Bernard Debbasch and Team Prepare to Sail the 2026 Pac Cup
With 2026 being a Pacific Cup year, Latitude 38 is working to highlight as many as we can of the 2026 Pac Cup racers who will be sailing to Hawaii this summer. Today’s Pac Cup profile focuses on Bernard Debbasch and his team aboard Med Viking II, a Jeanneau 519 that he will be racing under the Pacific Cup Yacht Club (PCYC) burgee.
Latitude 38 (L38): What is your name?
Bernard Debbasch (BD): Bernard Debbasch.
L38: What is the name and make of your boat? What burgee are you racing under?
BD: The boat is named Med Viking II, and is a Jeanneau 519. We’ll be racing under the PCYC burgee. “Med Viking” is not the name of a doctor. It comes from me, French from the Mediterranean and Christina, my wife, who is from Sweden.
L38: What inspired you to sail in the 2026 Pac Cup?
BD: The tagline “The FUN race to Hawaii” says it all!
L38: Is this your first crossing?
BD: This will be my third crossing and the second with Med Viking II. The first one was in 2014 on Med Viking, a Beneteau 411.
L38: What is your favorite Pac Cup or Transpac memory?
BD: Ironically, my favorite Pacific Cup memory is not a racing story. It is about catching my first mahi-mahi on the way to Kaneohe Bay in the 2014 race. More recently, in 2024, we were very proud of being ahead in a division that included Paul Cayard. That position only lasted a few hours at the start of the race and we were quickly pushed to the bottom of the fleet, but we still brag about holding that position! The best repeat memory is the welcome we always get at the Kaneohe Yacht Club. Club members and volunteers spend a lot of time and energy to make the arrival and the stay at the club a wonderful experience.
L38: What is your background as a sailor outside of ocean racing?
BD: I am originally from France, where I raced and cruised (Greece, Italy, Corsica, Tunisia, Balearic Islands) in the Mediterranean for many years. I also raced in Brittany while I was attending college. I raced with people who were much better sailors than me and learned a lot from them. That includes Olympians (when the Star was still an Olympic class) and other high-ranked sailors. I was not in a position to challenge them and this is why I was welcomed on board! I am 75% cruiser and 25% racer; this is why we still fish when racing to Hawaii!
The crew of the 2026 Pacific Cup will practice in the Newport-Ensenada race in April and we will extend the return trip to get our 150 nm qualification trip for the race to Hawaii.
L38: Who will you be racing to Hawaii with? Can you tell us a little bit about them?
BD: Marc Marois will be the navigator. He already had that role in 2014 and 2024. Marc was the only one with offshore experience for our 2014 crossing, having sailed from Newport Beach to Australia a few years earlier.
Andrea Stuart is Marc’s girlfriend (there are rumors about that relationship to be confirmed later). With no offshore experience, Andrea joined Marc for our 2024 crossing. She kept the three of us that were driving the boat well fed and kept her cool despite the numerous squalls we encountered.
Kathy Panzl is a longtime and experienced sailor, She sailed the first Baja Ha-Ha in 1994 and extended that trip to the Sea of Cortez. Like Marc, she is a skipper at the Oasis Sailing Club in Newport Beach. She enjoys racing and just being on the water as “[T]here is always something new to learn on the water.”
David Chong recently did the “not as fun race to Hawaii” (Transpac) on J/World’s Hula Girl and is now looking forward to a more relaxed crossing. David is also a member of the Oasis Sailing Club.
Paul McIntyre is my dock neighbor at Cabrillo Way Marina in San Pedro. Unlike me, he is not afraid of height, but like me, he loves playing with his tools. Both skills are very valuable on a long crossing.
L38: What are you most looking forward to in the crossing?
BD: As a cruising boat with white sails on furlers, solar panels and fishing gear, we have modest expectations. With a larger crew and a new A4 spinnaker we are hoping to shave a few hours off our previous race time. We are also strongly wishing for [fewer] squalls than we had in 2024. As I see it, any boat that arrives in Hawaii with the same number of sailors that left San Francisco is a winner.
Want to have your Pac Cup team highlighted before the race in July? No problem! Just fill out this form and send some pictures of your boat and team to [email protected].
Want to meet crew to possibly sail the Pac Cup with? Come to the 2026 Latitude 38 Spring Crew Party this Thursday at Golden Gate Yacht Club. Buy tickets here.
A Crew Change at Latitude 38 — Welcome Aboard Maddy Garcia
Two weeks ago we bade fair winds to our sales and marketing manager of six years, Nicki Bennett, and welcomed aboard our new sales and marketing manager, Maddy Garcia. While we wish Nicki all the best in her next adventures (we will still see her around the Bay), we’re excited to have Maddy join our crew and look forward to working alongside her. Maddy is no stranger to sailing; in fact, she has Viking heritage, which we imagine serves her well on the water and in many of her endeavors. We invite you to, in true Latitude Nation style, welcome Maddy aboard.
Below is an introduction, in Maddy’s own words.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, I grew up loving everything aquatic — swimming, surfing, working at the beach. My sailing journey started during my senior year at UCLA. Being half Norwegian, I walked into my first practice confident some of my Viking blood would kick in. It did not. Instead I learned the hard way that sailing an FJ while barefoot and in shorts meant slipping and falling with every tack. While I ended the first practice with cuts, scrapes and a slightly bruised ego, I was completely in love with sailing. The chaos of skippers shouting, the anxiety of avoiding getting hit by the boom, and the complete confusion of all the terms being thrown around captivated me.
My skipper that day was S.F. native Madeline Kuhn, and once we stepped back on the dock I told her I wanted to go back out and try again. In 2021 I moved to S.F. to work in tech and began learning about big-boat sailing. I fell deeper in love with this sport and would be out on the water any chance I could get. To my surprise my two worlds collided when Madeline Kuhn reached out to me about a job opening at Latitude 38. I would have never guessed that my experience in tech would evolve into an opportunity to work in an industry that I am passionate about.
Over the years I have completed ASA 101–103 certifications through Modern Sailing, and am currently working toward 104. My goal is to obtain my ICC to sail the Mediterranean, with the dream of competing in the Clipper circumnavigation race one day.
Although sailing intimidated me at first, I’m glad to have taken the plunge on that first college practice. Without it I would have never met some of the most inspiring people and challenged myself beyond belief. I am excited to now be a part of the community here at Latitude 38!
At our first team meeting, Maddy confirmed her sailing status by sharing that she owns a Sam’s mug, acquired directly from Sam’s of Tiburon in her early days on the water. How many can attest to that?! All mugs aside, we’re excited to see what the future holds for Maddy, both in the office and on the water.
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Don Litton’s Columbia 29 ‘Pythagoras’
It doesn’t take much to enjoy sailing. When we wrote a story titled “Do You Have Any Good Stories From Your 20s?” a few weeks ago, it was a purposeful double entendre about being in our 20s and sailing boats 20–29 feet. We were thinking of the days when boats were typically smaller, simpler, less expensive and sailed much more frequently. The sailing demographic was also younger and had more free time. For some reason, devices, productivity gains, apps, DoorDash, Uber and all the rest have resulted in less free time. Why is that?
Not long afterward, we received a note from Don Litton in Southern California with the photo that appears on this month’s cover. It’s a boat in the “20s” (a Columbia 29) built in the ’60s. Many boats of this era are sitting idle or getting crushed on their way to the landfill. Not Don Litton’s Columbia 29. He’s restored it and has been cruising the Channel Islands with his family with it since 2014. The only thing to download and upload on this floating device is the anchor on the bow roller.
The “tiny home” movement and ADUs are a very popular trend in the landbound world. Why are boats getting so big? Don didn’t buy the boat and suddenly spend a fortune to restore it. He’s been slowly upgrading it while also frequently getting out to sail. After 12 years of ownership and plenty of sailing and cruising with his kids to the Channel Islands, the boat is looking pretty sharp and sailing frequently. For Don, this is an upgrade from the decade he spent owning a Columbia 24 he sailed out of Santa Barbara.
They found solitude, quietude, adventure and relaxation on family trips to the Channel Islands. It’s hard to believe 20+ million people are living a frenzied life in an enormous metropolitan area just 30 miles away. The small, inexpensive boat probably gets out there more frequently because the oversized boats in neighboring berths have to unplug their shorepower and are probably too much work and take more crew to manage. As Lin and Larry Pardey said, “Go small and go now.”
The Columbia 24 and Columbia 29 are Don’s big-boat stories. In his early 20s, he sailed from Redwood City to the Channel Islands on a 20-footer. As Don explains, “I had a 16-year-old friend, the best sailor I’ve ever known, who wanted to sail down to the Channel Islands on his Signet 20, but his mom said I had to go too. I was 20 or so at the time. We left Redwood City and, at dawn, we went out the Gate and turned left. Two days of surfing and we were at Point Conception. But the truly amazing thing is that, after cruising around the islands for two weeks with his mom, he sailed that boat back up the coast with another high school friend! I think it is the smallest boat with the youngest skipper to ever do that! How did we all survive childhood?”
Seeing photos like these reminds us of what life was like before we started trying to optimize everything, before FOMO and social media overtook our lives. We think Don’s humble yet very good-looking Columbia 29 is a reminder of a more relaxed era. As we hear of more young people trying to capture a sense of ease in their lives or older generations trying recapture the times when they took it easy on their boat for the weekend, the idea of smaller, cheaper, older boats that fulfill the basics of enjoying sailing makes sense.
Latitude 38’s founder, Richard Spindler, exemplified keeping it simple. He does have a 63-ft catamaran that’s served as the mothership for the Baja Ha-Ha for years. While large, it was kept simple for most of its many Baja Ha-Ha’s, though eventually Starlink and other improved tech came aboard. The well-known cat could have overshadowed smaller-boat sailing; however, much of Richard’s many miles of sailing took place aboard three different, extremely simply rigged Olson 30s (almost in the 20s). The Olson 30 is one of many great boats that are inexpensive and simple so one can “just go sailing.”
Do you have a story from your 20s? Add it to our comments below.
Folkboats Forever
Gaze out over the boats in any marina and inevitably your thoughts turn to the stories behind every boat you see. Who owns it? How long have they had it? Why did they get it? Why do they STILL have it?!? Excellent questions, all. Here’s one answer, the only one I can give as it’s about my boat and my story. I’d love to paint a picture of rugged determination, long and careful research and shrewd negotiations. But that would be a lie. “Serendipitous” is really a far more apt description of the route I took. I was living a perfectly normal, rational existence once. Married, no children, good job, savings. The whole package. But there are many walks of life and we cross paths with these folks all the time. For me, it was the neighbors we met through a work connection.
Rich and Lori became fast friends, and as it turns out, they had a boat! A 25-ft wooden lapstrake boat. Something called a “Folkboat.” I didn’t know much about Bay boats but had messed around with dinghies enough to know how to tack and go to weather. Rich was (and still is) an avid sailor, and was happy to take me sailing. I loved it! Rich was a Sea Scout and evidence of that was everywhere to be found, from the methodical way that we went about leaving and returning to the slip to the impressive collection of spares and safety equipment to be found on the boat. And his sailing skill was on a par. I recall an outing when the portside spreader blew up and sailing on port was just asking for the top half of the mast to snap. We remained on starboard while calmly and methodically setting up the outboard, dousing sail, and motoring back. That was a pretty nifty “save.” This experience could have been unsettling for a newbie, but Rich was good at instilling confidence in a S.F. Bay novice. That was 30 years ago.
Shortly after that, Rich and Lori decided to pull up stakes and spend an indefinite amount of time in the Netherlands. And just like that, I became the proud owner of my first Folkboat! I learned a lot on that boat. Much of it was not pretty.
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