History

The fleet that came to the starting line for the 1983 race to Honolulu was an exceptional one. Of the 66 entries, 50 had been built in the last four and one-half years — half of these 50 in the last eighteen months. So it was a very new fleet and therefore a quite competitive one. In the end, though, as has happened so often in the past, the deciding factors prove to be choice of course and the weather

The 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.

The Thirtieth Honolulu Race set several new records, though not including speed! It had the largest fleet, probably the finest fleet, and the largest foreign entry list.

The start, west of Point Fermin, was in little wind, which quickly turned to a fresh northwest breeze and by morning roll call from uss PRAIRIE, record first-day runs were posted; some over 200 miles. Considering that the first day is only 19 hours, that’s a record. Two boats, NIAD and TAHUNA dropped out off of Catalina with rigging failures.

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.