THE HARBOR COLUMN:

As you may have heard, the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum is the new home of the Transpac’s elapsed-time trophy, which was presented last Wednesday by Roy E. Disney and Andrea Favilli. The 4 ½-foot tall trophy is now on permanent loan to the museum. However, the trophy will visit Hawaii if someone breaks the elapsed-time record.

Roy asked Andrea to design and create a trophy for the 1997 Transpac Race, so Andrea went to work with his wife creating this work of art. I had a good time speaking with both Roy and Andrea at the luncheon Wednesday, and while speaking with Andrea I could feel his passion for this trophy.

I was amazed to learn the amount of thought, research and effort that was involved in its creation, not to mention the castings being made in Italy.

I have invited Andrea to be a guest on my radio show so he can tell the amazing story from conception to building the trophy by hand.

As I mentioned in last week’s column, this is an honor for the museum to be selected as steward for this award and another feather in the cap for the Newport Harbor.

You need to see this masterpiece in person at the museum to appreciate the artwork, plus you will enjoy it even if you are not a boater.

Tip of the week: Find out more about the Transpacific Yacht Race at www.transpacificyc.org. In this race, skippers compete sailing across the wide open Pacific Ocean from Long Beach, finishing off at Diamond Head in Hawaii. The sailboats will travel more than 2,200 nautical miles, depending how many degrees of latitude the skippers change to avoid the Pacific High area of little wind.

I have skippered mega yacht deliveries between Hawaii and the mainland, and believe me when I say it is a long way off the beach when you are 1,100 nautical miles from the nearest land. The boat begins to look very small on the vast ocean.

Remember to tune in every Saturday at 11 a.m. to Capt. Mike Whitehead’s Boathouse Radio Show on AM 830, with 50,000 watts to Southern California broadcasting from our studios inside Angel Stadium, or at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.

MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating columnist. Send marine-related thoughts and story suggestions to [email protected] or go to www.boathousetv.com.