Ros de Vries and ‘Quiver’ Line Up for the 2026 Pacific Cup
As the boats line up for the start of this year’s Pacific Cup, we’re continuing our Pac Cup profile series highlighting some of the sailors and teams racing to Hawaii in this year’s event. Today we’re featuring Ros de Vries aboard Adam Eliot’s Santa Cruz 40 Quiver.
“I find sailing the Pacific Cup to be absolutely life-affirming,” Ros tell us. “It’s challenging and sometimes scary, but in return you get these moments that stick with you always. Yes, there are the sunrises and sunsets, but in between, you’re slaloming down waves for hours, you’re joking around with your team, and you’re eating like you’ve never tasted anything better than warmed-up enchiladas.”
Quiver will take to the start on July 7, racing in ORR 3 under the Richmond Yacht Club burgee. “I’ve been so lucky to be offered positions on hot Santa Cruz boats, and with crew that I enjoy sailing with — and have plenty to learn from.” This will be Ros’s second crossing on a Bill Lee yacht, though her third attempt. Ros explains. “2022 was a terrible year for slow boats. We practically drifted to Southern California and well, after making no progress west for three days, [we] had to abandon the race as we wouldn’t have enough water to finish the race. That said, the wind filled in on the trip back and, well, the trip home was fun, albeit a bit of a bash. What a crazy ride!”
Ros’s sailing life began in Sydney, Australia. As a teenager she was “pushed into racing” and paired with her sister, who really disliked sailing. Consequently, sailing fell by the wayside. But in 2017, after having spent a few years in San Francisco, Ros found renewed passion for the sport. “Magically, as I found my feet again on J/24s, I think I still had some small-boat sailing skills, and I graduated quickly to bigger boats. I’ve owned a Laser and Santa Cruz 27, but find that I enjoy crewing on other people’s boats — it gives me broader experiences and I don’t have to make sandwiches every Friday night.” Ros says she’s primarily foredeck, but also loves taking the helm.
On this race to Hawaii, Ros will sail with two other women and four men — Adam Eliot (owner/skipper/navigator), John Walsh, Bob Walden, Jess Brownlow, Matt Osborn and Rosanne Scholl. “We have a deep deck of experienced sailors,” she says, “and everyone does all the roles well. Following a third place in Coastal Cup this year, we all feel very prepared for Pac Cup.”
One of Ros’s favorite ocean racing memories occurred during the 2024 Pacific Cup. “[I] had a moment about three–four days out of Kaneohe, when I was at the helm and experiencing the best sailing of my life. The sky was stone-gray, the sea was stone-gray, and sliding down the front of these large, rolling waves felt like flying through Yosemite National Park … it felt both exhilarating and effortless.”
This year, what she is most looking forward to is boat camping with her friends. “We have a big sense of fun and eclectic music tastes.… Also, we’ve been told that we’re all getting these blowout halfway-party packages. I’ve been wondering what the heck is being planned, but it should be an awesome surprise :D.”
We wish Ros and the crew aboard Quiver fair winds and a safe race. Stay tuned for more Pac Cup profiles as we sail through this week’s start. And if you’d like to try predicting the race winners, take a look at Andy Schwenk’s picks in this month’s issue of Latitude 38, out now.
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Catherine Breed Starts Her ‘Swim California’ Summer Cruise
Swim California mothership skipper Matthew Sessions sent this update on Catherine Breed’s Swim California expedition last week. She’s now south of Crescent City on her coastal swim.
We’re checking in from Swim California, where we’ve had two very successful days’ swimming completed (with about 120 to go!).
All is good on the SV Catalyst and we are currently in Crescent City, CA. Our days start early, as the best swim windows are from sunrise until mid-morning. While we have had sunny days up here at the NorCal border the last few days, most afternoons we have seen 25–35+ NW winds ripping down the coastline.
We have a small army of remote volunteers shoreside to lead on logistics, social media, nutrition, media requests, fundraising and sponsorships, medical safety and more, and our yacht crew has six of us aboard. In addition to my role as captain, we have Maisie Bristow and Heather Hitchcock from England (both age 23, and each with 100,000+ offshore miles, RYA Yachtmaster credentials, and more yachting knowledge than most sailors I know that have spent decades on the water), Jon Cahill (lead medic from Truckee, CA), and the swimmer, Catherine Breed (Mill Valley, CA). Sailor, open-water swimmer and SFYC member David Holscher has been an excellent resource aboard these first two days and will be making weekly trips to join the team for a day or two at a time.
Life aboard Catalyst starts early (0330–0500) with Catherine in the water around 0530 most days. We have only a few hours each morning to swim before the winds kick up huge seas, which shut down safe swimming. Return to harbor by midday daily, team meetings, boat maintenance, amazing prepared meals, and back in the bunk before sunset.
Please follow along on our website and spread the word. We are really excited for each successful mile southbound. Our brief stopover in San Francisco should be mid-August.
What’s Happening on the 2026 Ha-Ha? We Asked the Newbah!
When Chuck Skewes took over the Baja Ha-Ha and became the Newbah at the end of the 2025 rally, some sailors began wondering what the Ha-Ha would look like in 2026. Well, we’ve been following the Newbah’s journey and we believe we can safely say it’s shaping up to be the same big-fleet fun, and the same small-fleet community, with just a few new additions. And if you’ve been wondering what happens on a Ha-Ha, and what will happen this year, here’s a little rundown.
The Baja Ha-Ha departs from San Diego at the start of each November, this year on November 2. The Newbah and his team organize everything, from special permission to anchor in San Diego (just for Ha-Ha participants) ahead of the launch to a pre-launch kick-off costume party with Ha-Ha swag available (this year includes Grateful Dead-themed gear) to a skippers’ meeting where you get all the up-to-date info and answers to your questions, to events at the various stops between SD and Cabo, discounted fuel at Turtle Bay, and even an awards party at the end of the rally. Awards go out for things like most sailed miles, biggest fish caught, and a range of other ideas made up along the way.
While en route, the fleet is kept in communication via morning check-ins on VHF, with additional Zoom check-ins for those who opt in. The daily check-ins are great for meeting your fellow cruisers, and outstanding for solving any issues or problems you might encounter, such as engine problems or how to catch fish. Chuck, the Newbah, is a sailmaker and has done a great job of helping sailors underway.
One year, a woman broke her arm. An orthopedic surgeon was among the fleet. They happened to have cast-making materials, set her arm, and put it in a cast, which was then signed by the Ha-Ha sailors. She was able to continue on the rally instead of having to go home. (She did see a doctor when she returned home.) A lasting memory for sure!
Regarding the sail south and the places you’ll stop, the first location is Turtle Bay. Here you’ll be met with a quaint little town that sleeps for much of the year but comes alive for the Ha-Ha. You’ll have the chance to play ashore and meet more of the fleet — the world-famous cruisers-versus-local-kids bazeball game (bring some extra gear to give to the local kids), hikes in the hills overlooking the bay, the annual men-versus-women tug of war, volleyball — it’s just a chill beach-party kind of day. The beach gathering winds up at a reasonable hour, because the next day the fleet sets sail early for Bahia Santa Maria.
Bahia Santa Maria is a great stop, where again, the fleet heads for shore and gathers for a time on the sand. There are hikes to enjoy, mangroves to explore, a seafood taco stand set up by the local fishing community, and a rock ‘n’ roll band that travels all the way from La Paz to play for the crowd. If you can play an instrument or sing, you might even get to have a moment of fame on stage with them.
Next stop on the itinerary is Cabo San Lucas, the home of the famous “We Cheated Death Again” party at Squid Roe. This is your opportunity to let loose all those fears and anxieties you may have been harboring about sailing south to Mexico — because you made it! It’s not a late night, and you don’t have to go crazy, though we’ve heard that many sailors have quite a good time.
The next day, after a lazy day on the hook, the fleet gathers again one last time for a banquet and awards at the Mango Deck, and then it’s all free sailing — wherever the wind blows you next. There are a couple of nearby gatherings that take place courtesy of the marine and tourist associations, but these are optional.
That said, everything is optional on the Ha-Ha, but most people sign up to enjoy the company and the planned activities along the way. How about you? Will you make this the year that you do the Ha-Ha?
If you want a more detailed account of the 10-day rally, check out Chuck’s video, in which he sails us through the itinerary, one day and one event at a time.
Or, skip all that and just sign up and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Sign up here.
A Shakespearean America’s Cup
The lead up to the 38th edition of the America’s Cup in Napoli, Italy, has all the earmarks of the prolific English writer William Shakespeare’s best work and drama. It was in that beginning, 1851 to be exact, that an event graced with the “presence” of a queen became the holy grail of yachting. Taking place around the Isle of Wight, and as fate (and some local knowledge) would have it, the legend of the yacht America and its Cup was born.
The “Auld Mug” was nothing more than an off-the-shelf trophy that was later presented to the yacht’s owners, who represented a yacht club still in its infancy, barely six years old. Yet that trophy and yacht club would change the yachting world and the world of sport as we knew it.
In 1857 George L. Schuyler, one of the original founders of the New York Yacht Club, would donate the Cup as a “perpetual sailing trophy for friendly competition between nations” represented by their yacht clubs. He would amend that Deed of Gift in 1887, bequeathing it to the State of New York as a charitable trust. The exact wording and meaning of that simple document have been debated among sailing scholars for years.
All this glorious historical spectacle brings us to the drama of the present day, as the America’s Cup as a sporting event, and all that it once represented and now represents, is at a crossroads as it struggles for relevance in a crowded sports marketplace.
The year 2027 is fast approaching, and as if it were a Shakespearean play, the 38th America’s Cup is full of bravado and drama. The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) has held the America’s Cup since 2017 and has successfully defended it twice, most recently in Barcelona in 2024. The club hopes to do so again in Naples in 2027. That “defense” has become a tempest in a teapot!
The RNZYS’s racing team, Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ), accepted a challenge from the Royal Yacht Squadron “Limited” (RYSL) and together created a mutual consent Protocol for the 38th America’s Cup. In doing so, they established a management organization called America’s Cup Properties (ACP) to run the event. ACP will be driven by a new governance board, with each team having a seat, that will pursue commercial growth, long-term investment and continued technical development across multiple America’s Cup cycles, which are now scheduled every two years. That evolution is already reflected in the AC75 class rules, which require at least one female sailor and replace grinders/cyclors with battery-powered systems.
Read the full story here.
Tahoe Yacht Club’s Gar Woods Wet Woody Regatta
It’s not often that sailors experience wind from every direction during a single race, but that’s exactly what happened in Lake Tahoe’s Gar Woods Wet Woody Regatta on June 28.
From hail at the start to clear skies at the finish, competitors faced constantly changing conditions over the 10-mile course before heading ashore for the always-anticipated awards celebration at the Gar Woods Restaurant on Lake Tahoe’s North Shore.
This regatta traces its roots to Tahoe’s popular early-2000s “Restaurant Regatta Series,” when several lakefront restaurants hosted races throughout the summer, awarding T-shirts, prizes and trophies famously filled with their signature drink. While the broader series has faded into history, Tahoe Yacht Club (TYC) and the Gar Woods Restaurant proudly carry on the tradition. Today, the winning trophies are still filled with the restaurant’s famous Wet Woody rum drink.
After the race, competitors and spectators gathered on Gar Woods’ beach for the awards presentation. The top three teams received their silver trophies brimming with Wet Woodys, complete with multiple straws for the traditional team sip. The rest of the fleet and spectators joined the celebration with Wet Woodys of their own, toasting another unforgettable day of racing on Lake Tahoe.
Here’s to great racing, great friends and great traditions, and congrats to the winning teams!
First: Jim Yates (Wicked, Melges 32)
Second: Gary Redelberger (Racer X, Farr 36)
Third: Erica and John Siegel (Moorigami, Moore 24)
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