SANTA CRUZ YACHTS DOMINATE 2010 PACIFIC CUP AT HALFWAY
July 14, 2010

Southern Californian “Horizon” Leads the Pack While Pegasus, Limit Post 400-Mile Days

Pacific Ocean – Bill Lee, the wizard of “Fast is Fun,” must be smiling. Three of his iconic Santa Cruz 50 designs occupy the top three spots as the fleets pass the halfway mark in the 2010 Pacific Cup.

Horizon, from Dana Point and skippered by Jack Taylor, enjoys the position of first in her division and first overall. “From the beginning, Horizon showed a close attention to detail in their race program,” noted Pac Cup Commodore Michael Moradzadeh, “this attention is paying off nicely at this point in the race.”

Second in division and overall is Deception, a San Francisco area-based Santa Cruz 50 hailing out of Monterey, California. Skipper William Helvestine and his all-local crew spent a number of tense hours when a leak at the rudder post allowed a modest flow of water, about 20 gallons per hour, into the boat. While the crew easily kept up with the influx, they were doubtless pleased to report as of Tuesday evening that they had managed to stem the flow. Despite the issues, they managed to maintain this great position in the race.

J World’s Hula Girl, the former Hula Girl outfitted and raced in 2008 by master sailor Paul Cayard, has climbed into third overall under a mixed team of instructors from the J World sailing school in Alameda, California. J World acquired the boat last year to use in this activity and has been improving steadily in performance over the last several days.

Fast: At the top of the roster, our fastest boats, in Division E, have been accomplishing eye-popping runs of 400-plus miles per day. Alan Brierty’s Limit, a 63-foot Reichel/Pugh design hailing from Sydney, Australia has consistently been the fastest thing on the water with hourly average speeds frequently exceeding 20 knots. Hot behind him is record-holder Philippe Kahn aboard Pegasus MotionX 50, regularly posting runs nearly as good. However, it’s Criminal Mischief, a Reichel/Pugh 45 from Tiburon, California under Chip Megeath, that leads the division on corrected time on the strength of his 350-mile days. Second in that division is Mirage, Hector Velarde of Peru.

Racer blogs, tracking and updates can be found on the race website at PacificCup.org.

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