Jib Martens Set to Fulfill Lifelong Dream by Sailing Pac Cup on ‘Freedom’

As 2026 is a Pacific Cup year, Latitude 38 is profiling many of the boats and sailors who will be racing to Hawaii in the weeks and months leading up to the starting sequence. Jib Martens will be making his first crossing to Hawaii aboard his boat Freedom. Read all about his backstory and his goals for the 2026 Pac Cup here, in his own words.

I guess with the name of Jib I had no choice but to be a lifelong passionate sailor. While I spend as much time as I can on my boat Freedom — a Worth 40 from 1984 — racing, cruising, ocean sailing, cocktail cruising, puttering and just sitting, I have never spent two weeks in the middle of the ocean sailing to Hawaii. The Pac Cup has long been on my to-do list. Last year I pulled the trigger after my friend Jim Quanci said, “What are you waiting for?” Having just turned 65, I figured that I am not getting any younger.

I asked my son and then my brother about the trip, and they both jumped onto it enthusiastically.  So here we are. My son, Will, is also a lifelong sailor, going from Optis through College of Charleston varsity sailing. He now races with me often. Being with him on this trip is hugely important and special to me, as is being with my brother. Since being with good people who are proactive and positive is critical to me, it has taken a while to fill our final two crew spots. A good friend from San Francisco Yacht Club and a good friend of his complete the team. I was looking for compatibility and solid sailing skills first and then racing/ocean/navigating skills second. I think we have a great team.

While Freedom is in good shape and has most of the gear, as I do a lot of ocean racing with SSS and BAMA, the amount of prep work is truly amazing and sometimes a bit daunting. Aside from the big things like new rigging, rudder inspection and a backup autopilot are lithium batteries, DC/DC charger, serpentine belts, solar panels, Starlink, some new running rigging/halyards and a few new sails (secondhand sails but new to me).

There are still a tremendous number of smaller things I want to take care of. Tightening vang fittings, replacing water lines, fixing window leaks, upgrading wiring to key gear, building a spinnaker net and a system to reef and douse the spinnaker from the cockpit, installing saltwater hand pump, reshaping my bow pulpit for the asymmetrical, adding climbing harness, fixing my tach, etc. Of course my 30-year-old transmission started slipping last year. That took me a long time to replace due to rusted bolts and then having to raise my engine. Is anything ever just simple and easy? It never seems that way, and I’m not sure that is the way of the world (sailboats) or my errors. Since I do all of the work on Freedom myself, I know every inch of my boat and systems, which is great. The downside is the time it takes as well as making sure I did not screw up anything. Good thing I have a wonderful and supportive wife who lets me tinker.

So why do this? For me, this is a great way to spend time sailing, being on the ocean, spending time with people important to me, and also surmounting a big challenge. When I was a teenager and in my early 20s, I always thought of sailing around the world, and one of the reasons I bought Freedom in 1992 was to spend two years cruising  with my wife in the South Pacific. We never made that trip — or even one to Baja — due to family and life choices, but we did live on the boat for a year and we still have the boat. I am still as passionate about sailing and Freedom as I ever was. As I am slowing down my work schedule, I look at the Pac Cup as part of the original dream, and perhaps it will lead to other sailing adventures in the following years.

Our vision for the Pac Cup is to arrive safely, have a great time, and be as competitive as we can. We are competitive racers at heart, though we do realize our program is not the high-end, spare-no-expense campaign as other programs, so we take that in stride. Winning? A possibility perhaps. Coming in last? Don’t even think that. A good top-third fleet finish would be terrific. Regardless of where we finish, we will have an awesome time on the ocean with family and good friends and a major life experience. I also get to bring the boat back, so I will have nearly two months on Freedom on God’s beautiful and awe-inspiring ocean. What could be better than that? I’ve got to go.… Another preparation task is calling, as I need to figure out how to install the rudder feedback sensor for my new autopilot. Of course nothing lines up well, so new fabrication time it is! Ugh! See you on the water!