We hate Fridays as of late.

Last Friday morning, we sat in a hole off San Nicholas Island and watched our fleet sail away from us, taking a 60 mile lead which we have been hammering at since then. We were in last place in the 2013 Transpac, racing to Hawaii at that point. Since then we managed to pick off boats every day, and were sitting in 6th as of yesterday morning with a couple more boats in our sights. The breeze was great thru the night and the moon was spectacular. At the 6am position report on Friday, we were about 700 miles from the finish.

Mid morning, things started to get weird. A line of squalls moved thru the area, and in the vortex behind them, the wind went funky. It died then shifted to the south, then died again, and shifted to the SE, then to the E, then I can’t even remember…. and so on for some three hours. Our team rocked it, changing sails to each new wind and keeping the ‘Girl moving. Finally, after a lot of hard work, the new breeze filled form the Northeast and we were off again. It was pretty painful to be going so slowly for that long, and we were hoping that our competition might be dealing with the similarly unstable conditions. Unfortunately, at this morning’s roll call, we found that it looks like we were likely the only ones who chanced upon that unstable area… well, maybe the SC52 Relentless did, since they were somewhat nearby and they lost a lot of time too. The ‘Pacific Glue Pot’ is what Geoff named it.

So today we are back at it…. we know we can catch and pass a couple of these boats, but we just hope there is enough racecourse left. With only 500 miles to go, the clock is ticking…

Beyond the lumps we took, it’s been stunning out here. Beautiful and mild weather, a fun boat, and a great crew. The moon is approaching full and the skies have been clearing up, so nights are fantastic. We are just past the breakfast hour at the moment, with Jimmy driving and Mario trimming. It’s starting to get warm out there, feeling pretty tropical. At least with the lighter breezes, we care able to open hatches and get some nice breeze thru the boat in the afternoons. Lots of flying fish, a couple of lonely seabirds out here in the big blue… and that’s about it. We’ll probably start seeing more boats as we get into the bottleneck approaching Hawaii, but the fleet is still really spread out.

That’s it for now… more soon…

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Team

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So here’s the skinny.

After a horrible escape from coastal California, we have been rumbling along aboard Hula Girl in the 2013 Transpac. It’s been an interesting and funky race, and it’s going to remain that way for a bit, or so it seems. For our fleet, after carrying light spinnakers before we drifted out of sight of the start line, we finally got into some good breeze, mostly from the north… and so it has remained. Usually, as we cross the ridge and get into the SE corner of the Pacific High, the breeze pretty quickly shifts around to the NE and we start the long VMG run to Hawaii. But not so this year. It’s been super reachy. A couple days with the Jib Top, then we are pushed into day three with the 1A spinnaker, a flat cut reacher, and our staysail. Good news for some of the other boats out here that like the reachy stuff, but our ultralight Santa Cruz 50 is a bit tender and excels more in the downwind mode. Early this morning, the breeze shifter around a bit and we finally set the big 2A spinnaker.

But we had a couple awesome days of sailing. Mostly 15-8 knots, with breeze increasing to 18-22 in the evening, and we have been cutting it up on the Pacific swells. We had one snorting, chuffing 30 knot puff and Tom got the Girl up to 19.4 knots, top speed so far this trip. Pretty comfy aboard, but a bit noisy when we really get moving, and everyone is getting used to that. Had a wonderful dinner of home made Lasagne (ok, ok, so it was freeze dried). Everyone has been doing a great job and making significant improvement… which is good since the nights are still pretty dark (there is a bit of moon, but lots of cloud cover). Mario at the wheel right now, with Dave trimming, James grinding, and watch captain Geoff providing parental supervision.

It looks like the “big boys” behind us are diving pretty far south… I’m curious how much of that is a push for boatspeed (cracking off a bit really makes a big difference) combined with the farther north than usual wind direction, or how much of it is a result of their expectation of more wind down there as the week progresses? We’ll see…. it’s going to remain a bit strange. There is a big ol’ blowing low pressure north and west of Hawaii that looks like it might affect the winds a bit, and a developing /expanding high near the racecourse…. but the computer generated forecast models (‘Gribs’) and the meteorologists seem to be disagreeing on the precise impact to our winds. I’ve got a guess, but I’ll leave it at that for now!

More soon…

All the best,

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Team

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Ok, it’s summertime in California and to fans of offshore racing, that means it’s time to get ready for the epic race to Hawaii…  TRANSPAC!  Our J World team of coaches is now in Long Beach getting ready for our start this coming Thursday.  We have a fantastic team of six sailors and three coaches aboard Hula Girl, and we are lining up against a truly world class fleet.  Not only do we have boats ranging from a 70′ tri and a 100′ super maxi, but we have a long list of top tier rocketships.  Our class alone has five Santa Cruz 52s and four Santa Cruz 50s making the crossing, and it is sure to be hotly contested!

Racers arriving and prepping at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach

Hula Girl from aloft during a rig check… all those bags along the dock are all our sails.  The full racing inventory includes 18 sails!  Part of the trick is to take a good look at the weather and leave as many as we can behind (some weigh 50 pounds or more) and every little bit that we can make the boat lighter really helps!

Hi friends and fans of J World:  our San Francisco Bay location is now hiring instructors.  It’s a great opportunity to work for the industry leader in sailing education, training, and experiences.  Interested individuals should email us at info@sailing-jworld.com.

Last week J World San Diego hosted a racing clinic prior to San Diego Yacht Club’s signature regatta, the Yachting Cup.  This year marked the 41st running of this premiere regatta, bringing together competitive fleet and one-design racing.  We scheduled three days of practice with our coaches for a group of students from around the US – and the world) before the regatta…  Sika gets the distant traveler award for joining us from Taiwan!   Three of our J/80s were entered into the one design class to compete against six other boats of seasoned racers.

The clinic gave our students a variety of conditions to work with including some typical San Diego light air and ample sun, along with some more atypical breeze, seeing some gusts over 20 knots.  Our coaches used a combination of classroom lectures and on the water practice to push our students to learn and improve their boat handling, sail trim, strategy, tactics, spinnaker work… and of course a whole day of starting practice!

After all that hard work (we could only practice so much) we had to get out there and race!  Yachting Cup’s two days of racing were held at the Coronado Roads just outside of San Diego Bay.  SDYC’s race committee planned short windward-leeward courses and had scheduled four races on Saturday and three for Sunday.

On day one, with a late season low pressure system passing through, we were seeing 15 knots of southerly breeze while rigging boats in the morning, and so we knew it was going to be a lumpy and bumpy ride!  Our boats had a fast (and very wet) day sharing our start with six of the new J/70s and only getting off three races.  Day two was forecasted to have even more wind, but luckily (or not?) it never really showed.  Instead there was plenty of San Diego’s infamous “May Gray”.  The slightly more mild breeze still kept tacticians and the race committee on their toes with some big wind shifts.  Maybe a weatherman in San Diego isn’t the easiest job in world after all?

J World’s boats ended up finishing 4th, 5th, and 7th in the J/80 class.  I think it is safe to say that everyone, including the coaches, also finished with a big grin on their faces (and sore hands!) after such a competitive weekend of sailing.  Great job Erwan, John, Gary, Sika, and Jim!

– Andrew LaPlant and the J World Team