Trans Pac Day 16

Now It's A Numbers Game

Now It's A Numbers Game

HONOLULU - The Barn Door is settled. Now comes the scramble for handicap honors.

With Philippe Kahn's Pegasus tucked safely in its slip at Ala Wai Yacht Harbor with honors secured for fastest elapsed time in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race, several smaller boats were due to finish before the Hawaiian sun sets Tuesday. This is when a calculator becomes more important than a GPS.

Barring unforeseen difficulties, among those finishing Tuesday will be James McDowell's Grand Illusion, the overall winner in 1999, and David Janes' J-Bird III, one of two new Transpac 52s competing boat for boat as well as counting their corrected time in Division 2.

The real test may come Wednesday when Seth Radow's new Sydney 40 Bull from Marina del Rey, Calif., comes past the Diamond Head lighthouse, bidding to correct out on Pegasus, which owes the smaller boat about 65 hours in handicap time. Another Division 4 boat, Mike Thomas' 1D35 Sensation from Detroit, Mich., has an outside shot.

Either one could deprive Pegasus of Transpac's first sweep of honors since 1993. Bull already has picked off Bob McNulty's Chance for third overall behind Pegasus and Roy E. Disney's Pyewacket.

The awards banquet is Friday night. Watercolors' ETA is Sunday.

But Abraham said, "What a fun adventure this has been for all of us!"

Winged Horse or Raging Bull? Decision at Dawn.

HONOLULU - Will a winged horse or a raging bull prevail?

Two new Australian-built boats are in a battle for overall corrected time honors in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race that is too close to call.

Philippe Kahn's Pegasus, already in port with the Barn Door secured for logging the fastest elapsed time, will find out Wednesday by dawn's early light whether it can claim Transpac's first sweep in eight years and only the fourth in modern times.

Seth Radow's Bull, a Sydney 40 One-Design Turbo with the image of an angry toro on its hull, must finish by 5:20:51 a.m. local time. At Tuesday evening's roll call, Bull was only 17 minutes 4 seconds behind the magic number and gaining time by leaps and bounds at an average speed of 8.6 knots.

Although Pegasus' elapsed time of 8 days 2 hours 34 minutes 3 seconds missed Pyewacket's record by about 15 hours Monday, those two boats and Bob McNulty's Chance posted the 10th, 13th and 14th fastest Transpac times ever.

The reason was the robust trade winds that kicked in halfway across the course. With following winds continuing to blow a steady 20 knots down the final straightaway Tuesday, boats were finishing like runaway floats in the Rose Parade. At times there were as many as four welcome luaus going on at once along a sweltering Transpac Row in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor.

Nineteen of the original 33 starters had finished by day's end. Tuesday's 10 finishers for the day were, in order, Bengal II at 2:20 a.m. local time, Merlin's Reata at 3:45, J-Bird III at 9:36, Rocket Science at 11:26, Grand Illusion at 12:34 p.m., Medicine Man at 12:47, Taxi Dancer at 2:17 and Yassou at 4:17, Cantata at 5:45 and Firebird at 6:16.

Transpac Cameo

A common theme of this Transpac has been the wonderful cruising conditions - full moon, clear skies, whale sightings, steady but manageable winds. "It was, astonishingly, one of the most pleasant races I've ever done," said Stan Honey, Pyewacket's navigator. "The only time we had water on deck was when we put our bow into a wave [while] running [downwind]. If every race was this way we'd have 200 boats. We should tell everybody it's always like this." . . .

The report was less upbeat from Sensation, Mike Thomas' smallish One-Design 35 from Detroit, Mich. that for a time challenged Bull for overall honors. That boat's terse message Tuesday, edited for clarity: "Exhausted mentally and physically. No sleep. Bad wind squalls all day. We fear the worst. Broke spinny pole in light-air jibe this afternoon, then 30 minutes later had to drop asymmetric [spinnaker] to jibe, it was so wrapped. Now to sleep in this sauna." . . .

Wendy Siegal of Sunset Beach, Calif., with her apparent overall victory in Aloha-A Division, is one of the rare women to win class in Transpac - maybe the first since Sally Blair Ames won Class A with Constellation in 1959. Siegal sailed the 36-year-old Cal 40 Willow Wind, the oldest boat in the race. The six-person crew included navigator Duncan Harrison, who two years ago rebuilt their broken boom in mid-ocean just to finish the race. This win was built on a bold dive south the first day, then a 13-day spinnaker run from last place, picking off the other five boats, one by one. Siegal, 49. Said, "I'm not a rich sailor. I sell clothes at Nordstrom's. I quit my job to do this race. I don't know if I'll get it back. But this is the ultimate." . . .

David Janes' new Transpac 52 J-Bird III from Newport Beach was the first finisher in Division 2 ahead of all the 70-rater sleds. But J-Bird III, designed by Alan Andrews, owed the sleds about seven seconds per mile and just missed correcting out on James McDowell's Santa Cruz 70 Grand Illusion for overall in class. G.I. was the race's overall handicap winner in '99. Janes said, "I understood we were expected to sail fast, but to beat [the sleds] boat for boat is special. We saw G.I. about three-quarters of a mile to leeward when we passed them a couple of days ago. The boat is very stable, fast, well-balanced and takes off like a jackrabbit in a spurt." Jim Demetriades' sky blue Yassou, the other new 52, was fourth overall in Division 2. Janes highly recommends the new class to others. "They can sail up there with the big guys and they don't need 5 million bucks," Janes said. . . .

Bob Lane's Andrews 61 Medicine Man from Long Beach, Calif. - five feet longer than it was in previous Transpacs - climbed from next-to-last to fourth among the eight boats in Division 2 by the end. Navigator John Jourdane said, "That boat is really fast. Our problem was we got stuck for 12 hours behind San Nicolas Island [70 miles offshore] the first night with no wind, but once we got in a breeze the boat just took off."

Brookfield Homes' Coconut Plantation at Ko Olina is a supporter of Transpac 2001. Stratos Mobile Networks is the official communications supplier, providing satellite telephones to facilitate monitoring of the fleet. For more information please contact Stephanie Thomassen at (800) 250-8962 or (206) 633-5888.

Transpac Publicity:

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