Victory for Rosebud

Rich Roberts reports on the battle of the TP52s at the end of the centennial Transpac

"I think they probably won," Philippe Kahn said after sailing his new Pegasus past the Diamond Head finish line far ahead - but not quite far enough ahead - of Sturgeon's three-year-old Rosebud in the final battle between Transpac 52s for the King Kalakaua Trophy in the Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race. "They did a good job," Kahn added.

Pegasus finished at 11:14 p.m. HST Monday night and Rosebud followed at 2:25 a.m. Tuesday with 39 minutes to spare on the 3 hours 50 minutes Pegasus owed her in corrected handicap time as an older generation member of the TP 52 class.

"I didn't know if we'd won until we crossed the finish line," Sturgeon said. "We didn't know when [ Pegasus] finished. We were blasting all out up to 23 knots off Molokai. The winds were over 25 with gusts to 30."

So Transpac's big winners duplicated last year's Newport-Bermuda Race when Hasso Plattner's maxZ86 Morning Glory was first to finish in record time, as it won the Barn Door here, and Rosebud won overall - the latter a rare double in America's premier ocean races believed to be last achieved by Dorade in the 1930s.

Rosebud, whose home port is Santa Cruz, Calif., said the contest "was for the most part like leapfrog," although he thought the daily position reports were often misleading.

"You have to think of the angles," he said. "All the way you're trying to beat somebody you can't even see."

Kahn, who switched to a TP52 after winning the Barn Door with a bigger boat the last two years, said, "It was a tough race from a competition standpoint when you don't know who wins [at the end]. But these boats are fun to sail. It's more of a sailing challenge. The handicapping is tricky. We're all right with it, but to put [almost] four hours on an almost identical boat is difficult."

Both boats spent the last few days before their start in Long Beach's Rainbow Harbor, the new mainland home for Transpac.

Kahn told a Transpac official, "The send-off in Long Beach was fantastic. You guys ought to start the race right off Long Beach."

For years the race has started 13 miles away off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, offshore from Donald Trump's golf course reconstruction project.

Meanwhile Australia's The Cone of Silence, the smallest of 75 boats in the race, reeled off some of the largest daily mileage numbers over the final week - 223, 210, 255, 246, 263, 216 - and finished well ahead of everybody in Division III Tuesday, but it wasn't quite enough to eclipse Reinrag2 on handicap time.

The Garnier family's J/125 from Portland, Ore., finished about 2½ hours later to easily save the six hours owed by Jamie Neill's Down Under flyer, which wound up second overall. It was the third division win in four years for Reinrag2.

Davis Pillsbury, 67, had said this would be his last Transpac, and after three days his beloved Cal 40 Ralphie had a two-mile lead on that venerable fleet and a shot at beating the entire 75-boat fleet on handicap time. Then, on crew member Don Jesberg's advice, it made a left turn and went its own way south and, day by day, slipped from second to third to fourth.

"Davis thought I was nuts," Jesberg said. "[He said,] 'What have we done? I've spent all this money and time to do this right and you have us 80 miles south of everybody in fourth place.' " Jesberg described that day as "distraught."

But the next day, the northern boats ran out of wind and bailed south, falling into line behind the boat from Colorado, and - shazam! - Ralphie was back in first place and running away.

What happened, Jesberg said, was that the others had bet on sailing a shorter Great Circle Route north of the rhumb (direct) line to Hawaii through what appeared to be a "fractured" high-pressure area, which soon became bad news.

"As our group caved south we flattened our course out," Jesberg said. "All we needed to do was stay between them and Hawaii."


If you take five sailors with disabilities racing a 40ft boat to Hawaii with one able-bodied skipper, subtract one crew member the day before the start and another soon after and you have B'Quest, the Challenged America entry from San Diego.

Jeff Reinhold, a paraplegic, didn't go because of an infected elbow and it was too late to replace him. Urban Miyares, the organisation's blind co-founder with multiple ailments, soon became so violently seasick that he tore his esophagus. "For 10 days I wasn't part of the crew," he said.

Jim Halverson, who is missing a leg, said, "He was a stowaway." And Halverson cracked a rib falling out of his bunk one night.

Miyares said, "I couldn't eat or swallow a drink of water for about five days. Even now I can't take a handful of pills, I have to take one at a time, and I have about 90 pills I take in a day. My role was not to become a medical emergency."

That left Halverson, Kevin Wixom - also one-legged - and one-armed Scott Meide to carry on with skipper Josh Ross, and somehow, this remarkable group of men finished fourth boat for boat and on corrected time among eight competitors in Division IV.

Miyares saw one benefit of the experience. "They found out what the two most difficult positions on the boat are," he said. "Foredeck and galley. I had some wonderful meals planned, too."

Standings
(At 8 a.m. PDT Tuesday in order of corrected handicap time; total handicap time allowances in parentheses by hours/minutes/seconds; actual nautical miles to go for boats still racing listed last.)

Division I (Started July 17)

1. Morning Glory (R/P maxZ86), Hasso Plattner, Kiel, Germany (0:00:00), elapsed time 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds (betters record of 7:11:41:27 by Pyewacket 3, 1999), corrected time 6:16:04:11.
2. Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach, (9:44:58), ET 7:03:02:57, CT 6:07:17:59.
3. Pyewacket (R/P maxZ86), Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles (0:00:00), ET 6:18:32:25, CT 6:18:32:25.
4. Scout Spirit (R/P 77), Bill Turpin, Newport Beach, Calif. (32:21:35), ET 8:05:29:53, CT 6:21:08:18.
5. Genuine Risk (Dubois 90), Randall Pittman, La Jolla, Calif. (0.00:23), 6:22:02:35, CT 6:22:02:12.
5. Windquest (R/P maxZ86), Dick & Doug DeVos, Holland, Mich. (6:51:07), ET 7:05:58:03, CT 6:23:06:56.
7. Beecom (Reichel/Pugh 72), Isao Mita, Yokohama, Japan (30:16:07), ET 8:07:15:12, CT 7:00:59:05.

Division II (Started July 17)

1. Rosebud (Transpac 52), Roger Sturgeon, San Francisco (55:39:59), 8:16:25:04, CT 6:08:45:05.
2. Pegasus 52 (Transpac 52), Philippe Kahn, Honolulu (51:49:29), ET 8:13:14:13, CT 6:09:24:44.
3. Trader (Transpac 52), Fred Detwiler, Pompano Beach, Fla. (52:18:39), ET 8:18:07:25, CT 6:13:48:46.
4. Skylark (S/C 70), Doug Ayres, Newport Beach (52:18:53), 159 miles to go.
5. Coruba (N/M 68), Rob and Suzanne Fleming, Seattle (57:52:37), 68.
6. Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Long Beach (45:59:58), ET 8:13:49:45, CT 6:15:49:47.
7. Mongoose (Santa Cruz 70), Bradley Thorson, Bellevue, Wash. (57:38:37), 97.
8. Ragtime (Spencer 66), Peterson/Richards/Welsh, Honolulu (69:08:37), 217.
9. Braveheart (Transpac 52), Charles Burnet, Seattle (55:23:53), 100.
10. Merlin (Lee 68), Patricia Steele, Maui, H.I. (41:54:03), 57.
11. Bengal 2 (Ohashi 52), Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya, Japan (64:07:15), 356.
12. Renegade (Andrews 70), Dan Sinclair, Vancouver, B.C. (40:03:46), 174.
13. Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, Encino, Calif. (65:20:10), RETIRED.

Division III (Started July 15)

1. Reinrag2 (J/125), Tom Garnier, Portland, Ore. (90:15:09), 41.
2. The Cone of Silence (Super 30), Jamie and Jenny Neill, Sydney, Australia (83:59:39), 3.
3. Cipango (Andrews 56), Bob & Rob Barton, San Francisco (84:08:21), 48.
4. Stealth Chicken (Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (80:52:12), 39.
5. Bolt (Nelson/Marek 55), Craig Reynolds, Newport Beach, Calif. (90:16:35), 124.
6. Artemis (Andrews 53), Louis Bianco, Seattle (90:58:29), 138.
7. Jeito (J/145), Francisco Guzman, Acapulco, Mexico (86:10:42), 159.
8. Blue (J/160), Ken and /Cheryl Sears, Nashville, Tenn. (93:03:17), 224.
9. Innocent Merriment (J/160), Myron Lyon, San Diego (91:10:54), 213.
10. DH-Serena (T1150), David Kuettel/Dave Van Houten, Bel Marin, Calif. (84:32:16), 251.
11. Barking Spider 3 (MacGregor 65), David Kory, Concord, Calif. (74:38:45), 220.
13. Dasher (S/C 50), Roger Groh, Sausalito, Calif. (89:38:24), 548.
Chasch Mer (S/C 50), Gib Black, Honolulu (95:31:20), NO REPORT.

Division IV (Started July 15)

1. Tabasco (1D35), Alamitos Bay Syndicate, Long Beach. (115:31:05), 187.
2. Wild Impulse (J/120), Larry Barels, Santa Barbara, Calif. (122:19:04), 359.
3. Sensation (1D35), Rodney Hagebols, San Francisco. (115:11:28), 326.
4. Kahoots (Andrews 43), Kerry Deaver/Bob Williamson, Newport Beach (119:24:28), 368.
5. Pursuit (Custom 48), Norman and Rosemary Dawley, Solomons, Md. (121:2:04), 386.
6. Uproarious (Olson 40), Robert Bussard, San Diego. (123:41:45), 463.
DH-Two Guys On the Edge (1D35), Dan Doyle, Kailua, H.I. (114:54:33), NO REPORT.

Division V (Started July 11)

1. DH-Soap Opera (Hobie 33), Scott Self/Nigel Brown, Rockwall, Tex. (141:56:43), ET 13:01:10:45, CT 7:03:14:02.
2. Brown Sugar (Express 37), Steve Brown, Santa Ana, Calif. (141:30:59), ET 13:08:39:23, CT 7:13:08:24.
3. Super Gnat (Beneteau First 40.7), Cliff Thompson, San Diego (132:16:04), ET 13:03:58:12, CT 7:15:42:08.
4. B'Quest (Tripp 40), Challenged America, San Diego (136:41:18), ET 13:13:31:50, CT 7:20:50:32.
5. Showdown (IMX 38), Pete Meade/Mike Luna/ Paul McDonald, Irvine, Calif. (136:02:44), ET 13:15:35:32, CT 7:23:32:48.
6. DH-Diablo (J/35), Reed Bernhard/Brian VanderZanden, Anacortes, Wash. (150:24:54), ET 14:10:37:34, CT 8:04:12:40.
7. Iataia (Beneteau First 40.7), Marcos Rodriguez, Acapulco, Mexico (133:59:14), ET 14:01:48:04. CT 8:11:48:50.
8. DH-Jacaré (J/35), Jeff Young/Rich Blackman, San Diego (148:46:04), 51.

Cal 40 (Started July 11)

1. Ralphie (Cal 40), Davis Pillsbury, Woody Creek, Colo. (165:37:14), ET 13:12:59:05, CT 6:15:21:51.
2. Illusion (Cal 40), Sally Honey, Palo Alto, Calif. (167:07:37), ET 14:00:13:20, CT 7:01:05:43.
3. Psyche (Cal 40), Steve Calhoun, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. (166:05:17), ET 13:23:22:27, CT 7:01:17:10.
4. Seafire (Cal 40), John Harrison, Honolulu. (168:13:35), ET 14:03:03:11, CT 7:02:49:36.
5. Far Far (Cal 40), Don Grind, Naples, Fla. (164:53:27), ET 14:00:27:35, CT 7:03:34:08.
6. Shaman (Cal 40), Steve Waterloo, Alameda, Calif. (166:13:50), ET 14:02:58:57, CT 7:04:45:07.
7. Callisto (Cal 40), Jim Eddy, Glendale, Calif. (164:44:47), ET 14:02:28:58, CT 7:05:44:11.
8. Radiant (Cal 40), Fin Beven, Pasadena, Calif. (164:09:20), ET 14:03:19:25, CT 7:07:10:05.
9. Dancing Bear (Cal 40), Mark Schrader, Sitka, Alaska. (165:01:55), ET 14:06:00:35, CT 7:08:58:40.
10. Azure (Cal 40), Rodney Pimentel, Alameda, Calif. (165:50:20), ET 14:09:13:09, CT 7:11:22:49.
11. Willow Wind (Cal 40), Wendy Siegal, Sunset Beach, Calif. (166:28:31), ET 14:11:57:10, CT 7:13:28:39.
12. Spectre (Cal 40), Lee Rogge, Seattle. (165:13:28), ET 14:16:37:40, CT 7:19:24:12.
13. Bubala (Cal 40), Lloyd Sellinger, Newport Beach. (168:51:37), 162.
14. California Girl (Cal 40), Don and Betty Lessley, Richmond, Calif. (163:20:29), RETIRED.

Aloha A (Started July 11)

1. Between the Sheets (Jeanneau 52), Ross Pearlman, Marina del Rey, Calif., ET 12:12:22:08, CT 7:06:08:51.
2. Odyssey (58' yawl), Audrey Steele Burnand, Newport Beach, ET 12:15:10:48, CT 7:06:17:01.
3. Plan B (Peterson 48), David Johnson, Long Beach, ET 12:16:52:51, CT 7:09:45:32.
4. Madrina (Cabo Rico 56), Dick Simon, Dana Point, Calif. (124:52:04), ET 13:02:15:09, CT 7:03:23:05.
5. Incredible (Swan 53), Rick Gorman, Los Alamitos, Calif. (126:14:24), ET 13:08:36:11, CT 8:02:21:47.
6. DH-Charmed Life (Catalina 470), Patricia Garfield/Diane Murray, San Francisco (131:54:20), 16.
7. Enchilado (Jeanneau 54), Cesar de Saracho, Mazatlan, Mexico. (112:22:50), ET 14:09:02:21, CT 9:16:39:31.
8. Shanakee II (Pedrick 74), James Warmington, Costa Mesa, Calif. (83:26:25), 120 (started July 15).

Aloha B (Started July 11)

1. So Far (Swan 48), Larry Hillman, Chicago (147:28:54), ET 13:08:18:09, CT 7:04:49:15.
2. Pipe Dream (CF 37), John Davis, Long Beach. (164:43:08), ET 14:14:45:54, CT 7:18:02:46.
3. Wind Dancer (Catalina 42), Paul Edwards, Ventura, Calif. (149:50:14), ET 14:01:52:48, CT 7:20:02:34.
4. Azure (Swan 441), Samuel Beckey, San Diego. (138:17:59), 271.
5. DH-Camille (Stewart 42), James and Ann Read, San Francisco (141:52:48), 809.