Transpac Photo Gallery…
J World’s Hula Girl, heading for Hawaii… Spinnakers went up early this year. It was great.
Halfway there. At this point, we are farther from land than you can get anywhere else on the planet. All hands on deck for an evening toast to the powers that be.
Man that’s one big kite. Over 2000 square feet of spinnaker alone. Then toss in the spinnaker staysail and main, and we are talking about some real acreage for a boat that weighs in at just over 17,000 pounds. The water color is something else too…
Uh oh… the secret to J World’s successful coaching programs gets exposed… pay no attention to the coach on the tiller… “You’re doing a great job driving, Mark! Keep up the good work!” Actually we’re just horsing around. After the steering quadrant broke, we sailed the last 120 miles with reduced sail (double reefed main and #4 jib) and the emergency tiller. Since we were still trucking along at 10+ knots, it was a bit of a handful. Despite watching hopes of our podium finish evaporate as our competition reeled us in and passed us (being passed by Deception almost within sight of the finish line was painful), spirits remained high and we still ended up 4th in our class, and 22nd our of all 55 boats. It was a testament to the great team we had aboard!
And here’s the team at the awards ceremony last night at the Waikiki Shell. L to R: Mark, Jason, Tom (‘Carbon’), David, Tom (‘Sug’), Josh, Wayne. Not shown are Geoff and Tom (‘Chef’). Awesome job, Hulagins! It was a real pleasure!!
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
