Morning Light-Samba Pa Ti –Transpac Match Race

by Rich Roberts on 22 Jul 2007 All this year Roy E. Disney's young Morning Light sailors have been trained not only how to race their Transpac 52 in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii but how to prepare it and, if necessary, repair it as well. The only thing they weren't trained for was what they've found themselves in the last couple of days: a match race way out there in the Pacific Ocean.

'I have heard people talk about sailing side by side other boats in the middle of the Transpac,' messaged Piet van Os, who is co-navigator with Chris Branning, 'but I never imagined match racing Samba Pa Ti.'

At times the two boats have been as close as three boat lengths apart, otherwise alone in the vastness of the largest ocean, an unlikely bout between Morning Light's ocean-racing rookies and John Kilroy's partly professional team on Samba Pa Ti, also a TP52.

Meanwhile, Disney, ashore in Honolulu, also was tracking the other unfolding drama of Pyewacket chasing down the only six boats still in front of his 94-foot super boat. All started three to six days earlier, and Pyewacket is virtually assured of the Barn Door for the fastest elapsed time. But finishing first, regardless of a head start, rates high in bragging rights in the beachfront bars along Waikiki.

The latest ETAs said that Pyewacket, with Disney's son Roy Pat Disney and Gregg Hedrick as co-skippers, would finish sometime after sunup Sunday, but it may not be alone. Shortly after Saturday morning's roll call position reports, calculations placed it 36.9 hours from the finish.

Chip Megeath's Kokopelli 2, a Santa Cruz 52 from Tiburon, Calif., was nearer the finish than any of the 69 boats still racing---four have dropped out---with 392 nautical miles to go, 34.4 hours out. Tom Garnier's Reinrag2, a J/125, was 454 miles and 38.8 hours out.

Reinrag2, first in Division 4, remains the leader for first place overall on corrected handicap time. Only three boats, all in Division 1, surpassed its 24-hour run of 273 nautical miles in the latest report. Pyewacket did 344.

Pyewacket, reported to be sailing at 19.2 knots later Saturday morning, was expected to pass the other four boats well before the finish, but Kokopelli 2 and Reinrag2 could be close.

Morning Light, with a crew ages 18 to 23, had its own hands full.

Van Os, 23, of La Jolla, Calif., and a senior at the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, said, 'All the training in the past six months is all coming together as we race neck and neck with one of the best TP52 teams in the race. I have always wanted to race Transpac since I was very young and heard the stories of my grandfather winning in '61.'

His grandfather, A.B. Robbs Jr., sailed Nam Sang to first place overall on corrected handicap time in 1961, but Grandpa never told any Transpac tales like van Os has experienced.

'The first four days of the race were nothing like anything Transpac vets told us about---upwind in variable winds,' van Os said. 'We started the race with the southern route in mind and sailed the first 20 hours racing south. After looking at the weather some more we decided that there was a chance for us to minimize miles while sailing in the same amount of breeze as the southern route would have, [so] we headed north. The only comfort we had was that the rest of the boats on the northern route had the same or less breeze.

'Eventually the wind built and with it came the morale. We were off on port tack heading to the cold front we were expecting. We sailed into it enough to get the 40-degree right shift, a 10-knot breeze increase and heavy rain. After sailing through it we were able to crack off and start heading towards Hawaii. On day four we were able to finally set a kite and, in our minds, the Transpac race had started.

'Day five brought the first sighting of a competitor since the start. Samba Pa Ti was behind us and working toward us. We sailed in sight of Samba for more than 24 hours, pushing the boat as hard as we could. At 4 a.m. on the 20th we were just five boat lengths [apart] in an all-out drag race in the middle of the Pacific. We knew that Samba would be one of the hardest 52s to beat in the race, and to be right alongside of them after over 1,000 miles of racing was an accomplishment in itself.

'Friday we split a bit as we pushed a little harder south. At 6 p.m. I went on deck to talk with the watch and saw our friend Samba Pa Ti taking our stern about a mile and a half away.'

Samba Pa Ti owes Morning Light about 1 1/2 hours in handicap time. The latter is slightly heavier, not counting cinematographer Rick Deppe, who is performing no crew tasks while filming the activity for the documentary theater film to follow.

'As for the movie side of things,' van Os said, 'Rick has tried to capture the everyday life onboard. I'm no cinematographer, but this morning when the sun was rising astern of Samba Pa Ti just three boat lengths on our stern, it had to be an amazing shot! [Escort vessel] Cheyenne was also there just ahead of us catching all the action. It had to be a funny shot if anyone else could have seen it . . . Cheyenne, Morning Light, and then Samba Pa Ti all in a line at 6 a.m. with the sun rising in the background all in the middle of the Pacific.'

Transblogs from the boats
Locomotion (Sticko Seco?): Water, water everywhere . . . and only a few drops to drink. Our water rationing plan took a bit of a hit early this morning when it was discovered that six of our remaining 30 gallons of fresh water onboard had leaked out of the bottom of the plastic jerry can that was sail-tied to the starboard pedestal. We now have to cut back to only 1.5 quarts of water per man per day, to cover the possibility of an 11-day trip. That possibility seems less likely as we have stepped into some nice northeasterly breeze these past 24 hours, with good likelihood of much the same all the way into the Kaiwi Channel.

The above solemn news was offset by the simultaneous good news of reaching the true northeast trade winds. Other than the obvious defining wind direction and strength, one can also count on these telltale signs that your craft has reached the trades:

1. Flying fish become noticeably larger.
2. Albatross begin to hang around the boat.
3. The water color turns to what your correspondent refers to as 'Elizabeth Taylor eyes.'

Pegasus 101 (Philippe Kahn): Ouch! We just got a big net. It's wrapped all around our leeward rudder. We lost half of our boat speed. We have a plan: we’re going to use a mainsail batten as a tool. To get to the net, we will put full cant on the keel, I will drive the boat dead downwind giving us windward heel and allowing the rudder to get out of the water. Richard will climb over the side and untangle the net. In the last 24 hours, despite being 'swallowed' by a net and getting stuck a couple of times behind windless, squally clouds, we still managed to sail 249 nautical miles, most of those in the direction of the Diamond Head lighthouse.

Reinrag2: Wonderful sail today. Some sun, some squalls, great wind and Reinrag^2 doing her thing. A bit more wind than the models predicted for today . . . hope it lasts. We're hoping to see the moon tonight as we crash along in some nice big seas. The mood on board is high (as always) but there is a creeping bit of tension as we get closer to the final goal and we're all very into seeing it through. Good night all. Getting hard to write while surfing at 17 knots.

Denali (Bill McKinley): We reached the half-way point in terms of time and mileage. We made this estimation earlier in the day so we planned around it and had our half-way dinner tonight at 8 p.m. A great grilled chicken and pasta dinner from Gladstone's in Long Beach.


More information: www.transpacificyc.org

Transpac 2007 standings
(By corrected handicap time. ORR rating allowances in parentheses in days:hours:minutes:seconds based on handicap distance of