Provisional winners for Transpac Race

(July 9, 2023) – With the finish of 19 out of 52 boats in the 2023 Transpac Race and no potential rivals on the eastern horizon, the fastest monohulls in elapsed and corrected time have been provisionally determined.

Sebastian Moshayedi’s Bakewell-White 100 Rio100 in Division 1, with an elapsed time of 7 days 13 hours 16 minutes and 38 seconds, is the provisional winner of the Barn Door Trophy which honors the boat with the fastest elapsed time in the race.

First presented in 1947, this iconic 4-foot-long slab of carved Hawaiian Koa wood has been awarded to many famous ocean racing yachts that are legends in the sport: CHUBASCO, Morning Star, Ticonderoga, Ragtime, Windward Passage, Merlin and many more.

This will be the third time Rio100 has won the Barn Door, with the first two being in 2015 and 2017. Being also the fastest monohull with manual-powered systems on board, Rio100 will qualify to win the Merlin Trophy as well.

Having led for most of this race in Division 5, Dave Moore’s Santa Cruz 52 Westerly 52 has also been announced today as the provisional overall winner of the race in corrected time. The King Kalakaua Trophy honors the team that has sailed the best relative to their rating against all other boats on the course, regardless of their starting date.

This historic trophy is named for the late 19th century Hawaiian monarch King David Kalakaua, who is credited for having conceived of a yacht race between the mainland and Hawaii to encourage cooperation and trade. In 1906, this race was run for the first time and is now known as the Transpac.

Among the finishers last night was Stephen Lewis’ Newland 368 Pegasus, who showed off the spinnaker pole jury rig she used after dismasting 100 miles from the finish, with the reduced rig still clocking 6-7 knots of boat speed.

“We used our jib top and this rig we fashioned to get to the finish, and it worked surprisingly well,” said Lewis who explained the return trip to California will be by ship back to Oakland.

The daylight arrivals today enjoyed spectacular conditions at the finish at Diamond Head. These included Rich Festa’s Rogers 46 Groundhog Day, who did not correct well among the 6 teams in Division 4 but said at their Aloha party they “had a great time on this race.”

Also in this class were all four J/125s entered in the race: Standish Fleming’s Nereid was the fastest of the four, followed by Andrew Picel’s Arsenal, James Nichols’ Velvet Hammer and Thomas Garnier’s Reinrag 2.

Meanwhile, there are still 33 teams still making their way to the finish line at Diamond Head, with some providing first-hand accounts from the course.

“Fun times are finally back!” says the team on John Raymont’s Ker 52 Fast Exit II. “The new bow is working – Top hourly runs in the fleet for several hours. We are expecting high ‘shore crew’ credit card usage to our delayed finish times.”

“We were visited by a large pod of dolphins in the evening,” said Dean Treadway’s Farr 36 Sweet Okole, “who stuck around for quite some time to play in our wake. They brought us some good luck, as the wind picked up just afterwards!”

“Great day and rather eventful evening,” said John Brynjolfsson’s TP 52 Saga. “The tack line blew a couple minutes after we hooked some kind of fishing net. Went into backdown and off we went! Always fun in the dark and breeze!”

“For the second time this Transpac,” said Dan Merino’s Express 37 Juno. “We sighted a green flare. This was in the vicinity of 23 28 N, 134 38 W. No AIS targets or comms on VHF 16.”

“The main ripped 15 feet below the head at the leech,” reported T/S Cal Maritime. “Hove to and wallowing while repairing. Thank you to Peligroso for hailing us on VHF 16 to check on us when they noticed we were no longer playing cat and mouse with them. We appreciate their concern and are hustling to get the big blue school bus rolling again and resume play. Looks like we’re back to being the cat chasing the mouse. We’ll be back online in hour (we hope).”

Event details – Preliminary results – Tracker – July 9 Roll Call

From the inaugural race in 1906, the biennial Transpac Race in 2023 is the 52nd edition with 57 entrants to take on the 2225 nm course from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Staggered Starts
June 27 – Division 7, 8
June 29 – Division 4, 5, 6
July 1 – Division 1, 2, 3, 9

Source: TYC