After a month of sitting around in the yard, Pi was ready to get back in the water.
Sasha and I spent four solid days working on her. We put another coat of paint on her hulls, changed out a cutlass bearing, checked the valves on the generator.... and did some other not very interesting maintenance stuff.
As far as we can tell, the Endo Corporation of Japan was a 6-time repeat client, ordering 1/4, 1/2 and 1-tonner racing yachts in the early 1970s. Most of not all were built by the Kato Boat Company of Yokosuka City, Japan in either wood or fiberglass. Here we have the one-tonner Sunbird II. She was built of wood and launched in 1970. She is based on
Principal Dimensions LOA 38'-7" LWL 29'-7" Beam 11'-5" Draft 6'-6" Displacement 17,903 lbs Ballast 7,180 lbs
That's a great race (84 racers) and I will be following it here. The weather this year will be very particular and strategy regarding routing (no outside help) will count for much. In 2 days they will get some nasty weather and after that several routing options are possible. Here is the tracker:
Remember that there are two classes, the proto and the boats that are produced (Serie). on the proto Frederic Denis is already well ahead of the pack on this boat (proto):
Quite a surprise since he is not a top gun and the boat (designed by Marc Lombard) is not new, having made the 2012 race with Antoine Rioux and in 2013 with Gahinet. The boat had problems and Gahinet was recovered by fishermen. Later the boat was extensively recovered for the new owner and this race.
On the serie Benoit Hantzperg is leading but with lots of boats very near. This guy on a brand new Pogo 3: Not also among the favorites...but it is a long race (4000nm) and it is just beginning. Here the main site and this year in English too: http://www.minitransat-ilesdeguadeloupe.fr/?lang=en
Congratulations to Jean-Pierre Kelbert (JPK), his boats dominated the race: The first two to arrive were JPK and on the 8 that arrived already 5 were JPK!!! He sailed himself on the first leg (Saint Nazaire to Madeira) the new JPK 10.80 to the victory. He did not sail the boat on the second leg and curiously the victory did not go neither to any of the two big rivals, the JPK 10.80 or the Sunfast 3600, probably the two fastest boats but to a JPK that had already entered the realm of legendary boats, winning all that was to be won, in real time and handicap, the JPK 10.10, first and second on this Transat.
The third boat to arrive was a big surprise, a boat that I had always considered a very good offshore boat, an Elan 350, a boat from another league that showed that he can be as fast offshore as much more expensive boats. He arrived on the tails of the second JPK, crossing the line 9 minutes later.
The 4th was another legendary boat, a Sunfast 3200 that beat his new and more powerful brother, the new 3600 that arrived next followed very close by the new JPK 10.80 (1 hour 40m). Then two more JPK 10.10 closed the first 8 to arrive.
All the above were duo teams, the first Solo did not arrive yet but two boats are very close to the finish and away from all the others. If all goes right the first Solo boat will be a Jeanneau 3200 and the 2nd another JPK 10.10.
The big loser is Archambault, many times winner of this race with the A35 and with very good results with the A31....well, where are they? What happened? I am very surprised not to see them on the leading positions this year.
