Victoria to Maui Yacht Race

The Victoria to Maui International Yacht Race (Vic-Maui), the longest offshore sailing race off the west coast of North America, is the pinnacle of Pacific Northwest ocean racing. First contested in 1968, the Vic-Maui runs every second year, starting in June or July off Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and finishing near Lahaina, Maui, United States, a distance of approximately 2,308 nautical miles (4,274 km).

Vic-Maui challenges navigators to demonstrate their weather routing and navigational skills. Success depends on the navigator's skill in predicting where the Pacific High pressure zone and trade winds will be, nearly a week into the future.

History

The first Vic-Maui race was sailed in 1965. The race was created by RVYC member Jim Innes, at that time a pilot for Canadian Pacific Airlines. He talked about the idea of a race originating in Victoria and ending some 2308 nautical miles away in Maui, and convinced three other skippers to start with him off Brotchie Ledge in 1965. With Jim in his Lapworth 36' "Long Gone", there was Lol Killam of RVYC with the 45' sloop "Velaris", Ron Ramsay of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club with the 45' ketch "Norena of White" and Boo Paskel from Seattle Yacht club with his 73' ketch "Tatoosh". The race and the weather were typical for most of the races to follow. Westerlies in the Juan de Fuca Strait, left turn down the coast to about the latitude of San Francisco followed by a right turn with the northeasterly trade winds filling spinnakers and the downhill sun run to Maui. Three boats finished the race some 15 days later at Kahalui Harbour on the north coast of Maui with the fourth "Tatoosh", having used the iron spinnaker greeting the three arrivals with Mai Tais.

Yacht racing

Yacht racing is a form of sport involving yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marked by buoys or other fixed navigational devices or racing longer distances across open water from point-to-point. It can involve a series of races when buoy racing or multiple legs when point-to-point racing.

History

Yachting, that is, recreational boating, is very old, as exemplified in the ancient poem Catullus 4:

The yacht you see there, friends,
says that she's been
The fastest piece of timber ever seen;
She swears that once she could have overhauled
All rival boats, whether the challenge called
For racing under canvas or with oars.

(trans. James Michie)

“Yacht” is referred to as deriving from either Norweigian ("jagt"), Middle Low German ("jaght") or from the Dutch word jacht, which means “a swift light vessel of war, commerce or pleasure. The sporting element in the word lies in the derivation of jaght from the root jaghen, which means to hunt, chase or pursue….”