The 2006 Pacific Cup
San Francisco to Hawaii

Details and Commentary

• We didn't sail far enough south -- This year the Pacific High was positioned so that the light winds were a real problem for everyone that took a shorter, nore northerly route. We were trying to stick with the fleet, and to find the best tradeoff of higher winds versus shorter distance. Our original plan was to sail further south, but as the race progressed we thought we could "cut the corner". This was a big mistake!
• We didn't sail to the boat's polars. By this I mean that, especially while running downwind, we should have been sailing more off-the-wind instead of sailing directly towards the finish line. Of course, we hadn't developed a set of polar performance numbers for VALIS before the race, but a bit of experimentation in the last days of the race showed us how much faster we could have sailed towards the goal if we had been more aggressive.
• We didn't have enough experience with the spinnaker, especially in the higher winds and large Pacific swells. While this year the winds and seas were moderate at best, we found that we were just not up to spinnaker sailing when conditions got even a little bit hairy. We all got a chance to experience the beginnings of the 'Death Roll", and the stress level compelled us to reduce sail long before it was really required.
• We were definitely short-handed -- Trying to hand-steer and trim sails with just four people in a two-week race was exhausting. Yes, we were very aware of the double-handed division, and how these racers hand-steered, some without autopilots, for the whole race. We applaud their accomplishments, and freely admit that we, by comparison, are wimps. So be it! We, on the other hand, spent a lot of time in "cruising mode", with the autopilot steering, and with a more forgiving sail configuration.

In the final analysis, VALIS did a great job, and the crew has a lot to learn. On the bright side, we did make it to Hawaii with no significant gear failures, in comfort, and we all had a great time. We even remained friends during the process! While I don't know if VALIS will race in the next Pacific Cup, I do know that I would trust her to take me anywhere.

Communications and Weather on VALIS

During the last Hawaii trip, I used the Iridium satellite phone for voice calls, used HF radio "SailMail" for email and GRIB weather files, and used HF radio weatherfax for the rest of the weather charts and text forecasts.

This time I wanted to simplify getting the weather information, so I decided to use the satphone for most of my email and weather needs. The original Iridium email tools were marginal at best, usually dropping the connection at the worst possible time and losing all partially-received messages. After some research I signed up for the Global Marine Networks "XGate" email package (http://www.gmn-usa.com/). This system provides fast and robust satphone email connections.

Using Saildocs, I subscribed to the GRIB files I needed for the passage, and to the text high-seas and coastal forecasts. Saildocs will send these to any email address, not just a SailMail one, so I had these sent to the satphone email account. For the weather charts, I created a simple "robot" program that runs on my ISP server, and which gets the latest charts in graphics file format and emails them to my satphone email account daily. In this way, I was getting the GRIB file (surface pressure, wind speed, and wave height), two text forecasts, the surface pressure weatherfax forecast charts for 0, 24, 48, and 96 hours, and the 24-hour wind-wave forecast chart. Receiving all these took about ten minutes, or sometimes more if the satellites passed out of range. It would have taken much longer, and taken much more power, to get all this information the old way. The downside is the cost: Iridium charges about $1.50 per minute of call time.