The name Pied Piper in the Great Lakes is inexorably tied to offshore racing legend, having cut five hours off a 76-year old monohull course record in the 1987 edition of the 333-mile Chicago to Mackinac Race. This impressive mark set by the Andrews 68 ULDB was not defeated until 2002 by Roy Disney’s larger Reichel/Pugh 75 turbo-Sled Pyewacket, who still holds the record time of 23:30:24 for this race.

Pied Piper campaigned for decades among the Great Lakes 70’s in the Lakes, first by Dick Jennings and then by his son Jack, and the team has now set their sites on the Pacific where these designs started their offshore racing lives in the 1980’s before migrating to the Lakes. Purchasing the Santa Cruz 70 Holua in 2019 with it being kept in Portland since, Jack’s intent was to race in the 2020 Pacific Cup that was Covid-cancelled, and so has now re-focused their program on the 2021 Transpac.

Having already done one race as crew and thus eligible to join the Transpac YC, Jennings has yet to race as skipper, and is looking forward to “the challenge of sailing to Hawaii.” The team plans to have 10 crew aboard and complete qualifying races in Southern California in 2021 to train and be ready for the start in July.

“We will have a number of 'rookie' Midwest sailors on the race who have spent a lot of time on SC 70's,” he said, “but never with them pointing to Hawaii.”

As for boat preparation, Jennings said “Our boat hasn't been raced since 2017. There are a lot of things that have changed in the Offshore world - we are doing our best to keep up.”

They have joined an active and competitive class of Sleds that have in recent years have also been contenders for top overall prizes in the race.

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