| Coastal
Cup: Santa Cruz 50 Beats Pegasus 77 for Overall
By
Rich Roberts
 |
Pyewacket
leads Pegasus (left) away from the Golden
Gate but was soon overtaken. Photo Courtesy
of Rob Moore, Lattitude 38
|
While
Philippe Kahn's Pegasus 77 blew away the record
for Encinal YC's Coastal Cup from San Francisco
to Santa Catalina Island, overall honors on corrected
handicap time were won by Bill Leroy's aptly named
Gone With the Wind.
With early breezes up to 30 knots
and gusts to 40, the Santa Cruz 50 from St. Francis
YC, with a rating of minus-9, finished 11 1/2 hours
back in the 360-nautical mile race. But GWTW corrected
out on Pegasus 77 by collecting 123 seconds a mile
from Kahn's Reichel/Pugh 77 (minus-132), which ran
the course in 26 hours 24 minutes 39 seconds.
Next came three Transpac 52s: Hong
Kong businessman Karl Kwok's new Beau Geste in 32:41:32,
Bill Turpin's Alta Vita, 35:36:12, and Jim Demetriades'
Yassou, 36 hours even. Another TP52, Flash, dropped
out with a rudder bearing problem. Beau Geste and
Alta Vita will start the Transpacific Yacht Race
July 6.
The starts were June 13 and 14.
There were 44 entries but 12 didn't start and 10
more dropped out---two with broken masts and others
with rudder or other problems. A couple ran out
of sails. Pegasus 77 and Pyewacket each blew out
spinnakers. There were no official reports of serious
human casualties.
 |
Roger
Groh's Santa Cruz 70, Dasher, flirts with
the rocks here and later broke its rudder
and pulled out at Monterey.Photo Courtesy
of Rob Moore, Lattitude 38
|
Roger
Groh of San Francisco broke the rudder on his Santa
Cruz 50, Dasher. The crew limped the boat into Monterey
and hoped to repair the problem in time for their
Transpac start July 4.
Roy E. Disney's R/P 75 was still
25 miles from the finish when it dropped out, not
knowing that Pegasus 77 had finished 2 1/2 hours
earlier.
"We were a long way behind
him, but that wasn't the reason [to drop out],"
Robbie Haines, Pyewacket's project manager, said.
"We'd had a couple of gear breakdowns and a
couple of other little things. We were frustrated.
From 8 o'clock in the morning until 3 in the afternoon
we never got over about 2 1/2 knots of boat speed."
Also, Dean Barker, the Team New
Zealand skipper who is the newest member of the
crew, had to catch an 11 o'clock flight home Sunday
night.
 |
Karl
Kwok's new Transpac 52, Beau Geste, with Gavin
Brady and some other top New Zealand sailors
on board, finished second only to Pegasus.
Photo Courtesy of Rob Moore, Lattitude 38
|
The
decision to withdraw came near Santa Barbara Island.
Pyewacket motored into Marina del Rey.
Haines said Pyewacket also blew
out its largest running spinnaker, as well as breaking
an after-guy line, and had to use a smaller chute
during the night.
Looking ahead to the Transpac "match
race" against Pegasus 77, Haines said, "Those
guys are going to be tough to beat."
Kahn had said earlier, "We
got lucky on this race. It won't be the same in
[Transpac]."
More
information and photos: www.pegasusracing.com
Results
to be posted: www.encinal.org
|
