HistoryFrom the starting line off Point Fermin, everyone knew that Transpac ’85 was going to be different. A spinnaker start in a southeasterly is not the norm. neither was the expanded size of the Pacific high or reports of light winds along the tradewind route to Honolulu.
But the fleet of 64 boats reached out into the Pacific with hopes that the north Pacific weather pattern would work back to normal in a day or two. Instead, it got worse. The first five days of Transpac ’85 were the slowest since the 1939 race. The ’85 Transpac fleet was extremely competitive — nearly two-thirds of the boats were less than two years old. Most noticeable were eight new ultra-light maxi raters: CITIUS, KATHMANDU, BLONDIE, DRUMBEAT, CHEETAH, PANDEMONIUM, PRIMA and SWIFTSURE III. Added with Transpac veterans MERLIN, RAGTIME, and SAGA, this made for a very hot 11-boat first-to-finish class.
Seven Santa Cruz 50’s headed Class B, which also included two Santa Cruz 40’s, two Nelson/Marek 55’s, a Farr 55, a Davidson 52, a Barnett 52 and a few big IOR boats. But it was MAGIC, ex-SUNSET BlVD (previous class winner), that won this impressive class. Designed by Eva Hollmann, MAGIC was skippered by James Hoskinson of Cal Yacht Club.
Class C was very mixed. Boats ranged from sIr ISAAC, a 49 foot schooner, to previous class winners ARRIBA and TOMAHAWK, three 40-foot ultra lights, five IOR boats, and three out-and-out cruising boats. At the bottom of the class were three new Express 37’s. These untested boats put in a dazzling performance taking the top three spots with Kent Greenough’s SECRET OF NIMH winning.
Class D again produced the top overall boats. MONTGOMERY STREET, a 20-year old CAL 40 racing in her eighth Transpac — her seventh under owner James Denning, this time with son Dave Denning as skipper — won overall honors. The much-modified Richmond Yacht Club boat sailed the 2,225 mile course in 13 days, six and a half hours. Finishing two hours behind MONTGOMERY STREET for second in Class D and second overall was Dean Treadway’s Farr 36 SWEET OKOLE. TREADWAY and OKOLE were first overall in the 1981 race.
Most of the interest in the 1985 race, however, was riding with Class A. How fast were these new 70-raters? Could they break the record set by MERLIN in 1977 when she rated 90? The 33rd Transpac wasn’t going to give us the answers. Four days out, the downwind flyers weren’t a match for millions of Portuguese man-of-war that passed them by on a glassy sea. The maxi’s had split up with four boats heading south and the rest hanging on the rhumb line. For a few days the rhumb line looked good. Then on the fifth day, the southern maxi’s made 75 more miles than the northern ones. When the tradewind sailing finally began after six days of nursing zephyrs, the southern boats, led by Nick and Bob Frazee’s Nelson/Marek 69 SWIFTSURE III, remained 75 miles closer to Honolulu for the rest of the race.
While the tradewinds were certainly welcome, they didn’t blow hard enough to really break the big boats loose. And the few squalls that did appear were relatively windless — unlike the monsters of previous years.
With Keith Simmon’s Nelson/Marek 68 PRIMA less than five miles astern, SWIFTSURE III passed the Diamond Head buoy just before dawn after 10 days, 19 hours, and 21 minutes of racing. SWIFTSURE’s time was more than two days off MERLIN’s eight day, 11 hour record set in 1977. so 1987 will have to be the year for true 70-rater surfing competition. saved by the trades in the last half, Transpac ’85 won’t go down in history as the slowest race. It was, however, very competitive… and in a sense more difficult as yachts scratched for all the speed possible from the available winds. It was not the thriller everyone dreams of, but again… a race of pride and accomplishment.