Three-Way Sprint to a Possible Sweep

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TRANSPAC 2001 41st Transpacific Yacht Race/L.A.-Honolulu
Transpacific Yacht Club, Sandy Martin, Commodore

July 8, 2001

THREE-WAY SPRINT TO A POSSIBLE SWEEP

Break out the brooms. The tactical pas de trois among Pegasus, Pyewacket
and Chance in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race has taken off into a
headlong sprint to the finish and a possible rare sweep for the winner.

At Sunday morning’s roll call Philippe Kahn’s mythical winged horse had
flown 335 nautical miles in the past 24 hours, was 404 miles from the
Diamond Head finish line and led Roy E. Disney’s magical cat by eight
miles, with Bob McNulty’s dark blue blazer another six miles back.

The recent surge along the normal track of trade winds carried the trio
past Seth Radow’s Bull, a Sydney 40 ID-T competing in Division 4, into the
1-2-3 positions for overall corrected time honors, despite their
near-scratch handicaps. None will approach Pyewacket’s elapsed time record
for a monohull of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds set in1999, but
besides the Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time as well as first in
class in Division 1, the winner also could ultimately claim first place on
handicap.

That has happened only three times in modern-day Transpacs – most recently
in 1993 by John DeLaura’s Silver Bullet and in ’91 by – guess who —
McNulty with his original Chance. Both were standard ULDB 70s, not the 73-
to 75-foot state-of-the-art sleds racing today, all designed by
Reichel/Pugh of San Diego.

Better yet, it promised to be a photogenic daylight finish sometime Monday,
and it could be one of the closest ever. That record is Ragtime’s stunning
4-minute 31-second upset of Mark Johnson’s Windward Passage in ’73 – a
virtual photo finish after sailing 2,225 nautical miles across the
trackless eastern Pacific.

The latest position reports showed Pegasus at 24-39 latitude and 151-30
longitude, Pyewacket at 24-30, 151-15 and Chance at 24-31, 151-08 – clearly
placing Pegasus on a track eight to nine miles north of its rivals. If
Pyewacket can work any of its feline witchcraft with that southerly
leverage, now is the time.

In other classes, James McDowell’s Grand Illusion, the ’99 overall winner
with a home port of Haiku, Hawaii held on to first place in Division 2,
although David Janes’ new Transpac 52 J-Bird III, Newport Beach, Calif.,
held a 16-mile lead boat for boat.

Brent Vaughan’s Cantata, Newport Beach, took over first place in Division 3
from Yoshihiko Murase’s Bengal II, Japan, which was starting to pay the
price for the extreme northerly track it has followed above the rhumb line
from the start.

Although slipping to fourth, perhaps temporarily, Bull retained its lead in
Division 4, boat for boat and on handicap.

Wendy Siegal’s Cal 40 Willow Wind, Sunset Beach, Calif., strengthened its
first-place handicap position in Aloha-A Division over the 75-foot Shanakee
II, which finished early Saturday, although the 65-foot schooner Bonaire
took an eight-mile lead in the class 218 miles out. Those boats and Barry
Ruff’s Aloha-B entry Axapac from Canada, all of which had a six-day head
start, could finish Monday close to Pegasus, Pyewacket and Chance.

Another Aloha-B, Peter and Patricia Anderson’s Stardust, a Wylie 46 from
Laguna Beach, Calif., was due to finish Sunday afternoon, followed early
Monday morning by the communications vessel, Alaska Eagle.

Brookfield Homes’ Coconut Plantation at Ko Olina is a supporter of Transpac
2001. Stratos Mobile Networks is the official communications supplier,
providing satellite telephones to facilitate monitoring of the fleet. For
more information please contact Stephanie Thomassen at (800) 250-8962 or
(206) 633-5888.

WEB SITE SAILING AGAIN

Through no fault of the Transpac operators, the race Web site was down for
18 hours until about 8 p.m. PDT Saturday because of a server problem.
Transpac apologizes for the inconvenience to those following the race. We
were as frustrated as you were. Once again the race may now be followed to
what looks like a thrilling finish by logging on to www.transpacificyc.org.

Standings in order of handicap ratings at 8:30 a.m. PDT July 8:

DIVISION 1 (started July 1)

1. Pegasus (Reichel/Pugh 75), Philippe Kahn, Santa Cruz, Calif., 335 miles
in past 24 hours/404 miles to go.
2. Pyewacket (Reichel/Pugh 73), Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles, Calif.,
328/412.
3. Chance (Reichel/Pugh 74), Bob McNulty, Corona del Mar, Calif., 331/418.
4. Merlin’s Reata (Lee 68), Al Micallef, Ft. Worth, Tex., 300/533.

DIVISION 2 (started July 1)

1. Grand Illusion (Santa Cruz 70), James McDowell, Haiku, H.I., 281/612.
2. J-Bird III (Transpac 52), David Janes, Newport Beach, Calif., 285/596.
3. Taxi Dancer (R/P 68), Brian W. Mock, Corona del Mar, Calif., 257/662.
4. Ragtime (Spencer 65), Hui Holokai Syndicate, Owen Minney/Trisha Steele,
Honolulu, 231/730.
5. Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Long Beach, Calif., 270/657.
6. Yassou (Transpac 52), Jim and Nancy Demetriades, Beverly Hills, Calif.,
268/696.
7. Mongoose (SC 70), Robert Saielli, La Jolla, Calif., 270/744.
8. DH–Étranger (Jutson 50), Howard Gordon, San Luis Obispo, Calif.,
260/810.

DIVISION 3 (started June 30)

1. Cantata (Andrews 53), Brent Vaughan, Oceanside, Calif., 238/574.
2. Firebird (Nelson/Marek 55), Greg Sands, Long Beach, Calif., 243/583.
3. Bengal II (Ohashi 52), Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya, Japan, 209/466.
4. Rocket Science (Riptide 55), Nguyen Le, Amsterdam, 228/536.
5. Baronesa V (Open 40), Shuichi Ogasawara, Miyagi, Japan, 241/584.

DIVISION 4 (started June 30)

1. Bull (Sydney 40 OD-T), Seth Radow, Marina del Rey, Calif., 220/675.
2. Sensation (1D35), Mike Thomas, Detroit, Mich., 203/704.
3. DH–Two Guys On the Edge (Sonoma 30), Dan Doyle, Honolulu, H.I.,
179/910.
4. Ouch (J/120), Ted Mayes, San Juan Capistrano, Calif., 189/744.
5. Uproarious (Olson 40), Robert Bussard, Santa Fe, N.M., 190/806.
6. Mystere (Swan 42), Jorge Morales, Laguna Niguel, Calif., 179/950.
7. DH –Watercolors (Sabre 402), Michael Abraham, Newport Beach, Calif.,
135/961.
RETIRED — LawnDart (Fast 40), Bill Allan, Nanaimo, B.C., 2,175.

DH-Doublehanded

ALOHA DIVISION A (started June 25)

1. Willow Wind (Cal 40), Wendy Siegal, Sunset Beach, Calif., 154/226.
2. Shanakee II (Pedrick 75), Jim Warmington, Balboa, finished 11 days 15
hours 51 minutes 38 seconds.
3. Seda (Ericson 41), Josef Sedivec, Bonita, Calif., 143/418.
4. Sea Dancer (Ericson 35), Al Wheatman, Marina del Rey, 153/505.
5. Bonaire (Moody 65), Gil Jones and Associates, Newport Beach, 189/218.
6. 208/403. Gecko (Tartan 41), Jim Fabrick, Laguna Beach, 129/453.

ALOHA DIVISION B (started June 25)

1. Axapac (Wylie 39), Barry Ruff, Vancouver, B.C., 160/183.
2. Stardust (Wylie 46), Peter and Patricia Anderson, Laguna Beach, 177/78.