They’re Off. Again.
The four divisions of Pacific Cup Monday starters scored a beautiful day for a sail on the Bay, but made sure it was short-lived by dashing for the Gate and pointing southwest as they latched onto the reaching conditions to propel them west. After two days, the leaders are about 300 miles out with 1700 miles to go to finish. There’s already a wide split between those who’ve stayed north and those who took the southern track (the Moore 24 Foamy has dived the farthest south). Bill and Melinda Erkelens, sailing their Donovan 30, Wolfpack, are the next-farthest south, suggesting that’s a good neighborhood. But "The entire fleet are all sailing toward a light-air hole, caused by an upper-level low that is forecast to sit right on top of the rhumb line and shut off the breeze for virtually everyone," said Ronnie Simpson, a Latitude 38 contributor who’s also doing the Pac Cup media.
"Cal 40’s are currently 1-2 overall, with race stalwart Jim Quanci and his venerable Cal 40 Green Buffalo remaining atop the leaderboard over the first two days of the race," Ronnie told us. "The entirety of the four-boat Coral Reef Sailing Apparel/A division is on the rhumb line, but the fleet is sailing toward a date with a big patch of light winds, threatening to significantly shake up the leaderboard."
Today’s morning fog is burning off as we type, so another sunny start predicted for the 1:05 p.m. start of the Weems & Plath PHRF division and the Alaska Airlines PHRF division starting at 1:15. While there likely will be good breeze in the Bay, as suggested in Monday’s wind forecast, it’s looking to be more challenging to get away from the coast and into the ‘take me to Hawaii’ reaching conditions.
As we showed you in Monday’s ‘Lec Lat, the roll-of-the dice starting conditions will be a factor in the final outcome, but there are a lot of strategic course choices to be made during the 2070 miles between California and Hawaii that could leave the early conditions irrelevant.
After today, two more divisions will move into the starting gates with Class D: the Pasha Hawaii ORR Division starting on Thursday at 1:45 p.m., and the big-boat Class E BMW of San Rafael ORR Division starting at 2:45 p.m. on Friday. They have two days left to pray to the wind gods.