Pacific Cup Crowd Gathers for Send-Off Celebration
By Christine Weaver | July 15, 2024 | Richmond, CA | 2
In advance of the starts in the 22nd Pacific Cup today, Wednesday and Thursday, Richmond Yacht Club packed the clubhouse for a joyful bon voyage party on Saturday.
Team Chance celebrates with RYC’s cocktail du jour — mai tais of course — at RYC on Saturday. Chance is a Wauquiez Centurion 42 owned by Deb and Mark Lowry (seated).
While many Pac Cuppers were partying, others were putting in some last-minute boat work. In addition to hosting the party, RYC provided a temporary home for out-of-the-area boats, such as Pell Mell. Alex Simanis (in the companionway) brought his Point Bonita 27 down from Ballard, WA. Doublehanding with him is RYC local Kurt Lahr (standing).
The Gilligans (and the Skipper) stood out in the crowd. They came from Vancouver, BC, with a Hanse 458. However, the boats from Canada would not win any (hypothetical) award for longest distance traveled to get to the start…
That honor would go to the Figaro 1 Hultaj, which hails from Szczecin, Poland. This team is working its way around the world one regatta at a time. This month, they delivered the boat up from the Panama Canal, arriving at RYC on Wednesday. They start today, and still had a lot of prep work to do over the weekend. Left to right: Anna Jastrzebska, Szymon Kuczynski and Marcin Koziarski. Grzegorz Lebski rounds out the four-person crew.
Not everyone racing to Hawaii is human. Quinton Hoole, Linda Franklin with little Dustin, Tina Wetterlind and Karin Hoole (not pictured: Bjorn Richardsson) will sail with a little buddy on the 53-ft catamaran Could Be Worse, based out of Emeryville.
Singlehanded Transpacific racers don’t always go it alone. Green Buffalo skipper Jim Quanci (second from right) and John Wilkerson (right) of the Express 37 Perplexity both went solo in 2021 and 2023, but they join forces aboard Jim’s Cal 40 this year. Elizabeth Bishop, Jim’s son Stephen, and Chad Hopponen (not pictured) are sailing with them.
Singlehanders going doublehanded: Second from left is Lee Johnson of the Valiant 32 Morning Star. He sailed in the 2018 Singlehanded Transpacific Race and volunteered in 2021. Bill Stange (second from right) competed in 2021 and 2023 on the Westsail 32 Hula (and won on the Olson 30 Intense in 1988). His wife, Darlene Woo (right), is letting him come along with her on the Pac Cup. Another SHTP vet and volunteer, Greg Ashby (not pictured), will join Lee on Morning Star. The guy on the left is Lee’s brother Jared, delivery crew and shore support.
Among other doublehanders starting today are Christine Shope and Andy Hamilton of the Donovan 30 Wolfpack. When we came across them at the dock, they were working with their nutrition consultant on a grocery list.
Kristen Soetebier (center) stopped by to wish the racers bon voyage and ran into the crew of the Olson 30 Tweety (left to right: Nick Rorem, Bob Schroer, Melissa Kuntz and Greg Rohde) from Duluth YC in Minnesota. Coincidentally, Kristen’s dad Bill was the club’s first commodore.
The weather forecast for today’s start calls for light wind. “We can’t control the weather,” says principal race officer Michael Moradzadeh. “We worked to pick a start date with a good current helping folks out the Gate, and a full moon once they are out there, as well as a likely good offshore weather pattern, historically, but the stuff right outside the Gate looks like a challenge.”
The most promising start day, according to weather forecasts, will be for the six fast boats starting on Thursday. The slower boats and two doublehanded divisions start today.
Greg Nelsen and Dan Alvarez of the Richmond-based Azzura 310 Outsider had hoped to add crew and move to the Thursday start, but they did start today.
You can follow the trek out the Golden Gate and beyond via the race tracker. Access it on the Pac Cup website under “Follow the Race.” Race organizers are postponing the traditional four-hour tracker delay until Monday night. While the boats are in view of land, they’ll also be visible on websites such as www.marinetraffic.com.
As night fell on Saturday, we came across another Canadian crew, the Victoria-based Olson 30 Fiasco. Aubrey Stuart and A.J. Hesford will be joined by Sergei Moukminov, who’s done the Van Isle 360 and the Northwest Passage, and sailed to Greenland.
Since starting weather is often so variable and the staggered start often leads to such an inequitable overall race, maybe it’s time to reconsider how the start works. But, instead of requiring all boats to start on the same day, maybe the race committee should allow each boat to decide which of the four days to start. This would allow boats to avoid drifting about near the coast for several days with little wind while soon being overtaking by the faster, late starting boats, or vice versa. It would also help allow boats to avoid starting in gale conditions. It would allow each boat to pick a weather window most suitable for its design, foster more fair overall standings, and many years probably not make much difference in finishing day spreads. Since entries invest much time and money in what for many is a once in a lifetime event, at least until doing it again, providing start flexibility for a more equitable and safe event seems a worthwhile cause. As most cruisers know, a difference of a few days can often mean the difference between a miserable passage, or a spectacularly pleasant passage in ideal conditions.
Readers — We were curious about the name of the Polish Figaro, Hultaj. We looked it up on a translation website, according to which “Hultaj” translates to “Varmint”. (Added later:) The team says “Hultaj” means “Rascal”.
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Since starting weather is often so variable and the staggered start often leads to such an inequitable overall race, maybe it’s time to reconsider how the start works. But, instead of requiring all boats to start on the same day, maybe the race committee should allow each boat to decide which of the four days to start. This would allow boats to avoid drifting about near the coast for several days with little wind while soon being overtaking by the faster, late starting boats, or vice versa. It would also help allow boats to avoid starting in gale conditions. It would allow each boat to pick a weather window most suitable for its design, foster more fair overall standings, and many years probably not make much difference in finishing day spreads. Since entries invest much time and money in what for many is a once in a lifetime event, at least until doing it again, providing start flexibility for a more equitable and safe event seems a worthwhile cause. As most cruisers know, a difference of a few days can often mean the difference between a miserable passage, or a spectacularly pleasant passage in ideal conditions.
Readers — We were curious about the name of the Polish Figaro, Hultaj. We looked it up on a translation website, according to which “Hultaj” translates to “Varmint”. (Added later:) The team says “Hultaj” means “Rascal”.