The Story of the 1978 Tahiti Race

The Eleventh Tahiti race was sailed by four boats. The start was conducted from Harold Barneson’s DRUMMUIR with winds of 8 to 10 knots which got the fleet around Catalina before the afternoon winds died. SORCERY took an early lead and seesawed with TULA on corrected positions. SORCERY found the Inter-Tropical Convergence (the Doldrums) about the 8th day about 8° north latitude. She regained some speed after only half a day of slatting and took off again with a three-day lead on the rest. TULA and WESTWARD were stuck there longer to do some tacking to find wind again. CELEBRATION really ground to a halt, but after two days, one just sitting, another on a side trip, she got going. her corrected finish time compared well with the actual elapsed time of the scratch boat SORCERY. The Tahiti Committee, composed of members of the Yacht Club de Tahiti, was chaired by Patrick Bonnette and Christian Regaud was Finish Race Chairman.

The Trophy Presentation was held at the residence of the High Commissioner of French Polynesia, Paul Cousseran, who was in Paris, but his beautiful and charming wife hosted Transpacific Yacht Club for cocktails at noon. The race Communications were tremendously enhanced by the Transpac Race's long-time friend, Ray Natua, our Tahiti radioman. Each morning, Ray would call us at the hotel and give us the daily positions received from Brian Carter aboard TULA, so handicapper Tom Wilder could compute the corrected times. Ray spent hours each day relaying reports, filling in on weather information and assisting in various arrangements. To our great sorrow, Ray Natua passed away suddenly later in the year.

Even though the Tahiti Race was sailed by a small fleet, we continue to show our burgee in dramatic ports.