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  Passage records go a tumblin'—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
 | | Mighty Merloe first multihull to complete the 2017 Transpac © Lauren Easley / leialohacreative.com |
Mother Nature is a squirrelly lady fully capable of taking the best-laid plans and reducing them to ashes, while other times she rewards with handsomely addictive dividends. The 2017 Trasnpac Race was a case of the later, with race records falling, and great stories and huge smiles arriving at the docks in Honolulu as the days slipped astern. All boats have now finished racing, new records were set in the Unlimited and Multi-Hull divisions, and a proud Barn Door Trophy was awarded in lockstep with a great seamanship story.
Three super-fast multi-hulls entered this year's Trasnpac, namely Mighty Merloe, H.L. Enloe's ORMA 60, Maserati, Giovanni Soldini's MOD70, and Phaedo3, Lloyd Thornburg's MOD70, with the two MOD70s, on paper at least, being considerably faster than the shorter, earlier-generation trimaran.
 | | The ORMA60 Mighty Merloe is expected to be the first to finish the 2017 Transpac ahead of several bigger multihulls © Sharon Green / Ultimate Sailing |
Thanks to some brilliant navigation and routing from navigator Artie Means (USA), not to mention an extra gear in the light stuff, Enloe and company, who were lead by Loick Peyron (FRA) and a rock-star crew, ended up crushing both MOD70s and the outright record from Los Angeles to Hawaii, crossing the finishing line 4 days 6 hours 32 min and 30 seconds after starting. This represents an improvement of some 26.5 hours over the previous course record, which was set in 1997 by Bruno Peyron (Loick's older brother) and the Commodore Explorer crew.
The next boat to emerge over the edge of the eastern horizon was Comanche, Jim and Kristy Clark's 100-foot VPLP/Verdier-designed globetrotting maxi, which is skippered by Ken Read (USA) and navigated by Stan Honey (USA), two of the best practitioners of their respective arts on the planet, as well as a fully professional crew with a mind-numbing amount of collective offshore experience.
 | | Comanche first monohull to complete the 2017 Transpac © Lauren Easley / leialohacreative.com |
Comanche crossed the finishing line 5 days 1 hour 55 min and 26 seconds after hearing the starting gun for her division, and her proud pace set a new course record for the Transpac's Elapsed Time Record Trophy (aka, the Clock Trophy), shaving some 12 hours off the previous record, which was set in 2009 by Neville Crichton's Reichel/Pugh 90 Alfa Romeo II. (N.B., both Comanche and Alfa Romeo II use stored energy and are therefore not eligible to compete for the Barn Door Trophy; interestingly, both boats were navigated to their victories by Honey.)
“This was the perfect boat with the perfect crew,” said Read. “We did a lot of work to mode this boat to the lowest safety limits of stability and to minimize the weight wherever possible.'
 | | Comanche first monohull to complete the 2017 Transpac © Lauren Easley / leialohacreative.com |
Meanwhile, a bit further astern was Rio 100, Manouch Moshayedi's Bakewell-White-designed maxi, which captured the Barn Door Trophy for the first monohull to finish the course sans power assistance, dropping a proud finishing-line time of 6 days, 17 hours, 9 minutes and 9 seconds, which included having to stop and fix a hole in the boat after a collision with an unidentified floating (or submerged) object, which destroyed their port rudder and necessitated the emergency repair. Here, the capable crew sliced up a spare water tank and used the plastic from this container to fother their sled, gluing and screwing it in place and adding some smart reinforcements.
 | | RIO 100 crew celebrate in Honolulu after their win of the Barn Door Trophy in the 2017 Transpac © Lauren Easley / leialohacreative.com |
“I credit this great crew for this victory,” said Moshayedi. “Their expertise and seamanship saved both the boat and our chances to repeat last year's win.”
Meanwhile, Mother Nature also relented her grip on the nasty-weather lever in the North Atlantic, allowing singlehanded skipper Francis Joyon, who was returning home to France from The Bridge 2017 aboard Idec Sport, his 105-foot maxi trimaran, to set a new west-to-east Transatlantic Record of 5 days, 2 hours and 7 minutes. Joyon's new passage time (still unratified) is 49 minutes faster than his previous transatlantic record, which he set in 2013.
 | | Francis Joyon at the helm of his maxi-trimaran IDEC Sport during the fully crewed The Bridge 2017 race; Joyon set his new solo record on the return deliver home to France from The Bridge 2017. Jean-Marie Liot / DPPI / IDEC |
Best yet, Joyon's passage put him in France with great news to share just before celebrating Bastille Day.
“I only just did it,” said Joyon. “I was pleased to finish, as over the past 24 hours, it has been very tiring. My autopilots weren't working well, so I had to stay at the helm all the time over the past 24 hours, while carrying out maneuvers in a lot of squalls with the boat slamming into the seas.”
 | | Francis Joyon at the helm of his maxi-trimaran IDEC Sport IDEC Sport |
While Mother Nature might not have cooperated with The Bridge 2017 sailors, as the Queen Mary II ocean liner arrived in New York some two-and-a-half days ahead of the first trimaran (Francois Gabart's [FRA] 30-meter maxi trimaran Macif,), Joyon and Idec Sport were safety ashore in France by the time the Queen Mary II completed her most recent North Atlantic round-trip run.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
Exceptional sailing skills demonstrated in Optimist World Championship
Nima Chandler, 
Among the 16 finalists are last year's team racing champions, the USA; five time trophy holders Singapore; and two time winners Thailand. Other Asians in the top 16 include China, Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The Europeans claimed seven spots with wins by France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, and a runner up slot awarded to Ireland.... [more]
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