History of the Pacific Cup

By Louis Ickler and Michael Moradzadeh

In January of 1979, Hal Nelson approached Ballena Bay Yacht Club (BBYC) Commodore Vytas Pazemenas with the idea of starting a low-key, fun race for fully crewed boats from San Francisco to Hawaii. Nelson had been instrumental in bringing PHRF racing to San Francisco Bay and saw that the first single-handed race to

Hawaii had just been completed the previous summer. BBYC had a nucleus of members interested in ocean racing, so the timing appeared to be right. BBYC worked with a small but enthusiastic group of volunteers from Kauai’s Nawiliwili Yacht Club to put a race together, setting a finish line on the southeast corner of Kauai. That race became the Pacific Cup. Over the next few years, interest in the race increased rapidly. By the end of 1986, the Pacific Cup was well established with both serious racers and more casual racing cruisers. However, BBYC was finding it difficult to administer what was turning into a major event, especially at a club with many competing activities. In Hawaii, the 1986 race had taxed the facilities of the Nawiliwili Harbor, prompting talk of moving the finish elsewhere in Hawaii. It looked as if the race might fade away without a committed team to keep it going. On August 4, 1987, George R. Barrett assembled a group of sailors at St. Francis Yacht Club. With the support of some leading participants from prior races and the BBYC organizers, Barrett drafted the Articles of Incorporation for a new club. The Pacific Cup

Yacht Club, whose function would be to take over the organization of the race, was born. A first item of business was the finish line. Talks with Kaneohe

Yacht Club, one of the three principal clubs on Oahu that handled the finish of the Transpac race from Los Angeles, led to the important and happy choice of Kaneohe. Barrett had sailed the race as the chartering skipper of Charley, a Holland 67, winning third place in 1986. In 1988, he ran the race from the shore, and he ran it well. George died in the fall of 1988, but the Pacific Cup continues as a living memorial to him.

Over the years, the Pac Cup has evolved with new divisions, new sponsors, and new trophies. What has remained the same is a commitment to safe and enjoyable racing by hundreds of skippers and crew and the participation of an army of volunteers in both California and Hawaii. Race Highlights 1980 – Race number one. Racing began with one of the roughest crossings in Pac Cup history. Forty yachts started the first Pac Cup on June 15, 1980; only 32 of the boats finished. The three

Santana 35s in the race all had damage to their rudders during the first several days. Friendship was picked up by a Navy ship and Raccoon

Straights returned to San Francisco with water pouring in a cracked rudder bearing, leaving Wild Hair the only Santana to finish in Hawaii.

The 63-foot yawl Corsair retired from the race and was lost on a shoal on her way back. After the rough weather of the first few days, the winds diminished and only Merlin, the 67-foot Bill Lee ULDB, had the speed to outrun the high-pressure area that moved down on the rest of the fleet. She reached Nawiliwili more than four days ahead of the rest of the fleet to win first to finish as well as first on corrected time. 1982 - Competition intensified among the big boats, although the number of boats racing under the International Ocean Racing (IOR) rule had declined to eight boats from 13 in 1980. Merlin was there again, beating her previous record by 1 hour and 28 minutes in elapsed time to win the San Francisco to Kauai award, but was only able to place sixth on corrected time.

1984 - Merlin again beat her old record and set a new San Francisco to Kauai fastest passage record in elapsed time, 9 days, 7 hours, 49 minutes, once again earning the top trophy. The winners on corrected time were the Freres 36, Surefire, in the IOR division and the Smith 42, Magic Carpet, in PHRF. In the newly added double-handed division, the Express 27, Light’n Up, won, arriving only six hours behind Magic Carpet. 1986 - Merlin set yet another new elapsed time record of 8 days, 14 hours, 53 minutes. On corrected time the Farr 36, Sweet Okole, skippered by Bobbi Tosse, took the last San Francisco to Kauai trophy. 1988 – Light winds. On corrected time, the winner of the inaugural Pacific Cup trophy to Kaneohe Bay was Saraband, a Westsail 32 that had sailed a consistent pace for 14 days, 17 hours elapsed time, an amazing feat. Kathmandu, Phillipe Kahn’s Santa Cruz 70, took first in IOR after her competition got caught too far north and suffered from light winds. 1990 – A race of firsts. After light wind for the first few days, race conditions were generally nice. There were several firsts, including the initiation of staggered starts over a four-day period and a record number of entries that peaked at 53 with 45 actually crossing the starting line. The first three boats overall represented a complete range of sailboat types: the first being the Lee ULDB, Oaxaca (Santa Cruz 50), the second a medium displacement racer-cruiser, Heart of Gold (Schumacher 50), and the third a heavy displacement cruiser Saraband (Westsail 32). Oaxaca took the Pacific Cup with the best corrected time. 1992 – A rhumb line race. The first start was windy and the next starts were very slow, but overall, the race was relatively fast with 46 boats starting and 43 finishing. It proved to be a rhumb line race because the Pacific High was quite far north. Some boats successfully chose a great circle route. The two largest boats in the race were double handed – Mongoose (SC 70) and Peregrine (N/M 70). The smallest boat in the fleet, Team Bonzi, a Moore 24, swept the top awards, taking both the double-handed and the Pacific Cup trophies. Fleet second place and first in IMS went to Ghost, the Morgan 38 from Kaneohe [skippered by Lou Ickler]. 1994 – Records fall. An all-time high of 58 boats started, with 52 finishing. Steve Rander’s Wylie 70, Rage, broke Merlin’s longstanding elapsed time record by finishing in 8 days, 7 hours and 13 minutes. The small boats dominated the corrected time standings, with Bill and Melinda Erkelen’s home-built Dogpatch 26, Moonshine, winning Division B, the Double Handed class, and the overall Pacific Cup. 1996 – More records set. With starting conditions a repeat of 1992, the first starters blasted away from the coast, while the next three divisions were wondering if they would ever make it past the Farallones. Conditions were right for Rage, which broke her own 1994 record with a new record of 7 days 22 hours. Not only did the speed record fall, but a record 60 boats made it to Kaneohe. Among them was the Cal 40 Illusion, a tried-and-true California-to-Hawaii veteran, sailed by Stan Honey and Sally Lindsay, sweeping the double handed fleet and winning the overall Pacific Cup. 1998 – Yet another record. The Pac Cup speed record was demolished by Roy Disney’s Santa Cruz 70 turbo, Pyewacket, as she took more than a full day off the record, finishing in 6 days, 14 hours, and 23 minutes. Pacific Cup veteran Bob Nance won first overall on handicap in the Newport 30, Water Pik.

History continued

2000 – GO SLOW was the theme. The 2000 race was so slow that several boats floated around the Farallon Islands for three days in the early part of the race and 27 of the 80 boats entered did not finish within the time limit. The overall winner was Octavia, a Santa Cruz 50, with a remarkable elapsed time of 10 days, 12 ½ hours. The fastest passage was claimed by Phillipe Kahn’s Andrews 70 Pegasus. 2002 – Experience is rewarded. Normal weather returned, with most boats finishing within a few days of each other. Skip Allan on the Wylie Custom 27, Wildflower, proved that experience (over 25 ocean passages) does count. Wildflower won not only the double- handed division but also came in first overall to take home the Pacific Cup. 2004 – Fastest passage record demolished. The day before the first start, the weather service issued gale warnings for the area of the Farallones, which proved overly pessimistic. The race was marked by uneventful weather after that, with the high filling in after the first two days, making it a slow race. The overall winner was the Santa Cruz 52, Winnetou, and eighteen years after her first Pacific Cup race, the Morgan 38, Ghost, won Division A. The Pacific Cup’s first female duo Silvia Seaberg and Synthia Petroka won the double-handed division on Eyrie, a Hawkfarm 28, with an elapsed time of 14 days and 4 hours. Mari Cha IV, a custom 147 footer, set a new elapsed record of 5 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes, 10 seconds. 2006 – Another slow race. The position of the high, and the direction it was moving, made it a guessing game. Most boats tried a course close to the rhumb line, but after the first few days changed their minds and tried to go south. It took 9 to 12 days for most of the boats to finish, and after 15 days there were still 9 boats that had not finished. The Santa Cruz 52, Lightning, took home both the best elapsed time trophy and the Pacific Cup, and Jim Gregory’s Schumacher 52, Morpheus, took the inaugural Schumacher trophy. 2008 - A full fleet – from start to finish. Nearly 70 entries, with every monohull that entered starting, and every boat that started, finishing. Philippe Kahn’s Open 50, Pegasus, set a new double-handed record of just over seven days, fifteen hours. Once again the Pacific Cup went to double handers, Joby Easton and Bill Huseby on the Cascade 36, Rain Drop. 2010 – A Northerly course. As a testament to the impact of weather information and routing software available to sailors, virtually all racers adopted their northerly courses early in the race. Back on shore, race officials were startled to see, day after day, that the courses taken were all north of the rhumb line. The final group of starters, the fastest boats in Division E, took the northerly plan to an extreme, in some cases sailing slightly away from Hawaii as they positioned themselves north for their drive to the finish line 2,070 miles away. Limit, a R/P 63 was the fastest boat on elapsed time, and Horizon, a Santa Cruz 50 was not only first to finish, but also took home the Pacific Cup. 2012 – Mid-July start. The July 16 start date was the latest ever, designed to avoid the light and uncertain winds that are often found earlier in the summer. Pac Cuppers in the early part of the week ventured out into a near desert of wind and a generally benign crossing. Kevin P. Welch in ICON finished in 7 days 16 hours 33 minutes and took the Fastest Passage trophy. Swazik, a Swan 45, took home the Pacific Cup for her eight-day, 22-hour crossing. 2014 – A mixed bag. It was a race slow to start and wild to finish. As in 2012, the early days of the race tested skill and patience as tacticians, weather-guessers, and sail handlers worked to eke every bit of speed out of the light and variable winds. Daily runs in the of range of 30 miles vexed the ordinarily swift boats. Several days after the starts, the band of light air relented, allowing a few, then more boats through to more reliable breezes and a race “the way it is supposed to be.” Unlike 2012, the fleets split widely with some betting on a far north course, and others on the south – the North won. But easy sailing was not to last. Surprisingly boisterous weather greeted the early finishers, with heavy winds and lumpy seas. 2016 –This was the heaviest year many participants can recall with records set and broken (along with sails set and broken) in many divisions. For many boats, the traditional mid-race easy downwind run was replaced with a scramble to maintain control while getting maximum speed out of the strong winds. At the finish, later boats were advised to stand off until conditions improved, as approaching, much less passing through, Kaneohe’s reef was inadvisable. The little Moore 24 Mas! enjoyed a clean sweep: Pacific Cup Winner, Division Winner, Best PHRF, Moore 24 Record, and Team Trophy for Richmond Yacht Club. New records were set by the Santa Cruz 50 Hula Girl and by Manouch Moshayedi’s Rio 100 for the course, with a stunning time of 5 days 02:41:13. Though the arrivals came fast and furious at the docks, KYC rallied to put on a warm welcome for all. 2018 – With a scattered set of weather systems, the tracks of the boats looked like the “good old days.” Breaking from a recent trend where most of the boats, using the same (accurate) weather information and routing tools, sailed in near lockstep, the canny racers of 2018 adopted a wide range of courses. In contrast to the stormy 2016 finish, we saw our boats arrive in fair weather. Pyewacket took ORR honors, splitting the glory with Prospector, who took the Pac Cup. Now-Commodore Jim Quanci’s Green Buffalo won her division as well as taking the “Fastest Family Afloat” prize. Andy Goodman and Julia Paxton, aboard Loose Cannon, beat out Julia’s cousin Will Paxton aboard Zachary Anderson’s Motorcycle Irene to top the sixboat Express 27 fleet and win the PHRF overall title. 2020 – The year that wasn’t. With COVID raging around the globe, Pac Cup organizers crossed their fingers and hoped it would die out before the race had to be canceled. As other major races began to drop out, and the pandemic showed no sign of letting up, we reluctantly made the call to skip the race that year. We offered existing entrants to simply roll their entry to the following year, with a large number taking the offer! 2022 – With the rollovers and the strong pent-up demand, as of this writing we have our largest enrolled fleet ever, with nearly 80 boats signed up to be at the start line. KYC, our gracious finish line host, has agreed not to count boats with an existing Hawaiian berth against our normal 70 boat limit this year, so we may be setting records in more ways than one…. Stay tuned!