The Renegade did what she could, but without winds, the 73-foot sailing cruiser could not cut through water as well as the smaller boats, so she ended in her division's last place.
But as members of the Renegade's crew, local businessmen Greg Gardner and Owen Carney said the Transpacific Yacht Race was a success.
"At the end it was a great bunch of guys, and it's always an adventure," said Carney. "When we got into the trade winds and the boat got really planing and going, Greg and some of the other guys had never experienced that, so that was really exciting."
But the trade winds were blowing far offshore this year - despite warnings of a tsunami that never happened - causing the Renegade to fall well behind its expected finish. As featured in National Geographic magazine, the Renegade is a 73-foot yacht with a 100-foot mast and 6,000 square feet of sail. With a capacity of 30 knots, the Renegade is by far the fastest yacht in Canada, according to its owner Dan Sinclair. And last time the Renegade raced the Transpacific, she was first to finish the 2,225 nautical miles from L.A. to Hawaii.
"The winds were good leaving Los Angeles, and then we had about five days of overcast and we didn't get into the trade winds until the last day," said Carney. "So with our big boat it wasn't sailable, we would've wanted to get into the trade winds sooner."
The crew didn't leave with the coveted "barn door" - a three and a half by four-foot plaque of hand-carved Hawaiian koa wood bearing the words "first to finish" - but in the nine days and 11 hours it took to complete the race, they earned a more enduring reward, new friendships.
"At the end it was a great bunch of guys, and a great adventure," said Carney. "Most of the crew is coming back at the end of March for a ski week in Whistler."[email protected]
