Record slashed

Morning Glory takes a day of Pyewacket's Transpac record

Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory, sliding smoothly through a moonlit sea, finished the Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race in moderate winds just after 2am local time Sunday to smash the record held by his nearest rival, Roy Disney.

Although it wasn't a particularly windy Transpac, the maxZ86s proved their slippery power. The German boat's time for the 2,225 nautical miles was 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds, lopping almost a day off the record of 7:11:41:27 set by Disney's previous Pyewacket in 1999.

Disney's new Pyewacket crossed the Diamond Head finish line almost exactly 2.5 hours later in what was Disney's 15th and final Transpac.

Two boats actually finished ahead of the two maxZ86s - Ross Pearlman's Jeanneau 52, Between the Sheets, at 10:22pm Saturday night and the 68-year-old yawl Odyssey with Cecil Rossi as skipper, 54 minutes ahead of Morning Glory - but they were Aloha A class entries that got a six-day head start on the big boats.