Magic Touch

The slender white sailboat moved across the swells so swiftly and purposefully, it was as if some supernatural force had taken control.

Roy Disney would later describe Pyewacket’s historic sprint to the finish line, during the 1999 Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, as one of the most magical experiences of his life.

Clouds had been painted pink and orange by the setting sun. With darkness came ferocious gusts, called puffs, which were visible as surface blemishes in the reflection of lights from Waikiki. They helped propel the boat to an unthinkable 27 knots.

The reception committee, including the sailors’ wives, watched in astonishment as the 75-foot vessel materialized off Diamond Head as a ghostly image beneath a moonless sky. With its billowing spinnaker showing the way, it swept past the committee boats and disappeared into the blackness as quickly as it had appeared.

It was a storybook ending, aboard a craft named after a witch’s cat in the movie “Bell, Book and Candle.” It was also the pinnacle of Roy Disney’s long and distinguished racing career.

Pyewacket covered the 2,225 miles in 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds, a Transpac record for a monohull.

That will be the time the skipper will strive to improve on after departing July 17 --with others in the elite maxi-sled class, aboard his new 86-foot version of Pyewacket. Whatever happens, he’ll have one more Transpac experience for the memory bank.

“The best of all of it has been the friends we’ve made,” Disney said.

A former Walt Disney Co. vice chairman, the nephew of Walt Disney says he will retire after this race from a competitive sailing career that has spanned more than 40 years, 30 of them as a Transpac fixture.

The news has saddened the sailing community. The void created by his departure will be difficult to fill. Disney has for so long added celebrity and a splash of magic to the racing scene.

“It’s definitely the end of an era, and he’s going to be missed tremendously,” said Robbie Haines, 51, Pyewacket’s longtime sailing master. “We adore him and consider him a friend. He’s like a second father to a lot of us.”

Disney recently turned 75 and Transpac, which is held every two years, is celebrating its centennial. These considerations were factored into the timing of Disney’s retirement, even though he remains a formidable captain.

Offshore racing requires a tremendous commitment, he said, adding that he will sell Pyewacket and buy a smaller cruising boat on which he and his wife, Patty, will sail more leisurely.

As for the magic, Disney assures that it will remain for all sailors as long as there are vast blue oceans and wind for the sails.

Disney and his wife bought their first sailboat when he was in his late 20s, after their second of four children was born. They had fallen in love with the image of sailing after visiting the coast and watching a lonely little sloop returning from some unknown destination, passing silently through a sunlit patch of ocean on an otherwise gray day.

One of their fondest memories is of a late-afternoon voyage to Catalina with their two young daughters.

The setting sun had projected a shimmering orange path to one side of the vessel and a rising moon had set a silvery path to the other. The Disneys sailed over these dreamy trails as their two young daughters were playing guitar and singing “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

Years earlier, Disney had developed an interest in racing. He and two friends had gone in on a Cal-24. One day they covered the 22 miles from the east end of Catalina to the west end in only two hours. They had sailed as fast as the wind, Disney said, explaining that he was able to light a cigarette “without even having to cup my hands.”

He had already competed in his first offshore competition: the Newport-to-Ensenada race. The wind was light and the voyage excruciatingly slow, but his boat finished ahead of some bigger boats and that inspired him.

Later, aboard the 52-foot Shamrock, Disney and crew won their class in the Newport-to-Ensenada race and celebrated by getting “hopelessly drunk on rot-gut Mexican tequila.”

It was with Shamrock in 1975 that Disney, then an assistant film editor at the studio, competed in his first Transpac. His oldest son, Roy Patrick, had turned 18 and was part of the crew. It was a daunting endeavor, and the trip took 12 days. Shamrock pitched from side to side throughout, “but we made it,” Roy said. “And we knew we could do better.”

During the 1977 Transpac a wild wind raged across the Pacific. Several boats lost their masts and had to quit. The vessel Merlin and Capt. Bill Lee made the crossing in 8 days 11 hours 1 minute 45 seconds. It was almost a day faster than the previous record, set by Windward Passage in 1971.

Merlin had set a standard serious racers would strive to beat, and Disney began moving up the ladder of contention with the first Pyewacket, a Nelson/Marek 68 christened in 1987.

During the ’87 event, as the racers were closing in on the islands, a sudden 40-degree wind shift demanded an unplanned jibe from Pyewacket, and it went from first to sixth place “in the blink of an eye,” Disney recalled. Pyewacket ultimately finished fourth. Merlin, which benefited from the shift, won the race.

Disney’s determination mounted. The next Pyewacket was a Santa Cruz 70 that finished third in its class and fourth overall in 1991. By this time Disney had assembled a professional crew that would remain largely intact throughout the remainder of his career: Haines, Roy Patrick, Ben Mitchell, Stan Honey, Doug Rastello, Dick Loewy and Gregg Hedrick.

“He has always said he has no problem surrounding himself with people smarter than him,” Haines said. “He does not have a big ego, and that’s why he’s so successful.”

In 1995, Pyewacket, with a taller mast and deeper fin keel, was primed to make a serious run at Merlin’s record. But a tactical error -- a long left turn to the south, in hope of finding a better wind -- caused a delay that proved insurmountable, although the vessel still finished third.

Pyewacket’s next assault seemed doomed months beforehand. Disney had shattered his right leg in a car accident while vacationing in Ireland. Another crewman had fallen through a hatch during preparations and had broken three ribs and punctured a lung. Yet another had to pull out for business reasons.

Roy stayed behind and turned the helm over to Roy Patrick. Pyewacket’s makeshift crew, thanks to a brisk wind, responded with a run to Honolulu in 7:15:24:40.

Merlin’s spell had finally been broken.

Roy Disney was overwhelmed with pride for his son and crew, but frustrated because he was not part of the sail. He built a new Pyewacket, a Reichel/Pugh 73, and two years later reclaimed the captain’s seat and shaved nearly four hours off his son’s time to set a record that still stands.

It was a thrill ride nothing at the Disney amusement parks could rival. The skipper was wide-eyed and pumped with adrenaline as Pyewacket hurtled through the darkness, creating towering walls of whitewater on either side of the vessel.

“I never even saw the buoy or the spectator boat,” Disney said of the finish. “Gregg said the wind was 35 and the boat was doing 27, and all I could hear was the wives whooping and hollering as we went by. I remember thinking, ‘How do you stop this thing?’ ”

After so many wonderful years, the skipper has found the way.

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The facts

What: Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race, a biennial event first held in 1906.

* Where: Los Angeles to Honolulu, 2,225 nautical miles.

* When: Staggered 1 p.m. starts from Palos Verdes Peninsula are July 11 (small boats and larger Aloha Class boats), July 15 (midsize boats) and July 17 (large boats). Ceremonial 9:30 a.m. departures will take place at Transpac Village in Rainbow Harbour, Long Beach.

* Entries: 75.

* Record: 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds by Roy Disney’s Pyewacket. Barn Door trophy is awarded to the monohull vessel with the fastest elapsed time.

* Best viewing: From private boats (spectator boats may be available for a fee) or from the bluff near the intersection of Western Avenue and Palos Verdes Drive.