SAILING : Disney Surges, Still Trails DeLaura

Roy Disney’s Pyewacket got back into the middle of the 37th biennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Saturday by logging the longest run of the fleet--239 nautical miles--but was still 50 miles behind John DeLaura’s Silver Bullet, which is in pursuit of Neil Barth’s Persuasion.

Persuasion and Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory from Germany started a day earlier and were the only two boats left between Silver Bullet and the Diamond Head finish line. Persuasion, six miles ahead of Morning Glory and 64 ahead of Silver Bullet, had 569 miles to go.

The Excel 53 was projected to beat Silver Bullet to the finish by 30 minutes late Monday night.

Winds were reported to be from north-northeast at 4 to 17 knots, which might explain Pyewacket’s collapse from second to 11th place among the ULDB 70s a day earlier. The Santa Cruz 70 climbed back to sixth place, rejoining a cluster of boats running slightly north of the direct course to Honolulu.