Sailing's Next Generation . . .

[TaoJones]

The 2007 Transpac kicks off in July, and a story from the June 22nd Los Angeles Times about a team of sailors (none older than 23) aboard a potential winner of the race should provide some assurance to anyone who thinks the younger generation "just don't get it" when it comes to sailing. I, for one, hope that the crew of Morning Light smokes the competition - even Roy Disney and the crew of Pyewacket.

No matter how they do in the actual race, I'm sure the resulting movie documenting their quest will be compelling. I can't wait to see it.

Looking for a Hollywood ending - Los Angeles Times

TaoJones

[TaoJones]

From the latest 'Lectronic Latitude, some interesting information on the upcoming Transpac:

A Nine-Day Cushion

July 6 - Long Beach

Regular readers of ‘Lectronic Latitude and Latitude 38 are certainly aware of the big names in this year’s TransPac race - in particular, Roy Disney’s mega-modified Pyewacket, and the Disney-funded Morning Light team of young adults whose training and racing from Los Angeles to Hawaii will be the subject of a feature film due out in 2008. If you’re already tired of the hoopla before the starting gun has fired, in all honesty, we don’t blame you. But there’s one more item we want to pass along before the results have to speak for themselves.

Ratings were released on Wednesday, just days before Monday’s start for the first three divisions. And how much of a monster is the ‘new’ Pyewacket? If the ‘new’ 94-ft winged version were racing against the ‘old’ Pyewacket in its MaxZ86 configuration, the new would owe the old a whopping 21.15 hours. But that’s just hypothetical. For this year’s race, Pyewacket’s -33.110 second/mile rating means she owes the slowest-rated boat, John Wallner’s Catalina 36 Lady Liberty, nearly six minutes per mile. That’s 9.4 days over the 2,300-mile course - practically an entire race in itself! “Wow!” Wallner is reported as saying. “I’m already there. I figure if we’re the slowest boat, we’re the ones to beat. No one cares if they lose to Pyewacket, but no one wants to lose to us.” Although Pyewacket was modified more with an eye toward winning the Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time, Disney and crew haven’t given up on overall honors. “It might be close. We just have to pick everybody off before we get there,” Disney claimed.

Plenty of boats stand between both Wallner and Disney, and the Kalakua trophy. Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80 and Roger Sturgeon’s brand new and untested STP65 Rosebud, the second and third fastest rated boats in that order, should prove to be formidable foes. Mag80’s rating of 7.110 means that Pyewacket has to finish more than 35.7 hours ahead to beat her. Rosebud, for her part, has to finish within 50 hours of Pyewacket to correct out. The full ratings sheet is at 2007 TRANSPACIFIC YACHT RACE Los Angeles to Honolulu Homepage.

- latitude / ss

TaoJones

[TaoJones]

From today's 'Lectronic Latitude comes the latest news on the 2007 TransPac with the "big boys" having finally gotten out of the starting blocks:

Slow Start for the Last Round of TransPac Boats

July 16 - Pacific Ocean

It was much ado about nothing yesterday for the third and final start of the 44th TransPacific Yacht Race. The breeze peaked at four knots off Pt. Fermin, and it took some boats as many as four hours to travel from Long Beach to Catalina, a distance of some 20 miles. Remember, these are the biggest and fastest race entries!

According to our remote reporters who were out at the west end of Catalina yesterday to watch the big boats go by, the breeze did fill a little as the boats passed their one mark on the course to Hawaii. While all eyes were on the impressive “new” Pyewacket, our spies noted that Roger Sturgeon’s brand new STP65 Rosebud looked particularly fast. We fully expect Sturgeon to repeat his Kalakaua Trophy victory for overall corrected time honors, though on a slightly larger Rosebud this time. (In 2005, he won the trophy with his TransPac 52.) The smallest boat in Sunday’s start, the Andrews 45 Locomotion, was also reported to be looking good as she past the island.

The sparkling new Andrews 50 It’s OK looks more than just okay as she passes Catalina after yesterday’s start.
© 2007 Rob Grant

We’d love to report on where the rest of the fleet is headed, but the race tracking software on the TransPac Web site has been less than cooperative. However, according to today’s position report, it still appears to be slow-going offshore. The boats in the Santa Cruz 50/52 division appear to be in the best pressure, with most reporting 24-hour distance in the low 200-mile range. On the other hand, several boats in the Aloha divisions that started last week, and a couple in Divisions 1, 2, and 3 that started yesterday made only double-digit progress in the last day. If you’re feeling lucky or want to practice your chart plotting skills, you can track the fleet at 2007 TRANSPACIFIC YACHT RACE Los Angeles to Honolulu Homepage.

Among the more eye-catching vessels in the starting area yesterday was the former record-breaking catamaran Cheyenne, which has been reconfigured to be the camera platform for Morning Light. The boat will tail the TP52 as the crew sails across the Pacific this week and into movie theaters near you next year.
© 2007 Rob Grant

On an unrelated note, Roy Disney, whose efforts to procure the Barn Door trophy with Pyewacket have garnered much attention, announced at the last minute that he would not be joining his crew of 21 for the race. No doubt this was a difficult decision, but one he seemed to feel was the wisest option. While Disney isn’t on board, they won’t be shorthanded. Days before the start, the team announced that Dean Barker was joining the team for the race. (For the record, this isn’t the first time a high profile Kiwi America’s Cup skipper has done the TransPac. Russell Coutts was on board Pyewacket rival Morning Glory in the 2005 race.)

And while we’re back on Pyewacket again, we have a quick postscript to Friday’s ‘Lectronic story about the controversy the boat has created. We misidentified the US Sailing representative who oversees TransPac ratings. That should have been Dan Nowlan, US Sailing’s Offshore Director. To the best of our knowledge, Pat Nolan, a partner in the Alameda office of Sail California, doesn’t have any say in TransPac ratings. As always, we apologize for the error.

- latitude / ss

TaoJones