Three way fight

The Centennial Transpac next month will see three of its fastest ever entrants go head to head reports Rich Roberts

The handicap ratings are in and the starting lineups are set for the Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race.

35 of the 75 entries - 14 Cal 40s, the smaller boats in Racing Division V and Aloha classes A and B - will lead off the series of staggered starts on July 11, followed by 20 Division III and IV racers on July 15 and the 20 fastest raters on Sunday, July 17.

All starts will be off the Palos Verdes Peninsula at 1300, although many of the boats will enjoy ceremonial departures at about 1000 from Transpac Village at Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach, where boats will be moored in harmony with the city's Sea Festival celebration.

The largest is Randall Pittman's Dubois 90 Genuine Risk although Hasso Plattner's maxZ86 Morning Glory is the scratch boat by one-hundredths of a second per mile for the 2,300-mile rating distance. Roy Disney's maxZ86 Pyewacket is rated 0.040 - meaning, those boats are not only the fastest monohulls ever to sail Transpac but virtually dead even in speed potential, setting up an epic battle for the Barn Door and a bid for the record of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds set by an earlier Pyewacket in 1999.

The smallest but third fastest in Division III is The Cone of Silence, Jamie and Jenny Neil's Reichel/Pugh 32 from Australia that dropped out and returned to the mainland in 2003. It may also be the least comfortable entry.

The most comfortable will certainly be James Warmington's Shanakee II a Pedrick 75 with hot water, interior air conditioning, big-screen TV and a freezer, among other amenities. Starting with the Aloha A class on July 11, it also should beat the later starters to Honolulu, as it did in 2001.

The youngest crew hasn't been determined but the oldest is obvious. All six men on Lloyd Sellinger's Cal 40 Bubala are over 65.

The newest boat is Pegasus the Transpac 52 launched just this month by Philippe Kahn, who won the Barn Door as the monohull with the fastest elapsed time on larger boats in the last two races.

The oldest is Odyssey, a 58ft yawl that sailed Transpac in 1939, '55 and '61. The wooden classic is in the Aloha class and returns with a crew counting 53 Transpacs among them, including Scott Abrams, grandson of Clarence MacFarlane, who organised the first race in 1906. According to skipper Cecil Rossi, "Scotty said, 'I gotta go. My grandfather did it a hundred years ago.' "

Kahn has his own reasons for going. "Transpac is our offshore practice for the TP 52 Worlds, so we are taking the race very seriously," he said. "However, we are not optimising for Transpac, so we probably won't be the quickest of the best. It's the first step in our campaign." Nevertheless, Pegasus will have its usual world-class crew and is rated the fastest of four TP 52s that will race in Division II.

The fleet includes three former record holders: Merlin, Ragtime and Skylark, which raced as Pyewacket in 1997. Merlin and Ragtime are sailing their record 13th Transpacs.

Reinrag2, Wild Thing, Wind Dancer, Illusion and Between the Sheets will be defending their 2003 titles in Divisions III, IV and V and the Cal 40 and Aloha A classes, respectively. Barking Spider, the Aloha B winner in '03, has moved up to racing Division III. Illusion will have an all-woman crew led by Sally Lindsay Honey as Stan Honey returns to Pyewacket as navigator.

There are eight foreign entries and six from Hawaii.

Official Entries
(In order of handicap rating by seconds per mile)

Division I (starts July 17)

Morning Glory (R/P maxZ86), Hasso Plattner, Kiel, Germany (0.000)
Genuine Risk (Dubois 90), Randall Pittman, La Jolla, Calif. (0.010)
Pyewacket (R/P maxZ86), Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles. (0.040).
Windquest (R/P maxZ86), Dick & Doug DeVos, Holland, Mich. (*)
Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach. (15.260)
Beecom (Reichel/Pugh 72), Isao Mita, Yokohama, Japan (47.377)
Scout Spirit (R/P 77), Bill Turpin, Newport Beach, Calif. (50.650)

Division II (Starts July 17)

Renegade (Andrews 70), Dan Sinclair, Vancouver, B.C. (62.707)
Merlin (Lee 68), Patricia Steele, Maui, H.I. (65.298)
Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Long Beach. (71.999)
Pegasus 52 (Transpac 52), Philippe Kahn, Honolulu. (81.117)
Trader (Transpac 52), Fred Detwiler, Pompano Beach, Fla. (81.878)
Skylark (S/C 70), Doug Ayres, Newport Beach. (81.884)
Braveheart (Transpac 52), Charles Burnet, Seattle. (*)
Rosebud (Transpac 52), Roger Sturgeon, San Francisco. (85.971)
Mongoose (Santa Cruz 70), Bradley Thorson, Bellevue, Wash. (90.225)
Coruba (N/M 68), Rob and Suzanne Fleming, Seattle. (90.590)
Bengal 2 (Ohashi 52), Yoshihiko Murase, Nagoya, Japan (100.363)
Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, Encino, Calif. (102.265)
Ragtime (Spencer 66), Peterson/Richards/Welsh/Zimmer, Honolulu. (108.225)

Division III (Starts July 15)

Barking Spider 3 (MacGregor 65), David Kory, Concord, Calif. (116.837)
Stealth Chicken (Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (123.158)
The Cone of Silence (Super 30), Jamie and Jenny Neill, Sydney, Australia. (130.869)
Cipango (Andrews 56), Bob & Rob Barton, San Francisco. (131.696)
DH-Serena (T1150), David Kuettel, Bel Marin, Calif. (132.320)
Jeito (J/145), Francisco Guzman, Acapulco, Mexico. (134.888)
Dasher (S/C 50), Roger Groh, Sausalito, Calif. (140.306)
Reinrag2 (J/125), Tom Garnier, Portland, Ore. (141.265)
Bolt (Nelson/Marek 55), Craig Reynolds, Newport Beach, Calif. (141.302)
Artemis (Andrews 53), Louis Bianco, Seattle. (142.395)
Innocent Merriment (J/160), Myron Lyon, San Diego. (142.719)
Blue (J/160), Ken and /Cheryl Sears, Nashville, Tenn. (147.095)
Chasch Mer (S/C 50), Gib Black, Honolulu. (*)

Division IV (Starts July 15)

DH-Two Guys On the Edge (1D35), Dan Doyle, Kailua, H.I. (179.858)
Sensation (1D35), Gary Fanger, San Francisco. (180.299)
Tabasco (1D35), Alamitos Bay Syndicate, Long Beach. (182.046)
Kahoots (Andrews 43), Kerry Deaver/Bob Williamson, Newport Beach. (186.899)
Pursuit (Custom 48), Norman and Rosemary Dawley, Solomons, Md. (190.019)
Wild Impulse (J/120), Larry Barels, Santa Barbara, Calif. (191.454)
Uproarious (Olson 40), Robert Bussard, San Diego. (193.611)

Division V (Starts July 11)

Super Gnat (Beneteau First 40.7), Cliff Thompson, San Diego (207.028)
Iataia (Beneteau First 40.7), Marcos Rodriguez, Acapulco, Mexico. (209.719)
Showdown (IMX 38), Pete Meade/Mike Luna/ Paul McDonald, Irvine, Calif. (212.941)
B'Quest (Tripp 40), Challenged America, San Diego. (213.947)
Brown Sugar (Express 37), Steve Brown, Santa Ana, Calif. (221.504)
DH-Soap Opera (Hobie 33), Scott Self/Nigel Brown, Rockwall, Tex. (222.175)
DH-Jacaré (J/35), Jeff Young/Rich Blackman, San Diego. (232.854)
DH-Diablo (J/35), Reed Barnard, Anacortes, Wash. (235.432)

Cal 40 (Starts July 11)

California Girl (Cal 40), Don and Betty Lessley, Richmond, Calif. (255.665)
Radiant (Cal 40), Fin Beven, Pasadena, Calif. (256.939)
Callisto (Cal 40), Jim Eddy, Glendale, Calif. (257.864)
Far Far (Cal 40), Don Grind, Naples, Fla. (258.090)
Dancing Bear (Cal 40), Mark Schrader, Sitka, Alaska. (258.311)
Spectre (Cal 40), Lee Rogge, Seattle. (258.612)
Ralphie (Cal 40), Davis Pillsbury, Woody Creek, Colo. (259.232)
Azure (Cal 40), Rodney Pimentel, Alameda, Calif. (259.574)
Psyche (Cal 40), Steve Calhoun, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. (259.964)
Shaman (Cal 40), Steve Waterloo, Alameda, Calif. (260.187)
Willow Wind (Cal 40), Wendy Siegal, Sunset Beach, Calif. (260.570)
Illusion (Cal 40), Sally Honey, Palo Alto, Calif. (261.590)
Seafire (Cal 40), John Harrison, Honolulu. (263.311)
Bubala (Cal 40), Lloyd Sellinger, Newport Beach. (264.303)

Aloha A (Starts July 11)

Shanakee II (Pedrick 74), James Warmington, Costa Mesa, Calif. (130.602)
Madrina (Cabo Rico 56), Dick Simon, Dana Point, Calif. (195.445)
Incredible (Swan 53), Rick Gorman, Los Alamitos, Calif. (197.593)
Between the Sheets (Jeanneau 52), Ross Pearlman, Marina del Rey, Calif. (197.564)
Odyssey (58' yawl), Audrey Steele Burnand, Newport Beach. (201.571)
Plan B (Peterson 48), David Johnson, Long Beach. (202.104)
DH-Charmed Life (Catalina 470), Patricia Garfield, San Francisco. (206.461)
Enchilado (Jeanneau 54), Cesar de Saracho, Mazatlan, Mexico. (*)

Aloha B (Starts July 11)

Azure (Swan 441), Samuel Beckey, San Diego. (216.469)
DH-Camille (Stewart 42), James Read, San Francisco. (222.073)
So Far (Swan 48), Larry Hillman, Chicago. (230.841)
Wind Dancer (Catalina 42), Paul Edwards, Ventura, Calif. (234.528)
Pipe Dream (CF 37), John Davis, Long Beach. (242.920)

DH---Doublehanded.
*---In process.