HistoryThe 1994 Tahiti Race may well go down in the record books as the World’s longest Match Race. While a dozen boats expressed early interest in the race, only SORCERY and KATHMANDU crossed the starting line in Los Angeles harbor at 1310 on June 24, 1994. SORCERY, a Mull 82, was skippered by Jake Wood, a veteran of five Tahiti races. KATHMANDU, a Santa Cruz 70, was skippered by Fred Kirschner, an avid ULDB-70 racer. The boats were closely matched in terms of official ratings but quite different in design, with SORCERY displacing about three times as much as KATHMANDU. Both skippers were highly motivated to beat the course record (17d.07h.57m.55s.) set by TICONDEROGA in 1964.
For the first few days SORCERY was about a mile ahead, each boat reeling off 260 mile days. On the second night out, SORCERY jibed south, while KATHMANDU stayed on starboard tack heading West. The boats separated by as much as 300 miles. There was better wind farther West, and KATHMANDU opened up a lead it never relinquished. For KATHMANDU, the race was mostly a headsail reach with #2 and #3 genoa, and the chute was used for only 72 hours. KATHMANDU blew out her mainsail three days before the finish and sailed without it for 24 hours while being repaired. KATHMANDU crossed the finish line off Pointe Venus on July 9 after 14d.21h.15m.26s. (time allowance was based on a formula developed by Tom Wilder and Olin Stephens), averaging 10 knots, and SORCERY on July 10 after 16d.0h.49m.12s., but not in time to save her time allowance of 14.1178. Although both boats beat “Big Ti’s” record, KATHMANDU established a new course record taking 2d.l0h. off Ti’s record.