A recapitulation of the Transpacific Yacht Race must be a multiplicity of stories. Each class sailed an entirely different race, because of the variation in the wind conditions related to the position of the boats.

 

The noon start on July 4, 1965, was made in light air with haze that lifted rapidly just prior to the starting gun. A light westerly brought the yachts to the west end of Catalina. reaching off toward san nicholas Island the winds increased until finally by midnight the velocity was in excess of 18 knots. From this point there was a wide separation of the fleet; some staying close to the rhumb line and others sagging off to the south for speed.

 

About the third day the leading Class A boats ran into the southeast storm which had been reported at our weather briefing. They experienced winds in excess of 50 miles an hour, according to reports. There were many sails lost and broken spinnaker poles in this melee. The confused sea, created by the southeast storm, combined with the normal northwesterly swells, made the sailing sloppy and difficult.

 

Those boats, which sailed a southerly course, ran into some aspects of this storm in all classes, while those boats that sailed the northerly course up near the rhumb line, experienced moderate airs with no gusts in excess of 25 knots. The storm passed north and West on a curved slant arising somewhere below the Cape of San Lucas and dissipated itself into the Trades, behind the Pacific high, ahead of and above the A boats, about the fourth day.

 

Those boats that passed the southerly course, experienced winds of sufficient strength to blow out spinnakers, and in many instances break spars.

 

Those boats without spade rudders, found surfing in the big seas to be difficult and the boats were hard to control. There were five masts lost in the fleet, none of these boats had spade rudders.

 

The boats in the northern group near the rhumb line essentially sailed the entire race with a 1.5 ounce spinnaker and experienced no gear failure.

 

After eight hundred miles out, the scoot down the big seas in the Trades made an exciting but uneventful sail to a comparatively tame Molokai Channel and finish at Diamond Head.