HONOLULU, H.I.-For Lou Grasso and Craig Lyons, who chartered the turbo sled Front Runner from the Orange Coast Sailing Program, the 40th Transpacific Yacht Race was their first. They'll never forget it, especially the final night in the Molokai Channel.

"We had en extremely rough night," Grasso said. "We were in 37 knots of wind doing 25, and we wanted to jibe. We were running out of road . . . two miles to the lee shore [of Oahu, according to radar]. No moon. Pitch dark. A white knuckler."

Grasso gained deep respect for his veteran crew, which included Dennis Durgan, navigator Dale Nordin, Mark Olson, Gordon Johnson, Duffy Duffield, Park Eddy and Tom Garrett.

"Guys like me, we're dilettantes," Grasso said. "These [sailors] do things we would we would never do. They take chances. I'm a normal human being. We're all scared out there."

The critical jibe mentioned above was a defining moment.

"The prudent thing to do is a bareheaded jib--not jibe when the spinnaker's up," Grasso said. "We sent Park Eddy out to the end of the pole to trip the foreguy . . . hanging upside down in 37 knots of wind for a couple of minutes. Then we brought the spinnaker down and we're still doing 18 knots and rolling. There's no horizon. No moon. Can't see a damn thing, and these guys are driving in the dark as fast as they can."

Durgan, one of four primary helmsmen, smiled. "We had a great time," he said. "Anytime you can do a Transpac under eight days is an awesome deal."

Front Runner was fourth fastest in 7:16:51:45. Grasso and Lyons drove some-but never at night.

"A guy like me should not be driving [at night]," Grasso said. "I'm not instrument-rated."

"They had never seen anything like that," Durgan said. "We had bursts of speed to 23, 24 knots . . . pitch black, edge of control."

Grasso also thought about the smaller boats with less experienced
crews still to come.

"These guys coming in behind us are getting their asses kicked," he said. "We had 10 guys on the boat and we had sleep deprivation. It's such hard work.

"OK, Pyewacket won. There've got the newest, fastest boat. But this is more than a race. We're all faced with the same things. It was just unbelievable out there. We fought to keep the boat together all night."