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[Kaneohe Yacht Club, HI, August 3, 2024] – From July 15th’s light wind first starts to the final days of the race with 15 foot swells and unrelenting winds on the approach to Kaneohe Yacht Club, the 2024 Pacific Cup Race was nothing short of an adventure.

We spoke with Peter and Velina Barnes, the owners of Second Wind, and asked what their Pacific Cup experience was like. Velina said, “I kept saying the word glorious - just the privilege of being in that ocean, and the uniqueness of every day. The strength of the ocean, the strength of our boat, was really special.”

Peter shared his angle on

The standings tell the story, but not the whole story. It's easy to see Velvet Hammer at the top of the standings, Azure dominating her hard-fought division, and double-handers Accelerando and Moonshine topping their respective divisions, for example. However, the real story can be read in our participants' faces on shore.

Tired, happy, windblown, sunburned, and in some cases bruised, these faces tell almost 400 stories of individual effort to get across the wide Pacific to Hawaii. First-time crossers are quite justifiably proud and awed by their new accomplishment. Veteran racers may be

"Squallmageddon" was the phrase used by one boat (Gilligan) to describe some of their experiences. Gilligan, perhaps named with less irony than intended, was in the middle of the 2024 Pacific Cup's windy race to Hawaii.

After a deeply frustrating, almost windless first two days of racing, the wind picked up and built to a fairly constant wind strength in the 20s and sometimes 30s. Those of us at home could comfortably click on the wind chart and see a civilized 17 knots, but those at sea found the wind a bit higher.

With sustained winds come a greater sea state, as the wind works to build the

Finishing at a bit before 3 pm Hawaiian time today, the Boss has clinched first in PHRF 3, and has a solid hold on PHRF overall and a third in the Pacific Cup.

Originally expected for Saturday, Pac Cup organizers are bracing themselves for over a dozen finishers today, many resolving some hard-fought contests on the race course.

The battle rages in the Svendsen's Bay Marine PHRF 3 Division. Kevin Wilkinson’s Jubilant is finishing as we write this, now an hour and a half behind new division leader the Boss, due to finish this afternoon. Kevin and the team will no doubt be watching the tracker, in the most genteel and sportsmanlike way possible, hoping for a slowdown on the Boss to return Jubilant to top of the division.

In the Doublehanded 1 Division Ac