Thursday, July 2, 2009

Transpac Report

1600 PST - July 1, 2009

In Division 6, Relentless, the One-Design 35 being doublehanded by Tim Fuller and Erik Shampain, remains out in the lead and J World is closing in on them. Relentless has slowed to 3.9 knots while J World and the rest of the Division 7 boats are cruising along at 5.3 to 6.7 knots.

The boats headed south. Relentless is the furthest north and west within the Division and Bloodhound, the other double-handed boat in the division, is furthest to the south and east.

In Division 7, which includes the boats in the Aloha Class, Charisma, the 57-foot Sparkman & Stephens design, being raced boy Alejandro Perez Calzada from Spain is in the lead. They are the furthest to the north and west of all of the boats that took off during Monday's first start. After two days of sailing they are nearly 2,050 nautical miles from the finish off of Diamond Head in Hawaii. They are nearly 100 miles ahead of the tall ship, Lynx, which is pulling up the rear of the fleet.

On shore at Transpac Pier in Rainbow Harbor, navigators seem less perplexed with the weather pattern that has developed in the two days since the first group of boats departed. The winds are light across the board on the racetrack.

Nineteen boats comprising Divisions 3,4 and 5 start on Thursday, July 2nd at 1300 off of Point Fermin. Five Santa Cruz 50's, including hull #1, ROY's Chasch Mer, constitute Division 5. Half of the boats in Division 4 are Santa Cruz 52's. Reinrag2, the overall winner on corrected time for the 2007 Transpac, is also in Division 4. Division 3's entries include two Japanese and one Mexican boat and Bruce Anderson's comfortable and fast, Free Range Chicken.

Tracking information reported by Ionearth is delayed by 4 hours.

Stay tuned to www.TranspacRace.com for news of about the Division 6 and Division 7 boats that started to head south after their start on Monday, for weather updates and for news of the Division 3,5 and 5 start scheduled to take place on July 2 at 1300 off of Point Fermin.