So.  Been hanging out down here in Long Beach for a bit as we are preparing for the 2011 Transpac Race.  Yep, 2225 miles from Los Angles in California (wanna be tropical) to the finish line off Diamond Head, Oahu in Hawaii (the truly tropical).  Here is J World’s Hula Girl in the staging area as we prep for the race:

The smaller boats and cruising class took off yesterday (4th of July).  They get a four day head start on the rest of the fleet of larger, faster boats.  So the rest of us leave on Friday, and we’ll do our best to catch the early starters, but they will have a pretty good jump on us so it won’t be easy!  Hula Girl is racing in a fleet of 6 Santa Cruz 50s, with a team comprised of three J World coaches and six crew from all over the world (London, Hong Kong, Canada, and the good ol’ USA).  If you keep tuned into this blog, you’ll meet everyone (virtually) as we progress.  For now, we are deep into preparations, safety briefings, boat orientations, etc. etc…  but we did take a break last night to enjoy the show:

Ok, that’s it for now.  More soon….

Wayne Zittel and the J World Team

First off, congrats to J World alum Geoff for winning their division in the Swiftsure race.  Said Geoff:  “Thanks to you and the J-World staff for the knowledge and skills gained at J-World.”  Good on ‘ya Geoff…  he’s had many successes, and we expect many more.

ReignMaker on the way to a class win…

Meanwhile, I just got back from a couple of day cruise aboard our J/160.  We sailed the impressive J/111 down in San Diego (one sweet and quick ride!).  The AC cats have been tearing up San Francisco Bay…  very impressive machines!  Hula Girl is nearly readied for the upcoming Transpac Race to Hawaii.  And our learn-to-sail and cruising courses are keeping us all busy now that the weather in the Bay Area has turned wonderful.  So that’s what we have been up to…  


…  and I’ll be back soon with more fun stuff that you can get into!


Wayne Zittel and the J World Team

What have we missed??  What possible wind speed, sail combination, and/or wind angle have we NOT seen in the past 700 miles since leaving California  four days ago in the 2011 Newport to Cabo Race?  From upwind in ghostlike zephyrs, scarcely moving a ripple on the face of the Pacific, with every stitch of canvas we can set flying, to charging along on a reach in 20 knots, peeling to the A4 to keep the wheels on the wagon, so to speak.

As I write this we are just a tick over 60 miles from Cabo.  Our fleet is pretty tight, with the SC50 Horizon leading our class, and overall.  We’ve been hammering at the fleet since paying some dues early in the race and are slowly getting back into it.  While we were happy to see the fourth place at roll call this morning, I was also surprised to see that Locomotion really found some wheels overnight and slipped in front of us (I had been optimistically hoping for a third).

But it ain’t over yet.  And with the tight grouping in our fleet and the unstable conditions we’ve been dealing with, anything remains possible!  We are gambling a bit (going to have to to get past the extremely well sailed  likes of Bad Pak and Loco), and it’s all coming down to the next five hours…  if our westerly shift comes in early enough, we can stand to make up some time, but if she’s late coming to the dance, we’ll be reaching hard to the finish…

Beyond that, life is great onboard Hula Girl.  At the moment, nearly our whole crew is on deck.  Drew is driving, mark is trimming, Bev is grinding.  Eric was just good enough to do the dishes after a superb shift driving.  Now it looks like nap time for him.  We have 16-18 knots of breeze and are scooting along at 10-12 (with spikes over 14 in the puffs).  Everyone is hanging tough, and the spectacular night sailing we have been having has blown away most of our crew.  Maneuvers and sail changes are getting better, the driving smoother.  And it shows.  We are hanging pretty close to some teams who have been sailing together for many years, and  thousands of  open ocean miles.  And we’re pretty happy to be here…  this race has been a challenge, and a hoot.  I’m not sure which has been more fun, sailing a challenging event like this against some great teams, or sailing with a group of sailors and watching them become a great team.

Anyway, I have to get going…  I’m going to go on deck and look for signs of that lefty we’re banking on.  For the moment, I’m tired, but happy, and I suspect that’s a sentiment which runs thru our whole team.  That’s not to say a couple simple things like a shower and a Margarita won’t make me happier, but for a stinky, sleep deprived, dehydrated, sun-blasted, wind-chapped, bruised and battered sailor, I’m surprisingly gratified.  And that will stand, leftie or not…

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl Crew

Hoping to get an update from on the boat, but in the meantime, we can guess a little bit…

It appears that contrary to one of the professional weather forecasts obtained by many participants at the start of the race,  including us, the wind is better offshore.  At least, it seems that once around Cedros Island, boats on the outside are making gains on boats to the inside.

Hula Girl, appears to be averaging +1 knot of boatspeed on Horizon for the last couple of hours…  That’s good!  Similarly, Sarasvati appears to be in a band of good pressure, moving along at 8 knots and beginning to compress on the fleet.