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Vol. 12, Issue 197 - Monday, July 16, 2007
Transpac sails minus
1
Roy E. Disney
cedes skippering
duties on Pyewacket to his son
STORY
SUMMARY »
After years of dreaming
and months of planning,
Roy E. Disney abruptly left the crew of the
yacht Pyewacket yesterday as the last of the
race boats sailed from California for Honolulu.
 Disney had
hoped to reclaim his record for fastest Transpac
finish aboard the radically modified Pyewacket,
which instead crossed the starting line with his
son, Roy P. Disney, as co-skipper.
Disney, 77, will fly to Hawaii tomorrow to
await the arrival of Pyewacket and a second
boat, Morning Light, the subject of a Disney
documentary.
FULL
STORY »
By Jim Borg / jborg@starbulletin.com
And they're off.
The last of the Transpac yachts got underway
yesterday -- minus the guy who had generated
the most buzz this season, Roy E. Disney.
"I just decided to let the younger guys do it,"
said Disney, 77, in a Transpac news release.
This would have been the 16th Transpac for
Disney, who had hoped to reclaim the record
for fastest finish aboard a modified Pyewacket,
named for the cat in the 1958 movie "Bell,
Book and Candle."
Another movie has been on Disney's mind,
however: a documentary about the young crew
of another boat in the race, Morning Light,
which also set sail yesterday.
Disney said he was concerned that his attention
was divided between the two boats.
"I've been apprehensive about it," he said. "And
when you're worried, maybe it's not a smart
thing to do."
Filling in as co-skipper will be Disney's son,
Roy P. Disney, who performed a similar role in
1997, when his dad recovered from a broken
leg.
Aboard an earlier Pyewacket that year, the
younger Disney set a Transpac record,
breaking the eight-day barrier with a time of 7
days, 15 hours and just under 25 minutes.
The elder Disney came back on Pyewacket in
1999 to beat that time by four hours, a record
that held until 2005, when Pyewacket lost to
rival Morning Glory by 2 1/2 hours. |
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TRANSPAC RACE STATUS
