Pineapple Cup: Wizard takes line honors in IRC & Sin Duda! takes line honors in PHRF
by Pineapple Cup 31 Jan 21:31 PST
31 January 2019
Lindsay Duda's Santa Cruz 52 Sin Duda! crossed the finish line in Montego Bay at 12:03:39 ET this afternoon to capture line honors in the PHRF fleet of the 34th Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race. 2 hours 20 minutes and 58 seconds later the second Santa Cruz 52, Renegade, finished just off the Montego Bay airport. The remainder of the PHRF fleet arrived throughout the day with less than 8.5 hours separating the first team from the last.
Peter and David Askew's Wizard took line honors in the IRC fleet when they crossed the line at 17:57:13 for an elapsed time of 3 days 3 hours 52 minutes and 13 seconds. The remaining IRC teams are still on the racecourse and expected in the early hours of Friday morning.
Lindsey Duda, owner/skipper, Sin Duda! was thrilled with their finish in what was the first time for the entire team and boat to compete in the Pineapple Cup. The team who hail from Chicago and call the Chicago Yacht Club home were especially delighted to be out of the polar vortex.
Of their race Lindsey said, "It was excellent we saw a little bit of everything. We literally went through our entire sail inventory. We had a blast, it was challenging, it was very challenging, it wasn't your typical trade winds race. There were a lot of navigational strategic decisions to be made and I think we made a lot of them right, so we're stoked to get line honors and be here. It was a really fun race and the first time for everyone on the boat. For the first two days, everyone was like this was not what we saw in the brochure - it was kind of cold and miserable, but once it cleared up and we went through the windward passage with great pressure and started ripping downwind it was really fun. And then today the finish was a blast."
This was Tom Slade and his Santa Cruz 52 Renegade's eighth Pineapple Cup, but the first where they had a sister ship to race against. Although Renegade is set up for cruising versus Sin Duda!'s set up for racing, the crew on board Renegade pushed hard to keep in close contact with Sin Duda!. Slade said, "The fact that one of our sister ships was racing with us made us happy and we were glad that they were out there with us and wanted them to do really well. They're a race boat and we're just a cruising boat, so we wished them well so we just did our work and we were surprised we did as well."
Starting 28 hours after the PHRF fleet, the Volvo70 Wizard was first across the line in the IRC division shortly before 6pm on Thursday. Although the team spent a lengthy amount of time in a wind hole, Peter and David Askew's crew made up multiple Volvo Ocean Race sailors were still pleased with their performance.
Tactician Charlie Enright said, "We enjoyed some champagne sailing with bohemian tactical challenges. We felt like we lost a day of our life, like 24 hours of basically being parked up in a transition zone. But, it was an unbelievable start and great finish. The post frontal bombing across the gulf stream at 24 knots where we kept pace with Argo for at least two seconds - was great and then we had some awesome sailing through the windward passage. We did the race in 2017 and came back for good reason. You can't always pick the forecast, but we still had a good race and good time and good group. The hospitality when you get here is absolutely amazing, sailing down the Windward passage is really sick."
Full provisional results can be found here. The official Awards Dinner will be held tomorrow evening at 7pm at the Montego Bay Yacht Club where the Pineapple Cup will be presented.
For more information, please visit pineapplecup.com