History

Much of the finishing excitement occurred during the night-time hours, in the glare of the Diamond Head searchlight instead of under the warm Hawaiian sun. The first excitement was four “maxis” charging down the channel in their final sprint for first-to-finish, crossing the line within a span of less than thirty-seven minutes! The elapsed time intervals between yachts were: 17 minutes (between 1st and 2nd), 7 minutes (between 2nd and 3rd), and 13 minutes (between 3rd and 4th). The finishing order of those four was SILVER BULLET, BLONDIE, TAXI DANCER and MONGOOSE.

Transpac ’87 had all the classic elements: an extremely competitive 55-boat fleet, hard sailing the first few days, incredible mid-Pacific surfing, several new records set, a dramatic rescue, and close finishes. The only thing lacking was wind in thefinal days of the race.

From 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.

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