Honolulu, Hawai`i (July 13, 1997) -- Roy Pat Disney and crew aboard Pyewacket sailed into the Transpac history books today as the first monohull ever to break eight days on the 2,225-nautical mile course when the crossed the Diamond Head finish line early this morning.

Their arrival at 1:24 AM Sunday on the Santa Cruz 70 turbo sled designed by Bill Lee established an elapsed time record of seven days, 15 hours, 24 minutes, 40 seconds in the 39th biennial race.

Pyewacket was skippered by Disney and Robbie Haines. Navigator was Stan Honey. Other crew members were: Rick Brent, Dan Crowley, Zan Drejes, Gregg Hedrick, Doug Rastello, Dick Loewy and Ben Mitchell.

Owner Roy P. Disney broke his leg in a car crash in Ireland earlier this year and was not aboard. Instead, he held court on shore from a wheelchair with his leg propped up in a cast as the boat pulled into the dock.

Roy Jr. and Honey, celebrating their 12th Transpac together, took advantage of Perfect race conditions. On July 7 Pyewacket reported a record 336-mile day sailed over a 24-mile period, a distance that was later bettered by Victoria, reporting a 337-mile day.

"I wouldn’t change a thing on this race," Honey said. "It’s the perfect boat and the perfect crew, and from my standpoint we sailed just the right course." The only setback he could recall was a five mile loss when the spinnaker went overboard and they had to go back and get it.

When asked if there was anything he would change about their race, skipper Disney replied: "Starting with Medicine Man, the weather was better for them."

Four different divisions started off Point Fermin, California on four different days in varied conditions. Medicine Man’s division had good wind on July 2 while Pyewacket's Division I drifted across the start in five-knot winds.

"I could have taken twelve more hours out of the record by doing that," Disney added.

All their weather equipment broke about 1,000 miles out, so Honey reconstructed the weather off the radio by drawing his own weather maps.

"He’s he best navigator there is, but there’s one thing that Stan never had until today, and that was the record," Disney added. "he’s won three times and he finally got the record."

"It’s nice to have Roy beat me," said Medicine Man’s owner Bob Lane, who broke the 20-year old record two days earlier and waited apprehensively for the bigger boats to finish to see if they could better his time.

"It’s nice that we’ve both broken the record and a couple of other boats out there are going to break the record also," Lane said. None of the boats still left to finish will be able to beat Pyewacket's time.

"We knew when we finished it most likely would be broken again," Lane said. "It shows that the record is made to be broken and it’s also nice to have the record held by a couple of Southern California boys. That’s always fun."

Disney’s name will be affixed to the coveted Barn Door trophy, a large, solid koa plaque presented to the boat that is first to finish on elapsed time.

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Last modified July 13th '97 1949 Hawaiian Time