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Pyewacket crew sets sights
on a new
record
Sailing: They launch from L.B.'s Rainbow Harbor this morning.
By Rich Roberts, Special to the Press-Telegram
Article Launched: 07/15/2007 12:27:08 AM PDT
LONG BEACH - Roy E. Disney's powered-up Pyewacket, with
America's Cup skipper Dean Barker on board, will be among the
final 23 of 74 boats in the 44th biennial Transpacific Yacht Race
that head for Hawaii today.
They'll receive a boisterous sendoff from Rainbow Harbor in
downtown Long Beach at 10 a.m., followed by their start 8 miles
west off Point Fermin in San Pedro at 1 p.m. Both events are public
ceremonies.
Each boat's crew will
be introduced and saluted with an "Aloha!"
cannon blast as it departs from Transpac's mainland home port in
Long Beach. The start may be viewed from Point Fermin Park,
where a concert is scheduled to start at noon.
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Danny Akaka, an Hawaiian kahu, blesses
the Pyewacket (rear) and Morning Light
(foreground) boats. Both vessels are set to
begin the Transpac race today.
(Rick Roberts / For the P-T)
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Smaller boats started the 2,225 nautical miles Monday and Thursday and struggled
early on with light and
erratic winds that appeared to be settling into a stable pattern, as forecast, as the biggest and fastest
boats
join the chase.
But even Pyewacket navigator Stan Honey, who charted ABN AMRO's victorious course
around the world in
the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race and has excelled in several Transpacs, sees a challenge.
"The tricky part for all starters is that it's going to be real light in the middle of the race,"
Honey said. "It's
pretty unusual for the middle of July. There's more wind to the north and south. Most boats will choose
to go
south."
Most boats aren't Pyewacket, which will be at sailing's leading edge in its maiden race. Disney "retired"
from
racing after his 15th Transpac in 2005, when Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory from Germany beat him by
2 1/2
hours and his race record by 19 1/2 hours.
Disney then donated his boat, a maxZ86, to the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship,
but
the defeat gnawed at him for about three months. He decided to charter the boat back from the school
and
pump enough improvements into it to virtually ensure getting the record back, no matter what the wind.
Pyewacket is now 8 feet longer at 94 feet and has a new 130-foot mast, 30 feet taller than the old one,
plus
huge port and starboard dagger boards longer than surfboards that project from the cabin top when not
in use,
and the real eye catchers: 3-foot-wide wings at the stern to stack unused sails and crew members for
ballast
stability.
Disney will be among 21 crew members on Pyewacket, but his thoughts also will be with Morning Light,
a
team of sailors ages 18 to 23 he recruited and trained to sail a smaller Transpac 52 in a project being
filmed for
a documentary scheduled for release in theaters next spring.
Rick Deppe will be on board Morning Light as a cameraman but not as a member of the crew. The producers
have charted Steve Fossett's 125-foot power catamaran Cheyenne as an escort boat for production purposes
only.
Eleven of the final 15 sailors, including skipper Jeremy Wilmot of Australia, will be on the boat. One
of the four
alternates, Steve Manson of Baltimore, has joined the Pyewacket crew; the other three will continue
to Hawaii
in supporting roles.
Robbie Haines, who serves the dual role of sailing manager for Pyewacket and head coach for Morning
Light,
doesn't think he and Disney will be distracted by the other boat's presence in the race.
"I'm not worried about them getting there," Haines said. "There are going to be other
boats with professionals,
but after the people like Stan (Honey), (Volvo winner) Mike Sanderson and Jerry Kirby that we've had
working
with them for four months in Hawaii, I think there's never been a team better organized or better trained
to sail
offshore than these 15 kids."
Pyewacket's closest threat for the Barn Door - the huge slab of carved koa wood awarded to the monohull
with
the fastest elapsed time - appears to be Magnitude 80 from Long Beach. Earlier this year Doug Baker's
boat
blew away the 22-year-old record in the Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta Race by 31 hours.
The turbocharged Pyewacket is rated more than a day faster than Magnitude 80, but Baker said, "Anything
can happen, especially the way the weather is this year."
The problem is whether to follow Pyewacket and concede to a faster boat or pick another course hoping
for
better breeze.
"Maybe we will go the other way," Baker said, "but they have an awfully good (navigator)
on their boat. Do we
think we're smarter than Stan Honey? If all goes well, we'd just like to beat them (on) corrected (time)
- which
Mag 80 did in 2005."
Every boat in the race competes for the prestigious Governor of Hawaii Trophy for first place overall
on
handicap time, rewarding the crew that sailed its boat, whatever size, design or age, nearest to its
speed
potential. Morning Light has a shot at that. It was called Pegasus when Philippe Kahn sailed it to second
place overall behind Roger Sturgeon's Rosebud, also a TP52, in 2005.
As Transpac enters its second century, this race also features the youngest and oldest crews and the
oldest
boat ever to compete. Skipper Sean Doyle, 19, of Hawaii leads a crew of five aboard On the Edge of Destiny
averaging 19.8 years. Mike Abraham and Phillip Rowe of Newport Beach are both 70 and sailing Tango.
Alsumar, a Sparkman & Stephens 70 built in 1934, was restored and is being sailed by brothers Bill
and Ted
Davis of Las Vegas.
Jim Partridge's Cal 2-46 from Pasadena, dropped its sails the second day because of light winds and
started
to motor toward Hawaii but now, according to the Flagship satellite tracking system, appears headed
back to
California.
Saturday morning's position reports indicated that the boats that started Thursday avoided the doldrum-like
conditions that trapped Monday's starters. Doug Grant's Tower, a Lidgard 45 from San Pedro, logged the
best
day of 265 miles at 11 knots average speed to leap from seventh to first in Division 5.
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TRANSPAC RACE STATUS
