The Tale of Two MaxZ86s

Today’s Photo of the Day is of the modified MaxZ 86 Pyewacket, which was built for Roy Disney, as seen crossing the finish line at the end of July’s TransPac. Thanks to record light winds, it’s close to the fastest she got going during the entire 2,100 miles.

The boat had been built for Roy Disney several years ago and he raced her in the Pacific, both sides of the Atlantic, and the Caribbean, often against her sistership, Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory. Then he donated her to the Sailing School at Orange Coast College.

Early this year, Disney had a change of heart, and not only decided to charter his old boat back, but to spend big bucks to maximize her in an attempt to set what might be called a ‘legacy’ course record. The modifications were extreme. Check out, for example, the original 30-ft bow of Pyewacket – now sitting on the grounds of Orange Coast College – which had been wacked off so it could be replaced with a longer one. Also at the Orange Coast grounds are various canards, keels, canting keel mechanisms and other detrius of big time racing efforts.

Unfortunately, the winds were extremely light in this year’s TransPac, and the impossible happened. Pyewacket didn’t break the record established by her sistership and rival, Morning Glory. And now Pyewacket is on the hard in San Diego, seriously for sale by Orange Coast College.

As for Morning Glory, Hasso Plattner, thanks to his SAP software fortune, had the means to match Disney’s extreme modications for the TransPac, but elected not to. He shipped his boat to the Med instead. The boat’s navigator, former Marin resident Mark Rudiger, reports that they won the World Maxi Championship in Sardinia last month. "The MaxZ 86 is still a great design," said Rudiger, "as in 20 knots of wind she’s almost as fast upwind as the best 100-footers, and off the wind, we were actually gaining on them. Those 100-footers are hard to sail well, so the 86 is still a great design." Rudiger will be at St. Tropez early next month for Morning Glory‘s next big regatta.

So did Disney make a big mistake by modifying his old boat? Hindsight is 20-20. If the new Pyewacket had crushed the old TransPac record, nobody would even ask the question. Disney took a calculated risk, and it didn’t work out as well as it could have this time. No matter if you’re playing with 86-footers or 20-footers, that’s yacht racing.