A New Crew Prepares to Sail ‘Recidivist’ in the Pac Cup

With 2026 being a Pacific Cup year, Latitude 38 is highlighting some of the crews who will be racing from San Francisco to Oahu in July. For today’s Pacific Cup profile, we spoke with Rob Reis, the owner of Recidivist, as well as John Collins, one of his crew members. 

Recidivist owner Rob Reis on his sailing background and the 2026 Pacific Cup:

“I learned to sail on ponds and the coastal waters of Massachusetts and Maine. We sailed Sunfish, Lasers and Lightnings. I also windsurfed. When I moved out to San Francisco from Vermont after college, I brought my windsurfing gear with me on the top of my 1989 Saab 900s and sailed primarily at Crissy Field and Coyote Point. I’ve crewed on various race boats: some buoy races and quite a few beer cans. The farthest offshore I’ve been was crewing (i.e., ballast) on an Express 27 on the Farallones Race. It was blowing hard, swells were eight to 10 feet, and I had a blast.

“Recidivist is the first boat I’ve ever owned. I bought her because I wanted something fast and sexy that could take me to Hawaii. She pretty much meets all those requirements. The really cool part about owning Recidivist is her reputation. Practically every time we’re out sailing someone hails us and says they’ve either sailed against or sailed on her. Last weekend, we were out and I noticed a powerboat made a U-turn and started following us. I’m thinking, ‘Crap, are we dragging a line? etc.’ Nope. After much shouting back and forth we determined that he just was happy to see Recidivist out on the Bay.”

“My crew is a collection of friends. I’m going to be ready to sail with anywhere from five to seven, although seven is our target size. Since none of us has crossed the Pacific, we need an ‘adult’ onboard, so I’m talking to a few different pros to fill that role. John Collins and Mason Willetts are friends who are committed to the journey. I have several other friends who are on the list; we just need to firm up commitments and make sure that we all sail together a lot before July.

“I’m not rabidly pursuing any buoy racing in preparation for the Pac Cup. We will participate in several of the OYRA races, but what’s way more important to me is that we go out there and bash it about in the ocean. I got this piece of advice from a pro recently: He told me the best way that we can prepare is to head straight out the Gate for a day before we even think about turning around. That’s advice I’m taking to heart and I find it thrilling and terrifying.”

“One of the best parts of this journey so far has been the people I’ve met. I’m already indebted to a handful of local (and not local) sailors who’ve provided help and advice. It’s a list that grows daily. I’m confident that the friendships I’m forging now will last a lifetime.

“There’s a massive journey ahead for me and my crew, but with hard work and some luck on our side we’ll be by the pool at Kaneohe Yacht Club drying out in the hot Hawaiian sun in just about six months.”

Recidivist crew member John Collins provides more context:

“Rob and I know each other through dirt bike racing, and we have a lot of mutual interests such as mountain biking, skiing, dirt bike racing, motorcycle trips, and other stuff like that. The core crew is Rob and then my buddy Mason Willetts. That’s kind of the backbone of the crew. Both of them have sailing experience from when they were younger. We have a history together of going on trips that are kind of uncomfortable, self-supported adventures. Rob’s intention and determination to go to Hawaii, and do it on a new boat and take on that adventure himself, is pretty reflective of some of the other adventures that we go on, whether it’s a long motorcycle trip where we’re in the woods for four days or mountain biking trips, or whatever else.”

“Right around May or June 2025, Rob was getting serious about wanting to buy a boat. He was kind of flip-flopping between a boat that he could do a lot of cruising on, and a boat that he could race. He was scouring all over the Web, and eventually it was between an Express 37 and Recidivist, which is a custom Schumacher 39, In the name of speed he went for Recidivist, since it’s a purebred race boat; it feels like racing a way-bigger 420 when you’re on the boat. We’re going to convert the boat to all-asymmetrical spinnakers so we can run it with a bit of a leaner crew. As we’ve been training in the Bay, it’s a bit difficult getting eight or nine people together and having them all organized to jibe a symmetrical kite. Especially with a lot of the crew making their first real foray into racing.

“I think we’re pretty excited for everything being new, you know. We’re going to reach a point pretty quickly where we haven’t been that far offshore before, and we’re going to pretty quickly reach a number of days that’s going be the most we’ve ever spent on the boat. We’re going to experience things that we just [haven’t] seen before. I think that’s generally what we’re most excited for. We’re not necessarily there to just kind of cruise around, like we’re excited to be racing and excited to be part of the competition. I wouldn’t say that we’re racing in all capital letters, and, you know, really gunning for the top spot. But we’re excited to be competitive and look at the competitive aspect of it. I think just kind of spending time on the boat, seeing it all new for the first time, and just the general landmark of making it across the Pacific Ocean is pretty pretty high on our list. I want to make it safely of course, and that requires a lot of teamwork. I’m really looking forward to 12 days of nothing but teamwork and 12 days of nothing but focusing on the boat.”

“The boat has a great history. There was a Pac Cup win in 1996. It was second in its Pac Cup division in 2006 and 2008. There was a Transpac second in 2007. This boat has made it to Hawaii and has been fast, and another goal is to live up to the boat’s name and what it’s done in the past. We’ve had a chance to connect with some of the people that have taken it to Hawaii in the past, which has been really cool. It’s kind of cool to be a new set of people looking at the same boat and trying to do the same thing that people did 20 years ago. It also gives us some time expectations.”