TRANSPAC RACE PREP

How a group of determined mostly military veterans built a race team

- Eric Burian

Editor’s note: In July of 2019, after 10 days on the race course, the Andrews 70 sloop Trader crossed the finish line in Hawaii to complete the 2019 Transpac Race. Trader’s race wasn’t a winning effort according to the official race results, but for “Team Trader” the completed race was a resounding success, the result of intensive planning and training of a team of 10 sailors, many of whom were military veterans with little or no offshore sailing experience. As Team Trader prepares to compete in the 2021 Transpac, 2019 race navigator Erik Burian, a retired U.S. Navy nuclear submarine commander, looks back on how the 2019 race effort came together and how Team Trader will approach this year’s race.

The 2019 Transpac effort started in the summer of 2018 when retired USMC Colonel Doug Pasnik and his wife Karen Fetzer hosted a group of sailors that regularly sailed with them aboard SY Trader, a 1993 Andrews 70, at their home in Kaneohe, Oahu. As skipper and owner of the boat, Doug announced his intention that night to enter the 2019 50th Transpac race the following summer. This was both a considerable leap into a major sailing endeavor and also what Pasnik viewed as the next logical step in the evolution of Team Trader.

In the nearly three years since that challenge to advance to the next level of blue water sailing, Trader has come a long way, in both sea miles and as a capable vessel for veteran outreach, a vehicle for veterans to mentor younger shipmates, and an expanding opportunity for rising women sailors.

Rescued from Hong Kong boatyard