Press Release No. 12

Seminar June 16 is Last Chance to Meet Safety Rule

Seminar June 16 is Last Chance to Meet Safety Rule

A Safety at Sea seminar Saturday, June 16, will be the last opportunity for Transpacific Yacht Race entries to meet a prime requirement of the competition.

Paragraph 13.2 of the Notice of Race states: "At least 30% of a yacht's crew including the skipper must have attended a US Sailing-sanctioned Safety at Sea seminar within the last five years."

The seminar is scheduled at Orange Coast College School of Sailing & Seamanship, 1801 W. Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fee is $40 for US Sailing members and $45 for non-members. Credit cards are accepted, and lunch is included. More information: (949) 645-9412.

Safety has always come first in the 2,225-nautical mile race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, and for 95 years no ocean sailing race has been safer than the Transpac. No life has been lost. Along with other regulations, Transpac was first to rule that all crew on deck at night must wear personal flotation (PFD) devices with a white light attached.

The most recent action came just this month when the Transpac board of directors voted to waive an IMS rule and permit competitors to temporarily unfasten the headstay when jibing a spinnaker downwind so as to allow the pole to be moved to the new windward side. If a boat were sailing upwind, of course, the mast would fall down.

"It sounds scary but it makes a lot of sense," said Dale Nordin, a director and Transpac veteran. "It would be safer than taking the butt end of the pole off the mast and risking a serious injury to someone."

Many ocean racers are using longer spinnaker poles these days. Longtime Transpac campaigner Bob Lane said the pole on his modified Andrews 61 Medicine Man extends nine feet beyond the headstay.

"It's actually safer to remove the headstay," Lane said. "It's only off for 10 or 15 seconds and we aren't jibing during that time."

As a safety precaution, Lane said, his crew attaches two halyards on opposite sides of the bow during the maneuver, then removes the fastpin securing the headstay. "Those are strong enough to hold up the mast if something should go wrong," he said. "If you do it right, the pole doesn't even move. You just move the headstay, which is slack, anyway, to the other side of the pole. We have done it in 30 to 35 knots of wind."

The practice will be optional for all competitors.

In another change, the Aloha entries were separated into Divisions A and B. Three boats - Axapac, Stardust and Pakele - were determined to have performance factors too high for reasonable competition with the other seven entries.

Aloha Dinner Tickets Available

Tickets to the two Aloha Dinner sendoffs on the Queen Mary are now available. The Aloha Division dinner is Sunday, June 24, in the Royal Salon, with cocktails at 5:30 and dinner at 6:30. The Racing Division dinner is Friday, June 29, in the Windsor Salon, cocktails at 6 and dinner at 7.

Tickets are $52 and include parking. They may be ordered by mailing a check with a form that is being sent to skippers and Transpacific Yacht Club members. Forms also may be obtained by phoning (949) 646-5129.

Guests are reminded to bring their parking tickets to the dinners for validation.

The Awards Banquet will be July 13 at the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki Hotel, the official Transpac hotel. Room reservations may be made at (800) 245-4524).

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