Crew Didn’t Go Hungry on Long Run to Hawaii

Lady Bleu II on Sunday became the first of 54 boats to complete the 2,225-mile crossing from Los Angeles during the 42nd Transpacific Yacht Race.

That was surprising enough, despite the head start it had on the faster entries, considering it was one of the bulkier “comfort” vessels from the Aloha Division.

But when you look at all the food its seven-man crew brought -- they dined on such delicacies as hot dogs with chili and cheese; salmon fillets with asparagus; and pork roast with ranch potatoes, carrots and spinach raspberry salad -- it’s a wonder they were able to stay afloat, much less compete.

“We heard about one boat that brought only 13 days of protein bars,” said Bill Locher, 48, whose main qualification as galley master was that he cooked for his fraternity house in college. “We brought 16 bags of groceries. We had so much left over, we had to call a charity to see if they wanted what’s left. There’s a whole ham left in our refrigerator.”

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Seriously, though, the Transpac, which had starts July 1, July 4 and July 6 and ended Thursday as the last of 54 boats still around at the finish straggled into Waikiki’s Ala Wai Yacht Harbor, is about getting here as fast as possible.

But moreover, it’s about adventure -- even for those aboard the multimillion-dollar super sleds.

Roy E. Disney, sailing’s humblest celebrity, in 1999 set a speed record aboard Pyewacket by getting here in 7 days, 11 hours, 41 minutes, 27 seconds. He and his crew “surfed” toward Oahu at 20 knots atop a cobalt sea and beneath “big puffy clouds that were beginning to turn a radiant pink and all these other colors,” Disney said afterward.

“I remember steering with one hand and chatting with the crew,” he said, dreamy-eyed. “It was just unbelievable, and I said to somebody that if I could only, right now, rent a big helicopter and bring every friend I know out here and just plunk them down on this deck for five minutes, nobody would ever ask me again why we do this.”

This year, after completing his 14th Transpac, the 73-year-old Disney vice chairman was a bit more subdued, Pyewacket having been trounced by Pegasus 77, which for the second consecutive race claimed the prestigious Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time -- the fourth-fastest in race history at 7:16:31:17.

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For the next race in 2005, Disney is hoping to be at the helm of a newer, larger Pyewacket, a MaxZ86 under construction. “I think we might break the record with that,” he said.

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On board Pegasus was Samuel “Shark” Kahn, the 13-year-old son of the owner and skipper, software developer Philippe Kahn.

Said the father, beaming after his victory in the predawn darkness of a warm Waikiki morning: “I hope he’s learning good things, but being on a boat for seven days with 12 to 13 adult sailors ... I don’t know. He’s talking a lot about the Hooters girls recently, so I’m not sure what he’s learning.”

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A few boats were forced to drop out early. Perhaps one was doomed from the outset. The Cone of Silence, a 31-footer captained by James Neill of Sydney, Australia, developed structural problems and didn’t make it much past Catalina.

This should come as no surprise to fans of the old “Get Smart” comedy series. The Cone of Silence, in which agent Maxwell Smart and the chief of CONTROL would often try to confer, never did work.

Neill said the boat was named in part because he didn’t want to hear any of the crew discussing family or personal problems during the race. “But like the Cone of Silence in ‘Get Smart,’ that never worked either. That’s all we talk about,” he said with a grin.

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The John B. out of Newport Beach pulled into its slip Tuesday morning and its crew was given the customary leis, mai tais and pupus.

“We’re just a bunch of lifeguards and ex-lifeguards who decided to do this on a lark,” navigator Greg Crow said. “And it was just an epic adventure -- everything I expected it to be.”

Crow, 48, of Huntington Beach, confessed that he skipped his 3-year-old daughter’s birthday for the Transpac. Looking guilty, he reasoned, “Someday, what I did might inspire her to enjoy a similar adventure, so that’s my present.”

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There were only 10 entries in the Cal 40 Division. John B finished eighth.

“We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves because we accomplished our goal of finishing in the top 10,” Crow said.

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Willow Wind Capt. Wendy Siegal helped lead the revival of the Cal 40 Division to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the boats’ glory days in a race that dates to 1906.

“We all made our point that anybody can do Transpac,” she said, in reference to the trend toward competing in bigger, faster boats. “You don’t need to be a millionaire with a sled and a professional crew.”

How tight a ship does Siegal run? Well, at the halfway point, 1,000 miles and seven days into the journey, her crew lunched on a mahi-mahi caught trolling, and she celebrated by dancing in a hula skirt and coconut bra.

“It was a lot of fun,” she said of her third Transpac.

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Shouldn’t a guy with a name like this be staying home? Richard Mainland, a Brentwood attorney and owner-skipper of Paddy Wagon, a Ross 40 representing California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, said that’s all anyone wants to talk about in Hawaii.

“I never hear about it at home, but over here everybody perks up about the name ‘Mainland,’ ” he said.

Paddy Wagon finished fourth out of 11 boats in Division 4, surfing across the Molokai Channel in a 30-knot wind.

“It was a white-knuckle day for sure,” he said. “That last day was scary going that fast with our big spinnaker up. All we were concerned about was keeping the boat upright until the finish.”

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For his team’s victory in the Aloha B class, Capt. David Kory was allowed to park Barking Spider, a Catalina 38, amid the much larger, slicker and sleeker racing yachts on Transpac Row -- including Pegasus and Alta Vista, the latter vessel having claimed the overall championship based on corrected handicap time.

Said the leader of “the jolly band of Transpac virgins”: “I feel like a Ford station wagon parked in a Ferrari line.”

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There were plenty of first-timers in the 42nd running of the biennial race, including Capt. Roger Kuske, who with wife Brenda owns Lady Bleu II (a Dynamique 62 that ended up seventh out of eight finishers in the Aloha A class because of the handicap system).

Kuske tried to make himself presentable before the finish, so he showered, shaved, put on a nice shirt and combed his hair -- only to have a hard rain soak his clothes and mess up his hair.

“We all got a good laugh over that,” said Locher, the cook.

But the captain got the last laugh, taking his cook to dinner after the race -- to a restaurant where customers cook their own food.

“I told him, ‘I’ve been cooking for you guys for 12 days and you take me to a restaurant where I have to cook my own food?’ ” Locher said. “I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ ”

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Lastly, to put into perspective a race that this year took less than three weeks for all 54 boats, we sail back to 1939, when the slowest Transpac was held.

William Merry’s Viking Childe, a 42-foot ketch from Long Beach, took 24 days to get here from San Francisco -- it was the only year the race started there, over a route that was 140 miles shorter than the current one.

During one of the morning roll calls, the captain of one of the boats issued a declaration all the competitors could relate to:

“Out of wind, out of patience, out of beer.”

* FISH REPORT: D14