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43rd Biennial Transpacific Yacht Race / Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpacific Yacht Club, Jerry Montgomery, Commodore July 16, 2005 Transpac's Fastest Boats Ready With All-Star Crews LONG BEACH, Calif.---The fastest boats ever to sail the Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii start their 2,225-nautical mile contest of speed and wits off the Palos Verdes Peninsula at 1 p.m. Sunday, following a ceremonial sendoff of the Centennial event from Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach. Highlighting Long Beach's summer-long Sea Festival, The mayors of Long Beach and Honolulu---Beverly O'Neill and Mufi Hannemann---will be among those saluting the crews of competitors leaving from Rainbow Harbor starting at 9:30 a.m. PDT. The local outrigger canoe club will lead race boats out past the Queen Mary on their way to the start area 13 miles west.
The marquee start for the last 20 of 75 entries---second highest total in a century of Transpacs---marks the climax of mainland activity and features boats owned by world business leaders and sailed by, as one crew member once said, "the best talent money can buy." The crew lists of professional sailors read like an all-star team from the Olympic Games, the America's Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race combined. Plattner, whose SAP is the planet's largest producer of business software, will have three-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts, among others, on his German entry, the maxZ86 Morning Glory. Pittman, a national health care entrepreneur with a home in La Jolla, has Ken Read, navigator Mark Rudiger and Dave Ullman on his 90-foot Genuine Risk.
Analysts believe if these boats find conditions similar to 1999, they'll finish a full day ahead in 6 1/2 days. In a broader perspective, Bill Lee, whose design genius revolutionized Transpac in the 70s, said, "The original record [in 1906] was 12 days and 10 hours. This year three boats will be trying to cut that time in half." Darkhorses in Division I for the Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time include Windquest, an older version maxZ86 with water ballast instead of canting keel technology, skippered by Doug DeVos of the Amway founding family, and Magnitude 80, owned and skippered by local hope Doug Baker. John Bertrand, a silver medalist behind Coutts in the Finn class in '84, is one of Windquest's watch captains, along with John Kolius and Gordon Maguire. "What we need is for those guys to be playing with each other and we doing our own thing," Bertrand said. "We've raced against these guys before in the Newport-Bermuda race [last year]. Windquest was ahead of Pyewacket and even with Morning Glory with a day to go before they took off." The alternative to Barn Door line honors is the King Kalakaua Trophy for first overall on corrected handicap time, equally coveted by the rest of the fleet. Philippe Kahn, the Santa Cruz and Hawaii-based software giant who developed the camera phone, is shooting for that with a new Transpac 52 after winning the Barn Door with a larger Pegasus in 2001 and '03. The "scratch" boats---Morning Glory and Pyewacket---are giving Genuine Risk only 23 seconds for the race but will owe Pegasus more than two days' time when they reach Hawaii (time allowances on list below). An even stronger bid for the Kalakaua is expected from the 77-foot Scout Spirit, formerly the super maxi sled Zephyrus V now owned by the Newport Sea Base in Southern California. Scout Sprit, chartered by skipper Bill Turpin, gets more than 32 hours from the top raters. Sangmeister At Your Service, All the Way to Hawaii John Sangmeister, a former America's Cup sailor, is an owner of Gladstone's restaurant, the hospitality center for "Transpac Village" in Rainbow Harbor. A "scoreboard" outside the restaurant showing positions of the 75 boats is updated daily. But Sangmeister's involvement has become much more than he planned. "I sent [Windquest's John] Bertrand an e-mail saying, 'You're going to be in front of my restaurant for two weeks. Anything I you need---laundry, supplies, whatever---let me know.' He called back and said, 'We need a [sail] trimmer.' " That's what Sangmeister did for Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes campaigns in 1986-87 and 1992. This will be his second Transpac, after sailing on Orient Express in 1997. Two Texans Take Lead in Division 5 Soap Opera, a Hobie 33 doublehanded by Scott Self and Nigel Brown of Rockwall, Tex., logged 202 miles in the 24 hours prior to Saturday's morning position reports to poke its bow a mile in front of Steve Brown's Express 37, Brown Sugar, in Division 5. Other leaders among Monday's starters held on, although veteran Jim Eddy's Callisto from Glendale, Calif. took 14 miles out of Sally Honey's lead on Illusion to move into second place in the Cal 40s. California Girl, withdrawing earlier with a charging system problem, returned safely to Alamitos Bay in Long Beach. Among Friday's starters, Louis Bianco's Andrews 53, Artemis, Seattle, surged to the best run in Division III with 138 miles, while Kerry Deaver and Bob Williamson's Kahoots led Division IV with 118 miles. Wind velocity was down for the leaders in the 12-15 knot range, and the weather forecast from Commanders Weather was not encouraging for the next few days. There was still no sun. Paul Edwards' Catalina 42, Wind Dancer, Ventura, Calif., reported losing its steering but was proceeding to Honolulu under reduced sail and autopilot. Finally, the crew aboard the 67-year-old, 58-foot pacesetting yawl Odyssey discovered a dusty bottle of Mt. Gay Rum hidden under one of the bunks in the owner's stateroom. It had obviously been hidden there by her former skipper for emergencies. They promised to give it good care. Daily Standings for July 16, 2005. Official entries Division I (starts July 17)
Division II (Starts July 17)
Division III (Starts July 15)
Division IV (Starts July 15)
Division V (Starts July 11)
Cal 40 (Starts July 11)
Aloha A (Starts July 11)
Aloha B (Starts July 11)
DH---Doublehanded. *---Starts July 15.
Transpac Documentary Video/DVD The two-hour historical documentary "Transpac/A Century Across the Pacific" is on sale in marine stores and nautical museums or may be ordered online with a credit card through a link on the Web site home page here. The Web site also has a mail-order form. The video format $39.95, DVD $49.95 and PAL $49.95 for countries requiring that medium. COMMODOREJerry Montgomery (562) 427-3116 mmmont@aol.com HONOLULU CHAIRMAN ENTRIES PRESS OFFICER WEB PAGE
The official 2005 TransPac Yacht Race Website http://www.transpacificyc.org
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