Transpac Race: Argo wins the battle

Honolulu, HI (July 17, 2019) – The first team of the 50th edition of the Transpac Race finished today when Jason Carroll’s MOD70 Argo passed the Diamond Head buoy today at 20:50:32 HST for an elapsed time of 4 days 11 hours 20 min 32 seconds.

After a slow initial start on July 13, Carroll’s team of Chad Corning, Thierry Fouchier, Anderson Reggio, Alister Richardson, Westy Barlow, and Brian Thompson were able to push into the lead among two other rival MOD70s along the 2225 nm course from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

After several hours into the race and having to fight to get out of a wind hole on the first night, the team found the strong offshore breeze first to take a lead never seriously challenged during the entire race, playing a brilliant tactical game to also deftly stay ahead of their competition on the final approach to the finish.

However, there was no rest for Argo in the final miles as Peter Cunningham’s team on PowerPlay, a sistership MOD70, finished just 29 minutes astern.

Considering their slow start, Argo’s average speed down the course was still 20.7 knots, leaving them only 5 hours behind the record pace set in 2017 by the ORMA 60 Mighty Merloe of 4 days 6 hours 32 minutes 30 seconds.

Argo will win the Multihulls 0 Class followed by PowerPlay with the remaining MOD70 Maserati to finish tomorrow morning and the Irens 63 Paradox nearly 600 nm further back.

Event Details – Entry list – Results – Tracker – Facebook

Note: There is a 4-hour delay on the tracker but goes live within the final 200 miles.

Attrition list:
• Mayhem, Hobie 33, Steven Eder
• Aloha, Hobie 33, Kyle Vanderspek
• Nalu V, Cal 40, Mark Ashmore
• Trouble, Santa Cruz 50, Tom Camp,
• Live Wire, Olson 40, Tim Jones
• OEX, Santa Cruz 70, John Sangmeister
• Pyewacket, Andrews 70, Roy Disney
• Macondo, Beneteau First 47.7, Mike Sudo

Background: First organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club in 1906, the biennial Transpacific Yacht Race or Transpac is an offshore sailing race from Point Fermin in Los Angeles to Diamond Head, just east of Honolulu, a distance of 2225 nm. The 2019 edition has 12 divisions with staggered starts on July 10, 12, and 13.

Boats racing in Divisions 6, 7, 8, 9, the Cal 40s, and the Multihulls in Class 0A will start on July 10. The second start on July 12 will be for the boats in Divisions 3, 5 and the Santa Cruz 50/52s, with the final start on July 13 for the remaining monohull entries in Divisions 1 and 2, along with the Multihull class 0 entries.

Source: TPYC