pacific cup preview

There's an undercurrent of resurgence pushing this year's Pacific Cup. Not only is the event rebounding from 2006's 43-boat turnout — the lowest since 1986 — but it's doing it with some bling! This year's field of 61-boats includes a fully-tickled SC 50, a late-model TP 52, a year-old Antrim 40, and what's probably the fastest 45-ft keelboat ever built. Along with all the bling, there are other efforts worthy of a mention for different reasons. The only thing we regret is not being able to get to them all.

The "Broken" Boat — Checkered Past is a customized Wyliecat 39 belonging to Chris Gibbs. Originally from the Bay Area, Gibbs will be sailing under the burgee of Richmond YC, but lives in Hamburg, Germany where he owns a store that sells high-end motorcycle leathers. He made an attempt to do the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers this past winter but when the boat wasn't ready in time, he was forced to abandon the plan and was left with a dilemma. He'd had been sailing the boat on the Elbe River and Baltic Sea, but they just weren't doing it for him anymore. So when he got the committment of long time friends Grant Donesley, Geoff Ashton and Gibbs' father, Larry, the choice was clear — ship the boat to the Bay for the Pacific Cup. Gibbs has known Ashton and Donesley since they were in the merchant marine together, he said, between trading barbs with his wisecracking crew as we talked about their trip. "When they said they were up for it, the decision was made."

There's just a couple quirks to this tale. The first is that Gibbs is paraplegic and needs a wheelchair for mobility. He credits the boat's designer, Tom Wylie, and builder, Dave Wahle, with creating the perfect platform to allow him to continue sailing. Wylie designed some modifications, like a wickedly simply companionway elevator with dogs for Gibbs' wheelchair wheels, that slides on ball-bearing traveler tracks and can be easily raised by hand with the 4:1 ratchet tackles on either side. "It's our fitness program on the way to Hawaii," Gibbs joked. "We don't want any atrophy on this boat. But seriously, Tom did a great job of not making it look 'handi-capable' or some horrendous shit like that." That elevator, coupled with a swiveling race car seat mounted to a carbon fiber tube which plugs into the cockpit floor and weighs maybe 20-pounds all up, makes the boat open enough that Gibbs can negotiate almost every inch of it from his wheelchair. When it came time to work on the interior, Wahle stepped in. He used a vegetable pallet and a forklift to lift Gibbs up and inside the boat the boat where Wahle, told him, "You wheel around, and I'll follow you with a chainsaw." The result is an open layout that easily accomodates Gibbs' chair. Another quirk? Larry Gibbs recently had a steak-sized tumor removed from his back. Another? Ashton is a survivor of both testicular cancer and Lymphoma. And Donesley? Well, he survived two strokes after a blow to the head from his surfboard caused a bloodclot to form in his brain. And the final quirk? These guys are racing for a win in Division B, not a pity party. That's if the group that refers to itself as the "broken" boat can keep from getting in fights over the helmsman's chair. So what's Gibbs looking forward to the most? "When's the last time you got to go 18-knots without a bunch of dickheads in matching shirts screaming at you?" he asks. And guess what he said they'll be wearing for the trip. "Totally — matching shirts."

A 'Checkered Past' with a mai tai future — (l to r) Larry Gibbs, Grant Donesley, Chris Gibbs and Geoff Ashton.

Unfinished business — Encinal YC's Rodney Pimentel is looking at this year's

LATITUDE/LADONNA Pacific Cup as a chance to improve on his first crossing in his Cal 40 Azure — the 2005 Transpac — which didn't goes as well as he would have liked when they finished 10th in their division. "We learned our lessons on routing," he said. "We were very green, but we learned a lot, licked our wounds and we're ready to try again." Pimentel has again recruited childhood-friend Ted Floyd to navigate while adding Coastal Cup daredevil Michael Andrews, who's not only won the national championship in the Santana 22 class, but also raced his down the coast. Pimentel feels that this balance should put them in the hunt. "We're looking for a good, big-air Pac Cup, where the Cal 40 can show its stuff and hopefully shine."

Another motivator — Sailing her Express 27 Elise to Hawaii this year will be Nathalie Criou's just reward for having to endure a less-than auspicious last couple of years. In 2006, Criou was aboard the Barran family's ILC 40 Muriedretta XL on the way home from Kaneohe Bay, when a whale struck the boat and sunk it 400 miles from Hawaii. Criou was barely done surviving that when she was confronted with an another life-threatening situation. Criou — who will be sailing the race with Nathan Bossett — was diagnosed with Sarcoma, a rare cancer. After a year of treatments that made work and sailing impossible, she's a survivor who's dedicating her trip and her efforts to raising funds and awareness for Sarcoma research. As part of a multi-pronged effort, Criou founded the first annual Sarcoma Cup which was sailed June 2829 at Richmond YC. We went to press before the event, so we can't tell you what the outcome was. What we can tell you is that we're impressed. Sailing has redemptive value beyond trophies and it's efforts like this that remind us of that.

Above, 'E.T.' will be back to try and repeat as a division winner — with a new crew for co-owner Todd Hedin. His wife, Liz Baylis, is skipping the Pac Cup to go match racing and designer Jim Antrim will be aboard the Barran Family's 'XL'. 'Azure' (below) and skipper Rodney Pimentel will be looking to improve on their 2005 Transpac showing.

As of this writing, a reassesment of the division assignments and start dates was still in process. The Pacific Cup Yacht Club wisely chose to reevaluate the divison breaks when it was realized that displacement boats were mixed in with ULDBs unnecessarily among the smaller boats. So, we're going to be making our winners picks without knowing if the divisions will stand. But, what the hell — this 2,070-mile classic only comes around every two years. Keep in mind, we're making these subjectively and hoping to disprove the myth of the "Latitude 38 jinx." So here goes:

Doublehanded 1 — (starts July 14) In this division we see Richmond YC/Seattle YC's Paul Disario and his Olson 911 Plus Sixteen winning. Disario and Tony Porche finished second in the Doublehanded Division in 2006 and their main competition that year The Contessa, is in the new Doublehanded 2 Divison this year. None of the other boats apart from the SC 27 Giant Slayer are back this time, so look for Disario and Porche to romp.

Doublehanded 2 — (starts July 15) Speaking of The Contessa, the Swede 55 is a favorite, but with a catch. In 2006, she only had one Moore 24 to deal with. This year she's got three, plus Dylan Benjamin's Dogpatch 26 Moonshine, which took overall honors in the 1994 race under original owners Bill and Melinda Erkelens. If it's a moderate year, and the big boat can put her waterline to use, Shawn Throwe and Neil Weinberg should be able to hold the ULDBs off. But, with this year's race starting three weeks later, we're betting on full-blown surfing conditions and Mark Moore with Rowan Fennell on the Moore 24 Moore Havoc.

Divison A — (starts July 14) There are four strong Cal 40 efforts here. Pick one. Ours is Timm and Victoria Lessley's California Girl. They've won their divison in the last two editions of the race, although there'll be a lot more competition for them this year with two additional Cal 40s boats compared to 2006.

Division B — (starts July 15) We're going to have to go with Checkered Past in this divison. Chris Gibbs has an experienced crew and a simple platform that can gybe on any shift it likes without slowing down, breaking stuff or waking the off-watch.

Maloney's Express 37 Bullet out of the Berkeley Yacht Club is well-sailed and has the least amount of furniture as far as we can tell.

Division D — (starts July 16) This group is packed with talent and preparation. There's also a bit of a waterline gap. If the breeze is moderate, Wayne Zittel's J World J/120 entry could get a jump. With class wins in the Ensenada Race and the Doublehanded Farallones Race, Dean Daniels' Hobie 33 Sleeping Dragon could pose a threat. But, we're going to go with E.T. because we think that after three wins, co-owner Todd Hedin has the chops to win without his wife and co-owner Liz Baylis, and Jim Antrim.

Division E — (starts July 17) This is a tough, tough call. In light air, Chris Calkins and Norm Reynolds' Calkins 50 Sabrina is as pretty as she is slippery. We happened, randomly enough, to sail aboard her under previous ownership on Puget Sound and can tell you she'll sail to her PHRF rating. If she doesn't get hurt by the Pac Cup ratings, she just might reprise her overall Corona Del Mar to Cabo San Lucas Race win earlier this year. Yes, we know Paul Cayard is in this division. If the breeze comes up, his SC 50 Hula Girl should scream. But, we have to think that Hula Girl's rating will be pretty steep on account of all the performance modifications the previous owner made — too steep for a SC 50 in the kind of conditions they seem to excel in. So, we're picking the Barran Family's Antrim 40 XL. Are we crazy betting against a Volvo Ocean Race winner? Probably, but we really like XL. She has an extremely efficient sailplan, a displacement of only about 10,000 pounds, a more modern hull form, and we're banking on the fact that Harry Pattison and Jim Antrim will be on opposite watches. We think the boat fits a broader range of conditions and should really smoke downwind in the breeze. Given that the race is starting three weeks later this year, we're going to hedge our guess for more breeze and go with XL.

Division F — (starts July 19) With world class navigator Adrienne Cahalan joining Brack Duker's crew of Dave Ullman, John Fuller, Brent Ruhne, Mike Herlihy, Keith Kilpatrick, Mark Sims and Sam Heck, the SC 70 Holua is our pick to win this division. In fact, we think there's probably an attorney who would charge that Duker's violated the Sherman Act by hoarding all that talent. He or she would lose, because there's a lot of other talent in the division, principally on Mark Jones', Dick Watts', and Peter Stoneberg's late-model TP 52 Flash, and Chip Megeath's R/P 45 Criminal Mischief, which offshore is quite possibly the fastest 45-ft keelboat on the planet and will be navigated by '06 winning navigator Jeff Thorpe. Still, we have to go with Holua though, believing that they've got age, wisdom and enthusiasm going for them.

First On Elapsed Time — Flash First Overall — Moore Havoc

See you in Hawaii!

— latitude/rg