We recently posted about the 83 year old yacht Dorade, which won the 2013 Transpac. it was not however the first yacht across the finish line. That honor goes to Lending Club, a racing trimaran; specifically an ORMA (Offshore Racing Multi-hull Association) 60 lengthened to 73′. She is sailed by Long Beach business owner John Sangmeister and his Tritium racing team with the sponsorship of Lending Club, which describes itself as “an online financial community that brings together creditworthy borrowers and savvy investors.” Sangmeister had hoped to set the race record for a multihull in the 2013 Transpac. They came very close, but were defeated by, oddly enough, the Japanese tsunami of 2011, or more specifically debris from the tsunami.
For the last two years, we have been posting about the debris washed out to sea by the tsunami which struck Japan in 2011, triggered by an 8.9, on the Richter scale, earthquake. Everything from the wreckage of homes to a 150′ fishing trawler have been found drifting in the Pacific. An estimated 400,000 tons of debris is believed to be still drifting eastward.
Lending Club struck patches of debris thee times during the race, damaging the yacht and gear. Comments by Skipper John Sangmeister: