SAILING : Merlin Ends Up First on Corrected Time

Merlin, which holds the 18-year-old record for the Transpacific Yacht Race, reclaimed some past glory Wednesday when it was declared first on corrected time in the 38th running of the West Coast’s premier sailboat race.

Upgraded and chartered by Dan Sinclair of Vancouver, Canada, Merlin finished the 2,225-nautical mile race about 8 1/2 hours behind Hal Ward’s new Cheval ‘95, which had won the race’s huge “Barn Door” koa wood plaque with the fastest elapsed time of 9 days 1 hour 32 minutes 2 seconds.

But with its handicap, Merlin came out 3 hours 12 minutes better than Cheval ’95.

Larry Ellison’s new Sayonara of San Francisco, with Paul Cayard aboard, also beat out Cheval ’95 on handicap by 2 1/2 hours.

Ward, an Arcadia eye surgeon, said his boat probably would have held off Merlin and Sayonara on time if its carbon fiber mast hadn’t broken off 20 feet above the deck with 40 miles to go on the final day.

“Once we got going again we’d lost about four hours,” Ward said.

Ward praised his crew for rigging an efficient jury rig that allowed them to make eight to 10 knots in the run to the finish and particularly praised Mark Rudiger of San Francisco as “our navigation genius.”

Merlin, now stretched five feet to 69-6, was built by Bill Lee of Santa Cruz, Calif., in 1977 and set the record of 8 1/2 days that still stands as the forerunner of the ultralight displacement boats.