| Frank Ross Prankster Olson 30 |
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 This will be Frank's first singlehanded sail to Hawaii although he has sailed in the 2003 TransPac and has quite a few blue water singlehanded miles in his logbook. Frank has had Prankster for a little over 2 years and has been working to get the 25-year-old boat ready for such an arduous adventure. Having the start in San Francisco adds an additional level of complexity to the preparations but the up side is SF is 200 miles closer to Hawaii than Long Beach is.For a qualifier Frank did the 2004 Guadalupe Island race that is put on by PSSA. Normally the race is a 300 mile spinnaker run to the island and a 300 mile beat back to weather but this year it was a 300 mile beam reach down in storm conditions and a spinnaker run back in light wind. "I broke a lot of stuff on the trip down but that is good in that it pointed out the weaknesses on the boat and gave me more confidence in my ability to jury-rig and improvise." Repairs will be complete before the boat is delivered to the Bay Area in early June. "I suppose that it is obligatory to offer some explanation for why you want to do such a thing as the Singlehanded TransPac. Well, I am an Engineer and not a psychologist so I have a hard time analyzing my own behavior much less expressing it coherently to others. I just like to sail and I particularly like to sail singlehanded although sailing with crew is nice also. The SHTP is the epitome of singlehanding at least on the West Coast and I believe that my sailing career has advanced to the point where I can compete at that level. I guess the best explanation is the classic 'It's a bug light for kooks with boats' at least that captures the spirit of being compelled to do something without a single rational justification for doing it."
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