transpac race on soap opera, with scott self and nigel brown

• The Honolulu Race is an invitational race for trophies presented by the Governor of Hawaii and the TranspacificYacht Club.

• The course is from the starting line located near Point Fermin, California, leaving Santa Catalina Island to port, thence to the finish line near Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii.

• The organizing authority for the race is the Transpacific Yacht Club (Transpac) and its committees.

The Trip to LA

Roby Bennett, the chief

inspector of US Sailing. We had

to meet Category 1, which is the

stiffest requirements.

A total of 75 boats, second only to 80 in 1979, started the Centennial Transpac. They came

from eight countries on four continents and 12 of the United States.

Monday’s

Start

Centennial Transpac 2005 43rd Transpacific Yacht Race

Los Angeles to Honolulu 2,225 nautical miles

Starts July 11, 15 and 17, 2005 July 11, 2005

A Soap Opera Mystery for the First Starters

LONG BEACH, Calif.---Was the smallest boat the smartest?

That question lingered long after the 33 boats that took the first start of the Centennial

Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii sailed into the fickle mists of the San Pedro channel

amid schools of dancing dolphins Monday.

Soap Opera, a Hobie 33 with green sails sailed doublehanded by Scott Self and Nigel

Brown of Rockwall, Tex., appeared to be gaining leverage to the right as most of the fleet

went left in the 4-knot southerly zephyrs off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

If the gray marine layer were to dissolve into sunshine and the channel's celebrated

southwesterly sea breeze were to fill and swing their way, the Texans looked golden. But

the outcome was still so uncertain more than an hour after the start that only the dolphins

had a clue.

The 33 boats comprised Division 5, the 14 Cal 40s and Aloha A and B classes.

Texans Nigel Brown (left) and Scott Self looked smart on Soap Opera soon after the

start.

Day 1 – July 12th

Soap Opera Follows the Simple

Course to Success• HONOLULU---They bought their combination ham-single sideband

radio on the Internet for $550, thoroughly grounded it with aluminum foil off the kitchen self and checked standard weather reports daily to see where the best winds would be.

• "We didn't try to be original," said Scott Self, who with Nigel Brown sailed his Hobie 33 Soap Opera to first place in Division V and among seven doublehanded boats in the Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.

• HChallenged America's B'Quest crew after its second Transpac finish, fourth in Division V. (Lisa Niemczura photo).Oh, and their sails were green.

• "My favorite color," said Self, a soap manufacturer from Rockwall, Tex. "We didn't have any sail problems at all, and our radio worked better than some of the state-of-the-art stuff on the million-dollar big boats. All that carbon fiber causes problems."

• Their only problem was when their heavy duty aluminum tiller broke at the head of the rudder on the 13th and final night as they were about to enter the blustery Molokai Channel with their spinnaker up.

• "The boat went on its side, but the hatch was sealed, so we weren't going to sink," Self said.

Day 2 – July 13th

Along the Way

Day 3 – July 14th

Day 4 – July 15th

Day 5 – July 16th

Day 6 – July 17th

Day 7 – July 18th

Day 8 – July 19th

Day 9 – July 20th

Day 10 – July 21th

Day 11 – July 22th

Day 12 – July 23th

Day 13 – July 24th

Soap Opera Track

Daily Arrivals – July 24

Odyssey

Morning Glory

Pyewacket

Plan B

Genuine Risk

Soap OperaMadrina

Magnitude 80

Super Gnat

Windquest

So Far

Incredible

Brown Sugar

Ralphie

B'Quest-Challenged America

First place in Division V and among seven

double handed boats in the Centennial

Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.

2005 TRANSPAC YACHT RACE - FINAL STANDINGS

Run Date: 08/01/2005 (HST)

======================================================================== FINISH TIME ELPS TIME CORR TIME DIF 2 STDGS

YACHT TYPE dd/hh:mm:ss hhh:mm:ss hhh:mm:ss SOC FIRST CL FL

===========================================================================

DIVISION 5:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOAP OPERA HOB33 24/11:10:45 313:10:45 171:14:02 7.10 0:00 1 22

BROWN SUGAR EXP37 24/18:39:23 320:39:23 179:08:24 6.94 7:54 2 35

SUPER GNAT BEN40. 24/13:58:12 315:58:12 183:42:08 7.04 12:28 3 46

BQUEST TRPP41 24/23:31:50 325:31:50 188:50:32 6.83 17:36 4 54

SHOWDOWN IMX38 25/01:35:32 327:35:32 191:32:48 6.79 20:18 5 58

DIABLO J/35 25/20:37:34 346:37:34 196:12:40 6.42 24:58 6 61

IATAIA BEN40. 25/11:48:04 337:48:04 204:18:50* 6.59 33:04 7 62

JACARE‘ J/35 26/16:02:07 366:02:07 217:16:03 6.08 46:02 8 66

Soap Opera Follows the Simple

Course to Success• "We knew we had won the division and doublehanded, so we went

very conservative," Self said. "But we were still hitting 15 knots."

• Texans Scott Self (left) and Nigel Brown display Soap Opera's heavy duty aluminum tiller that broke on the last night but didn't deter their dual victories in Div. V and doublehanded class.Their elapsed time for the 2,225 nautical miles was 13 days 1 hour 10 minutes 35 seconds, an average speed of 7.1 knots.

• Their watch system was four hours on and four hours . . . on. They finished with a plastic crate still full of food because "it was so rough we could eat only one meal a day," Self said. "One guy couldn't leave the helm and the other had to trim all the time."

• Sleep? "About one hour a day," Self said.

• Self and Brown have been sailing together for 20 years so obviously are past becoming incompatible during two weeks on a small boat.

• Brown said, "There's a real risk of that happening with some people, but Scott and I know what to expect from each other."

The Finish

Line, at Last!

Almost home

• Texans Scott Self (left)

and Nigel Brown display

Soap Opera's heavy duty

aluminum tiller that broke

on the last night but didn't

deter their dual victories

in Div. V and double

handed class

• They rigged their emergency wooden tiller in 30 minutes and were under way again, but without a spinnaker.

Things not going as planned

Press

Conference

Pasha

shipping

service

was easier

than

sailing

back

We won the 2012 Race against over 220 boats from all

over the USA,

Soap Opera is the only 3 time winner of the Harvest Moon

Regatta, which is the largest regatta in Texas