Breaking News
Local Sports

Vic-Maui: Peligroso first to Lahaina

By Dakota Grossman 3 min read

After sailing for 9 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes and 19 seconds, the Peligroso made it to Lahaina Harbor from Canada, the first yacht to complete the 2,308 nautical-mile Vic-Maui International Yacht Race.

Around 6 a.m. Saturday morning, skipper Doug Baker and his crew sailed into West Maui after starting from Victoria, British Columbia, earlier this month. The transpacific race, which was first contested in 1965, runs every two years but had not been held since 2018 after 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic.

Though the Peligroso, of California's Long Beach Yacht Club, was the first boat in, the trophy for the gold medal winners won't be officially announced until July 23 after the judges analyze all the results -- crews had staggered starts from July 4 to 6.

"The race was a little different for us being that we started in Victoria and not down south at either San Francisco or L.A. That in itself creates a different race where you have to sail down the coast and in this particular case, we had to sail a fair way down the coast almost to the California border before we headed towards Hawaii," Peligroso crewmate Ernie Richae said. "That piece of the race was much lighter than we'd normally have sailing down the coast, so it was challenging in that manner."

The Phoenix from Vancouver, British Columbia, was leading during this early portion of the race but didn't go as far south as the Peligroso before veering toward Hawaii, which perhaps "allowed us to be in a little bit more breeze than they had," Richae said.

One boat represented Hawaii, the Lurline of ​​Kaneohe Yacht Club, but the crew had to withdraw from the time-limited race on Friday after suffering from low-wind pressure, according to race organizers. This required Lurline to turn on the motor, which disqualifies them.

Vic-Maui challenges navigators to "demonstrate their weather routing and navigational skills," according to the website, and success depends on the navigator's skill in predicting pressure zones and trade winds.

Along the way, the racing fleet came across dolphins and whales, witnessed moonbows, caught large ahi and dodged fishing nets and other debris.

Last week, many boats were reportedly sailing further south to get away from "near-zero winds" and once entering Hawaiian waters, also dealing with conditions created by Tropical Storm Darby that passed by the Hilo side of Hawaii island.

About 700 miles away, the Peligroso extended its lead before entering Maui's channel.

Among its 12-member crew, Peligroso's experience doing trans­pacific sailing trips is in the hundreds, but only one had done Vic-Maui.

"It was a little bit different than a typical transpac. There was a pretty big impact from the storm -- not quite as squally as normal, not the typical cloud streaks or squalls," Richae said. "From there, we worked our way south, and the last night we finished with about 20 to 24 knots of breeze, which wind speed is a little more normal but still not the typical transpac race because of the system what was coming from the south of us."

And if the nearly 10-day sailing journey wasn't long enough, the crew planned to board the Peligroso and make their way to Oahu later in the day to pick up their delivery crew before heading back home to California.

As of 1 p.m. Sunday, Phoenix was the closest to joining Peligroso to the finish line at 518.6 nautical miles from Lahaina. Phoenix was trailed by Amun-Ra (640.4).

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com.

Starting at /week.