Pacific Keel Klutter

It’s a busy time of year for the Pacific. With so many sailing events leaving the West Coast, the sea life might be sensing an invasion from their landbound descendants.  

The Pacific Puddle Jumpers left the West Coast earlier in the spring, while the Singlehanded TransPac racers are beginning to arrive in Hanalei Bay. The Vic-Maui race is underway from Victoria, BC, as well as the Shaka Challenge from Southern California — and, on Monday, the first Pacific Cup racers will head off. Phew.

Many of the boats are at Richmond Yacht Club’s Pacific Cup race village this weekend, and will take a break from preparations at the Mount Gay Party on Saturday afternoon. And then it’s showtime. Starts for the Pacific Cup fleet run Monday through lucky Friday the 13th (no start Tuesday) when the big boys take off to catch up to the early-week starters. 

If you want to give them a wave as they head off, you can check out the midday start times here. After that, you can follow them with the trackers as they converge with fleets from the northwest and SoCal on the islands of Hawaii. 

It’s a 2,070 mile sail from San Francisco, and there appears to be no shortage of West Coast sailors answering the alluring call of tropical Pacific islands.