Division 4, 5 and 6 winners celebrated at Transpac
by Transpacific Yacht Club 14 Jul 2023 17:30 NZST
This evening at Hawaii Yacht Club the podium finishers for Divisions 4, 5 and 6 who started their race on Thursday June 29th are being celebrated for the 52nd edition of the Transpac. This group was blessed with some of the most favorable conditions in the race: eight of the top ten in overall corrected time are from these divisions.
Winning first among the six entries in Cabrillo Boat Shop Division 5 is Dave Moore's Santa Cruz 52 WESTERLY, who also was awarded the overall fleet King Kalakaua Trophy earlier this week. Runner-up in this division is Chris Messano and Bill Durant's Santa Cruz 50 DECEPTION, who coincidently performed their impressive and thorough renovation of this boat at the eponymous division sponsor's facilities in San Pedro. DECEPTION also placed third in overall fleet standings.
Finishing in third place in the division only a little over one hour behind DECEPTION in corrected time is Steve Sellinger's Santa Cruz 52 TRIUMPH, who earned a 5th place overall in the fleet rankings.
Ocean Navigator Division 4 had seven entries with four J/125's took the top five places, with Standish Fleming's NEREID earning the top prize and an impressive second place in overall standings. Taking second place is Andrew Picel's ARSENAL, only 40 minutes ahead in corrected time of Bill McKinley's Ker 46+ DENALI.
This latter team from Michigan was the first monohull to cross the finish line, completing the 2225-mile course in only 8 days 16 hours 12 minutes and 17 seconds. This impressive time was only bettered by three much larger Saturday starters in the fleet racing in Cal Maritime Division 1: Sebastien Moshayedi's Bakewell-White 100 RIO100, George Hershman and Mark Comings' Reichel/Pugh 63 GOODENERGY and Tom Holtus' Botin 56 BADPAK, who received their awards earlier this week as well.
PASHA HAWAII Division 6 had five entries, with Cecil and Alyson Rossi's Farr 57 HO'OKOLOHE awarded the top prize and Paul Farrell's Andrews 40 SPIN DOCTOR earning second place, with Wayne Zittel's DK 46 CAZAN taking third place.
Other awards being presented tonight are the Nash Family Corinthian Trophy, awarded to the fastest team in corrected time that has an all-amateur skipper and crew. Eligible teams must be confirmed as valid Group 1 sailors by the World Sailing Sailor Categorization system. For their 8th place overall finish in corrected time, James Nichols' J/125 VELVET HAMMER has won this award with his crew of Mark English, Rebecca Hinden, Julia Paxton, Ian Rogers and David Schumann, all from the USA.
The Storm Trysail Team Trophy is awarded to the three-boat team that has the lowest percentage score in their Division standings. Using this criteria the RUM SQUALLERS team of David Clark's Santa Cruz 70 GRAND ILLUSION (second in Whittier Trust Division 3), HO'OKOLOHE (first in PASHA HAWAII Division 6) and TRIUMPH (third in Cabrillo Boat Shop Division 5) have won the 2023 Storm Trysail Team Trophy.
The Mark Rudiger Celestial Navigation Trophy is awarded to the navigator who submits celestial navigation worksheets or evidence of traditional navigation to the finish inspectors immediately after finishing, and whose work is selected as the "best" by an impartial panel of judges. Winning this award this year is Michael Dybvik, one of the cadets on T/S CAL MARITIME, who demonstrated proficiency in sextant use with sun, moon, planet and star sightings.
With its history starting in 1906 and being held every two years (except in the war years of 1943 & 1945), the Transpacific Yacht Club has a deep and storied history with an impressive collection of over 50 perpetual trophies to match. Each one is a beautiful work of art crafted in silver, pewter, brass and/or wood, making every Transpac awards ceremony a special must-attend occasion.
"Until recently these were put in storage between races," said Leslie Foster who is a hard-working member of TPYC's Honolulu Committee who has for the last five races been engaged with the care and feeding of these treasures. "Now we have some trophy case space in our host clubs (Hawaii YC, Waikiki YC and Kaneohe YC) to put them on display for all to see. The Barn Door Trophy gets displayed in rotation among all three clubs."
Foster says that for the 50th anniversary race in 2019 a serious effort was made to catalog and document the histories of this important collection, and a 17-minute video was commissioned for this effort. It is posted on the TPYC website page or viewed on YouTube:
Foster also helps the Flag officers of TPYC organize each trophy ceremony so that the right awards go to the right recipients in the correct order - not an easy task, especially in what can be a raucous Mai Tai-fueled party. These three separate ceremonies were first devised in the last 51st edition of the race held in 2021 due in part to Covid restrictions on large groups, but the idea has proven popular.
Another tireless Honolulu Committee volunteer is Jeff Davis, who is tasked with finding mooring space for all the entries in the race who arrive in Hawaii. For many years race boats participating in any major race or regatta (e.g., Pan Am Clipper Cups, Kenwood Cups, Transpac) would be assigned to slips in what was called Transpac Row on the south side of the Ala Wai Marina's central peninsula. There is additional space at Waikiki and Hawaii Yacht Clubs, and for the deepest draft boats at the Kewalo Harbor west of Ala Moana Park, but there are often limitations on space and depth...and politics.
"I get started with this usually in March," he said, "because often the port captains and harbor masters may change and it takes time to work them through who we are and what we need. This year I also did a survey of depths around the harbor to find the high spots. We're generally OK with any boat that has a draft of less than 12 feet, but deeper gets to be a challenge since we want as many as we can located here in the Ala Wai close to the action."
The task for Davis is not easy, having to balance suitable locations with available space and the preferences of some of the teams who want to be near their Aloha parties, which this year were held at a dedicated space on the lawn of Ala Wai and at Waikiki YC. The information is shared with the teams in advance, but direction is also given to the escort vessel that leads finished boats from Diamond Head to their assigned space.
"Sometimes it is like herding cats," admits Davis, "but I do enjoy helping everyone find a place that works for them so all feel welcome."
There are still two teams out in the Pacific approaching the finish. Doug Pasnik's Whittier Trust Division 3 entry TRADER finished last night so it's Larry Goshorn's Catalina 445 IMAGINE TOO in smithREgroup Division 8 that is about 120 miles out and the event's only Double Handed entry, Russ Johnson's Jeanneau 52 BLUE MOON, a Hawaii-based entry in PASHA HAWAII Division 6 that is about 300 miles out.
On BLUE MOON the team wrote "Made good progress yesterday until we managed to rip the clew off the spinnaker. Ever onward, however =)."
Daily analyses of the race, interviews, blogs and more are found on the TPYC YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/c/TranspacRace.
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#.
Official results can be found on Yacht Scoring.
For more information on the 2023 Transpac, visit transpacyc.com.