First Pacific Cup Starters Leave for Hawaii
The first 35 entries competing in the 2026 Pacific Cup have begun their journey to Hawaii, with two divisions (Doublehanded PHRF and PHRF Two) starting on Monday, June 6. Four more divisions (Doublehanded ORR, PHRF One, ORR Three, and ORR Four) started on Tuesday the 7th.
“The first day of Pacific Cup starts could not have been more orderly,” Pac Cup staff commodore, communications chair and deputy PRO Michael Moradzadeh tells Latitude of the starts on Monday.
“A steady, modest wind, flat water and a light ebb made for ideal starting conditions.… Because the best ebb was in the middle of the Bay, we saw at least four boats cluster pretty tightly at the pin to get at it most rapidly,” he continues. “[Don Jesberg and his team on board] VIVA and [Jim Quanci’s] Green Buffalo led the parade with the other boats lining up behind.”
“Unlike a short race or a one-design race, most Pacific Cup racers take it very easy at the start, not engaging in the kind of aggressive boat-on-boat behavior that sometimes can lead to more excitement than anybody bargained for or is insured for,” Moradzadeh continues.
“[As boats are leaving the Bay,] they will probably sail to where they think they’re losing the ebb and do a few tacks to get clear of Mile Rocks and ultimately out into the open ocean,” he tells us. “Once there, they will need to make a few decisions on how to get sufficiently far offshore that they will be in the steady offshore winds that will take them to Hawaii. From there, they will need to make further decisions about where they will make the big turn toward the islands themselves.”
“As we look at the tracker, we see that most boats took a pretty sharp dive south, which, while not getting closer to Hawaii very fast, gets them closer to the warm winds blowing straight there as they transform into the trade winds and squalls that make this a thrilling ride,” Moradzadeh says of what to expect.
Tuesday’s starts saw a similar story for the four divisions that began their journey to the middle of the Pacific. With all of the starts right around low tide, boats tacked off the start line to get into the late ebb in the middle of the Bay, which quickly carried boats up to the Golden Gate Bridge.
The final two divisions, which feature a combined 14 boats, will depart on Friday. The ORR Two division features six boats, including Oaxaca, which is being sailed by a team of Cal Poly Maritime sailors, and Kimo Winterbottom’s Halawa among others. The ORR One division, the last one to start, will feature dramatic and legendary ocean racing boats such as Roy Disney’s Pyewacket 68, Michael Firmin’s Zeus, Chip Merlin’s Merlin, Tina Roberts’ Ragtime and more.