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Awaiting the Next Wave of Finishers in the 2017 Transpac Race

Barn Door Trophy winner nears the finish, while stories abound from the race course as the fleet grows nearer

HONOLULU, HI - As the first wave of record-breaking boats have finished, there is a break in the action at race HQ in the Ala Wai Marina before the second wave is soon to arrive in the 2017 Transpac race.

Among the front-runners it looks as though Manouch Moshayedi's Rio 100's hold on the Barn Door Trophy for being the first-to-finish monohull sailing without powered assistance in the sailing systems is fairly secure: at 1400 HST was 170 miles out going 15 knots. Assisted by a left shift in the breeze and being on port tack, she is close to being at her normal speeds and is outpacing Frank Slootman's Pac 52 Invisible Hand who was closing on her the last couple of days but is now 100 miles astern. At current speeds she is expected at Diamond Head after midnight tonight, with Hand expected about 8 hours later.

Next in line is the other new Pac 52, Tom Holthus's Bad Pak at 325 miles out, and then the remainder of the fleet will start coming in fast succession throughout the end of this week.

As the bulk of the fleet progresses west and south into the tradewinds, the weather gets warmer, layers of clothes get removed and the boats get flatter, giving teams more comfort to hit their keyboards and express themselves with their creativity. In the last couple days more and more teams are sending to Transpacific YC race HQ their stories in words, photos and even videos.

Interview with Ken Read Comanche Skipper

Waikiki Yacht Club Party

TICKETS: General Admision $59 | VIP #$75
Includes one well drink and the luau. Tickets must be purchased by 6:30 PM on July 18th. Any sales after the 18th will depend on a space available basis only.

RESERVATIONS: Call the Waikiki YC Office at 808-955-4405

Mighty Merloe and Comanche Set New Race Records in 2017 Transpac

New multihull and monohull marks established

HONOLULU, HI - Due to wind conditions veteran navigator Stan Honey described as a "surprisingly strong breeze," both the multihull and the monohull first-to-finish race records have fallen in the 2017 Transpac. Over a 2225-mile course that starts from Pt Fermin in Los Angeles and ends at Diamond Head in Honolulu, H.L. Enloe's ORMA 60 trimaran Mighty Merloe crossed the finish line first at 5:02:30 PM Hawaii Standard Time (HST) for an elapsed time of 4 days 6 hours 32 min 30 sec, a full 26.5 hours faster than the previous mark set in 1997 by Bruno Peyron and his team on Commodore Explorer.

Racing with Enloe was a highly-seasoned crew of offshore sailors, including Steve Calder, Jay Davis, Artie Means, Loïck Peyron, Franck Priffit, Will Suto and Jacques Vincent.

In crossing the finish 3 and 6 hours later, respectively, even the next two boats to finish, Lloyd Thornburg's MOD 70 Phaedo and Giovanni Soldini's MOD 70 Maserati, also broke this record.

The next boat to come over the eastern horizon into the Molakai Channel towards the finish was Jim Clark's 100-footer Comanche, and at 11:55:26 local time, they too decisively established a new course record for monhulls with an elapsed time of 5 days 1 hour 55 min 26 sec. This new record is half a day faster than the previous mark set in 2009 by Neville Crichton's R/P 90 Alfa Romeo II.

Skipper Ken Read had high praise for the team, saying "This was the perfect boat with the perfect crew. We did a lot of work to mode this boat to the lowest safety limits of stability and to minimize the weight wherever possible." This included crew, with only 15 on board ("one for every handle on the grinders"), and sails, which is ironic given that Read is President of North Sails: for this trip the inventory was reduced to a main, masthead Code 0, three jibs two staysails, and - amazingly - only one A3 spinnaker. For an offshore greyhound of this size, its several crew and sails less than normal.

"This was another proof of concept for this boat," he continued. "we can adapt it to be competitive in any race around the world. We are all just stunned at what this boat can do."

For navigator Stan Honey this was his 7th first-to-finish achievement in Transpac, and the 4th time he has helped win the Elapsed Time Record Trophy (aka The Clock Trophy) as navigator. The hands on the clock on this trophy will now be set to the new record time.

Rio 100 Recovering From Damaged Rudder, Fighting to the Finish

At 0015 Sunday July 9th we struck an unseen submerged object at a speed of 18-20 knots. We believe that it first struck the keel, then ran along the portside, until it struck the port rudder. The ensuing impact completely snapped the rudder just below the upper bearing. The rest of the stock and the rudder were now free to swing about, destroying the lower bearing and threatening to tear a hole in the boat. Since we were on starboard tack, copious amounts of water were pouring into the boat.

The first order of business was to slow the boat down to try and keep the free swinging rudder from doing more damage. The kite and the staysail were dropped and with the reduction in speed we were able to keep up with the ingress of water with our pumps.

With the water somewhat under control, we needed to come up with plan. We knew if we gybed, we could heel the boat enough that the damaged bearing would be well out of the water, but the boat would also pick up speed, which in turn could cause the rudder to rip a hole in the boat that we would have very little chance of patching. It was determined that we needed to get the rudder out of the boat quickly and get the hole covered.

Luckily for us, we have a very experienced crew who have all been with the boat since its christening, plus we have onboard  multiple Volvo veterans, Chris Nicholson, Justin Ferris, Bouwe Bekking, Will Oaxley, and our own ace craftsman and Magyver, Jeff Messano onboard who came up with a plan.

Jeff quickly went to work rounding up parts to cover the hole, while the others came up with a way to secure the patch. But first we had to get the rudder out of the boat, which meant keeping the boat as slow as possible, which in turn meant the boat was flat and water would flood the compartment. when all preparations were complete, everyone except for Jeff left the compartment. The plan was to push the broken rudder out of the of the boat, stuff a sleeping bag in the hole to stop the water until we could  pick up speed, heel the boat, and make our repairs.