The 2023 edition of the Transpac Race is in the record books. Fifty-seven boats in eight monohull and one multihull classes entered the race with 52 finishing and five retiring for a variety of reasons.
With some big sleds in the Whitter Trust division three — like the well-known Andrews 68 Pyewacket, owned by Roy Disney, along with five Santa Cruz 70s — you might expect a boat from that division to take first place. Due to the effort of a well-run race and the benefit of a good race rating, however, it was the Santa Cruz 52 Westerly, owned by Dave Moore, sailing in Cabrillo Boat Shop division five that finished first overall once the race committee ran the numbers. Westerly won the King Kalakaua Trophy for overall best corrected time. Moore and Westerly got an early jump away from their Thursday start rivals and held both the division and corrected time lead nearly the entire race.
Here’s some more info onWesterly from the Transpac website: “Westerly 52 is not a stock SC 52: it has had some turbo-charged upgrades to improve performance. For example, instead of stainless rod standing rigging she has carbon fiber shrouds to both increase stability and reduce pitching moment. This and a thorough analysis of the boat’s polar performance, sail inventory and measurement trim (assisted by ORR optimization guru Greg Stewart) gave the team a strong preparation for this race.
“Navigator Chris Busch said ‘I think 80 percent of the success in offshore racing is determined before you leave the dock, and this team exemplifies this: this is the best-prepared boat I’ve sailed in some 15 Transpacs I’ve raced. The boat and the team are so good this made my job easy.’
“Moore was thankful to his team and their performance, but also the TPYC media team for providing daily video analyses of the race.
“‘My father – Westcott Stone Moore, for who this boat is named – was an adventurer and risk-taker but was never able himself to do Transpac. While in failing health years later he discovered the daily video analyses and really enjoyed these. I‘m convinced this had a positive influence on him, and I thank TPYC for making this possible.’”
And given that Ocean Navigator was a co-sponsor of the race, it got its own named class: Ocean Navigator division four. The winner of the ON division was Nereid, a J125 owned and skippered by Standish Fleming and based in San Diego (also the headquarters for Maritime Publishing, ON‘s parent company). Fleming and his crew of Bill Blazer, Damian Craig, Jeremy Davidson, Richard Graef and Charlie Jenkins not only finished first in class on corrected time but also finished second overall in the fleet. Impressive racing.
The other finishers in the ON class were: 2. the J125 Arsenal, owned by Andrew Picel; 3. the Ker 45+ Denali 3, owned by William McKinley; 4. the J 125 Velvet Hammer, owned by James Nichols; 5. the J 125 Reinrag2, owned by Thomas Garnier; 6. the Rogers 46, Groundhog Day, owned by Rich Festa.