Press Release No. 11

Look What's New in Transpac

Look What's New in Transpac

Flashy graphics, cutting edge electronics, a refrigerator and a carbon fiber wine rack, along with space-age speed -- those are some of the special features on four of the world's latest ocean racing sailboats, plus a couple of recycled warhorses, that will race to Hawaii in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race this summer.

Starts for various classes are scheduled June 25 and 30 and July 1. Currently 37 boats are entered.

Two of the new boats are "supersleds," the first of a new generation in the evolution of ultralight displacement boats (ULDBs) born of the mad dash for Transpac's Barn Door trophy in the 70s. Both -- Bob McNulty's 74-foot Chance and Philippe Kahn's 75-foot Pegasus -- were designed by Reichel/Pugh of San Diego and built by McConaghy's in Australia.

Two others are the first of a new class of Transpac 52s - Jim and Nancy Demetriades' light blue Yassou and David Janes' dark blue J-Bird III - that will race boat for boat for their own first-to-finish prize.

Chance is dark blue, like its ULDB 70 predecessor of the same name that swept honors in 1991: first to finish, first in class, first overall on corrected time. It used the Newport-to-Ensenada race in April as its maiden event, but the others will be racing for the first time.

Kahn's Pegasus is painted dark blue fading to white, stern to bow, and carries technology befitting its owner, who is a software developer. It has a port communication station and starboard computer linked to a central navigation pod capable of running navigation and e-mail communication simultaneously.

Did somebody say "port"? The Demetriades can offer port, Chablis and Chardonnay. Yassou, has room for 10 wine bottles in the rack Bruce Nelson included in the interior design.

Prefer it chilled? Alan Andrews designed a refrigerator into Janes' J-Bird III -- an accessory not seen on most racing boats these days when the weight of fresh food and other luxuries is considered the enemy of speed. Most boats opt for freeze-dried grub. "Otherwise," Andrews said, "the boat is fairly Spartan."

Andrews also worked over Bob Lane's well-traveled Medicine Man, which at 56 feet was by far the smallest of six boats that beat Merlin's 20-year-old record in 1997. Now it's 61 feet and eager to run with the big dogs again.

Finally, there is Merlin - now Merlin's Reata, re-christened by its new Texas owner, Al Micallef, and sporting a striking paint job surrounding a new deck, cabin top and interior designed and fabricated by Leif Beiley of Bravura Yachts. Only Merlin's hull - 68 1/2 feet long with only 12 feet of beam -- remains from Bill Lee's original breakthrough design. The star-studded graphics, created by Gary Miltimore of Newport Beach, feature the legendary wizard twirling a lariat.

Merlin was given a canting keel bulb in 1997, a new rig in '98 and now Beiley has added a daggerboard between the keel and rudder to improve pointing ability. Object: "To lay the west end of Catalina [Island]," Beiley said. Off the wind, the board comes up.

"My numbers tell me it's going to be faster than the boat has ever been," said Beiley, who has joined the crew. "If the wind is straight down the tailpipe, we could be right there with everybody."

Lee wholeheartedly approves of the new look and modifications. "We launched that boat in February of 1977, so she will be a quarter-century old next year," he said. "More people have had fun going fast on Merlin than on any other boat."

Chance and Pegasus were the first to be launched. The latter is doing shakedown trials at Santa Cruz. The others, including Yassou, which arrived by cross-country truck from Eric Goetz Custom Boats in Rhode Island, were getting their final rigging at yards around Southern California.

Photos of some of the new boats and Merlin's Reata may be seen on the Transpac web site (www.transpacificyc.org).

Stan Honey Says Sextants Still Make Sense

If Stan Honey says that Transpac's decision to continue to require four celestial sightings during the race is a good idea, despite the advancement of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, it must be so. Honey navigated Roy E. Disney's Pyewackets to record runs in the last two race.

"I think it makes sense for the Transpac and other trans-oceanic races to require that competitors be able to use celestial navigation," was quoted in comments for Scuttlebutt, the e-mail sailing newsletter. " view, the risk is not that all of the GPS receivers on a vessel will fail, but instead that the GPS constellation itself will be disabled.

"While that is a low probability, there have been GPS outages. The Air Force has the capability to suspend service for perceived national security reasons and has the ability to make mistakes. I bring my sextant and tables on trans-oceanic races and generally take a fix or two at some point during each race. My fellow navigators and I used celestial alone for Transpacs, Mexico and Bermuda races prior to 1983.

"Imagine that the GPS constellation was disabled for some reason during a Transpac and much of the fleet needed help finding Oahu. Our sport would be the laughing stock of the country. Heck, celestial is easy to learn and, besides, nothing is wrong with tradition."

Correction: Don't Get Too Sneaky

A previous release noting that "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" was partially incorrect.

Failing to answer roll call may mean a 10-minute penalty, but reporting a false position in order to gain a strategic advantage could result in disqualification.

Transpac Publicity:

Rich Roberts
Phone: (310) 835-2526
e-mail: richsail@earthlink.net

Entry Information:

Jerry Montgomery
e-mail: mmmont@aol.com

WEB Page:

Walt Niemczura, Web Master
www.transpacificyc.org
e-mail: walt@hawaii.rr.com