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OEX Racing Blog

OEX Lobster Dinner

July 9, 2017, 1930

A great day! Moved the folks to the north back in bearing and gained gauge to leeward. Hit a UFO and had to do a back down in 19 knots true. The kid is now driving. Chef @Pete Lehmar prepared outstanding Western Australian lobster for supper tonight. Hoping for continued better pressure on our southern track. Standing by from onboard the Mighty OEX...

Transpac Race Tracker Analysis 3

Dobbs Davis recaps the positioning of the boats on Sunday, and describes the classic Transpac racing line.

Maserati Racing Blog

Maserati Slowed by Broken Right Rudder After Collision with an Unidentified Floating Object 

July 9, 2017, 1200

MaseratiMulti70, the Italian high performance offshore flying multihull yacht skippered by Giovanni Soldini, has broken one of its rudders in a high-speed collision with an unidentified floating object, while in second place in the Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

The crew have been able to retrieve the shattered rudder on the back of the starboard (right hand) hull of the trimaran. The other rudders on the port (left hand) and the central hulls are undamaged and the crew are continuing to race towards the finish in Honolulu.

“We were sailing fast at 28 – 30 knots when we heard a big bang,” Soldini reported today. “We immediately stopped the boat and managed to retrieve the rudder blade that was still attached by a retaining line. That was quite a difficult procedure because it was during the night, with lots of wind and waves”.

When the incident happened Soldini’s crew were in second place in the multihull division and in a tight race with Mighty Merloe ahead and Phaedo3 behind. Maserati Multi70 had been sailing well south of the course “rhumb line”– the shortest most direct route between Los Angles and Honolulu – in an attempt to find more wind and to try to avoid the worst of the ocean debris littering the course further north.

“Our choice to stay south was also because we wanted to avoid the areas with more debris,” Soldini explained. “But yesterday, during the day, we saw at least 15 floating objects, including a net, a very big rope line, a buoy with an iron pole, and many smaller buoys. At one point, we caught a large piece of plastic sheeting on one of the rudders.”

The broken rudder is part of a new assembly fitted to the boat before the start of the race, designed to give the crew more control of the boat in fast flying mode.

“The bushes are still intact but the force of the impact completely destroyed the stock and blade,” Soldini said. “The rudder on the other side and the central rudder are OK, but cannot sail too fast on the side without the rudder, as sometimes we lose control and the boat spins out.”

At 16.00 Italian time today, 04.00 in Hawaii, MaseratiMulti70 was third on the water and was sailing south west (230 degrees) at 25.9 knots with 846.7 miles to race. Further north, Mighty Merloe and Phaedo3 were a sailing parallel course with 798.3 and 822.9 miles to go, respectively.   

Varuna Sailing Blog

Varuna's 100 Footer Fly Bys

July 8, 2017, 1745

In the last 24 hours, Varuna witnessed something that very few sailors will get to see - multiple hundred footers blowing past them days into the race at close quarters!

We picked our routing line a few days ago and so far it has done us well (first in class). Anyway, as we tracked ours and our competitors progress we had to take notice of Comanche to see if/how they might break the record. Well they passed 1/4 mile to winward after 400 miles of sailing (day 2) We greeted them on the radio as they blew past us doing 25 knots with a full triple headrig. Of course, we were proud that our 'line' had been vindicated by the venerable Stan Honey driven Comanche!

That alone would normally make  a great conversation piece for the race, but then the very next day (18 hours later - 600 miles down the pike)) another hundred footer,RIO, came right down our path and this time, they went a 1/4 mile to leeward (very nice of them). We chatted with the owner on Rio 100 who offered us some broiled chicken in place of our MREs (he also said hi to his realtor who is one of our regular crew).

So there you have it, a little 46 footer racing neck and neck (okay getting blown away) by two world class hundred footers, hundreds of miles in to the race and having nice chats with each. They looked impressive, especially since 2 of our boats could sit on their decks!! (oh and I still think we picked the right line!).

Varuna

New Transpac Race 24 Hour Monohull Distance Record Record Set by Comanche

Trivia for the day: Comanche's 24 hour run (0800 roll call to roll call) was 484.1 nm, a new Transpac race record, a 20.2 knot average speed. The previous record of 453 nm by Wild Oats XI in 2015. Previously, it was set at 431 nm by Alfa Romeo II in 2009 when they set the monohull course record which still stands (for now).

Alfa Romeo II's monohull course record time from 2009 was 5 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes, 20 seconds. Comanche will need to finish by 12:36:19 AM (Honolulu time) on 7/12/17 to break the record.

Interestingly enough Stan Honey, navigator aboard Comanche is looking to break a record he helped establish, as he was also the navigator aboard Alfa Romeo II in 2009. Stan has said what's key is not necessarily having a windy race but just having the wind be consistent.

For more about the current standing records, visit http://transpacyc.com/history/race-records.