Pac Cup First Wave Finds Going Slow

Although the beat out the Gate showed promise with its 15-knots of breeze and ebb, the navigators on the 15 boats who started the ’10 Pac Cup Monday knew they were faced with the prospect of a slow stretch once they got out the Gate.

Split between Doublehanded 1 and Division A, the first group only covered 70 miles over the first 24 hours. Twenty four hours later, yesterday’s starters, Doublehanded 2 and Division B, had all but caught up with the Monday starters.

Although the daily sked wasn’t available as of this writing, a look at the race’s tracker shows that there is a huge spread form north to south in the fleet, and no one seems to be going anywhere at any notable speed. At the southern end of the spectrum, Dylan Benjamin and Rufus Sjoberg on Benjamin’s Dogpatch 26 Moonshine are as far south as 37° 14′, while Jim Quanci’s Cal 40 Green Buffalo is just north of the 38th parallel. Emma Creighton and Andy Hamilton aboard Creighton’s Mini Transat Pocket Rocket, are the farthest north at this point, and we can’t wait to see which strategy pays off.

Back down in the south, Pat Broderick’s Wyliecat 30 Nancy is keeping up with Moonshine and just slightly farther north. And given that there is plenty of Hawaii race experience among all these boats — not to mention analytical ability — it’s interesting to see such a disparate response to the light, lumpy conditions the fleet is experiencing out there.

Division C started today at 12:45 p.m., and Division B starts tomorrow at 1:15 p.m. If you don’t feel like going out on the water, there is plenty of good viewing at the starting area right off the Marina Green and the Marin headlands.