We are part of a three-boat team. Our Nemesis from last time, Team Azure in their Cal 40 and the Santa Cruz 50 Oaxaca. We should probably be called Team 113 as we believe that is the total age of the three boats in total and also happens to be the number of years since the first Transpac race was held.
The race is arranged every second year, and only abrupted by wars, this edition is the 50th, a great anniversary. Having sailed a bunch of races around (being a Norwegian), I am thinking that the Transpac is something special. It is the oldest of the real classics in terms of ocean races. For normal people, the longest ocean race, and as being a category 1 race in terms of safety, it is a long way to go to be able just to get to the starting line. Despite of that, 92 boats have found the way, from Hobie 33s, Cal 40 and Santa Cruz class, up to the foiling MOD 70s, Comanche and other state of the art racing machines. We are thrilled that we can join this, 2 of us also did two years ago, 2 are rookies.
Two years ago we had to accept being defeated by the Azure team. After we sailed back from Hawaii to the west Coast, we were hanging a lot with Rodney and Ted especially, and even though we were not too happy for them in the race, they were not so bad after all. They have invited us to fight for the Storm Trysail Club Trophy together with Oaxaca. Azure won the last race and Oaxaca has got several top results lately, so we have high hopes for success. We are all in different classes and the point is to have best possible results, position not corrected, for the three boats in total. In other words, you should cheer a bit for the two others as well, not only for us. Until now, it unfortunately looks like Azure could need some cheering as they were number 4 on the last update, but there are still some miles to go.
Attached is a photo of the birthday celebration with delicious cake from on board Nådeløs today!
