Pacific Cup

PNW Boats Sending It in Pacific Cup

Kurt Hoehne Pacific Cup, Uncategorized 0 Comment
PNW Boats Sending It in Pacific Cup

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.

Westerly

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. 

Gusto

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.

Poke and Destroy

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.

Vic Maui and Pacific Cup Updates for Friday

Kurt Hoehne Pacific Cup, Vic-Maui Race , 0 Comment
Vic Maui and Pacific Cup Updates for Friday

The Vic-Maui fleet is finally, blissfully high-tailing it for Hawaii. The tradewinds have kicked in and the postcard conditions have appeared. Firefly and Joy Ride will be concluding their duel sometime tomorrow, and by the looks of things Firefly is extending her lead a bit and will get the elapsed time gun, but Joy Ride will correct on top. Time will tell whether Salient out to the west or Kraken on the rhumb line will win the Beneteau 40.7 battle. Here’s David Sutcliffe’s weather summary that appeared on the VM website:

The Weather Eye, July 12 – Drag Racin’ in the Trade Winds

by David Sutcliffe, July 12th, 2018

Amazingly, after sailing for 1600-2100 nautical miles and through a series of complex weather systems and transitions, the fleet are all on very similar final approach lines.   That in itself is a bit unusual.  A more normal situation would be for boats to be converging into the finish from a wider range of laylines and optimal gybe angles.

July 12, 0900 HST – a normal summer pattern prevails over the Northeast Pacific Ocean

So, it’s a lot simpler now, right?  In one word, yes!

The longer answer is that the boats are each on their own line to the Pailolo Channel which separates Maui and Molokai.  That line was pretty much determined for each boat by how and where they managed to navigate through the low wind area associated with the ridge/plateau that extended East of the High, and into the actual Trade Winds.  The lines are more similar than different.

At the macro level, the expected conditions from here to the finish are Trade Winds blowing from 075-090 degrees True at 13 – 18 knots of True Wind Speed, sustained, with higher speeds in gusts or squalls.

Now, it is a simpler mode of optimum boat speed in the desired direction.  This is known as Velocity Made Good on Course – VMC, rather than Velocity Made Good – VMG which is relative to the wind.  For boats that are inside their own optimum laylines to the Finish, gybing with squalls or changes in wind direction or speed will help optimize VMC.

As the boats are all on a similar approach line, and the macro weather picture is stable, it looks like the last stretch will be a raw speed drag race.

July 12, 0900 HST – a drag race in the Trade Winds to the Finish!

But, there’s always a few more things to think about … the islands of Maui and Molokini, and the Pailolo Channel between them, bend and funnel the Trade Winds.  Plus, the Finish line is near the leeward side of the island of Maui.  To finish well, the boats should be paying close attention to how they get in the channel and across the finish line.

One eye on the weather!

Caveat:  this article and images are presented for informational purposes – they are not predictions of or advice to any boat regarding weather or routing! 

Also, for those who aren’t on (or don’t obsessively monitor) Facebook, a couple of posts:

Firefly Blog post #8 &/12/18

We are down to the wire and it is clear that we are in a race! Joy Ride is a little north and east of us but the wind has picked up and we are both moving along well. Whereas we didn’t find much wind in Fabio we are finding a good breeze of 16-20k in the trades, as Brad predicted. The sailing is exhilarating though exhausting, especially at night. But it is so much more fun to be making the kind of headway we are versus the slogging of a couple of days ago-the knot meter actually registered 0.0 kn at one point!
It is hard to believe we have 1 ½ days to go. We are seriously into our routine and though sometimes exhausting and physically taxing everyone is hanging in there like champs. One thing I have come to realize is that food indeed does matter.
I had assumed on the food front that I could eat anything for two weeks but turns out that good food and lots of it is pretty key. This is not Tim’s first rodeo and he gets this. As a result as mentioned before we burn more calories than I ever imagined and we are hungry and wolfing down our meals. And the morale boost from having well thought out and prepared menus and meals makes a huge difference getting thru some of the more challenging days. A sampling: last night we had lasagna with a vegetable medley (yes you got that right), tonight we are having my favorite, Mountain house beef stroganoff, meat balls our last night and as we speak, Brad is preparing his famous tuna melts! Can’t beat it…
As this trip winds down it is hard to completely plug into that mindset of nearing the finish, in part due to the fact that we still have lots to do in terms of finishing strong with a building wind and the competition breathing down our neck. It has been a truly amazing experience for a neophyte like me-Firefly has performed stellarly, it has been more exciting to do a long distance ocean race than I could ever really imagine and it has been hard but super fulfilling. It will take some digesting but my first pass is that it has been completely awesome.

36 hours or so to go…can’t wait!!

Bob

Day 11: Joyride Team update. 15:05 HRS

And yet another day passed. Time is flying by. We’ve been under spinnaker for a while now trying to get to Maui the quickest as we hear that’s where the cold drinks await.

It’s warm now, even at night. The occasional mist of rain to cool things down. Plenty of clouds give us a little protection from the burning sun.

Flying fish all around us, a gannet here and there, is it for wild life today. Other animals are those on this fine ship. We’ve discovered Robin drives best under Frankie goes to Hollywood. It’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make as his driving is excellent. Alex is loosing his boots, shirts and pants (don’t ask me how) and has drawn an amazing cartoon of the crew which was posted yesterday. Quill is eating through his book while off watch we’re worried what he will devour next. Erik grinds as if it is a hand blender with mojito fixings; he is ready for a cold one I can tell. And I can go on and on….

Spinnaker sailing is a little more involved than our extended jib reach. We’ve done a few sail changes the past 24 hrs peeling from A1 to A2 and vice versa, adding a stay sail when the wind picks up and taking it back down when it impedes the A sail from flying. We’re all a little tired after going through the night. The mixed sea state and constant changing wind speed/ direction require utmost attention from driver and trimmers. Making sure the boat doesn’t stall, wrap a kite around the forestay or round up and cause other issues. Even sleeping under these conditions proves hard with your body being flung from one side to the other side of the bunk – oh for pipe berths!

So we’re a little more subdued today. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still enjoying the ride. In day light though we can keep the boat on a more stable heel better anticipating the rollers and seeing the luff curl. So people are catching up on sleep.

Yesterday afternoon we played with the drone and took some videos on deck and down below. We will post a compilation once we’re in Maui. Food remains delicious/ we’ve been out of cookies and muffins but the delicious dinners keep on coming.

 

Pacific Cup Update

Shearwater

The Bieker designed 41-footer Blue was scheduled to start today, and it’ll be interesting to see if she can stay with the 70-footers. In Division C Alex Simanis’ Poke and Destroy has dropped to 3rd on corrected time, but is positioned almost directly on the rhumb line. The Canadian J/92 Zaff is close by. Three of their primary competitors, Sweet Okole (Farr 36), Aloha (Hobie 33) and Limitless (Express 37) have wandered pretty far north of rhumb. In Class B, the Tacoma-based J/35 Shearwater has taken over 1st in corrected time standings. The PNW based doublehanded boats Zipper and Alternate Reality are hanging in there, and there appears to be a split in the fleet as the boats further to the north are gaining ground on the southern contingent.

Here’s the latest report from Poke and Destroy:

Day three of the Pacific brings a bit more southerly breeze for Team Poke and Destroy and their competitors in Division C of the Pacific Cup.

Division C is currently crossing a low-pressure system with low southerly wind velocity that has parked itself between the fleet and their destination in Hawaii.  The boats in Division C are spread out laterally about 50 miles from south to north as they try to best navigate through or around this low wind zone.  Poke and Destroy has opted for the most southerly route in the Division, following the rhumb line, which is the most direct route to the finish. 

As of 11:30 a.m. PDT, Sweet Okole is 1882 nautical miles from the finish line.  Poke and Destroy, Aloha and Limitless are 1885 miles out, Dare Dare is a mile behind, and Zaff is bringing up the rear at 1893 miles to go. 

The low-pressure system seems to be moving north, so it may follow the boats that have gone north to avoid it.  Or not.  By Monday, a high-pressure system with stronger northerly wind should fill in, with winds of about 15 to 20 knots.

Here is an update from skipper Alex Simanis, sent by sat phone on the morning of July 13:

Day 3 brings us a fair amount of breeze. Still southerly.

 Eating has been hard, but sea state is getting better. Beef bourguignon will be for lunch. 

6.7 kts on the Speedo with the #1 genoa on the fence is happy days! Breeze is building. Hoping to get into the Jib top soon.

Poke & Destroy handles the waves well. We are looking forward getting a 

spinnaker up!

Cheers to all ashore. we are feeling your good vibes.

Alex

Vic-Maui and Pacific Cup Updates

Kurt Hoehne Pacific Cup, Vic-Maui, Vic-Maui Race , 0 Comment
Vic-Maui and Pacific Cup Updates

As this year’s “weird” Vic-Maui Race heads toward a conclusion and the Pacific Cup racers get into their offshore routines en route to Hawaii, here’s a quick look at the current situations.

Vic-Maui

Bob Strong’s Morris 45 Firefly is just over 400 miles from claiming another navigator’s first-to-finish title for Brad Baker. Giving chase is John Murkowski’s J/122E Joy Ride. With 5′ less waterline but displacing 9000 lbs less, Joy Ride doesn’t seem to be making inroads on Firefly’s lead but appears to be on track for the corrected time honors. Tracker here. There may be an interesting race to the finish for the two Beneteau 40.7s, Kraken and Salient. Salient is coming from a far western position and is ahead as the crow flies, but there could be a one-design finish. Gemini’s Dream is nearly home, entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca now after retiring and heading back

Pacific Cup

It’s way too early to say much about the Pacific Cup beyond what Bruce said yesterday. The early-starting smaller and cruising boats are out front enjoying good speeds. Of yesterday’s starters, Poke and Destroy is doing quite well among the boats that chose the northerly course (chasing the legendary Sweet Okole), but the Tacoma-based Shearwater and the southern boats that seemed to fall behind earlier have come on stronger of late. Blue (even though it’s a Milwaukee boat it has a number of Northwesters listed as crew including Dalton Bergan, Jonathan McKee and Kris Bundy. And after all it is a Paul Bieker design) is starting today, about now in fact.

 

Here’s the report from the Pacific Cup organizers:

THURSDAY JULY 12 RACE REPORT

Thursday morning in the Pacific Cup shows much of the same among the Monday starters, while the Wednesday starters proved the forecast accurate by getting off to a slow start. As a result, most divisional and overall rankings remain somewhat the same as yesterday and are generally unaffected by the Wednesday starters, as they are all very deep on corrected time. As the Pasha Hawaii D division prepares to start today on Thursday and the BMW of San Rafael E division on Friday, it’s become more and more apparent that the Monday starters have indeed won the weather lottery – at least in these early stages – as originally predicted as early as last week.

Wednesday’s two starts saw a total of seventeen boats begin their own 2,000+ mile journeys to Hawaii under mostly sunny skies and a brisk, puffy breeze. The Weems & Plath B division saw 10 racer cruisers between 40 and 57 feet in length cross the start while the Alaska Airlines C division saw an incredibly competitive fleet of seven 30-something race boats charge the line like a buoy start with Kyle Vanderspek’s Hobie 33 Aloha winning a dramatic start. Shortly after crossing outside the Gate however, the fun factor surely began to dwindle, as did the breeze with competitors flopping around in the Gulf of the Farallones for much of the night. Most boats took a northern route to try to play the shore breeze and punch out to the  synoptic winds first, while just two boats took the more direct rhumb line route. In the end, there’s not much in it as the fleet has now generally compressed along the rhumb line with a few outliers sailing a more southerly course and the Archambault 35 Mirthmaker blazing her own trail far north.

Up at the front of the fleet with the Wednesday starters, A Fond le Girafon continues to lead the race for line honors, and has committed themselves firmly to the north, the furthest boat north of rhumb line. As of this writing, A Fond le Girafon is 1,433 miles to the finish. A quartet of boats are sailing in the foiling Beneteau’s wake including overall race leader, the Cal 40 Green Buffalo. A bit further south along the rhumb line, the Hanse 505 Outremer leads the cruisers while the J/120 Jamani continues to impress and lead the Mount Gay Rum DH2 division. Motorcycle Irene continues leading Pau Maui Vodka / DH1, and continues to pull away at a steady pace, now some 26 miles ahead of second placed Loose Cannon.

All of the Monday starters are still making excellent speed, while the Wednesday starters are at least moving again, though comparatively much slower than her Monday rivals who almost  immediately set out into heavy and fast reaching conditions. The course should continue to get lighter and lighter over the next few days, hampering all of the later starting divisions and eventually catching up to the Monday starters. The north-south split among Monday’s starters continues to grow with some boats sailing towards the pent house, and some towards the poor house, though no one quite knows which at this very point in time. We can only watch on with bated breath as this situation unfolds.