Race Archives

2009 Honolulu


Transpac Racers are in the Trade Winds

Relentless, the modified Nelson Marek One-Design 35 has crossed the most meridians, but somewhere around 140º west, the Criminal Mischief crew will say “Aloha! See you in Hawaii!” to Tim Fuller and Erik Shampain on Relentless. Alfa Romeo, is flying at 16 knots just north of 26º30’ and has recently passed Bengal 7, the Division 3 leader and the frontrunner among the Japanese Transpac Race entries. Later today, Alfa will storm out ahead of the entire fleet and will probably overtake the communications vessel, Alaska Eagle. 

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Highlights of the Transpac 09 Awards Ceremony

John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti Team took to the stage seven times during Transpac 09's Awards Ceremony at the Waikiki Shell. Samba Pa Ti had a rare clean sweep and won the Barn Door Trophy, The King Kalakaua Trophy & Governor of Hawaii Trophy among other coveted Transpac trophies. Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Lt. Governor James R. "Duke" Aiona, Jr. appear with John Kilroy Jr. and Samba Pa Ti crew.

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Watkins Morford and Their Transpac Wedding

After the photos were taken on the bow of Medicine Man, Minister Al Bento handed his cell phone to Jared Morford. The caller on the other in end of the line was his good friend, Mike Elias. Morford held his ear to the receiver and hesitated as he replied, “Well, I’m married now. How are you?”

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Watkins - Morford Transpac Wedding Today on Medicine Man

The Transpacific Yacht Race is a life changing event. Jared Morford of Medicine Man will never forget Transpac 09 because he and Sharon Watkins have decided to tie the knot, here in Hawaii. Sharon Watkins and Jared Morford will celebrate their wedding on the bow of Medicine Man, today, Friday, July 17th at 1:00pm. Al Bento, four time past Staff Commodore of Hawaii Yacht Club, who is also licensed as a minister by the State of Hawaii, is an avid angler and has been a tremendous Transpac host, will officiate. A reception will follow at Hawaii Yacht Club. All are invited to attend. Congratulations Sharon and Jared.

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Transpac Aloha Welcome for Tall Ship Lynx

From the time the Lynx Educational Foundation announced its tall ship entry in Transpac 09, it has had the Southern California and Hawaiian sailing community abuzz. As America’s Privateer Lynx neared the Hawaii, helicopters, boats, film crews and the rest of the extended Transpac family braced for her arrival. It was almost 9:00 pm on Thursday evening when the Lynx’s white mast light and starboard running light was visible to the awaiting crowds at Hawaii Yacht Club. 

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Austin’s Transpac Addiction Crew Arrives Home

She’s a showstopper! Lindsey Austin knows how to stage her returns to Hawaii. During the 2007 Transpacific Yacht Race, Austin returned home to be crowned the youngest division winner in Transpac history. On Wednesday evening, Austin and the Addiction crew swooped into Ala Wai and stoked the flames of the sold out 800-person Mount Gay Rum Party at Hawaii Yacht Club. Addiction, with its battle flag fluttering from the tack to the top of the jib halyard, was finally back in Hawaii following at 16+ day voyage.

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Kahn Wins the Transpac Bet

Two men with a passion for sailing and competition bantered back and forth over the Internet before the 2007 Transpac Race about who would beat whom across the finish line. Philippe Kahn and his Pegasus team had rigged the Open 50 up enough so that Kahn could doublehand the boat with Richard Clarke, a great sailor well suited to race with Kahn. Dave Ullman was on the Santa Cruz 70 Mirage along with Adrienne Cahalan, who had sailed quite a bit with Kahn as a navigator.

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Samba Feeling Translates into a 2009 Transpac Clean Sweep

John Kilroy’s Samba Pa Ti, a modified TP 52, is the big winner of the Transpacific Yacht Race. Kilroy’s Samba team racked up a clean sweep. The team was first to finish in Division I and won the coveted Barn Door for having the fastest elapsed time of all of human powered traditionally designed sailboats. The team also won the King Kalakaua Trophy, for the best corrected time in the entire fleet. Additionally the eight-man team won the Governor of Hawaii Trophy; the W.H. Steward Memorial Trophy; the Harry Uhler Memorial Trophy; and the trophy for the Shortest Elapsed Time Under 73 Feet. For navigating Samba Pa Ti to the First Corrected Time Overall and the Best Division I Corrected Time, navigator, Nick White, collected the Chuck Ullman perpetual Trophy.

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Transpac Kids and Nicknames that Stick

A special fraternity has developed among the Transpac kids. While the Morning Light kids were in the limelight in 2007, there were also the On the Edge of Destiny kids. Sean Doyle, Justin Doyle, Ted White, Roscoe Fowler and Cameron Biehl comprised the youngest team ever to race the Transpac. Their average age was just under 20 years old.

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Kahn and Christensen Smash Doublehanded Transpac Record

The record for double-handing the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu has been broken. At 4:38:35 am HST today, Philippe Kahn and Mark “Crusty” Christensen, crossed the Diamond Head finish line in the Open 50, Pegasus 50, in a record time of 7 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds. They shaved over two and a half days off of the previous record set by Howard Gordon and Jay Crum in 2001 also with an Open 50, Etranger in the most enduring and greatest ocean race in the world covering 2,225 nautical miles from Los Angeles to Honolulu. 

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Flash - Wet and Satisfied

Tom Akin had a lot to say about sailing Flash, a TP 52, to Hawaii. His initial comments were, “I found out what is its like to be in a TP52 for seven days. You sit in water, you eat in water, and you sleep in water. It’s wet. The beast is not as luxurious as my Santa Cruz 52. I was looking for a creature comfort and couldn’t find one.”

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Transpac Boats Streaming into Ala Wai Over Night

A staggered start, weather patterns and tactical decisions combined so that boats are streaming into Ala Wai in Honolulu and the greeting parties can barely keep up with the pace. Aloha welcome parties overlap. The consensus among the sailors is that it was a fun and fast race.

Boats in port - Alfa Romeo, Criminal Mischief, Magnitude 80, Bengal 7, Relentless, Samba Pa Ti, Akela, Hula, Bad Pak, Medicine Man, Flash, Tachyon III. Pegasus 50, Cipango, OEX due in shortly. By the end of the day, most of the fleet have made their final gybe, crossed the finish line and will be wearing leis and telling the story of their race to family, friends and fellow sailors.

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Tong wins with Former Silver Bullet, Now OEX

It was even better than old times for Peter Tong, owner of the Santa Cruz 70, OEX. Tong beamed from ear to ear while he and his crew celebrated being the first of the legendary ULDB’s to arrive on Transpac row. Tong is just one of the sled owners of today who took part in the most competitive, nearly one-design, racing in Transpac history.

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More from Crichton

The Alfa Romeo team is deep in slumber following a press conference and other activities that started at 2:40 am. That is nothing new for the members of the 2008/09 Volvo Ocean Race winning team, Ericsson 4 who were also on this record-setting run. Jimmy Buffett's Restaurant & Bar replenished one and all and gave them plenty of energy for an early morning swim before the revelers piled into a van and headed for breakfast at IHOP.

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Kilroy and Samba Pa Ti are Transpac 09’s Golden Boys

Every step of the way from Point Fermin to Diamon Head, John Kilroy and the crew of Samba Pa Ti did a samba for Transpac 09 race watchers. The eight-man crew danced with the stars above their asymmetrical spinnaker and kept an eye on the weather throughout the race. Their strategy from the beginning, according to Kilroy and his tactician, Stu Bannatyne, was “to make as few maneuvers as possible throughout the race.” The big gain for the team is when they continued north to a layline for Hawaii and split with Akela. Samba found pressure and speed up north and worked the boat hard to hunt down Akela. Ultimately, Samba arrived in Hawaii nearly four hours ahead of Akela.

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J World Withdraws from Transpac 09

The boat and the crew are fine, but J World, a J/120 out of Honolulu, HI has withdrawn from Transpac 09. Wayne Zittel, the skipper, e-mailed the Transpac communications vessel, Alaska Eagle and informed Transpac officials of the boat's withdrawal. He stated, "Vessel and crew are fine, and there are no issues beyond significant damage to our downwind sail inventory!"

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Doublehanded Relentless Crew Finishes Transpac Race

Tim Fuller and Erik Shampain crossed the Transpac 09 finish line more than 13 days after they started Transpac 09, on June 29th. They doublehanded Fuller’s One Design 35 that had been customized and made bullet proof for short-handed sailing by Bruce Nelson.

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Clouds Parked Akela during Transpac

It was a “storm cloud from hell,” that caused Akela to sit for four hours and watch Samba Pa Ti put 30 to 40 miles on them. From then on, Akela’s owner, Bill Turpin stayed away from the clouds, but they were defenseless against the pressure that Samba found up north. Despite it being “a good fast race,” as Turpin put it, they missed out to Samba Pa Ti on the Barn Door trophy for having the fastest elapsed time of all of the boats other than those in the Unlimited Class.

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Bengal 7 Japanese Team Completes Transpac 09

Bengal 7, Yoshiko Murase’s Ohashi 46 and his crew, Haruhiko Mori, Masaki, Takasu, Takeshi Hara,Yasuharu Ando, Yasuyuki Hirano and Yoichi Ito were the first Japanese boat to finish Transpac 09. The sun was still high in the sky and Executive Chef, Ken Taijeron of Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber prepared Japanese inspired dishes for the crew and a cadre of supporters who have been waiting for all of the Japanese boats to finish. While there was friendly competition among the Japanese teams, there is certainly unity among those championing them during the race.

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The Big Haul Gets Away from Magnitude 80

Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80, specifically designed by Alan Andrews Yacht Design for West Coast distance races, crossed the Diamond Head finish line at 2:17:41 am on Sunday. Magnitude 80’s elapsed time of 6:16:17:41 (subject to ratification) was within minutes of Morning Glory’s record run of 6:16:04:11 in 2005 that established a course record, which held until Alfa Romeo’s finish yesterday.

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Sun Rises on Charged Transpac Fleet

The Magnitude 80 crew watched the sunrise this morning knowing that their boat is safe and sound at the dock at Hawaii Yacht Club. It looks as if the rest of the fleet including, Pegasus 50, had a good night. The Pegasus team managed to fix their alternator and generator and Philippe Kahn and Mark "Crusty" Christiansen can continue to send us regular AV updates from the water.

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Criminal Mischief Sneaks Past Fleet

From the time that they left Transpac Pier at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, CA with their war flag flying and their red shirts on, Chip Megeath and his Criminal Mischief crew has given race trackers something to watch. They bolted off the starting line quickly, made a dare devil move and headed south into breeze that was as light as 4 knots at times and then set a supersonic pace, logging three consecutive 300+ mile days. Criminal Mischief, the second boat in the fleet, crossed the Diamond Head finish line before sunset on Saturday.

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Alfa Romeo Update from the Water

The most recent update puts Alfa Romeo approximately 150 nautical miles out from Transpac 09's Diamond Head Light finish line. The pace has slowed, but the boat is still hauling the mail at over 15 knots. The Aloha reception crews at Waikiki Yacht Club and throughout Honolulu are making preparations for the team's arrival. It looks as if the Jimmy Buffett burgers will be hitting the right spot in the freezed-dried food-fueled crew sometime early in the morning HST.

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3, 2, 1 - Alfa is Coming Down the Channel

It's like waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Alfa Romeo has communicated to the Committee that they are within 100 miles of the Diamond Head finish line. The welcome troops are starting to arrive at Waikiki Yacht Club. Welcome boats are expecting to see Alfa Romeo come into view between midnight and 12:30 am. The excitement to follow is likely to overshadow the 0600 position report.

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Alfa Romeo Within a Day of Hawaii

Neville Crichton’s Alfa Romeo is on track to break one record and keep us holding our breaths right down to the last second. After knocking out couple of 400-nautical mile days since departing Los Angeles, Alfa Romeo’s pace slowed a bit on July 9th and she posted an awesome 391-nautical-mile day. The 0600 position report shows Alfa Romeo within 367 nautical miles of Hawaii and the 20-knot easterly winds and two to three meter seas stretch between her and her Diamond Head destination. She is less than a day away. Her ETA according to the 0600 position report is 04:17 am PDT, or 01:17 am HST. Everyone is rooting for perfectly executed maneuvers from the 16-member crew.

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Pegasus Update - Another Record Set

This just in from Philippe Kahn and Mark "Crusty" Christensen who are tearing up the Transpac race track. Reports Kahn, "In the last reporting schedule, Mark and I broke the 24 hour record for Open 50s. It was 325 nms, we did 339.3. That's exciting." That's an understatement!

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July 9th Morning Update

Alfa Romeo has been averaging 16.5 knots, which is over 2 knots faster than the Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpacific Yacht Race previous monohull record pace set by Morning Glory in 2005. The super maxi clipped off 431 nautical miles over the 24-hour period, breaking the Transpac 24-hour record that it established earlier in the week. Not only are Neville Crichton and his Alfa Romeo team eyeing the course record for monohulls, if they keep it up, they could squeak in under the wire and beat the multihull record. (Don’t forget, Murray Spence reported pinning Alfa Romeo’s needle at 35 knots during a delivery.)

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Transpac Targets - Multihulls

Alfa Romeo, Neville Crichton’s Reichel Pugh 100, is on track to set a new course record for a monohull. As the team surfs closer to Hawaii, their eye will be on the clock. Their focus on Hasso Plattner and Morning Glory's record of 6:16:04:11 may shift to two other faster elapsed times that are not touted as much as the monohull records. Those times are held by multihulls and go back to the 1995 and 1997 Transpacific Yacht Races.

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Transpac Course Records

Alfa Romeo and Pegasus have picked up the pace. They are flying along and could smash monohull, multihull and doublehanded records. During the night Alfa Romeo was trucking along at over 20 knots. Extrapolating her ETA, she could arrive as early as Friday evening. If she crosses between the Diamond Head LIght and Buoy before 7:18:28 pm HST, it looks as if she will set an all-time Transpacific Yacht Race record.

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Transpac Blog Themes for Foodies

Professional crews, especially those who are making the trip with a diet of freeze-dried food, don’t talk about their meals. They talk about what sails they have up and how many miles they have ticked off every day. The frontrunners are keeping track of the records they are setting or have the potential to beat. Assuming they can find time to boil water, pour it into a pot, stir it up and ladle it out, they are not talking about it. The crew that finished completed a nine-month circumnavigation during the Volvo Ocean Race only to catch an airplane and join Alfa Romeo are hoping that Alfa Romeo will be dockside before they dive into their stores and pull out the “stainless steel tuna”. That’s what the crew that refer to the freeze-dried food that they acquired from Ericsson’s left over Volvo Ocean Race provisions.

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Anticipation Builds and Countdown Begins

The troops are closing in on Hawaii faster than ever anticipated. Everyone is crunching the numbers to see what it will take for Alfa Romeo to break the multihull record. If they get in before sunset (7:17 pm HST), not only will they break the record, they’ll make the photographers happy. 

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Latest Update from Philippe Kahn on Pegasus 50

The following is a snippet from Philippe Kahn's blog coming from Pegasus 50. Kahn prides himself in his boats and his equipment. His nav station, with its redundant systems, is the envy of navigators.

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Designer Insight - Reichel Pugh

Alfa Romeo, Akela and Criminal Mischief are knocking at the door of Transpac Division wins and course records for traditionally ballasted monohulls and RRS 51 and 52 waiver boats. There is still a lot more Pacific Ocean to cross before reaching Hawaii, and as Jim Pugh of the San Diego firm, Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design cautions, “If you finish first, first you must finish.”

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Magnitude 80 Update

This from Ernie Richau on the swift-moving Division I Andrews-designed Magnitude 80, "The last 24 hours of sailing have been in 9 to 18 knots of breeze. We have covered 369 miles, with our code A3 and genoa staysail up. The big news for the crew today was our move up in the standings. The wind speeds are forecast to increase slightly over the next 24 hours as we enter the trades. Everyone is well and we are looking forward to running in the trades tomorrow."

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Transpac Memories of MJ

Before the Division I and II boats pulled away from the dock on Sunday, many in the Aloha Send-off were busy collecting autographs. Some were trying to cover the Morning Light poster with cast and crew autographs. One fellow caught Paul Cayard and Stan Honey deep in conversation. Initially, he was after Cayard’s signature, but when he realized who the blond behind the white Alfa Romeo sunglasses was, he went for the famed navigator’s signature too. Honey scrolled his John Hancock right in the center of the man’s long-sleeved Transpac wicking shirt and immediately raised its value.

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Transpac Fleet Milestones

Neville Crichton’s Reichel Pugh 100, Alfa Romeo, established a new 24-hour run Transpac record from yesterday’s early morning position report through 0600 on July 7th. Alfa Romeo covered 399 nautical miles and surpassed the previous monohull record set by Morning Glory during the 2005 Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpacific Yacht Race.

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Afla Romeo Update

Murray Spence, Alfa Romeo's Captain, briefs us with a snapshot of what the first 16 hours were like aboard Alfa Romeo, starting with the international team's send-off from Transpac Pier to their high speed flight around the top of Catalina Island and SW to skirt the high.

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July 5th Morning Report

The Transpac 09 communications vessel, the Alaska Eagle, left Los Angeles on Monday, June 29th with the first group of starters. They stayed with the cluster forging the southwesterly path to Hawaii. Not racing, but rather relaying communications from the fleet to shore and teaching adult students about navigation and engineering aboard ocean-going vessels, they use quite a bit more power to keep their generators going than the racing boats. The report from David Lee, who is in charge of communications, “We just stopped Alaska Eagle mid-ocean to dip the fuel tanks, verify quantity of fuel remaining. We've been using the Iron Staysail a lot lately . . . Seemed like the right thing to do, so all the crew went over the side for a swim . . . zero wind, absolutely glassed off. Roxanne Vetesse, who regularly crews on a 48-foot IOR boat in Oxnard, remarked, "It could be worse . . . . we could be racing!"

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Transpac 09 – The Next Generation

Most of the boats entered in Transpac 09 are veterans of the world’s most enduring and greatest ocean race. Many have completed two or three Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpacs; however, it is not unusual to hear that the boat has done four or five Transpacs. It’s also commonplace to meet sailors who have raced in several Transpacs. Also common are third, fourth and even fifth generation Transpac legacies. The Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpac is a rite of passage in many West Coast and Hawaiian sailing families.

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Big Boats Start Transpac 09 in Big Wind

Divisions I and II yachts in the Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpacific Yacht Race started their 2,225 nautical mile voyage in an i2-15 knot breeze from the Southwest. Cameramen in the helicopters hovering over the starting area and following the 17-boat fleet along the racecourse to see whether they would clear the west end of Catalina, were filming the Mylar sails, white decks and glistening hulls in nearly crystal clear conditions. As the race boats moved through the white capped seas they left a frothy wake behind.

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The Grand Finale – The Final Transpac 09 Send-off

Hundreds of thousands crowded Rainbow Harbor’s shoreline, the decks of the Queen Mary and the marina basins of Long Beach to celebrate Independence Day. Side tied along Transpac Pier at Rainbow Harbor in front of Gladstone’s, Samba Pa Ti, Flash, Pyewacket, Alfa Romeo and Pegasus 50 were the center of attention. Crowds strolling the docks and promenades and posing for photos in front of the glistening boats and their tall masts, made it slow going for those crews who were still rushing from their containers to their boats to close out their punch lists.

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Pegasus Set to Gallop to Hawaii

Pegasus 50 is docked bow to stern with Alfa Romeo. Both are a marvel to look at and both are eyeing Transpac records. The 100-foot long Alfa Romeo is monstrous. Its deck is clean and wide and the sheets and halyards lead to powered winches that are trimmed with the push of a button. Down below, the cabin is spacious and designed for moving sails from side to side during shorter races in Europe. 

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July 4th Morning Report

The sun rose in Long Beach to reveal a glassy calm on the water. It won’t be long before the Division I and II crews will be begin to appear on the docks to make their final preparations for Transpac 09. Their checklists are short and they are hoping that they already have the tools and parts that they need, because as many as 400,000 people are expected in Long Beach for July 4th celebrations and the streets of Long Beach will be gridlocked.

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