Pacific 1000 Catamaran Race : Smyth, Hill Lead After Circling Catalina

The team of Randy Smyth of Huntington Beach and Jim Hill of San Francisco continued to lead the overall standings in the Pacific 1000 catamaran race by winning Thursday’s 40-mile leg around Catalina Island in a time of 6 minutes 13.30 seconds.

That leg on the second day of the race gave Smyth and Hill an overall time of 12:50, putting them almost six minutes ahead of Greg Richardson of Myrtle Beach and Roy Seaman of Malibu, who are in second place with a combined time of 12:55.55.

Richardson and Seaman placed fifth in Thursday’s leg, finishing in 6:16.47.

Owen Minney and Jeff Silver of Newport Beach took second place in the leg with a time of 6:15.16, and David Renouf and David Iwamoto of Sydney, Australia, came in third with at 6:16.07.

Larry Harteck and Eric Brinton finished fourth at 6:16.36.

Thursday’s results and, therefore, the overall standings, are unofficial because of timing problems and questions over the location of the finish line at Catalina Island. Race officials expect to have those problems worked out before the end of the weekend.

The race will continue with today’s third leg, from Catalina Island to Long Beach, a distance of approximately 25 miles. On Saturday, the fourth leg takes the sailors from Long Beach to Dana Point, where they will land at Doheny State Beach.

The event concludes Aug. 3 at the Huntington Beach pier.