Stebbens Is an Early Leader; Monohulls Set to Start Today

Kim Stebbens’ 41-foot Hurricane continued to lead the eight Cruisers in the 40th Transpacific yacht race from San Pedro to Hawaii on Friday.

The Cruisers are competing in one of two divisions already under way in the 2,225-mile race, with a third fleet scheduled to set sail today.

Light winds resulted in a slow start earlier in the week, but there were reports of good progress in 20-knot winds on Friday. However, Two Guys On the Edge, a 30-footer with only two sailors aboard, apparently had ventured too far south of the windy zone and had only eight-knot winds.

The smallest vessel in the first group of boats, 25-footer Vapor carrying Bill Boyd, 47, and Scott Atwood, 43, of Long Beach, failed to report by radio for a third consecutive day. Race officials said Vapor was not thought to be in trouble since its automatic distress signals had not been activated. Other boats, however, were asked to attempt to reach Vapor by VHF marine radio.

Among eight other boats that started Friday, Richard Sherlock and John Borkowski’s 40-footer Prime Time was slightly ahead of the others off Catalina Island in a southeasterly breeze of six to eight knots.

The 14 bigger monohulls starting today in Division I include Roy E. Disney’s new 72-foot Pyewacket and Bob McNeill and John Parrish’s 75-foot Zephyrus IV.

The old Pyewacket won in 1997 and set an elapsed time record of 7 days 15 1/2 hours 24 minutes and 40 seconds, although Zephyrus IV was leading before being hampered by a broken mast. Another returnee from the last race is Doug Baker’s Magnitude, which threatened until it also had a broken mast.

A lone catamaran starting Tuesday will be chasing the five-day nine-hour record for multihulls set in 1997.