Festina Lente Updates

The first four divisions (DoubleHanded 1 & 2 and PHRF 1 & 2) set off today between 10:20am - 10:50am in front of the St Francis Yacht Club. The weather forecast isn't ideal -- low winds at the start from the SW, dropping to almost nothing overnight. Because of the disrupted Northern Pacific High creating a big wind hole in the middle of the course, most will want to head south underneath it until the high consolidates, hopefully by the very end of the week. In order to start making progress south and because of the SW direction of the wind, most boats started off heading down along the coast, with several now breaking W to create some distance from the coast before the glass off at night (with wind and waves pushing them towards the shore).

We're up next, the second start of the day Weds at 11:40am. Almost there! 

Here’s the big picture of Festina Lente’s Pacific Cup entry right now:

THE RACE:  

The Pacific Cup (https://pacificcup.org) is sailed every even year.   First raced in 1980, it is billed as, “The FUN Race to Hawaii.”  The course is 2,070 nautical miles (2,380 statute miles) from San Francisco, CA to Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, HI. 

THE COMPETITION:  

Of the sixty four entries (https://admin.pacificcup.org/entries) in the fleet, just over half are from the Bay Area. The rest are from elsewhere in CA, as well as several other states (AK, HI, MN, OR, TX, WA) and countries (Canada, Jamaica, Poland, Switzerland).  Each has:

• met offshore safety at sea training standards,

• been inspected for compliance with offshore safety equipment requirements, and 

• sailed a 150 mile (minimum) open-ocean qualifier.  

For a time, more than 70 boats had entered, but some have withdrawn.  With so much planning, preparation and practice, as well as life’s competing priorities, some say that, “Getting to the starting line is the hardest part.” 

THE BOAT:  

“Festina Lente” (https://admin.pacificcup.org/entry/festina-lente) is a Hanse 505 built in 2014.  The 2013 Judel/Vrolijk design is reviewed here https://www.sailmagazine.com/boats/boat-review-hanse-505   Two other Hanse 505s placed 1st (finishing in 12 days 8 hours 07 minutes and 58 seconds, elapsed) and 2nd (@ 12:20:14:08) in the cruising division of the 2018 Pac Cup.  There is no cruising division this year, but their day-12 benchmarks suggest an over-under for us to finish on day 12.  An accurate estimate is difficult to give, especially weather forecasts are only now beginning to come into focus.

THE RE-FIT:

Festina Lente has always been well-maintained and is in great shape.  Building on this already strong foundation, the boat has undergone a substantial re-fit for the Pac Cup.   An illustrative subset of the many upgrades includes new / reconfigured / serviced:  sails, jib leads, spinnaker pole, reaching strut, navigation and communications equipment, instrument bridge, wiring, antennae, hydro-generator, stainless steel bob-stay, standing rigging, running rigging, winches, bottom, folding propeller, rudder, emergency steering system, life raft, …  The list goes on and on. The project has gone on for more than a year, but by now, the boat is ready.

THE CREW:   

We have 5 “souls aboard,“ typically sailing with 2 crew on-watch / 3 off.  The watch system rotates each of us through different positions (e.g., helm, trim, maintain, sleep, etc.), and phases of the day (e.g., sunrise, midnight, etc.). 

The team includes:

• David, (from France, now CA) the boat owner. David has sailed for 9 years and has had great formal sailing training.  He is about five years into owning Festina Lente and has only recently been seduced by competitive sailing’s siren song.  His characteristic ambition was on display in jumping into a 50-footer as his first boat, and is again with Pac Cup being an early race on his sailing resume.  Great news for the rest of us, the same attention he gave to preparing the boat, especially with respect to safety equipment, went into the meal planning!

• Tracy, (from Hawaii, now CA) the project manager, Tracy taught offshore sailing for 10 years, has his 100-ton US Coast Guard (USCG) captain’s license, has raced plenty on multiple boats that he owned and others.  He has raced in the Pac Cup 4 times (once double-handed), is an inspector for the race (checking compliance with the equipment standards mentioned above), and his boat was voted “best-prepared” among the fleet in the 2018 race. Between his experience and approach, Tracy is the right Pac Cup mentor for our team.  

• Craig, (from Australia, now CA) the maritime engineer: Craig started working on superyachts more than 20 years ago and hasn’t looked back. He now owns a business doing so all over the world (https://miropo.com).  If it exists on a boat and can break, he has fixed more of them than most of us have changed lightbulbs.  He has done 14 TransAtlantic crossings, 11 by sail.   He is putting his own USCG captain’s license to good use right now driving a VIP support boat at the Sail GP San Francisco event this weekend.

• Eric, (from Iran, now CA) the medical officer, If Eric becomes our MVP, we hope it is for his sailing talents, rather than his bonus skill set.  As if it’s not reassuring enough to have a teammate aboard who is an ER doctor, Eric specializes in wilderness medicine. His resume includes expeditions at Everest Base Camp, Aconcagua, and other similarly remote areas. (And if needed, we have GW Maritime Medical Access (https://gwdocs.com/specialties/emergency-medicine/wecc/maritime-services) available for remote consultation.)   

• Jeremy, (from Chicago, now CA) an unapologetic junkie. At the moment last July when the phone call came in inviting me into this team, I was actually both re-packing my gear after Crew Overboard drills done in preparation for my 27th Chicago to Mackinac race and streaming the documentary Morning Light (https://movies.disney.com/morning-light) by Roy Disney, whose boat won the 2022 Pac Cup.  Racing to Hawaii is a Bucket List to-do for many, and has been a goal of mine since I began racing at UW-Madison (1986).  

The Festina Lente Pacific Cup campaign has been top-of-mind for each of us since we joined together as a team almost a year ago.  And we know it will remain foremost in the minds of our loved ones until we tie-off safely at the docks of Kaneohe Yacht Club after finishing (and shower).  None of us could indulge in this extraordinary adventure without their boundless love, confidence and support, which we all appreciate.

THE START:

Festina Lente’s PHRF 4 start is on Wednesday, July 17 at 1140 PDT, just offshore from the race deck of the St. Francis Yacht Club.   And then it is… Game On!

TO FOLLOW: 

Historically not a spectator sport, technology will make available written, graphic and data updates of the race. If interested, you can follow the race as it progresses.  

- The “YB”mobile app presents how boats are doing against each other and against the 2070 nautical miles that lie ahead.  

- Our blog will give updates from aboard. If you want these posts sent directly into your Inbox, enter your email address.

- The Pac Cup web site has a News page and the race has a social media presence.  

Instructions are here: https://admin.pacificcup.org/entry/festina-lente. 

- - Jeremy - -

Once again, I find myself in the final days prior to undertaking my 5th Pacific Cup sailboat race to Hawaii.  We sold our J120 in early 2023 after completing the 2018 and 2022 races, and I had planned on taking a break from this amazing, but all consuming, endeavor.  As the summer of 2023 unfolded, just out of curiosity, I took a look at the boats that had entered the 2024 race and just for grins took a look at the crew list postings to see who the eager beavers were looking for a ride.  In an unusual crew list posting, a boat that had entered was looking for help to co-skipper and help prepare the boat and crew for the race.  Hmm, that was unexpected and interesting - a good transition from doing this on your own boat to helping someone else do it on theirs.  Since this type of role would take a lot of my free time over the next year I ran it by my wife and she agreed, it was a great fit with my experience/skill set - go for it.  I contacted David, we spoke a bit, went for a sail, he checked my references, and off we went.  It has been a busy past year getting the boat ready for this race.  David is all in.  We spent a bit of time early on talking about the navigator role.  I could add it to my already pretty full plate, we could bring on an experienced navigator, or (at my suggestion) David could take on this role.  Most boats use Expedition software to import weather data and plan routing - skills squarely in David's wheelhouse (tech guru that he is).  David jumped at the opportunity and over the past months has excelled at becoming Expedition proficient and is fully ready to put us on a good route to Hawaii.  For our given course I'll make sure the boat performs as best she can.  We have pulled together a great crew with complementary skill sets (there will be five of us in total) and we've had a great time getting to know one another through our practice sails and races.  The boat is ready.  The crew is ready.  I'm enjoying seeing the excitement from all the first timers (that's everyone but me) and looking forward to another amazing adventure sailing to Hawaii.

Here is the best way to follow along as we race Festina Lente from San Francisco to Hawaii.

YB Tracking Website
https://yb.tl/paccup2024
Note: To show the wind, make sure to click the wind sock icon, and then click Windy.

YB Tracking App
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yb-races/id452193682
Note: To show the wind, make sure to click the arrow icon.

Blog
You're on it! There is a form at the bottom where you can sign up for email updates, so that when we post something new, it shows up in your inbox.

Pacific Cup updates
https://pacificcup.org/news
https://www.facebook.com/PacCup

A few things to keep in mind for those that are new to sailboat racing:

Other than reading this blog, if you want to know how we're feeling on board, look at the wind and where we are pointed relative to it.

Wind speed: Wind below 10kt we will be slow and frustrated. Wind between 10-20kt upwind and 15-25kt downwind is perfect. Wind above 30kt means we are significantly reducing sail and working to manage the boat and avoid equipment failure, but still well within the zone we can handle. We are extremely unlikely to see wind above 45-50kt, but if we do, we will be on a rollercoaster ride.

Wind angle: Upwind (pointed into the wind) means more heel (boat leaning over), stronger apparent wind (the wind + boat speed, which is the wind that you and the boat feel), and typically more bashing into the waves. Downwind means lower apparent wind, less heel, and more surfing of waves.

Temperature: Combine those elements with likely temperatures -- the first third of the race will be quite cold, especially at night, the middle third pleasant, and the last third (a bit too) warm -- and you have a good idea of what life is like onboard.

We're about to kick the boat blog into higher gear as we're finishing up last minute preparations for our departure on Weds. More on that in a future post, but the boat is in great shape, the most major item being a somewhat last minute addition of a pole and the hardware and equipment configuration that requires. Otherwise, my focus has been on dialing in personal gear to stand up to the elements (cold and hot) and ease of onboard routines, provisioning (with our last trip for the most perishable items the day before we set off), taking care of personal items (emergency lists, work to be finished up), and, of course, monitoring the weather.

We've been keeping an eye on the weather and downloading model updates twice a day from as soon as they were available. For the GFS, that's 16 days out, and for the ECMWF, that's 10 days. Having access to data doesn't mean that it's in any way reliable that far out. The first forecasts were tantalizing, showing strong wind at the start, a stable Pacific High, and good consistent wind throughout the course. That has changed many times over the past week as it's bound to do. We've kept an eye on low pressure systems moving east in Alaskan latitudes and a potential tropical storm that threatened to move through the course (and as of now is no longer predicted to appear).

As of now, we are watching for possible lighter winds at the start, which wouldn't be great for a heavier displacement boat. The synoptic scale models might under represent land effects -- we will get a much better view from the higher resolution models like HRRR and PWG 24 hours out from the start. There is also a question as to where the H will settle and how consolidated it will be. Yesterday evening's run showed a large wind hole in the middle of the course, that filled in in front of us. This morning's runs show a much more consolidated H and steadier wind throughout the course, a positive sign.

Starting soon, we will have a lot more models to look at, and will also be able to start comparing the ECMWF ensemble models to see how consolidated the routing is for each component model to the ECMWF forecast. Consolidated routing means more convergence and agreement within the component models, divergent routing means that there may not yet be agreement on the conditions and the headline model is more of an average of disagreeing inputs.

One of our goals for this blog is to not only give technical updates or share the news of the day, but to also try to convey the mindset of what it feels like to be setting of on such a great adventure -- more to come soon.

T-5 days!

-david