- Local News for Southern Sailors
- December 2001 Next Story
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TRT 1200 GT debuts on the southern racing scene
By Don Wigston |
Every October—
around the full moon—several hundred sailboats race overnight from Galveston to Port Aransas, TX. For most boats it is overnight and over the next day—a straight shot in the Gulf of Mexico (dodging a few oil rigs) and 155 nautical miles from start to finish. Multihulls are welcome, and for as long as I can remember there has been a strong multihull class.
Of late the dominant multihull has been the Newick 48 Bird, which has been featured in Multihull magazine and typically finishes several hours ahead of the fleet while winning the Port Aransas Mayor's Cup Trophy for first multihull to finish. Bird is fast, earning her a PHRF rating of minus 120.
I was invited to crew with former F-27 owner Tony Townsend, who, together with his wife Karen, now own a new TRT 1200 GT called Thalia. Aptly, Thalia is the Greek goddess of good cheer. I had previously raced once on a TRT 1200 in the Faerder Race in Norway, where we managed the fourth fastest time out of 1063 boats, but this was the first TRT in the United States. I was intrigued to find out how we would stack up against Bird and the rest of the fleet.
The TRT 1200 GT is a fast boat but also has surprisingly spacious accommodation with two queen-sized beds and two doubles as well as a full salon and large galley. It is more of a racer/cruiser than a true racer like the Newick. On its maiden voyage, our boat was clocked at 26 knots, loaded for a 1,000-mile crossing of the Gulf of Mexico en route to the Miami Boat Show earlier this year.
Our crew consisted of Tony and Karen, Bobby Fulmar, Bobby's son Jessie, Austin Hutto, and myself. These guys had sailed together quite a bit so I tried to stay out of their way as much as possible and just let them do their thing.
We took an inside course, staying closer to shore than most other boats and slowly but surely overtook the multitude of monohulls that had started hours before us. By nightfall, the only two boats still in front of us were Bird and Mike Zotzky's F-28R Persevere.
With four drivers on board we were able to drive the boat hard through the night. The sail plan on Tony's TRT was designed for short-handed sailing and cruising—main, roller furling 120 per cent jib, and symmetrical spinnaker, and it turned out to be just the ticket. Although we longed for a screacher in the early stages (the F-28s with screachers were keeping up with us, and in some cases were able to edge out in front), by nightfall the breeze picked up and veered. For the rest of the race we were on a very tight reach on port tack, fully powered up with just the main and jib, and we rapidly left the F-28s behind.
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It was very easy on the crew. From the starting gun to the finishing horn, we never tacked once. It was a blast to drive the boat almost to the point of lifting the windward hull, rudder half out of the water, spray vaporizing off the leeward hull. We sailed in pairs, with one crew tending the mainsheet and traveller at all times, should the helmsperson give the word to ease.
The wind was around 12 knots, and our speed hovered in the nine to 14-knot range all night with a high of just over 17 knots. Unfortunately the overcast sky obscured the full moon, making the unlit oil rigs challenging to find in the blackness, but we threaded our way through without any particularly scary moments. We couldn't see our opposition either.
As we zeroed in on the lights of Port Aransas, we heard the radio crackle to life.
"Bird to race committee. We're rounding red number 6 now."
We couldn't believe our ears. This meant we couldn't be more than 20 or so minutes behind them. We rounded the red marker in turn, bore off down the channel into the harbor, and crossed the finish line 24 minutes after Bird.
The TRT 1200's PHRF rating is minus 21 to Bird's minus 120, so they owed us more than four hours. Our main concern at this point was how close behind were the F-28Rs. Although they were scored in a separate class, we didn't want to be beaten.
Our answer came almost two hours later as we were sitting in a restaurant having breakfast. Zotzky's F-28R, winner of the Corsair class, entered the marina too late to get us on corrected time.
The TRT 1200 averaged 10.6 knots over the entire course with Bird averaging 11 knots and the fastest F-28R 9.4 knots. The first monohull to finish was a Santa Cruz 52, crossing the line nearly three hours after us, while the first J/105, billed as a fast boat, finished more than five hours after us. By the time they finished, we had a good breakfast at a local establishment and had several welcome hours of sleep in our queen-sized beds!
The term racer/cruiser gets misused a lot, but I would have to say the TRT 1200 has to be the ultimate racer/cruiser.
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