14th Biennial
West Marine Pacific Cup
LIGHTNING MOVES INTO FLEET LEAD IN THE WEST MARINE PACIFIC CUP
July 10, 2006
Honolulu -- Lightning, flying the San Francisco Yacht Club burgee, has moved into the overall lead of the 14th Biennial West Marine Pacific Cup, San Francisco--Kaneohe Race. As the yachts get closer to the halfway point, Thomas Akin's Santa Cruz 52 has led the downwind, over-50 foot racers through the rest of the fleet and promise to be the earliest finishers at Kaneohe Bay--possibly by early Saturday, July 15.
Meanwhile in the various divisions who started days prior to the big boats, the doublehanded entries see Plus Sixteen leading their group. The Olsen 911S out of Richmond Yacht Club with Paul Disario and Tony Porche is trailed by Slim, the J30 with father and son, Loren and Mark Mollner. Third is Keeli Quinn from Portland with Jeff Duvall and Peter Guilfoyle.
California Girl continues to lead the Division A yachts followed by Hooligan and Cirrus. As noted yesterday, Cirrus endured a broken boom and is limping along under a spinnaker. The Kaneohe Yacht Club entry is limping pretty well.
Tutto Bene, Locomotion and Irish Lady continue to be running 1,2,3 in Division B.
ET, is leading the Division C yachts for the third day followed by Basic Instinct out of Corinthian Yacht Club. The Elliott 10.50 is trailed by Auspice, James Coggin's Custom 50.
In Division D, Synge has taken a route to jump ahead of the others in their division and is followed by Sapphire. Both Synge and Sapphire are Synergy 1000s. Sapphire is the Rasmussen family racer. Third in Division D is Orizaba from Portland.
While the Santa Cruz 52, Lightning is leading the entire fleet, she also leads Division E, the fastest boats on the water. The Ely Family's Elyxir is second and Morpheus, the Gregory family Custom 50 is third.
It seems there is no end to the agonies of Cirrus. Today they report a slashed spinnaker and despite repairs find themselves third in their division but they figure that Mary Lovely and Jim Quanci's Green Buffalo is knocking on their stern.
From John McPhail's JAM we learn that they had a close encounter of the scary kind. A metal ball was close enough to bump against the J160 but it was more than just a metal ball -- it had stubs sticking out of it and looked for all the world like a mine just waiting for a yacht bent on attacking something. Rather than be vaporized at sea they took evasive action and hoped that it would not bump up against any of the competition. They also reported sightings of dolphins and fishing balls--far more comforting than a mine!
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Contact: Ray Sweeney
(808) 533-0033
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