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Roy Disney's Pyewacket surfing to a record win during the 1999 Transpac. This is trade wind sailing at its best! Downwind
delight Transpac
2001 celebrates 95 years June
24, 2001 When it comes to consistent, downwind sailing, few ocean journeys rate as highly as the big slide from the US West Coast to Hawaii. Driving this slide are remarkably stable north-east trade winds and the engine behind this phenomenon is a massive high pressure cell centred north of Hawaii. The North Pacific High is one of the largest high pressure bubbles in the world - the shape of the North Pacific basin has a lot to do with this - and it takes a lot of synoptic back-stabbing to slow this baby down. Take a look at an animated view of the Pacific over many months and the clock-wise rotation of this high will amaze you with its consistency. To celebrate this synoptic phenomenon, and the remarkably stable ocean journey it creates, there is a yacht race - held every two years since 1906 - from Los Angeles to Honolulu called the Transpac. This year, Transpac 2001 celebrates 95 years of sledding with a classy field of very competitive monohulls. While divisions in this 2225 nautical mile race include multihulls and cruising yachts, division one monohulls over 50 feet have defined it. Since 1977, when the specifically designed lightweight monohull Merlin set a record which would stand for 20 years, a particular breed of yacht has emerged; long and slender, lightweight and optimised for swift downwind travel. They were called 'turbo-sleds' back then and the name has stuck. Nowadays narrow sleds from the drafting tables of Reichel-Pugh dominate. This year, three of the five entrants in division one are Reichel-Pugh designed, including the winner and record holder from the 1999 race, Roy Disney’s 73 foot Pyewacket. Other turbo sleds with great expectations are Yassou and J-Bird III, both built under the brand-new Transpac 52 design rules and heavy contenders in Division 2. Oddly
enough, the extremely beamy French-designed Open 60s would do well in this race,
as would any Volvo 60 preparing for their round-the-world campaign. Indeed,
there are new classes this year for yachts under 50 and 40 feet, as well as a
dedicated Volvo 60 class. Alas, this year there are no Volvo 60s, and no Open 60s. But keep an eye on Etranger, an Open 50 designed by Scott Jutson and sailed to win in division 2 of the 1994-95 BOC round the world event by David Adams. In Transpac 2001, Etranger will be sailed double-handed by owner Howard Gordon and crew Jayu Crum. Etranger will compete against much larger boats in division 2 - up to 70 feet - but it will be given a 24 hour head start. © Jamie Brown/weather-wise.com 2001 New Transpac 52 Yassou leaving Eric Goetz Custom Sailboats in Rhode Island prior to her west coast delivery. Many eyes will be watching her downwind progress to Hawaii, as this is one of two boats designed to new design rules specifically for the Transpac. Facts and figures concerning 41 Transpac races Longest
day’s run: 353 nautical miles, Magnitude (Andrews 70 turbo sled), 1999. Shortest
day’s run: 0, Viking Childe, 1939 (7 miles in 7 days). Fastest
elapsed time (monohull): 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds, Pyewacket, (Reichel/Pugh
maxi sled), 1999. Fastest
elapsed time (multihull): 5 days 9 hours 18 minutes 26 seconds, Explorer, an
86-foot catamaran, 1997. (recently modified and renamed Warta Polpharma for The
Race). Closest
boat-for-boat finish: 4 seconds, Kawamee over Marie Amelie, 1955. Closest
first-to-finish: 4 minutes 31 seconds, Ragtime def. Windward Passage, 1973. Merlin
and two of Roy E. Disney’s Pyewackets have won five ‘Barn Door‘ trophies
as the first boats to finish. Merlin, Bill Lee’s 68-foot breakthrough design
launched the ultralight revolution in 1977 by sailing the 2,225 nautical miles
in 8 days 11 hours 1 minute 45 seconds. That brought a new word to the sport’s
jargon: ‘sled,‘ for a boat designed to sail downwind, a trademark of the
Transpac. Merlin’s record stood for 20 years until Pyewacket II beat it by 19
1/2 hours in 1997 and a new Pyewacket lowered it to 7:11:41:27 in ’99. Steve
Fossett’s 60-foot trimaran Lakota raced the course in 6 days 16 hours 7
minutes 16 seconds in 1995, well under the monohull record of 8:11:01:45 by the
ultralight displacement ‘sled‘ Merlin that has stood since 1977, and Bruno
Peyron’s 86-foot catamaran Explorer smashed Fossett’s record in 1997 with a
time of 5 days 9 hours 18 minutes 26 seconds. Pyewacket’s
winning navigator Stan Honey talks Transpac tactics! More great reading: Follow the Challenge Mondial Assistance through the official web site and get a preview of weather conditions on the route. Re-live the solo trans-Atlantic race of June 2000 and the Quebec to St Malo of last August. Catch up on all the past action of the recent Vendee Globe in our race archive. Re-live the action between the world's fastest multihulls in The Race Re-live the 2000 Sydney to Hobart yacht race! Break ice in the Ross Sea! |