Transpac 2005 Press Release 32

HONOLULU---The oldest crew in 43 Transpacific Yacht Races over 100 years sailed past Diamond Head early Wednesday morning with smiles beaming through their grey beards to rival the Hawaiian sunrise.

"This dream, this impossible dream," Bubala skipper Lloyd Sellinger reveled. "I'm so thrilled. I don't [bleeping] believe it!"

Bubala's greybeard but happy crew at Waikiki. Skipper Lloyd Sellinger, 72, standing at center).

They were the last of 13 Cal 40s to finish (a 14th dropped out early) and their elapsed time of about 15 days 21 hours was almost 10 days over the new Transpac record set by Morning Glory last weekend. Hasso Plattner and Russell Coutts had long ago left town, but none of that mattered. At their Waikiki Yacht Club welcome party Bubala fans passed out T-shirts proclaiming "Old Men Rule."

"You know what," Sellinger, 72, declared. "We won."

Mike Gass, navigator, is 67; Andy Szaz, watch captain, 68, Herb Huber and Jim Doherty 68, and Gordon Livingston, medic, 66.

Bubala is Yiddish for "sweetheart," and one of Sellinger's concerns was compatibility on his small boat. He turned away a handful of other candidates, but it was never a problem.

Reinrag2's Rob Waterman, the Div. III winning crew's only non-Garnier family member, gets a Hawaiian a Hawaiian greeting from his wife Maggie.

Gass said, "We tackled each problem as it came along. There was a little anxiety when things broke."

Sellinger said, "Thank God for the hose clamps that are holding the boom together. And after the third day we had a battery problem and used only flashlights."

More important, he added, "The guys, their enthusiasm, their attitude was wonderful, better than I expected. Not one argument, not even a cross word. And the food! One night we each had a Cornish game hen. We had cold champagne halfway. Food and water was no problem.

"And at that end we were racing against another boat, Blue, to get here first. We were the slowest rated boat [of 75] in the whole fleet. I just hope people who are as old as we are will take on challenges. Just because you are a little older doesn't mean you have to just wait for the undertaker."

Tabasco Rules In Division IV – First and Overall

Tabasco, a charted 1D35 raced by five Southern Californians calling themselves the Alamitos Bay Syndicate, finished a strong run at 1:31 a.m. Wednesday about 150 miles ahead of the next boat in Division IV, averaging 8 knots for the 2,225 nautical miles and dominating their seven-boat class like no other winner---first to finish and on handicap time.

Thirteen Division III boats also started July 15 but fought a different kind of battle ending Tuesday. Reinrag2, a J/125 from Portland, Ore. sailed by skipper Tom Garnier, four members of his family and Rob Waterman, patiently worked its way to the front and then held onto its handicap time lead by more than three hours after The Cone of Silence from Australia flew past with a string of 200-mile-plus days near the end.

Al Garnier, brother of the owner and Transpac's next commodore for the 2007 race, said, "We thought we had 'em when we gained on them Monday."

It was Reinrag2's third division win in the last four races, missing only 2001 when they didn't sail.

"We were 100 miles behind our performance in '03, so the race was slow," Al Garnier said. "We were kind of going with the group and saw a lot of our Division III boats all the way through."

The Cone of Silence is a 31-foot Super 30 class boat, designed by Reichel/Pugh, as were Morning Glory and this year's overall winner, the Transpac 52 Rosebud. But it's built more on the lines of a skiff than the usual Transpac boat. Skipper Jamie O'Neill said the boat has logged 300-mile days in the Mooloolaba race back home, although its top day in this race was 263---not bad for a 31-footer.

"We never really had our conditions except for the last few days," O'Neill said. "When you have a little boat you need to be planing and you need 14 knots [of wind]. We really struggle in light conditions.

"We had a pretty good last 100 miles, and we got a good squall 200 miles out that carried us for 40 miles."

Daily Standings for July 27, 2005.

Official entries
(With total handicap time allowances in hours:minutes:seconds)

Division I (starts July 17)

Morning Glory (R/P maxZ86), Hasso Plattner, Kiel, Germany (0:00:00)
Pyewacket (R/P maxZ86), Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles. (0:00:00)
Genuine Risk (Dubois 90), Randall Pittman, La Jolla, Calif. (0.00:23)
Windquest (R/P maxZ86), Dick & Doug DeVos, Holland, Mich. (6:51:07)
Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach. (9:44:58)
Beecom (Reichel/Pugh 72), Isao Mita, Yokohama, Japan (30:16:07)
Scout Spirit (R/P 77), Bill Turpin, Newport Beach, Calif. (32:21:35)

Division II (Starts July 17)

Renegade (Andrews 70), Dan Sinclair, Vancouver, B.C. (40:03:46)
Merlin (Lee 68), Patricia Steele, Maui, H.I. (41:54:03)
Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Long Beach. (45:59:58)
Pegasus 52 (Transpac 52), Philippe Kahn, Honolulu. (51:49:29)
Trader (Transpac 52), Fred Detwiler, Pompano Beach, Fla. (52:18:39)
Skylark (S/C 70), Doug Ayres, Newport Beach. (52:18:53)
Rosebud (Transpac 52), Roger Sturgeon, San Francisco. (55:04:54)
Braveheart (Transpac 52), Charles Burnet, Seattle. (55:23:53)
Mongoose (Santa Cruz 70), Bradley Thorson, Bellevue, Wash. (57:38:37)
Coruba (N/M 68), Rob and Suzanne Fleming, Seattle. (57:52:37)
Bengal 2 (Ohashi 52), Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya, Japan (64:07:15)
Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, Encino, Calif. (65:20:10)
Ragtime (Spencer 66), Peterson/Richards/Welsh, Honolulu. (69:08:37)

Division III (Starts July 15)

Barking Spider 3 (MacGregor 65), David Kory, Concord, Calif. (74:38:45)
Stealth Chicken (Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (80:52:12)
The Cone of Silence (Super 30), Jamie and Jenny Neill, Sydney, Australia. (83:69:39)
Cipango (Andrews 56), Bob & Rob Barton, San Francisco. (84:08:21)
DH-Serena (T1150), David Kuettel, Bel Marin, Calif. (84:32:16)
Jeito (J/145), Francisco Guzman, Acapulco, Mexico. (86:10:42)
Dasher (S/C 50), Roger Groh, Sausalito, Calif. (89:38:24)
Reinrag2 (J/125), Tom Garnier, Portland, Ore. (90:15:09)
Bolt (Nelson/Marek 55), Craig Reynolds, Newport Beach, Calif. (90:16:35)
Artemis (Andrews 53), Louis Bianco, Seattle. (90:58:29)
Innocent Merriment (J/160), Myron Lyon, San Diego. (91:10:54)
Blue (J/160), Ken and /Cheryl Sears, Nashville, Tenn. (93:03:17)
Chasch Mer (S/C 50), Gib Black, Honolulu. (95:31:20)

Division IV (Starts July 15)

DH-Two Guys On the Edge (1D35), Dan Doyle, Kailua, H.I. (114:54:33)
Sensation (1D35), Gary Fanger, San Francisco. (115:11:28)
Tabasco (1D35), Alamitos Bay Syndicate, Long Beach. (115:31:05)
Kahoots (Andrews 43), Kerry Deaver/Bob Williamson, Newport Beach. (119:24:28)
Pursuit (Custom 48), Norman and Rosemary Dawley, Solomons, Md. (121:24:04)
Wild Impulse (J/120), Larry Barels, Santa Barbara, Calif. (122:19:04)
Uproarious (Olson 40), Robert Bussard, San Diego. (123:41:45)

Division V (Starts July 11)

Super Gnat (Beneteau First 40.7), Cliff Thompson, San Diego (132:16:04)
Iataia (Beneteau First 40.7), Marcos Rodriguez, Acapulco, Mexico. (133:59:14)
Showdown (IMX 38), Pete Meade/Mike Luna/ Paul McDonald, Irvine, Calif. (136:02:44)
B'Quest (Tripp 40), Challenged America, San Diego. (136:41:18)
Brown Sugar (Express 37), Steve Brown, Santa Ana, Calif. (141:30:59)
DH-Soap Opera (Hobie 33), Scott Self/Nigel Brown, Rockwall, Tex. (141:56:43)
DH-Jacaré (J/35), Jeff Young/Rich Blackman, San Diego. (148:46:04)
DH-Diablo (J/35), Reed Barnard, Anacortes, Wash. (150:24:54)

Cal 40 (Starts July 11)

California Girl (Cal 40), Don and Betty Lessley, Richmond, Calif. (163:20:29)
Radiant (Cal 40), Fin Beven, Pasadena, Calif. (164:09:20)
Callisto (Cal 40), Jim Eddy, Glendale, Calif. (164:44:47)
Far Far (Cal 40), Don Grind, Naples, Fla. (164:53:27)
Dancing Bear (Cal 40), Mark Schrader, Sitka, Alaska. (165:01:55)
Spectre (Cal 40), Lee Rogge, Seattle. (165:13:28)
Ralphie (Cal 40), Davis Pillsbury, Woody Creek, Colo. (165:37:14)
Azure (Cal 40), Rodney Pimentel, Alameda, Calif. (165:50:20)
Psyche (Cal 40), Steve Calhoun, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. (166:05:17)
Shaman (Cal 40), Steve Waterloo, Alameda, Calif. (166:13:50)
Willow Wind (Cal 40), Wendy Siegal, Sunset Beach, Calif. (166:28:31)
Illusion (Cal 40), Sally Honey, Palo Alto, Calif. (167:07:37)
Seafire (Cal 40), John Harrison, Honolulu. (168:13:35)
Bubala (Cal 40), Lloyd Sellinger, Newport Beach. (168:51:37)

Aloha A (Starts July 11)

*Shanakee II (Pedrick 74), James Warmington, Costa Mesa, Calif. (83:26:25)
Enchilado (Jeanneau 54), Cesar de Saracho, Mazatlan, Mexico. (112:22:50)
Madrina (Cabo Rico 56), Dick Simon, Dana Point, Calif. (124:52:04)
Between the Sheets (Jeanneau 52), Ross Pearlman, Marina del Rey, Calif. (126:13:17)
Incredible (Swan 53), Rick Gorman, Los Alamitos, Calif. (126:14:24)
Odyssey (58' yawl), Audrey Steele Burnand, Newport Beach. (128:53:47)
Plan B (Peterson 48), David Johnson, Long Beach. (129:07:19)
DH-Charmed Life (Catalina 470), Patricia Garfield, San Francisco. (131:54:20)

Aloha B (Starts July 11)

Azure (Swan 441), Samuel Beckey, San Diego. (138:17:59)
DH-Camille (Stewart 42), James Read, San Francisco. (141:52:48)
So Far (Swan 48), Larry Hillman, Chicago. (147:28:54)
Wind Dancer (Catalina 42), Paul Edwards, Ventura, Calif. (149:50:14)
Pipe Dream (CF 37), John Davis, Long Beach. (164:43:08)

DH---Doublehanded.

*---Starts July 15.


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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.

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