HistoryThere is good reason for the staggered starts that Transpac has used since 1991, but the luck of the draw can be painful. It was like that, short straws all around, for the July 4 starters in 2011 in Division 6 and Aloha. A promising forecast, a promising departure and then...
And then they were stuck on the doorstep, not quite gone. Past Los Angeles YC Commodore Eric Gray would go on to win the Aloha division with an aggressive racing crew aboard his cruising Morris 46, GRACIE. his take: "We looked at zeroes at times in those first two days. Eventually, we found the wind 100-150 miles off Santa Cruz Island, and we worked it until we got a chute up. From there we just sailed it on in. We thought it would be a 14-day race, and if you subtract those first two, it was a 14-day race.
Contrast that to the fortunes of the big guys in the second of two starts, July 8, who went off with a breeze in the low teens and an ocean in front of them where the Pacific high was re-forming in a considerably more-disciplined fashion. At that point, those unlucky earlier starters were spread 200 miles, north to south. some navigators were playing the north on strategy. Others were there because one helmsman after another had just kept the boat moving in whatever direction it would go. how badly that could turn out would be demonstrated by the Santa Cruz 37, CELERITY, whose owner, Harry Zanville, would report mid-race, "no wind. sat slatting in the rain for an hour, maybe two. Deck is clean."
But, oh, the big guys. They romped all the way. Two boats had been modified to go head-to-head for the Barn Door. From the East Coast, on a mission, came Hap Fauth with his Reichel-Pugh designed BELLA MENTE, lengthened five feet to an LOA of 74 feet. Much more locally, Doug Baker had returned to the Alan Andrews-designed MAGNITUDE, now known as MAGNITUDE 80, and rebuilt it from canting keel to fixed keel to make it eligible to win the Barn Door Trophy. Baker had originally commissioned MAGNITUDE, and passed it on. Then he chartered it back for the race. Who would have the edge?
That was a wide open question. BELLA MENTE by her fourth day out had passed the earlier starters and nabbed the overall lead for first-to-finish. MAGNITUDE 80 followed, right at her heels, keeping Fauth and company nervous. But MAGNITUDE couldn't seem to pass and make it stick.
The big boys brought big breeze to the rest of the fleet, and at that point, to some people, the rhumb line smelled as good as mother's cookies. With transponder-position reporting on delay until the first boat approached the finish – to keep it a navigator's race, per tradition – the midrace was a nailbiter all around. There were a few who knew they had already lost, barring a miracle, and many who knew they could still win, or thought they could.
Then everything changed again. The breeze dropped, and being in the smart lane on the north-south line went from very important to Very Important. Overnight, Division 2 resorted itself, with Jorge Ripstein's TP52, PATCHES, popping out to a lead over Dr. Laura Schlessinger's more-northerly KATANA. KATANA navigator Eric Bowman had positioned the brand new Kernan 49 to take advantage of a shorter track in the big breeze of two days before, but this was a new chessboard. Chip Megeath's CRIMINAL MISCHIEF moved into second in Division 2, reminding all that Megeath's RP45 had enjoyed great success on the ocean, winning its division in the 2009 Transpac and 2010 Pacific Cup. This time, however, it would be PATCHES' turn to show how it's done. And to think, PATCHES was a last-minute entry. The instrument systems had been in surgery at Transpac Village just 14 hours before the start.
James McDowell's SC70, GRAND ILLUSION, which had taken a grip on the handicap lead early on, continued to run 1-1, first in sleds and first overall, at 1,200 miles to go. Simon Garland's Hobie 33, PEREGRINE, meanwhile continued to lead the early slow-starters from a position well to the south of the fleet, and she was looking better hour by hour.
And to no one's great surprise, it was at about this time that Jack Taylor's HORIZON made an entrance at the top of the SC50 leaderboard, a position that HORIZON would carry all the way to Diamond Head.
But it wasn't not all blood-and-guts competition. In his halfway celebration, skipper Michael Lawler of Aloha entry TRAVELER handed 'round some gag gifts, and then, in his words, "I took a knee and gave one last gift. To Barbara. It came in a small jewelry box. I offered it to her and said, "Barbara Lynn Burdick, will you marry me? She said 'yes.' " And it was not just any ring. Think stainless steel one-inch hose clamp, which fit the lady's ring finger perfectly (with a little screwdriver adjustment). It also came with the promise of a shopping expedition in Waikiki, and it had to happen this way, Lawler said: "We met on the dock at the Hawaii Yacht Club following the 2005 Transpac, and we have spent much of our six years together, on board TRAVELER, sailing the world."
The 2011 race was the second Transpac in which boats with canting keels and powered winches were not eligible for the Barn Door Trophy, which explains Baker's decision to convert MAGNITUDE to a fixed-keel configuration. In turn, the inability to overtake BELLA MENTE explains the decision, two days out of Honolulu, to try – well, something. Navigator Ernie Richau broke away to the south, out of cover, to roll the dice. It almost worked. MAGNITUDE, being very light, with a flat set of run polars, could sail deep without giving up a lot. At one point MAGNITUDE gained 40 miles on the lead and at another point was equidistant from the finish. BELLA MENTE, meanwhile, kept closer to the layline, with a better gybing angle to the channel and the odds on her side.
The Barn Door bottom line played out in the gray dawn of July 15 as BELLA MENTE crossed the finish line 6:42 ahead of MAGNITUDE 80. Lorenzo Berho's PELIGROSO rumbled in a day later to take second on corrected time.
From the point of view of HORIZON navigator Jon Shampain – remember, he had the advantage of the second start, with breeze – it was a straightforward race: "The high was so far north, at 40° or so, that we were on the great circle route for the first 24 hours. Then, as we bore off with the jib top, the code 0, spinnakers, we sailed a pretty classic route. When the breeze went light in the middle, we had to cross north of the rhumb line, but by then it was pretty much over in our class."
Which translates to, when you win, there's not so much to talk about
GRAND ILLUSION carried her 1-1 position home to Ala Wai and a grand, outdoor celebration to follow under the loom of the Diamond Head crater.
Tom Holthus' 2009 division winner, the J/145, BAD PAK, won Division 4 and was later named San Diego YC's Yacht of the Year.
Phil and Sarah Sauer's SECOND CHANCE, approaching the Diamond Head Buoy, found themselves diverting to give a second chance to a kayaker being swept out to sea, in deep, deep trouble.
Yoshihiko Murase rallied friends, family and crew to go out amidst the occasional tropical shower to greet the last finisher, Larry Malmberg's HASSLE, 17 days out of Point Fermin. Murase's line of BENGALs had to that point covered roughly 57,500 miles, delivering and racing, in the name of Transpac. There was even a ukulele serenade. In sum, 2011 was another great gathering of the tribe.
- Written by Kimball Livingston