Charisma Leading In Transpac Division 7 And Relentless Retains The Division 6 Lead For Now

Division 3,4 and 5 Start Line July 2nd (Photo Courtesy of Transpac 2009)

The July 3rd Daily Standings as of 0600 PDT for Transpac 09 have the Spanish crew aboard Charisma leading the charge to Hawaii. Charisma is 1,734 nautical miles from Hawaii and over 150 miles ahead of her nearest competitor in Division VII, Between the Sheets, a Jeanneau 50. The doublehanded sailors aboard Relentless continue to set the pace in Division 6. They have stretched their lead to 10 miles over the Canadian boat, Narrow Escape.

Lynx, the heavy tall ship, has only chipped about 220 miles off of the vast 2,225-nautical mile journey.

Relentless 2 and Viggo Torbensen’s TP52 crew from Dana Point burst out of the gates the fastest among all of the Division III, IV and V boats that started at 1300 on July 2nd. They logged over 130 nautical miles from the start to their 0600 check in. Free Range Chicken, Bruce Anderson’s Perry 59 and by far the most comfortable ride to Hawaii in Transpac 09, is out in front in Division III along with Bengal 7, Yoshihiko Murase’s carbon fiber Ohashi 46.

Gib Black’s thirty-year old Santa Cruz 52, Roy’s Chasch Mer is leading Division V and is just a few miles out in front of Passion. Black and the crew discovered that their shaft strut had cracked wide open hours before our starting gun. They went through our limited parts and tool kits, found dive gear, parts and even machined some others to repair the problem. Says Black, “(We have) a bit more drag at the prop now, but we are moving AND we made our start. Nice start at that.”

Estimated arrivals for the boats are anywhere from 14 days to 30 days.

Division 3,4 and 5 Started July 2nd.

Thursday’s Aloha Send-off from Transpac Pier at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach was picture perfect.

Tachyon III, Kanzunori Komatu’s Santa Cruz 52, with members of the Japanese Olympic Sailing Team on board, led the parade out of the basin. Like each of the 18 Transpac 09 race boats that followed, Tachyon III was escorted out of Rainbow Harbor’s entrance by paddlers from the Kahakai Canoe Club. Free Range Chicken, Bruce Anderson’s deluxe Perry 59, was the final Transpac race boat to leave the pier. As she streamed away from the dock, the crew showered their escorts with fresh fuschia-colored leis. Long Beach added more pageantry to the send-off by having Navy seals sky dive from a blimp and splash down in between the end of the pier and the Queen Mary.

The 19-boat fleet of 45 to 60-foorters rushed the starting line. They were amped up with anticipation and testosterone and shot out of the blocks on their way to Ala Wai and Transpac Row. The pin was the coveted spot and Criminal Mischief, the grey-hulled boat with a crimson-shirted team roared past the pin. Thinking that they were a bit too early, they bore away and returned to the line to exonerate themselves. Just up off of their starboard hip was Wasabi, one of the Mexican entries, and Bengal 7, one of three Japanese entries. Cipango, Relentless and Passion, all US boats, were just to weather of the pack at the pin. The rest of the fleet was spread out evenly across the starting line all the way up to the committee boat.