History

Again the light breezes greeted the assembled Fleet for the race from Los Angeles to Honolulu on July 4,1969. The light winds at the start persisted throughout the day and until the Fleet was just beyond the west end of Catalina. The time of the arrival of the “Big Wind” varied with the rapidity with which the individual yachts crossed the Channel. Early in the evening of the first night a strong westerly greeted the Fleet, which buried rails, smashed gear, tore sails and even partially destroyed some of the yachts.

A light southerly breeze greeted the participants in the Los Angeles to Honolulu Yacht race on July 4, 1967. Through a gray haze, the fleet maneuvered for starting positions at an artificial line set west of the Point Fermin buoy off San Pedro.

One owner never did finish the race. He never started. A. K. Barbee, owner of the Zoe H., arrived at the Los Angeles Yacht Club on Terminal Island at 2:00 P.M., July 4, two hours after the starting gun. There “surrounded by a mountain of personal luggage,” he sought the Race Committee’s permission to go after his boat. Permission granted, he took off across the channel in a chartered Harco 40. Search as they would, however, they couldn’t find the Zoe H. (In retrospect it seems likely that Zoe H. had already rounded the west end before the speed boat arrived in the area.)