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The 2001
Transpac |
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July 12, 2001
THERE WAS A RECORD, AFTER ALL
HONOLULU – If conditions in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race have seemed too placid to produce a record, think again.
Transpac lists no official doublehanded record, but Howard Gordon's Open 50 Étrange sailed the 2,225 nautical miles with Jay Crum as the only other crew member in 10 days 4 hours 4 minutes 1 second. That eclipses the elapsed time of 11:17:51:12 by Black Jack, a MacGregor 65 sailed by Carl Nelson and John Townsend in 1995, which is believed to be the fastest Transpac by a two-man crew.
"We had a good time," Crum said. "I'd do it again."
That's easy to believe. Crum, 43, from Soquel, Calif., has now sailed 12 Transpacs and 16 races from the U.S. West Coast to Hawaii. Gordon was sailing his first, but the two were happy with their performance despite a handicap rating of 12.717 seconds per mile, sixth lowest in the fleet. With that, they probably won't even win overall on corrected time among the three doublehanded entries.
"That's OK," Crum said. "We just wanted to go as fast as we could."
The other two doublehanders – Dan Doyle's Two Guys On the Edge from Hawaii and Michael Abraham's Watercolors, Newport Beach, Calif. – were expected to finish Friday and Saturday, respectively. Jorge Morales Mystere, a fully crewed Swan 42 from Laguna Niguel, Calif., was in a nail-biting battle with Watercolors for the Tail-end Charlie award.
Étrange was designed by Scott Jutson and built in Australia in 1994, completing something of a Down Under sweep. Philippe Kahn's Barn Door-winning Pegasus and Seth Radow's overall winner Bull also were built in Australia.
Gordon, a resident of San Luis Obispo, Calif., was off surfing Thursday as Crum talked about the race.
"We found our limits," he said. "It's a big boat and we had to throttle back just to get rest."
They got plenty of that the first night out parked in the lee of San Nicolas Island 70 miles offshore for 12 hours, along with Medicine Man, Mongoose and Yassou, all of which had to play catch-up the rest of the way.
Their only serious breakdown came 50 miles from the finish when the spinnaker block broke at the top of the carbon fiber mast. The load on the internal halyard split the mast down to the top spreaders, forcing them to finish without a chute. But they weren't discouraged by either of the reversals.
"You could do the race in eight days with this boat," Crum said.
TRANSPAC CAMEOS
At a press conference for the winning skippers Thursday, Pegasus crew member Zan Drejes noted the effect of Transpac increasing the daily roll calls from one to two.
"It definitely kept the boats closer together," Drejes said. "It was more tactical than a navigator's race. The intensity was relentless. When we had 15 sleds [in past years] you were lucky to see another boat." The difference was that there was less chance to break away from a rival between roll calls, as Roy E. Disney's Pyewacket did against Zephyrus in 1999. Disney said, "We were within sight of each other for seven consecutive days. It looked like an ad for North Sails at one point." Drejes said, "I suppose somebody could have missed a roll call, but we felt that wasn't in the spirit of the competition." Drejes, who won the Don Vaughan top crew member award sailing with Disney in '99, played a key role in organizing Kahn's crew. "Philippe hired a band of mercenaries from around the world," Drejes said. . . .
Pete Heck, a member of David Janes' crew on J-Bird III, a Transpac 52, told of a close encounter as they sailed the final miles toward Oahu early Tuesday morning. "The sun was just coming up and I could see something low in the water moving on a collision course with us," Heck said. "I said, 'Is that a submarine?' David said, 'Oh, yes, that's a boomer.' " Janes should know. He's a retired Navy rear admiral. "We couldn't see anybody on deck," Heck said. "We tried to call 'em about 25 times on our radio but never got a response. Since we were doing about 20 knots with a spinnaker up we were getting a little concerned. We thought we'd have to jibe and go around 'em." Instead, they headed upwind slightly and slipped past the boomer's bow. . . .
The senior citizens aboard the 65-foot ketch Bonaire, an Aloha Division entry, were one crew that didn't worry about breakdowns. "It's a good boat, strong as an ox," said Jim Eddy. "It goes 9 knots." Although three of the crew members were over 70, "we did 12 jibes and seven sail changes the last seven days," Eddy said. Eddy and Gil Jones are former Transpacific Yacht Club commodores. Jones said, "The refrigerator door fell off when I was trying to get some ice out for drinks. That's absolutely the only thing that broke." . . .
The Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki is the official Transpac hotel. 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.
Standings in order of handicap ratings at 8:30 a.m. PDT July 12:
DIVISION 1 (started July 1)
- Pegasus (Reichel/Pugh 75), Philippe Kahn, Santa Cruz, Calif., finished 8 days 2 hours 34 minutes 3 seconds.
- Pyewacket (Reichel/Pugh 73), Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles, Calif., 8:03:36:58.
- Chance (Reichel/Pugh 74), Bob McNulty, Corona del Mar, Calif., 8:05:08:24.
- Merlin's Reata (Lee 68), Al Micallef, Ft. Worth, Tex., 8:17:45:35.
DIVISION 2 (started July 1)
- Grand Illusion (Santa Cruz 70), James McDowell, Haiku, H.I., 9:02:34:24.
- J-Bird III (Transpac 52), David Janes, Newport Beach, Calif., 8:23:36:10.
- Taxi Dancer (R/P 68), Brian W. Mock, Corona del Mar, Calif., 9:04:17:13.
- Yassou (Transpac 52), Jim and Nancy Demetriades, Beverly Hills, Calif., 9:05:50:42.
- Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Long Beach, Calif., 9:02:47:43.
- Ragtime (Spencer 65), Hui Holokai Syndicate, Owen Minney/Trisha Steele, Honolulu, 9:17:20:25.
- Mongoose (SC 70), Robert Saielli, La Jolla, Calif., 9:16:18:32.
- DH--Étranger (Jutson 50), Howard Gordon, San Luis Obispo, Calif., 10:04:04:01.
DIVISION 3 (started June 30)
- Cantata (Andrews 53), Brent Vaughan, Oceanside, Calif., 10:07:44:54.
- Firebird (Nelson/Marek 55), Greg Sands, Long Beach, Calif., 10:08:16:10.
- Bengal II (Ohashi 52), Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya, Japan, 9:16:20:56.
- Baronesa V (Open 40), Shuichi Ogasawara, Miyagi, Japan, 10:00:49:34.
- Rocket Science (Riptide 55), Nguyen Le, Amsterdam, 10:01:26:49.
DIVISION 4 (started June 30)
- Bull (Sydney 40 OD-T), Seth Radow, Marina del Rey, Calif., 10:17:49:19.
- Sensation (1D35), Mike Thomas, Detroit, Mich., 11:01:07:05.
- DH--Two Guys On the Edge (Sonoma 30), Dan Doyle, Honolulu, H.I., 181 miles last 24 hours/215 miles to go.
- Ouch (J/120), Ted Mayes, San Juan Capistrano, Calif., 11:13:35:47.
- Uproarious (Olson 40), Robert Bussard, Santa Fe, N.M., 11:22:07:58.
- Mystere (Swan 42), Jorge Morales, Laguna Niguel, Calif., 155/355.
- DH --Watercolors (Sabre 402), Michael Abraham, Newport Beach, Calif., 151/352.
RETIRED -- LawnDart (Fast 40), Bill Allan, Nanaimo, B.C., 2,175.
DH-Doublehanded
ALOHA DIVISION A (started June 25)
- Willow Wind (Cal 40), Wendy Siegal, Sunset Beach, Calif., 14:05:01:24.
- Shanakee II (Pedrick 75), Jim Warmington, Balboa, 11:15:51:38.
- Seda (Ericson 41), Josef Sedivec, Bonita, Calif., 15:11:48:05.
- Sea Dancer (Ericson 35), Al Wheatman, Marina del Rey, 16:03:44:57.
- Bonaire (Moody 65), Gil Jones and Associates, Newport Beach, 13:22:53:56.
- Gecko (Tartan 41), Jim Fabrick, Laguna Beach, 15:15:09:09.
ALOHA DIVISION B (started June 25)
- Axapac (Wylie 39), Barry Ruff, Vancouver, B.C., 3:23:55:26.
- Stardust (Wylie 46), Peter and Patricia Anderson, Laguna Beach, 13:05:01:24.
TRACKING CHART
Check the courses of your favorite boats across the Pacific with the Transpac tracking chart on the official Web site at www.transpacificyc.org.
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