Latest News

Transpac Boats Streaming into Ala Wai Over Night

A staggered start, weather patterns and tactical decisions combined so that boats are streaming into Ala Wai in Honolulu and the greeting parties can barely keep up with the pace. Aloha welcome parties overlap. The consensus among the sailors is that it was a fun and fast race.

Boats in port - Alfa Romeo, Criminal Mischief, Magnitude 80, Bengal 7, Relentless, Samba Pa Ti, Akela, Hula, Bad Pak, Medicine Man, Flash, Tachyon III. Pegasus 50, Cipango, OEX due in shortly. By the end of the day, most of the fleet have made their final gybe, crossed the finish line and will be wearing leis and telling the story of their race to family, friends and fellow sailors.

Tong wins with Former Silver Bullet, Now OEX

It was even better than old times for Peter Tong, owner of the Santa Cruz 70, OEX. Tong beamed from ear to ear while he and his crew celebrated being the first of the legendary ULDB’s to arrive on Transpac row. Tong is just one of the sled owners of today who took part in the most competitive, nearly one-design, racing in Transpac history.

Passing of Yacht Legend Lou Comyns

Lou Comyns, Director Emeritus of the Transpacific Yacht Club, passed away this morning, July 12, 2009 at 10:36 am. Memorial services pending. In addition to his longtime involvement with the Transpacific Yacht Club he was Staff Commodore of Long Beach Yacht Club, Staff Commodore of Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club, Staff Commodore of Corsair Yacht Club, Past Commander of the Long Beach Power Squadron.

More from Crichton

The Alfa Romeo team is deep in slumber following a press conference and other activities that started at 2:40 am. That is nothing new for the members of the 2008/09 Volvo Ocean Race winning team, Ericsson 4 who were also on this record-setting run. Jimmy Buffett's Restaurant & Bar replenished one and all and gave them plenty of energy for an early morning swim before the revelers piled into a van and headed for breakfast at IHOP.

Kilroy and Samba Pa Ti are Transpac 09’s Golden Boys

Every step of the way from Point Fermin to Diamon Head, John Kilroy and the crew of Samba Pa Ti did a samba for Transpac 09 race watchers. The eight-man crew danced with the stars above their asymmetrical spinnaker and kept an eye on the weather throughout the race. Their strategy from the beginning, according to Kilroy and his tactician, Stu Bannatyne, was “to make as few maneuvers as possible throughout the race.” The big gain for the team is when they continued north to a layline for Hawaii and split with Akela. Samba found pressure and speed up north and worked the boat hard to hunt down Akela. Ultimately, Samba arrived in Hawaii nearly four hours ahead of Akela.

J World Withdraws from Transpac 09

The boat and the crew are fine, but J World, a J/120 out of Honolulu, HI has withdrawn from Transpac 09. Wayne Zittel, the skipper, e-mailed the Transpac communications vessel, Alaska Eagle and informed Transpac officials of the boat's withdrawal. He stated, "Vessel and crew are fine, and there are no issues beyond significant damage to our downwind sail inventory!"

Doublehanded Relentless Crew Finishes Transpac Race

Tim Fuller and Erik Shampain crossed the Transpac 09 finish line more than 13 days after they started Transpac 09, on June 29th. They doublehanded Fuller’s One Design 35 that had been customized and made bullet proof for short-handed sailing by Bruce Nelson.

Clouds Parked Akela during Transpac

It was a “storm cloud from hell,” that caused Akela to sit for four hours and watch Samba Pa Ti put 30 to 40 miles on them. From then on, Akela’s owner, Bill Turpin stayed away from the clouds, but they were defenseless against the pressure that Samba found up north. Despite it being “a good fast race,” as Turpin put it, they missed out to Samba Pa Ti on the Barn Door trophy for having the fastest elapsed time of all of the boats other than those in the Unlimited Class.