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After overtaking the race leader near the finish line, Roy P. Disney’s Pyewacket 70, a modified turbo Volvo 70, took line honors in the 2021 Transpacific Yacht Race as the first boat to cross Diamond Head Lighthouse at 2:53 a.m. on Friday.
Disney, grandnephew of Walt Disney, finished in a personal best five days, 16 hours, 53 minutes and 20 seconds as the Pyewacket 70 won the Barn Door Trophy, awarded each race to the “Fastest Monohull Elapsed Time” in the race.
Pyewacket 70, which departed from California on July 17 as part of Division 1, became the second fastest monohull in Transpac history, falling just 51⁄2 hours short of the record, set by Comanche in the 2019 edition of the race.
The Pyewacket retired early in that 2019 race after rescuing their competitors from a sinking ship.
In this year’s running of the race, the Pyewacket 70 also set a Transpac 24-hour record at 506 miles sailed in the timeframe.
“It was a great race,” North Sails Expert and Pyewacket 70 crew member Brian Janney said in an Instagram post by North Sails. “A little light in the beginning, but the wind filled in for the second half. We were able to set a new Transpac 24-hour record of 506 miles.”
A few hours after the Pyewacket finished, the team it overtook, Cecil and Alyson Rossi’s Ho‘okolohe, became the second team to arrive. Finishing at 8:39 a.m., the Ho‘okolohe is a ship with strong Hawaii ties. Among the nine-member crew is Hawaii’s Foster family, with father Fuzz Foster and his sons Fizz and Travis Foster.
Fuzz and Fizz sailed with the Ho‘okolohe crew in 2019, with Travis joining them for the first time in this year’s race.
“I made a deal with Travis in 2019 that if I ever did another Transpac, he would be part of the crew,” Fuzz told Sail-World. “Every parent should be as lucky as me to do something like this.”
The Ho‘okolohe spent nine days, 22 hours, 39 minutes, 36 seconds at sea. The yacht was among the first to depart from California on July 13, as part of Division 8, which was won Friday by the Ho‘okolohe.
Prior to finishing the race, the Ho‘okolohe stopped in the lee of Diamond Head and dispersed the ashes of four former crewmates.
“It’s kinda hard with age, getting older,” Cecil Rossi shared with Sail-World. “You miss not sailing with your friends.”
The arrivals of the Pyewacket 70 and the Ho‘okolohe are expected to set off a wave of other finishers in the coming days. Follow along with the progress of the race on YB Tracking —
yb.tl/transpac2021#
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