News

Exhausted and elated, waves of teams are finishing strong in Transpac

Honolulu, Hawaii - Having start dates staggered this year over five days and near-perfect strong breeze over the 2225-mile course has resulted in the first big wave of competitors coming across the finish line at Diamond Head today in the 51st edition of the LA-Honolulu Transpac. Since yesterday 10 more teams have finished the race today, with 9 more teams expected in tonight before dawn tomorrow. This makes more half the fleet of 41 entries expected to be in to their berths at Hawaii YC or Waikiki YC before another large wave of 18 finishers are expected tomorrow and tomorrow night.

Transpac Race Analysis 24 July

Transpac race analysis for July 24 with Seahorse Magazine technical editor Dobbs Davis. In today's show the wind and weather features around the Hawaiian islands are explained and what its like to come at Oahu from being at sea and make the finish line at Diamond Head: the wind effects, the sights sounds and smells of making landfall in paradise.

Triumph Boat Blog

July 24, 2021

Good Afternoon from Triumph.  We  are at N 25 degrees 03.617 minutes Latitude and W 149 degrees 39.965 minutes.   It is sunny and hot. Wind is 18-22 knots. Swells are 3-6. Last night was fun filled terror with a series of squalls. I have never liked squalls and after last night I hate them even more.  We drove right in to the heart of the death star squall but came out the other end.  Nick, Jeff, David (aka Spider Monkey) were on deck sailing in 22-25 knots of breeze, when about to be eaten David asks for relief and Jeff looks to me and says your up and I say NFW bud - that is above my pay grade. Jeff told The Spider Monkey to sit tight because we are not changing drivers during a squall.  Moments later it was game on and we were swallowed hole and wind speeds quickly reached 30-33 knots with torrential rains.  The rest of the crew was bunked below.  Brad and Chris reported to be listening as Triumph hydroplaned and we yelled to each other about the rapidly changing conditions.  Justin reportedly silently thanked David for his timing as Justin had just done a tiring 4 hour shift.  Zack slept through the entire event.  The Spider Monkey kicked the death star squalls ass!  He is the boat MVP today. Only one day because we can't let this go to his head!  BTW he continues to lead in the BMC. 

Horizon Boat Blog

July 24, 2021

Last night was a great night of sailing under a full moon, scatterred clouds, and rolling seas, giving HORIZON ample opportunities to surf down big waves when the winds gusted above 20kts.  We continue sailing with our Code 2 spinnaker with average wind speeds of around 18Kt blowing from north/northeast. We took advantage of a right wind shift around 3am to jibe and point the nose of the boat at the finish line in Hawaii, now 275 miles away. We are on final approach to the Hawaiian islands and getting ready for what will be a fairly tight finish with the lead boat in our class. They are 16 miles ahead in terms of miles to finish but we think we have better strategic position to play the wind shifts as we approach the Molokai channel, the last and usually fast leg of the race. The race has turned out to be a 2000 mile match race between HORIZON and the other lead boat in the Santa Cruz 50/52 class. If you look at the yellow brick tracks of the two boats, they are almost identical. Obviously the two navigators, on our boat Pete, and on the other boat Jeff, think very much alike, strategically speaking.

Pyewacket arrives into Hawaii - Transpac ‘51, with new 24 hour record

Honolulu, Hawaii - Five days, 16 hours, 53 minutes and 20 seconds since starting off San Pedro in Los Angeles last Saturday, the team on Roy Disney’s turbo Volvo 70 Pyewacket crossed the finish line at 2:53 AM at Diamond Head to be first to finish in this year’s Transpac. While not breaking the 5 day 2 hour course record set in 2017 by the VPLP 100-footer Comanche, this was still an impressive feat in having an average speed of 16.3 knots over the entire 2225-mile course. Knowing they could not defeat the course record, the team decided instead to go after another record: the longest 24-hour run in the race. Navigator Peter Isler laid out the scenario: rather than gybing on wind shifts to reduce the distance to the finish they would extend to the north corner of the course, gybe once, and head at high speed for Oahu. The tactic worked: in 24 hours the team sailed 506.4 miles, at an average of 21.1 knots of speed.

Pyewacket wins Barn Door Trophy and sets 24 hour record in Transpac

July 23, 2021 - Honolulu, Hawaii - Five days, 16 hours, 53 minutes and 20 seconds since starting off San Pedro in Los Angeles last Saturday, the team on Roy Disney’s turbo Volvo 70 Pyewacket crossed the finish line at 2:53 AM at Diamond Head to be first to finish in this year’s Transpac. While not breaking the 5 day 2 hour course record set in 2017 by the VPLP 100-footer Comanche, this was still an impressive feat in having an average speed of 16.3 knots over the entire 2225-mile course.

Knowing they could not defeat the course record, the team decided instead to go after another record: the longest 24-hour run in the race. Navigator Peter Isler laid out the scenario: rather than gybing on wind shifts to reduce the distance to the finish they would extend to the north corner of the course, gybe once, and head at high speed for Oahu. The tactic worked: in 24 hours yesterday the team sailed 506.4 miles, at an average of 21.1 knots of speed.

Rock n Roll Boat Blog

Everything continues to go well on the good ship Rock 'n Roll. Conditions are excellent and fast--blasting along at 14-15 knots in 20 knots of breeze for the past day and trying to hunt down Bolt. The observant may have seen a tracker report that we were only going 6 knots at one point, but that never happened--just an oddity as the tracker took two positions before and after a gybe.

Our trusty A2.5 spinnaker which was painstakingly sewn back together a few days ago just finally gave up for good in a spectacular show of shredded cloth. So we are down to just two spinnakers and hopefully that will do.

Bryon Ehrhart’s LUCKY Retires from Race 30nm From Finish With Rudder Failure

At about 1320 HST the Judel-Vrolijk 72 LUCKY retired from the race, reporting a broken rudder at about 30 miles from the finish. All crew safe on board, and organized a tow to Honolulu. Lucky had been projected to be a top 10 overall finisher and had been ranked first in Class 1 at Friday morning's roll call.