THE FIVE KIALOAS — I
'Kialoa III' with everything up during the epic 1975 Sydney Hobart Race, when she set a new elapsed time record that stood for 21 years.
Kialoa III was once sailing royalty — the queen of the maxis. To this day, she remains one of the most successful racing yachts ever built. But in the present era of high-tech flyers with carbon-canting everything, she is hopelessly anachronistic. That said, she is still one of the most beautiful yachts ever built and on that merit alone, we think she deserves high respect. Her appearance also brought back great memories of the days of old when knights so bold sailed huge boats with skyscraping rigs and what seemed like a square mile of sails. Our hearts pound just remembering the power and glory of a fleet of 80-ft IOR battlewagons beating upwind toward the Golden Gate with two dozen guys on each windward rail, or roaring downwind in a foamy bluster at speeds in the teens under upward of 4,000 square feet of straining sail. Those scenes, and much of modern sailboat racing, might have been a lot different were it not for a Southern California entrepreneur, bon vivant and never-say-die sportsman named Jim Page 66 •
Latitude 38
• January, 2016
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Kilroy. It's hard to overestimate the influence ‘Gentleman Jim' had, not only on sailing in general and the maxi class in particular, but on the emergence of SoCal as a leader in the aerospace industry; civic matters in and around L.A.; local and national politics; and L.A.'s (unsuccessful) bid to host the 1976 Olympics. John Beresford Kilroy was born in Alaska in 1922 to a hard-working, harddrinking Irish father and a strong-willed South Dakota mother. His two older siblings started calling him Jim early on and the nickname stuck. He still carries memories of his mother transporting the family by dogsled. His father left when Jim was 8, by which time the family had moved to Southern California. Kilroy did well academically and graduated from high school just after his 17th birthday. To earn money (most of which went toward helping support his family), Jim mowed lawns, delivered newspapers and worked in a bicycle shop. In 1940, with war looming, Kilroy quit his engineering studies at UC Santa Barbara to work at Douglas Aircraft, which built Navy dive bombers. Though not yet 20 years old, he proved himself smart, innovative and easy to work with, which helped him rise quickly through the company ranks. In 1944, he left to join the Army Air Corps and spent two years at Western Flying Training Command in Santa Ana, studying all facets of aerodynamics and airplane construction. He also learned to fly. After the war, by then married and starting a family, Kilroy became a real
The first 'Kialoa' started life as the lovely S&S yawl 'Tasco II', which was built at Stone Boat Yard on San Francisco Bay.
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RICHARD BENNETT / SYDNEY HOBART RACE
t's funny the things that stick in your mind. Take last fall's Rolex Big Boat Series. Of all the great racing, tactics and talent in that event, the first thing that pops into our minds is a boat that finished fourth in its class. And that's followed by a pang of regret. Why? Because
'Kialoa II' on the way to Hobart, Tasmania. Her rudder has been repositioned from the back of the keel to the back of the boat.
estate agent, but he was looking at the bigger picture. Through his many relationships at Douglas and other aeronautics firms, he started brokering industrial properties. Then he formed his own construction company in order to modify existing structures to meet the needs of the growing aeronautics/ aerospace industry. Next, he started buying, selling and revamping industrial sites himself, or designing and building them from the ground up. Kilroy might not have been the father of the modern industrial park, but he was certainly one of the most spirited uncles, especially in Southern California. Kilroy's first exposure to sailing had occurred years before. At age 11, he'd won a contest selling newspaper subscriptions, and the prize was a trip to Balboa Island on the old Red Car line. The man who would later define an era of big boat sailing, and who co-founded the moder n maxi class, took his first sail — with minimal instruction — on a 12-ft Snowbird in Newport Harbor. The thrill of it never left him. As mentioned, Kilroy had learned to fly during the war years. Always athletic — he ran track and played varsity basketball in high school — he also surfed a bit, and played some golf. But when the business side of life finally allowed for some recreation time, the siren that really sang to him was sailing. There was certainly
