Pyewacket starts minus Disney in Transpac 2007

by Rich Roberts on 16 Jul 2007
It was as if Roy E. Disney's 11th-hour decision to step off Pyewacket sucked the air right out of the final start of the 44th biennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Sunday.

A few hours after his news flashed around the docks at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, the fleet met balmy southeast zephyrs of only 3 to 4 knots off the Point Fermin start line in San Pedro that left the high-powered racers gasping for air. With what little wind there was coming from 170 on the compass and the west end of Santa Catalina Island to the right at 215, all 23 boats quickly tacked to port after the gun.

That tactical move also allowed them to avoid a flock of spectator power boats that had intruded well inside the starboard tack course, apparently unaware that sailboats don't sail directly upwind.

Disney, unfortunately, won't be sailing at all in what would have been his 16th Transpac.

'I just decided to let the younger guys do it,' Disney, 77, said Sunday morning, 'and I'm making a movie, anyway.'

The reference was not only to his regular crew---plus, for this race, New Zealand America's Cup skipper Dean Barker---on the powered-up Pyewacket but his team of young sailors ages 18 to 23 sailing the Transpac 52 Morning Light, a documentary movie tale in the making of dedicated youth at work.

'It's been on my mind for several days,' Disney said, expressing concern about trying to follow Morning Light's progress and sail Pyewacket at the same time. 'I've been apprehensive about it, and when you're worried maybe it's not the smart thing to do.'

A Pyewacket spokesperson indicated that Disney's son Roy Pat Disney is now co-skipper with Disney's longtime boat manager, Gregg Hedrick.

'It's very sad,' said the younger Disney, who also filled in for his dad 10 years ago when Roy E. broke a leg before the race and that earlier Pyewacket broke Merlin's 20-year-old record.

'With these kids he has a lot on his mind. He was just going to feel too isolated.'

Meanwhile, Roy Pat said with a smile, 'This makes me the senior with 17 [Transpacs].'

Disney will fly to Hawaii Tuesday to await the arrival of both boats.

Sunday's starters also included Pyewacket's strongest threat, Doug Baker's Magnitude 80, and Philippe Kahn sailing his new Pegasus 101 doublehanded with Richard Clarke. Mag 80 enjoyed a better start to windward of Pyewacket, which soon slid out from underneath and was gone, light as it was.

Pegasus 101, an Open 50 that prefers big breeze, struggled in the rear.

Sunday morning's position reports also were grim news for the boats already at sea following their starts Monday and Thursday. Saturday's upbeat reports of 24-hour runs up to 250 nautical miles at speeds up to 11 knots slipped a bit to 236 tops by Jack Taylor's Horizon, a Santa Cruz 50 from Dana Point, Calif. that averaged 9.8 knots for the day.

But there also were encouraging words Sunday from Steve Calhoun's Cal 40 Psyche from Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.

'We really are in the trade winds now,' Calhoun e-mailed. 'Wind is coming from the NE, gusting to 18 knots! We love the trade winds. We decided yesterday evening while sipping our box wine during happy hour that we were tired of going south. So while [Don Grind's rival Cal 40] Far Far sailed cold, we sailed hot. Far Far is going south, south. They are the farthest boat south. We say, let's stop fiddling around and head for Hawaii. Naturally, we are second guessing this decision . . . but everyone else in the fleet is north of us. The early west-makers (Brown Sugar, X-Dream) are laying a HUGE egg; the others look pretty good.'

Earlier, Kahn's race blog (www.pegasus.com/log.htm) posted before the start read: 'Now it's a bit of a game of chicken. There are two tropical depressions active in the eastern Pacific. Both of these systems are forecast to strengthen into tropical storms in the next 24 hours. So now, does anyone have the guts to go south and catch a little lift from the big ones? This is going to be one interesting race.'

More information: www.transpacificyc.org

Transpac 2007 entries (Standings by corrected handicap time. ORR rating allowances in parentheses in days:hours:minutes:seconds based on handicap distance of 2,300 n.m.; subtract time allowance from actual elapsed time to determine corrected handicap time)

Division 1 (Started July 15)
Pyewacket (Reichel/Pugh 90), Roy E. Disney, Burbank, Calif. (minus-21 hours, 9 minutes, 13 seconds)
Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach, Calif. (00:4:32:33)
Rosebud (STP 65), Roger Sturgeon, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (1:04:09:36)
Peligroso (Kernan 70), Mike Campbell/Dale Williams, Long Beach (1:05:17:12)
Medicine Man (Andrews 63), Bob Lane, Long Beach (1:07:02:37)

Division 2 (Started July 15)
Hugo Boss (Volvo 60), Andy Tourell, Gosport, UK (1:23:10:32)
DH-Pegasus 101 (Open 50), Philippe Kahn/Richard Clarke, Honolulu (2:00:47:54)
Samba Pa Ti (Transpac 52), John Kilroy Jr., Los Angeles (2:04:02:17)
Lucky (Transpac 52), Bryon Ehrhart, Chicago (2:05:26:28)
Morning Light (Transpac 52), Jeremy Wilmot, Honolulu (2:05:27:19)
Westerly (Santa Cruz 70), Thomas and Timothy Hogan, Newport Beach (2:06:06:45)
Skylark (Santa Cruz 70), Doug Ayres, Newport Beach, Calif. (2:06:24:05)
Holua (Santa Cruz 70), Brack Duker, Pasadena, Calif. (2:08:51:12)
Trader (Transpac 52), Fred Detwiler, Pompano Beach, Fla. (2:09:31:32)

Division 3 (Started July 15)
Denali (Nelson/Marek 70), William McKinley, Grosse Pointe, Mich. (2:13:37:33)
It's OK (Andrews 50), Tres Gordo Sailing, Glendora, Calif. (2:14:25:31)
Cheetah (ULDB 70), Chris Slagerman, Los Angeles (2:18:18:28)
Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, Encino, Calif. (2:19:54:52)
Yumehyotan (Nelson/Marek 68), Yasuo Sano, Osaka, Japan (2:22:57:25)
Ragtime (Spencer 65), Chris Welsh, Newport Beach 2:23:51:49)
Bengal 7 (Ohashi 46), Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya, Japan (3:03:43:16)
Locomotion (Andrews 45), Ed Feo, Long Beach (3:03:56:13)

Division 4 (Started July 12)
1. Bolt (Nelson/Marek 55), Craig Reynolds, Newport Beach (4:00:24:09), 1,730 miles to go.
2. Delicate Balance (Andrews 56), DBB Transpac LLC, San Rafael, Calif. (3:20:58:21), 1,727.
3. Raincloud (J/48), Lorenzo Berho Corona, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (3:22:26:21), 1,731.
4. Lucky Dog (J/125), Colin Shanner, San Diego (3:21:37:33), 1,742.
5. Verizon Wireless (ex-Stealth Chicken; Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (3:08:33:34), 1,737.
6. Reinrag2 (J/125), Tom Garnier, Wilsonville, Ore. (3:22:20:02), 1,770. 7. Cipango (Andrews 56), Bob & Rob Barton, Santa Rosa, Calif. (3:16:51:29), 1,785.
8. Ruahatú (Concordia 47), Ricardo Brockmann, Acapulco, Mexico (3:23:58:37),,817.

DID NOT START--The Secret (MacGregor 65), Cheryle Rayson/Garry Golding, Salisbury Downs, Australia (3:21:57:52).

Division 50/52 (Started July 12)
1. Adrenalin (Santa Cruz 50), David Clark, Newport Beach (3:19:43:59), 1,711.
2. Relentless (Santa Cruz 52), Will Durant/Rick Brizendine, Long Beach (3:16:42:19), 1,723.
3. Hula Girl (Santa Cruz 50T), Beau Gayner, Newport Beach (3:17:23:38), 1,733.
4. Kokopelli 2 (Santa Cruz 52), S.A. (Chip) Megeath, Tiburon, Calif. (3:03:55:25), 1,725.
5. Tachyon III (Santa Cruz 52), Kazumasa Nishioka, Tokyo (3:18:57:36), 1,780.
6. Passion (Santa Cruz 50), Steve Hastings, Corpus Christi, Tex. (3:20:35:39), 1,784.
7. Horizon (Santa Cruz 50), Jack Taylor, Dana Point, Calif. (4:00:14:46), 1,794.
8. Fortaleza (Santa Cruz 50), Jim Morgan, Long Beach (4:00:12:42), 1,800.
9. Stags' Leap Winery (ex-Chasch Mer; Santa Cruz 50), Gib Black, Honolulu (4:05:22:35), 1,852.

Division 5 (Started July 12)
1. Tabasco (1D35), Gary Fanger, San Francisco (5:02:01:10), 1,799.
2. Tower (Lidgard 45), Doug Grant, San Pedro, Calif. (4:10:51:22), 1,781.
3. Rancho Deluxe (Swan 4