Pacific Cup Academy #3
This past weekend Chris & I spent some time in the SF Bay area. Our primary reason for being there was the Pacific Cup Academy taking place at Richmond Yacht Club. We also secured moorage for the 2 months leading up to Pac Cup at the host Richmond Yacht Club (thanks Bob Johnston for the hook up). Super cool, as we’ll be right in the thick of things leading up to the race and we sorted out the yard we’ll be using to unload and launch Shearwater in April. Bay Marine, just down the road from Richmond Yacht Club. Checking things off the list!
Pacific Cup Academy was a great opportunity to meet many of our fellow sailors that will be participating in the 2014 Pacific Cup, along with many veterans of previous Pac Cups. With over 70 boats entered, and 18 Double-Handers, 2014 is shaping up to be a exciting year to go to Hawaii. We spent most of our time talking with Rob & Rowena off the Cal 40 Nozomi and Jody & Skip McCormack off the Farr 30 Trunk Monkey and more recently the J/125 Double Trouble. Both have done the race double-handed and we were eager to pick their brains about how they managed their race short-handed and how they set up their boats. It was a good time and in the end I think we came away with a few tips, but mostly feeling like we are well down the path of being prepared. We do have 5500 double-handed offshore miles on Shearwater, so we feel we are going into this eyes wide open.
One highlight of the seminar was getting to take a look at two of the entrants for the 2014 Pac Cup. Surprise, the custom Schumacher 46, now under new ownership, and War Pony, a Farr 36. Both are multiple Pac Cup veterans. It was an interesting contrast, Surprise is a fast boat, but has all of the creature comforts of home. Think BMW 5-series. War Pony, on the other hand, literally has a galley, head, and nav table all within a space the size of a phone booth. Think Tesla Roadster. The boat is nearly all cockpit. War Pony has to be one of the most extreme boats for its size to ever race to Hawaii. In fact, at only 36 feet, it rates faster than the highly optimized for downwind racing boats like the Class 40, California Condor, and a J/125 like Double Trouble, both 4 feet longer. Did I mention War Pony will be racing in our Double-Handed Division with a co-ed team? Extreme doesn’t begin to describe the ride they will have. Can they actually get to Hawaii without breaking anything? If they do, it will be a wicked fast crossing.
War Pony aka Punishment Pony
After seeing a few of the entrants we wandered the docks and snapped a few more photos of some of the other Double-Handed Pac Cup boats we’ll be racing. First up is the aforementioned Antrim designed Class 40, California Condor. This will be the 3rd trip to Hawaii for CC, but the first time Double-Handed. CC was designed from the ground up to be sailed short-handed. My first thought though, was how do you attach a below decks autopilot to a boat with transom hung rudders, a tiller, and no rudder posts? Or are they hand-steering the whole trip?
Next up is the serious veteran Cal 40, Green Buffalo. GB has done this race so many times she could probably find her way sans crew. In 2012 Jim Quanci won the Single Handed TransPac (SHTP) along the same course as Pac Cup on Green Buffalo. Jim will be sailing Double-Handed with his wife Mary Lovely in 2014. Long on experience and a proven race record, GB has to be threat for the DH awards.
Docked in stealth mode, is the J/92, Ragtime! A relative newbie to Hawaii racing compared to the previous boats, Ragtime! has only been to Hawaii once in the 2008 SHTP with Bob Johnston at the helm. Bob has teamed up with another Bay Area J/92 owner for 2014. With years of J/92 experience the two will likely just need to go the right direction and not break anything to be competitive.
Those are all the Double-Handers I spotted at Richmond Yacht Club. I’m sure we’ll see more over the next few months. In the mean time, I had to include a shot of this sweet cold-molded Farr 36 (older version obviously), Sweet Okole, another successful Pacific Cup veteran.
I don’t think this Alerion 38 has been to Hawaii, but that paint job is off the charts cool.
Next weekend, we are back to Seabrook to race Shearwater in the last GBCA Icicle race of the winter.
wow is that paint or a wrap??? Looks like ya’ll are prepping well. Excited for ya.
Looked like paint. Very nice.