Kenwood Cup 1988

The Maxis on the charge in reaching conditions off Hawaii - Sorcery leads Il Moro di Venezia, Ondine VII and Matador

This post features a selection of great photographs by Sharon Green (Ultimate Sailing) that capture some of the action during the 1988 Kenwood Cup held in Hawaii. A total of 45 yachts entered the regatta, which was the sixth biennial sailing of the Hawaii International Ocean Racing Series. Competitors came from Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The series was a combination of the Maxi World Championship, the Champagne Mumm World Cup and the Kenwood Cup, all rolled into a single event. Given its status, the regatta featured the biggest fleet of Maxis ever assembled in the Pacific, and included Congere, Emeraude, Il Moro di Venezia, Kialoa, Matador, Ondine VII, Ragamuffin, Sovereign, Windward Passage II and Winterhawk (ex-Ceramco New Zealand). It was also the first series in which a team from the United Kingdom would compete in the Cup, consisting of the yachts Indulgence VI, Juno and Yeoman XXVII.

Action aboard Maxi yacht Ondine VII

The Olympic triangle races again proved to be the most exciting part of the series as the steady tradewinds in the 20-knot range assured excellent racing conditions. Unfortunately Kialoa was dismasted during practice and was unable to compete agains the stellar fleet assembled in Hawaii. The two new fractionally-rigged Maxis, Il Moro di Venezia and Windward Passage II were clearly faster than their older masthead rigged rivals. It was, however, the smaller yachts that lead the fleet on handicap as Irv Loube's One Tonner Bravura (US) sailed to three first places in the Olympic triangle races to win the Hawaii Silver Jubilee Trophy. The Australian One Tonner Sagacious V was hot on his heels with two second paces, but fell off the pace in the third triangle race.

Bravura leads her One Ton rivals around a wing mark during one of the Olympic triangle races

No records were set in the Molokai Race due to the prevalence of light winds resulting from a tropical disturbance south of Hawaii. The race started in moderate trade winds of 10-12 knots which would drop to five knots by the morning. Windward Passage II was leading the fleet by 15 minutes at the turning mark and although she then sailed into a hole just before the finish line, she managed to protect their line honours position by just two minutes from Sorcery. The smaller yachts were left becalmed off Molokai's North Shore and the overall winner on corrected time was Jubilation, from Santa Barbara, while Bravura faltered with an 11th place to fall behind Sagacious V by five points in the top individual yacht standings. 

A close start amongst the One Tonners, with (amongst others obscured) Once a Jolly Swagman leading Sagacious V, Seikaiha, Kaitaro IV, Ultimate Challenge, General Hospital, Bravura and Black Jack

The Around the State Race was also sailed in lighter than normal winds which again meant that no records would be set. Windward Passage II continued to show her impressive form as she lead the fleet around the course finishing over six hours ahead of the Australian Maxi Sovereign. Sagacious V relinquished her hold on the overall honours after retiring with rigging problems. Bravura put in an excellent performance by finishing second behind Chicago yacht Insatiable, and secured overall individual honours and the King Kamehameha Trophy.

Insatiable (fifth overall and first overall in Class D)

In the team competition for the Kenwood Cup, the Australia Red Team of Great News, Sagacious V and The Esanda Way, and the USA Red Team of Bravura, Champosa V and Insatiable established their early dominance for the coveted trophy. However it was the Australia Red Team that were finally able to narrowly win the Cup by just five points.

Sagacious V (ninth overall and second overall in Class E)

Matador (13th overall and second in Class A) to leeward of Ondine VII

Yeoman XXVII (29th overall and fourth in Class C) rounds a leeward mark

Jubilation (second yacht overall and first in Class C)

Champosa V (17th overall and third in Class C)

French 'mini' Maxi Emeraude (30th overall and eighth in Class A)

The Japanese Farr 43 Mimi (ex-Equity) (13th in Class E and 27th overall)

Sorcery (18th overall and fourth in Class A) to leeward of Matador

Japanese One Tonner Victoria (seventh in Class E and 14th overall)

A happy looking crew aboard Insatiable

Brazilian One Tonner Black Jack (ninth in Class E and 20th overall)

Ondine VII

More photos from this series can be seen here.

Article dated April 2022

Lady Be (Frers 45)

Lady Be was the first of the production Beneteau 456, after Beneteau decided they needed a fast offshore yacht in their production range. She was designed by German Frers and, although supposedly a production yacht, the hull was constructed in Kevlar and carbon-fibre/foam sandwich with a stripped out interior. She was 13.8m (45.3ft) long, with a beam of 4.2m and displacement of 9,225kg, and carried a rating of 35.4ft.

Lady Be in hard reaching conditions (photo Facebook)

Eric Duchemin was recruited by Beneteau to campaign Lady Be for the French Admiral's Cup trials and just failed to gain a place. However, she came under the eye of Peter Blake, who was looking for a yacht to charter for the hastily prepared New Zealand Admiral's Cup team where she would join Neville Crichton's Frers 43 Shockwave. 

Lady Be 

Crichton had initially planned for Shockwave to be a member of a New Zealand team, but when no other boats came forth for selection, he campaigned Shockwave in the Australian trials. Despite her dominance of that series, however, Shockwave was not selected and Crichton found himself with a hot boat in need of team-mates. He managed to goad the New Zealand sailing fraternity into action, and Ian Gibbs joined the fray by chartering Swuzzlebubble IV, the former Epiglass New Zealand (Wee Willie Winkie), a Holland 40 and near sistership to his earlier Swuzzlebubble III which was top individual yacht in the 1981 Admiral's Cup.

Lady Be rounds a windward mark during the second race of the 1983 Admiral's Cup, just ahead of US yacht Locura

Blake thought that Lady Be could be made competitive for the Admiral's Cup, particularly if Duchemin stayed on, and chartered the French yacht. Following an unremarkable 16th place in the first race of the series (where Shockwave finished last after incurring a 23 place penalty), Blake proved his point in the second race when, in a reasonable breeze in the Solent, Shockwave and Lady Be had a great race together to finish third and fourth respectively. That was as good as it got however, as lighter winds in the two ocean races put the bigger boats like them out of the running. The Channel Race was a small boat benefit, and Lady Be finished in 41st place, with Shockwave not much better in 32nd. In better conditions in the fourth race, Lady Be finished 17th and then 16th in the Fastnet race finale, to finish as 19th yacht overall, with the New Zealand team taking sixth place.

Lady Be seen here during the 1983 Admiral's Cup, trying to outrun the smaller yacht Almagores (Peterson 43), which finished second on individual points and was part of the second placed Italian team (photo Phil Uhl)

Lady Be powers upwind under full main and no.3 genoa (photo Facebook)

Lady Be to windward to team-mate Shockwave at the start of the second race in the 1983 Admiral's Cup (photo Johnathan Eastland | Ajax)

Lady Be leads Scarlett O'Hara downwind during the second race of the 1983 Admiral's Cup (photo Alan Sefton | NZ Yachting)

The following sequence of photos are of Lady Be taken by Larry Moran on the long downwind leg of the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race during the 1984 SORC. Lady Be was sailed by Francois Chalain and finished in 3rd place in Class C (and 14th overall) with division placings of 8/2/2/1/9/8.

Lady Be during the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race during the 1984 SORC (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be on her way to second place in the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be with Bravura and Secret Love (overall winner of Class C) following (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be with Bravura and Secret Love following, and Invictus out to the left (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be with Bravura and Secret Love following (photo Larry Moran)

Another photo of Lady Be during the 1984 SORC, this time by Guy Gurney

It is understood that Lady Be was sold to Russell Hoyt in Newport, R.I. and renamed Destination where she was actively raced on the US east coast. In 2009 she took part in the ARC 2009 race under the ownership of Jurgen Dobbelaer and with her original name of Lady Be. Unfortunately she had to abandon the race due to leaks in the rudder post. She was transported to Muiden in the Netherlands in 2010 and is in service as a charter yacht for day trips on the IJsselmeer (as of 2016).

Article updated July 2024

Admiral's Cup 1991 (Part 2)

This is a second set article on the 1991 edition of the Admiral's Cup (won by France), featuring photographs from Derek Stroud (recently transferred from his original slides). The first article can be seen here.

 Corum Diamante (France)

Container (Germany)

Wings of Oracle (Britain)

Mandrake (Italy)

Corum Saphir (France)

Container

Vibes (USA) and Cyclone (Australia)

Cyclone

Port Pendennis (Britain)

Wings of Oracle

Rubin XII (Germany) leads Corum Rubis (France) and Unibank (Denmark)

The video of the 1991 Admiral's Cup can be seen here:

Featured Photos - 1983 and 1984 SORC

This is the second installment of photographs of some US and European yachts competing in the Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) in 1983 and 1984 (the first installment was in December 2012). The photos have featured in a number of threads by Larry Moran (Chicago) on the Sailing Anarchy forums. Larry was an active semi-professional yachting photographer at the time, and has kindly granted permission to post some of my favourite images from his collection.

Thunderbolt, Nelson-Marek 41 (Rodney Wallace), 32.1ft IOR, 5th in Class D and 22nd overall, seen here in the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race (photo Larry Moran, Chicago)

Pied Piper, Peterson 43 (Serendipity design, owned by Richard Jennings), 33.1ft IOR, 4th in Class D and 19th overall, St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race, 1984 (photo Larry Moran)

Bravura, Frers 46 (Irving Loube), 35.4ft IOR, 8th in Class C and 34th overall (photo Larry Moran)

Merrythought, Frers 45 (Jack King), 34.4ft IOR, seen here competing in Class 1 in the 1983 series (photo Larry Moran)

Zero (photo Larry Moran)

Pied Piper (photo Larry Moran)

Evergreen - Frers 45, here in the 1983 Miami-Nassau Race (photo Larry Moran)

Gauntlet, Kaufman 45 (G Freidrichs), 34.6ft IOR, 9th in Class C and 31st overall (photo Larry Moran)

Infinity - Holland 47, 36.2ft IOR, John Thomson - seen here competing in Class B in the Miami to Nassau Race 1983 (photo Larry Moran)

Secret Love, Peterson 45 (B Herman and Lowell North), 34.7ft IOR, winner of Class C and 8th overall, seen here in the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race 1984 (photo Larry Moran)