Gentlemen, start your engines! The 40th biennial TransPacific Race blasts off in a few days from Point Fermin, Los Angeles. Some 2,225 mostly downwind miles later, this year's intimate 33-boat fleet - the smallest since 1963 - will cross the finish line at Diamond Head, Honolulu. It'll be hard to top the excitement of the last few races - such as when Cheval limped in under jury rig to claim Barn Door honors in '95, or when Pyewacket torched Merlin's 20-year-old record in '97 - but five turbosleds and an eclectic assortment of other boats will give it their best shot.
Actually, almost a third of the fleet is already at sea as you read this - eight cruisers and two doublehanders left on June 29. You can follow their progress, and all the breaking news, by checking www.transpacificyc.org. The race, sponsored this year by the new wireless phone company Iridium, will start getting more interesting on July 2 and 3, which is when the bulk of the fleet departs. Double Bullet, the lone multihull since the 60-foot trimaran Pacific Challenge (ex-Sebago) dismasted on her delivery down from the Northwest, will take off on July 6. With any luck, all 33 boats will arrive on TransPac Row more or less together beginning around July 11.
With due respect to the rest of the fleet, the spotlight will once again be focused on the first-to-finish machines in Division I. Five turbosleds all have a shot at the coveted Barn Door Trophy and, weather permitting, a chance at lowering the 'old' Pyewacket's blistering 1997 pace of 7 days, 15 hours, 24 minutes. Opinions vary as to how windy the upcoming race will be, but most navigators we talked with expect a normal, not nuclear, year. According to Stan Honey, "The ocean is a bit cooler this year, so climatologically, one might expect slightly stronger trades and slightly fewer and smaller squalls. On the other hand, the variation from week to week is much larger than the differences between the average conditions from one year to the next. So even in a year that is windy on average for July, you can have a light race, and vice versa."
In other words, it's still anybody's horse race. Here's a quick look at the five major 'horses', two of which are stabled here in the Bay Area, as well as the two smaller San Francisco entries in the upcoming race.
Pyewacket - The new Magic Cat, a gorgeous Eric Goetz-built R/P 75, will be staffed by the usual dozen suspects: owner Roy E. Disney, son Roy Pat Disney, crew boss and sailmaker Robbie Haines, navigator Stan Honey, boat captain Gregg Hedrick, Rick Brent, Dan Crowley, Zan Drejes, Scott Easom, Dick Loewy, Ben Mitchell and Doug Rastello. Two thirds of these guys have day jobs, but don't let that fool you - this is a great crew, one which currently holds the course record in the TransPac, Pacific Cup and Vic-Maui with their old Pyewacket. The new boat, which debuted successfully with wins in the Pineapple Cup and Ensenada Race, appears to be up to the task of winning the TransPac, too.
Zephyrus IV - Co-owners Bob McNeil (St. Francis YC) and John Parish (San Diego YC) have spared no expense to bring their slightly older R/P 75 up to speed for this year's TransPac. Because their boat is heavier and stiffer than the other turbos, including Pyewacket, they can get away with carrying less crew. Hence they're taking just eight other people: navigator Mark Rudiger, sailmaker/tactician Jeff Madrigali, project manager John Driscoll, boat captain Dave Culver, John Bertrand (Annapolis), Mark Sims, Chris Busch, and one more TBD. It's a top-notch group - and last we checked, none of these guys sail for free. Zephyrus has dismasted in both previous Hawaii attempts, but the new rig appears sturdy. Zephyrus and Magnitude will be lurking in the wings, ready to pounce if Pyewacket makes the slightest error.
Magnitude - Doug Baker has lined up a solid 11-man crew: navigator Bill Biewenga, boat captain Steve Dodd, Bill Menninger, Mike Pentecost, Keith Kilpatrick, Rob Snyders, Kevin McCarthy, Doug McLean, Mike Van Dyke and Fred O'Conner. His boat is newer and inherently faster than the other two Andrews turbos, but all three of these boats have IOR 'legacy hulls' - i.e., at 68 feet, they are shorter than the R/P boats, and have added clouds of sail area to get back up to the TransPac rating limit. Accordingly, the Andrews Sisters are much tippier and will fall behind the R/P boats in the early days of the race. They'll close the gap in the heavy running on the bottom half of the course, but may not have enough horsepower or race track to catch the two R/P 75s.
Pegasus (ex-Cheval) - Philippe Kahn has jumped back in the sailing game, assembling a boatload of mostly homegrown Santa Cruz talent to sail in his new boat's first big race. His all-star cast consists of project manager/boat captain/navigator Jay Crum, Jack Halterman, Pete Heck, Dave Hodges, Mario Golsch, Brent Ruhne, Jay Parry, Tim Cordrey, Mark Dickson, and Dave Oliver. They are also taking a full-time cook, which leads us to believe this isn't exactly a hardship cruise. A late entry in the TransPac, Kahn was originally considering the May race to Tahiti. With Pegasus fully refitted and armed with new North sails, the TransPac was a logical alternative when the Tahiti Race was canceled due to lack of interest.
Frontrunner (ex-Victoria) - Co-charterers Lou Grasso and Craig Lyons have rented this boat from Orange Coast College and enlisted the core group that swept the '91 TransPac with the SC 70 Chance - navigator Dale Nordin, Dennis Durgan, Mark Olson, Gordo Johnson, Duffy Duffield, Park Eddy and Tom Gar-rett. This group of Newport Harbor Trans-Pac vets will certainly enjoy the race, though they'll have to be really smart (or lucky) if this aging 1991 charter-horse is going to live up to her name.
Gone With the Wind - Bill LeRoy's SC 50 returns to the TransPac battlefield in a new configuration: her mast is three feet taller than before (with kites and main accordingly bigger), offset by a 10-foot deep bulb-keel and an elliptical rudder. The 'semi-turbo' should surf sooner than before, and should also excel in light air. "I figure Stealth Chicken will be toughest to beat," said Bill.
Joining LeRoy will be 50/50 partner and co-skipper Jim Cascino, navigator Gerry Swinton, brothers Chris and Phil Perkins (both veterans of GWTW's third place finish in the '93 TransPac), Terry Ranahan, Dave Kresge, Mike Ratiani, and daughter Aimee LeRoy, one of very few women in the racing fleet. Like some of the bigger boats, GWTW has 'sail mail' and will be posting emails to the TransPac's website during the race.
Tango - Howard Raphael's Sausalito-based Beneteau Oceanic 40 was a last minute entry in the cruising division. Raphael, president of a Silicon Valley electronics company, has been going full-out since early May to prepare his boat, which he'll sail with first mate Mike Skinner and two Argentinians, Sebastian Francese and Hugo Schmitt. "We're all casual sailors from the San Francisco Bay Oceanic Crew Group," said Raphael. "But after our 'rocket-ride' delivery down the coast, we've gained confidence and are starting to take the race seriously."
Other Bay Area sailors participating in the TransPac include four members of the SC 70 Grand Illusion crew: Hogan Beatie, Roland Brun, John Sweeney and Will Paxton. The GI squad, which now includes new boat captain/navigator Patrick O'Brien (who also runs Sorcery), is young and strong, and sure to sail the boat aggressively. We figure that our hometown lads will help their boat triumph over the two other sleds, Cheval 88 and Mongoose, and that the water-ballasted, supercharged Medicine Man will be the wild card in that class. "We've got a lot of rating to overcome," admitted Medicine Man designer and crew Alan And-rews. "We're obviously best in non-waterline conditions."
Santa Cruz sledmeister Andre Lacour will be a watch captain on the new San Diego-based SC 52 Warpath, and Richmond YC member George Neill will be among the crew on the Swan 431 Good-night Moon. Notable Non-Bay Area sailors scattered among the fleet include John Jourdane and designer John Lidgard (Tower), Rob Wallace (M-Project), Joe Buck and Brad Avery (Warpath), Linda Elias (Cheval 88), and the '97 corrected time winner, Jerry Montgomery, returning with his Alamitos Bay Syndicate on their chartered Stealth Chicken.
Enough already! Surf to www.trans-pacficyc.org for full crew lists, boat pics, schedule of events, history, daily position reports, and lots more. We'll be in Hawaii when the boats roll in, so look for technicolor feature coverage in next month's issue. - latitude/rkm
