Royal Blue

by Sharon Green May 13, 2025

Oh, that water! That sparkling, rich royal blue that caresses the yachts as they hurtle toward Honolulu on the Transpacific Yacht Race, as depicted in the April 2025 pages of the Ultimate Sailing Calendar. Truly a regal, ‘blue blood’ event, for nearly 120 years, Transpac has been the Grand Dame of ocean racing. And it never ceases to inspire and spawn the most spectacular, dynamic images from our maestro, Sharon Green.

Featured on the April pages of the 2025 Ultimate Sailing Calendar is Argo, whose thrilling arrival was long-awaited and lauded. The 70-foot one-design trimaran had started with their fleet of MOD 70s – Justin Shaffer's Orion and Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati – but shortly after the start was KO’d with engine failure.

Skipper Jason Carroll posted, “A fairly simple engine issue was to blame, but we couldn’t in good conscience continue as we rely on the engine to charge our battery and run the water maker. It was not something we could fix at sea.” Although the boats must sail the entire 2,225-mile course to Hawaii, a working engine is vital for lights, navigation and other systems. Carroll continued the team was, “gutted to have left the pitch early in this year’s Transpac.”

But three days later they set sail – unofficially this time, however with TPYC graciously providing tracking and the vital safety net of the fleet, and a grand and glorious arrival in the shadow of Diamond Head. In the meantime Orion had finished in a swift 4 days 17 hours 48 minutes, with Maserati five hours later.

“Their arrival was perfectly timed for a daylight finish,” Sharon said excitedly. Once they DNF’d and were out of the running they could depart at will and narrow down their arrival time. “Yes, it was all about the photos!” she laughed. Argo had been first-to-finish in the 2019 Transpac, but was too far offshore at sunset to reach, and finished at 11PM.

So in the 2023 race: “Finally,” Sharon explained, “we headed out to intercept Argo, on a spectacular morning.” They had kept Sharon apprised of their progress, ETA, and trajectory into the Molokai Channel. “I had a great pilot and was able to capture this shot with my Canon EOS R5, using a slow shutter speed at 1/40, with a 100-500mm lens.”

The slow shutter speed technique emphasizes the movement of the water rushing by as Argo soars over the royal blue seas, contrasted by Jason and the Argonauts in brilliant lemon-yellow gear.

 

Fickle weather made it trickier to get this stunning image of Zeus, inset on the April pages of the 2025 Ultimate Sailing Calendar. The sun directly overhead, struggling through a thin cloud cover, put Sharon to the test, but still she pulled it off with this head-on photo of the Australian i52 plowing through the waves. “I was delighted that I was able to capture the beauty of this gorgeous boat, and the reflection in the metallic Capri blue hull, using a 100-300mm lens with a fixed f/2.8 aperture, and 3200 shutter speed, and the same Canon EOS R5.”

Michael Firmin’s Zeus took third place in the elite Division 1, missing first place honors by just 10 minutes on corrected time – proof of how competitive the 2,225-mile race from Los Angeles to Hawaii is.

Transpac provides multiple opportunities to capture breathtaking images – from the exciting starts, rounding Catalina Island, charging through the Molokai Channel, and finishing at Diamond Head, and we are anticipating another thrilling edition of the race in July! “Transpac 2025 is heating up with over 60 entries,” Sharon continued. “We have already begun with the mountain of logistics required from start to finish: helicopters, chase boats, and accommodations for the staggered starts, then flights, and more helicopters, chase boats, and accommodations for the finishes!”

“Our assignment is to photograph every boat at the start, which is slightly simpler since we know when each division starts and have a team of photographers on the docks, the racecourse, and in the air,” Sharon added. “Honolulu finishes are expected to take place over about a week and are more challenging, as we strive to capture every finisher, provided it is light out. So the photo/video team is on call for all finishes.”

I (Betsy) handle all the tracking and ETAs and orchestrate the on-the-water and aerial teams with a daily schedule – often rallying the troops at 5AM with dock-out and flight instructions! If there is a glimmer of daylight, we will set out to capture the finish.

Look next month for notes on our March and May images by the dynamic duo who make up Sailing Energy!

Written by  Betsy Senescu

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