{"id":61364,"date":"2023-11-20T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=61364"},"modified":"2023-11-16T14:23:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T19:23:11","slug":"silent-running-classic-cal-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/yachts\/silent-running-classic-cal-40\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting the Classic Cal 40"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Cal <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Cal 40 Dancing Bear<\/i> is a fine example of a design that\u2019s reached cult status with offshore sailors since its debut in 1963.<\/span>\n Herb McCormick<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

You never forget your best day of sailing. Mine came in the waning miles of the 2005 Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, screeching down the Molokai Channel under spinnaker toward Diamond Head in 30 knots of pumping trade-wind breeze, hanging onto the tiller for dear, lovely life while surfing at 14 knots aboard a Cal 40 called Dancing Bear.<\/em> The sun was searing, the wind was howling, and the deep, blue Pacific Ocean was all the more striking set against the stunning backdrop of the green volcanic islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This remembrance, however, is not about me. Instead, it honors the legendary Cal 40, a William Lapworth design originally launched in Southern California in 1963 that has provided scores of fellow offshore sailors with rides they\u2019ll always hold dear. Though I do recall my first thoughts to a fellow shipmate soon after crossing the finish line: \u201cGod, I love a boat that\u2019s better than I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this came back to me last summer, when I joined Dancing Bear\u2019<\/em>s owner and skipper, accomplished Pacific Northwest sailor Mark Schrader, for a cruise northward from Anacortes, Washington, and up the coast of Vancouver Island. It\u2019s a far different venue and excursion than the Transpac, but one that made me appreciate the Cal 40 in a new light. This is one versatile vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outset, the Cal 40 was considered a radical, ultra-light design, displacing just 15,000 pounds with 6,000 pounds of ballast and a flat, canoe-shaped hull that was ideal for prolonged downwind surfs. What really separated it from other boats of its era\u2014hulls with long overhangs and deep, full keels from prominent East Coast yacht designers like Sparkman & Stephens\u2014was the fin keel and detached spade rudder, greatly reducing the boat\u2019s wetted surface. A similar appendage was employed in the winning America\u2019s Cup 12-Metre Intrepid, but that was four years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Next:<\/strong> An Ocean Sailor Tries Freshwater Racing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cal 40\u2019s production run lasted eight years and produced 108 boats, which are still highly sought-after. There\u2019s no question that the boat has reached cult status and that it remains highly competitive. Indeed, the overall winner of the 108-boat fleet in the 2022 Newport Bermuda Race and the recipient of the coveted St. David\u2019s Lighthouse Trophy was Sally and Stan Honey\u2019s Cal 40, Illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the Honeys are world-class sailors\u2014Stan is a renowned professional offshore racer and navigator, and Sally is a two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year\u2014and they recruited an all-star crew after Illusion had undergone a full refit. Still, Illusion was almost 60 years old. The Honeys purchased the boat in 1988 and spent the ensuing decades racing and cruising it. They decided to campaign it one final time in 2022. Their victorious attempt, covering the 635-nautical-mile voyage in 87 hours, included a textbook crossing of the Gulf Stream and a top-speed burst of 22 knots, both of which were winning highlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own trip last summer on Dancing Bear<\/em> was a decidedly more mellow affair, but we also scored our own personal highlights. For me, one of those was taking the helm on a cold, funky overnight passage from the coast of British Columbia across the Hecate Strait to the archipelago known as Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands. The sensation of driving a solid craft offshore, nestled deep in the cockpit on a tiller-steered boat, is rare and wonderful. In the wind and waves, everything balanced and in harmony, I fell in love with the Cal 40 all over again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sailor and an iconic sailboat are reunited for a voyage down memory lane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":61365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Herb McCormick","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[2128,181,614,180,2067,164],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}