Half-Way

by Race Committee, July 16th, 2016

Casting away false wind idols. Or welcoming aboard Badger Bob and King Neptune. These are traditions from old time sailors that recognized the accomplishment of crossing the Equator. Vic-Maui's version is the Half-way party. A number of boats including Longboard, Kinetic, Valkyrie, Westerly, Equus and Atalanta will likely reach Half-Way overnight. The celebrations may be mute while the crew thinks about how to shave distance off the competition, or a celebration over what has been accomplished so far. Read

Crossfire is Almost Home

by Crossfire Crew, July 17th, 2016

At 1400 PDT on July 17 Crossfire was 95 miles from Cape Flattery. She had been progressing for Seattle under sail, but last night they suffered a failure of the forestay fitting. While the mast was secured to prevent a failure, they were motoring for home without enough diesel to get to Neah Bay. USCG Seattle was contacted as a contingency, but problems seem to be solved now. The boat has sent a note to supporters and well-wishers. Read

Still Blasting Toward Maui

by Race Committee, July 17th, 2016

The wind has backed again and all boats are once again pointed almost strait at Maui. Across the fleet the wind continues in high teens to low 20's. As long as spinnakers, halyards, sheets and the stuff lasts, everyone is making great time. I have warned the fleet of the old adage "that to finish first, you first have to finish" - but I think they are having too much fun to take advice from shore. Read

The Race is On - Cruising Style

by Richard Ballantyne, July 18th, 2016

Travis McGregor’s Turnagain suffered a failure of their steering quadrant today. Based on their available options, steering the last 1000 miles to Maui in 20 kts of breeze with a short emergency tiller did not seem like the best one. They decided to retire from the race and start using the auto-helm. Until they mentioned the upcoming lamb roast, Race Committee was almost feeling sorry for them. Read

Sheesh - What A Day

by Race Committee, July 18th, 2016

Race Committee’s day began very early with a note from Kinetic that they had just passed Longboard about 1 mile off. And Longboard had picked that time for a broach, followed by an accidental gybe. It is too bad the early morning murk prevented a photo but all’s well that ends well. Read

Everyone is Going Fast

by Race Committee, July 19th, 2016

The focus is on who is taking charge of the Leaderboard. Read

Don't Worry about the Kraken

by Mark Malacek, July 19th, 2016

No, Kraken has not been hit by a whale to start their own version of In the Heart of the Sea. Their tracker battery has simply run down. Instructions to re-charge have been sent to Kraken and we hope they packed the right cable. But Mark Malacek gives us a glimpse of life on board in a blog post. Read

The Goldilocks Gybe

by Brad Baker, July 19th, 2016

Brad Baker gives the armchair sailors insight on the line to the Finish. The fleet has pretty much made their beds and now they have to sleep in them. In my last post I talked a bit about what was then, the upcoming decision on when to jibe. I coined the term “goldilocks jibe”, not to early, not to late but just right. I also wrongly said that it wasn’t rocket science and that the wind shift would dictate when the jibe would happen. I should have remembered how much time I’ve spent fretting over when to make the move. I always joke that my bald head isn’t due to male pattern baldness but rather all the head scratching I’ve had to do fretting over decisions like this. As it turns out the decision on when to make the jibe from starboard jibe to port was/is a very important one that will have a huge impact on the odds of boats having a good finish. Another factor is just plain luck. The boats further ahead have found themselves very much in a rich get richer situation. Read

NOTICE OF TIME ZONE CHANGE

by Race Committee, July 19th, 2016

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TIMES ON THE RACE TRACKER ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE TO HAWAIIAN STANDARD TIME. As the boats get closer to Maui, the focus of the race changes to the families waiting and the greeters who meet each boat. The Leaderboard times (estimated finish time, time of start, etc.) will shortly switch to Hawaiian Standard Time. Do not be alarmed by the jump backward by 3 hours. Read

Will Records Fall?

by Race Committee, July 20th, 2016

Today all eyes are on the Vic-Maui Elapsed Time Record, currently 9days, 2 hours, 8 minutes set in 2000 by James McDowell on the Santa Cruz 70 Grand Illusion. Over the next 24 hours Valkyrie, Kinetic V, and Westerly are all lined up to not just beat it, but to smash it. Read

Stampede to the Finish, but Looking Over the Shoulder at Darby

by Race Committee, July 20th, 2016

At Roll Call, Valkyrie was only 61 miles form the finish and expected to cross at 5:20 pm local time in Hawaii (8:20 pm PDT), eclipsing the Vic-Maui record by about 14 hours. Read

Tropical Storm Darby

by Race Committee, July 20th, 2016

Tropical Storm Darby, which was earlier forecast to dissipate south of Hawaii, has not. The National Hurricane Centre has issued a Warning that sustained winds of 50 knots can be expected to be associated with the storm and 60 miles to the northwest of the eye. The storm is approaching Hawaii from the west and is forecast to pass north of Hawaii sometime this weekend, possibly impacting the later finishing boats. Read

Vic Maui Record is Smashed

by Richard Ballantyne, July 21st, 2016

Keeping the pedal to the metal all the way to the Finish, Valkyrie, a TP-52 sailing for the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and skippered by Jason Rhodes and Gavin Brackett, has smashed the record which has stood for 16 years. They finished at 5:17 local time for an unofficial new record of 8 days, 9 hours, 17 minutes and 56 seconds. Read

Westerly Comes in to Complete the Trio

by Race Committee, July 21st, 2016

After Valkyrie's smashing run to the Finish and a new elapsed time record and Kinetic chasing her all the way in to be in position of a possible Overall win, Westerly completed the trio of boats beating the old record with a finish at 1:32 am HST. Stuart Dahlgren's Santa Cruz 70, sailing for Royal Victoria Yacht Club completed the course in 8 days, 17 hours and 32 minutes, about 5 hours ahead of Grand Illusion's 2000 run. In a year without TP-52s, the whole story would be on Westerly great race to Maui. Read

Tropical Storm Darby Update

by Race Committee, July 21st, 2016

Boats have been sent the latest information from the National Hurricane Centre about Darby, and Race Committee has allowed competitors to seek outside help with routing around the storm. The routing forecasters (Eric Holden, Brad Baker and Commander's Weather) have been kind enough to share information on storm routing with Race Committee and this has been passed to the whole fleet. Boats appear to be employing 3 strategies to deal with the tropical storm. Read

Hurricane Darby Update JUL 22 1200

by Race Committee, July 22nd, 2016

The National Hurricane Center issued a new update at 1100 HST today. The update has the centre of Darby approaching the Big Island at 2 pm on Saturday July 23 – tomorrow. It is forecast to pass just north of Maui around 2 am early on Sunday. Read

Old School vs. New School

by Race Committee, July 22nd, 2016

Both Longboard, Peter Salusbury’s Riptide 35 and 2014 Vic-Maui Overall winner, and Atalanta, the 74 ft, Tripp designed Maxi and 5 time Vic-Maui veteran skippered by Louis Hoffer arrived on Thursday ending their battle of Old-School – New School that started 10 days ago in Victoria Read

String Theory Follow Equus In

by Race Committee, July 22nd, 2016

Looking like winners in Div 2, String Theory arrived at 4:25 pm local time on Friday. John Mortimer's Beneteau First 47.7 from Vancouver Rowing Club came in 4 hours behind Dean Conti's Jeanneau 50 Equus sailing for 3 Tree Yacht Club in Des Moine, WA. But with the handicap it is likely that String Theory will correct ahead of Equus, very close rivals for Div 2. Read

Darby Update - O Dark Hundred - Saturday

by Race Committee, July 23rd, 2016

The good people at Commander’s Weather, a pre-eminent provider of offshore weather and routing advice to racing and cruising sailors have been very kind to share their views of Tropical Storm Darby. At 2:30 PDT Saturday, Darby was centered near 18.8N 153.5w, about 335 miles ESE of Honolulu ,Hawaii, moving 280 degrees at 8 kts. Top winds are 50 kts mostly in squalls now near and S of the center. Read

Rain Drop Arrives to Early Morning Fanfare

by Race Committee, July 23rd, 2016

Looking like winners in their division as Darby split their competition behind them, Rain Drop finished this morning. Joby Easton aboard his Cascade 36, a very early example of fibreglass production boatbuilding and sailing for the Rose City YC in Portland, arrived just before 4 am on Saturday morning and joined Equus and String Theory safely in the harbour to wait out Darby's arrival. Read