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Posted on: Monday, July 23, 2007
Yacht
Pyewacket finishes fastest in
Los
Angeles-to-Honolulu race
Photo gallery: 2007
Transpacific race
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
Roy E. Disney missed sailing with his winning Pyewacket
crew in the 44th biennial Transpacific Yacht Race this week,
but count on the sailing headliner and entertainment heir to be
in the 2009 race.
Crew members yesterday dedicated Pyewacket's victory to
the 77-year-old Disney — the vessel's original owner — who
was a late scratch from this year's 2,560.5-mile Los Angeles-
to-Honolulu voyage for personal and work reasons.
"That's what the whole race was about — to win it for him,"
said co-captain Gregg Hedrick, who has worked with Disney
for 21 years. "He made a really tough decision."
Pyewacket crossed the finish line off Diamond Head in 7
days, 1 hour, 11 minutes, 56 seconds to win the Barn Door
Trophy as the fastest finisher in the 73-boat fleet. The 94-foot
sloop missed the race record by nine hours but earned its
third Barn Door, having won in 1997 and 1999.
The Transpac is one of the most prestigious long-distance
races in the world, and the popular Disney has been a face of
the event for his last 15 races. His son, Roy Pat Disney, was
co-captain on the boat.
"I'm sorry I missed this race," said the elder Disney, who
"plans to come back again" to race in the 2009 Transpac, but
perhaps not aboard the Pyewacket, which he donated to
Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship. He
chartered it for this year's race.
Disney said his comeback will be "maybe on a smaller, more
sedate kind of boat."
"I would put my money on him coming back," Roy Pat
Disney said of his father.
Last week, the elder Disney created a stir in the sailing world
when he announced that he would not sail in this year's race.
Crew members said they were notified a day before the July
15 start about Disney's decision to sit it out.
"I was just listening to my body, and it's getting a little older
than it used to be, like we all do," Disney explained. "I just
thought, 'I don't want to hurt myself, and I don't want to
subject these guys to Roy having to be taken care of in some
way."
Furthermore, Disney said, he needed time to work on his new
Morning Light sailing movie, about a young crew aboard a
yacht of the same name that is sailing in the Transpac.
"I was afraid of being away from that process for a long
time," Disney said. "They're shooting some amazing footage
out on the ocean. That will be part of the movie. I think it's
likely to be something extraordinary."
Yesterday, Disney watched the last leg from a helicopter. He
congratulated his crew minutes after the yacht docked at
Aloha Tower, where the winners were greeted with lei, hula
dancers and musicians.
"I would have loved to be on that boat for the last 30 miles,"
said Disney, who added that the yacht was humming along at
20-plus knots during that leg. "I was trying to get the
helicopter guy to get me down on the deck."
Pyewacket had been poised to break the record of 6 days,
16 hours, 4 minutes, 11 seconds set by Morning Glory in
2005, but winds were light for the first 690 miles.
"We can't control what the winds do," Pyewacket sailing
master Robbie Haines said. "We had light winds in the first
half and strong winds in the second half. ... That's sailing."
Haines said Tropical Depression Cosme "didn't affect us one
bit."
"It didn't rain; it didn't do anything," Haines said.
Reach Brandon Masuoka at
bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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Hula dancers and musicians
greeted the winner of the 2007
Transpac race, the Pyewacket,
as it approached the dock at
Aloha Tower. The ship left Los
Angeles on July 15 and crossed
the finish line off Diamond Head
at around 11 a.m. yesterday.
Photos by DEBORAH BOOKER
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The Honolulu Advertiser
yewacket crewman Rick Brent,
left, smiles as he sees his wife
and daughter on the Aloha
Tower dock. The 94- foot sloop
was the first yacht of the fleet
of 73 to cross the finish line. |
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TRANSPAC RACE STATUS
