It’s been tempting to follow all of the preparation of Zvi for this year’s Transpac. The race from LA to Honolulu is already underway for several classes, and on Saturday the “really” fast boat in divisions 1-4 are starting.
If you want to follow this race, the Transpac website is great as is the tracking (though it’s delayed 4 hours)
Many on Puget Sound will recognize the Reichel Pugh 55, it spent years here as Crossfire. Earlier this year, Alan Lubner bought the boat with the purpose in mind of doing the Hawaii races. Some crew carried over from the Crossfire days, including Nigel Barron. Nigel, sales and marketing manager for CSR Marine, managed an extensive refit and tuneup to make Zvi (gazelle in Hebrew) competitive in the ultra competitive fleet.
And Nigel’s famous:
Preparation in included a 230 mile offshore passage out the Strait of Juan de Fuca and back to qualify for the race. Turns out their choice of time gave them an all-night beat with a J4 jib and reefed main. Quite a way to clear the cobwebs.
One of my fellow brokers at Swiftsure Yachts, Ken Monaghan, was not only involved in the sale of the boat, but helped deliver it down the coast for this race. And he had the honor of recording the high speed – 26 knots – as Zvi flew down the coast under jib and small delivery main. See here:
So, while SOME of us WISH we were flying downwind to Hawaii, we CAN follow along. Zvi is the lowest rated boat in Class 2. Check out the Transpac page. It will be interesting to watch how she fares against the other three boats in her class, all significantly longer.
Of course Zvi isn’t the only PNW boat in the race. There’s Mark Omilian’s TP 52 Sonic, which will also be starting on Saturday. And while Andy Schwenk no longer calls the PNW home, we’ll be rooting for him in the Express 37 Spindrift V. They’ve started and he’s doing very well, thank you very much.
Please let me know of boats or sailors I’m missing as I try to cover things over the next week and a half.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.