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Post Date: Thursday, July 31, 2014 |
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Vic Maui 2014 is in the books. It is easy to report the final standings and who won which trophy. What is not easy to report are the feelings and memories that all boats will take away from this year’s race.
And this race had everything. Boats sailed off into a murky day in Victoria and struggled with the tides in Juan de Fuca Strait. Rounding the corner of Cape Flattery into open ocean calms off the Washington coast as the weather tried to figure out what it wanted to do. Then it decided the fleet needed a good blast and so came 3 days of heavy weather reaching off the Oregon Coast. The blast was too much for the recently rebuilt Anduril who suffered a steering failure and retired from the race to make for San Francisco under emergency gear.
Just when the other boats were figuring out how to sail in heavy weather and what was the best course to Maui, the Pacific High decided to get out of its den and go and sit on the fleet. For a couple of days, Anduril was the only boat making progress. The calms were frustrating, only to be broken by the occasional tuna on the fishing line and the “zen” of being the only thing in your part of the ocean (except the garbage). With the No Wind zone covering the whole offshore California, Passepartout, Turnagain, Turicum, String Theory and Alegria decided to split from the fleet and took the high risk gambit of sailing into headwinds on the west side of the High.
Boats on the east side of the Rhumb Line eked out what wind they could find, or in JAM’s case went back towards the coast to chase the earlier strong coastal winds. The others went for swims and focused on the fishing rods. The 5 boats on the west side had jibs up and were pointed towards Guam.
Eventually the trade winds came. On the east side, the rich got richer as the trades got to the boats furthest south earliest. Longboard and New Haven started legging out, followed by Kahuna and JAM. Picking up the wind a little later were Kinetic and Family Affair, then later still Avalon, Losloper and Bedlam II.
What followed was 5 or 6 days of perfect blue water broad reaching for Hawaii at top speed. Unless you were one of the brave 5 on the west side who still had their white sails up, and while enjoying a shorter course we nervously hoped the wind would back to the east and let them get in on the speed game.
As all boats got closer to Maui, the navigation through numerous squalls, too many days of stressing the sails and rigging with higher winds, and the onset of crew fatigue became the storyline as all boats started to see minor and major failures.
Longboard and New Haven rode the strong winds to the finish, and improving sailing angle allowed String Theory to take charge of the 5 renegades and make good time as well.
But Poseidon, or Pele the Hawaiian goddess of wind and volcanoes, or whatever god out there that does not like sailors, was not finished. Boats were now getting discarded fishing nets and ropes and other garbage stuck on their keels, rudders and props; sails started fraying or disintegrating, halyards started breaking, and Kahuna lost their mast overboard. And that was all before the remnants of Tropical Depression Mali delivered an unforecast blast of storm-force winds of 35 -50 kts at Passepartout, Turicum, Kinetic, Family Affair and Alegria. They used every seamanship skill they had to survive this and finish. Then the wait was on for the Losloper, Avalon and Bedlam II to ride the steady trade winds to the finish.
All boats were joyed on arrival by the enthusiastic and generous welcome put on by the Lahaina Welcome Parties. And were overjoyed to be greeted by loved-ones. Then to enjoy the shore delights of a Mai Tai, a shower, a sleep in a real bed, and some fresh food – different order for different people.
It was a very memorable Vic-Maui. Conditions ranged from frustrating calms to perfect blue water sailing to survival. Boat types went from the venerable Bedlam II built with long-gone design ideas and returning to Maui after 32 years, to the customer designed flyer Longboard, and everything in between. And there was the incredible display of seamanship required to deal with broken spars, broken rigging, and broken sails. These are all things these sailors will remember for a lifetime.
All attention now turns to the Awards Banquet on Saturday Night at the Sheraton Maui at Black Rock. An impressive array of silverware and Polynesian Sailing Canoe model trophies still needs to be handed out, along with shared stories, fun and one last Mai Tai.
Peter Salusbury's Riptide 35 Longboard was the big winner collecting trophies for Fastest Boat - Elapsed Time, First Overall Corrected Time, First in Division 1, and First Canadian Boat to Finish.
John Mortimer's Beneteau First 47.7 String Theory wins Second Overall Corrected Time and First in Division 2.
John Kerrigan's Ker 46 New Haven collects the prizes for Third Oveall, Corrected Time, Second in Division 2 and First American Boat to Finish.
Travis McGregor's Beneteau 50 Turnagain wins the trophy for First in Division 3 and Magnus Murphy wins the Cruising Division in his Shearwater 39 Losloper.
Second and Third place in Division 2 go to Eberhard Heinzemann/Colin Jackson on the Dufour 45e Alegria X and to John Leitzinger's Aerodyne 38 Kahuna (who finished the race with his mast and sails in pieces) respectively.
Second place in Division 3 goes to Peter Shainin/Vince Townrow aboard Passepartout.
Rich Ballantyne
for the Vic-Maui Race Committee
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