On the Dock... home, tired, but happy...
Quote from Lloyd Thornburg - Owner Skipper
“A hearty congratulations to a perfect race sailed by Mighty Merloe! Team Phaedo sailed a very good race and I am very proud of our team while we gave it our best it was not quite enough for Mighty Merloe's epic light air down wind speed. Now that the racing is behind us we are here in Hawaii enjoying the unparalleled hospitality of our Hawaiian welcome and many well wishers. Aloha!”
Quote from Simon Fisher- Navigator
"It’s great to be in Hawaii after 4 days of really intense racing, after a bumpy first night and the realisation that we had some very intense competition from Mighty Merloe and Maserati it feels like we have thrown everything including the kitchen sink at our bid to get line honours in this race. Having realised that in the conditions we had we weren't going to win on boat speed alone we worked hard on making a more southerly tactical option work. After gybing on what felt like every shift between LA and Hawaii we have to take our hats of to the crew of Mighty Merloe who sailed a faultless race. Despite our efforts we couldn’t find a way past them. It has been a really solid effort from the crew to achieve what turned out to be a solid second place despite hanging it all out there for a chance of glory and the win!”
Congratulations to HL Enloe and the crew of the ORMA 60 trimaran Mighty Merloe, the first to finish in the 2017 Transpac Race, and new holders of the multihull Transpac Race record elapsed time! Mighty Merloe has been racing just about every west coast offshore event for the last few years, often with no multihull competition to measure themselves against. Getting the opportunity to welcome Phaedo3 and Maserati to the west coast, go head to head against them and come out on top is a dream come true for Enloe's team. We'll hear more from them shortly.
Enloe sailed this year's Transpac race with his team of Steve Calder (Main Trimmer), Jay Davis (Bowman), Artie Means (Navigator), Loïck Peyron (Helm), Franck Proffit (Helm), Will Suto (Grinder), Jacques Vincent (Co-Skipper).
Mighty Merloe crossed the finish line under helicopter escort at 17:03:30 (HST) on Monday, July 10th. Their elapsed time of 4 Days, 6 Hours, 33 Minutes, 30 Seconds beats the 20 year old record of Bruno Peyron's Commodore Explorer by more than a day, previously set at 5 days 9 hours 18 min and 26 secs.
More photos and video to follow.
Read more
Most of the remainder of the fleet at halfway point in the race
Honolulu, HI – One week after the first wave of starters and four days after the last wave, the bulk of the 55 entries in this year's 49th edition of the Transpac race are at about their halfway points to the finish at Diamond Head in Honolulu. On the 2225-mile course less than a dozen are still to reach the half-way points in their projected tracks in the race.
Unlike the last two editions of this classic biennial ocean race, the weather has been favorable for a "normal" passage to Hawaii, with the boats heading southwest after passing the West End of Catalina Island, then arching towards the west and now north of west as they get into the easterly tradewinds near the southern latitudes of the Hawaiian archipelago. The fleet's southerly arch away from the rhumb line has been intentional to stay away from the light winds in the Pacific High, but in the next few days some may extend west rather then south to cut down the distance if they're confident there is enough wind pressure to justify this move.
The conditions of relatively steady 10-20 knot winds with few holes has been perfect for the fleet leaders, who have been speeding along at over 20 knots of boat speed and are quickly consuming the remaining miles left to Diamond Head. At 0900 Hawaii Time today the three leading multihulls - H.L. Enloe's ORMA 60 Mighty Merloe, Lloyd Thornburg's MOD 70 Phaedo and Giovanni Soldini's MOD 70 Maserati - have been locked in battle, with Merloe in the lead ahead of Phaedo by 57 miles with only 168 miles to go on their final approach to Oahu.
At current speeds, Merloe's finish time tonight will not only break the multihull race record set in 1997 by Bruno Peyron's Commodore Explorer of 5 days 9 hours 18 min and 26 sec, but possibly smash it by more than a day. The other two MOD 70's also likely to beat the previous mark by coming in only a few hours later.
Read more
July 10, 2017, 1245
I can't stop thinking about how lucky we are to be out here doing what we're doing. The ocean and sky are beautiful. Last night the sun set on our bow and the moon rose on our stern. The colors at dusk out here are unlike any other place I've been. We're still dealing with marine debris. Today I had to crawl out onto the sterns of both the starboard and port amas and dangle off the very back to clear chunks of polypropylene fishing net from in between the top of the rudders and the hull. We had to keep going at full speed to keep the hull out of the water. If we had touched down the force of the water would have dragged me off. I was tied to the boat three different ways, but it was still a nice moment of clarity. Another highlight of the day was being able to strip out of my drysuit for a brief period. All onboard are doing well. It is a truly fine crew that Enloe has assembled this time. Fast, calm, and all with the good humor requisite to live stacked like sardines inside a carbon fiber tube. On that note, it is a good thing this boat is so fast, because the interior is getting a bit fetid. The racing out here is fierce. Keep an eye on the Yellowbrick tracker. The finish will be a nail biter.
Will Suto, Mighty Merloe
Read more
Monday, July 10th looks to be our first finish day! Howard Enloe's ORMA 60 Mighty Merloe continues to perform outstandingly, maintaining a lead over the MOD70s Phaedo3 and Maserati. At the July 10th 0500 HST real time position report, Mighty Merloe was 251nm from the finish, with Phaedo3 at 287 and Maserati at 318. At the average speeds of 20+ knots, Mighty Merloe and possibly Phaedo3 could be finishing before sundown to and get some spectacular Diamond Head finish photos from Sharon Green, Ultimate Sailing.
For the majority of the race, the tracker is on a 4 hour delay for competitive purposes. The tracker will become real time when the boats are within 100nm of the finish.
Check the YB Tracking Leaderboard for updated estimated finish times. Use the dropdown to toggle between monohulls, multihulls or any particular class.
See the Results tab on the website which will be updated as each boat finishes. Calculations of corrected time and ranking within a boat's fleet and overall will be displayed along with their actual finish time.
Boats report their 0500 HST position each day, and the real-time standings are posted as a report each morning.
Questions about boat arrivals, where to meet a particular boat at the marina in Honolulu? Please email racehqhonolulu@transpacyc.com.
The majority of boats will be docking at Ala Wai Harbor.
Visit http://2017.transpacyc.com/history/race-records for more information on the Race Records for Transpac.
All three multihulls are on pace to break the current multihull Transpac Race record, so the first to finish should be setting the new standard. (Phaedo3 did set a non-race record earlier this summer of 3 days 16:52:03 in run to Honolulu which will not be broken during the 2017 Transpac Race.)
Comanche will need to finish by July 12th at 12:36:19 AM (HST) to break the monohull course record.
Photos and video will be added as boats make their way past Diamond Head towards the finish, capturing beautiful aerial shots of the boats during daytime finishes. Additionally, team photos will be taken of the boats arriving at the dock and we'll look to get some interviews and stories from the finishers throughout the week+ of finishes.
Read moreJuly 10, 2017, 0800
A record run for us last 24 hrs. Great day of surfing. Seemed like we spent more time at 13 kts than at 8, with top speed 22 kts falling off a wave last night in an explosion of spray. That's it. We have no dry gear left. Just dropped the chute for some maintenance and a back down to clear the rudder but are back at it after 15 mins under main.
Other cool experiences: At the exact moment our GPS told us we'd sailed halfway yesterday, a pod of porpoises appeared and surfed with us for half an hour. Last night we sailed through a school of flying fish that all started to scatter in random directions as we approached. Looked like they'd been dipped in phosphorescence and fired out of a gun into the night.
Saw our first squall last night so we know that we must be getting closer to Hawaii. Really appreciating the big new elliptical rudder and running backs that we installed over the winter!
Read more
July 9, 2017
New update from RC:
Raisin Cane is charging downwind in a deep, cobalt blue. ocean, her A2 running spinnaker, straining at her sheets, skipping from wave to wave in a sailor’s dance till she reaches the sun baked white beaches of Hawaii. Cane’s crew has settled into their hourly watches and daily routines, focusing all their efforts to race across the Pacific. Sailing has been steady with good winds. The fleet is now in the trade winds for the most part, sailing westerly to the Islands with the winds at their back with a little over 1200 miles to go.
July 9 2019, 1700
Last sked (12 noon) from the 2017 Transpac yellowbrick delayed tracker was incredible. Here we are on Frank Slootman's new Pac52, Invisible Hand, fully lit up on the step with A2 spinnaker and Spin staysail. Pushing the boat hard; blasting through waves -- water everywhere; streaming down the deck and sloshing around down below. Pro drivers and trimmers eeking out every last bit of speed. It's loud, athletic and extreme. You can't imagine us going any faster. I'm getting launched around the nav just trying to look at the screen.
Sked Results
Invisible Hand Course over ground = 248 degrees magnetic
Invisible hand Speed over Ground= 15.47.
Scroll down to our sistership, Pac52 Bad Pak.
BadPak Course over ground= 248 degrees magnetic
BadPak Speed over Ground= 15.49.
Seriously? 2 one hundreds of a knot delta? Is that like one surf down a wave worth of difference? That BadPak team is good. Tight racing across the Pacific Ocean to say the least.
To put this blistering pace in perspective, Comanche, the fastest monohull in the world, put up a 19.19 knots number on the same sked down from the mid-20s we'd been seeing. Rio 100 was 13.78, Albeit with a compromised rudder after strong seamanship to sort out their damage and keep racing.
During the first couple days of the race, Stan on Comanche reported: "24 hour run is 484.1 nautical miles, which is a new record, 53 beyond Wild Oats XI record of 453, which I think is the current 24 hour rollcall to rollcall TP record."
The Invisible Hand's longest 24 hour run so far (not check-in to check-in) has been 379.930 nm at an average speed of 15.83 knots.
So nothing to do now but keep pressing in search of more speed. Just pulled down the next sked. We found some more speed stretched a tiny bit more. The only guarantee is that we will continue to send it.
Lew, Navigator- IH
Read more
| Feb 24
ORR and 2025 Lessons Learned Seminar |
5:00 PM PSTZoom Webinar |
| July 2027
2027 Race Starts |
