The award is not for the first boat to finish--Roy E. Disney's 72-foot Pyewacket grabbed that Saturday night in record time—but is based on handicap time according to a boat's calculated speed potential. Pyewacket rated as a virtual "scratch" boat, while Grand Illusion, with its Transpac handicap of 29.455 seconds per mile for the 2,225-nautical mile trip from Los Angeles, saved its time on Pyewacket by almost three hours.

The 13-year-old Santa Cruz 70 needed to finish by 3:40 p.m. HST Sunday afternoon and crossed the Diamond Head finish line at 12:52 and 27 seconds. Only two other boats still at sea—Gone With the Wind from San Francisco and Stealth Chicken from Long Beach—had an outside chance of beating out Grand Illusion.

The aged "sled," one of several ultralight displacement 70s that emerged in the mid-80s to dominate Transpac with their downwind speed, does most of its racing in California but represents Lahaina Yacht Club on Maui, where skipper James McDowell, 39, resides. His father Ed, a part-time resident of Kauai, has owned the boat since 1988 but no longer sails long-distance races.

"We pushed the boat pretty hard," James McDowell said. "Maybe that's why we broke the main."

That happened late Saturday night in strong winds about 150 miles from the finish. The boat was jibed to alter course and when the main sail slammed over on the new side a two-foot-wide gap opened from the mast to the leech, right under the 97 sail number. But the leech cord along the back of the sail held together to keep the upper and lower halves effective.

"When Pyewacket finished [Saturday night] we knew we had the time on them," McDowell said. "But to fix the sail meant stopping to do it, and to stop would have meant losing. We just said, 'Let's keep sailing.' "

As it was, when the wind increased in the Molokai Channel, Grand Illusion achieved its top speeds of the race in the low 20-knots range with a split main sail and spinnaker. Then it surfed downwind through huge waves to the finish line as spectators gasped at the separated sail.

Patrick O'Brien, Grand Illusion's navigator, kept the boat in steady winds, but McDowell played a daring game of chasing accelerated bursts of speed in squalls like a bird dog sniffing out quail.

"There was some resistance at first," McDowell said, "but the best pressure is in front of the squalls, and when [the crew] saw the results we kept just kept looking for the next squall to chase."

A few hours earlier, Disney had claimed his second consecutive race record and Barn Door as first to finish—although he said those honors belonged to his son, Roy Pat, who took over as skipper of the previous, smaller Pyewacket in 1997 when the elder Disney smashed his right leg in a car crash.

The new Pyewacket's elapsed time of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds—an average speed of 12.4 knots--lowered its predecessor's mark of 7:15:24:40.

"I always told Roy Pat, 'It's your record,' " Disney said. "Then when we broke it, he said to me, 'If anybody had to break my record, I'm glad it was you.' "

Unlike Grand Illusion, Pyewacket finished on a clear but moonless night, the only illumination coming from the city lights of Waikiki. Pyewacket flew past the Diamond Head buoy at 22 knots, its billowing spinnaker projecting a ghostly image as it momentarily obscured the flashing red light that marks the end of the race.

Several boats expected to finish late Sunday night included another Hawaiian entry, the 30-footer Two Guys On the Edge. The other Doublehanded division entry, Vapor from Long Beach, remained incommunicado with suspected radio problems.

Photos, e-mail from boats, daily progress and position reports, charts, crew lists and other information are available on the race web page, www.transpacificyc.org.

The 40th Transpac is sponsored by Iridium North America, the world's first global telephone and paging company. Several boats are carrying the phones. 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 www.iridium.com or by calling 1- 888-Iridium.

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Standings (as of 8 a.m. PDT July 11; in order of corrected handicap time):

DIV. 1 (started July 3)—1. Pyewacket, Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles YC, finished, 7days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds (breaks record of 7:15:24:40 by previous Pyewacket, Roy P. Disney, 1997); 2. Magnitude, Doug Baker, Long Beach YC, 7:13:37:07; 3. Zephyrus IV, Bob McNeil/John Parrish, St. Francis/San Diego YCs, 7:16:34:43; 4. Front Runner, Lou Grasso/Craig Lyons, Newport Harbor YC, 7:16:51:45; 5. Pegasus, Philippe Kahn, UC Santa Cruz Sailing Club, 7:17:51:20.

DIV. 2 (started July 3)—1. Grand Illusion, James McDowell, Lahaina YC, 99 miles to go ; 2. Cheval, Steve Popovich, Cabrillo Beach YC, 200; 3. Medicine Man, Bob Lane, LBYC, 203; 4. Mongoose, Robert Saielli, SDYC, 250; 4. Velos, Kjeld Hestehave, SDYC, 428.

DIV. 3 (started July 3)—1. Gone With the Wind, Bill LeRoy/Jim Cascino, StFYC, 424; 2. . Stealth Chicken, Alamitos Bay Syndicate, Alamitos Bay YC, 380; 3. Warpath, Fred Howe, Santa Cruz YC, 408; 4. M-Project, Manouch Moshayedi, Bahia Corinthian YC, retired.

DIV. 4 (started July 2)—1. Great Scot, Tom Garnier, LAYC, 647; 2. Tower, Don Clothier, Waikiki YC, 422; 3. Glama!, Seth Radow, California YC, 494; 4. Prime Time, John Borkowski/Richard Sherlock, Channel Islands YC, 558; 5. Bolt, Craig Reynolds, Balboa YC, 724; 6. Apollo V, Ned Knight, Point Loma YC, 738; 7. Uproarious, Robert Bussard, Silver Gate YC, 663; 8. Sweet Caroline, William Rawson, Royal YC, Australia, no report.

DOUBLEHANDED DIV. (started June 29)—1. Two Guys On the Edge, Les Vasconcellos/Bruce Burgees, Waikiki YC, 152; 2. Vapor, Bill Boyd/Scott Atwood, Alamitos Bay YC, no report.

CRUISING DIV. (started June 29)—1. Hurricane, Kim Stebbens, Sloop Tavern YC, 248; 2. Esprit, Bob Pace, Oceanside YC, 261; 3. Willow Wind, Wendy Siegal, Cortez Racing Assn., 313; 4. Pacifica, Doug Jones, Southwestern YC, 383; 5. Endeavor III, Randy Bell/Eleanor Clitheroe, Royal Canadian YC, 430; 6. Tango, Howard Raphael, Palo Alto, Calif., 492; 7. Goodnight Moon, Carlton Vanderbeek, Dana Point YC, 351; 8. Derivative, John Robert Misko, Seattle, Wash., 482.