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43rd Biennial Transpacific Yacht Race / Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpacific Yacht Club, Jerry Montgomery, Commodore July 20, 2005 High-Speed Game of Cat and Mouse Afoot LONG BEACH, Calif.---The game of cat and mouse in mid-Pacific was about to play out as five boats remained on a record pace in the Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Wednesday. Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory was still setting the pace now only two miles ahead of led Roy Disney's Pyewacket---obviously the cat. But a big horse---Randall Pittman's Genuine Risk---was stalking both of them from behind and below.
"In an ideal world you'd like to have your competitors dead astern of you," Isler said. "We have a lot of respect for their running speed. They have a little better configuration than us for that. But that said, it looks it's a going to be pretty hard for them to get around is, in the short term." Both are watching Genuine Risk, which paid a price of about 50 miles to get even farther south, hoping to roar up on a strong reaching point of sail from below. Isler said, "Looking at the weather models, it looks like the south is going to have as much or more breeze than the north. So they're setting up to try to run up on Pyewacket and us by having more wind velocity. They will have some, but they have some distance to get there." Otherwise, options are few. "We're definitely into 'slot cars' now," Isler said, referring to the course commitment every boat must make at some point.
To beat the previous Pyewacket's record of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds, a boat would have to finish before 12:41:27 a.m. PDT Monday morning or 9:47:21 p.m. Sunday night Hawaiian time. Besides the lead three, Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 and Doug DeVos's Windquest are on pace to do that. Morning Glory's current ETA is 9:33 a.m. PDT Sunday, but there remained 1,319 nautical miles to go---not quite halfway in the 2,225-mile race. Pegasus Zeroes In On King Kalakaua Trophy About 180 miles behind the leaders, Philippe Kahn's new Transpac 52, Pegasus, was flying like its equine namesake. Its 296-mile day seized the lead in Division II and the race for the King Kalakaua trophy for first overall on corrected handicap time. Morning Glory and Pyewacket owe the two-time Barn Door winner almost 52 hours in handicap time, and Pegasus---home port Hawaii---is projected to finish about six hours before that. Davis Pillsbury's Ralphie was making a rout of the Cal 40 contest with a 51-mile lead and 829 miles to go. Lloyd Sellinger's Bubala, with a crew of six all over age 65, continued to struggle 218 miles to the rear. A few hours after Wednesday's check-in, Pillsbury reported: "OK, 780 miles from the finish. The passage will be slow. No real wind turning up until Sunday, so it is pure brain sailing . . . physically undemanding other than the sun but mentally draining. Keeping the speed up in the sloppy wave conditions can drive anybody nuts." Craig Reynolds' Bolt remained the handicap leader in Division III, although Tim Beatty's Stealth Chicken had a 23-mile lead. Likewise in a fierce Division V duel, Cliff Thompson's Super Gnat led Scott Self and Nigel Brown's doublehanded Soap Opera by 12 miles but trailed in handicap time by almost seven hours. Tabasco, a 1D35 chartered by the Alamitos Bay syndicate, with Steve Rossi as skipper, burst into the Division IV lead by averaging 8.7 knots over 208 miles. That was an amazing 59 miles better than the former leader, Kerry Deaver and Bob Williamson's Kahoots, which now trails by 32. Among the dozen Aloha class boats that started July 11, Cecil Rossi's 68-year-old yawl Odyssey and Ross Pearlman's defending champion Between the Sheets continued to set the overall pace at 720 and 733 miles to go, but probably not for long. Soap Opera and Super Gnat were closing quickly, and Morning Glory and Pyewacket were sailing almost twice as fast. Pendragon IV, John MacLaurin's Davidson 52 that dropped out the day after Sunday's start because of a rig problem, returned safely to Marina del Rey Tuesday night. The crew planned to fly to Hawaii for post-race festivities. Quotes from the Boats Dick Simon, Madrina (Aloha A): "Once again we experienced hair-raising situations. A huge squall came upon us and we gave the new Ullman spinnaker a big test as the winds exceeded the limits of the sail. We had about 1 1/2 hours of rain and ended the day with one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen." Norm Dawley, Pursuit (Division IV): "We are sailing more miles per day than Kahoots and Wild Impulse (1st and 2nd) and are ahead of the boats that have to beat us boat-for-boat. . . . The super-fast boats that started Sunday have already passed us. They are sailing close to 400 miles per day compared to our 200 miles per day. Of course, that extra 200 miles per day costs about $5,000,000. And, come to think of it, they miss enjoying half of the beautiful sailing time we are getting because they are so fast." Herb McCormick, Dancing Bear (Cal 40s): "It took us the better part of nine days to get here, but Dancing Bear is finally relishing in the solid northeast trade winds we came out here searching for. . . . [Later], a miraculous thing happened. The glorious orb of a nearly full moon made its first real appearance of the voyage. It cast a glow on the waters like a giant spotlight, and the seas suddenly began to sparkle. By 0400, skipper Mark Schrader was steering Dancing Bear straight down a wet, silver avenue cast by the reflection of that glorious moon making its way around to the east. The Highway to Hawaii. His watch ended but he wouldn’t hand over the tiller, not on this night. He just wanted to steer and steer and steer." Daily Standings for July 20, 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
07/20/05 |
