SIGHTINGS in kenichi horie's wake Early last month while most of the sailing media's recent North Pacific coverage has been focused on Transpac victories and Lending Club 2's astonishing L.A.-to-Honolulu speed run, the impressive accomplishments of two middle-aged Japanese sailors went largely unnoticed. Michiaki Koga, 64, and Yasuo Abe, 63, both recently arrived in San Francisco Bay from Japan, having sailed roughly parallel nonstop voyages of 54 and 49 days, respectively. We were tipped off about their arrival by the enthusiastic team at Scanmar International, as both men utilized Bay Area-built Monitor windvanes on their 5,000-mile crossings. As we learned during our interviews at Alameda's Grand Marina, despite enduring several gales along the way — four in Mr. Koga's case — the two sailors' boats appeared to be in excellent condition, requiring only minor sail repairs and routine maintenance once in Alameda. Koga's boat Tsuyotaka is an Esprit du Vent 30, designed by famed French naval architecture firm Groupe Finot, yet built and continued on outside column of next sightings page
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Latitude 38
• September, 2015
pacific passage While we've just wrapped up our coverage of July's Transpac Race to Hawaii, planning and prep for next July's Pacific Cup is going full steam ahead, with 49 boats already entered. Among the resources Pacific Cup YC offers in the way of support is a free chapter from record-setting global navigator Stan Honey's book Pacific Cup Weather Routing, which starts with these thoughtful insights: "The primary feature that determines the tactics in a transpacific race is the Pacific High. Typically there is no wind in the center of the high, and increasing wind as you get farther south, up to a limit. The central question concerning