Champagne sailing soon to come in Transpac
by Transpacific Yacht Club 5 Jul 2023 00:24 BST
July 4, 2023
Transpac 2023 © Transpacific Yacht Club
On this Independence Day holiday while the rest of us are enjoying grilled meats, libations and fireworks with family and friends, the 52 teams with 455 sailors aboard on the Transpac racecourse are still making steady progress west towards Hawaii. The sun is coming out from behind the clouds during the day, the moon is bright at night and the sailing angles are starting to turn from reaching to running for most of the fleet.
Steve Rossi on Cecil and Alyson Rossi's Farr 57 HO'OKOLOHE reported "Right after roll call yesterday the A3 went up and the mood boosted on the boat. We saw [an albatross] for the first time yesterday and again this morning on dawn patrol. It's always great to see these majestic yet solitary birds.
"Last night's full moon was spectacular, making short appearances through the break in the clouds, so bright at times we almost needed sunglasses. The sun today has finally brought out that crystal clear blue diamond Pacific ocean water. We're reaching deeper into our sail locker, and were finally able to pull out the bigger A2 spinnaker- a much more manageable kite than the A3 we had up for the last 24 hours, which was a chore to keep under control in the confused wind conditions."
The break in the clouds also allowed cadets aboard the Andrews 77 T/S CAL MARITIME to break out the sextant and practice their celestial navigation skills, part of their training at the Academy.
Those who have been at sea for a week since their start last Tuesday in the Boatswains Locker Division 7 and smithREgroup Division 8 are all but one within 1000 miles of the finish at Diamond Head in Oahu, Larry Goshorn's Catalina 445 IMAGINE TOO still being a few miles short of the halfway point in this race of 2225 miles. Some have chosen to be a little north of rhumb line to stay in what appears to be slightly stronger pressure while the leaders of this pack - sistership Dehler 46s WINGS skippered by Ian Edwards and Greg Dorn's FAVONIUS - are less than 10 miles apart and are barreling downwind at 9-10 knots, glued to the rhumbline. By making good speed and minimizing any extra distance sailed, this could turn out to be a winning strategy...already they are in the top 10 in corrected time standings.
Without a strong incentive to dive south for more breeze, the Thursday starters in Ocean Navigator Division 4, Cabrillo Boat Shop Division 5 and PASHA HAWAII Division 6 have opted for different tracks that are, mostly, north of the rhumb line with some (like the J/125s) as much as 150 miles north.
However, the tracker shows there is already the first gybe to port in the fleet: this morning Steve Sellinger's Santa Cruz 52 TRIUMPH gybe to the southwest back towards the middle of the course. We don't know if they got a lifted breeze they simply could not refuse, or they wanted to break from following their class leader WESTERLY 52, a sistership SC 52 owned by Dave Moore, about 50 miles ahead and leading in the corrected time standings. With 1118 miles to go TRIUMPH looked poised to cross Chris Messano and Bill Durant's Santa Cruz 50 DECEPTION, which is the lead SC 50 in their class.
Like many others on the course, TRIUMPH has reported sighting debris and trash on the course, even 1000 miles from the closest land. "Hit trash several times, backed down twice. Just missed a small island of rope trash," they claimed in this morning's daily position report. This has been a persistent and growing issue in the North Pacific, even over 10 years after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2011 brought untold tons of debris into this region of the planet.
With the exception of the two MOD 70 trimarans in the EPIC Insurance multihull division and two fast monohulls that broke from the pack early, the group that still seems to be lagging a little behind is the Saturday starters in Cal Maritime Division 1, SD Boatworks Division 2 and Whittier Trust Division 3. They are just not quite far enough west yet to get the stronger winds now enjoyed by the earlier starters.
Their champagne sailing lies ahead...Happy Independence Day to all US sailors!
All entries in Transpac can be tracked on the YB system, sponsored by Pasha Hawaii. The positions, speeds and headings of each entry can be found on this system on either the browser of app versions. There is a built-in 4 hour delay for each entry, except when within 200 miles of the finish when the tracker goes live. Use this link to follow the fleet: cf.yb.tl/transpac2023#.
For the July 4th Race Analysis video with Transpacific YC's Dobbs Davis, tune in to the TPYC YouTube channel:
Here the fleet's positions are shown on the tracker and explanations of why they are where they are on the race course, along with a look at the surface weather analysis map from NOAA.
For more information on the 2023 Transpac, visit transpacyc.com.