Latest News

Oaxaca Walks Off With The SC 50/52 Bling

photo courtesy of David Livingston

If there was one seriously competitive division in the 2019 Transpac, the Santa Cruz 50/52 fleet would take the nod, hands down, 11 boats strong at the start.

The boats vintage ranges from 1980 to 2001, with Dave MacEwen’s Lucky Duck being the newest, a 2001 model and Michael Moradzadeh’s Oaxaca being the eldest, emerging from the coop in 1980. While the 52’s are longer on the deck by near 3 feet, the waterline for both is right at 46.5’ for stock models. The 52’s made their debut in 1992, offering a tad more comfort and luxury than their earlier counterparts. They weigh more and have more sail area but the ORR rating is very similar across the board, and most every boat has seen some modification of one sort or another, yet they all live within the confines of class rules after near 4 decades.

Transpacific Yacht Club Trophy History

All in at Transpac 50

With Jason Seibert's Schock 40 Gamble making it across the finish line this morning after a long passage of almost 11 days, the Transpacific Yacht Club can declare all boats have finished this year's 50th edition to the LA-Honolulu Race. The final tally of boats completing the course successfully is 81, with 678 sailors aboard. Nine yachts retired from this year's race: seven returned to the mainland, one continued to Hawaii, and one sank at sea.

Nearly without exception, all were glad they came, with plenty of tales of adventure and challenge running the gamut of topics common to ocean racing: high speeds and low speeds, gourmet cooking to freeze dried mush, perfect moonlit nights to scary squalls, freezing cold to baking in the sun with no relief. For some the trip was without incident, while others ran into one problem after another and the trip was spent troubleshooting these to get them to Hawaii in one piece.

FlyingFiche II Race Blog

Transpac 2019 is in the books! The Flyingfiche II crossed the finish line just after 8 p.m. local time Sunday. We placed fourth of 11 in our very competitive division, and 12th of 84 finishers overall.

This is the second Transpac that we've completed on this boat, and everyone has been asking the obvious question: How did 2019 compare to 2017?

The conditions in 2017 were much milder, and from what I understand, this year's conditions were much more typical—more wind, bigger waves, tougher squalls. The shift in degree of conditions results in a change in the kind of sailing on these boats. When the wind and waves lined up—like when we were coming down Molokai Channel, especially—we weren't sailing in the way we do in the coastal waters of Southern California. It was a surfing session on a 50-foot board that has a spinnaker attached to help drop in. We were able to get into this mode much more often this year, and it enabled us to finish the race faster by an entire day. The difference in top speeds was huge—17.5 knots last time compared to 24.5 this year. The Santa Cruz 50 was designed for this race, and that was much more apparent to me this year. 

Last wave of finishers happy to finish after rough seas and big breezes on final approach in Transpac 50

By sunset on Monday, only a handful of yachts were still at sea heading towards the finish in the 50th edition of the LA-Honolulu Transpacific Yacht Race, organized by the Transpacific YC. This day was overcast and almost dreary compared to the bright tropical sunshine of all the other finish days, and with the final stretch after many days at sea many teams were more than ready to cross the finish at Diamond Head. 

A source of fatigue and frustration for many was the unusual sea state produced by cross-swells, making the smaller and slower boats in particular difficult to sail efficiently. One team sent a message saying "On land, I will miss thrashing about the boat, getting vibrant bruises that connect to form geographic regions all over my body." Kidding aside, for some this was also the source of damage that had serious effects on their race.