SoCal 300: MIGHTY MERLOE sets new record; INVISIBLE HAND wins overall

QUOTE-UNQUOTE: The Pac 52, INVISIBLE HAND, skippered by Frank Slootman was the overall SoCal 300 winning team. According to the tactician on board, Gavin Brady, the team was racing the SoCal 300 for the first time as a qualifier for Transpac. "We have always wanted to do this race. Not a lot of races are run this way and the way the points work out, you need four really good legs. It's one of the hardest trophies to win in the United States." H.L. Enloe's ORMA 60 Trimaran MIGHTY MERLOE was the first boat to finish, breaking last year's pace by over an hour with an elapsed time of 22 hours, 9 minutes, and 18 seconds. This is the new course record, earning the team a place on the new perpetual Multithull Trophy. One of MIGHTY MERLOE's crew, Jay Davis, claimed that their forward-thinking ways were helpful during the challenging portions of the race. "We had to switch things rapidly when the breeze filled as we were going around the islands. Those minutes as the breeze filled were the most precious minutes. That's all we had to get prepared for the next move." –Emily Willhoft writing on the California Offshore Race Week website. Full story.

Congrats to SoCal 300 overall winner INVISIBLE HAND, Frank Slootman's new Pac 52. Photo courtesy of our longtime friend Sharon Green via the California Offshore Race Week website.