 |
||||||||||||||
|
Press Release No. 10 Transpac Adds Second Daily Roll Call |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
41th Biennial Transpacific Yacht Race / Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpacific Yacht Club, Sandy Martin, Commodore May 7, 2001 Transpac Adds Second Daily Roll Call t's going to be harder to hide in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race, which starts June 25 through July 1. Sailing Instructions just issued require each boat to report its position during a fleet roll call twice a day instead of once, as before. Traditionally, competitors sail south of the rhumb (direct) line to avoid the Pacific High, an ever-moving zone of high pressure that creates a floating desert of light wind between Los Angeles and Honolulu. Because all boats monitor the race radio frequency, navigators sometimes will call for a course change soon after roll call to slip away from rivals. Now that 24-hour headstart is cut in half. According to the Sailing Instructions, now available in hard copy and on the event Web site, www.transpacificyc.org, the communications vessel Alaska Eagle will start morning roll call at 0830 hours PDT and evening roll call at 1815 hours PDT. Boats will be required to give their positions as of 0800 and 1800. There is a history of boats reporting false positions to gain a strategic advantage, but in recent years the rules have prohibited that ploy. Any boat failing to answer roll call or report its position correctly will be penalized by the addition of 10 minutes to its elapsed time for each infraction. With the accuracy of the modern Global Positioning System (GPS), there is no longer a reasonable excuse for reporting a false position. However, as a safety precaution, each boat's navigator is still required to plot a position using a sextant for celestial sightings four times during the race. Transpac official Dale Nordin said, "Your backup is celestial, and you need to know how to use it." Ragtime, Merlin Will Make it a Record Dozen Ragtime has joined another honored old-timer, Merlin, to sail into history as the first boats to race 12 Transpacs, breaking a three-way tie they shared with the Cal 40 Montgomery Street. Neither boat sailed the 1999 race. That was the first one missed by designer Bill Lee's original 66-foot splinter Merlin since it launched the ultralight revolution in 1977, setting a record of 8 1/2 days that stood for 20 years. Ragtime, the black kauri wood Spencer 65 with the low, sleek profile, won Barn Doors in 1973 and '75. Ragtime, owned by Scott Zimmer since '97, is under charter to Owen Minney of Newport Beach and former owner Trisha Steele of Hawaii. She is the daughter of former Transpac campaigner Richard Steele and granddaughter of Harry and Grace Steele, who skippered Odyssey in races from 1947 to '61. Tricia Steele was skipper of the "Tres Hermanas" (three sisters) entry in '79. With her nephew, Paul Buettner, 29, on board, this will mark four generations of Steeles in the race. The syndicate is named "Hui Holokai," which translates loosely from Hawaiian to "seafaring gang." Steele describes Ragtime, built in New Zealand, as "a Polynesian sailing canoe." She also did Transpac on Ragtime in '83 and sailed it in the recent Newport-to-Ensenada Race, finishing seventh on elapsed time. Merlin, now owned by restaurateur Al Micallef of Ft. Worth, Tex., has a new name -- Merlin's Reata -- and a new look featuring spectacular graphics. Reata, the name of Micallef's restaurant chain, means lariat in Spanish. "We're trying to resurrect the old dog," said Steve Curran, who is associated with Micallef in the project. "New cabin top, new cockpit, new interior, the rig was changed in '98 and the keel in '97." This will be Micallef's first Transpac.
A Boat With Real Beef The Transpac requires all entries to be launched and sailed by June 1, but veteran racer Seth Radow of Marina del Rey had an unusual reason to ask for an extension: foot-and-mouth disease. No, not Radow. His Sydney 40 OD-T was built in Australia and scheduled to be shipped to the U.S. in good time to arrive for final rigging and outfitting. "Shipment was delayed due to, of all things, the beef scare in Europe," Radow said. "Apparently, Europe is buying beef from Australia and it is being shipped in refrigerated containers stacked eight high through the Port of Long Beach. My boat has been repeatedly bumped in favor of more lucrative cargo."" However, Radow's boat embarked on May 1 and is due to arrive May 26 on Memorial Day weekend and be unloaded no earlier than May 29. "Figuring the boat needs to clear customs and be shipped to MdR for final commissioning, I am guessing that the boat will not get launched until approximately June 6," Radow said. Meanwhile, the boat fit in nicely with the beef. Radow has named it Bull. Transpac Publicity:
Entry Information:
WEB Page:
ENTRY LIST (In alphabetical order, as of May 2, 2001) Divisions 1-4
Doublehanded
Aloha Class
Starting Dates and Pre-Race Sendoff Parties
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Activities | ETAs | Sportswear | Hotel | Shore Support | TransPac '99 | TransPac '97 |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Website © 2000/2001 Doug Vann, Lisa Niemczura, Walt Niemczura |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| 06/02/01 | ||||||||||||||
