JULY 1, 1999 PRESS RELEASE #16 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pyewacket, Zephyrus IV arrive at showdown Saturday

A long-awaited showdown between Roy E. Disney's new Pyewacket and Bob McNeill and John Parrish's Zephyrus IV will be launched at 1 o'clock Saturday when the 14 largest and fastest monohulls start the 40th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.

They will follow eight Cruising Division boats and two Doublehanded entries that started from the Palos Verdes peninsula Tuesday and eight smaller monohulls that went Friday. A single catamaran will start next Tuesday.

Pyewacket and Zephyrus IV are both so-called maxi sleds designed by John Reichel and Jim Pugh of San Diego. Even Disney expected the 75-foot Zephyrus IV to win the 1997 Transpac—its maiden race--and it was leading Pyewacket by an estimated 25 to 30 miles when its mast collapsed 36 hours after the start. Pyewacket went on to claim the Transpac record for elapsed time and in the two years since the glory of several other West Coast race records, while Zephyrus IV has struggled to prove itself.

The dark green boat was still the reason Disney built his larger, 72-foot Pyewacket, because he doubted whether the old Pyewacket was really a better boat than Zephyrus IV.

Those two are now rated the class of Division I but by no means overwhelming favorites. Their competition includes two proven boats sailing under new names and ownership: Philippe Kahn's Pegasus, which was Hal Ward's Cheval when it won with a broken mast in '95, and Lou Grasso's chartered Front Runner, which was Mike Campbell's Victoria when it set a Transpac 24-hour record of 337 miles during the '97 race. Also a threat is Doug Baker's Magnitude, which also lost its mast in '97.

Among the eight boats in Division IV for 40-footers that started under an overcast sky Friday, Richard Sherlock and John Borkowski's Olson 40 Prime time was the early leader, sailing well upwind of the fleet as it headed for the west end of Santa Catalina Island on port tack in a light southeasterly breeze of 6-8 knots.

Kim Stebbens' Septre 41 Hurricane continued to lead the eight Cruisers that started Tuesday, breezing in winds of 20 knots. Two Guys On the Edge, a 30-foot Doublehander, fell off the pace in only 8 knots of wind—apparently confirming suspicions that it had ventured too far south of the windy zone.

The other Doublehander, Bill Boyd and Scott Atwood's tiny 25-foot Vapor from Long Beach, failed to report by radio at morning roll call for the third consecutive day. Vapor was not thought to be in trouble since none of its automatic distress signals had been activated, but the communications vessel Alaska Eagle requested all other boats to try to raise Vapor by VHF marine radio.

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

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.