After Tuesday’s drifting start in the Transpac Race, competitors tracked down a fresh breeze in the San Pedro Channel which held as they passed Santa Catalina Island – the only mark of the course 23 miles out. The first boat around was ‘There and Back Again’, a Tripp 40 sailed by Robert Rice of Long Beach.

However, on projected corrected handicap time, Stan and Sally Honey’s Cal 40, Illusion, from Palo Alto, was the overall leader among the 10 Cal 40s, 11 Alohas and four racing division 5 boats. Illusion had sailed 117 miles and led all the Cal 40s, boat for boat, with the Pillsbury family’s Ralphie second and Don and Betty Lessley’s California Girl third.

Doug Ludden, an unofficial observer following in his own Cal 40, said, “As soon as the wind filled, There and Back Again just took off and left everybody. The wind went round to the west and everybody got lifted. And the fleet got around the West End without having to tack.”