Transpac – The Cone aims for Molokai

by Rob Kothe on 26 Jul 2005 The smallest boat in the 43rd Transpac Race, the little Super 30 The Cone of Silence is pushing towards the Hawaii as the Australian crew dream of a white-knuckle ride through the Molokai Channel.

The lightweight Reichel Pugh is a down wind flier and she struggled out of Long Beach, hurting in the soft reaching conditions but since last Friday she has sailed right through the Division III fleet coming from last on the water and last on handicap to first on the water and second on handicap in four blistering days.

She’s reeled off 255 nautical miles on Friday, 246 on Saturday and 263 on Sunday to lead Division III on the water and was second this morning on handicap behind Tom Garnier’s 41 foot J125.

At 5:30PDT this morning (10:30pm Monday in her home town Sydney Australia) she was 273 miles east of Diamond Head, with her red asymmetric spinnaker powering her westward at a steady 11+ knots, as she zig zags under the rhumbline ahead of the 50+ footers in her division.

Last night skipper Jamie Neill reported by satellite phone to Sail-World USA.

‘We’ve sailed a long way, but we last night we kept reminding ourselves we had a Mooloolaba race to go, (a 471 nm. Australian Coastal race) from the finish, so we are really focusing.

‘Last night we went out to right and picked up a little shift and crossed a lot of bigger boats coming back. Then we went right again. We think we might have a few mile advantage, but it will only take a wind shift to wipe that out. We are very sure it’s a lot closer than the skeds might show at this stage.

‘We figure the southern (right) side is more favoured, but we are doing a mixture of staying on the side of the shift, while trying to keep in contact with the fleet. We are expecting to cross back into the fleet in the next hour or so and we will know then how we are going.

'It’s been a funny race, not trade wind sailing at all, screaming down waves, instead just 10 knots in a choppy little sea.

'It’s probably been more stressful; sailing in light conditions, need to constantly trim the spinnaker. It’s been too light to suffer any sail damage, but our wind/speed instruments have all quit, we just have the GPS/compass.

‘We just wish we could get enough breeze to really get flying. We wanna get white knuckles before this race is over. ‘We just keeping dreaming about the Molokai Channel in 25 knots’

Latest news: Not a good day overall, she still leads Divsion III on line honours, but has fallen back in the pack on handicap. Her worst day since she began her run, only 216 miles. At 12:30 PDT (0530 AEST) she was still more than 200 miles from the finish and travelling at less than 10 knots.

Low orbit satellites are polling the Argos transceiver on The Cone’s stern rail every 30 minutes. The full data string is then downloaded to the French ground station and transmitted to Sail-World USA.

http://www.sail-world.com/yachttracker.cfm?SEID=71


Todays Radio sked

Division III (Started July 15)


1. Reinrag2 (J/125), Tom Garnier, Portland, Ore. (90:15:09), 270.

2. The Cone of Silence (Super 30), Jamie and Jenny Neill, Sydney, Australia (83:69:39), 254.

3. Cipango (Andrews 56), Bob & Rob Barton, San Francisco (84:08:21), 271.

4. Stealth Chicken (Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (80:52:12), 266.

5. Bolt (Nelson/Marek 55), Craig Reynolds, Newport Beach, Calif. (90:16:35), 338.

6. Artemis (Andrews 53), Louis Bianco, Seattle (90:58:29), 352.

7. Chasch Mer (S/C 50), Gib Black, Honolulu (95:31:20), 414.

8. Jeito (J/145), Francisco Guzman, Acapulco, Mexico (86:10:42), 374.

9. Blue (J/160), Ken and /Cheryl Sears, Nashville, Tenn. (93:03:17), 421.

10. Innocent Merriment (J/160), Myron Lyon, San Diego (91:10:54), 431.

11. DH-Serena (T1150), David Kuettel/Dave Van Houten, Bel Marin, Calif. (84:32:16), 439.

12. Barking Spider 3 (MacGregor 65), David Kory, Concord, Calif. (74:38:45), 427.

13. Dasher (S/C 50), Roger Groh, Sausalito, Calif. (89:38:24), 686.