News
Clarence MacFarlane is considered to be the founder of Transpacific Yacht Race because he helped organize the first “Transpac” in June 1906, and he skippered his own schooner La Paloma in that race. Commodore MacFarlane would be proud of his grandson, Scott Abrams, who is sailing his 16th and last Transpac this year. It will be Scott’s last Transpac because Scott passed away last November after a long and valiant battle with Leukemia.
Scott often plied the blue water between the Mainland and Honolulu. Not only did he sail to Honolulu as a Transpac crewmember — often as navigator — fifteen times, he sailed to Honolulu many times, and for many years, as the captain of the Matson containership MV R.J. Pfeiffer. This year Captain Abrams’ Transpac shipmates, along with Gloria, Scott’s wife of 47 years, decided that Scott should make one more Transpac race. Scott’s ashes will be “racing” aboard Cecil Rossi’s Farr 57 Ho’okolohe and his ashes will be scattered at the Diamond Head Buoy as Ho’okolohe finishes the race.
Photograph: Captain Scott Abrams on the bridge of the MV R.J. Pfeiffer.