Transpac - Team Crusader starts after bowsprit and power issues

by Josh Tucker on 18 Jul 2015 Team Crusader is gearing up for the Transpac race with their division starting at 1pm Friday.

The Elliott 35S has had a few hurdles to overcome with a broken carbon forestay and damaged bowsprit to replace. A new rod forestay and bowsprit were sent up from NZ and fitted over the last few days.

The bowsprit won't be able to retract for this race which will affect upwind performance. A huge power cut to most of Long Beach made life even harder with limited shops and services open for the pre race preparation and no Internet or charging for our navigation and weather updates.

Zero power to our hotel since yesterday afternoon meant packing bags under torchlight.

The weather is looking very interesting with a cyclone approaching from the south and set to cross the course in a few days. A call needs to be made to either head south and chase the cyclone for a slingshot to Hawaii or stay north in the more settled lighter trade winds. The fleet has until Catalina island to make this call when you are likely to see a split develop between the boats. It's a real navigators race.

The crew consists of the same six guys that have been campaigning the boat for a number or years. Owner and skipper Anthony Leigh, navigator Chris Maddock, mainsheet trimmer Josh Tucker, trimmer James Glidden, pitman and boat captain Brett Elliott and Nick Bastow as team manager and running the fore deck.

Plenty of offshore experience in the team and one crew member having previously completed a transpac race before.

You can follow the race on the Tracker