Northwest Winds Push Rouse’s Taxi Dancer to Record Pace After 516 Miles in Transpac

Strong northwest winds Sunday pushed Mitchell Rouse’s 70-foot Class A sloop Taxi Dancer to a record pace in the 35th biennial Transpac from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Rouse of Long Beach sailed Taxi Dancer 516 miles by 8 a.m. (PDT) and was averaging 12 knots.

By comparison, the 67-foot Merlin averaged 11.25 knots in 1977 as skipper Bill Lee set the elapsed-time record of 8 days 11 hours in the 2,225-mile race.

Trialing Taxi Dancer were the Mongoose, with Paul Simonsen of Diablo, Calif., 509 miles; Silver Bullet, John DeLaura, Sunset Beach, 492; Blondie, Pat Farrah, Long Beach, 485; Evolution, Robert Doughty, Los Angeles, 483; Drumbeat, Don Ayers Jr., Costa Mesa, 480; and Pyewacket, Roy Disney, Toluca Lake, 469.