Yes, of course, Cruising World is a magazine dedicated to the glorious pastime of cruising. But, from time to time, it’s worthwhile to examine this basic truism: Racing sailboats will make you a better cruising sailor. Tacking and jibing at full speed, paying extra attention to windshifts and currents, trimming sails to get every last tenth of a knot of performance from them—these are all things you can apply to cruising that will make your life on the water a little more fulfilling. 

And there’s another, perhaps even greater, benefit as well. With the right crew on a sweet boat on a beautiful day, racing is also just a ton of fun.

This, I discovered, yet again, on a lovely Saturday in February when my colleagues at sister magazine Sailing World wrangled me aboard the Beneteau 40 Liquid Time for the North Sails Rally Race during the St. Petersburg, Florida, stop on the nationwide tour of six events that comprise the Helly Hansen Sailing World 2022 Regatta series. The 40-foot racer/cruiser is owned by a trio of pals who sail out of nearby Davis Islands: Pemmy and Ed Roarke, who set and trim the sails, and champion Sunfish sailor Gail Haeusler, whom I’d soon witness was one heck of a helmswoman. 

The name has two origins: Liquid Time is the title of a favorite tune by the progressive rock band Phish, with these appropriate opening lyrics: “The sea is so wide, and the boat is so small.” The name is also a running joke with the tight, nine-person crew, one of whom always pops the same question before a race: “What time is it?” To which the collective answer is, well, always the same: “Liquid Time!” It’s a joke that never gets old. 

My time on Liquid ­unfolded over a 20-mile course in a shifty northerly breeze around government marks on busy Tampa Bay, with plenty of visual treats to spice up the proceedings: the ever-­expanding St. Pete skyline; the weird, lopsided arena known as Tropicana Field, home to baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays; and the distinctive Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which replaced an earlier span that a freighter creamed in a 1980 storm. 

The starting line for our Racer/Cruiser division was a busy place, indeed; we shared it with a fleet of maniacs sailing light, twitchy L30 one-designs. Plus, unusually, it was a downwind start in about 8 knots of fluctuating wind, which meant a spinnaker set right off the bat. The Liquid team flowed through the maneuver like water running downhill (sorry). Haeusler timed it all perfectly. Off we went. 

It was pretty obvious right from the get-go that it was going to come down to a head-to-head match race with a Sarasota-based O’Day 40 called Mother Ocean, a name I assumed was borrowed from the opening line of Jimmy Buffett’s A Pirate Looks at Forty. (Also, what’s up with these Florida folks, their boat handles and their beloved recording artists?) 

In the early going, Mother was definitely a mutha, and we had a wonderful view of her transom as she assumed the lead. But all that changed when the kites were doused about two-thirds of the way through the race; the northerly ratcheted up to 14 knots, kicking up whitecaps as the skies cleared to reveal a spectacular sailing day. We hardened up for the closehauled beat back to the finish. Thanks in large part to Haeusler’s skilled driving, Liquid Time was both higher and faster, and before long, it was Mother Ocean in arrears. Which is how everything concluded, with Liquid Time the overall class winner. 

“We won that race in the second half,” said Ed Roarke, who then invoked another name, that of a recent Tampa Bay arrival—yet another cliched snowbird from New England—whose prowess has won over the local populace. “It was a Tom Brady special.”

The tunes came on, and, in the time-honored tradition of nearly all competitive sailing, the icy-cold beers were cracked and passed around. 

So, hey, what time was it again? 

Herb McCormick is a CW editor-at-large.

The post Off Watch: A Cruising Sailor Joins the Race appeared first on Cruising World.

If you blinked hard, and quickly, a fairly concise history of multihull sailing on the blue waters of the Caribbean was right there in front of you, for all of the sailing world to see. Glancing to port, as graceful as a soaring bird in flight, was the bright-red trimaran Tryst, having just turned a nice round 50, but still pretty as the proverbial picture. Her legendary designer, Dick Newick, had his very own style every bit as distinctive as anyone named Herreshoff, and Tryst‘s fluid lines have aged extremely well. If anything, despite the years and the savage hurricanes that tried so hard to destroy her, she’s lovelier than ever.

But what was that, to starboard, screaming through the slight chop on a tight reach, faster than a speedboat with an open throttle? Oh, yes: Fujin. Designed by an America’s Cup hotshot near Seattle but built in the relatively nearby Virgin Island of St. Croix, with her striking, aggressive bows, Fujin had the no-nonsense mien of a racecourse badass. It was hard to believe that just a short year ago she was upside down off the island of Saba, her crew treading water, having capsized in an ocean race. Now, she looked like a world beater.

Tryst and Fujin. Trimaran vs. catamaran. Wood vs. carbon. Old vs. new. Different. But the same. Multihulls. In a watery class of sailboats all by themselves, deserving of a showcase that highlights everything that stands them apart and brings them together.

Which leads us to the event that did just that—last spring’s first running of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, in the sparkling seas off the isle of St. Maarten.

Paying Homage

It was 1979 when a young sailor named Robbie Ferron washed up on the shores of St. Maarten with a keen eye for everything around him. And one of the very first things he noticed was a driven designer and builder named Peter Spronk, carving his own niche by knocking out beautiful, singular cats right on the beach.

“He was a stubborn Dutchman,” Robbie said. “He was grandly stubborn. If you wanted a Spronk boat that didn’t match his concept, you were out of luck. But that made others become even more enthused about getting a boat from him. His boats were amazing, they were about simplicity and manageability. They were great sailing boats, and they did a lot of things well. They’re still very good and usable. Nothing straddles the decades like Spronks.”

Spronk was a visionary and a pioneer, but he was also on the crest of a wave that has risen steadily in the intervening decades. While cats were at one time a curiosity, a sideshow, they’ve become ubiquitous in charter fleets, offshore races and distant anchorages all around the world. “When you look at new-boat arrivals in the Caribbean now, they’re dominating,” said Robbie, who, as the founder of the Caribbean chandlery Budget Marine, knows whereof he speaks. “The percentage of multihulls is constantly increasing.”

With a couple of like-minded localsailors—Petro Jonkers, who sails a Leopard 47 cat, and Stephen Burton, a cruiser who skippers a Swan 411 and enjoys nothing more than promoting his pastime—Robbie decided to do something to acknowledge that fact, to pay homage to Spronk, St. Maarten, multihulls, and the happy maniacs who love and sail them. An annual regatta celebrating all things multihull seemed appropriate and the busy, forward-thinking St. Maarten Yacht Club, the host for nearly four decades of the wildly popular St. Maarten Heineken Regatta (and the club where Robbie, Petro and Steve were all members), proved to be a willing accomplice.

Fifteen boats signed up for the ­inaugural edition, which took place early last February with three days of racing and shore-side celebrations. And an eclectic fleet it was.

In addition to Tryst, there was a trio of trimarans: Liquid Spirit, a Neel 45 cruising tri built in France with a Dutch crew at the outset of an extended cruise; Ineffable, a rare Melvin & Morelli-designed tri skippered by Stephen Glyn Bourne with a homeport of Hong Kong (which would ultimately be honored as the yacht that traveled the farthest to participate); and Le Tri, like Tryst a St. Maarten boat with a talented island crew.

Fujin was the scratch boat among the racing cats, but it had plenty of heady company, especially the HH66 R-Six—built in China and sailed by a wild Polish crew—and several one-off local cats, including the 60-footer Arawak, the M&M-designed 50-footer Shooting Star, the doublehanded 28-footer Enola and Guimamalou, a 40-footer.

And of course, no multihull event would be replete without a good showing of production cats, the fastest-growing segment in the contemporary sailboat market. The South African builder Robertson & Caine was well-represented by a pair of St. Maarten-based Leopards, Petro’s Seaduction and a 45-footer, Spellbound. Finally, and fittingly, there were several cats with a French pedigree: Hey Jude (Lagoon 410), Primula (Fountaine Pajot Belize 43) and Think Good Thoughts (Outremer 49) for the Caribbean Multihull Challenge.

With regards to the field, as far as a cross section of the multihull world was concerned, it was a fine one.

God of Wind

One boat, however, stood out among all the others, in both appearance and performance. That yacht was the cutting-edge 53-footer called Fujin.

After years working for Microsoft, Greg Slyngstad settled into a comfortable retirement as a self-professed “sailing bum.” He competed in several St. Maarten Heineken Regattas aboard a series of monohulls before commissioning Pacific Northwest naval architect Paul Bieker—who at the time was working with the Team Oracle USA America’s Cup campaign—to design a quick, light cat. And thus, Fujin was born. During his Microsoft days, Slyngstad spent some time in Japan and became immersed in the country’s culture, and named his boat after the Japanese god of wind.

“I was looking for a name that was different, and I liked the sound of Fujin,” he said. “It’s a very fast boat. We’ve topped off at over 32 knots. It doesn’t have a very big rig compared to most of the big multihulls we race against, so in light air we struggle a bit. But once the wind gets to about 15 knots Fujin is one of the fastest cats out there. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Weighing in at around 7 tons (less than half the weight of a Gunboat 55), the all-carbon cat was built in St. Croix by Gold Coast Yachts. While extremely light, she still sports a full cruising interior and is a true dual-purpose racer/cruiser. She’s also a handsome boat with a unique profile that Slyngstad describes as “a unique Polynesian look.”

Designer Bieker had concrete reasons, beyond appearances, for creating those striking bows. Slyngstad said that when Fujin is fully powered up, there’s a tendency for the transom to lift, so Bieker added volume and floatation forward to keep the bows from punching into waves and to prevent any chance of pitchpoling.

“That was one of the driving forces,” Slyngstad said. “The other was to cut away the shape behind the actual useful part of the bow to reduce windage. For any boat going upwind, the biggest component of drag is from the windage above the water.” By eliminating a portion of the topsides and replacing it with a sweeping curve just aft of the leading edges of the bows, Bieker created a more efficient hull form and a quite lovely one at that. It was a perfect marriage of form and function.

After Fujin was launched several years ago, it competed in a couple of St. Maarten Heineken Regattas and was also campaigned in New England during New York Yacht Club race weeks and other events. Then came last year’s Caribbean 600, a winding ocean race through the islands that starts and concludes in Antigua.

Fujin was just emerging from the lee of Saba in the early going when she was belted by a strong lifting puff—the breeze had been a steady 25 to 35 knots with gusts in the 40s—and, said Slyngstad, “went right over.” After about 10 seconds, the spar broke and the hull inverted, and the entire crew went into the water. Within minutes, everyone had safely scampered aboard the upside-down hull and signals from the personal AIS beacons worn by each crewman were picked up by other yachts. Soon after, a lobster boat from Saba arrived, took the crew aboard and towed Fujin into the island.

It took nearly a year, but Fujin ­underwent a long refit and emerged from her trials and tribulations as good as new. She arrived in St. Maarten just in time to compete in the first Caribbean Multihull Challenge.

Where she proceeded to take names and kick butt.

Timeless Tryst

If you wanted to make a movie about a boat with nine lives; a lithe, beautiful and timeless design from a storied designer that’s become a Caribbean treasure; one that has survived multiple hurricanes and continues to defy the odds and sail onward, you’d be hard pressed to find a better leading star than the 36-foot trimaran, Tryst.

These days, Tryst is owned and sailed by a couple of familiar islanders, Bernard “Appie” Stoutenbeek and Arthur Banting. When they hoisted her sails at the outset of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, they were in turn celebrating the boat’s 50th birthday. Considering her rich history, it was quite a milestone.

Tryst‘s remarkable journey began in a New England shipyard a half-century ago. Her main hull and amas were built in Maine of cold-molded mahogany. The parts of the Newick design were then shipped to St. Croix, along with the identical hulls and amas for another set of boats, all of which were members of Newick’s Trice class.

There, in 1969, Tryst was assembled and began life as a day-charter boat, taking tourists out for short sails and snorkeling trips. A decade later, the Turner brothers of St. Maarten acquired her and sailed her to the island where she began offering similar outings from the sibling’s beach bar. Some five years later, the Stoutenbeek family arrived in St. Maarten—including the impressionable young son, Appie—and acquired another Newick tri called TP II. By now, in the mid-1980s, there was a quartet of Newick tris racing against each other in the neighboring islands. Appie called the group “the Newick fanatics.”

Pat Turner was the boat’s loving ­caretaker for over three decades, nursing and repairing her after many a tropical storm. But when Hurricane Gonzalo ripped through the islands in 2014, and Tryst suffered major damage, it was time to move on. That’s when his friend Arthur Banting took over, and along with his pal, Appie, they made Tryst whole again.

A year later, the boat was back on the water but not yet racing, which is when Appie said to Arthur, “Dude, we need to get her out on the circuit again.”

Soon after, Hurricane Irma arrived.

As the manager of the Lagoon Marina, and knowing Tryst suffered major damage in Gonzalo because her mast was up, Appie pulled the spar and towed the boat into a shallow, protected cove. He placed hundreds of gallons of water in tanks to sink the waterline and reduce windage on the hulls, crossed his fingers and left Tryst to her own devices.

When he returned after the storm, he couldn’t believe his eyes: Tryst was upside down. A witness vacationing at a nearby resort saw what happened. Apparently, Tryst was doing fine until a localized tornado rolled through the anchorage. Appie said, “The guest came down and said, ‘Oh my god, is that your boat?’ He said Tryst went right up in the air, nose down, stern up, still attached to her mooring, doing twists in the tornado. When we found her capsized, there must’ve been 20 turns on the mooring lines!”

Tryst was righted, then went back into the shed and eventually reemerged once again strong and whole…just in time for the Caribbean Multihull Challenge.

“This boat is something special,” said Appie. “For a multihull to survive all these hurricanes, there’s got to be something special with this girl. She doesn’t want to go.” Nope, Tryst wasn’t going anywhere, not just yet. And yes, 50 years along, she was ready for her close up.

Vision Realized

With the exception of an early, passing squall on day two of the three-day event, conditions were ideal, with steady northeast trades in the midteens, occasionally gusting higher. Multihull weather.

The undisputed star of the show was Fujin. Sailing with an all-star crew that ­included two-time Olympic sailing medalist Jonathan McKee, the 53-footer easily won Class A, topping off a stellar performance with a 2-hour, 25-minute lap of St. Maarten in the round-the-island race on the final day of competition. For her considerable efforts, Fujin was recognized for the regatta’s Most Outstanding Performance and owner Slyngstad received a sweet dive watch from Oris Watches, the event’s official timekeeper.

The Class B winner was Arawak, sailed by a crew of ringers from St. Maarten’s Island Water World. The Class C victor was the Leopard cat Spellbound (renamed Kidz at Sea for the event), sailed by Garth Steyn and Ian Martin, who narrowly edged out their old friend and rival Petro Jonkers on his Leopard. And Tryst, appropriately, also brought home some hardware, earning the regatta’s Style & Grace prize.

“It was the best multihull fleet I’ve ever seen in the Caribbean,” race director Robbie Ferron said. “Our vision of a multihull regatta out of St. Maarten has been solidified.”

Now, having proven the point, the Caribbean Multihull Regatta has announced that the second running of the event will take place beginning on Valentine’s Day in 2020. The event is timed perfectly to be a warm up regatta for the Caribbean 600; in 2019, Fujin used that formula by prepping in St. Maarten for the longer ocean race, where the boat finished second in the multihull class. Either way, if you sail a boat with more than one hull, you might seriously consider getting down there. It seems like a celebration whose time has come.

Herb McCormick is CW_’s executive editor_.

The post Caribbean Multihull Challenge appeared first on Cruising World.

It was almost sunset late last July on the docks in Kaneohe, Hawaii — the finish line for the biennial Pacific Cup yacht race, and a long way from the start in San Francisco — when the Hanse 505 Anaïs glided alongside and came to a halt. Moments later, a full-on dock party was raging as the last rays of sun spilled over the Pali mountain range. Skipper Matt Solhjem looked back at his Hanse in disbelief before reviewing the list of carnage. From blown-out spinnakers to broken electronics, the passage had taken its toll. The look on Matt’s face told a story: humbled, gracious and fully content, but also mischievous, like a teenager who’d just pulled one over on his parents. Winding down from a 12-day-long adrenaline rush, the first-time ocean racer said, “That was definitely a race. Right off the bat, the other boats were pushing hard. Even though we were sailing in the cruising class, that was a race, for sure.”

For the crew of Anaïs, it was also a successful one; they were the winners of the 14-boat cruising division, the largest in the race.

Bluewater cruising rallies and offshore yacht races have been the catalyst for an untold number of sailors to set sail and turn their dreams to reality. With a dedicated support and preparation network, as well as the perceived safety of traveling in a group, many sailors who might otherwise be hesitant to head offshore have found the proposition far less daunting when presented with the option of doing their first major crossing as part of an organized event. Nicknamed the “fun race to Hawaii,” the Pacific Cup has traditionally been a semi-laid-back affair that includes everything from Maxi racers full of pro crews to doublehanded Moore 24s sailed by intrepid amateur sailors, with everything in between.

The Pacific Cup has an interesting history. On June 15, 1980, 40 yachts sailed out under the Golden Gate Bridge in what was then called the Kauai Race, from San Francisco to the “garden island” of Kauai. Almost immediately, they were pasted by rough conditions. Attrition ensued, but 10 days later, Bill Lee’s legendary Merlin (the predecessor to the venerable Santa Cruz 70) was the first boat to come surfing into the islands. Easily the fastest yacht in the race, Merlin arrived in Kauai close to four days ahead of the next boat; the celebrated 68-footer also won a commanding victory on corrected time, establishing a long ­tradition between 70-foot sleds and success in the Pacific Cup. The Division II winner back in 1980 was Dean Treadway and his legendary Farr 36, Sweet Okole. Nearly 40 years later, in 2018, the same skipper and boat came power-reaching into Hawaii to earn a very close second place in their division, only narrowly missing out on victory due to an unfortunate wind shift in the final miles.

Since that inaugural race in 1980, the event outgrew its humble beginnings, was renamed the Pacific Cup and relocated its finish to Kaneohe, on the island of Oahu, to accommodate more boats. Yes, there are still plenty of glitzy raceboats and famous sailors, but the event has also always attracted local sailors who get their hands on a modest ultralight racer and dream big. While no small ultralight boats sailed in that first race, they have since become a fixture. From Moore 24s and Express 27s to Santa Cruz 27s, Olson 30s and Hobie 33s, the Pacific Cup attracts a great number of those early surfing boats from the heyday of the Santa Cruz boatbuilding era. In 2018, the race enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime battle between seven Express 27s (six sailed doublehanded in their own one-design fleet, while one sailed in a PHRF handicap division with three crew on board). The little 27-foot speedsters and their crews put on a performance that will be talked about for many years to come.

After a gnarly super El-Niño impacted the race in 2016, when major tropical weather systems moved across the racecourse in quick succession, the vibe on the docks at the hosting Richmond Yacht Club in Point Richmond, California, was decidedly more relaxed in 2018. All of the weather models pointed to a much more traditional, if not benign, race. With an incredible two-thirds of the 60-boat fleet being first-time race entrants, no one was complaining about the mellow forecast. With light winds, warm temperatures and sunny skies at the race village, one could have been forgiven for confusing Richmond with the race finish. The 60 entries were spread across eight divisions over four different starting days in mid-­July, with the goal being to get everyone into Kaneohe around the same time. It was the third time a dedicated cruising class was included, with the first coming in 2014.

“A lot of goals came together to get the cruising fleet added to the Pacific Cup,” said Pacific Cup Yacht Club commodore and eight-time race participant Michael Moradzadeh. “First, we wanted to make the race more accessible to some folks who might feel intimidated by racing all the way to Hawaii. We relaxed the rules a bit — but not in terms of safety — to allow boats to motor a bit if needed, or to call a coach or weather router for advice, things you normally can’t do in a yacht race. We thought that the sailors wouldn’t be too competitive, but as it turns out, any time that you get two or more boats on the water it’s most definitely a race! For 2020, we’re probably going to configure the fleet a bit more like a race with actual handicap ratings and scoring, though still allowing the cruisers to use their engines if necessary. Competitive cruising, if you want.”

Competitive cruising is a polite way to put it. In the 2018 Pacific Cup, two 50-foot sisterships were duking it out near the head of the fleet, with top-tier sailing talent on board both boats. On Emmanuel Sauquet’s Hanse 505, Outremer, a crew of six Frenchman, including Vendée Globe superstar Tanguy de Lamotte, found themselves locked in an intense match race with the aforementioned Anaïs, which was stacked full of seasoned racers from San Diego, including the local Ullman Sails pro, Chuck Skewes. While Outremer tended to have a slight speed advantage at times, the two boats took wildly divergent routes to Hawaii, which ended up being the deciding factor.

In solidarity with the Frenchmen on board A Fond le Girafor, a revolutionary new foiling Beneteau Figaro 3 in the doublehanded class, who were just ahead of them, Outremer played the north side of the racecourse while rival Anaïs played the south. Up north, the route would be much shorter, and in theory, there would be a narrow corridor of increased pressure for any navigator who was skilled and daring enough to try to thread the needle and find it. Down south, the conditions looked a bit softer, though considerably more consistent with fewer wind holes to deal with. The boats up north looked good in the short term, but as is usually the case when racing to Hawaii, those northerly boats faded hard in the middle stages of the race. When the wind finally went light for the northerly boats, Anaïs gained a big advantage and held on to the finish to arrive into Kaneohe some 12 hours ahead of her French competition.

The arrival of Anaïs signaled the start of a marathon push for me, the race’s media guy, that would last for much of the ­following week. After that first cruiser came in, the floodgates opened and boats were finishing around the clock. With so many interesting storylines to follow and friends spread throughout the fleet, seemingly every few hours I would attempt to greet and cover a boat, no matter what time of day. From high-energy arrival parties to heartwarming reunions among loved ones, each arrival was different from the last, but equally special.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the French and their passion for sailing, and because this year’s fleet had such an incredible number of French sailors, it was fun and exciting to greet them in Hawaii. Perhaps the most touching of all finishes in the 2018 Pacific Cup was when Nicolas Thiebaud’s all-French crew on his Jeanneau SunFast 3200 Dare Dare arrived in the middle of the night to a raucous welcoming committee that included a huge French contingent singing an old Breton song in honor of their fellow countrymen. When you engage in an organized sport like ocean racing, you do it as much for the community as you do for the voyage itself. To see the love and camaraderie among competitors is perhaps the most beautiful part of the whole event; it’s one big celebration of the sport, among friends both new and old.

RELATED: Molokai High

Aside from the two modern 50-foot Hanses with wicked-up crews that found themselves in an improbable match race for the lead, the rest of the 14-boat cruising fleet spanned the full spectrum of cruising yachts — a Mason 44, Island Packet 380, Nordic 44 and Swan 441 were among the entrants — with a wide array of proper cruisers and comfy racer-cruisers also sprinkled throughout the racing fleets.

As well as the diversity of boats entered, the ambitions and vibes of the various different crews is hard to miss. Obviously, a lot of the fleet is composed of hardcore racing sailors who thrive on the intense competition and the thrills that only ­high-speed open-ocean surfing runs in the trade winds can deliver. For others, it’s their own personal Everest, the ­culmination of a major life undertaking amid years of dreaming. While for many still, it’s merely a summer tradition, a break from work or an ambitious summer cruise. For all, however, it’s a long bluewater passage with day after day of off-the-breeze sailing in ideal conditions before arriving to a warm welcome in paradise. Whether racing or cruising, the sail from California to Hawaii is about as good as it gets.

For many, the race itself is just a part of the motivation for entering the Pacific Cup. Russ Johnson, skipper of the Jeanneau 52.2 Blue Moon, said, “Probably the biggest part of the Pac Cup, for me, was to be able to do the return trip and go through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I learned about the gyre 15 years ago and was surprised at how many people had still never heard of it. I wanted to see what was out there for myself, and make my findings available to raise awareness and educate people about what it is.”

Before returning to California, and visiting the garbage patch along the way, Johnson found himself on island time, and his return delivery was delayed a couple of months by impromptu local adventures. “The sailing was absolutely beautiful. From almost any port, you can be out in the ocean in minutes and have reliably great breeze and open-ocean sailing. Within hours, you can find another port or ­another island entirely to pull into and meet new people. We visited the remote north side of Molokai. It was amazing and completely unexpected. With the tallest sea cliffs on earth, beautiful waterfalls and hidden coves, it was the real Hawaiian paradise that I had hoped to find.”

Not all boats that sail in on a Pac Cup make the return, however. Some skippers sail their boat into Hawaii, effectively on a one-way journey, before selling the boat in the islands and flying home. For so many others, however, the Pac Cup is just the beginning of the journey. Warren Holybee and crew sailed his Morgan 382 Eliana into Kaneohe in 14 days to grab third place in the Coral Reef Sailing Apparel A division. The next time we saw Warren, he was in Honolulu installing a Monitor windvane and dodger that he had shipped out with the delivery gear. From Hawaii, he cruised on to Fiji and will be heading on to New Zealand.

For Thiebaud, a young French sailor who lives in San Francisco, the Pac Cup was part of his spiritual journey to sail to the islands of French Polynesia. As soon as the Pac Cup was over, he was seen loading big ground tackle, a dinghy and other cruising gear onto his 32-footer Dare Dare and heading south. Overall winner Prospector, a flashy, modern 68-foot racing yacht, sailed onward to Sydney with its professional crew for a run at the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race. The Pacific Cup was just one leg of a racing circumnavigation that includes many iconic ocean races. Just like the ­diversity of the fleet itself, when the awards party ends, an equal if opposite number of adventures ensue.

Back in 1980, the first year of the Pacific Cup, Lester Robertson raced a Moore 24 named Legs to the island of Kauai in the 1980 singlehanded Transpac. Nearly 40 years later, he was back, this time doublehanded, to race another Moore 24 called Foamy to Hawaii. “I decided to do the race, and then two and a half months into the rebuild I was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. They told me I had a 15 percent chance to survive the first five years, but I always figure we can be in the top 15 out of 100,” he told me with a forced chuckle. “There’s so much else in life, but it was one of the things that I really, really wanted to do — another transpacific voyage in a small boat — and I’m just so grateful and privileged to be here. I appreciate it so much. There’s just so many other ways it could have worked out.” Lester and his crew, Randy Parker, pushed the venerable Moore 24 hard, fighting for the victory for much of the race, ultimately finishing in third place in the division and only narrowly missing out on second.

You talk to a guy like Robertson, or a first-timer, or a 15-time race vet, or even a race volunteer, and you realize how much the Pacific Cup means to this crowd. From the opening race village at the Richmond Yacht Club to the finish-line festivities at the Kaneohe Yacht Club, there is an overwhelming sense of pride and gratitude in being part of it: gratitude for the incredible and oftentimes humbling experience, and pride to be a part of something so undeniably special and uniquely homegrown. With a dedicated group of volunteers and many of the usual suspects among the competitors, the fleet has a family feel to it and takes great pride in ownership of their little race that has left such an indelible mark on the sailing world. With this tightknit group that warmly welcomes outsiders and newcomers, including cruisers, the time has never been better to cast off the dock lines and discover the Pacific Cup for yourself. The next Pac Cup is scheduled for 2020. How about joining the fun?

Ronnie Simpson is a sailor, surfer and sailing media professional who is in the early stages of a surf-focused sailing circumnavigation on his Peterson 34, Quiver. Having recently completed a degree in integrated multimedia from Hawaii Pacific University, Ronnie continues to pursue his goals as a sailing journalist alongside — and to help fund — his own sailing ambitions. He was the media director for the 2018 Pacific Cup.

The post The Fun Race to Hawaii appeared first on Cruising World.

It’s a match made in Maine. Sanford Boat Company of Nantucket has struck a licensing deal that will let Steve White and the crew at Brooklin Boat Yard take a step into the world of production boat building.

True, we’re not talking about a boat factory going up on the shores of Penobscot Bay, but for Brooklin, it’s an opportunity for the yard to branch out from its repair services and highly customized new-boat projects.

The Sanford Boat Company built its first cold-molded 26-foot Alerion Class Sloop in 1977; 22 were launched by 1983 and a handful more have been built since then by other licensees. The Alerion was said to be designer Nathanael Herreshoff’s favorite personal sailboat. Though Sanford sold the boats to customers around the country, today, 25 of the 29 Alerions built have found their way back to Nantucket, where they are raced and used as daysailors.

In a release announcing the deal, Brooklin Boat Yard owner Steve White said he’s wanted to build a production boat for some time now. “The Alerion Class Sloop is a proven boat – her design, construction and pedigree have been well established. She will reflect well on Brooklin Boat Yard.”

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On Sunday, December 17 at 2:45 (French time), Francois Gabart, onboard the Ultime Trimaran MACIF, crossed the the finish line between Cape Lizard and Ouessant to successfully end his solo world tour. On his first attempt, at the around-the-world record, Gabart smashed the standing time of 49 days, previously set by Thomas Coville, the skipper of the Sodebo Ultim. MACIF sped through the nearly 28,000 nautical mile journey in just 42 days 16 hours 40 minutes and 35 seconds. He cut more than six days off the record, establishing new benchmarks at nearly every reference point in his path. Gabart’s time is the second fastest overall circumnavigation, second only to that of IDEC Sport, skippered by Francis Joyon, who completed a fully crewed circumnavigation in January for the Jules Verne Trophy, clocking in at 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes.

During the trip, Gabart broke another record when he racked up 851 nautical miles in a 24 hour period, beating his own world record benchmark of 784 that he previously set onboard MACIF. He also picked up several other benchmark times along the way:

• Ouessant to Cape of Good Hope: 12 days 20 hours 10 minutes
• Tasmania to Cape Horn: 7 days 15 hours 15 minutes
• Cape Horn to the Equator: 6 days 22 hours 15 minutes

On Friday, François Gabart confided that he believed the record was about to be beaten beaten. “I never dreamed of this time. On paper, with the weather, with what I was able to do with this boat, it was possible to break the record, but in the best scenarios, one or two days. It’s pretty amazing,” he explained as he neared the finish.

The record will still need to be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Council, but will likely stand, and be the latest benchmark for sailing around the world.

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The 2018 Golden Globe Race will start from Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday July 1, 2018. The event marks the 50th anniversary of the Sunday Times Golden Globe solo non-stop round the world Race in 1968/9 when rules then allowed competitors to start from ports in northern France or UK between June 1st and October 31st. Nine started including Frenchmen Bernard Moitessier and Loïc Fourgeron. But there was only one finisher – Robin Knox-Johnston and his yacht Suhaili. Moitessier, sailing the larger and faster Joshua might have won (he rounded Cape Horn 17 days behind Suhaili) but instead of chasing Knox-Johnston back up the Atlantic, Moitessier turned east to start a second circumnavigation – “To save my soul” as he put it.

23 skippers at advance stages for the start – 6 others hopeful of finding a boat and sponsor in time.

With 6 months to go before the start, five French skippers continue to dominate the entry list. Two new skippers have announced their entry and the return of another who had previously retired, replace five entrants that have withdrawn from the Race.

The new faces are Ertan Beskardes, a Turkish born British national who has bought a Rustler 36, Commander Abhilash Tomy, KC (38) fromIndia who has built a Suhaili replica,and Tapio Lehtinen (59) from Finland who is campaigning a Sparkman & Stephens designedBenello Gaia 36. The entry list also shows a welcome return of Italian entrant Francesco Cappelletti with his Endurance 35.

Those to have withdrawn for personal or financial reasons are Izabel Pimentel from Brazil, British farmer Ian Reid, and two Frenchman, Lionel Regnier who is now assisting fellow Frenchman Jean-Luc van den Heede, andArsène Ledertheil, together with Swiss entrant Nérée Cornuz.

Australian boatbuilder Mike Smith simply ran out of time building his replica of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s 1968/9 winning yacht Suhaili and has now set his sights on entering the next GGR in 2022.

Don McIntyre, the Race Chairman says, “The closer to the start, the more the financial and personal pressures mount, and it was inevitable that some entrants would drop out. That leaves 23 strong entries all busy preparing their boats for the start in Les Sables d’Olonne on July 1st next year. It also leaves 7 places up for grabs and it so happens that we have that number talking to us about the possibilities of becoming late entrants in the Race. Given that there is just 6 months left, that will be a tall order for some who have to buy a boat and refit it, then complete their 2,000-mile proving voyage. Time will tell how many of these will make it to the start.”

Organisers and skippers held a meeting in Les Sables d’Olonne on December 6th with a focus on a workshop and press conference. The following day, the skippers visited the port facilities in Les Sables d’Olonne. Yannick MOREAU, the President of Les Sables d’Olonne Agglomeration said: “I am pleased to welcome 14 of the 23 Golden Globe Race skippers ahead of Salon Nautic for their first meeting her and to meet with the press. 12 out of 14 of the nationalities are represented here and is a demonstration of the international scope of the event. These 2 days spent on the coast mark the introduction to the Sables before the big start. This is the only opportunity to have almost all gathered at Les Sables d’Olonne before June 16 and the start on July 1st.”

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In partnership with the leading digital sailing platform, Virtual Regatta, the eSailing World Championships will be held every year starting from 2018.

The Virtual Regatta platform provides the perfect vehicle for the eSWC, with their established Inshore Regatta games. A new set of World Sailing regulations will be used to allow the sports Racing Rules of Sailing to be adapted to the virtual world. Inshore regattas will be held through the year with players accumulating points that will establish their standings in the eSailing World Rankings. Players in the rankings will have the opportunity to qualify for global play offs, and ultimately participation in the live final. The final of the inaugural eSailing World Championships will be held in Sarasota, USA in November 2018.

The eSWC is aimed at everyone from expert sailors to sports gamers. Virtual Regatta has experienced that around half of players are non-sailors, and with a young age profile. World Sailing see the eSWC as a perfect way for fans without access to sailing equipment or facilities to become engaged in the excitement of the sport.

The unique qualities of sailing – combining sport, nature and technology – lend themselves to a virtual gaming environment. The multiplicity of variables, with the combination of equipment and the forces of nature, make virtual sailing every bit as challenging and strategic as the real thing.

Virtual Regatta currently has more than one million active players on its platform and has acquired in excess of 100 million views on Dailymotion.

World Sailing is one of the first international sports federations to move into eSports and the move will allow existing and new audiences to engage in the sport on a digital platform.

“Sailing is well suited to digital presentation,” commented World Sailing President Kim Andersen. “The sport requires constant inputs and an acquired skillset to manage the relationship between the boat and the forces of nature. “The variety in boats, from dinghies, windsurfers to 100 foot boats make it especially rich as a gaming platform.”

Philippe Guigné, founder and CEO of Virtual Regatta said, “Virtual Regatta is honoured to enter the World Sailing family. Our international federation is showing the world how sailing is at the edge of innovation.

“The eSailing World Championship is probably one of the most ambitious and innovative projects in the world between a federation and a gaming company.

“ESports is opening a new audience to our sport as well as allowing sailors to practice their favourite sport everywhere at anytime.”

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Extreme Sailing Series – Act 6 – Cardiff

The penultimate Act of the 2017 Extreme Sailing Series starts in San Diego this week. The eight-strong fleet – including two US-flagged wildcard squads – will race in San Diego Bay, a new venue for the Series, as thousands watch from the public Race Village on Harbor Island, from 19 – 22 October.

The Extreme Sailing Series will pick up where it left off in Cardiff in August, with a podium tight on points and everything to play for. The first six Acts of the season have seen an intense three-way battle between SAP Extreme Sailing Team, Oman Air and Alinghi, with each boasting a stint in pole position. Current leader SAP Extreme Sailing Team is excited about the challenge of racing in San Diego, the second of three new venues this season alongside Barcelona, Spain, and Los Cabos, Mexico.

“We’re looking forward to going to the US and Mexico to mix it up a bit. When you go to a venue you have been to many times before it is like coming home, but with new venues you are more alert and observant and focused on trying to figure everything out as quick as you can,” said co-skipper Rasmus Køstner.

Currently just two points shy of the Danes, Oman Air’s skipper Phil Robertson is also looking forward to racing in California and remains characteristically calm and collected about the competition ahead.

“I am very excited about racing in San Diego Bay. It is big enough to get the boats ripping along but close enough to the shore to give spectators a great show,” said Robertson.

“We are feeling good at Team Oman Air. The pressure isn’t mounting at all; if anything, it is easing up as we settle into our groove. We have worked hard on improving every event and now it feels like it’s all falling into place,” he added.

Defending champion Alinghi, whose crew currently have a five-point deficit on the leader, have been putting in the groundwork since the last Act – including claiming victory in the D35 Trophy on Lake Geneva for the sixth time.

“The team has been sailing a lot since Cardiff. We’ve also been trying to improve our sailing for San Diego by watching back some of our video footage from previous events and making plans,” said co-skipper Arnaud Psarofaghis. “We’re feeling very laid back and quite happy to go into the final couple of Acts.”

Red Bull Sailing Team – currently in fourth – returns with its trusty crew roster spearheaded by double Olympic gold-medal winning duo Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher, while British-flagged Land Rover BAR Academy – currently bottom of the table – once again rotates its team line-up amongst the young trialists.

NZ Extreme Sailing Team helm Josh Junior will be joined by fellow Emirates Team New Zealand America’s Cup crewmate Andy Maloney on bow. Maloney previously competed in the 2012 Extreme Sailing Series with Oman Air, before the Series made the switch from the Extreme 40 displacement catamaran to the foiling GC32.

US wildcard Lupe Tortilla Demetrio will make its debut in the Series in San Diego, having competed at the previous four Acts as part of the Flying Phantom Series, and will also race in Act 8, Los Cabos. Find out more about the new challenger here. Details of the second wildcard entry will be released in the coming days.

The on-water Stadium Racing programme will be complemented by the inaugural Extreme San Diego Foil Kiteboarding Invitational, featuring some of the sport’s hottest talent battling for $20,000 in prize money. The impressive line-up includes three-time world champion Johnny Heineken and US Sailing’s 2017 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, Daniela Moroz.

“I’m really excited to come to San Diego to race alongside some of the best sailors in the world. The last time I kited in San Diego Bay was on a race board during the America’s Cup World Series, and now I’ll be foil racing – we’ve come so far since then,” said Heineken.

“Having a large organisation like OC Sport [founder and organiser of the Extreme Sailing Series] behind us, and working with the Extreme San Diego team, has exceeded my expectations in being able to develop a world class event,” said Nico Landauer, who has been influential in the organisation of the championship and who will take part in the competition next week.

The kiteboarding championship will start daily from 12:00 UTC-7, followed by GC32 Stadium Racing from 13:30 UTC-7 on Thursday 19 October and from 14:00 UTC-7 from Friday 20 – Sunday 22 October. Fans can follow the action via the official social media accounts and the live blog on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 October. Racing will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October from 14:00 – 17:00 UTC-7. The on-water action will be accompanied by a packed on-shore entertainment schedule for the free-to-enter Race Village, located at Harbor Island Park. With a range for activities, from a dedicated kids’ zone to a virtual reality GC32 experience, as well as a variety of food and drink stalls, there is something for everyone. Visit the official website for more information about timings and location.

Friday 20 October will be Military Appreciation Day, when members of the armed forces are offered free admission for themselves and a guest to the VIP Foiling Club with a valid military ID, while Saturday 21 is a dedicated family day. For more information, or to buy tickets, visit: https://sandiegoextremesailing.com/accomodations/.

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Forty years ago this past summer, a naval architect named Rod Johnstone put the finishing touches on a sailboat he built in his home in Stonington, Connecticut. The size of the boat was dictated by the length of the garage in which it took shape: 24 feet. Little did Johnstone know, that vessel, eventually called the J/24, would become an unqualified success. More than 5,000 of them would be built. It would launch a family business, J/Boats, that has introduced dozens of new models and is still going strong. It would even be inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame.

And in the summer of 1986, one of them, hull number 3,688, became my first boat.

Actually, that’s not quite ­accurate. With my high school pal, Ian Scott, I was the co-owner. Many Js have funny, irreverent names, and we followed suit by calling ours Crack O’ Noon, in tongue-in-cheek honor of when our days supposedly began. When I began searching for a cruising boat after a couple of seasons, Ian bought me out. But he still has the boat, and we’re still campaigning her all these years later. Johnstone conceived of the J/24 as a cruiser/racer, and in those first years we owned her, we did manage a Spartan cruise or two (the boat has seated headroom, a V-berth and a couple of long settees but no head or galley). Hey, we were young and happy to be on the water.

Besides, what we really purchased the boat for was to race her, which is the raison d’être of most J/24s.

Racing a J/24 is a bit of a challenge. With the standard five-person crew — remember, the boat is 24 feet long — ­e­very maneuver is highly choreo­graphed so everyone isn’t crashing into one another. Our local fleet in Newport, Rhode Island, is one of the most competitive on the ­planet, and has produced a sizable number of the class’s world champions over the years. Needless to say, we’ve seen a lot of transoms in the three decades we’ve been racing the boat, but ­every once in a while we pull off a victory, which ­always tastes ­especially sweet.

We generally race on Thursday nights, and while we take things fairly seriously, we don’t go overboard: There’s always a big cooler of beer and ice on board for a pre-race libation and a couple of post-race rounds. (That’s why they call it “beer-can racing.”)

Last summer, we also joined the crews of 20 other boats for the vessel’s 40th-­anniversary race. It was supposed to be around Conanicut Island, but when the breeze foundered, the race committee switched to a shortened course on the East Passage of Narragansett Bay.

The fleet was stacked and included a couple of world champs: Brad Read, a two-time winner, and the current champion, sailmaker Will Welles (sailmakers are notoriously good racing sailors). Also on hand was Jeff Johnstone (now the president of J/Boats), one of Rod’s kids and, like all the siblings, a very ­accomplished sailor.

The start of a yacht race is critical, and Ian, at the helm, nailed a nice one, just alongside Read’s Flying Squirrel (we were at least in good company). But the first windward leg, up to a buoy near a local landmark known as the Dumplings, was a bit of a bear. We played the right-hand side of the course, but a pair of boats on the other side enjoyed an ideal left-hand wind shift and led everyone around the mark.

From there, it was a long downwind spinnaker run to a mark off of Halfway Rock, just off Prudence Island. In rather light air, it was a trying leg. When most of the fleet went right of Gould Island, we went left and picked up a couple of boats. Still, as we rounded the mark to begin the longish beat to the finish line, our position was decidedly midfleet.

The left side of the course again paid dividends, and naturally, we favored the right (stubbornness is one of our crew’s collective traits). Back and forth we tacked, but to little or no avail. We crossed the finish line in 14th place, happy to have a handful of boats behind us.

Still, we’d accomplished our goal, which was to pay homage to a great little boat aboard which we’ve had plenty of laughs and good times over the years. And the ­cooler, of course, was well-stocked. As we made our way back ­into Newport Harbor, we hoisted some cold ones in honor of Rod Johnstone’s illustrious ­garage creation.

– – –

Herb McCormick is Cruising World’s executive editor.

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Sailing into Vava’u’s open waters, the anemometer pushed 35 knots, and our 14-ton, full-keeled 38-foot cutter clocked a record 8 knots through the water. Weather helm turned my triceps to cinders, but I was too distracted to feel the burn: Nearby, 35-foot Alkira crash-tacked to avoid being jackknifed by 55-foot Dreamcatcher.

Though I held my first tiller at 6 months old, I didn’t take the helm for my first sailing race until I was 31 and passing through Tonga en route from Mexico to New Zealand.

Sponsored each year by the Island Cruising Association, the racecourse was 17 nautical miles and began in the main harbor, Neiafu, before looping around Vava‘u’s central bay and ending in an anchorage on the eastern side of the island.

Given the specifics of our Island Packet 380, neither my husband, Dominic, nor I were initially inclined to race. With a 14-foot beam, Helios was made for comfort, not for speed. But when we woke to bluebird skies and 30-knot winds, our desire to be leisurely spectators evaporated.

Most of our white-knuckle moments occurred early in the race when all 20 competitors crossed the starting line at 1100 and had to do a lap through Neiafu’s enclosed bay, starting at the northern entrance and circling a megayacht at the southern end. The bay is narrow and flanked with mooring fields and shallow waters, so Dominic and I executed more sailing maneuvers in the first 30 minutes of the race than we had in the 6,300 nautical miles of our voyage thus far.

Racing neophytes, we were proud to be keeping pace with the straggling catamaran 41-foot Oceanna. They had a late start and were overtaking us at the turning point when Dominic had a stroke of tactical brilliance and directed me to head upwind, keeping our sails full and casting a wind shadow that caused Oceanna to luff and stall.

Before we set sail, I had vowed to disengage from my competitive nature and appreciate the learning experience of our first race — but as we pulled ahead, my Zen went overboard and I commandeered the helm, howling at Dominic to ease the jib.

Oceanna forgave us as we approached the dead-downwind pass out of Neiafu. They went wing and wing, cleanly pulling ahead into the next long, straight stretch of the race.

Nearing the finish line, the winds and the stakes got higher. Averaging 6 knots in 25 knots of wind, we watched agape as the wind and boat speed continued to accelerate. We heeled to 40 degrees, and more than once our starboard solar panel carved tracks in the water. There were reefs and vessels to dodge, as well as wind shadows and submerged rocks to avoid.

We finished in three hours, excited that we had achieved our ultimate goal of not finishing last. For the first time, I went an entire afternoon under sail without being tempted to lounge in the sunshine and enjoy the comforts of a novel.

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