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.

How To Participate

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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.

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.

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.

Yachting races