Ed. Note: Alert Northwest Yachting reader Alex Fox pointed out on our Facebook Page,
“Hey there, Just got the August Northwest Yachting Magazine (always look forward to the new issue) Just wanted to point out a major omission from your Pacific Cup report on Northwest boats doing very well. Por Favor, the Hobie 33 from Sidney B.C. owned by John Denny, won the Matson division and navigator Simon Walker won the award for best navigator. An honest mistake I’m sure, but come on, show a little love for your Northwest Friends from Canada.”
Thanks for chiming in, Alex, and congratulations to John Denny and Simon Walker! The article is reproduced here and we’ll let your Facebook post stand as our correction. (Note that Bruce Hedrick promises a final wrapup in September). No disrespect meant to our Canadian readers. In fact, we’d love to feature more about Canadian boating of all types; racing, powerboats, fishing, plain ‘ole sailing, kayaking. There’s so much going on in Pacific Northwest we need help covering it all. Email what you have to kurt@nwyachting.com and we’ll do our best to get it in. Include photos. People on both sides of the border love those photos. -KH
Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii – There’s a very good reason why this race continues to attract a great number of competitors and the primary one seems to be that this is the FUN Race to Hawaii. It pretty much follows the brochure, the ratings seem pretty fair, the weather cooperates unless you were in the early group of starters this year), the website is outstanding, and of course the welcome in Kaneohe Bay is always just about as good as it gets when you sail to Hawaii.
This year eight vessels from the Northwest decided to do the race and that fleet included the Riptide 35 Terremoto, the Pacific Seacraft 44 Valis, the J-105 Free Bowl of Soup, the Santa Cruz 27 Giant Slayer, the SC 27 Mirage, the SC 27 Blade Runner, the Cal 40 California Girl and the J-125 Hamachi.
The Hobie 33 Por Favor
As we go to press while not all the boats have finished this 2,070 trip to the Islands, we do have some preliminary results. You should also know that the fleet of 55 vessels was broken into nine Divisions with the Cruisers starting on July 6th and the Big Boats starting last on July 11th. As with the Vic-Maui Race, the weather this year favored the later starters and from the time the Big Boats started, they led the hunt for the overall trophy.
The first boat to Kaneohe Bay was the RP 63 Invisible Hand who had a pretty good crossing covering the distance in 6 days and 22 hours. Second vessel in was the RP designed TP-52 Scarlet Runner up from Australia who had a great race with the Andrews 68 Pyewacket skippered by Roy Pat Disney and sailed by a one of the largest gatherings of rock stars on the West Coast. For most of the race Pyewacket was first overall however once the Division got into tradewind conditions you just can’t seem to hold those TP-52’s down and Scarlett Runner surged ahead of Pyewacket boat for boat to take the Division and the Overall Trophy.
The J-125 Hamachi skippered by Greg Slygstad and also sailing with a very talented crew primarily from the Pacific Northwest was in the next division below the Big Boats and started one day ahead them. Hamachi sailed an outstanding race and was not only first to finish to finish but should also hold on to easily take corrected time honors by almost 11 hours.
Our friend and rigger extraordinaire Andy Schwenk teamed up with Ward Naviaux to sail the Santa Cruz 27 Blade Runner in the Double-Handed Race and while they haven’t finished it looks like the Moore 24 Snafu will just nip them for Division honors. Andy did a great write-up on prepping for the race and once we get his wrapup we’ll post it for you. In Division B the J-105 Free Bowl of Soup skippered by Eric Hopper and sailing out of CYC in Portland appears to be in the driver’s seat to not only be first to finish but also to take Division honors. This is what we have for now, more next month.
