Pacific 1000 Catamaran Race : Smyth and Hill Overcome a Rough Start to Widen Lead

SAN DIEGO —  After surviving one of the roughest starts of his career, Huntington Beach’s Randy Smyth made it look easy in winning the fifth leg of the Pacific 1,000 catamaran race Sunday from Doheny State Beach to Mission Bay.

Smyth, the skipper of the Longpre Automotive boat, and his teammate Jim Hunt sailed the 50-mile course in 4 hours, 48 minutes, 59 seconds and improved their lead to nearly 46 minutes over skipper George DelBianco’s boat, Luccas, in the 12-day event that covers 1,000 miles of California coast and ends next Sunday in Huntington Beach.

At Doheny State Beach, Smyth’s catamaran was pushed back to the shore three times because of rough shore break that swelled to as high as eight feet. When he finally got going a fourth time, his boat’s rudder broke off when a large wave caused the boat to hit rock bottom.

At that point, Smyth felt rock bottom. “It was just nuts out there (at the beginning),” Smyth said. “Normally, you wouldn’t even want to go out on a day like that.”

But after acquiring another rudder and fixing his boat, Smyth went out again. He had spotted the leaders 30 minutes before getting through the shore break, but it hardly mattered. At the finish line, there was Smyth with a big lead (nearly 18 minutes) and a smile on his face. Race officials, who had seen his rough start, then driven to San Diego for the finish, had more of a stunned look.

“I don’t know what the big fuss is all about,” Smyth said. “It was a great day for racing. Once we got out there, we were able to move along great most of the way down. We had a great time.”

Smyth is used to having a good time aboard catamarans. At 32, the owner of a sail-making shop in Huntington Beach has already won a handful of Hobie Catamaran national and world championships.

But he likes racing in unlimited class events like the Pacific 1000 the best. “There are no rule limitations,” he said. “You just go for it.”

The Pacific race is the first of its kind on the West Coast. Race director John Taylor got the idea for staging a city-to-city race like this from a similar race, the Worrell 1000, run each year from Fort Lauderdale to Virginia Beach, Va.

Of the 22 boats that started from Long Beach Harbor Wednesday, only eight remain.