Tom Akin had a lot to say about sailing Flash, a TP 52, to Hawaii. His initial comments were, ‘I found out what is its like to be in a TP52 for seven days.
‘You sit in water, you eat in water, and you sleep in water. It’s wet. The beast is not as luxurious as my Santa Cruz 52. I was looking for a creature comfort and couldn’t find one.’
Akin, his crew and Jeff Thorpe, Criminal Mischief’s navigator, worked non-stop over a very short period of time to get Flash into racing condition. From the time the boat arrived in Long Beach, two weeks before the start, until the evening before they took off, the deck was strewn with rigging materials, sealants and tools. The work that they did paid off. With more than half of the Transpac fleet safely docked in Honolulu, Flash sits second in class and second in fleet.
Akin had nothing but praise for each and every individual who sailed Transpac 09 on Flash…Â Details