Transpacific Race as lead-up to 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

• NEWS
• 18 Jun, 2003 09:49:00 AM

Transpacific Race as lead-up to 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

Krakatoa, which recorded the fastest elapsed time in 58 years for a boat under 10 metres LOA in last year’s Hobart Race, early next month will contest the 2,225 mile Transpacific Yacht Race as a lead-up to the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart.

The small Sydney yacht Krakatoa, which recorded the fastest elapsed time in 58 years for a boat under 10 metres LOA in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, early next month will contest the 2,225 mile Transpacific Yacht Race as a lead-up to the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Krakatoa, a Young 31 owned and skippered by Rod Skellet, sailed the 630 nautical miles in 3 days 7 hours 49 minutes 45 seconds, a performance now recorded on the new Battery Point Trophy for small boats.

Skellet, a director of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia,  lodged his application to enter this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on the eve of flying out with his crew to prepare Krakatoa for the 42nd running of the US ocean classic from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Two yachts, the first being Craig Coulsen’s Trumpcard from Brisbane,  have already entered the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2003 which starts in six months time, on Friday,  26 December.

Krakatoa is one of three Australian boats among the expected fleet of 64 starters in the Transpac, the others being James and Jenny Neil’s Reichel/Pugh-designed Super 30, The Cone of Silence,  from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club,  and Bill Rawson’s much travelled Adams 60, Helsal II, from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria in Melbourne.

Krakatoa and The Cone of Silence will be among the smallest yachts in the Transpac fleet that is dominated by boats of between 40 and 60-foot LOA.

Heading the largest Transpac fleet since 1985 are two Reichel/Pugh designs,  Philippe Kahn’s 77-footer, Pegasus, from Honolulu,  and Roy E Disney’s 75-footer, Pyewacket  from Los Angeles, in Division 1.

The Division 2 fleet includes the new Transpac 52, Beau Geste,  skippered by Hong Kong yachtsman Karl Kwok who won the 1997 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with a Farr 49,  also named Beau Geste.  

The Transpac fleet will set sail on three difference days,  July 1, 4 and 6,  with Krakatoa and The Cone of Silence starting on July 4,  Helsal II on July 6.

The race is generally a downwind slide,  although the fleet is likely to encounter some windward work until they clear the Californian coast.

“I have a tremendous crew of experienced offshore smallboat sailors…committed to doing our best on the water,” Skellet said today  “I am really looking forward to that famous Transpac welcome in Honolulu.”