J/44 Breezes To Silverware(Honolulu, Hawaii)- The 2015 edition of the Transpac YC’s 2,225nm Transpac Race was “not like it’s supposed to be”. A familiar refrain heard from many sailors in what was easily one of the most bizarre Transpac’s ever. Light winds. Pouring rain at the starts!? Taking off on port tack?! Then, hundreds of miles of trash, fishing nets, and what not forcing boats to stop, shed the junk and restart?? Is this serious offshore racing?? What happened was nothing short of astonishing for any sailor who’s crossed the Pacific to Hawaii more than a dozen times. The left over remnants of a tropical cyclone moving north from Mexico wrecked havoc on the fleet for days (another by-product of global-warming, El Nino and magnetic-pole flipping over??). As a result, many boats ended up so far north that their Expedition routing software had them pointed at the end of the Aleutian Chain in far western Alaska! Nuts?? According to many anxious navigators, beyond manic or even panic!
Nevertheless,
taking advantage of the deviant weather patterns were a host of top J
teams in three classes. Dominating their class from nearly the first
day was the J/44 PATRIOT led by Paul Stemler’s team from Newport Harbor
YC. They never let up, leading the fleet in class and overall 1st place
in ORR over the world’s hottest, fastest 100 footers and TP52s for days
on end. Only in the last two days did PATRIOT relinquish its lead to
take 2nd in Division 7 and 10th overall! An amazing performance and
congrats to their team.The balance of the J teams in Division 7 also sailed well with Ed Sanford’s J/105 CREATIVE from San Diego YC taking 5th in class! Just behind was Yasuhide Kobayashi’s J/120 JULIA from Japan in 6th place, beating the famous Transpac Race winner- the 1D35 Alpha Puppy!
On a similar basis, the J/125s have proven yet again they’re pretty damn hard to beat in a long-distance offshore content. Give them enough “rope” and they will either reel you in or simply blast away from you, such is the performance and ease of sailing the 40 ft rocketship. In Division 4, Greg Slyngstad’s Seattle, WA crew on HAMACHI threw down the gauntlet from the start and simply stayed north, sailed fast to lead their class after the first 24 hours, and never relinquished their lead; winning their division by nearly 4 hours. Chasing them hard from the very beginning was Tim Fuller’s crew on RESOLUTE, ultimately sailing fast but not fast enough to chase down their J/125 stablemate; settling for 2nd in division.
Of
note, the J/46 ANDIAMO skippered by Robert Pace was very much in the
hunt for the lead in their Division 8, but stayed a bit too far south
relative to their classmates to hang onto a podium finish, instead
settling for 6th in class.Here are some interesting progress reports from boats during the race to give you a feel for what happens when you race for up to 12 days straight!
7/23- Sail Hamachi update...
"After 3 days of upwind sailing in moderate to light conditions, 3 days of downwind slogging in big confused seas with 5-12 knots of wind, we finally found some breeze! This is more like what the brochure promised.
Since early this morning we've been sailing in 14-18 with squall generated 18-23 knots and boat speed topping out at over 17 knots. This is what it's all about! We're clawing back some of the distance lost over the last couple days. Lots of sailing to go and everyone is in good spirits. We have Varuna in sight. Boat has been very dry thanks to the moderate conditions so boat smell quite tolerable. Food, water and Rum are holding out OK. Hamachi Out."
7/23- Resolute Racing report…
“Well Resolute fans, as of about 8:00 this morning we battened down the hatches! After an 8-10 knot breeze all last night, the wind came up to 21 knots this morning and is holding steady still as I write this. Our bow leak is minimized at least, but will continue to the finish it appears. I just saw Erik hit 17 knots of speed as I type with all kinds of water running over the deck. Our auto pilot can not handle these kinds of surfing conditions and has become a little flaky as time has gone on making us have to hand steer more. Good news is we are clicking off the miles with 1275 to go. The bad news is we have not really slept in the last 12 hours making it difficult to keep up this pace driving. This morning before the wind came up, we had to drop our spinnaker to clear some debris we picked up under the boat. With that down, we head the boat into the wind and try to back off (reverse) anything that may have been caught on the keel, rudder or Sail Drive (propeller). That is the second time we have had to do that. There still remains a lot of Tsunami debris from Japan a few years ago, as well as commercial fishing. I have sailed within feet of large nets, floats and many 5 gallon buckets. Also today, I passed by a large metal tank of some kind that was all dented up and floating just below the surface. Hitting such a thing could be disastrous for us. Anyway we try to sleep, eat and other personal things as we edge forward to Diamond Head. Thanks for following along. Tim Fuller - Skipper”
7/24- Sail Hamachi update. . .
“In what appears to be a concerted effort, a flock of flying fish is attacking Hamachi. Numerous flying fish have struck the deck, hull and main sail. One crossed six inches in front of Greg's nose and in the most vicious incident, Fritz J was struck in the side of the head. Fritz is expected to make a full recovery. LOL!”
7/25- Resolute Racing report. . .“Well, folks today was (and continues) to be a tough one. Squall conditions with winds to 25 knots began early this morning and have lasted all day. Good news is, we are hauling the mail at boat speeds to 20 knots. The bad news is the Resolute packs a lot of "grunt" in these conditions, and with 2 people aboard concentration is key. Fatigue is a factor again with no real sleep in the last 24 hours. I have slept in a bean bag on the cabin sole, or the cockpit the entire trip so far. With a very confused sea state out there you are constantly slamming about. Anyway enough about my problems, I have a sailing quiz. This may take a sailing glossary but let me explain a mishap today, and see if you can determine how in quick order we solved our problem. I cannot see Facebook responses so I'll have to read them when I get ashore. OK, it's blowing 25 and we crash and round up. With me so far? We have a 2.5A kite up and a small spinnaker staysail. Here's the tricky part, we have a single tack line with a Martin Breaker rigged. As we try to round back down from our scenic tour into the wind the Tylaska shackle on the kite sheet opens so the kite is flying from the halyard and the tack alone. To make matters worse the upper 3rd of the kite is wrapped on itself. OK kids, how in God's name did we solve this problem unscathed and get back sailing again. The first person who responds correctly wins a "Resolute" long sleeve crew/sun shirt as a prize. Good luck and "Prayer" does not count though I was praying at the time.... Tim Fuller - Skipper”
7/26- Sail Hamachi update. . .
“Almost aloha time! Our final post from sea -- We're about 110 miles from the finish loping along in the hot sun in 11 knots of wind. The boat is going to be a candidate for the toxic waste superfund. It is like a steam bath with the addition of eau de rotten shoes and clothing. We spend most of our time on deck except sleeping. Last night ended a run of 3 days of awesome sailing in 18-24 knots of wind with boat surfing down wave at 21+ in squall winds up to 30 knots. We pushed hard non-stop and gained on all of our competition during this stretch putting us at the lead of our class. Finish estimate is around 8AM on Monday PDT. Looking forward to real food and Mai Tais!!”
7/26- Resolute Racing report…
“Well, folks it turned out to be somewhat of a discouraging day. Despite us sailing very fast in a straight line to Makapu point on Oahu (turning point before finish), the 3 boats in front of us all gained on us as of of late afternoon position report. They must have had more favorable conditions than us all day. Anyway, we are hanging on for 2nd behind our sistership Hamachi. Those guys are sailing a fantastic race. They must have been killin' it yesterday in the big breeze with a sheet grinder (guy turning a winch) where we had to sail under our kite to try to keep it from collapsing. That is a hard thing to do especially in the dark! We did hit speeds in excess of 20 knots a few times yesterday, which was awesome. If the breeze holds, we will finish later tomorrow afternoon it appears. We heard today they were holding out finishing boats due to high surf in the harbor channel. I hope the tide is high when we get there because it's time to get off this damn boat and take a shower right away! That after a mai-tai or two.... Stay tuned as we are pushing as hard as we can. Tim Fuller - Skipper”
All boats had GPS trackers provided by Yellowbrick, where the boat’s position, speed and heading were continuously reported on the Yellowbrick website. Sailing photo credits- Sharon Green/ Ultimate Sailing. Relive the race and see Yellow Brick tracker. For more Transpac Race sailing information
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