Transpac Update – Hamachi, Longboard and a Dramatic Rescue

The full story has yet to be told, but the bottom line early in this year’s Transpac Race is that the crew of the SC 70 OEX was rescued by Roy Disney and company aboard Pyewacket. All are safely back on shore, and OEX is apparently still afloat. Rudder post damage was the culprit.

It seems a breezy race so far, judging from the updates from the PNW’s own Hamachi crew. Here’s the latest “Half Way” report:

Well, we don’t know if its EXACTLY half way but we have 1250nm to go and it seemed like a good excuse for a party (not that Team Hamachi ever
needs an excuse to party). We gathered on the back patio to contemplate
the race so far and pass our flask, which quickly devolved into a YMCA
dance party with the drone circling the boat, all while doing 15-16 kts.
 Our objectives going into the race were: 1) be safe, 2) have fun, and
3) win.  So far we are doing well in all three categories. Taking stock
half way, here are some thoughts:

– Best Moment(s): Sailing away from our closest competition

– Crew Lowlight(s): Too many body fluids and damp socks in a small
cramped cabin

Things We Have Plenty Of:
– Food: The weight Nazis will cringe knowing we went to sea with four
days of frozen food and enough snacks for 12 days. There was a calculus
of carrying more weight on the reach to keep the crew happy and sailing
fast versus taking every last ounce our of the boat. Despite this extra
weight we’ve had amazing boat speed.
– Dude Wipes: Great marketing on someone’s part. We can sail fast
confident that our “dude parts” will stay clean to the finish.
– Boat Speed: Of the four J/125’s, we are the only one with six crew.
Despite this extra weight, and all of our frozen food, we seem to have
great boat speed. In the last 24 hours Hamachi has covered 294nm.

Things We Need More Of:
– Purell: clearly we should have thought this one through.  We left
with a small half empty container.  Definitely need more of that.
– Hot Cocoa: The key to a fast boat is a well-fueled crew.  We have
plenty of Starbucks Via but need more cocoa for our mochas.
– Ventilation: use your imagination
– Boat Speed: While we’ve got a lot, you can always have more…

Speed Records:
Starboard Watch: 18.8kts (Matt Pistay)
Port Watch: 18.6kts (Jason Andrews)

– Kudos:
1) David Rogers has been crushing it as our Lieutenant Ohura. It was
rough going (literally and figuratively) in the first 24 hours as he was
making up for a sick crew member and doing all of the boat data
collection and navigating.  Over the past few days he’s stepped up the
game and built tools to track the fleet, our performance and answer
everyone’s questions.
2) The Cooks: We are four days in and still eating frozen gourmet food.
Thank you Janet, Marian (and Jason) for doing all the cooking!

Are We There Yet?
The days are blowing by and we are a little shocked its already half
way.  Normally its a 10-11 day race for a J/125 but this year we are on
track to finish in around 8 days.

Up Next:
Sleep. Eat. Sail Fast. Repeat.

Hamachi is currently leading Division 3 and they covered 313 miles in the last 24 hours. Oh my.

We’re also keeping track of Peter Salusbury’s Longboard. They are not, repeat NOT humming along. Oh, they’re going fast enough, covering 281 miles in the last 24 hours, just not “humming.” Here’s the story. Designer Paul Bieker helped deliver the boat to California and was extremely bothered by a hum/howl noise that emanated from the keel when Longboard was going fast. Bieker reports “I couldn’t stand the idea of them doing Transpac with that so I rented two tanks when we hit the dock and spent ~2 ½ hours rasping/sanding the keel trailing edge.  It was a pretty funny scene that no one could see – a lot of it was spent straddling the bulb as I worked – like Slim Pickens in Dr Strangelove.  My shoulders were sore for a week after the effort.  I didn’t give it a big chance of working 100% but I thought it was likely to help some.

And here’s skipper Peter Salusbury’s note to Paul from the Pacific as Longboard hit her stride:

Hey Paul – it’s amazing!  NO KEEL HUM AT ALL!!!!!!!

We are proposing to the Prime Minister to make you an Honorary Canadian and be awarded the Order of Canada. 

We are going real fast today – the boat is lit up and we are confident we will reel in some boats by the end of the week.  Slow start as our small waterline length was a real issue against all the huge waterlines in our division.  But it’s Longboard time now so we are making the best of it!

Thanks for all your hard work fixing the keel – can’t believe we didn’t do that sooner.

We’ll keep watching. If you want to, check out the tracker yourself.