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Alfa Romeo wins Transpac’s Merlin Trophy
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Merlin Trophy
New Zealander Neville Crichton sailed the biennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii once before some 30 years ago, but it surely couldn’t have been anything like his most recent experience.
In an awesome display of both seamanship and yacht technology, Crichton and crew guided his Reichel Pugh-designed 100-foot Maxi Yacht Alfa Romeo across the 2,225 nautical miles between Los Angeles and Honolulu in a record-setting 5 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes, and 20 seconds.
This new record run for a monohull sailboat eclipsed the previous mark set by Hasso Plattner’s 86-foot sloop Morning Glory in 2005 by over 26 hours and came very close to the current multihull record of 5 days, 9 hours, 18 minutes, and 26 seconds held by Bruno Peyron’s 75-foot catamaran Explorer, which was set in the 1997 Transpac when the boat was entered as an “invited guest.”
Once Alfa Romeo was securely docked along side of Honolulu Harbor’s famous Aloha Tower, Crichton, his renowned navigator Stan Honey, and the rest of the crew were quickly draped in flower leis and the usual questions started coming from family, friends, and the press.
“About three days before we left,” Honey answered when he was asked when he first began thinking they were going to set a record.
Not to be outdone with one-liners, Crichton, at a subsequent interview at the Waikiki Yacht Club, was asked what it takes to set a new record. “Money,” he quickly responded.
Now after winning the newly created Merlin Trophy, Crichton was asked about his future racing plans and he noted that although it was nice to be back again in Hawaii, where had lived some time ago, he was taking his boat down to Australia soon for this year’s Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race.
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