While the fast boats in the ORR divisions get attention due to being, well, faster, the core of the Pacific Cup is hot on their heels. The vast majority of the participants are racing under PHRF and include everything from heavy ketches to lightweight J-boats and everything in between.
The doublehanders are also racing under PHRF. Leading Doublehanded 1 group is Erica Mattson Siegel on Accelerando. She's held that lead for several days. Pell Mell (Alex Simanis) has similarly led Pasha Doublehanded 2 and the doublehanders overall. Like all the Monday starters, the doublehanders spent a day or so slow going outside the gate, and are pretty well counted out for the Pacific Cup overall.
In the Weems & Plath PHRF 1 division, Vera Cruz has picked up some extra speed, propelling them to a (forecast) first in division. They only edge Azure out by half an hour, so the race remains anyone's guess.
Turning to Goslings PHRF 2, Tweety, which skipper Robert Schroeder had been taking to some extreme edges of the fleet, has finally pushed past Hultaj to lead. Hultaj, it must be mentioned, had some bad luck catching at least three fishing nets, requiring a back-down each time.
Svendsen's Bay Marine PHRF 3 division continues to be tight at the top, with the Boss J35 Chad Stenwick, Joy Ride J 122e John Murkowski, and Jubilant J/112e Ross Werner & Kevin Wilkinson swapping top positions every hour.
Finally in NAOS Yachts PHRF 4 division, Shadowfax and Planet Express have narrowed the gap behind leader Translated 9 US (Swan 65 Paul Cayard) somewhat. Time will tell if they are able to run her down!
Winds this year are on the strong side, as mentioned before. We are seeing top performance out of our competitors as well as an elevated rate of damage to sails and the like. In many cases, how well you do will depend on how fast you can fix things.
Our morning reports, arriving between 8 am and noon, will likely reveal more thrilling tales of surfing and repair!