The name Pyewacket could easily be synonymous with the modern era of Transpac: in nearly every year since 1987 there has been an entry under this name raced by a member of the Disney family and their teams, with the exception being in 2013 when the Pyewacket team partnered with Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats team to race the Australian R/P 100 that year. During this 34-year history of 17 races, the Pyewacket team has earned numerous class wins, the Barn Door Trophy and set a course record on four different boat designs with the same name.
In the last edition of the race, the Pyewacket team in their Andrews 68 had entered intent on an overall corrected time win, when in the second night of the race they hit a speed bump: OEX, another sled in the race, had a serious rudder system failure and was taking on water with liferafts already deployed. Disney and team altered course and rescued the team, sailed back to California, and received US Sailing’s prestigious Arthur B. Hanson award for their outstanding rescue at sea.
This year Roy P. Disney is back, this time intent on crossing the finish line at Diamond Head first in fleet with a fifth new design, a turbo-charged Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed Volvo 70, built for the Volvo Ocean Race in 2011. Disney but bought the boat in late 2019 in anticipation of TPYC’s planned LA-Tahiti Race in 2020. With that race postponed to next year, Disney and team now have their sights trained on a Barn Door Trophy win in Transpac.
“Transpac has always been on our "must do" races with all the boats our family has had over the years,” said Disney. “It is absolutely the best offshore race in existence and finishes in paradise!”
The Pyewacket team will grow to 13 to sail this rocketship, with an all-star team planned – joining Roy will be: Gary Weisman, Ben Mitchell, Robbie Kane, Brian Janney, Peter Isler, Mark Callahan, Jan Majer, Scott Easom, Jeff Reynolds, Rodney Daniel, Daryl Wislang and Mark Towill.
As a warm-up, the Pyewacket team not only participated in the recent Newport-Cabo San Lucas Race, but set a new course record of 1 day 21 hours 22 minutes, besting Magnitude 80’s old record by a whopping 14 hours.
Yet Disney’s stated goal for his Transpac experience is modest: He wants to “enjoy the comaraderie and wonderful sailing conditions we always expect and get sailing to Hawaii.”