The Arrivals
While there will be exhilarating moments in a distance race, whether short or long, those that stir the greatest emotions are the start and finish. The magic of the start, however, is often blurred in the frenetic lead up to striking the line—all the planning, the boatwork, the anxiety of getting a clean lane off a crowded line, the uncertainty of what’s to come, and the cloud of one’s own expectations. Time and miles pass. Watches change. Position updates come and go. The distance to the finish ticks down nautical mile by mile. And then, suddenly, the finish line is not some faraway point on the laptop, but a sharpened focus of energy, adrenaline and determination. This is the final push toward the most satisfying and fleeting moment of the race—a true sense of accomplishment, win or lose. And this feeling is especially true for the sailors of the Transpac Race, which spans more than 2,000 miles of the pulsing Pacific. As a tradition today, those who enter the Molokai Channel in daylight come to expect the thwap of helicopter blades and the sight of a diminutive photographer perched at the chopper door cradling her enormous camera lens. It’s Sharon Green, the queen of Fresh to Frightening, and this is her domain. Like a modern-day siren, her presence above spurs everyone on deck. Don the crew shirts and surf the yacht like you stole it because when the shutter clicks, that magical moment will be forever captured—an image to be shared, admired, and hung as proof that you have arrived. ■
Jason Carroll’s Argo crew reengineered the record-breaking trimaran’s foils to endure the long and loaded miles of the Transpac, but engine issues after the start sent them back to port for
repairs. The team returned to the course three days later as an unofficial entry and, despite
record-worthy conditions, the seasoned MOD70 team was well outside the record when
photographer Sharon Green captured them blistering toward the finish.
For more than four decades, photog-rapher extraordinaire Sharon Green has captured sailing in a way that is all her own: impossibly rich and color-ful images that are always technically perfect and composed. The arriving yachts of the Transpac Race are her favorite subjects, and for this year's arrivals, the elements all aligned.
Giovanni Soldini’s Multi70 Maserati (top) was one of three multihulls to start the Transpac. However, with its shipping container of racing sails and race foils stuck in customs, the Italian offshore legend was handicapped from the start, stuck in “nonflying mode.” Still, the team connected from Los Angeles to Hawaii in four days, 23 hours and 55 seconds, finishing second to Justin Shaffer’s first-to-finish MOD70 Orion. Raymond Paul’s Botin 65 Artemis (above) explodes through the seas in the Kaiwi Channel. With a few fast miles to the finish, the crew can practically taste the mai tais after completing this atypically mild edition of the Transpac in just over nine days. John Raymont’s Fast Exit II (opposite) makes a grand entrance into Honolulu and the finish line at Diamond Head. Sharp chines and a redesigned bow profile gave this 11-year-old Ker 52 a new look and life that got them down the track in nine days.