Daily Report - July 15 - Sprinting to the Finish; Times Three

by Race Committee, July 15th, 2014

Sprinting to the Finish – Times Three

The mainland end of the Race Committee apologizes for taking the day off yesterday while travelling to Maui to assist the Lahaina Yacht Club end who looks after the Finish Line. I hate to report to all readers that the weather on Maui is perfect. The water is as blue as the sky, and the temperature is moderated by a soothing tropical breeze coming through Pailolo Channel between Molokai and Maui.

As the day gets going on the Vic Maui fleet, there is lots of intermingling with the fleet of Pacific Cup boats. Kinetic reported seeing a boat at first light, probably Green Buffalo, a Cal 40 competing double-handed. Looking at the Pacific Cup tracker shows that all the big boats in their fleet (Pyewacket, Hula Girl, etc.) are pointed right at the heart of the Vic Maui fleet about 150 miles back and closing.

Note: Numbers in brackets are the distance to finish as of 10:00 HST today.

 Vic-Maui 2014 has developed into 3 distinct races. The 2 lead boats, New Haven (586) and Longboard (534) are in 15 kts of wind about 260 miles in front and 540 miles from Maui. Longboard has a 50 mile lead and could be first across the finish line, but New Haven currently looks to win on corrected time. But there is at least one well-timed gybe in each boat’s future to set up the final run into Pailolo Channel.

The second group of boats includes all of the boats that worked south as the Pacific High passed over them. They are in order: Kahuna (861), JAM (925), Kinetic (969), Family Affair (1017), Losloper (1059), Avalon (1134), and Bedlam II (1160). They are sailing on broach reaches in 10 to 14 knots of wind. This group are all on starboard tack, but some are reaching up for speed or to take advantage of fortunate headers.

The last group are the 5 boats that sailed over the top of the high to catch southwest winds in its wake. These boats are Turnagain (832), String Theory (891), Turicum (904), Passepartout (935), and Alegria (951). They are all pointed directly to Maui on tight reaches in winds of 9 to 11 kts. They are hoping to catch stronger, more easterly winds ahead to increase speed before the middle group gets going and closes the distance gap.

One interesting statistic to monitor is the total distance sailed trying to get the best winds. If this was a prize, it would currently go to JAM, who is projected to have sailed a total distance of 2680 miles, quite a bit more than the rhumb line distance of 2308 miles.

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