Transpac Race starts Monday

(July 7, 2013) – Fifty-nine entrants are ready for the 47th edition of the Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, with the first staggered start on July 8, 2013, with subsequent starts planned for July 11 and July 13. At 1:00 PM local time, the first of the three waves of offshore yachts will start their 2225-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.

The slowest of these two divisions, Divisions 7 and 8, will start tomorrow, with 15 entries crossing the starting line off Point Fermin, just west of Los Angeles Harbor. These include more modern cruiser-racers, like Michael Spies and Patinyakorn Buranrom’s Tripp 40 Sansiri and their mixed team of Thai, American and Australian crew, and classic yachts, such as Matt Brooks’s classic 1930 S&S 52-foot yawl Dorade and its all-pro mixed Anglo-American crew.

The smallest boat in the race, Edward Sanford’s J/105 Creative, will also be starting the race tomorrow, with a lean group of four crew.

In tomorrow’s Division 7 start will be the highest percentage of international entries of any class in the race, with four of seven from outside the US. These include Sansiri from Thailand and three teams from Japan: Kazuhiro Nakajima’s Reichel/Pugh 44 Gefion, Hioshi Kitada’s X-41 KIHO, and Yuichi Takahashi’s First 40 Ten Quarter. In all there are six entries in the race from Japan.

This race has been an inspiration to all who dream of sailing over the horizon to the west, both young and old alike.

“I think this will be a great adventure, and everyone should have a good time,” said Shirley Fischer, who is sailing on Hiroyuki Funaoku and Janet Nicholson’s Jeanneau 43 Sun Odyssey DS Aquarius in her first Transpac. “I’m 86 years young, I’ve sailed before with Hiro and my daughter Janet, and they asked me to come, so here I am. I’ve had my own boat before, just sailing from here to Catalina, but Hawaii of course is much further. So I’m looking forward to just being part of this, for going this far, and enjoying the experience.”

When asked about her role on the team, Fischer said “I will do anything I can to help. But when on the helm I was asked to look out for refrigerators and whales!”

At yesterday’s Skipper’s and Navigator’s Meeting, participants learned the weather forecast for this fleet looks good, at least for the beginning phase of this race. Well-established at 1029 mb, the center of the Pacific High lies 900 miles west of San Francisco and will drive 10-20 knot northwest winds along the southern California coastal waters for the next three days, with higher speeds offshore, allowing this early fleet to get a fast start to their southwesterly tracks towards Hawaii.

And while these entries in the first start are not fast enough to break any course records, they may still win racing under the ORR system that uses a special Transpac course model to equalize the boats under handicap for this race.

And after the briefing, crews got an early taste of Hawaiian hospitality last night at the Aloha Send-Off Party held at Gladstone’s Restaurant in Long Beach, where there were traditional Tahitian performances, hula dancing, and plenty of leis all around.

Once the race gets underway, race tracking will be provided using the Yellowbrick tracking system, and will be shown on the home page of the race website: www.transpacyc.com. A daily video analysis on the progress of the race will be provided by race veteran and Seahorse Magazine editor Dobbs Davis, with online access to the show also on the race website.

Information on the race, its history, the entries, crews and all race documents can be found at www.transpacyc.com.

Photos, videos, and other resources are also available in the Media section of the site, and Facebook and Twitter will provide ongoing news, photos, videos and commentary about the activities and people involved with the 2013 Transpac.

For further information, contact media@transpacrace.com.

Note: It has not yet been confirmed, but the talk on the dock is that the B’Quest-Challenged America entry has been deemed invalid. It is our understanding that the doublehanded team of disabled veterans David Hopkins and Urban Miyares, who had planed to complete the race on a Tripp 40, were unable to meet all the race requirements. More information to come. – Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

Background: Organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club, the Transpac is a 2225-mile race from Point Fermin in Los Angeles to Diamond Head, just east of Honolulu, a distance of 2225-miles. With its first running in 1906, this is among the world’s great ocean races, and biennially attracts the world’s most talented offshore sailors and offshore sailing adventurers. For more history and information, visit www.transpacyc.com.