Adrenalin pumping at 2nd Transpac start

by Rich Roberts on 13 Jul 2007 Splashing and crashing, charging and barging and the oompah of a tuba wafting on a brisk breeze under sunny skies set the tone for a rambunctious second start to the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Thursday.

With 12 knots of fresh wind gusting to 14, Adrenalin was pumping. That's the name of David Clark's Santa Cruz 50 from Newport Beach that protested Sean Doyle's 1D35, On the Edge of Destiny, with Transpac's youngest crew ever. The pre-start protest---possibly for barging---will be sorted out after the two boats reach Waikiki in a couple of weeks or less, but a fair guess is that Destiny tried to squeeze in from behind the committee boat without right of way---'barging' in sailboat racing terminology.

If so, Destiny wasn't the only one. Although the line was set square to a due-west wind, presenting a cleaner shot from the pin end to the west end of Santa Catalina Island to the left, most boats chose to start at the committee boat end of the line.

'It looked like the whole fleet was coming right at us,' said a race committee member. 'There was tremendous barging going on.'

Several boats did 360-degree turns, apparently not for penalties but because they couldn't find room to get through the gridlock of what looked like West Los Angeles' 405 freeway at rush hour.

One collision was heard amid the chaos, but it probably wasn't between Adrenalin and Destiny.

Two boats started late. Richard Mainland's Ross 40, Paddy Wagon, blew out its mainsail before the start and returned to port to replace it, while James and Chris Gilmore's Columbia 30, Uncontrollable Urge, had an engine problem. They restarted together an hour late.

The tuba? The Minnow, a Catana 52 catamaran sailed doublehanded by brothers Mike and Bob Webster of Pryor, Okla., is one of only two multihulls in the race. It was named for the boat in Gilligan's Island, which says something about the offbeat attitude of its owners, who are new to sailing and consider racing as just a more enjoyable way to cruise the world, whether the wind blows or not.

'We don't worry about that,' Mike Webster said. 'The wind blows when it blows.'

The Minnow was started alone 10 minutes after the monohulls, with Mike puffing heartily on his horn as they crossed the line. Bob would have made it a duet, but somebody had to steer.

Mike said, 'We got [the tubas] a few years ago to play on top of Mt. Harvard in Colorado'---and for the starts of great ocean races.

This is their first, although they sailed their first cat across the Atlantic to France last year to buy this one, which they sailed back across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal.

The other multihull---H.L. Enloe's Jeanneau 60 trimaran, LoeReal, from El Paso, Tex.---will start Sunday 10 minutes after the Division 1, 2 and 3 boats, including marquee competitors Pyewacket, Magnitude 80, Rosebud and Morning Light.

Meanwhile, out at sea, Monday's 23 starters found some encouraging wind after a depressing couple of days and were making up to 7 knots. Although they gained less distance southwest toward Hawaii, boats that went south, led by Simon Garland's Hobie 33, Peregrine, in Division 6 and Ross Pearlman's Jeanneau 52, Between the Sheets, in Aloha A, appeared to have gained leverage on the others as they continued south while rivals lifted west more directly toward their destination.

Who made the best calls will become clearer in the next few days.

More information: www.transpacificyc.org