Wind Warrior Wins Multi-Hull Transpac

Steve Shidler’s 48-foot catamaran, Wind Warrior, swooped down out of the north to cross the finish line off Diamond Head Friday, 3 hours 26 minutes ahead of Rudy Choy’s 62-foot Aikane in the Multihull Transpac race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Wind Warrior finished at 7:07 a.m. HST for an elapsed time of 7 days 20 hours 7 minutes, which was 12 hours 37 minutes behind the record set by Double Bullet in 1983.

Aikane finished at 10:10:37 HST after having been stalled in the windless Molokai Channel for several hours. Wind Warrior had chosen a northerly course and picked up better wind than Aikane in the final hours of the race.

Throughout the first 2,100 miles of the 2,225-mile race, Wind Warrior had trailed Aikane by as many as 50 miles.