2024 Pacific Cup - Day 2

2024 Pacific Cup © Irina Potekhina

Midway through the 2024 Pacific Cup, some leaders are solidifying their positions. While the starting weather was somewhat random, punishing the Monday starters terribly, the mid-course conditions have lived up to "the brochure" offering great downwind sails.

The overall big-time leader right now is Lucky Duck, owned and skippered by Dave MacEwan of the St. Francis Yacht Club where he is Executive Race Council Chair. Dave traded in his Santa Cruz 52 of the same name for this Andrews 46. A multiple Transpac veteran, this is his first Pacific Cup. Threatening a clean sweep, the Duck currently ranks First in ORR2, All ORR, and the Pacific Cup overall.

Lucky Duck started on Thursday, which had the best starting weather, and took a deep south track for three days, before heading back up north to rejoin (and cover) her fleet. While about a third of the fleet is physically ahead of the Duck, she's correcting out on top for now. A lucky duck indeed. But beware, Glass Slipper is very close on your tail!

Velvet Hammer (J/125) is the number two boat, skippered by James Nichols. The Hammer (known by many affectionate but less respectful names in SF Bay racing circles) leads the ORR2 division and is holding on to second overall bragging rights. Right now, Velvet Hammer is the lead boat, but looks to be overtaken by Rage, the Wylie 70. Like Lucky Duck, Hammer took the same deep south then north strategy.

The aptly named Jubilant, a J/112e listing Kevin Wilkinson and Ross Werner as "co-skippers" is leading the PHRF divisions overall and the Svendsen's Bay Marine PHRF 3 division. That division is heavily laden with J boats, who occupy the top three spots in that division. Again, a deep south initial dive paid off for this team.

Cal 40s dominate the Weems & Plath PHRF 1 division claiming three of the top four spots. We're wishing there had been ONE MORE Cal 40 to create their own division, but such was not the case. Longtime Pac Cupper Rodney Pimentel and his Azure are leading that pack, having struggled through the horrendous Monday light air start. Only a handful of hours separate Azure from his next contenders, so this division is anyone's game. Shout out to Vera Cruz (Jeanneau 349) Michael Johnson as the lead not-a-Cal-40 boat in that division.

Other division leaders include Accelerando in Doublehanded 1, led by Erica Mattson Siegel, sailing a clean course, and reeling in the miles.

The Pasha Doublehanded 2 division is arguably too close to call, with leader honors switching depending on slight differences in how ETA times are calculated. Moonshine, Wolfpack, and Pell Mell are ripping along at the halfway point with Wolfpack putting in an impressive 220 miles in the last 24 hours. This division is populated with quite fast boats and quite skilled teams, so we can expect more excitement here. Pell Mell reports: "don't know whether to say if last night was epic or terrifying. maybe both. Frac A5 spinnaker all night, large waves, multiple jibes for squalls. pitch black, marked with epic moonlight for 5 min at a time. 16.7 kts top speed, that I saw."

Translated 9 US, skippered by Paul Cayard has been leading the NAOS Yachts PHRF 4 division for much of the race. This mighty 65 foot Swan ketch is only a few hours ahead of Festina Lente, a Hanse 505. Last night, however, Translated had some rigging failures requiring them to quit using the spinnaker, at least till daybreak. We will see if this allows Festina Lente to make haste slowly past Translated 9.

Event website: pacificcup.org