VOLUME 458 August 2015 WE GO WHERE THE WIND BLOWS 48th TRANSPAC (INTERIM REPORT) — As we go to press July 28, the fi nal standings of the 2015 Transpac are still evolving. What follows is our interim The fastest boat that the North Pa- Back in 2011, when Zanville report, but please also see our compre- cifi c has ever seen, the maxi-trimaran raced his Santa Cruz 37 Celerity hensive recap next month. Lending Club 2, took one look at the in that year's Transpac, the team's forecast for their Saturday, July 18, start chances of glory were quashed by and bailed on the race three days early, their taking the most northerly The 48th edition of the Transpac thus hooking into one of the tropical low route of any fl eet member, com- race from Los Angeles to Honolulu — the pressures to slingshot out of California bined with suffering a bowsprit West Coast's most famous ocean race and set a new outright course record that failure immediately after hoisting — may go down in the annals of yacht the A2 spinnaker. But Celerity racing as one of the most fascinating and soldiered on to fi nish near the back unique ocean races of all time. of her division in that disappoint- When the most impressive and awe- Mother Nature intervened ing race. inspiring fl eet of racing yachts ever as- and helped to chalk one up This year, Celerity came back for sembled on the West Coast showed up for the little guys. redemption. As luck would have it, to battle on their route to Hawaii — and she was in the fi rst group of start- hopefully break some course records ers and fared well in the weather along the way — Mother Nature inter- will likely stand for many years to come. lottery that often defi nes the race. vened and helped to chalk one up for The rest of the Saturday starters, in- Always at or near the front of the the little guys. Although this race is cluding an unprecedented trio of 100-ft pack, Celerity battled with Paul normally defi ned by a stationary area super-maxi monohulls entered in Divi- Stemler's J/44 Patriot and Tracy of high pressure and the accompanying sion 1 — Wild Oats XI, Ragamuffi n 100 Obert's custom 59-ft ketch Marjorie northeasterly-to-easterly tradewinds and Rio100 — departed Long Beach amid for much of the race, and, with a that comfortably and quickly push the rain and lightning. On the topside of a bowsprit that held together this fl eet to Hawaii, the 2015 edition will second depression, the fl eet rocketed out time, reveled in the downwind surf- always be remembered as the year that of California with spinnakers up before ing conditions for which designer a psyched-up fl eet sailed during a con- weak trades and a hole in the middle of Tim Kernan had penned her. fi rmed Super El Niño occurrence and the course pushed them far north of the Sailing between .5 and 2.5 knots saw very atypical conditions as a result. rhumbline — out of record-breaking ter- of boatspeed faster than most of Punctuated by ultra-warm waters in ritory and into the Pacifi c Garbage Patch, the fl eet in the later stages of the the Northeast Pacifi c that allowed two where some reported "shocking amounts race, Celerity played her hand mas- tropical depressions to work their way of rubbish." terfully and continually moved up north and position themselves just south With the big boys' chances at making the leaderboard when it mattered of the racecourse, the 2015 Transpac Transpac race history being thwarted most. Making a subtle move to the was anything but normal. However, in by El Niño, and the Thursday (July 16) north and calling the one-and-in a sport whose 'playing fi eld' seems to be starters, such as the Santa Cruz 50s and port jibe layline perfectly from ap- increasingly affected by climate change, 52s, drifting off the coast in the wake proximately 500 miles out, Celerity weird weather is starting to seem like the of a depression for more than a day, was lit up and pointed directly at new normal. an unlikely scenario unfolded in this the barn while her rivals had to jibe star-studded race that allowed the little back to lay the fi nish, sealing the Coming out of L.A. on July 13, Harry Zanville's guys to steal the show. While all eyes deal for the often-underappreciated Santa Cruz 37 'Celerity' accelerates toward the were on the 100-footers and their pro- SC37 design, which has now quietly far-distant island of Oahu on July 13. fessional crews in managed to win a Coastal Cup overall hopes that a record and a Transpac division. would fall, it was Harry Zanville's San Diego-based I n a sport often dominated by 37-ft racer/cruiser ultra-high-dollar big boat programs full Celerity — crewed of professionals, stories like Celerity’s by amateurs with group of amateurs on a modest vessel a dream — that staying true to a dream is what inspires sailed masterfully many to fi eld their own campaigns, and down the course come back time and again to continue to cross the fin- to chase that dream. While Celerity may ish line fi rst, win- have secured line honors and a victory in ning her division, Division 7, the dream of overall honors and leading the shifted to the sleds in Division 2 as we standings over- were going to press, with too many boats all for most of the still on the course to declare an overall race until the 70-ft winner. sleds took over the In our comprehensive report next top spots. month, we'll have much more on overall honors, post-race reactions, stories of SHARON GREEN / ULTIMATE SAILING SHARON GREEN / ULTIMATE IS WEIRD WEATHER THE NEW NORMAL? trio of 100-ft super-maxis competing in Transpac 2015 were all sailing with the Offshore, hope of breaking a record. Australian the breeze fi lled boats Wild Oats XI and Ragamuffi n 100, from behind and both canting-keeled Sydney-Hobart sent all of the icons, had been intent on breaking Alfa big boats rock- Romeo II's monohull race record. (She's eting west at a a sistership of Oats.) And Rio100, the rapid pace to- new California-based super-maxi, was ward a complex hoping to set a new fi xed-keel Barn Door scenario of high record, currently held by the R/P 74 pressure and Bella Mente (racing this year as Wizard.) light breeze in With the fl eet pushed far to the north, the middle of the the trio of 100-footers all fi nished outside course, a direct record territory. result of the two Even in the decidedly suboptimal tropical lows conditions through much of the middle that wrote the of the racetrack, the famous Australian script for this super-maxi Wild Oats XI burned up the year's race. course in 6d, 10h, 37m, some 20 hours All three Gun- off record pace. Not fast enough for the boats chose the history books, but enough to secure both most extreme the Merlin Trophy for fastest elapsed northerly op- tion available to stay in pres- A hole pushed them sure. Sailing on a track that's far north of the rhumbline about as un- and into the Pacifi c conventional as her lime-green Garbage Patch. paint job, Pat Benz's radically time and the Division 1 victory for owner upgraded GB66, Robert Oatley and charterer Roy P. Dis- Extreme H2O, ney, who brought along his seasoned was fi rst to fi n- Pyewacket crew to sail alongside some ish in Division of Oats' regulars. 0. Just before Manouch Moshayedi's fixed-keel, this issue went Bakewell-White-designed Rio100 scooted to press, Lloyd to Diamond Head in 7d, 5h, 34m to se- Thornburg’s cure second in class and the prestigious SHARON GREEN / ULTIMATE SAILING SHARON GREEN / ULTIMATE GB66 sistership Barn Door Trophy for the fastest fi xed- Phaedo fi nished Bob Oatley's 100-ft maxi 'Wild Oats XI' won the but did not correct out over Extreme, Happy Gunboaters. The crew of 'Extreme H2O' Merlin Trophy for charterer Roy Pat Disney and which is a modifi ed and faster-rated celebrates being the fi rst multihull to fi nish at Hawaii Yacht Club. a crew of 'Oats' and 'Pyewacket' sailors. boat. the sea, and fl eet breakdowns — this Special mention story is still developing as our printer has to go out to mul- shouts, "Roll the presses!" tihull fanatic Thorn- burg, who scored the Division 0 fastest elapsed time With Lending Club 2's withdrawal and a division win in from Transpac, Division 0 became an last month's Trans- arms race among a trio of Gunboats. atlantic Race aboard Sailing their own start (July 18), the his MOD70 trimaran three tricked-out Morrelli & Melvin Phaedo3 and in the 'cruising' catamarans left in the decid- same month compet- edly atypical conditions that defined ed in the Transpac on Saturday's big-boat start. The remnants his Gunboat catama- of Hurricane Dolores saw the fl eet leave ran. That's defi nitely in warm, muggy and wet conditions our kind of weird. with occasional thunderstorms and even lightning later in the day — conditions Division 1 nearly unheard of in Southern California Like Lending Club in July. 2, the unprecedented YC JEREMY LEONARD / TRANSPAC August, 2015 • Latitude 38 • Page 73 48th TRANSPAC (INTERIM REPORT) — keel monohull on elapsed time.