CORUBA FINISHES THIRD OVERALL AND WINS THE SLED CLASS
CORUBA racing in the Seattle Grand Prix
Rob and Suzanne Fleming�s 1988 Nelson/Marek 68 CORUBA won the Sled Class in the 2005 Transpac and finished third overall in fleet -- a terrific showing in their first major ocean race. Doug Christie of UK-Halsey Seattle worked very closely with the Flemings to the setup the boat, build new sails and optimize the rating.
Doug wrote the following about the race: �We made a strong move to the South with a chute up the second day. This gave us enormous leverage and each day we climbed further up the standings. As the drag-race portion of the race developed we were well positioned and the moderate conditions and a small sea state played into our hands. We were 3rd in class and 3rd overall until the faster boats reached the trades near Hawaii. Fortunately they ran out of race track and we held on to fourth in class and fourth overall as well as first in the Sled class. After TRADER incurred two 30-minute penalties for incorrect radio check-in, we moved 18 minutes ahead of them on corrected time to finish third in class, third in fleet and first in the Sled class.
While one prefers to win on the water we felt quite justified as we also had SSB problems and with the idea of penalties looming over us managed to do things correctly and relay our positions via VHF which TRADER could have easily done.
The inventory selection we chose worked well. We added a new Airx chute, Blast Reacher and Genoa Staysail. We suffered no damage other than a brand new Carbon reaching strut taking a swim on the second to last jibe.
EDITOR�S NOTE: CORUBA also won the Swiftsure Race this year and set anew course record in the process.
SO FAR WINS ALOHA CLASSES A AND B
There once was a Transpac tradition to go swimming at the halfway point, which is farther from land than any other place on earth, but that isn''t what Gary Kozlowski had in mind when he got flung overboard by a spinnaker sheet during a set on Larry Hillman''s Swan 48 SO FAR in the middle of the Transpac.
Without a PFD on Gary was in trouble. "I knew I couldn''t swim fast enough to get back to the boat," he said, "but I still had hold of the sheet." Within three or four minutes, his mates hauled him back to the boat. A very lucky guy indeed.
The Chicago-based SO FAR went on to run away with Aloha B class honors and won Aloha A and B overall on handicap time.
Later, Hillman summed up his boat''s highlights of the race: "We sailed just 2,438 n.m. to complete the race---the equal of eight back-to-back Mackinac races! We saw whales, sea lions, seals and dolphin by the score, and after 13 days at sea we saw the amazing beauty of Molokai Island rise over our port bow . . . a breathtaking sight. Along the way it seems like we broke, repaired and broke again just about everything aboard. We sent eight bags of sails to the loft for repairs, reworked our engine fuel lines, rebuilt a head (nice!), hauled spinnakers from the sea, hoisted a bowman to the masthead and battled a failed refrigeration system. We dodged a monstrous 50-foot cross-tacking whale -- missing it by less than five feet. We missed countless tankers and cargo ships, ducked falling masthead sheaves and spinnakers and evaded boarding waves, flying fish, dive bombing birds and airborne shelves and drawers.
Weather-wise, we had it all, from 0.0s to 40 knots. And in the end, what a reception! Each Transpac boat was assigned a host family in California and Hawaii, and no matter what time of day or night you arrived in Hawaii, the host family was there in force to applaud and cheer ''their'' boat and crew. Immediately upon docking, our host, Doug Taylor, whisked us to a party fully stocked with ice (yes ICE) in our drinks, frosted beers, shrimp platters and all sorts of other incredible edibles. I never met this man before. That''s hospitality."
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