Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race - Day 5
by Rich Roberts 16 Jul 2005 08:10 BST
Bolt and Cone of Silence get the jump in a tricky start
A few hours before 20 Division III and IV boats started the Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Friday, Grant Baldwin forewarned them from the communications vessel Alaska Eagle that "they're going to have to put on their track shoes to catch the Cal 40s, who are rocketing."
The 32 boats remaining from the 33 that started Monday - there has been one dropout - have found little sun but continued to enjoy minimal seas and northerly winds of 18-20 knots - about 16 knots more than Friday's starters found off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The sun scattered a gloomy marine layer shortly before the 1 p.m. start, but then the wind dropped from 5 to 2 knots and swung so far left to due east that it was impossible to cross the line on a normal starboard tack.
Two boats were quick to pick up on the fluky conditions: Craig Reynolds' Nelson/Marek 55, Bolt, from Newport Beach, Calif., and Jamie and Jenny Neill's Super 30, The Cone of Silence, from Sydney, Australia. Bolt set an overlapping "code zero" headsail---a cross between a genoa and a spinnaker---and proceeded to walk away from the fleet, while The Cone of Silence, the smallest boat in the race, popped a blue asymmetrical spinnaker on its bowsprit and moved out 200 yards to leeward.
One by one, other boats took the cue, but Bolt and Cone already had the advantage as they sailed toward the west end of Santa Catalina Island 26 miles offshore---the only mark of the 2,225-nautical mile course.
Watching developments with interest from off the pin end of the starting line was Genuine Risk, at 90 feet the biggest boat in the race. Randall Pittman's crew stopped by while out for a final tune-up sail before they go off Sunday among 20 Division I and II boats, the last of 75 entries.
Before leaving Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach for the starting area, one boat, Gary Fanger's 1D35, Sensation, from San Francisco, reported a skipper change. Fanger had to step off a few days earlier because of pressing business concerns and turned command over to watch captain Rodney Hagebols.
Class leaders at sea Friday remained Steve Brown's Express 37, Brown Sugar, from Santa Ana, Calif. in Division V; Sally Honey's Illusion, from Palo Alto, Calif. in Cal 40s; Cecil Rossi's 58-foot yawl Odyssey, Newport Beach, in Aloha A, and Larry Hillman's Swan 48, So Far, Chicago, in Aloha B. Each set its class pace in distance sailed as well as projected corrected handicap time.
Odyssey, sailing its fourth Transpac over 66 years, was nearest the finish with 1,680 miles to go but now will be looking aft for Aloha A rival Shanakee II, James Warmington's bigger and faster Pedrick 74 that started Friday and spots Odyssey nearly two days for the course in handicap time, besides four days in real time.
David Kory's MacGregor 65, Barking Spider 3, from Concord, Calif., owes each of Friday's starters time. It's a step up in class for Kory, who won Aloha B in 2003 with a Catalina 38.
"It's going to be a challenge for us," Kory said. "We don't have the experience or the sophisticated racing program that some of the guys have. We'll just put a finger in the air and decide where to go."
Earlier in the week while rivals were preparing to race, Kory offered Barking Spider 3 as a spectator boat for Monday's start, and 14 friends and family members of the early fleets took advantage.
"We've had a great time," Kory said. "We're in this to have fun."
Also before the start, Jamie Neill reported that on The Cone of Silence's first tune-up sail Tuesday since shipping the 30-footer to California the crew discovered a hairline crack in the headsail track. With the assistance of the local North Sails team, the track was replaced two days before the start.
The Sail-World USA Web site will be providing live tracking of the little Australian boat, a first for Transpac.