Drumbeat Appears to Be Sure Winner in the Los Angeles-to-Honolulu Race

Jazz, Roderic Park’s Class D boat, failed to save her handicap time in the 2,225-mile Los Angeles-to-Honolulu yacht race and thus the biennial event became a virtual Class A sweep on corrected time.

At the 8 a.m. roll call Monday, Jazz still had 142 miles to go with no chance of beating the corrected time of Don Ayres’ 68-foot Drumbeat, which was holding first in Class A and second in fleet. Drumbeat was the second boat to finish last Friday and saved her time over the front-running Merlin.

Jazz dropped to third overall but was still holding first in Class D. It did not appear that any of the 26 boats still at sea could beat Drumbeat’s handicap time.

All of the A and B boats and three of the Class C boats had finished by 8 a.m., PDT, Monday. Three boats--Black Sheep, Frequent Flyer and Jano--were expected to cross the finish line at Diamond Head late Monday.

Expected to finish today are Sangvind, Elusive-48, Rocinante, Travieso, Mystery, High Roller, Uin Na Mara, Eclipse, Blade Runner-37, Morning Star, One-eyed Jack, Free Enterprise, Montgomery Street and Jazz, leaving the final 10 to finish Wednesday.

Meanwhile, six protests filed at the start of the race were being considered by the jury which, if upheld, could change the corrected-time standings.