20TH PACIFIC CUP — I
n the wake of the insane 2016 race, the 2018 Pacific Cup marked a return to normalcy for the 60-boat fleet. In doing so, both the weather and the crews on the water made the race as unpredictable as ever. From role reversals in the predicted weather scenarios to huge fleet splits and even a big one-design ULDB barn-burner, the 20th edition of the "FUN race to Hawaii" more than lived up to the pre-race hype. When the 60 boats crossed the starting line on San Francisco Bay during the second week of July, all were blessed with brilliant weather. Once offshore however, each of the four start days' fleets encountered a wide range of conditions. After a breeze-on, fast, gnarly departure for the first huge batch of starters on July 9, the other three starts each worked offshore through light, challenging con-
ERIK SIMONSON / PACIFIC CUP
The Figaro 3 'A Fond le Girafon' started with the first divisions on July 9. 'Girafon' is French for baby giraffe.
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Latitude 38
• August, 2018
ditions. The Wednesday and Thursday starters got shafted just as badly as the meteorologists had predicted, with the Friday starters managing to escape the coast relatively unscathed and work their way to the top of the overall rankings. It was a lighter-than-normal year with few major breakages, though in a 2,070-mile race with five dozen boats there was still plenty of carnage and gear failure. An 'experimentally' rated all-new Beneteau Figaro 3 with two Frenchmen aboard took off as the quickest boat of the first wave of starts and led all the way into Oahu, just over 11 days later. Charles Devanneaux and the young and very talented Matthieu Damerval had already made Pacific Cup history when they sailed A Fond le Girafon, the first-ever hydrofoil-equipped boat in the race, across the starting line. But by the time they brought the revolutionary
new 33-ft one-design racer home at the head of the fleet, they had written a fresh chapter in the history of the race. Sailing for ALS to raise funds and awareness for the disease that killed his former Pac Cup sailing partner and friend Gilles Galerne, while serving as a test pilot for an incredible new machine — with the French winning the World Cup along the way — was a remarkable experience for Charles. Setting sail on Friday the 13th, which was predicted to be the worst day, the Shelter Island TransAtlantic Partners' Mills 68 Prospector, the fleet's scratch boat, made a bold move to the south immediately after leaving San Francisco and romped to Hawaii in just over seven days to arrive into Kaneohe before sunset, just hours after the hot new foiling Bene. Setting the fastest elapsed time and surging to the top of the over-