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Champagne Sailing Soon to Come in Transpac

On this Independence Day holiday while the rest of us are enjoying grilled meats, libations and fireworks with family and friends, the 52 teams with 455 sailors aboard on the Transpac racecourse are still making steady progress west towards Hawaii. The sun is coming out from behind the clouds during the day, the moon is bright at night and the sailing angles are starting to turn from reaching to running for most of the fleet.

Steve Rossi on Cecil and Alyson Rossi’s Farr 57 HO’OKOLOHE reported “Right after roll call yesterday the A3 went up and the mood boosted on the boat. We saw [an albatross] for the first time yesterday and again this morning on dawn patrol. It's always great to see these majestic yet solitary birds.

“Last night's full moon was spectacular, making short appearances through the break in the clouds, so bright at times we almost needed sunglasses. The sun today has finally brought out that crystal clear blue diamond Pacific ocean water. We're reaching deeper into our sail locker, and were finally able to pull out the bigger A2 spinnaker- a much more manageable kite than the A3 we had up for the last 24 hours, which was a chore to keep under control in the confused wind conditions.”

Passing Lanes in Transpac

With the exception of five entries that have dropped from the race and have returned to the coast, the entire Transpac fleet is now finally making good progress down the racecourse towards Hawaii. The faster entries among the Thursday starters are also converging fast with the slower Tuesday starters as shown on the PASHA HAWAII YB tracker system and will soon be finding some passing lanes, mostly to the north of the rhumb line.

Using their satellite internet access all teams may download GRIB weather files while en route on the race. These are combined with their polar performance data and is used by routing software to help guide them on where to go on the racecourse to get the fastest possible calculated route to the finish.

Triumph Boat Blog

July 3, 1030

Quick update from the Triumph.  As you might see from the YB Tracker, we are barely holding off Deception but as we enter the downwind leg it will be a dog fight as they are a much lighter boat.  Westerly has got something we don't and I am not sure what that is. Perhaps an upwind sail. They continue to outpace us.  We continue to push. 

We have seen alot of debris today including a large chunk of foam with a 2 inch piece of rebar. Then we wrapped some plastic bag or something around the keel requiring us to back down (under sail of course).  We quickly got back underway.

Halfway point (for some) in the 2023 Transpac

After yesterday’s third and final start of the 2023 Transpac, the fortunes of the fleet of 57 entries can be ascertained from the PASHA HAWAII YB tracker system and reports coming in to race managers at Transpacific Yacht Club. There are some in this fleet there are starting to get a taste of the champagne sailing conditions that makes this race famous, while others are still days away from having this taste too as they struggle to get off the California coast.

The leaders in the first group of starters continue their match race battle for the lead in Boatswain’s Locker Division 7 among two Dehler 46 sisterships. At 0900 PDT this morning Greg Dorn’s FAVONIUS is shown to have managed to pass and build a 4-mile lead over Ian Edwards’ WINGS from Australia. With 1219 miles to the finish at Diamond Head in Honolulu these two are sailing at about 9 knots and are near the halfway point on the course after 5 days of racing.

Ho’okolohe at the Start of the 2023 Transpac Race