J World is proud to have one of the
most famous sleds on the West
Coast in our stables. Hula Girl is a turboed Santa
Cruz 50, designed and built the the Wizard himself, Bill Lee.
Formerly named Gone With The Wind, this boat has been
continually updated and is now faster than ever before.
With a carbon rig and updated appendages (a "T" keel and
carbon rudder
designed by Bruce Nelson), there is simply no better SC50.
The boat has tremendous speed potential.... she is
notorious for her 2003 Coastal Cup run, where she came into
Catalina Island three hours before the next Santa Cruz 50 or 52,
hitting a top speed of 27.5 knots and correcting out first in
front of Pegasus, TP52s, and all other Class-A boats...
and see below for Roy Disney's account of the speed of these
boats.
Most recently, Hula Girl was Paul Cayard's personal boat.
After an extensive search for a well-sailing offshore boat,
one of the most accomplished sailors in
the world bought Hula Girl and performed an extensive
re-fit prior to the 2008 Pacific Cup. Said Paul in an
email from the boat during that race: "...this thing flies! With
such a long and narrow hull the boat likes to sail low and fast. At the moment we have 19 knots of wind and are surfing down
waves at a comfortable 14.5 knots. It's just incredible how
responsive the boat is, especially as the breeze increases."
J World runs fully-coached, turn-key programs aboard Hula Girl in the
following events:
The boat is available for charter in many events, including
those listed below. Individuals interested in chartering
Hula Girl for any of these events (or an event not listed
here), please contact us.
Hula Girl Gallery
About Hula Girl and the Santa Cruz 50s:
The SC 50s are known to be about the fastest 50 footers around.
Their long narrow hulls and ultra-light displacement makes them
a real pleasure to sail. Here are some great testimonials
about the boats:
From an Interview with Roy Disney
Sailing World Magazine, 2003
SW: What’s your all-time speed record?
RD: It’s hard to say. If you want an instantaneous thrill-meter
reading... we always keep the averaging on the speedo turned way
up. But on the Santa Cruz 50, when we’d turned it down, I
saw 28.5 one time in the middle of a moonless night when it felt
like I was going straight down.
SW: Were you a little nervous?
RD: I was scared s--tless. But it was so dark that we had
to turn the bow lights off because it gave people vertigo.
All that was there was the compass and one little teeny old B&G
with numbers about half an inch high.
SW: Did you believe what you were seeing?
RD: Well it went from 12 to 18 to 28.5 about as fast as I can
tell you that. Then started to subside again. It really felt
like we were going straight down a cliff or something. We called
it the black hole.
Hula Girl Update from the 2008 Pacific Cup
Paul Cayard - Friday, July 25, 2008
At 0830 this morning we had 50 miles to go and we had just got
finished dealing with the morning squalls. They were pretty mild
this morning. We were hoping for a bit more really, to give us a
chance to pass the Raindrop for first to finish. Raindrop is the
only boat ahead of us. They are just 36 feet long, racing in the
double handed division which started about 5 days ahead of us.
They have been out here for a while! Maybe they deserve to the
honor of finishing first.
We had a good night including some white knuckle driving by
yours truly in 28 knots of wind with the A4 up. Boat speed was a
pretty steady 18 knots with peaks at 20. Again, I am impressed
with how well this boat performs!
Amazingly, we had no major damage onboard during the race. Not a
torn sail, not a broken batten, never got kelp on the keel or
rudder. We did have some normal wear and tear and we did break
one masthead spinnaker halyard that required Robbie Kane going
up to the top of the mast to drop a new one in 20 knots of wind.
He is a "pro" with a great future!
Molokai is in sight off to our left as we are aiming at Coco
head on Oahu. The wind is just 14 knots as usual at this time of
the morning. It will build a bit as the morning goes on.
With the finish to our voyage hours away, I am thinking about
how this was just a dream a year ago. I have to admit, it was a
lot more work and time consuming that I thought it would be.
That was mostly my fault as I wanted to modify and improve the
boat which created a huge amount of work for my friends. But the
boat is a nice boat to sail.
My goals with this project were: to share a sailing adventure
with my children, that none of us will ever forget. Also, the
goal was to expose them to the great world of offshore sailing,
the beauty of nature at sea, and the teamwork and camaraderie
that is crucial to a winning team. Along with mine, I took four
other outstanding young adults, all of whom thoroughly enjoyed
the experience and have gained a lot out of it for sure. Mission
accomplished...
...So this afternoon, we will finally taste that Mai Tai, the
one we worked so hard for. It will probably taste pretty good.
Might have to have a second one just to make sure of how good it
is.
I am happy with myself for making this happen. For sure it cost
some money, and for sure it took a lot of time, but as they say
in the commercial: Priceless!
Farallone Islands Race
by Scott Grometer
When
we finally rounded the island and headed downwind back toward
the city, we popped up a sizeable 3/4 oz. spinnaker in a steady
25 knots of wind. When the chute set, the helm suddenly went
light, there was this incredible surge of acceleration, and a
tremendous roar of noise silenced all conversation as the boat
began to lift. I was in a state of near paralysis. I had never
experienced anything like this on a boat this size, and was
totally unprepared for what ensued. When I glanced at the VDO
instrument repeater on the mast, I could not believe my eyes:
16, 17, 17.5, and finally a peak at 19+ knots. The Sat Nav (this
was pre-GPS) corroborated these readings. These were not
momentary blasts while surfing down swells either. Indeed, the
boat would actually accelerate up and off the crests, not just
down them. A rooster tail was coming off the stern, and the
owner must have sensed my disbelief when he turned to me and
said "now you know why Bill Lee says, 'fast is fun'."
('odd' years)
