NewsClass-y, sassy new 40-footer for TPYC Director Senescu, for 2009
DANA POINT, CA Dec. 8, 2008 – Transpacific Yacht Club Director Sue Senescu has her sights set on her fifth Transpac, in 2009 – this time as skipper of a custom-built Class 40 race boat designed by Jim Antrim.
Sue is serving her first two-year term on the TPYC Board of Directors, is Chair of the Trophies Committee, and Staff Commodore of Dana Point Yacht Club. She previously raced in Transpac 1995 and 1997 on all women crews; in 2003 she mixed it up with the guys aboard the SC50 Horizon, and in 2005 on the Cabo Rico 56, Madrina – winning second in class.
This race, she’s putting the pedal to the metal with an ultra-modern design made famous in single-and-double-handed transatlantic and round-the-world races by sailing legends like Giovanni Soldini and Miranda Merron. Although 80-boats strong in Europe, the Class 40 fleet is relatively new to the West Coast. Sue and husband Barry’s yacht Yippee Kai Yay will be the first of its kind built in California (hence the wild western name) “specifically for Pacific Ocean racing.”
And what does that mean? The boat’s been modified for Transpac with a larger sail plan and shorter keel, according to Sue. The lesser draft will feature a heavier lead bulb – allowing for shallower anchorages; and a larger sail plan – for a triumphant downwind race to Honolulu, she hopes.
Forty- feet long overall, it has a 14-foot, 5-inch beam and draws 8.5 feet. With an e-glass hull (resin-infused foam), and carbon fiber spars and sails, the boat displaces just 9,920-pounds. It carries a total of 1,260 square feet of sail area upwind and a whopping 2,692 square feet downwind.
Sue has been immersed in the design (with Jim Antrim) and construction (with Columbia Yachts of Santa Ana, Calif.) of the boat since the inception. “I have been really involved in the design and build: every nook and cranny. It’s been exactly like building a house: picking every little block and padeye and piece of hardware.”
Because the boat will race at times with all-female crew, Sue says she’s given special consideration to certain elements, like the purchase systems, “So they’re easy to use and it doesn’t take NFL players to bring the sails in.”
“Pretty bare bones,” describes the interior: with spartan accommodations for up to six crew, a one-burner stove, and a pretty snug head compartment with molded toilet seat. Other customizations include extra hand-holds and tether clips throughout the cockpit, for added safety.
Above deck, the placement of hardware, rigging and mechanics are all designed for short-handed sailing, but Sue says, “We have no intentions of sailing it single-handed. However we do like the ease-of-use: all sails can be furled, socked or reefed ... we really like the above-deck technology of this design.”
“We wanted to have a fast, fun ride to Hawaii,” Sue explains. “We considered a TP52 but would have needed to have a partner,” due to financial considerations, she continues. “We decided to go for the Class 40, as we could be sole owners, and have it in our home harbor (Dana Point).”
It’s a leading edge boat, points out Sue, who adds, “That was what the Antrim 27 was when we bought it 11 years ago,” speaking of their super-lightweight, trailerable, articulating sprit boat Rattle and Hum. “Maybe we’re a little bit ahead of our times again ... but that’s okay with me.”
She looks forward to strong one-design Class 40 fleet racing on the west coast in the future. “It has the greatest potential, for the very same reasons we chose to build this boat in the first place: high performance with ease of use, for anything from single-handed sailing, to buoy racing with a crew of eight.”
Yippee Kai Yay is expected to launch mid-January, with the Newport Harbor Yacht Club race to Cabo San Lucas as its’ major shakedown, before Transpac ’09. “I’m looking forward to participating in Transpac again, and looking forward to being in the same fleet as boats like Speedboat [a 100-foot maxi]. We’re talking days of difference here, but I believe that the skill of my crew and manageability of my boat will allow me to compete against a boat as fast as Speedboat, on corrected time.”
And that’s just one of the great things about Transpac. Another is that even though Sue and Barry haven’t yet launched their new 40-footer, they’ve already got a hostess lined up for the finish party in the Ala Wai. Longtime Honolulu Committee member Marsha Lewis has already signed on to welcome Sue and her all-gal team when they complete Transpac ’09. That Aloha spirit is just one more thing that makes Transpac a race you keep coming back to again and again.