January SSSS General Meeting: Race to Hawaii

Racing to Hawaii in the Pacific Cup

January SSSS General Membership Meeting

For our January 10 general meeting, join Reese Cassal and Jason Vannice for a discussion on racing Mako in the 2022 Pacific Cup. The Pacific Cup is a yacht race from San Francisco, California to Kaneohe, Hawaii on the island of Oahu.

Their process started in 2019, originally to be sailed on Jason’s J/35 Altair. After the 2020 race was cancelled due to COVID-19, Reese and Jason decided to step up the program a few notches and purchased Mako, a Sydney 38 with a winning history in the Bay Area.

With the help of the combined Redline/Altair crews (and their supportive families) they set to work getting the boat and crew ready for an offshore campaign. This included updating aging systems, stripping the old failing bottom paint, racing over 600 Salish sea miles in the first year of ownership, and going through the lengthy safety equipment requirements.

Reese and Jason will provide an overview of the highs, lows, and challenges overcome to get to the starting line. They’ll discuss the race itself with midnight squall’s, whale sightings, epic surfing on hurricane remnant waves, catching garbage on the keel, the finish reception in Kaneohe Bay, and the trip home.

The PacCup race team consisted of: Jason Vannice, Kyle “Reese” Cassal, William “Bill” Kelly, Tom Keehan, and Scott Schoch. Additional delivery crew: Kuba Bednarek, Joshua Hansel, Matt Powers, and Em Jones. More pictures and stories at https://www.makosailing.org/ 

Jason is a local rigger and owner of Aloft Marine LLC. A lifelong cruising sailor, familiar with the Washington/Oregon coast and the Salish Sea, he discovered the joys of racing only about 12 years ago (at Dave Knowlton’s urging).

Reese is the Chief Demographer for Esri. After growing up on Midwest lakes he moved to Olympia in 2004. He got his start racing with Dan O’Brien on I-5 and has been on the water as much as possible ever since. 

Meeting Details

The meeting will be in-person at the Olympia Yacht Club located at 201 Simmons St. NW.    

Doors will open at 6:30 pm and the meeting will begin at 7:00 pm. The meeting is open to both members and non-members, so invite your crew, dock mates, neighbors, and others who are interested in sailing.

Non-OYC members may park in the parking lot on the corner of Simmons and 4th Ave, which is to the west of the Oyster House.

We hope to see you there.