Transpac - Bakewell-White designed supermaxi wins Barn Door Trophy

by Sail-World.com NZL on 27 Jul 2015 Rio Racing USA have realised their ultimate goal of winning the Barn Door Trophy in the 2015 Transpac Race when Bakewell-White designed supermaxi Rio 100 crossed the finish line off Diamond Harbour, Hawaii on the afternoon of Saturday 25 July.

After an elapsed time of seven days, five hours, 34 minutes and seven seconds Rio 100, sailed by owner ManouchMoshayedi and a total crew of 19, sailed down the Molokai Channel in glamour running conditions.
The Barn Door Trophy is made from a large ornately-carved piece of Hawaiian Koa wood, and is an iconic symbol of excellence for the Transpac: many of the most famous racing yachts in the world of offshore sailing have their names inscribed on the brass plaques around its perimeter.

“The Barn Door Trophy was a primary reason for Manouch to purchase and refit this yacht. To be in contention for this famous trophy the yacht must be fully manually operated and conventionally ballasted,” explains Brett Bakewell-White.

“RIO 100 is one of the fastest conventional monohull race yachts in the world and has proved this by leading the current race record holder to the finish in this race.”

“It is very pleasing to see a successful result for a campaign that has involved some of the best people in the Marine Industry working with a fabulous owner and sailing team.”

The unusual weather patterns in the wake of a lurking hurricane meant that RIO was several hours outside the current Barn Door record, but owner and skipper Moshayedi is still pleased with the performance.

“We set out to win this trophy, and did, and it’s not too often that you can achieve these goals in ocean racing,” he said. “The boat and the team were fantastic, and its great to be a part of Transpac history. We look forward to coming back next time and breaking that record.”

Kiwi tactician, Gavin Brady enjoyed the race with one of the largest crews in the event. With 19 people it is not easy to get the mix right and have everybody work well and get on together.

“It sounds like a lot of people, but every one works, and works hard. This is a physical boat and all the effortthat it takes trimming sails requires 8 guys at a time on the handles, so we had to have 19. This makes life on board a challenge, especially after a lot of days and the weather getting warmer each day. But everyone got a long really well, this was a great group of guys.”

Brady was shocked at the amount of garbage and debris evident in the ocean during this year’s race, and at one stage they had to stop the boat and back down to remove a fishing net from the keel.

“There was so much floating debris out there, it’s hard to describe or comprehend,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe because the High was pushed north so we sailed this year into the waters where it is normally, but this is a great tragedy to have so much garbage out there.”

Rio 100 will now return to her home port of Newport Beach, California.