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SHTP Finishes Up
With the arrival of Randy Leasure’s Westsail 32 Tortuga, the 18th Singlehanded TransPac has come to a close. The deadline for the race is this Saturday, but all boats — with the exception of Derk Wolmuth’s Vindo 40 Bela Bartok (more on that in a moment) — were in and swaying in the warm Hawaiian breeze by yesterday afternoon, giving racers plenty of time to rest up for Saturday’s awards party at Tahiti Nui’s new Luau Lounge.
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Ken ‘The General’ Roper was determined to finish his 12th, and supposedly final, SHTP — but he’s said that before — in style by crossing the line with Harrier‘s star-adorned spinny flying. Unfortunately a spinnaker wrap soon became a spinnaker knot, so while his finish was definitely memorable, it probably wasn’t what he’d hoped for. Regardless, the 84-year-old retired brigadier general was greeted like the hero he is.
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In the meantime, the racers have worked out a plan to recover Bela Bartok before she comes ashore at Maui. Through their incredible generosity — in time and money — they’ve secured a boat to go out to her location today and drop two racers aboard to bring her safely into port. Wolmuth, who reports that he’s recovering nicely from a case of septic shock due to a staph infection, is due into Oakland on a cargo ship today.
We’ll have a full report on the race, as well as Wolmuth and Bela‘s rescue, in the August issue of Latitude 38.