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On December 27th at 2:47 pm this message appeared on facebook "An issue with an aft lower stay has caused us to retire from the race. Everyone is okay, just gutted they are not finishing the race." Here's Kialoa II under sail Kialoa II was one of the first “Maxi” yachts. The ocean racing legend was designed in 1963 by Sparkman & Stephens, and built in lightweight aluminium for the famous yachtsman Jim Kilroy. She was launched in California in 1964, and became one of the most successful yachts of her time. The boat’s design goal was to compete and win in the maxi ocean racing category. This she did fairly successfully, winning most major ocean races at least once during a racing career that spanned nearly a decade. One of her highlights was winning the gruelling upwind Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in 1971. She also won the 1965 Transpac Race (Los Angeles – Honolulu) in 9 days, 19 hours. Around 1973 Kialoa II was donated by Jim Kilroy to the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. She was sailed by midshipmen and officers and entered in local races, including the Bermuda race. In 1978 she was sold by the Coast Guard to a Martin Crowley. After considerable repairs Crowley took her through the Panama Canal to the West Coast. In 1982 she was chartered for the Victoria – Maui race, and was subsequently entered in the Clipper Cup in Hawaii.
Kialoa II was chartered for a while in Maui, and then was brought back to California and put up for sale. In 1999 Jos Fruytier, a Dutch sailor with a soft spot for historic sailing vessels, flew to Honolulu on Christmas Day and bought her on the spot. A sound hull was one reason that Fruytier decided to point Kialoa’s bow southwest into the South Pacific and begin a 20,000-mile voyage lasting over a year. He flew home periodically to attend to family and business, but eventually delivered Kialoa II to Metur Yachts in Bodrum, Turkey for a full refit, completed in 2003, before continuing to cruise Kialoa II mainly in the Med and northern Europe. Patrick and Keith Broughton bought the 73’ yawl in 2016 with the view to compete in the classic ocean races as Kialoa II did under Jim Kilroy. The man who holds the record for sailing the most consecutive Sydney-Hobart races is ready to extend his amazing sequence back on the water, after finding a novel way to celebrate the event last year despite its cancellation. Highly-regarded veteran navigator Lindsay May had sailed south in the great race for 47 successive years before COVID-19 scuppered the 2020 event. |
