Motivated! The monohulls and multihulls faced challenging conditions during the first hour, before the breeze died down, allowing the spinnakers to inject a little spice into a race that had become quite uneventful. Unfortunately... By the third hour, the wind had completely deserted the T-Cup, and some of the smaller boats ended up throwing in the towel. Not us though, and we deployed our secret weapon... the oars! All 4 of us took turns rowing the catamaran forward, using the paddles from the sugarscoops. Success! We even exceeded... 0.5 knots! The girls also tried the mono fins, to rest their arms! Well, we have to admit, by the seventh hour, our morale was a bit low. And as the sun was setting over Bora-Bora, while the current was almost pulling us back, the captain cracked. After working like hell, he wanted a beer and a rest. We started the engines. We didn’t want to miss the party at the Taravana Yacht Club! Some of the crews made it to the end, crossing the finish line in the middle of the night. In the end, the Hobie Cat 777 won in the multihull category. The T-Cup is in keeping with the great events that have taken place on the water in the last few weeks, all of them hosting multihulls. So it was with the Kealaikahiki expedition: without any navigational tools, the sailing pirogues Hokule’a and Hikianalia sailed the 2,800 miles from Hawaii to Tahiti. Now that is some challenge! The same goes for the Tahiti Pearl Regatta (TPR): in its 18th competition, 5 crews raced in sailing pirogues (Holopuni). This emblem of French Polynesia, featured on its flag, had fallen into obscurity whilst the Polynesians retained an undiminished passion for rowing.
