The 21st running of the Pacific Cup (co-sponsored by Ocean Navigator) from San Francisco Bay to Kaneohe, Hawaii is in the books, with 56 boats finishing out of a fleet of 60 starters. Overall winner and first to finish was Roy P. Disney’s Pyewacket 70. It also recorded the fastest elapsed time, and first in Alaska Airlines Division A. Just behind Pyewacket was Stu Dahlgren’s Santa Cruz 70 Westerly, which claimed second place in the division and also second place overall. Westerly also won the Bill Lee award for the fastest of the Bill Lee-designed yachts. Amazingly, Westerly suffered keel damage only a few days before the start.
Other division winners:
• Ocean Navigator A Division, David Herring’s Islander 36 Galatea took home the Islander 36 award while Giuseppe Lavelle’s Cal 40 Duende took home the team trophy alongside Azure and Surprise. The big winners in Ocean Navigator A were Rodney Pimentel and his crew on Azure. They not only took home the team trophy, but also claimed divisional honors and Best PHRF Boat award.
• BMW of San Rafael B Division, the J/125 Hamachi, owned by Jason Andrews and Shawn Dougherty.
• Gosling’s Rum G Division, Bob Hinden’s Schumacher 46 Surprise.
• North Sails’ S Division, Andy Schwenk’s Express 37 Spindrift V
• Kolea DH1 Division, Marc Andrea Klimaschewski’s Dogpatch 26 Moonshine.
• Holo Holo Cruising Division, Darshaun Nadeau’s Hans Christian 43 Solis.
• Mahina DH2 Division, Andrew Hamilton’s Donovan 30 Wolfpack.
• Weems and Plath Division, Douglas Schenk and Eric Hopper’s J/105 Free Bowl of Soup.
Another finisher in the the Kolea DH1 Division was Mark Jordan’s Hanse 342 Twelve-Winded Sky, which was double-handed by Jordan and Randy Leasure. They ended the race in ninth place in the division. We told the story of Twelve Winded Sky’s preparations for the race starting on page 8 of the July/August issue.
As for the weather during the race, Michael Moradzadeh, Principal Race Officer put it this way: “The biggest factor was a lack of wind. The 2022 race was plagued by very light winds for the first few days of the race, effectively eliminating the Monday and Tuesday starters from any serious contention for the Pac Cup overall trophy. Nonetheless, they put in some very good performances for the circumstances they faced.”