For Disney, Winning Transpac Remains Holy Grail of Sailing

“You’re pinching,” Robbie Haines tells Roy Disney, interrupting a conversation with a reporter.

That’s sailing talk, meaning that Disney is trying to sail too much into the wind, slowing the boat.

“I realize that,” Disney tells Haines, a world-class sailor who manages his boat. “I turned the wheel just before you said that. I can’t be interviewed and sail at the same time.”

That’s the price of being a celebrity sailor. Yes, Roy is one of those Disneys, but not the one you might think.

“Everybody still thinks I’m Walt’s brother,” he says.

To Roy, it was Uncle Walt. He is Roy Edward Disney. His father, eight years older than Walt, was Roy Oliver Disney and Walt’s founding partner. Roy E.’s son is Roy Patrick, who sails with him and answers to Roy Pat, to avoid confusion.

Disney, 63, is vice president of Disney Studios’ board of directors and head of the animation department, a position that allows him to pursue his dream of winning the West Coast’s premier sailing event, the Transpacific race to Hawaii. Starting with the largest boats Saturday, Disney will be making his 10th try in his fifth boat in the 2,225-nautical mile race, which is run in odd-numbered years from Point Fermin to Diamond Head.

“The first time I did it, I still remember the feeling after 11 days . . . just the sense of accomplishment,” Disney said. “That was a pretty wild ride on the old IOR (International Offshore Rule) boats--roll, roll, roll for days and nights.”

Later, Disney said: “We got past the awed ‘We did it!’ thing to, ‘Hey, we can actually compete in this race.’ ”

Thus, Pyewacket--the Bill Lee-built Santa Cruz 70 Ultralight Displacement Boat (ULDB) that Disney and a crew of nine will sail.

“Really, basically, that’s why (I had it built),” Disney said. “We’d won everything else you could win, except Transpac. So one more time, we’ll try.”

In recent days Disney and crew have been testing sails off Marina del Rey and watching the Pacific weather reports while Haines sits on the rail, listing things to do on a yellow legal pad.

“I’ll tell you this,” Haines said, “nobody in the fleet is going out (to practice and test) as much as we are. Maybe we’re overdoing it.”

Said Disney: “I’d rather be overdoing it than underdoing it.”

The five sails they tested one particular day probably cost more than $50,000. Whenever Haines made a note, somewhere a cash register was about to ring.

“I’m used to it,” Disney said. “Who was it--J.P. Morgan?--who said, ‘If you have to ask (how much the yacht costs), you can’t afford it.’ That’s the only way you can deal with it.

“You should ask, but there’s safety to think of, and you can’t expect to do well if you’re not competitive.”

Haines also sailed with Disney on his previous boat, also named Pyewacket.

“He usually will do what it takes to have the right stuff,” Haines said. “A lot of people are jealous of his financial position, but he’s spent a lot less on this boat than he did on the other boat. There are fewer things to do on this boat.”

Besides Haines and Roy Pat, the crew includes navigator Stan Honey of Palo Alto, who was guided several successful Transpac boats, and Ben Mitchell, Doug Rastello, Gregg Hedrick, Dan Crowley, Dick Loewy and Dan Drejes.

One of the ULDB 70s will probably win. They have dominated the race since Merlin won in 1977, setting a record that still stands: 8 days 11 hours 1 minute 45 seconds.

“We know the boat’s as fast as it can get,” Disney said. “We know we have a great crew. Then you have to have the luck factor going for you. There’s always something out of your control.”

In 1991, the year the new Pyewacket was launched, it was the wind, as it often is in sailboat racing. The boat is named for the witch’s cat in the 1958 movie, “Bell, Book and Candle”--not a Disney production--but Pyewacket was able to cast no spells in the Transpac.

“We just tore up the (ULDB 70) league that year--except for Transpac, which got away from us,” Disney said. “(Bob McNulty’s) Chance got away from the fleet. The second and third night we were into absolute zero wind for about eight hours both nights, and (Chance) just had more breeze up (north).

“At one point we were 220 miles behind Chance. We finished about 30 miles behind. God, that was frustrating.”

The previous Pyewacket was even more frustrating to Disney.

“Four keels, three masts, two rudders--we tried everything,” he said.

He also switched sailmakers, starting a lasting association with Haines, an ’84 Olympic gold medalist who is manager of the North Sails loft in Huntington Beach. But even with North’s best sails, Disney said, “I knew the boat was as fast as it was going to get,” and it still wasn’t fast enough.

So he did the only thing a wealthy, sensible person would do: He ordered a new boat.

The new Pyewacket was an instant success, getting four firsts and three seconds in nine events in winning the sleds’ 1991 season championship. Despite Disney’s Transpac disappointment, however, there was an undercurrent of resentment among some of the less wealthy owners.

Said Haines: “The boat’s been successful, and a lot of people don’t like successful boats. There was sure a lot less talk about Roy Disney with the old boat, simply because he wasn’t winning.”

Disney got hooked on ULDBs when he chartered Samurai, a Santa Cruz 50, for the 1983 Transpac and finished fourth overall, ahead of the legendary Ragtime.

“We had so much fun that year,” he said. “We were the fourth boat to finish on a 50-foot boat. We did 27 1/2 knots going down a steep wave in the middle of the night one time. We never did see what we were going down but, God, it was fast.

“You’re getting bored with the lousy 15s and 16s. You’re looking for 18s and 20s. It’s an amazing feeling to come down a big wave on one of these things and just watch it accelerate. It’s a definite thrill. I thought, ‘This is the way to get to Honolulu. This is fun!’ ”

If Disney wins the Transpac, he said, he will recognize his cue when he passes the finish line off Diamond Head.

“I’m supposed to say, ‘I’m going to Disneyland!’ ”