LONG BEACH, Calif.---Yesterday's rock stars are today's washouts in a Transpacific Yacht Race full of baffling twists and turns en route to Hawaii.

Just as Roger Sturgeon's new STP 65 Rosebud appeared to be lining up on Roy E. Disney's Pyewacket with a 297-nautical mile 24- hour run down south a day earlier, dying wind slowed it to only 167 miles before Wednesday's 8 a.m. roll call.

Philippe Kahn's Pegasus 101 was another classic example of how quickly it can change. His doublehanded Open 50, rated as the sixth fastest boat in the fleet, led Tuesday with a run of 299 miles in the south but Wednesday made only 146 miles---one less than Bill Myers' Cirrus, a 34-year-old Standfast 40 leading the Aloha B division with Lindsey Austin, 22, as skipper and four other women as crew.

The south was still good for Cirrus and a few others. Tom Garnier's Reinrag2, a J/125 in Division 4 that at one time was the farthest boat south of all, tied into breeze that swept it 232 miles---second only for the day to Mag 80's 237 and Fred Detwiler's 233 on the TP 52 Trader ---and into first place overall on corrected handicap time for the entire fleet.

"It is truly weird," Disney said.

And how did Kahn, the creator of the cell phone, deal with being becalmed?

"I get Richard [Clarke] to practice singlehanded sailing," Kahn wrote. "I dove off the boat and went for a magical swim. What a treat. But if you try it, make sure that you time it right with the puffs, else it is a long swim to Honolulu."

At about the same time, Pyewacket veered north to get in front of Doug Baker's Magnitude 80, which fell in 23 miles behind as they continued southwest directly toward Oahu in a 12-knot nor'easter they hoped was a weak beginning of the trade winds.

But unless the winds increase dramatically, Pyewacket's hopes of reclaiming the elapsed time record of 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds set by Morning Glory two years ago are slim.

Disney, who decided not to sail on the boat the day before last Sunday's start, said from Waikiki, "It's not over yet, but they need to get going. A couple of 400- mile days would help."

Good news for Disney was Morning Light's climb to first place in Division 2 in a head-to-head fight with John Kilroy Jr.'s Samba Pa Ti, another Transpac 52 descending from the north.

Minutes before departing Long Beach for the start line last Sunday, Morning Light skipper Jeremy Wilmot reflected on the past year's selections and intense training, with a word for the project's patron, Disney.

"We're very ready," Wilmot said. "I'm just eager to get started. We hope we can make him proud."

Seventy-three boats started the race and Ginny, Chris Calkins and Norm Reynolds' Calkins 50 in Aloha B, became the second to drop out Wednesday, following Gaviota earlier. The report was that Ginny "got stuck in a bad high [pressure area], couldn't get out of out [and was] headed for San Diego."

Flagship's tracking program---introduced to Transpac for this 44th race---also ran into difficulties. The transponders it placed on all the boats were going dead after about five days, meaning that all of the earlier starters were not transmitting their periodic positions to satellites, and the big boats that started last were feared to follow suit.

Transpac has returned to its old system of an 8 a.m. PDT daily radio roll call to the boats for position reports.

Tom Garnier's brother, Transpac Commodore Al Garnier, said, "It's unfortunate. The Pacific satellite coverage is more complex than other places, but we haven't yet heard an explanation of the problem from anyone at Flagship."

Kahn seemed to be taking it all in stride when he wrote: "The wind vanished. Gone. For several hours we were becalmed, making sail changes, climbing the mast, seeking the puffs. And now the wind is back. Light, but it is back. Richard is a fantastic light air sailor and his superior skills are infinitely precious. It’s going to be tricky getting out of this light spot and within the next 48 hours into the trades. That’s a busy night ahead with a lot of concentration and focus."

Meanwhile, special prizes have been offered to winners by Gladstone's Restaurant, the hub of the Transpac's mainland home port at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach. A spokesman said, "In keeping with the spirit and tradition of the Clark Cooke House in Newport, R.I., Gladstone's Long Beach announced that each crew member of this year's Transpac overall winner will receive a Gladstone's Long Beach Gold Card. The named owner of this card will be entitled to a lifetime cocktail at Gladstone's Long Beach. Additionally, if the elapsed time record is broken, the record-breaking crew will also receive a Gladstone's Gold Card."

Transblogs from the boats

The Minnow (Bob Webster): "Mike broke out the piano today. We have an electric piano with a full-size keyboard and weighted keys. That means it plays just about like a real piano. Mike's planning to play Beethoven's Sonatas 1 through 18 between here and Hawaii."

Locomotion (Ed Feo): "We encountered a nice sized herd of dolphin last night, complete with the added bonus of major bioluminescence making their approaches appear as nothing less that 'bio-torpedoes.' In the cloudless, dry north winds at dusk last evening we all witnessed the largest green flash in our collective flash experience, which is saying a lot given the veteran sailor status of our squad."

Psyche (Steve Calhoun): "I heard this afternoon that my dad died at home of kidney failure. He was 86 years old. He is the reason I am here, on Psyche, racing to Honolulu. He has always loved hearing my stories about messing up on boats, and everywhere else. He is a good friend of those sea witches. I don't know when he died, but I'm betting he was watching me screw up, egging the sea witches to greater heights. Dad, I'll be watching for you tonight."

Tango (Phil Rowe): "We all have a case of the slows (wind is only 7-8 knots). We will find out if this problem is across the course when we report this morning. We are still having to give AM reports as the transponders that we carry have some kind of glitch in them and do not do that for us as was promised. Today is house- cleaning day. One of the nice things about two 70 year old men on a boat, you don't have to clean up a lot of hair. The sea conditions have been moderate, no big swells, and we have seen very little sea life. (Mike) Abraham does not qualify as sea life...I am certainly seeing enough of him.

The Transpacific Yacht Club has joined with Casio Computer Co., Ltd., in a sponsorship agreement to make the company's Oceanus watch the official timekeeper of the 44th biennial race. The Oceanus is a solar-powered chronograph watch with a time signal- calibration function developed by making full use of Casio's advanced electronic technologies. News and product information: http://world.casio.com

Transpac supporters also include the Long Beach Sea Festival 2007, Gladstone's Restaurant, Ayres Hotels and L. Gaylord Sportswear.

Archived press releases: http://www.underthesunphotos.com/Press%20Releases/PR- index.htm

More information: www.transpacificyc.org

Transpac 2007 standings
(By corrected handicap time. ORR rating allowances in parentheses in days:hours:minutes:seconds based on handicap distance of 2,300 n.m.; subtract time allowance from actual final elapsed time to determine corrected handicap time)

(positions at 8 a.m. Wednesday)

Reinrag2 is the overall leader




Philippe keeps his cool




Morning Light's Jeremy
Wilmot with Pyewacket's
Robbie Haines (l.) and
Stan Honey before the start




A troubled Transponder




Complete position reports
and more Transpac info



 2007 photo gallery

2005 photo gallery

More Transpac info





Click to visit websites



Official timekeeper of
Transpac 2007

    

LoeReal (Jeanneau 60 trimaran), H.L. Enloe, El Paso, Tex. (started July 15), NO REPORT.


Complete position reports:www.transpacificyc.org


COMMODORE

    Al Garnier
    (310) 600-0158
    reinrag@aol.com

ENTRIES CHAIRMAN

    Bill Lee
    (831) 476-9639
    wizard@fastisfun.com


PRESS OFFICER

    Rich Roberts
    (310) 835-2526
    Cell (310) 766-6547
    richsail@earthlink.net