Matt Pistay, who captained the R2AK-winning Team Angry Beaver has apparently added another win to his summer. Just after 2 a.m. Sunday morning July 21, the Seattle-based monohull “Team Hamachi” crossed the finish line of the 50th Transpacific Yacht Race with a corrected time of 8 days, 52 minutes, 37 seconds for their run from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Pistay, of Port Ludlow, was sailing for tactician Frederic Lafitte, the President of PYI, a Lynnwood, WA, manufacturer and distributor of parts and supplies for boats, yachts and ships. Hamachi is owned by Shawn Dougherty and Jason Andrews, also of Seattle. “They won their class, more importantly they won overall in corrected time,” said Dobbs Davis, press officer for the race, which is commonly called “Transpac.” Davis said it is possible, but unlikely, that some boat still on the course Sunday could snatch away Hamachi’s victory, since each boat’s actual time is mathematically adjusted according to a formula that takes into account displacement, length and other characteristics. This year’s race was the largest and arguably most competitive in history, with 90 entrants. That breaks the record set by the 1979 race, which drew 80 entrants. This year also featured some difficult weather. “In my analysis of this race, those like Hamachi who started the race on Friday (July 12) got the best conditions of the three start days of the race,” Davis said the fastest-rated boats started Saturday, but ran into a unique condition called the “Catalina Eddy” in which weak southerly winds make it tougher to escape coastal conditions and catch the swift west-east trade winds that make for fast down-wind sailing. The race was first run in 1906. It is organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club and is raced biennially in the odd-numbered years following World War II. The King Kalakaua Cup and other awards will be presented at a Hawaii Convention Center ceremony on Friday, July 26. See the July 24 edition of The Leader for more details on Pistay’s race.