42nd
TRANSPACIFIC YACHT RACE
Transpacific Yacht Club
Starts July 1-4-6, 2003
www.transpacificyc.org
July 11, 2003 For Immediate Release
IT'S NO ILLUSION---A CAL 40 MAY
WIN TRANSPAC OVERALL AGAIN
LOS
ANGELES---There is still a lot of sailing to do,
but a scenario is taking shape for a fairy tale
finish to the revival of the Cal 40 class in the
42nd Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.
 |
Sallly
Honey drives the Cal 40 Illusion after the
July 1 start. Skip Allan at left, Jon Andron
at right. Stan Honey is down below at the
nav station. Photo by Rich Roberts
|
Would
you believe, just like the good old days, first
place on overall corrected handicap time?
Stan
and Sally Honey are sailing their own Illusion,
accompanied by a couple of other Transpac legends:
Skip Allan, who won overall with Holiday Too in
1967 and Jon Andron, who sailed Argonaut to the
fastest Transpac ever by a Cal 40 in 1969, the
third consecutive year that the breakthrough creation
of designer Bill Lapworth and builder Jack Jensen
had claimed that honor.
James
Denning did it again with Montgomery Street in
1985, and now here comes Illusion with a nine-hour
lead in corrected time and 572 miles to go in
the 2,225-nautical mile race. Bill Turpin's Transpac
52, Alta Vita, is second and Peter Johnson's J/160,
Maitri, third in the calculations from positions
reported in Friday morning's daily roll call.
To
sweeten the prospect, Illusion, which had a five-day
head start, also is projected to finish on Monday
ahead, boat for boat, of Philippe Kahn's Pegasus
77, the Division 1 leader, and Roy E. Disney's
Pyewacket, the boat Stan Honey usually navigates.
That is still too soon to call with confidence,
however, and at the moment it appears that several
other boats that also started July 1 will finish
in front of the Cal 40s, although they'll owe
the latter a ton of handicap time (the boats'
ratings may be checked at www.transpacificyc.org/03/tp03-ratings.html.
Mort
Andron, Jon's father, is following the race the
contest closely. He raced Argonaut in '67 and
this week recalled meeting Jon at the Ala Wai
Yacht Harbor after the victorious finish in '69.
"I
flew over to meet them, and when I was standing
there on the dock a reporter from the Honolulu
paper thought I was Jon and started asking me
questions.
"How
was the race?"
"It
was a great race."
"How
long did it take you to get here?"
"Oh,
about six hours."
Some
of the boats out there this year aren't having
many laughs right now. Vicki, Al Schultz and entertainer
Vicki Lawrence's Andrews 70 from Long Beach (she
isn't on it), was one of the boats that bet on
a shorter, more northerly route than the current
leaders. Now it's too late to change.
"We
continue to be the definition of 'leverage,' "
a message from the boat said Friday. "The
wind direction has given us two options: jibe
and duck transoms or dig in. We have chosen to
dig in. Based on past races, a northern position
at this stage is seldom good, but this year's
weather pattern is not typical and we remain confident."
 |
The
fun-loving crew of There and Back Again,
shown before the July 1 start, is moving
in on the frontrunners. Photo by Rich Roberts
|
Pyewacket
continued to follow in Pegasus 77's wake, perhaps
looking for the right time to break away after
Kahn's Reichel/Pugh 77 stretched its lead from
43 to 55 miles Friday.
Lady
Bleu II, an Aloha A entry that started July 1,
is still nearest to Honolulu of the 54 boats,
but barely. Unlike Vicki, Roger and Brenda Kuske's
Dynamique 62 from San Diego bit the bullet and
dived deeply south across the rhumb line for better
breeze the last two days and held onto its lead
by eight miles over Ross Pearlman's Sun Odyssey
52.2, Between the Sheets, from Calabasas, Calif.
Bearing
down on both of those boats is There and Back
Again, Robert Rice's Tripp 40 from Long Beach.
The Division 5 racer has gone alternately up and
down relative to the rhumb line the last four
days, as navigator Scott Atwood plays the unstable
conditions. Their trip has been quite an adventure,
according to e-mails sent home from the boat.
One
report: "Over the last few days, we’ve
had two fires and Doug [Gardner] was attacked
last night by a giant killer squid that jumped
on the boat."
Question:
"How big was the giant killer squid?"
"About
six inches long."
Otherwise,
the reports mentioned that "the only thing
that has gone wrong is water in the radio (music,
not the communication radio), so now the only
music is singing to each other, which is agony.
We also put the laptop on deck and watched a movie.
It was a pretty amazing night watching a movie
on a laptop on the farthest place from land on
the planet."
Tracking
charts for selected boats or the entire fleet
may be viewed by clicking on the link at the right
side of the www.transpacificyc.org
home page. Daily position reports and photos also
will be posted until the completion of the race.
JULY
11 POSITION REPORTS
(Listed
in order of corrected handicap time; actual miles
to go noted)
RACING
DIVISION
Division
1 (started July 6)
1.
Pegasus 77 (Reichel/Pugh 77), Philippe Kahn, Honolulu,
983 miles to go.
2. Pyewacket (R/P 75), Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles,
1,038.
Division
2 (started July 6)
1.
Alta Vita (Transpac 52), Bill Turpin, Santa Cruz,
Calif., 1,091.
2. Beau Geste (Transpac 52), Karl Kwok, Hong Kong,
1,113.
3. Grand Illusion (Santa Cruz 70), James McDowell,
Lahaina, H.I., 1,170.
4. Pendragon 4 (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin,
Marina del Rey, Calif., 1,208.
5. Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Long Beach,
Calif., 1,089.
6. Icon (Perry 65), Richard Robbins/Jim Roser,
Seattle, 1,170.
7. Bengal II (Ohashi 52 ),Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya,
Japan, 1,257.
8. Vicki (Andrews 68), Al and Vicki Schultz, Long
Beach, 1,191.
9. Helsal II (Adams 60), W.E. Rawson, Melbourne,
Australia, 1,314.
WD---Renegade (Andrews 70), Dan Sinclair, Vancouver,
B.C., Canada.
Division
3 (started July 4)
1.
Maitri (J/160), Peter Johnson, San Diego, 838.
2. Reinrag2 (J/125), Tom Garnier, Portland, Ore.,
1,851.
3. Innocent Merriment (J/160), Myron Lyon, San
Diego, 1,872.
4. Jeito (J/145), Francisco Guzman, Acapulco,
Mexico, 877.
5. Pipe Dream IX (J/160), Scott Piper, Coral Gables,
Fla., 927.
6. Horizon (Santa Cruz 50), Jack Taylor, Dana
Point, Calif., 953.
7. On Point (Schock 40), Nick Martin, Wilmington,
Calif., 988.
WD---The Cone of Silence (Australian Super 30),
James and Jenny Neill, Newport, NSW, Australia.
WD---Lucky Dog (J/125), Peter Putnam, Newport
Beach (DH).
Division
4 (started July 4)
1.
Wild Thing (1D35), Chris and Kara Busch, San Diego,
964.
2. Hot Tamale (J/120), Tom and Doug Jorgensen,
Glendora, Calif., 1,007.
3. Tabasco (1D35), John Wylie, San Diego, 1,006.
4. Cool Man Cool2! (Sydney 38), Harrell Jones,
Dana Point, Calif., 1,033.
5. Swept Away (J/120), Louis Bianco, Seattle,
1,047.
6. Paddy Wagon (Ross 40), Richard Mainland, Marina
del Rey, Calif., 997.
7. Tera's XL (ILC 40), Antony and Daniel Barran,
Northridge, Calif., 984.
8. Two Guys On the Edge (1D35M), Dan Doyle, Honolulu,
1,039 (DH).
9. Bolt (Olson 40), Craig Reynolds, Balboa, Calif.,
1,066.
10. Krakatoa (Young 32), Rod Skellet, Sydney,
Australia, 1,104.
11. Lawndart (Cape Bay Fast 40), Bill Allan, Nanaimo,
B.C., 1,161.
Division
5 (started July 1)
1.
Wind Dancer (Catalina 42), Paul Edwards, Wilmington,
Del., 587.
2. There and Back Again (Tripp 40), Robert Rice,
Long Beach, 531. .
3. Masquerade (Choate 40), Timothy Coker, San
Diego, 621.
4. B'Quest (Tripp 40), Challenged America/Urban
Miyares, San Diego, 613.
CAL
40 (started July 1)
1.
Illusion, Stan and Sally Honey, Palo Alto, 572.
2. Seafire, John T. Harrison, Honolulu, 659.
3. Ranger, William Partridge, Richmond, Calif.,
663.
4. Ralphie, Jill and Taylor Pillsbury, Laguna
Beach/Eleanor and Davis Pillsbury, Snowmass, Colo.,
664.
5. John B, Greg Boyer, Newport Beach, Calif.,
686.
6. California Girl, Don and Betty Lessley, Point
Richmond, Calif., 679.
7. Flying Cloud, Darrell and Scott Wilson, Long
Beach, 689.
8. Willow Wind, Wendy Siegal, Sunset Beach, Calif.,
704.
9.
Celebrity, Gerald Finnegan, Redondo Beach, Calif.,
718.
10. Redhead, Andrew Opple, Ketchum, Idaho, 788.
ALOHA
DIVISION (started July 1)
Aloha
A
1.
Between the Sheets (Sun Odyssey 52.2), Ross Pearlman,
Calabasas, Calif., 486.
2. Enchanted Lady (Roberts 55 ketch), Andy Sibert,
Seal Beach, Calif., 568.
3. Incredible (Swan 53), Rick Gorman, Los Alamitos,
Calif., 541.
4. Beautiful Day (Beneteau 47.7), William Boyd,
San Diego, 535.
5. Marla R (Beneteau 50), Jon Richards, Mesa,
Ariz., 557.
6. Axapac (Wylie 39), Barry Ruff, Vancouver, B.C.,
622.
7. Lady Bleu II (Dynamique 62), Roger and Brenda
Kuske, San Diego, 478.
8. Beach Music (Tayana 52), Kirby Coryell, Lafayette,
Calif., 693 (DH).
Aloha
B
1.
Barking Spider (Catalina 38), David Kory, Point
Richmond, Calif., no report.
2. Sea Dancer (Ericson 35), Alvin Wheatman, Marina
del Rey, 905.
3. Pipe Dream (Choate/Feo 37), John Davis, Long
Beach, 943.
DH---Doublehanded.
WD---Withdrawn.
COMMODORE
Brad Avery
(949) 645-9412
brad@occsailing.com
ENTRIES
CHAIRMAN
Bill Lee
(831) 464-4872
wizard@fastisfun.com
PRESS
OFFICER
Rich Roberts
(310) 835-2526
richsail@earthlink.net
