Transpac Race : Ultra-Light Boats Move Up in Soft Winds, Take Lead : Transpac Race

The ultra-light displacement boats in the 2,225-mile Los Angeles-to-Honolulu race moved up in the soft winds of the outer Channel Islands Friday and took over the elapsed-time lead after 19 hours of sailing.

Sailing virtually within hailing distance of each other were the 68-foot ULDB Saga, co-skippered by Doug Baker and George Writer of Long Beach Yacht Club, and the 62-foot Ragtime, owned by Pat Farrah of Atlanta and skippered by Dick Deaver of Los Angeles. Both yachts had logged 116 miles since Thursday’s 1 p.m. start off Pt. Fermin.

Hal Day’s 68-foot Winterhawk, out of Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, a heavier-displacement boat, had fallen back to sixth place, 108 miles from the start.

Larry Somers, aboard the communications vessel, reported light winds southeast of San Nicolas Island, but two other escort vessels farther out to sea were reporting 25-knot northwesterly winds with six-foot seas, which the racers were hoping to pick up by early today.

Most of the Class A boats were reporting positions 105 to 116 miles from the start. Keith Simmons, skipper of Prima, from the Ft. Worth Boat Club, was 114 miles out; Peter Wilson’s Pandemonium, of Newport Harbor Yacht Club, was 111 miles from the start, and Citius, the Santa Cruz-70 sailed by a Los Angeles Yacht Club syndicate, had logged 110 miles.

Merlin, the elapsed-time record-holder was in ninth place, 106 miles from the start.

There was no report from the two catamarans sailing their own Multihull Transpac race over the same course. Warrior, skippered by Olympic silver medalist Randy Smyth of Huntington Beach, was sailing against Aikane, sailed by multihull designer Rudy Choy of Honolulu. Both are seeking to erase the multihull record of 7 days 7 hours 30 minutes set by the 65-foot catamaran Double Bullet in 1983.

The 25-knot northeasterly wind should speed the entire 65-boat Transpac fleet, but the real contest will come after they pick up the northeast trade winds in about three days, presuming they do not sail into the Pacific High, which is shifting about in the upper latitudes.

Overall handicap positions are more or less meaningless at this stage of the race, but based on mileage sailed, Saga is holding down first overall and first in Class A, because she is given time by the higher-rated Ragtime.