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They’re Off. Again.

The four divisions of Pacific Cup Monday starters scored a beautiful day for a sail on the Bay, but made sure it was short-lived by dashing for the Gate and pointing southwest as they latched onto the reaching conditions to propel them west. After two days, the leaders are about 300 miles out with 1700 miles to go to finish. There’s already a wide split between those who’ve stayed north and those who took the southern track (the Moore 24 Foamy has dived the farthest south). Bill and Melinda Erkelens, sailing their Donovan 30, Wolfpack, are the next-farthest south, suggesting that’s a good neighborhood. But "The entire fleet are all sailing toward a light-air hole, caused by an upper-level low that is forecast to sit right on top of the rhumb line and shut off the breeze for virtually everyone," said Ronnie Simpson, a Latitude 38 contributor who’s also doing the Pac Cup media.

Sailing conditions were so nice on Monday that if you weren’t racing, you’d probably just wanted to sail the whole day.

© 2018 Tim Dick

"Cal 40’s are currently 1-2 overall, with race stalwart Jim Quanci and his venerable Cal 40 Green Buffalo remaining atop the leaderboard over the first two days of the race," Ronnie told us. "The entirety of the four-boat Coral Reef Sailing Apparel/A division is on the rhumb line, but the fleet is sailing toward a date with a big patch of light winds, threatening to significantly shake up the leaderboard." 

Today’s morning fog is burning off as we type, so another sunny start predicted for the 1:05 p.m. start of the Weems & Plath PHRF division and the Alaska Airlines PHRF division starting at 1:15. While there likely will be good breeze in the Bay, as suggested in Monday’s wind forecast, it’s looking to be more challenging to get away from the coast and into the ‘take me to Hawaii’ reaching conditions. 

Creative class. Beneteau’s new Figaro 3 A Fond le Girafon sailed by Charles Devanneaux is in a class of its own. The 32-ft French foiler puzzled the PHRF ratings, so it’s sailing in a demo class. "The learning curve of a foiling boat is steep however, as the two co-skippers report having to constantly pump the bilge due to constant water ingress from the foil trunk," said Ronnie Simpson.

© 2018 Tim Dick
The six-boat one-design Express 27 division started on Monday. We took a liking to sail number ’38’, Yeti, sailed by Adam Mazurkiewicz and currently chasing class favorite Motorcycle Irene. 

© 2018 Tim Dick
Playing Pac-Man as Pac Cup’s Monday starters are now on the tracker with the Island Packet 380 Edge of Moonlight in the Cruising Class trying to gobble up those in front. 

© 2018 Yellow Brick

As we showed you in Monday’s ‘Lec Lat, the roll-of-the dice starting conditions will be a factor in the final outcome, but there are a lot of strategic course choices to be made during the 2070 miles between California and Hawaii that could leave the early conditions irrelevant. 

After today, two more divisions will move into the starting gates with Class D: the Pasha Hawaii ORR Division starting on Thursday at 1:45 p.m., and the big-boat Class E BMW of San Rafael ORR Division starting at 2:45 p.m. on Friday. They have two days left to pray to the wind gods.

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Something big happened last Saturday. There was a regional qualifier for the Sears Cup junior national championship, and Area G showed up.
We just got this letter from reader Glenn Shinn in Santa Cruz (who recently restored Grendel, a prototype for the Moore 24): "One of the first things I do when I go sailing is stow the docklines and fenders.