Well all right now. This is feeling more like a Transpac.

On Saturday morning, the wind started to steady out a bit, and it shifted around to the south. So while it felt a bit strange to be putting up a spinnaker for the first time on a port tack, we here aboard Hula Girl welcomed the opportunity to, well, go for a sail! It had been a tough couple days. We had a 12 hour run (7am to 7pm) somewhere along the line of about 20 miles down the rhumbline. Some 58 miles in 24 hours, and a series of tacks through 130+ degrees?? Are you kidding me? All while looking at the computer and seeing 2100 miles to go! Ouch.

But that is all behind us. Saturday morning we carried the 1A until midday. We had a bit of wind build and a header, and shifted to the Code 0 for a while, then back to the 1A. The breeze shifted around a bit, and we did a couple gybes to keep the boat headed towards Hawaii. Eventually, the wind worked around to the NE, and we ended up going into the night with the 2A up,. more or less VMG running towards the Islands on starboard tack. The Transpac is back!

Ok, well how did we fare in all the fluky shake-up? Hmmm… not so great. A couple of boats punched out (Allure, Horizon, Paranoia), then the rest of us are left slugging it out. We gained some 15 miles on Lucky Duck yesterday, but Relentless was able to keep their delta on us. We got past Hokahey after the breeze stabilized, and that has simply whetted our appetite for more! Regardless, we still have some 1800 miles to go AND our team is really starting to learn the boat. It is always tough for us the first couple days (we run with three J/World coaches and six clients/sailors). This year we have a group of Canadians, plus one Coloradian, who sail everything from Melges 24s to a J/160. I’m very much happy with how well everyone is doing for day 2 of the offshore spinnaker work, so I have high hopes that we’ll reel some of these boats in… but it won’t be easy because, well, this is the Transpac and all of these teams are exceptionally good!

What else to report? In the calm drifter the other night, a couple of whales crept over towards where we were floating. The crew could hear them blowing/breathing in the stillness. The watch captain turned on the engine which (my theory is) makes a lot of noise reverberating in the water (we can run the engine in neutral to charge batteries, just not to propel the boat). It seems to work pretty well… we didn’t see the whales again. Call me hypersensitive, but I think I have reason to be! Sunday afternoon now. Wind 15 knots. Bjug hit 11.5 knots just a bit ago. Sean on the helm right now, doing a steady 10.5 or so. Brian and Steve are crashed out. I think Patrick is pitching our Pepsi/Frito Lay guy some idea about pickles?!? Chris is designing a carbon sax so we’ll let him bring it on the boat. And me, well, I’m going to wrap this up and go outside… I think there’s a race on!

Wayne Zittel and the Hulagains

Hello All –

Just a quick note to let you all know that the dates have been set for our 2015 Offshore Yacht Racing Seminar: October 1-7, 2015.  This is an advanced seven day offshore racing course which includes three days of training in San Francisco, then a 500 mile offshore passage in race mode from San Francisco to San Diego.  While similar in topics to our renowned offshore special events (Transpac, Pacific Cup, Cabo Race, SD to PV Race, etc.), the non-race environment affords us more class time and instructional opportunities.  You really want to learn the ropes of offshore racing?  This is it.

The course is conducted aboard our turboed Santa Cruz 50 Hula Girl, and participants will learn all about racing complex boats in ocean events.  There is no other program like this anywhere in the world.   We have very limited space in this event (four berths currently available).  Visit here for more info on the 2015 Offshore Yacht Racing Seminar, or contact us for the team brief.

The Girl struts her stuff…

Hula Girl Training in San Diego

Hula Girl, heading for Hawaii

Hula Girl offshore with Code 0 and GS flying

Open Ocean Surfing on Hula Girl

Racing weeks at J World are a fantastic way to advance your racing skills and get ready to be more competitive in your local fleet.  These five day programs cover a tremendous amount of information, from sail trim and boathandling to strategy and tactics.  We just finished up another great week at our Puerto Vallarta location.   While the season is wrapping up down south, we’ll be offering theses sessions into the summer at our San Diego and San Francisco locations.

Here are some shots from the week we just wrapped up…

Thanks everyone for joining us in beautiful Puerto Vallarta.  We anticipate great things for each and every one of this group!  Unsolicited testimonials from this group:

• “Had an awesome week.  It was nice to build confidence in the things I did know, and experience the things I didn’t in an on-water learning environment rather than during a race.”
• “Thanks for a great week!  Your coaches did a terrific job. In Chris’ words, ‘best learning experience I’ve ever had, a coach on each boat giving instant feedback’.”

Don’t miss out on your chance to learn the ropes.  You can read all the books you want and spend years of trial-and-error sailing without nearly achieving the results of five days with J/World.  You spent a lot of money on that smooth bottom and those hi-tech sails.  For a fraction of that, we can get you smarter and faster.  J World has some of the best coaches in the world, and have coached tens of thousands of sailors over more than three decades.  Check out our what our clients have had to say about the best sailing program available here, and more info on our racing courses is here.

All the best,

Wayne Zittel and the J/World Team

2015 Newport to Cabo Race Wrap Up

Last week, team J World participated in the Newport to Cabo Race aboard our turboed 50 footer Hula Girl, with a crew comprised of three coaches and six clients.

We stated off close hauled, working south and away from the coast, with breezes generally light and variable.  In the evening, as we got south of Camp Pendleton and down to San Diego, the breeze went soft.  The first night was a huge challenge for a group trying to learn how to sail a boat new to them.  The winds were from all over the place, rarely over a couple of knots, and it was dark (a sliver of a moon was mostly obscured by clouds).

In the morning at roll call, I have to say that I wasn’t terribly surprised that many of the other teams had put some miles on us.  The level of talent out there was very high, and most of these teams have sailed together (and done this race) many many times, so our work was cut out for us!  So as the westerly filled mid morning and we got moving southward again, we had some distance to make up.  But we were ready for the challenge (and Jimmy “goose eggs” really wanted to shake his new nickname).

The breeze built nicely, approaching 20 knots.  In the evening, we decided to shift down to a smaller, stronger spinnaker and changed to the 4A.  Good thing, too, as the breeze continued to build.  By around midnight or 1am, we were seeing 25 knots, with the occasional spike to 28, even 30+ a couple times.  It became a wild ride….  and we almost kept the wheels on the wagon.  Almost.  Right at daybreak, we wrapped our brand new 4A around the headstay.  In the effort to get it off, we lost the tail of the mainsheet, complicating the process.  In time, we got the mainsheet re-run, then manually unwrapped the spin from the headstay.  Unfortunately, the sail was torn, and the headstay crushed.  Argh.

So we sailed under main alone to recover, clean up, and consider options.  We set the 3A spinnaker which was less than ideal, but our only real option.  That lasted most of the day, until we blew that sail up too.  Double Argh.  So trailing our fleet with no heavy air spinnakers, we decided not to try our luck with a light air one going into Monday night (wind still 25 knots), and we could not even raise a jib due to the crushed headstay, so we limped along, main only, waiting for the breeze to lessen a bit.

By first light on Tuesday, we were down to 18-20 knots of breeze, so it was back up with the lighter 2A.  The sailing from then on was just perfect.  Everyone aboard got a ton of helm time with the detailed coaching from Jasper and Andrew.  So while yours truly was frustrated at our overall position, I have to say that looking around the cockpit and seeing all smiles was a thing of great beauty.  Thanks team for helping me keep it all in perspective!

We finished Tuesday afternoon and sailed into gorgeous Cabo San Lucas.  I have to say I am really impressed at how well every did, the levels of improvement all around, and the awesome team spirit everyone demonstrated at every turn.  It was an absolute hoot to sail with old friends again, and really gratifying to see those that were new to offshore racing really get into it.  Thanks tremendously team!

Want to live a real world offshore racing adventure yourself?  In September we will be hosting our annual Offshore Racing Seminar, San Francisco to San Diego.  In February of 2016 there is the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race, and we still have a couple berths left in the 2016 Pacific Cup (San Francisco to Hawaii).

All the best,

Wayne Zittel and the J World Team