West Marine Pacific Cup

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The West Marine Pacific Cup is a yacht race from San Francisco, California to Kaneohe, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. The enjoyable exercise in Yacht racing is run in even-numbered years by the Pacific Cup Yacht Club and sponsored by West Marine.

This "Fun Race to Hawaii" has run for over 20 years with hundreds of boats from 24-foot doublehanders to 140-foot spectaculars, and innumerable family efforts, avid racers, and "sail of a lifetime" efforts in between having sailed the 2090-nautical mile course.

The first start for 2006 will be July 3 at 11:30 am PDT.

Contents 1 How To Participate 1.1 Entry 1.2 Requirements 1.3 Preparation

[edit] How To Participate

[edit] Entry

The Pacific Cup Yacht Club has all the forms necessary to enter the race available on-line. You can do the bulk of your entry process over the web, only mailing in a signed entry form and, of course, a check.

[edit] Requirements

The Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions (get current from PCYC) contain the equipment and other requirements for your boat. These start with the ISAF Special Regulations for Category 1 races, as modified by the U.S. Prescriptions. The NOR and SI's make some modest changes to the regulations in view of the nature of the race.

[edit] Preparation

Getting ready for the race is an effort of several months at a minimum. Typical preparation budgets, from entry fee to post-arrival rum, run from 20 to 60 thousand dollars and up.

With on-water times from seven to seventeen days, twenty-four hours a day, this is the equivalent of running a hundred round-the-buoys races back to back. Reliability, flexibility, and spare parts are the keys to a successful preparation.

The best, and classic, reference for the aspiring Pacific Racer is Jim and Sue Corenman's Pacific Cup Handbook (available from West Marine).

The PCYC provides a set of race tips including some very useful articles.