Pasha Hawaii is pleased to be a sponsor of the upcoming 2013 Transpacific Yacht Race.

As a race participant, you are invited to utilize Pasha Hawaii's ocean shipping services to transport your vessel safely home from Honolulu. We know how to take care of boats, having carefully shipped more than we can count over the years - 24' to 60', we lovingly take care of all them equally. If you are interested in shipping your boat home, we'd love to talk to you about it!

Please contact Catherine Nugent at The Pasha Group at (415) 927-6570 for special 2013 Transpacific Yacht Race related rates.

Transpac is pleased to announce that we have partnered with The Modern Honolulu hotel to offer special rates for Transpac 2013.

Click here for more info.

Urban Miyares of Challenged America

Very rarely do you get to meet a person as inspiring as Urban Miyares, the current president and co-founder of the adaptive sailing program Challenged America. The story of how, and why, he was inspired to join Challenged America back in the mid 1980s is quite astonishing, and for perspective, bears repeating as often as possible. In 1968 the then 20 year-old Army Sergeant Miyares’ platoon was engaged in a fire fight, when he slipped into a diabetic coma. Left for dead, Miyares was placed into a body bag where he spent 2 days until an alert medic detected a heartbeat. Miyares spent the next six months recovering in a military hospital, but the event left its mark. “I’m totally blind, I have diabetes, several organ transplants, and a whole number of medical issues.” Due to severe nerve damage in his lower extremities, Miyares is considered a walking paraplegic. Miyares doesn’t let any of it slow him down; he has solidly engaged life more than most able-bodied people!

Miyares sailed as a youth, and after his experience in Viet Nam, he never thought that he’d be able to actively sail again. In the late 80s he was invited aboard a Beneteau First Class 10 to race in the Oceanside Race, he remembers, “It was a windy day, we had some problems on the boat, and all of the sudden I started remembering things from years past.” He and his other crew members, who were also disabled vets, began thinking about developing an adaptive sailing program, and Challenged America was born! Through Challenged America, Miyares has reached thousands of disabled vets by getting them aboard sailboats. Challenged America has a small fleet of adaptive sailing boats at their facility in San Diego, and a testimonial from one of their clients says it all, “The phrase ‘leave your disabilities at the dock’ could not be more true! When I’m on the water, at the helm of a sailboat, and enjoying all the sights and sounds of San Diego Bay, I forget about the wheelchair sitting on the dock.”

This year there are several great opportunities to attend a US Sailing Safety at Sea Seminar.

The Transpac 2013 Notice of Race paragraph 8.1 requires that "At least 30% of a yacht’s crew including the owner/charterer and watch captains must have attended a US Sailing sanctioned Safety at Sea Seminar within the last five years before the start of the race. For double-handed entries, both members must have attended the Safety at Sea Seminar within the last five years."  If you are not sure of your last seminar date, you can look it up at http://offshore.ussailing.org/SAS/Seminars/SAS_Attendees.htm

The SAS dates for 2013 on the West Coast are: January 19 at OCC/NHYC in Newport Beach, February 24 at Cal Maritime in the Bay Area, May 19 at Berkeley YC in the Bay Area and the last chance - July 7 at Shoreline YC in Long Beach.  If you are in another area of the country or for full information click here for the full schedule for 2013. http://offshore.ussailing.org/SAS/Seminars/SAS_Calendar.htm

Please note the new location for the May 19 SAS!  It will be held at Berkeley YC!

Please also let your crew know about these dates, and it's a good idea to have a couple of extra folks on the crew certified, just in case.  If you are considering a ride on Transpac, it's a very good idea to get yourself qualified here also.

If you are planning to attend one of the SAS seminars it would be very helpful to the organizers of the event if you would please fill out the short survey (link below) that asks which seminar you are planning to attend and how many will be attending. It will assist the organizers to be prepared for the number of people attending.

SAS seminar survey (Click to open)

Aloha Safely!