Pyewacket70 and Callisto set off in the second race start of the 35th Pineapple Cup
by Pineapple Cup 23 Jan 2023 11:03 AEDT
January 21-28, 2023
35th Pineapple Cup - Montego Bay Race © Julianna Barbieri
Pyewacket70, the modified Volvo70 owned by Roy P. Disney and Callisto Racing, owned by Kate and Jim Murray got off to a flying start in the second start of the 35th Pineapple Cup - Montego Bay Race. Both teams crossed the Appleton Estate start line at 1405 ET under sunny skies in a 12-15 knot southwesterly.
Rikki, the third team competing in this year's Pineapple Cup started yesterday as organizers have a staggered start to help ensure teams arrive around the same time into Montego Bay. Tracking will update every 30 minutes at: pineapplecup.com and via the YB Tracking App.
Pyewacket70 is made up of multiple Volvo Ocean Race winners including 2-time America's Cup winner and Olympic sailor Peter Isler, 2-time Volvo Ocean Race winner Tony Mutter along with multiple Volvo Ocean Race competitors Daryl Wislang and Brad Jackson. The full crew list can be found here. Pyewacket has their sights set on the race record for monohulls last set in 2005 by Tom Hill's Titan 12 at 2 days, 10 hours, 24 minutes and 42 seconds.
Prior to the start of the race, Pyewacket Navigator Peter Isler said, "At the start we expect a 20 knot breeze at an amazingly good angle, west of south. So for these two boats starting today, we will rip, record pace across the stream. I was on Titan when we set the record in 2005 and our models say that by the time dawn breaks tomorrow morning, almost 18 hours in the race we will be equal on pace to the record pace of 2005 so it's going to be a really good first bit and then things get a little tricky as we beat down through the Bahamas which was not a feature on the 2005 record run, but it looks like a fairly quick run in from Cuba if all goes well."
Callisto is a Pro-Am crew that also features past Volvo Ocean Race sailors including Justin Ferris, 52 Super Series sailors Jared Henderson and Ian Moore, Melges24 Champion Ansel Koehn and Sydney-Hobart competitors Ricky McGarvie and Mal Parker.
Nigel Knowles, First Rear Commodore of the Montego Bay Yacht Club "With the higher wind speeds, today's second start was very exciting. There was somewhere around 13-16 knots of breeze. Watching both teams hit the start at full speed, especially their take off speed was impressive to see when you're up close to these big boats. They disappeared over the the horizon quickly which was something to behold and hopefully the conditions continue to give the teams a shot at the record."
Tracking is available on the homepage of www.pineapplecup.com and also via the YellowBrick tracking app and will update every 30 minutes. Further updates will be on both Facebook and Instagram.