TRANSPAC
Transpacific Yacht Club Commodore Jim Eddy led the crowd of Transpac sailors and their friends and family with this traditional greeting that has so many meanings in Hawaiian: Hello, Welcome, Goodbye, or as an expression of love and affection. On the upper deck of the Hawaii YC this group gathered for the final of three ceremonies of awards to celebrate this year’s 51st biennial edition of the 2225-mile Transpac race from LA to Honolulu.
The podium finishers in Divisions 7 and 8 were given their awards today, along with winners of several specialty trophies in this year’s race. Winning Division 7 in corrected time for the Eugene Overton Trophy was Greg Dorn’s Dehler 46 Favonius, and winner of Division 8 for the Los Angeles YC Glass Boat Trophy was Cecil and Alyson Rossi’s Farr 57 Ho’okolohe, a local favorite for its numerous Hawaii-based crew aboard. Each winner’s award was accompanied with an award recognizing the winning navigator as well.
The next award went to Bob Lane’s Andrews 63 Medicine Man, who won the Nash Family Corinthian Crew Award for the best corrected time finish of an all-amateur crew. The Mark Rudiger Celestial Navigation Trophy, an antique brass 1905-built T. Hemsley & Son silver-vernier A-frame sextant donated by Stan Honey, is awarded to the navigator who presents celestial navigation worksheets or evidence of traditional navigation that is judged by a panel of other navigators appointed by TPYC. Vice Commodore Tom Trujillo announced the winner of this award will not be announced until Saturday, July 31st.
The next award given was the Storm Trysail Team Trophy, where entries could form a 3-boat team of any affiliation and be scored as a team.
“Storm Trysail Club’s mission is to promote offshore racing and a big part of the offshore experience is the camaraderie with shipmates and competitors,” said STC Commodore Ed Cesare. “We are pleased to sponsor the team trophy for the Transpac in order to foster that camaraderie.” This year the winning team spread across entries in three classes was the St Francis YC Team of Dave MacEwan’s Rogers 46 Lucky Duck in Division 5, Michael Moradzadeh’s Santa Cruz 50 Oaxaca in Division 6, and Ho’okolohe from Division 8.
The STC Team Trophy made its debut in 2019, as did the final trophy awarded today, the Ronald L. Burla Trophy for Media Excellence. This award goes to the submission of a media product (photos, videos, etc.) from a team entered in the race based on material gathered during the race. Submissions were made from Mike Sudo’s Beneteau First 47.7 Macondo, Kate and Jim Murray’s Pac 52 Callisto, and Marek Omillian’s TP52 Sonic.
“All were creative and original videos, and had good elements of technical and storytelling merit,” said Dobbs Davis of the TPYC Media team. “However our panel felt the submission from a fourth team was the best at capturing the essence of this race, its experience for those on board, and as an inspiration to others to want to come and participate in the Transpac. This year’s winner is from Mike Fratantoro on Tom Camp’s Santa Cruz 50 Trouble.”
“Its an honor to receive this award,” said Fratantoro. “It was a challenge to both do the bow and gather the footage needed for the piece, but I thank the entire team for their help.” The winning video is at https://youtu.be/Ov-wkxC_G48, along with all other submissions uploaded to the TranspacRace YouTube channel.
Also uploaded to YouTube today is the final Transpac 2021 race analysis video recorded by Dobbs Davis of Seahorse Magazine, with world-class navigator Peter Isler as a special guest to explain the race from his perspective on Roy Disney’s turbo-Volvo 70 Pyewacket, but also in more general terms on what made this a fast race for all. The link is at https://youtu.be/3wSSzlOXbvY.
