The 2016 Pacific Cup will be remembered for the big wind and seas that challenged some racers with broken boats and bodies, but pushed many in the fleet to record breaking passages. I personally loved the experience of sailing an offshore with the sights of San Francisco at the start, and approaching the island of Hawaii at the finish, 2070nm later.

Manouch Moshayedi’s super maxi Rio100 sped across the Pacific to set a new Pacific Cup Fastest Passage record. With an elapsed time of 5 days, 2 hours, 41 mins and 13 seconds, Rio100 knocked two hours off the record set in 2004 by Robert Miller, whose 139-foot Mari Cha IV finished with an elapsed time of 5 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes and 10 seconds. Congratulations to the Rio team!

We did the race on board Varuna VI in 5 days, 20 hours, 42 minutes, 19 seconds. In my mind we left about 12 hours on the race track, but it was an awesome experience with a fantastic team. We did get a little scrape on the way, but nothing that halted our speeds across the Pacific. Check out the video here.

The boat is now packed up and ready to head to Sydney for the Rolex Sydney Hobart this year. I am in England, and will head to Cowes Week in the next few days, before flying back to Australia for Hamilton Island Race Week.

Looking forward to a few good weeks of racing ahead.

Cheers,

Lindsay