Latitude 38 August 2009
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AugustCoverTemplate 7/21/09 9:12 AM Page 1 Latitude 38 VOLUME 386 August 2009 WE GO WHERE THE WIND BLOWS AUGUST 2009 VOLUME 386 TRANSPAC 2009 There's never a guarantee that a race will produce a definitive story; some are just nondescript. They're neither the stretch. slowest, nor the fastest, the biggest, nor "We didn't have a strategy with regard the smallest. But every once in awhile, to oFlash s much as to just be efficient in an edition comes along that's destined to the way we sailed," Kilroy said. "We tried forever hold a place in the race's lore. to minimize our moves and we knew we The 45th TransPac staked a place had to be patient in the first half of the in the latter category. Not only did it race because she was optimized for it, produce a new elapsed time to beat and we weren't." — Neville Crichton's R/P 100 Alfa Ro- Samba, with its more reaching-ori- meo absolutely obliterated the previous ented hull form, was sailing in TP 52 record — but it also produced a new mode, minus the internal ballast. As a doublehanded record — Philippe Kahn result, she weighed almost 1.5 tons less and Mark Christensen took 2.5 days off than Flash, while retaining her oversized the old one — and the first clean sweep IRC kites. in 16 years. "The configuration they chose to race John Kilroy Jr.'s TP 52 Samba Pa in is particularly suited to the first half Tí covered the 2,225-mile course in a of the race," Kilroy said. "We chose to go mind-blowing 7d, 8h, 17m, 11s to win with more of a downwind mode. As the the 'Barn Door' trophy for the naturally race wore on, we knew we'd be able to aspirated boat — i.e. not using powered pull away." sailing systems or moveable ballast "I look at any victory as a team vic- — with the shortest elapsed time, the tory," Kilroy said of his team, which overall corrected time win and the Divi- included navigator Nick White, Bob sion 1 win. Wylie, Robbie Naismith, Justin Ferris, "I remember in the old days sailing Mikey Joubert, longtime boat captain the race as a kid," Kilroy said. "We used Eric Arndt and watch captain Stu Ban- to think that if you could finish in nine natyne — who in addition to being fresh days, that was incredible, and everybody off winning the Volvo Ocean Race aboard had the dream that someday eight would Ericsson 4, had put together the crew for be possible . It's funny to think that Alfa Romeo. "We've all sailed together a 52-ft boat is the third boat to arrive in as a team, for a long time. These are all Hawaii." seriously good sailors. We're all really In the 2007 edition, Samba was good friends and we all know each other's locked in a tight race across the Pacific capabilities." with the kids on Morning Light. This year, That continuity was probably the one they sailed the first six days of the race thing Flash lacked. A late-starting proj- Chip Megeath's 'Criminal Mischief' blasts by ect, the boat was the Diamond Head buoy. configured with conventionally-ballasted monohull in the a heavier bulb, race. deeper keel fin "I never imagined that we'd have been and square-top in striking distance for so long, or that main, not just for we'd do this well," Akin said. TransPac, but for Overall winner of the '06 Pacific Cup an inshore series aboard his SC 52 Lightning with Flash of races in the project manager Jeff Thorpe — who navi- coming year. gated Chip Megeath's Division 3-win- T h e c r e w , ning R/P 45 Criminal Mischief this year which included — Akin may have been pleased with both Paul Cayard, his the TP 52 and his crew's performance, son Danny and but the difference in accommodations daughter Allie, was a little less appealing. Jay Crum and "I spent the race looking for a crea- his son Joe, Will ture comfort," he joked. "Not creature Paxton, Hogan comforts, just a creature comfort." John Kilroy Jr.'s (left) 'Samba Pa Tí ' sailed to a clean sweep, winning the Barn Beatie, Paul Al- Another key difference between the Door for the fastest elapsed time for a conventionally-ballasted boat, plus len, Skip McCor- two efforts was crew numbers. In 2007 division and overall wins with the help of Watch Captain Stu Bannatyne. mack and Akin, Samba sailed with 10, the same number in lock-step with another TP 52, Tom was plenty long on talent but short on that Flash sailed with this year. But this Akin's Bay Area-based Flash. Although time together. Yet Akin was nontheless time Samba sailed with only eight. Samba led Flash boat-for-boat the entire pleased with sFlash' second overall, "It basically boils down to how many way, the latter held a corrected-time lead second in Division 1 and having one of people you need to jibe the boat," Ban- of about two hours during that six-day the top-10 fastest elapsed times for a natyne said. "With the bowsprit instead Page 88 • Latitude 38 • August, 2009 — THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS ALL PHOTOS LATITUDE / ROB UNLESS NOTED rig to a new TransPac record of 5d, 14h, 36m, 20s. To put that in perspective, the existing record, set by Hasso Platner's MaxZ 86 Morning Glory in 2005 was just over a day slower! Although 2005 was not a very fast year — the write-up in Lati- tude said, "Imagine if there had actually been any wind" — we never expected to see Alfa break the record by such a large margin. In fact, the boat's time was so fast, there was a chance up until very late in their race, that Alfa could also break the multihull record set in 1999 by Bruno Peyron's Commodore Explorer at 5d, 9h, 14m, 36m, 20s. For Alfa and the rest of the June 5 starters, the weather could have been of the pole, eight is pretty much all you TransPac, navigator Stan Honey, who's better, but not by much. need." sailed the race 15 times, said, "About "The race had the nice property that three days before the race started." it never had a slow day," Honey said. The crowd that had assembled at In fact, Alfa set a new daily-run record When asked at what point he first Waikiki YC for sAlfa' post-race press on the race's second day, surpassing thought Alfa Romeo had a chance at conference just laughed. Morning Glory's 2005 mark of 393 miles, setting a new elapsed-time record for But knowing even just a fraction of the by an additional seven miles. And they content of Honey's sailing resume means didn't stop there, posting a string of 400- you know how many records the guy has 420-431-391-mile days. Compared to broken, and we don't doubt him. Divisions 3-7 which had all started with After all, he had just navigated the the high squarely in their path, the big silver-hulled sliver with the 145-ft tall boats had a much more direct course. Peter Tong's 'OEX' crew sailed the SC 70 hard enough to do this to their vang ram. TRANSPAC 2009 "It wasn’t a particularly northerly race," Honey said. "Relative to the earlier starters it was, but relative to history it was kind of medium. We crossed 130°W at 28°N and I’ve crossed it as far north as 30°N before." In addition to Honey and Crichton, the Alfa crew was like a who's who of the professional sailing world. In addition to three-time Olympic Gold Medallist Ben Ainslie, there were a handful of the guys, including Dave Endean and Tony Mutter — with whom Honey had won the Volvo Ocean Race in 2005-2006 aboard ABN- AMRO 1 — who had just finished winning this year's Volvo aboard Ericsson 4 before jumping on a plane to make the start. "Compared to a Volvo, the TransPac is a walk in the park," Honey said. "It’s got to be one of the most pleasant races in the world. It’s one of the few races in sailing where you enjoy it during the race, as opposed to most races where you enjoy having done it. It's definitely not a Hobart or a Fastnet, where you’re thinking, 'Why am I here?'" WWW.ULTIMATESAILING.COM It was the second TransPac for Crich- ton. His first came in the dreadfully slow 1979 race, when it took his two-tonner Aun I Mara 14 days to make the cross- ing. This time around, he went to work trying to get some of the other big maxis SHARON GREEN / to come play too. We asked the now- Australia-based Kiwi — who had previ- Tom Holthus' J/145 'Bad Pak' smokin' toward a sunrise finish off Diamond Head. ously spent nine years living in Hawaii couple other people’s minds. The circuit in only 7d, 18h, 38m, 35s. But it wasn't — if there were any other super maxis for these boats is really in the Med. But without some serious issues. Just before interested in the race. it’s one of the great races. We thought the start, the electrical system that cants “There was interest," he said.