Three Transpac 52s get the green light

Good news for Goetz Custom Boats

Three Bruce Farr designed TransPac 52s are to be built at Goetz Custom Boats in Bristol, Rhode Island over the course of this winter.

All three are well known East Coast teams and two of the yachts will participate in the 2004 Bermuda Race. All three are basically identical yachts with slight differences to suit each team starting with the new Esmeralda then Bright Star and Sjamboc to follow. They are the first East Coast teams to emerge and promise to give the West Coast veterans a run for their money when they meet up at Key West 2005.

"We are very excited this class is starting to fire," said John Boone of Goetz Custom, "the TP52 rule promotes light, stiff, fast well built and highly engineered 52 footers which is in-line with our caliber of yacht construction. The crew of the N/M design Yassou that we built in 2001 say, "they are a blast around the buoys and offshore alike because you get 70ft performance in a 52ft package." Plus the box rule doesn’t exclude any designers, builders and hardware manufactures and that is good for our whole industry."

Bringing the total TP52s built to ten in just a short time the class plans are to meet up in Key West 2005 for their own start after another west coast summer. Rumours have it they all will head south to enjoy the Caribbean circuit after the Pineapple Cup race to Jamaica. Future plans are to have a West & East Coast circuit with a deciding series on the West (Big Boat Series?) & East Coasts (Key West Race Week?) for an annual class champion. There’s also word of a re-vamped Hawaiian series called the Waikiki Offshore Championships. More news to follow on this growing class in the near future.