Gladstone's Owner Aims for World Record in Transpac Sailing Race

John Sangmeister, the owner of Gladstone's restaurant in Long Beach, will attempt a world speed record when his 73-foot sailboat departs Point Fermin Saturday in the biannual international Transpacific Yacht Race to Honolulu.

Aboard The Lending Club, skipper Sangmeister and his crew are currently underway from Long Beach's Rainbow Harbor, and posted this YouTube before setting sail Saturday morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZA62cSWbiE

On it, Captain Ryan Breymaier introduces the eight other crew members dockside and even shows the food they'll live on - Sun Chips and oranges, anyone? - for what they hope will be less than the current record of five day, nine hour  18 minutes, and 26 seconds.

The Tritium Racing team's goal: 4 1/2 days in which they, and all the other competing sailing teams will travel more than 2,225 nautical miles - 2,560 miles or 4,121 kilometers - during the annual Transpac from San Pedro to Honolulu. Departure days were staggered this week for 59 competitors, with slower boats starting first and the "grand prix" big vessels leaving Saturday, so that more boats finish the same day.

According to Sangmeister's team, Bruno Peyron set the current Transpacific Yacht Race record in 1997 aboard Commodore Explorer, an 86-foot catamaran, and the original Transpac race took 12 days in 1906.

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