HistoryOccasionally the Transpacific Yacht Club’s race from Los Angeles to Honolulu has its odd-year biennial schedule coincide with the Pacific Ocean’s cycle of unusual weather called El Nino. Those that live in or around the Pacific know exactly what this means: the normal and predictable pattern of weather goes haywire for a year or two, a consequence of equatorial current reversals and the havoc this wreaks on weather patterns.
Patterns are important when strategizing how to race 2225 miles across the north Pacific to Oahu’s to Diamond Head, so this was the major factor influencing the outcome of the 48th edition of the historic race. Some clever minds saw this El Nino pattern coming and reckoned this was going to be a windy race of record-breaking proportions, like in 1977 when Bill Lee’s MERLIN smashed the old record to not only establish a new one that stood for two decades, but usher in an entirely new era of ULDB offshore designs.
Roy Pat Disney, for example, saw this coming, as did the team on Bob Oatley’s canting-keeled Reichel/Pugh-designed 100-footer WILD OATS XL, who was first-to-finish in the 2013 race to Honolulu as well as numerous Sydney-Hobart trophy runs back home in Australia. So they partnered up to bring the best knowledge from Disney’s veteran PYEWACKET team (with countless Transpac’s among them) to combine with the technical sailing prowess of the WILD OATS team. They reckoned that unlike 2013’s slow race for the fast boats, this year would be different, with high speed trade winds fueled by El Nino poised to propel them at the record speeds needed to earn not only the Merlin Trophy for first to finish monohull with assisted power, but the coveted Honolulu Race Elapsed Time Record Trophy (otherwise known as the Clock Trophy) as well. This beautiful work of art is only awarded to new monohull record holders, and was dedicated by Roy Pat’s dad Roy Disney for their own record-breaking run on PYEWACKET when they finally beat MERLIN's record in 1997. Other winners include PYEWACKET again in 1999, Hasso Plattner’s MORNING GLORY in 2005, and in 2009 when Neville Chrichton’s ALFA ROMEO set the current mark of 5 Days 14 hours 36 Min 20 sec.
The WILD OATS team were not the only ones sniffing a potential record: Syd Fischer’s RAGAMUFFIN, also from OZ, made the long trip up to LA to enter once again to do the same, having finished as runners-up to WILD OATS in 2013.
And there was even another first-to-finish entry ready to set a record as well, although one that was not eligible for the Merlin or Clock Trophies even though her elapsed time would likely be much faster than both WILD OATS and RAGAMUFFIN. Renaud Laplanche’s 105-foot trimaran LENDING CLUB was shattering course records throughout 2015, and Transpac was next on her list.
Among all the other 57 entries in this 48th race to Honolulu, the race records were likely going to be out of reach but a fast fun trip was anticipated.
Alas, Mother Nature did not get the memo. Much like in 2013, the first wave of Division 7 and 8 Aloha Class boats did get lucky by sailing off the coast from the start at Point Fermin in reasonable fashion, with enough of the “normal” westerly to clear Catalina and be over the horizon by nightfall.
A few days later the second wave in Divisions 4, 5 and 6 also got off the coast well in a standard sunny so Cal seabreeze, with some so excited to be on their way that they were caught over the start line early and had to be recalled.
And meanwhile 500 miles ahead the first wave was making great time. The weather forecasts before the start of low pressure centers and possible hurricanes in the race area seemed like worst-case scenarios at odds with the boats making great progress down the course, some already 25% down the track towards Hawaii.
But then the weather model scenarios started to converge towards a common solution that few would like: a developing low in Mexico would move north and bring moisture and instability to the normal northwesterlies along the coast, and even extend far enough offshore to affect who may have strayed too far south of the rhumb line.
This was enough for the LENDING CLUB team to give up on the chance for a race record and opt instead to leave a few days early for the chance at a course record. This was achieved in impressive style: at a staggering time of 3 days, 8 hours and 9 seconds, the ex-GROUPAMA claimed yet another course record with an average daily run of 590 miles and average speed of 24.6 knots. Skipper Ryan Breymaier reckoned that they had even more in them but they intentionally throttled back at times to avoid floating debris that plagued them in the 2013 race and would continue to hinder others who would soon be on their way behind them.
This problem of debris in the north Pacific has become so bad that one of the race’s supporters, the Ocean Clean-up, offered substantial compensation to boats that participated in what was billed as the “world’s largest scientific experiment”: a survey made by a dozen or so boats reporting on what they observed on their return trips back to the mainland. This information was valuable to marine scientists in helping to refine their modeling of where the worst of the debris field lay, how it would continue to drift and what measures could be taken to collect and remove it by the ton.
So, with debris and non-ideal weather ahead, the teams on the fastest boats starting at the end of the week were probably not surprised by seeing thunderstorms, lightning and rain showers while they started their race on port tack due to the southerlies associated with the low pressure system. The weirdness plagued this group the first few days as they struggled to get away from the coast and the unstable weather, some straying well north just to avoid this system and others gambling on staying south in the hopes of getting a boost of breeze created by two intersecting systems seen in some of the weather models.
In general this latter strategy did not pay off well, and those that wound their way down the middle track and sailed the shifts did well in their classes. The record-seekers trip towards Alaska had them in enough breeze to log some impressive daily runs, but this was not enough to overcome the huge increase in distance they sailed north to avoid the potholes in the road to the south. Of this group WILD OATS XL was first to finish for the Merlin Trophy and a Division 1 win, but no Clock Trophy this time.
Playing the middle road well was James McDowell’s venerable Santa Cruz 70 GRAND ILLUSION, whose navigator Patrick O’Brien was hailed as the architect of their 3-time success at winning not only Division 3 but the King Kalakaua Trophy for best overall in corrected time.
And at 100-feet but with no canting keel nor powered winch systems, Manouch Moshayedi’s Bakewell-White-designed Rio 100 was 25 feet longer than her nearest rival in this category and thus almost assured of the Barn Door trophy, one of the most historically recognized prizes in ocean racing.
Other class winners included Chris Reynolds’s TP 52 BOLT in Division 2, Greg Slyngstad’s J/125 HAMACHI in Division 4, Eric Gray’s Santa Cruz 50 ALLURE in Division 5, John Chamberlain and Dean Fargo’s Swan 651 SECOND WIND in Division 6, Harry Zanville’s Santa Cruz 37 CELERITY in Division 7, and Tracey Obert’s BBY 59 MARJORIE in Division 8.
Even after having braved the strange weather patterns on the course, one other odd feature of this race was also attributable to El Nino: large southerly swells that provided great south shore surfing in the islands but also closed out the channel at the Ala Wai Harbor. TPYC finish line officials held off several night time finishers from entering the harbor until dawn when the surf subsided and it became safer to see the channel and the waves to time the entrance between sets.
Imagine racing several days and over 2000 miles to be within sight and smell of Waikiki, but unable to get there… not easy and another unusual ocean racing challenge.
In summary, the 48th race to Honolulu may not have been one for the record books, but still had all the best features of every Transpac: a solid turnout of boats from not only the Pacific but around the world with crews seeking adventure, camaraderie and offshore sailing excellence.