The standings tell the story, but not the whole story. It's easy to see Velvet Hammer at the top of the standings, Azure dominating her hard-fought division, and double-handers Accelerando and Moonshine topping their respective divisions, for example. However, the real story can be read in our participants' faces on shore.

"Squallmageddon" was the phrase used by one boat (Gilligan) to describe some of their experiences. Gilligan, perhaps named with less irony than intended, was in the middle of the 2024 Pacific Cup's windy race to Hawaii.

After a deeply frustrating, almost windless first two days of racing, the wind picked up and built to a fairly constant wind strength in the 20s and sometimes 30s. Those of us at home could comfortably click on the wind chart and see a civilized 17 knots, but those at sea found the wind a bit higher.

Finishing at a bit before 3 pm Hawaiian time today, the Boss has clinched first in PHRF 3, and has a solid hold on PHRF overall and a third in the Pacific Cup.

Originally expected for Saturday, Pac Cup organizers are bracing themselves for over a dozen finishers today, many resolving some hard-fought contests on the race course.

With 17 double-handed boats starting, Pac Cup continues its strong tradition of this kind of racing. While sailing with only two on board can be a tremendous, and exhausting, task, the weight saved on the boat (figure 500 lb per person with food and gear) can be significant.

The last 24 hours have seen the leading edge of our 2024 finishers. Velvet Hammer, Lucky Duck, and Saga led the pack. We got a few hours of drinking rest and we started to see more boats trickle in.

The "200 mile live" tracker page is now an option on the Pac Cup tracker site (https://pacificcup.org/track)

Boats within 200 nm will appear on the page without the 4-hour tactical delay. That delay is one that has been applied since we started using trackers in about 2006. Its purpose is to preserve the "shooting in the dark" aspect of offshore racers, where we normally don't know where each other are till hours later.

"First across the line" is a great feeling, and Velvet Hammer (crowned) seems poised to collect it, along with an anticipated clean sweep of race honors. "Not so fast," say Saga (purple) and Rage (yellow), who started a day later but threaten to overtake the Hammer at the line.

While the fast boats in the ORR divisions get attention due to being, well, faster, the core of the Pacific Cup is hot on their heels. The vast majority of the participants are racing under PHRF and include everything from heavy ketches to lightweight J-boats and everything in between.