miles shy of half way! We are planning on having our half way party at noon today. We’re all looking forward to seeing what’s in the halfway celebration box that our friends and families prepared for us.
Overnight was frustrating sailing, though our average speeds didn’t suffer too much. The winds were fluctuating about 90 degrees with in the span of a few minutes with some of the most
confused seas we’ve yet seen. This morning finds us another 14 miles north of the rhumb line from evening yesterday. We are still running square with the A2 spinnaker trying to make the best VMG possible. We’ve been considering a short gybe to consolidate back to our preferred
course to try threading the needle between two weather systems. However, each time we bring up the subject we get headed.*
More flying fish this morning as well as plenty of plastic debris in the water. We’ve noticed that the number of black albatross has dwindled but we’ve spotted a few shearwaters and a handful of other birds that none of us recognize. No boats on the horizon today but we FINALLY got a position report from yesterday’s 0800 check-in showing us in good standing with the fleet.
Spirits aboard are good as ever with the talk of mai tais and loved ones in Hawaii creeping into the conversation more often.
Poke and Destroy out.
*Some interpretation, for those of you not familiar with sailboat racing lingo: Running square means running the same direction as the wind, with the spinnaker pole and mainsail boom in a straight line with each other, with the boom far forward and the pole far back in order to sail deeply downwind. VMG = Velocity Made Good. This means the speed they are traveling toward the finish line, even if they are not aimed directly at it. A gybe is a downwind sailing maneuver in which the boat turns their stern through the eye of the wind and brings the sails to the other side of the boat. Being “headed” means the wind direction shifts to push them downwind of their previous course.
Stay tuned – the balance of the race should bring some exciting racing in Division C.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.