Transpac 2013

[Bee]

Most of you know I am a bit crazy, a bit nasty at times, and always willing to take chances but the attached picture is of the J105 Creative.  She is now on her way from LA to Honolulu.

[Bee]

Even as crazy as I am I don't think I would try this, but she has a crew of 4 and supposedly enough freeze dried food to make the trip.  She is carrying a code 0 and a mast head spinnaker.  Rest of the boats in her division are 40+ footers include a R/P 44.

Picture courtesy of Keith Magnussen of Ullman Sails Newport Beach.

[Charles]

Average 6kts= 15.5 days.  8kts=11.5 days.  10kts=9.3days..  No thanks.

[Bee]

At the moment Creative appears to be averaging about 7.3 knots.  Going to take a while.

[Bee]

Average speed as of 7/13/2013 is 8.1.  Not bad but still along way from Honolulu.

[Charles]

Average speed as of 7/13/2013 is 8.1.  Not bad but still along way from Honolulu.

Where are you seeing the info?  Also, 8 kts = 11 days! OOF!

[Bee]

Tracker is here:

http://yb.tl/transpac2013

Daily standings are here:

http://www.transpacyc.com/current-race-honolulu-2013/standings

Creative is currently in 4th place in class but average is down to 7.6 knots

Hope they have enough vittles and yes 11 days is a hell of a long time to be out in the middle of the Pacific.

Looks like the winds are on the nose.  Not good for a 105.  I can see a 109 or maybe a 111 doing this but
not a 105.  Even though a 105 crossed the Atlantic single handed and did quite well I still would not want to do anything like that on one.

This has given me second thoughts about actually doing the race to the border in a couple years.  Might be interesting.

Our former crew and good old friend Keith Magnussen is on WC Warrior in Div 4.  Warrior is in 5th place.  Warrior is a J125 formerly owned by Dr. Laura.  See Kmags write up on SA.  I am sure this will change rapidly, but Creative is 34th overall and Warrior is 44th overall.

[B_K]

Bee,

11 days is not as bad as one might expect, as long as the crew gets along real well.  You get into a routine of the watches and days click by pretty fast.  You are busy or asleep.   Supposedly, you burn between 3,500 and 5,500 chalories per day.  I know I lost about 15 -20 lbs on the trip and we ate like kings.  Very interesting to be below, having non-sailing discussions with your crewmates and you don't notice the boat gently rolling as she surfs down waves at 12 - 14 knots.  It was like being in my livingroom with friends just hanging out.  It is an effort, but well worth it.  I highly recommend it for everybodys bucket list.

[edthemainsailguy]

there's not a lot of down below on a 105...and you'll notice gently surfing down the waves at 13-14...just sayin'

[ShakenNotStirred]

More room on a 105 than on a Hobie 33 I would imagine. 

[Bee]

I wouldn't mind trying it and I agree it should be one my bucket list but the amount of time left to do the bucket list grows shorter by the minute.

I think I would prefer doing it on a J125 like Keith is doing.  BTW, they have finally picked up speed and are flying along in the 12-15 knot speed range as we text.  Winds for them are around 20. As of this morning Creative is still 4th in class but loosing ground to the bigger boats.  Division 4 seems to be in fairly light air.

One can certainly organize the space down below on a 105 to have enough room for 4 for a race this long, but 6 would be just a bit much.  I really liked the idea of freeze dried food.  Going to investigate getting some of that kind of stuff for the HMR.  The mast head kite should make a big difference if the wind allows carrying it.

From my perspective the problem with doing it on a 105 is that you are either killing the other boats in your class because you can plane in 22+ knots or your a sitting duck and their waterlines just kill you.  When we won the Commordore's cup we beat Parrot Tales because a Norther blew in and we flew into PA averaging 10-12+ with lots of 16+ runs for the last 60 nm.  We got lucky when the wind died because BC found a 14 knot wind line that took us right up to the finish at 8+. Had that Norther not come in Parrot Tales would have certainly taken the trophy.

[Bee]

J105 Creative:

Currently 5th in class 54th overall.  Now doing a sterling 5.8knots.  That really sounds like fun

WC Warrior: (Keith Magnussen's ride)

Had spun up to second in class about 1 hour behind leader.  Apparently has hit something big that's taken a chunk out of her keel.  Cannot get up on plane and has a lot of vibration when boat hits 8+knots. 

Interesting race:

Phaedo dismasted
WC Warrior chunk out of keel,
76' tri had damage to central hull and one of the ormas as well as electrical issues.  Its still charging along at 24 knots.
Several notices of telephone poles and other such stuff along the way.

Seems like there are some pretty big pieces of junk in the Pacific.  Now how did that get there?  Couldn't have been man made could it?  Maybe the tsunami?

[B_K]

Lots of junk out there.  Always sleep with feet forward!

[ChrisK]

A great read on the winner of the 2013 Transpac and its future racing plans.
Old school is still fast!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/sports/77-years-later-yacht-repeats-win-in-transpacific-race.html

[Keith]

I wouldn't mind trying it and I agree it should be one my bucket list but the amount of time left to do the bucket list grows shorter by the minute.

I think I would prefer doing it on a J125 like Keith is doing.  BTW, they have finally picked up speed and are flying along in the 12-15 knot speed range as we text.  Winds for them are around 20. As of this morning Creative is still 4th in class but loosing ground to the bigger boats.  Division 4 seems to be in fairly light air.

One can certainly organize the space down below on a 105 to have enough room for 4 for a race this long, but 6 would be just a bit much.  I really liked the idea of freeze dried food.  Going to investigate getting some of that kind of stuff for the HMR.  The mast head kite should make a big difference if the wind allows carrying it.

From my perspective the problem with doing it on a 105 is that you are either killing the other boats in your class because you can plane in 22+ knots or your a sitting duck and their waterlines just kill you.  When we won the Commordore's cup we beat Parrot Tales because a Norther blew in and we flew into PA averaging 10-12+ with lots of 16+ runs for the last 60 nm.  We got lucky when the wind died because BC found a 14 knot wind line that took us right up to the finish at 8+. Had that Norther not come in Parrot Tales would have certainly taken the trophy.

Hi Bee and thanks for following....

We had taken up a southern positron on most of the fleet and seemed to be getting into better wind than the boats north.  They had a better Distance to Finish but as the race panned out the Southern Boats were looking better. 

We started making our move as the wind came on and were into second in class ahead of the other 125 that was North of us so we felt good.  We started to see squalls very early.. before the 1/2 mark.  Best moment was being in a 30kt+ squall with the 4A and full main pumping along at a contestant 18kts and peaking at 22.7..  Greg, the owner, finally looked back at me driving and asked how long it would last... I said hopefully all the way to Hawaii!  Probably one of the darkest squalls I have seen and it lasted a good 45 minutes.. I was exhausted after driving through it as concentration needs to be 100%.

Next night is where it all went bad.  I woke up to the other shift complaining that there was a vibration and we were slow..  We backed down the boat at about 4am... hard thing to do with big wind and waves and 1200 miles from land.  This did not help to much and during the day I assessed the boat with undertaker cameras and could not find much wrong other than the fact we were slow.  Had a guy in the water check the bottom and we found a little bit of what appeared to be damage on the rudder..  The keel damage was a small bit of fairing that came off.

Eventually we discovered the bearing in the rudder had popped up about 3"... sails down, emergency rudder on, quadrant off and bearing back down.  Boat was again fast and wet.  Fast forward 5 hours when I came back on shift.. the boat was dry and I looked around and said. "It broke again right?"  We knew it was broken when the deck was dry.. it transforms from a J-125 to a J-120.. no planing.

Now the collar of the bearing popped up...Same process as before... sails down etc.. collar down but boat still broken.  This is when I got this video of the rudder disturbance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuHHbOhubiU&feature=c4-overview&list=UU7xWMTYKWTIVVufVd6kzzcQ

The vibration this disturbance created was scary.  The entire boat would shake and sleeping was hard as you could feel it in your bunk.. no problem though only 1000 miles left!  I emailed the designer of the rudder and he assured me it would not fail.. so we sailed the boat J-120 style for the last 1000 miles.. still beat one boat in our class and were only a few hours away from others.. not bad after back downs, sails off, and sailing slow for a while..

All in all another great voyage of adventure.  It is a long race but hey thats why we do it!