HistoryThe 1981 race was one of the great ones. There were enough thrills, chills, and spills to satisfy everyone—steady winds all the way, two men overboard, a rescued crew from a broken up catamaran, a record-breaking passage attempt that failed by 46 seconds, four disabled rudders, two dismastings, and the longest boat-for-boat, headto-head duel in Transpac history.
The start was scheduled for 1300 PDT Friday, July 3. In contrast to the normal pattern of Transpac starts, the westerly began to fill in early this year, and by race time it was blowing 12 to 15 knots; later in the afternoon, it increased to 18 knots.
A few minutes before the start, the 1981 race witnessed its first casualty. The J-36 GRYPHON, sailing up the line on the port tack, was passing under the 58 foot ketch, NATOMA, as she was coming down the line on the starboard tack. As the smaller boat hit the wind shadow of the larger, she righted suddenly, locked rigging with the Ketch’s mizzen mast and was dismasted.
The first night had hardly begun before things started happening. One of the catamarans in the six boat multi-hull fleet, which had started its own honolulu race that afternoon, broke up around 9:00 p.m. somewhere southeast of San Nicholas Island. The six crewmen were rescued by Willard Bell’s WESTWARD, which had sighted a red flare close aboard. WESTWARD carried the crew the rest of the way to honolulu under very crowded conditions, and thus were denied any chance of placing in the race in spite of a special time allowance. By Sunday night, three of the racing boats had dropped out: REGARDLESS with a rigging failure, RODEO DRIVE dismasted from backstay failure; and DRIFTER with rudder problems.
The night of July 9 was overcast and darker than the inside of your hat. At 2330, TRAVIESO, out of San Diego, was running before the Trades under spinnaker and main. The boat’s partially bagged blooper lying on the foredeck appeared to be in danger of washing overboard. Joe Neale went forward to stow the sail, but before it could be secured it went over, carrying the lifeline stanchion with it—followed by Joe Neale. Bruce Nelson, the first man to come up on deck, released the life ring, then took a position beside the compass so he could maintain a reciprocal bearing on the strobe light on the man overboard pole. The life ring had dropped within 100 feet of Neale, so he was able to reach it in about two minutes. At 2355, 17 minutes after Neale had gone overboard, the relieved crew of the TRAVIESO fished him out of the water.
At roll call on July 10, MERLIN reported a new Transpac record daily run of 304 miles. This broke her old record of 302 miles which she had set in the 1977 race. The next big question was whether or not she would break her own record of 8:11:01. She had to average 11.45 knots to do it. On July 11, MERLIN charged through the search-lights at the finish line running down the swells at close to 20 knots, but she was just 46 seconds too short. Time of the finish was 9:02:31 p.m. HST. Her total elapsed time was 8:11:02:31.
At 10:54 sunday morning, RAGTIME finished with a demonstration of how to sail down the Molokai Channel the hard way—no spinnaker, no main, no rudder; just twin headsails, wing and wing, on two spinnaker poles. The Santa Cruz 50 fleet began to come in early Monday morning led by HANA HO and SHANDU at 1:55 and 1:57 HST, respectively. OCTAVIA surprised a lot of folks by sneaking in from out of nowhere at 5:27. OAXACA finished at 6:40 and SECRET LOVE at 10:34. CHASCH MER came in at 12:47, trailed by NIGHT TRAIN at 16:02 that afternoon.
As a commentary on modern boat design, it is interesting to note the following. In 1923, the 107 foot Gloucesterman Schooner, MARINER, set a Honolulu Race record of 11:14:46:00, which stood for 26 years until four boats in the 1949 race bested her time. In the nine races between 1923 and 1949, 125 entries had failed to match MARINER’s record. now in 1981, 26 boats —approximately one-third of the fleet-had accomplished this feat. Furthermore, another six boats were to finish within an hour and 10 minutes of MARINER’s time. The last of these, WESTWARD, with fourteen people aboard, came in at 1:55:30 Wednesday morning, for an elapsed time of 11:15:55:10.
SWEET OKOLE’s performance was even more outstanding. Dean Treadway and his Bay Area crew were not only the first Class D boat to finish, but they had beaten all but two of the Class C boats into Diamond Head, as well as ten Class B’s and one Class A. In the process, they were about to win first in Class D and First Overall. The 1981 race had been one of the fastest in history. The Pacific high had cooperated by maintaining a stable, favorable position throughout the race. The winds had been steady, but not too strong, ranging from 10 to 25, except for two temporary lulls on the mornings of July 13 and 14. The tradewind squalls had been frequent — about half of them containing rain — but the peak gusts rarely, if ever, exceeded 35 knots. under these wind conditions, it is not surprising that the rhumb line course proved to be the best. In the final analysis, the 1981 race had to go down as one of the great ones, right alongside 1949, 1955, 1965, 1969 and 1977. The race had a lion’s share of great boats, great crews and great sailing. like a great round of golf, it left almost everyone eager to have at it again. The lord willing, they’ll get their chance in 1983.
- Excerpts from Transpac History by Jack Smock