Hassle finishing Transpac 2011

On a day in which many recently-finished Transpac crews went off exploring beaches or waterfalls, Yoshihiko Murase rallied up his race crew, delivery crew and friends and cast off Bengal 7's lines for a mission of his own. The last Transpac boat still at sea was inbound, and he wanted to be there to greet Larry Malmberg's Hassle at Diamond Head.

Having brought one Bengal or another all the way from Japan for every race since 2001, Murase knows a thing or two about persistence, and the crew of Hassle had been persisting since their get-go from Point Fermin, San Pedro on the Fourth of July.  Seventeen days.

Do the math on Bengal. It's roughly 5,000 miles from Nagoya, a port city of two million on Japan's Pacific Coast, to the Transpac start line at San Pedro, California. Bengal 7 is now roughly halfway home on this trip after covering (this is very, very rough) 57,500 miles since 2001 in the name of Transpac.

Gotta love it.

There were rain showers aplenty in the morning, coming from the east, so Hassle got the rain first, then Bengal 7. But as things go in at Latitude 21, Longitude 158, everybody was dry by the 1118 HST official finish time for Malmberg's Catalina 38. Murase sailed upwind to a rendezvous point, then downwind alongside . . .

Yoshi Murase escorts Hassle to the Deamond Head buoy

The Hassle crew may not have known they were being serenaded by a ukulele . . .

A musical accompaniment

And this was the moment . . .

Hassle finishes Transpac 2011 as Bengal 7 crew salutes.

Transpac racers rescue not-just-any kayaker in the Molokai Channel


Guy Wilding, in red, with his new Transpac friends. Photo: Twain Newhart

Guy Wilding has been out for a paddle in his 18-foot kayak every day for months, since moving to Honolulu from Sydney, Australia. Today seemed like any other day under the blue skies of the tradewinds until, as luck would have it, his paddle broke. He was dumped into the drink. This wasn't good, but Wilding swam to the kayak and grabbed on. He tried to get in, to rescue, in kayak-speak.  It didn't happen. And there he was. Minutes went by. The tide was outbound, carrying him away from the beach, away from the lovely  island of Oahu, upwind against the oncoming waves, toward oblivion. Without a paddle, he really couldn't do anything about it. His first thought: "I'm in trouble."

An hour went by.

Another hour.

Another.

By hour number four, with the afternoon deepening, you know this was feeling desperate. Guy's wife, Shelley, would surely be worried by now. He really couldn't do anything about that, either.

A sail appeared on the horizon.

As luck would have it, the sail was coming his way.

More time went by. The sail was still coming his way. Guy Wilding did what he could to make himself conspicuous, but it is easy in a seaway to be blocked from view by a wave at what could be the critical moment. Would the people on the sailboat be alert? Would they be looking around them at all?

As luck would have it, yes. They were more than alert, they were keen. The boat was a Swan 441, coming in to finish the 2,225-mile Transpacific Yacht Race, Los Angeles to Honolulu. They had been at sea since July 4. Mary Howard, one of nine in the crew, put it well: "It's a good thing he was wearing red. We were looking for a red buoy."

The Transpac has been finishing at Diamond Head since the 1906 inaugural. The Diamond Head Buoy is red. Randy Alcorn, an ocean kayaker himself, saw something red, but not a buoy. What he saw was "this fellow trying to get into a kayak, and it just wasn't going to work. He was waving. I knew we had a rescue on our hands."

With Transpac sailors required to practice recovering overboards before they start the race, Philip Sauer's team was ready. They dropped the sails - it takes time - and cranked up the motor, with one crew member assigned to the job of never taking an eye off the man in the water. The man who was growing steadily more-distant. When the crew was able to turn back, under power, it still seemed like forever before they were able to reach their man. Then they deployed a Life Sling - SOP - and ran a circle around Guy Wilding, which brought the Sling right to him. "It went by the book," Mary Howard said. Then the crew was able to haul Wilding aboard, only slightly hypothermic and probably, as he assessed it, not needing medical attention. He should know. As luck would have it, Guy Wilding is the kayak coach of the Sprint National Team, which aspires to compete in the 2012 Olympics. He's a big, strong athlete and savvy when it comes to the physio side of the game.

With any other rescue, Wilding could have come quietly ashore, as he would have preferred, thanked his rescuers , and enjoyed a tearful and private reunion with Shelley Wilding, who had missed her husband. She knew he should have returned to his launch point at Hawaii Kai. She had been trying to convince doubting authorities that he must be in danger. But, as luck would have it, Wilding was rescued by a boat racing in a media event, Transpac, the classic race of the Pacific Ocean, and his reunion with Shelley and their young daughter Kali, took place in front of the cameras. Their sobs brought home just how "other" the outcome could have been.

As luck would have it, the boat's name is Second Chance.

And, as luck would have it, the owners of Second Chance, Phil and Sarah Sauer, are joining the Wildings as new residents of Honolulu.

It's a heck of a way to get to know your neighbors.

And as sure as my name is Kimball Livingston, it was one hell of a hug . . .

Photo: Twain Newhart

Kimball Livingston

Gracie brings it home to WYC. Photo: Betsy Crowfoot

Just when we thought we were ready to show some serious aloha-love to the Aloha Division - Eric Gray's Morris 46, Gracie, led most of the way in Transpac 2011 and finished mid-day Monday - in comes Jack Taylor's Horizon to polish off a brilliant win in the SC50 division and raise the question, how do we tell this? Which story is the story?

And then -

It came clear.

Even though they started four days apart, and even though the boat designs are light-years apart, Gracie and Horizon shared a common thread. While much of the competition knifed up and down across latitudes, these two winners sailed about as close to a straight-line course as you could hope for. No, you couldn't call it a classic Transpac year, but Jon "Mr. Horizon" Shampain, from his perspective as navigator, put it this way: "The High was so far north, at 40° or so, that we were on the great circle route for the first 24 hours. Then, as we bore off with the jib top, the code 0, spinnakers, we sailed a pretty classic route. When the breeze went light in the middle, we had to cross north of the rhumb line, but by then it was pretty much over in our class."

Loving that stern scoop, Jack? Photo: Sharon Green

Which just keeps on happening. The short list for Mr. Taylor's SC50 - always with fresh greens from Shampain's garden and zero freeze-drieds - includes division wins in Transpac 2009, Pacific Cup 2010, Cabo 2011 and now this. Footnote: They love the stern scoop. "Now we can talk to each other and hear ourselves," Shampain said. "That's not why we added the scoop - we had no idea it was going to change life in the cockpit - but now we know."

From the Department of Wisdom: Prior to the start, Shampain said, "I get weather from multiple sources. I go to Rich Shema at Weatherguy, and I get Commanders' Weather because that's what the competition uses."

Know thine "enemy."

Jack Taylor, lower right, and Team Horizon Photo: Kimball Livingston

And it doesn't hurt to have a seasoned crew that's not making it up on the spot. This is a family boat, with Taylor's brother Scott aboard and son John. Shampain's son Eric was in the crew for race as well, and let's round that out with Tom O'Keefe, Dan Geissman and Mel Wills, who informs us, "The only thing that broke, in 2,225 miles, was the bottle opener."

Well, if it was going to break, it was going to break on the way to Cabo. Ask the Bella Mente boys.

Two apparent division winners crossed the finish line of the Transpacific Yacht Race yesterday, completing a 2,225-mile crossing, Los Angeles to Honolulu. Only a handful of boats remain on the course from two starts, on July 4 and July 8.

Eric Gray's Morris 46, Gracie, a July 4 starter, crossed the Diamond Head finish line just past noon in an elapsed time of 338:00:13, a 14-day crossing. Gracie was the third finisher in the Aloha Division, where she has led the corrected time standings for a large part of the race.

Jack Taylor's SC50, Horizon, a July 8 starter, arrived mid-afternoon in an elapsed time of 244:59:56, a 10-day crossing. Horizon, a division winner in Transpac 2009 and Pacific Cup 2010, has led six SC50s for most of the race, boat-for-boat and on corrected time. Results do not become official until all the boats are off the course. Other boats in the SC50 fleet have reported problems, but all are continuing on their own to Honolulu. Roy's Chasch Mer reported unspecified issues, Hula Girl has undefined rudder problems, and Deception, running second on corrected time and third boat-for-boat behind Allure, offers the following  . . .

Deception report via navigator Peter Shumar:

"I had just been relieved from watch and was down at the nav station when at 4:15 this morning there was a sudden CRACK! Followed by lots of metallic reverberation in the shrouds. The mast was still up, but something was clearly wrong.

"Bill, MVS and myself sprung up on deck. I thought that either the leward shrouds were gone or the boom was broken, but they were both OK. Moving forward, it was clear that our forestay was missing. It was still attached to the deck, so we were able to fish it out of the water and secure it to the deck for repair in Honolulu.

"Rushing forward, we used our spare halyard as a temporary forestay and added to that our baby stay and chicken stays. Usually this is a race ender, but with the mast secured, we decided to keep sailing for the finish. And sail we did. Fast. One of our fan club told us that according to the yellow brick race tracker, we didn't lose any speed.

"Today I had a chance to go up the mast and survey the damage at the masthead crane. Everything is fine, we're just missing the pin for the forestay and we don't have a spare. After 45 minutes dangling 60 ft in the air with a spinnaker and main up, going 8-14 knots, we had rigged two spare halyards to serve as temporary forestays and free up our jib halyard for the staysail, and our spare halyard in case we need to peel in the upcoming channel."

Just before sundown, PK Edwards' Catalina 42, Wind Dancer, tied up on Transpac Row, with its carbon main and very-senior skipper, and the crew, we can report, made with alacrity for the party tent. Here's Wind Dancer:

Wind Dancer touches down on Transpa Row. Photo:Kimball Livingston

We'll be back on Tuesday with race comments from Gracie's Eric Gray and Horizon's Jon Shampain and whatever else pops up.

Kimball Livingston