For the latest news from the Single Handed Transpac visit our Facebook page – Open Sailing Offshore Racing. Otherwise scroll down to see what has already happened in the race.

Photo by Bronny Daniels (www.joysailing.com)

What an amazing weekend of racing! Long Beach really delivered in 2012 with 3 cloudless days of sunshine and fantastic breeze in the high teens every single day! This year’s tag line was “Size Matters : LBRWs Biggest Fleet” and the Open 5.70 fleet drove that message home with 21 boats in all – 11 travelling from the San Francisco area and 10 local Southern California boats. This is the 3rd year in a row that the Open 5.70 fleet has been the largest at Long Beach Race Week.

Read more: Long Beach Race Week

Pogo 2 806 is now in San Francisco. We drove Thursday and arrived in Alameda around 8pm. On Friday the boat was launched and with the help from Thomas (Thomas Marine, our marine electrician for the Pogo 2) and Sylvain Barrielle (UK Sailsmaker in San Francisco), we wired the new LED tricolor mast head light, mount the new mast head fiberglass

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Only a couple of weeks before the start of our first SingleHanded Transpac with the Pogo 2. Some good news: the allergy that literally spread over my right arm like a 3rd degree burn is healing. Just had another visit at the Dr. today and it is definitely recovering well. Of course sunblock and UV long sleevesare prescribed at all (more…)

There is an Open 5.70 on the cover of “The Complete Sailing Manual” – sweet!

Long Beach Race Week will be hosting the Open 5.70s 2012 Pacfic Coast Championships this year. There are already 21 boats registered for the event. Opens owners are congregating from all over California. The class has large fleets based in Marina del Rey and San Francisco Bay. Long Beach Race Week is one of the biggest regattas in Southern California and will host more than 120 boats in more than 12 classes. Hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club and Alamitos Bay Yacht Club this event is exceptionally well run – with good breeze often reaching the low 20s and flat protected waters inside the Long Beach harbor this is the ideal venue for the Open 5.70. For the third year in a row the Open 5.70 will be the largest one-design fleet at the regatta. Stay tuned for plenty of race coverage.

With only 20 days left until the start of the Single Handed Transpac Jerome Sammarcelli has run into some health problems. A minor rash on his arm, caused by something unknown, has gotten worse the last few days and started to spread to other areas of his body. Doctors say if it doesn’t improve after the weekend, they will recommend not taking the SHTP start. This is bad news.

30 days before the start…the list of “things to do” is endless to get ready for the SHTP!

The Pogo 2 is now out of the water and on a trailer ready for transport north to San Francisco for the start of the Single Handed Transpac at the end of June. With plenty of miles already sailed on the boat there are just a few minor improvements being made for the SHTP to make the journey more comfortable and safer for Jerome Sammarcelli.

• We’re installing an AIS receiver to complement the radar detector in order to minimize the risk of collision at sea. We chose the RC10 because it consumes a fraction of the power when compared to other AIS receivers and power management on this small boat is critical.
• We added a new High Frequency NKE GPS Antenna which is more accurate than the regular paddle wheel for speed. The sailor can still switch back and forth between SOG and speed over the water. If paddles wheel speedo stop working, because the bow is out of the water (yeah!), then the GPS antenna SOG takes over automatically. Pretty cool!
• A laptop for navigation and communication. Using the satellite phone as a modem we will be able to send and receive emails as well as weather information. We are going to be using Adrena routing software to help us plan a winning route across the Pacific.

There will be plenty more over the next 30 days as we get closer to the start. Be sure to follow us on Facebook!

Santa Monica Bay provided a gorgeous weekend with spotty but workable light/medium breeze and lots of sunshine. Read more.

USA 316 was delivered just in time for Cal Race Week. The new owners, Scott and Nancy Eaton, will be racing their boat in Southern California bring the fleet up to 14 boats! “Renard”, the name of their Open 5.70, will be living in a slip in Dana Point, CA.