Peter Cunningham’s PowerPlay finished second overall in the 50th Transpac; she safely returned to the Bay Area over the weekend. The skipper was kind enough to send us a report, excerpted here.
“We finished second by 31 minutes to Argo,” said Cunningham. “We got stuck in a hole after the start in light winds while Argo just managed to stay in the wind out of San Pedro and through Catalina. They were able to outpoint Comanche and [Manouch Moshayedi’s Merlin Trophy winner] Rio100 as well as us and get in the fresh wind first, so we were about 100 miles behind after about 19 hours.”
“But no one got disheartened,” Cunningham continues, “and we just kept nibbling away at their lead. Si-Fi [navigator Simon Fisher] was brilliant and the drivers were really pushing hard, keeping the boat on the edge all the time in difficult sea conditions. We used Loïck Peyron,” the exceptional French sailor, “on the helm for all sail changes as he is a master. He was such fun too!”
Once again, kudos to the crew of PowerPlay, which also included Ned Collier Wakefield, Matthew Noble, Charlie Ogletree and Paul Allen.