Merlin sails to the Transpac Yacht Race finish line Friday. -- MANA MEANS COMMUNICATIONS photo

The Maui News

Merlin, with Maui sailor Keahi Ho, completed the Transpac Yacht Race on Friday, arriving at the Diamond Head finish line after departing from San Pedro, Calif., on July 6.

Merlin, sailing out of Santa Cruz Yacht Club and skippered by Bill and Lu Lee, had an official elapsed time of 8 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes, 9 seconds to finish second in Division 2 to Runaway (7:19:42:58).

Merlin’s corrected time, which uses a handicap based on the boat’s rating, was 9:01:50:23 — the division winner was Pyewacket in 8:17:28:28.

Invisible Hand was the first to finish overall (7:01:20:10), and the winner on corrected time (8:03:01:28).

Merlin won the Transpac in 1977, the year it was built, in 8:11:01:45, a race record that stood for 20 years. The designer and builder, Bill Lee, was on this year’s nine-person crew.

The Transpac requires sailing a minimum of 2,225 nautical miles — the equivalent of approximately 2,558 miles on land.

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