Transpac: MIGHTY MERLOE first to finish; sets new multihull elapsed time record

HONOLULU – Congratulations to HL Enloe and the crew of the ORMA 60 trimaran MIGHTY MERLOE, the first to finish in the 2017 Transpac Race, and new holders of the multihull Transpac Race record elapsed time! MIGHTY MERLOE has been racing just about every West Coast offshore event for the last few years, often with no multihull competition to measure themselves against. Getting the opportunity to welcome PHAEDO3 and MASERATI to the West Coast, go head to head against them and come out on top is a dream come true for Enloe's team.

Enloe sailed this year's Transpac with his team of Steve Calder (Main Trimmer), Jay Davis (Bowman), Artie Means (Navigator), Loic Peyron (Helm), Franck Proffit (Helm), Will Suto (Grinder), and Jacques Vincent (Co-Skipper).

MIGHTY MERLOE crossed the finish line under helicopter escort at 17:03:30 (HST) on Monday, July 10th. Their elapsed time of 4 days, 6 hours, 33 minutes, 30 seconds beats the 20-year old record of Bruno Peyron's COMMODORE EXPLORER by more than a day, previously set at 5 days 9 hours 18 min and 26 secs.

[With full marks, no pun intended, to Mark Michaelsen, who predicted in our SAILING ILLUSTRATED post earlier tonight that MM would finish at 1707 HST. Mark was off by only 3m30s. –TFE]

Photo courtesy of Sharon Green / Ultimate Sailing, via the Transpac 2017 website.