[TR] Ocean Racing - Pacific Cup 2010 7/18/2010

[Alex]

Trip: Ocean Racing - Pacific Cup 2010

 

Date: 7/18/2010

 

Trip Report:

So these kinds of races tend to be so durn long that everything blends together and you don't really, you know, remember that much other than say specific incidents. Things are more just like general feelings about the trip, and some basic play-by-play.

 

I navigated the J/160 Jam on Pacific Cup this year. We were in Division D, which was basically us, 3 SC50s (2 turbo'ed beyond belief), a strange contraption of a canting keel Farr 36 OD, an Antrim designed Class 40, Delicate Balance an Andrews 56 similar to our local boat Artemis, and last but not least a Schumacher 52. Despite there being some respectable turbos in the Division E this year, including perennial favorite Criminal Mischief, Division D was by far the most competitive fleet: Horizon won Transpac last year and Hula Girl was an ex-Cayard boat that missed the barn-door trophy by minutes in 2008. Our start was preceded by Div A, B, and C, and 2 doublehanded divisions. For the first three days when these starts were going off, the weather pattern in the North Pacific had been demolished by a strong Low off the Aleutians, resulting in very light winds out of San Francisco. Boats were doing 40-mile day runs. I am not kidding. It was horrible. Through careful analysis, though, it looked like the weather would break Wed afternoon, and by the time of our start we'd have breeze.

 

And boy did we. This was by far the windiest Hawaii race I've done, and we didn't see much below 20 knots the entire race. (This was kind of our undoing.) Our start got off without a hitch and we had a decent start at the pin, flopping immediately and just going for the Golden Gate. The SC50s were all inside but Jam is a freakin' truck and just motors in 25 knots. So we lead the fleet out past the bridge. War Pony, the Farr 36 OD, cannot sail upwind for shit so got completely left in the dust by all the other boats here. Unimpressed. Seemed like everyone knew to go North, and the race was on just to see how far North everyone would go. The only boat that went generally S was the Class 40. The rest of us just went straight for the Farallons. At dusk, Horizon with a carbon #1 up and us with our #2 were pacing each other just a few hundred yards apart. Delicate Balance had traded several tacks with us, and we were slowing pulling on Deception. Heavy reaching is Jam's strong suit and if you were watching the race you knew we were doing very very well. For the first two or three days we were first in class, first overall. The Northerly course was mostly rhumb line but the High was so far North one needed to stay North to avoid falling off a cliff below the 1020 isobar line. The first couple days were characterized by heavy reaching with, at first, our #2 up, and later a high-clewed old and tired #1 reacher which served us very well before it died a horrible death during a peel to a kite.

 

Probably around end of day 3 or start of day 4 or so the angles had eased somewhat and we attempted to fly our A5, a heavy reacher, very flat. It worked out ok but the kite got damaged on that first day in a round up in 30 knots and we had to do some repair work. The sail was wet but we stitched through the tape and the repair held. The problem with the A5 is it was mostly powered up close to the wind and one can't sail it as deep without risking a leeward collapse, so people sail it powered up and on the edge -once you start to round up it just powers up more, though, making it heavy work to try and recover from a mistake; throw in that none of the crew including me had sailed the boat much in these conditions and it was a learning process. So basically a number of round-ups over the course of a day or so. The evening of the following day, after the repair and flying the A5 some more, turned into super awesome sailing with the A5 up, driving down BIG waves and hunting for serious surfs. It was super cool....well, until after dark. My watch was on watch and after dark the conditions deteriorated to where I was basically survival sailing in those conditions; it was pitch black, it was blowing 30 and the boat was regularly careening down waves doing high teens. The instruments on Jam are all super perfect and I was getting used to the boat so it was achievable, but it was tenuous. It was driving by feel. I held on for a while - more than an hour - but started doing the math: who was going to take over driving this monster after me? Finally I called up the folks and we decided that we were going to do a letterbox for the night, and sail under Main and #3 (which we were doing 11 knots with anyway).

 

Eventually, next day during daylight and still blowing 22-25, we bravely put up an A4. On Jam, the A4 is the largest kite in the inventory, made of 1.5 oz cloth. Our first A4 we hoisted lasted all of 30 minutes before it died a spectacular death with Kerry driving. This was not good: on Pacific Cup you are limited to 5 kites. Now we were down to 4 and we had gotten all of 5 miles out of that one! John, the owner, had destroyed 3 kites in one day in Pacific Cup 2006 so was no keen on repeating that feat, so we took a break. The next day we put up the second A4 in our arsenal, and it lasted all of 4 hours. I was driving when I got hit by a 31 knot gust, took the boat to something like 19 knots down a big wave, and rounded up on the next wave, instantly turning the A4 into confetti. This was not good, now we were down to 3. So we took another break and re-assessed our situation. We were only halfway (!!) and had an A2, an A3 and the A5 left. I suggested we conserve the A2 for the last 400 miles, and we all knew that unless it got light (let's say, less than 15) the A3 would be turned into pulp in short order. Jam eats kites for breakfast. What we really desperately needed was an A6, but Jam doesn't have one. So we ran the A5 during the day for most of the following days, and the main and #2 or #3 at night as we didn't have depth in drivers to think flying the A5 or any other kite at night was a good idea. This is where Horizon and the other boats started grinding us down.

 

Probably the most memorable part of both last (2008) and this Pacific Cup for me were the final 400 miles to Hawaii, which is when we truly entered the NE Trades. This sailing is characterized by cloudless blue sky, some small puffy cumulus on the horizon, breeze in the 20s, sunshine, flying fish, and big rollers you just mesmerizingly scoot and surf for hours. The boat is doing steady 12s, and every 5 minutes or so you hook into a long wave (doesn't have to be a BIG wave) and get the boat to 16, 17 or whatever. Complete control. You can take your hands off the wheel and sip your drink. This is more than pleasant sailing, something you look forward to but in hindsight have far too little of on these Hawaii races. The final 400 miles, staying to our plan, we flew the A2. This sail was beautiful. Sooooo forgiving, so well shaped, just a completely different story from the A4s and A5. Easy to sail. A delight!! Against all odds, we were still in the hunt for a respectable finish: we were doing just fine against Delicate Balance and the Schumacher 52, and the Antrim Class 40 had lost rudders by now, but still sailing, so was going to be DFL. The SC50s were gone, and with one remarkable 300-something mile day run, the Farr 36 OD was also in top-4. Impressed now. So we were racing for 5th. For some perspective, the SC50s this race were putting up the same numbers in terms of day-runs that I had put up sailing Rage, a crazy ass 70-foot downwind machine, in 2008. That is basically insane-o sailing. Taking a SC50 on a 300+ mile day run is remarkable. Indeed, Horizon ended up not only first in class and first overall, but took an hour off the elapsed time record for an SC50. So one of the fastest passages in memory for all of us. Because we were in the hunt for something other than DFL and we knew it, and because the sailing conditions had changed considerably for the better, we flew the A2 kite all night. The A2 survived that first night, and we did our nice and very respectable 241 mile day run. It was not without squalls and incidents: I drove through 1 serious 30-knot affair, and John McPhail the owner and Tom Jones got the boat through another 4 hours, including a round-down, before dawn. But the days were fantastic and sweet sailing, dreamy.

 

The final day found us sailing an unfavored angle to the Northeastern end of Molokai. But we were committed to this side now and on final approach, so it is what it is. Approaching the islands the clouds start stacking up, and it's only then you realize you are nearing land. We had just finished off a real sweet day of sailing again under the A2, and were mentally gearing up for the approach to Kaneohe. During an earlier incident the lazy sheet had shaken off the kite, so we needed to douse and re-set on the next gybe. It happened slightly earlier than expected, when the kite wrapped itself on a leeward collapse. But we got the kite down, re-packed and re-set. 30 min later a squall came through and the A2 died it's perhaps foreseeable death, after 360 miles of service. We had 40 miles to go and I was fried, so balked when John called for the A5. But I was being an idiot and after the kite was up, and the Moon was up, and we were power reaching along the North shore of Molokai doing 12s on our final starboard gybe approach to Oahu, it was all good. We were in a wicked cross sea, but the boat was powered up and it was only a matter of hours now. The A5 had almost not lasted: when we had pulled it down several days before, we had discovered that the repair had largely failed and it was only luck the thing was in one piece. But now, in the hunt, moonlit powerful sailing in big swell these last few miles were magical. The driving was hard because of the sea state: John, Jones, and I took 20-minute turns. I was also jumping down to the laptops, doing the navigation for final approach.

 

We gybed onto Port 12 miles out with a bearing of 210 and the finish was perfect: moonlight, under kite, great douse. The engine wouldn't start but we had suspected that was going to happen, so sailed down the main channel under escort. And so Jam very proudly finished her 2010 Pacific Cup, at 2:00 am Honolulu time.

 

Alex, sailing S/V Jam J/160

 

Daily blow-by-blow http://www.sailblogs.com/member/jam/?show=fulltoc

 

Gear Notes:

Solid and fast boat.

 

Approach Notes:

Deliver your boat to San Francisco - 5 days.

[hafilax]

Great story! The guys on the main sheet must have been exhausted with all that rounding up.

 

I would love to do a big ocean race some day. My Dad got to live out one of his lifelong dreams and did an Atlantic crossing race a few years ago. I forget what boat but they averaged something like 18 knots the whole way.

[Stefan]

me not being a sailboat man, do you know of any videos showing a kite going to confetti like you said? I have an idea but would like to some action of this.

[mark1980]

me not being a sailboat man, do you know of any videos showing a kite going to confetti like you said? I have an idea but would like to some action of this.

 

Check this out.

 

YouTube- ‪SOAR Porteau Cove Squamish Yacht Race‬‎

 

[mark1980]

me not being a sailboat man, do you know of any videos showing a kite going to confetti like you said? I have an idea but would like to some action of this.

 

Check this out.

 

YouTube- ‪SOAR Porteau Cove Squamish Yacht Race‬‎

 

This might work better.

 

 

 

 

 

[Alex]

Great video. The very last few sec show a real good representation of classic kite destruction. Now, with these winds add let's say 20 foot seas and you have Pacific Cup!

[Stefan]

me not being a sailboat man, do you know of any videos showing a kite going to confetti like you said? I have an idea but would like to some action of this.

 

Check this out.

 

YouTube- ‪SOAR Porteau Cove Squamish Yacht Race‬‎

 

 

This might work better.

 

 

 

 

Now that is a lot of money being put to shreads!!!

Edited August 24, 2010 by Stefan