JULY 1, 1999 PRESS RELEASE NO. 15 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Two-man boat breezes back to Waikiki

The 30-foot, two-man Two Guys On the Edge, keen to return to its home port of Waikiki, remained among the early leaders of the 40th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii as wind returned to the fleet following a day of virtual calm.

Two Guys On the Edge, with Les Vasconcellos and Bruce Burgess aboard, is one of two entries in the Doublehanded division, which started with eight Cruising division boats off the Palos Verdes Peninsula Tuesday. Eight smaller full-on racing monohulls will start at 1 o'clock today, followed by 14 larger boats Saturday and a single catamaran Tuesday. The latter are expected to overtake all previous starters before they complete the 2,225-nautical mile course to Honolulu.

At Thursday morning's roll call, the other Doublehanded entry—Vapor, crewed by Bill Boyd and Scott Atwood of Long Beach—again failed to report, leading to speculation about radio problems.

Two Guys On the Edge was positioned with 1,987 miles to go, compared to 1,985 for Kim Stebbens' 41-foot Hurricane from Seattle and 1,986 for Doug Jones' 49-foot yawl Pacifica from San Diego. But Two Guys was farther south than any other boat and was seen as going too far out of its way to avoid the Pacific High, the light-wind zone that is farther north than usual this year.

Pacifica reported winds of 13 knots from the northwest, indicating the wind was coming from the starboard (right) side—the ideal direction for maximum speed.

Photos of Tuesday's start, daily position reports, crew lists and other information are available on the race web page, www.transpacificyc.org. Photos of the starts Friday and Saturday should be posted the same night.

The 40th Transpac is sponsored by Iridium North America, the world's first global telephone and paging company. Through a constellation of 66 low-earth-orbit satellites circling the globe, customers can make or take calls and receive pages in the most remote regions on Earth. Additional information regarding the Iridium system is available at the web site at www.iridium.com or by calling 1-888-Iridium.