After a slow initial start on Saturday, Jason Carroll and his team of Chad Corning, Thierry Fouchier, Anderson Reggio, Alister Richardson, Brian Thompson, Westy Barlow were able to push their MOD 70 trimaran Argo into the lead among two other rival MOD 70's in this year's 50th edition of the LA-Honolulu Transpac.
After several hours into the race and having to fight to get out of a wind hole on the first night, the team found the strong offshore breeze first to take a lead never seriously challenged during the entire race, playing a brilliant tactical game to also deftly stay ahead of their competition on the final approach to the finish.
Which was needed: Peter Cunningham's team on PowerPlay, a sistership MOD 70, finished just 29 minutes astern after 2225 miles of racing.
Argo's official finish time was 20:50:32 HST on Wednesday, July 17th, for an elapsed time of 4 days 11 hours 20 min 32 sec ...a remarkable time considering their first day's slow start and only 5 hours behind the record pace set in 2017 by the ORMA 60Mighty Merloe of 4 days 6 hours 32 minutes 30 sec.
This translates to an average speed down the course of 20.7 knots.
Aloha!
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Amazing to get out of the hole yesterday evening. Gutted to get sucked in but thats how it goes a. Last race we had nuc'in winds this one nada for the start. One extreme to another... drifting backwards at 1kt to 30kts reaching in flat water and full moon. What a great section of the race! A little damp but the boat loves being lent on hard.
Now into glamour champagne sailing downwind with genak and staysail at 18-23kts. The full moon surfing downwind is superb! Spirits are high, water is warm and showers on deck about to commence:)
Thanks to our shore crew arthur for the amazing fresh cooked grub, its giing down a absolute treat.
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Friends of Snoopy!
Day two of TransPac! Before I get started, many people have asked why we renamed the boat Snoopy. Two reasons, really. Because she was originally Snoopy, and who in their right mind would sail to Hawaii on a re-named boat!
Being the second TransPac start, we got under way yesterday with classes 3-5 hitting the course. After a good start, wind went left and one of our sister-ships, Velvet Hammer burned us off forcing us to go right early. This turned out to pay as we were the first J125 to Catalina. After Catalina, the synoptic winds slowly took over and we picked a slightly southerly compared to most of our other competitors. With our killer J1/jib-top conversion sail, we set off into the building breeze and washing-machine conditions. Not much fun, but after a long night of upper teens/low 20's and waves coming from six different directions we got to where we wanted to be this morning...just South and bow forward on our northerly competitors. We will see if this pays off mid-next week, but for now we are sailing in strong breeze, with fast sails and a nice line to enter the trades. Fingers crossed!
Last night in the Pacific was spectacular. The wind was blowing us towards Hawaii with enough pressure to allow Reinrag2 to surf from 12 to about 20 kts on the smallish 2 to 4 foot seas. The air was in the low 70s, chilly with wind on wet clothes, but pleasant to my New England accustomed senses. Oh, and the moon was full and shining down on all, the white foam of breaking waves, the sparkle of the spray from the bow, and the ghostly white of the spinnaker curl in trim.
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At about 2 AM PDT, a small crowd gathered at the docks of Windward Yacht Center to await the arrival of a 68-foot sailboat with 19 people aboard. This was 10 more than the 9 they left with from Long Beach back on Saturday at the third start of the 2225-mile LA-Honolulu Transpacrace. Roy Disney's Andrews 68 Pyewacket left Long Beach hungry for victory in their attempt to earn corrected time honors but circumstances intervened on Sunday night.
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As I like to say on ocean voyages like this, "It is all good, except for the bad parts." This 50th Transpac race of 2,225 nautical miles from LA to Honolulu is no exception.
Read moreAfter a good 24hr run yesterday of 271nm and a great pasta and meatball dinner, we got to enjoy a drizzly night of moisture and moonlight. But, this mornings sunrise was accompanied by the palette of a double rainbow. Fantastic. Shout out to Romeo Villareal and SESSIONS CATERING! Brigadoon out
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| Feb 24
ORR and 2025 Lessons Learned Seminar |
5:00 PM PSTZoom Webinar |
| July 2027
2027 Race Starts |
