Heading to the South Pacific is always a big adventure. The pandemic closed most island nations to incoming cruisers, and the variety of national responses only made it more challenging and uncertain. All the signals from the South Pacific indicate normalization continues. and the chart below shows that the first few early starters in the 2023 Pacific Puddle Jump are underway.

Shawna and Kevin Walker aboard their Transpac 49 Meraki 2 from Victoria, BC, started heading west from the Galápagos, and on February 26 reported their latitude as 0 as they crossed the equator! They broke their self-imposed no-alcohol rule aboard to toast the moment with champagne. They’re now continuing on their way south and west toward the Marquesas.

Rob and Nancy Novak left their Oyster 485 Shindig buried in a hole at Vuda Point Marina in Fiji for 30 months before they could return in spring 2022. They’re finally sailing again in Fiji, and many more are again moving freely around the South Pacific. You can read their story on page 96 of the March issue being delivered to our magazine distributors today.

March and April are the peak months for Pacific crossings, so these first few starters will have many more cruisers following in their wake…

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Prior to the Leg 3 start of the The Ocean Race – the 12,750 nm third leg from Cape Town in South Africa to Itajai in Brazil – Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck checked in with 11th Hour Racing Team skipper Charlie Enright for an update:

Due to the race postponement, your boat was effectively designed and launched between nine to 12 months earlier than your competitors. How had the design target moved during the postponement?
That’s actually a really interesting question because we designed our boat to go to China, and New Zealand and back, which were legs that got eliminated after we launched. So we have a much more reaching oriented, all-round boat, than we do a downwind heavy weather big seas boat. And you can see that most in the bow profile.

You had to replace your foils after Leg 2 due to damage. Any answers why?
Well, there’s a bit of science and a bit of art that goes into the design and construction of the foils. And the goal of the first set was to make something big and reliable and robust, and that was a little bit more draggy, a little bit more powerful, but less prone to ventilation and cavitation.

And when those came out and worked exceptionally well, we pushed a bit back in the other direction and tried to go a little smaller, a little less draggy. They were a bit more of a evolution than a revolution with maybe higher top speeds but definitely not as powerful and robust. And it just didn’t work out!

How will the boat behave with the replacement foils?
As it behaved with success for 16 months prior to launching the V2s…

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Cape Town, South Africa (February 26, 2023) – It was an extraordinary ‘stop-go’ type of start to Leg 3 of The Ocean Race in Table Bay as the five-boat IMOCA fleet set out on their 12,750 nautical mile adventure towards Itajaí in Brazil.

The race started with two and a half laps of an inshore course which was plagued by both drifting conditions and full blow as the offshore winds weaved past Table Mountain before reaching the fleet.

A pod of three whales sighted in the original starting area meant the race committee had to make a late change to setting up the race course. The result was a start line with next to no wind.

But with massive wind anticipated beyond the start line, the under-staffed teams had small jibs and two reefs in the main, and were severely under-powered as they limped toward the line. Only Biotherm had the timing right as the other four boats were stranded, just over a hundred metres away.

It wasn’t long before Paul Meilhat’s team found 25 knots of wind gusting around the edge of Table Mountain and his Biotherm team shot away into an impressive lead as the rest of the fleet drifted across the start line well after the start had opened.

Biotherm continued to stretch away to what was almost a 600 metre advantage over the rest of the fleet who eventually hooked into the 25-knot wind and accelerated up to speeds of 30 knots or more…

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It was an unusual Friday in the port of Cape Town, South Africa. On February 24, the five IMOCA boats racing in The Ocean Race faced each other for the first time in the Mother City’s bay, for an In-Port Race (short race in the bay). Holcim-PRB won the race after a fantastic one-and-a-half-hour show!

Launched at full speed, the IMOCA, which welcomed on board the mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, took advantage of variable conditions between 15 and 18 knots to fly several times. The magic worked at the bottom of Table Mountain and the spectators massed on the V&A Waterfront were able to discover for the first time, at home, the formidable machines that are the IMOCAs. More here.

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Hank Easom

Notable yachtsman Harry (Hank) Easom passed away at the age of 88, succumbing to inoperable cancer on February 14, 2023 at home with his family in Tiburon, CA.

A life-long resident of the Tiburon Peninsula, Hank began sailing a Moon boat with his older brother, Bruce, at age eight, but didn’t win his first race against the adults until age 11. At age 13 he landed a job working at Clipper boatyard in Sausalito on condition that he buy a kit and build a 20’ Clipper dinghy.

After buying and building the boat, Hank daily sailed his Clipper from Tiburon to work at the boatyard in Sausalito. As 15-year-old crew, Hank and his skipper won the 1950 Mercury National Championships out of Sausalito Yacht Club.

Hank mustered out of the Coast Guard on March 11, 1955, and the next day March 12, established Easom Boatworks on the historic Marinship waterfront in Sausalito. While continuing to race at every opportunity, often recruiting his workers as crew, he quickly built a reputation for quality.

Hank sailed his classic 8-meter yacht, Yucca from 1964 until 2017. Built in 1937 and raced competitively under his ownership for 53 years, this beautiful wooden sailboat still graces San Francisco Bay. Not surprisingly, Hank’s current racing boat – the 36’ Sabre Spirit Serenade – frequently finds its way to the podium, as well.

Crewing for Hank is a rewarding experience, given the on-board camaraderie and opportunity to hone skills in sail trim and tactics – navigating the nuances of the Bay’s tricky wind and currents. Many of Hank’s crew have gone on to success racing their own boats.

Selected as Yachtsman of the Year by the St. Francis Yacht Club in 1971 and The San Francisco Yacht Club in 1990 and 2014, Hank Easom is the embodiment of gracious Corinthian spirit – which shapes and guides our lives on and off the water.

To recognize this humble hero, the Hank Easom Buoy was installed and dedicated February 9 on San Francisco Bay, creating an enduring remembrance of an exemplary person and sailor on his favorite playground.

Though he was too ill to accompany the voyage, Hank sent Serenade to be first to round San Francisco Bay’s newest weather mark – and christen it with a bottle of champagne. Hank delighted in seeing his buoy from the Sausalito shoreline on two special occasions during the last days of his life, putting a final, big and well-deserved smile on this hero’s face.

In the perfect close to a legendary career, on February 4, 2023, ten days before his passing, in Hank’s final race – the Golden Gate Yacht Club Midwinters – he was first to finish, first in division and first overall. In a competition usually decided by seconds, the next boat finished 30 minutes behind Hank Easom.

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Victoria Dewise Matthews, 65, passed away February 10, 2023 with her husband Randall White alongside at home in Miami, FL.

Some knew her as a daring world class skipper; some knew her as an athletically tireless road cyclist; folks in Southport, North Carolina knew her as Garden Club President; her friends and family knew her as Adventure Vic or when she was very young, as Blip.

Vickie was born in Elkhorn, Wisconsin on April 30, 1957. As a child she excelled in school, both academically and as a leader among kids, serving on the Safety Patrol and occasionally as a substitute for her teacher.

Her diligent piano lessons paid off with state championships and since her piano teacher was also her church’s organist, teenage Vickie became an occasional substitute organist.

Although music captivated her, the family’s Lightning Class sailboat became an obsession. More than once, Vickie would play organ for the morning service, doff her choir robe wearing a bikini underneath, and bike to the lake to race the Lightning. Her passion for cycling and sailing was to continue throughout her life.

After attending Marquette, Vickie held professional positions that drew on her management skills and leadership, including with architects DeStefano Partners and the investigating and risk consulting firm, Kroll—both in Chicago. She served as President of the Lincoln Park Association.

But Vickie worked to sail. On flat water and open ocean swells, sailing was her true vocation. She became a sought-after crew member with some of the top names in competitive sailing, including Buddy Melges, Bruce Goldsmith, Ed Baird, Larry Klein, Betsy Alison, and Betsy Barrett (Altman).

She landed her dream job as manager of Buddy Melges’ boat yard—and would go on to be his favorite spinnaker trimmer.

In 1983, while with Baird and Klein, Vickie competed in the Pan Am Games in Caracas, Venezuela. In 2007, her all-female crew skippered by Betsy Altman, won US Sailing’s Adams Cup. The cup, inscribed with Vickie’s name, is now retired in the US Sailing Hall of Fame.

Vickie competed in regattas from Nova Scotia to San Diego. She sailed the Baltic Sea and circumnavigated the United Kingdom. She is a member of the Storm Trysail Club, and it was through sailing that Vickie met her soulmate and husband, Randy later joining him in Southport—a home that became the basecamp to adventures, both land and sea…

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