Transpac 52 - an owner's perspective

We speak to Bright Star owner Richard Breeden about why he bought his new boat

Richard Breeden, former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to President George Bush Senior and now Corporate Monitor overseeing the case of WorldCom, the largest case of corporate fraud in US history, by coincidence is also owner of the new Farr Yacht Design Transpac 52 Bright Star.

For the last three seasons Breeden has campaigned his Reichel Pugh 78 sled, also called Bright Star. In 2001 he sailed this boat to Europe and took part in the America's Cup 150th anniversary regatta as well as the Rolex Fastnet Race, but living in Connecticut, his boats are usually based on the East Coast.

Before getting the sled Breeden campaigned a Nelson-Marek 46 under IMS. "Yes. I AM SLOW racing," he recounts. "So the 78 was a big jump in size and I wanted to get back down to something I could sail in offshore events like the Bermuda Race and the Fastnet Race. I looked for a boat big enough to do offshore events and was good around the buoys. The Farr 40 we felt wasn’t big enough for the offshore races we wanted to do and we felt this [the Transpac 52] offered enough offshore potential, plus speed."

The Transpac 52 rule has also allowed him to put his own personal stamp on his boat. "One Design racing is great, but it takes all the choice away from the owner, whereas the box rule is the ideal situation because it gives you level racing, but we can make certain changes to the boat - we have more of a nav station than the other boats have - and you can do small amounts of customising, you can pick your own builder and own designer, so it feels like my boat and not just a widget."

So how did Breeden get interested in the Transpac 52? "I’ve wanted to get out of IMS for some time, because I felt the handicap wasn’t accurate and the system wasn’t at all attractive. So we’d been thinking about an alternative. I waited for about a year to see if there was going to be a new handicap rule and then I decided I was tired of waiting and this class was there and once I saw a chance of level racing with high performance and offshore capability - that for me was perfect. Then last summer when I found out about Esmeralda three of us got together to build what are identical designs but with some differencies on the interior of the boats. Away we went…"

Breeden's yachting background is similar to a lot of the other new Transpac 52 owners. Like Breeden Trader owner Fred Detwiler used to have a sled (an Andrews 70), Sjambok's owner Mike Brennan previously raced an OD48, while Esmeralda's Japanese owner Makoto Uematsu has campaigned a number of IMS boats as has Beau Geste's Hong Kong-based owner Karl Kwok.

On the dock in Newport last Saturday Breeden had just completed the second race of the New York Yacht Club's Annual Regatta and his second race ever on his new Bright Star. He was all grins. "Today was one of the best day’s racing I’ve had in the last 3-4 years: it was close around every mark, very tactical…The first time you catch a puff you feel the thing just leap forward - they have tremendous acceleration."

Breeden says that the performance of the Transpac 52 particularly appealed to him. After racing under the IMS for many seasons he was entirely sold on a rule that avoids any constraints intended to slow the boats down. "Boat racing for me should be about making boats go fast. You get a lot of classes where you can have close racing, but my own preference is for boats that go down the course fast. Fast is fun. With this you have ripping speed and it is very interesting…downwind with our other boat [the 78] the difference between heating it up and dialling down is about a 10-15 degree window. With these boats heat it up but 4 degrees and the thing just takes off. It is more like a 50ft skiff..."

In the 8-10 knot wind on Saturday Breeden says they were sailing downwind at 145deg true, while the previous day in the round Jamestown Island race in conditions that were lighter still they were heating it up to 130deg TWA. "We were just ripping past Carrera and the Farr 60s and the bigger heavier boats."

While they sail relatively big angles downwind, the new Farr designs also go well upwind, despite the Transpac 52 name implying they are solely sled-style downhill racers. "We are pointing just fine against some of the top IMS boats on the East Coast. People suggest that the upwind performance of the boats is worse than it is, but I haven’t seen a problem there."

It is easy to imagine that the performance of first and second generation West Coast boats to have marked differences to the new generation East Coast boats. So far this hasn't proved to be the case. " Lightwave was the old Alta Vita, a West Coast boat and she’s now a Newport boat owned by Dave Ford and she beat us just fine in the race we just finished. And Rosebud, who was second today, was one of the first generation boats. So far we haven’t seen that the first generation boats aren’t fully competitive."

Breeden says that he likes the simplicity of the Transpac 52, the fact that for example there are no running backstays, while at the same time the boat is very quick.

In Newport at the weekend the Transpac 52 owners had their first meeting. Top of the agenda was their schedule. Four Transpac 52s are sailing in today's Newport-Bermuda race, among them Bright Star. "It is not going to be comfortable," Breedon predicts. "There is not a lot of interior volume because of the low freeboard, so it won’t be my most comfortable ride to Bermuda, but it should be a good test for the boat."

Following this six or seven Transpac 52s are entered in the Chicago-Mackinnac race and possibly as many as nine may take part in the San Francisco Big Boat series.

For 2005 Key West and Pineapple Cup are scheduled and beyond that there is a desire among some owners, Breeden included, to bring their boats to Europe. "Four or five of us are thinking of coming to Europe for the Fastnet next year and we’d certainly love to see that development.

"I did the Fastnet in 2001 and loved the race. We didn’t do as well as we’d have liked so we’d like to come do it again. But if the class decide that because it is the 100th anniversary of the Transpac race next year and everyone is going to go and do that, we’ll probably go with everyone else. But I think we have a number of owners who are thinking of going [transatlantic], because we also have the 100th anniversary of the TransAtlantic race too. While we’re not eligible to be in that race [because it has a 70ft minimum LOA] it might be good to take it over and sail it in the events after that."

Breedon shies away from the notion of the Transpac 52 being a 'Grand Prix' boat. "I don’t like that word. I think 'Grand Prix' has a lot of bad connotations. I think if you had a fleet in the Med they could choose to do it differently, but I like the owner-driver rule. I’ve always driven my own boats. I’m used to racing against Coutts and Reed and those kind of guys, but I’d prefer to drive against other owners or Cat1 people. If I had my preference I'd say 'if the owner’s on the boat, then the owner has to drive.'"

In short, the Transpac 52 class seems to have at least one satisfied customer.

More photos on the following pages...