July 14, 2014

After a wave of boats finished in Hanalei, Kauai, over the weekend, the rest of the SSS Singlehanded TransPac boats are now trickling in one by one. Line honors goes to the Palmer Johnson 49 Scaramouche V and skipper Peter Heiberg, with a elapsed time of 14 days, 2 hours, and 15 or so minutes.

Peter Heiberg beat the 16 other singlehanders to Hanalei Bay. ©2014 Singlehanded Sailing Society

A three-pack of close finishes followed, with Joe Balderrama on the Express 27 Archimedes, Al Germain on the Wyliecat 30 Bandicoot and Steve Hodges on the Islander 36 Frolic finishing within eight hours of each other. The closet race so far is the battle for overall winner on corrected time, and the Yellowbrick numbers are showing Frolic ahead of Bandicoot by 1 hour and 10 minutes after more than 2,200 miles, countless tactical decisions and a gamut of weather conditions. The other boats are now coming in one by one. Barry Bristol's Capri 25 Jack is bringing up the rear, limping in with a broken spreader and jury-rigged stay. Jack has 530 miles to go.

The finish line that goes on forever. ©2014 Singlehanded Sailing Society

The Pogo Mini 6.5 Libra looked mighty small to the SSS race committee as it sailed across the finish line. ©2014 Singlehanded Sailing Society

Tree time by the beach, a daily ritual at sunset. ©2014 Singlehanded Sailing Society

In the Pacific Cup, the boats that have been stalled out for the last two days finally have some wind and are moving along nicely. The big, fast boats in the Latitude 38 division appear to have lucked out and avoided the hole that absorbed most of the boats ahead of them. But then again they seem to go fast in anything. The Moore 24 Snafu is in a battle with The Santa Cruz 27 Blade Runner and Cal 40 Green Buffalo for overall. But there is still a lot of racetrack left.

From the northwest, we have the Vic-Maui Race boys and girls trucking along with a group of five heading north of the rhumbline, trying to avoid the potential threat of light air from a tropical depression to the south. The Riptide 35 Longboard still holds first place overall and is staying south. In the group of five to the north, the Beneteau 50 Turnagain is leading the pack.

Is it a flyer if four other boats go with you? The boat that went into San Francisco Bay is Anduril, a Farr 395 with a broken rudder. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

And what about the Great Pacific Race and all the rowers out there? The leader of the seven boats left in the race has only 411 miles to go at a steady 1.8 knots of boat speed.