Great experiences, Shared adventure

When it comes to offshore aspirations, the biennial Transpac Race is a bucket lister. Far longer than the classic 800 nm tests, the 51st edition has 60 entrants for the 2225 nm crossing from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Here’s one of them eager to revisit the land of palm trees and umbrella drinks in 2021:

After acquiring the TP52 Patches from fellow Mexican yachtsman Jorge Ripstein in 2014, current owner Eduardo Porter Ludwig campaigned here to a respectable 3rd place class finish in the 2015 edition of Transpac, just 17 minutes behind the division winner, Craig Reynolds’ TP52 Bolt.

Now six years later, Ludwig (or Goldo as he’s known) and Reynolds are both back for the 2021 race, although this time Bolt has grown to be a Nelson/Marek 68 and may be in a different division than Patches. Nonetheless, Goldo is keen to return to this race.

“Our first Transpac in 2015 was amazing,” he said, “with a 3rd place result and a full Mexican crew. After that we did the Rolex Big Boat Series, two San Diego – Puerto Vallarta races, and a couple of small offshore races in Mexico. The TP52 class died in Acapulco in 2018 so I decided to keep Patches in Long Beach to participate in local regattas during the 2019-20 season.”

The pandemic lockdown then changed plans for competing in that season, so he looked ahead to 2021.

“I was tired of not doing anything exciting,” Goldo said, “so decided to do major repairs on the boat to make her faster and stronger, and the Newport-Cabo San Lucas Race in March 2021 as the qualifier. We were then thinking about Europe in the summer, but then I said, ‘Why not Transpac?’ because the boat will be ready to go for that race.”

Like others who will be mid-Pacific in July, Goldo is looking further south and west for even more adventure after the race. ”We are thinking afterwards to send the boat to Sydney and do the Hobart Race,” he said.

With navigation guidance provided by Marc Span, the Patches team is planning on a fairly large group of 11 crew that includes Goldo, Span, Daniel Porter and Jan Hossfeld from the 2015 team, Federico Haller, Federico Ortiz, Andres Alvarado and Javier Patron from other offshore races on the team, and Emilio Del Valle, Valentin Pratt and Alex Murrieta on their first long offshore race.

For Goldo, the goals for the Patches team are simple: “To have a great experience and share this with my crew.”

Event information – Race details – Entry list

2021 Schedule
First Start – July 13
Second Start – July 16
Third Start – July 17
Honolulu Awards Ceremony – July 30