troublemaker

Our coverage of the 1981 TransPac (Volume 50) included mention that the Morgan 37, Troublemaker, owned by Walnut Creek attorney Cliff Wilson, San Leandro marine insurance broker Gary Swiggett, and Walnut Creek retailer Steve Stevens, had broken her boom and rudder and had dropped out of the race. We were only half right.

The boom did break and the rudder was lost, but Troublemaker certainly did finish the race — under spinnaker no less. The Pier 39-based sloop eventually crossted the line in fourteen-and-a-half days. Ironically that was only a day and a half slower than her 1977 passage and almost four days faster than her trip in 1979 — and both of those times she had a rudder the whole way!

Cliff Wilson met us one Saturday morning before going out to practice on Native Son for the Big Boat Series, and he told us Troublemaker’s real story in the TransPac.

Heritage One tonner, Troublemaker was designed by Florida’s Charlie Morgan and launched in 1976. The original owners campaigned her on the bay and in the ’77 and ’79 TransPacs. Then Cliff, Steve, and Gary bought her with an eye on the ’81 TransPac. The three new owners spent several months and mucho bucks taking ^the boat apart and putting it back together for the race. Nine new sails were purchased, and the bottom extensively faired.

Due to scheduling problems, neither Gary or Steve were able to go on the TransPac, but except for Cliff Wilson and Carl Godtferdsen, all the ’81 crew had TransPac experience. In fact, three of them were former owners: Dem Smith (skipper in the 'll and ’79 TransPacs); Bob Hall and Steve Doty. Navigator Rob King Ellison (on his fifth TP) and Todd Anderson rounded out the crew.

Everything went well for the first three days of the race, but early one morning a broach tossed Cliff out of his bunk. Dashing on deck he saw the boom dragging in the water and watched Troublemaker in the throes of a death roll. The final broach was hard, and snapped the boom in half.

Resourceful enough, the crew used the spinnaker pole and emergency tiller as splints to jury rig the boom and in just six

“Keep clear," “Having difficulty maneuvering," "I've damaged my steering," and "I need a tow."

hours they resumed the hunt. The next five or six days were “great sailing”, according to Cliff. They were hitting 15 to 16 knot bursts and logged a couple of'210-mile days — pretty good for one of the smallest boats in the fleet.

Trroublemaker's crew wasn’t shy when it came to looking for wind; they zealously chased squalls all over the ocean, trying to position themselves in the maximum wind. This practice resulted in great bursts speed

applying rip-stop tape to mend tears in the nylon. He remembers working on a spin¬ naker and blooper once and hearing a lot of crashing and banging on deck, and then having yet another torn sail stuffed down through the hatch for him to repair. Once he wondered aloud how long the destruction would continue. Former owner Steve Doty looked at him and answered, “It never stops.”

The hectic pace took its toll on the crew as well. Although greater than most boats reported, Wilson estimates that it blew 25 to 35 knots almost the whole way across, with seas 20 to 40 feet between trough and crest. Cliff recalls telling himself that he had to rest because his mind and body simply couldn’t keep going, and he knows the others were pooped as well.

Part of the problem was the near constant bailing that had begun on the third day. Cliff figured at the worst they were taking an average of 100 gallons an hour, most of it coming through the rudder post. Luckily they had installed a second bilge pump in the

Jury-rudder, model Mark HA. engine compartment — this in response to the Fastnet Race in 1979. Aboard Troublemaker the crew on watch would log in every hour and then pump for 15 minutes to get the boat dry. This extra chore further sapped the crew’s strength and stamina.

n.L-'ramatic trouble struck ' again around noon on the eighth day while flying along under spinnaker. Bob Hall was at the wheel when all of a sudden and for no apparent reason the boat broached. Dem Smith, who had been taking a bath on the foredeck was wrapped around the backstay and his bucket ended up in the cockpit. They couldn’t figure out what had happened, but after getting squared away again, they noticed the steer¬ ing wasn’t right. But a visual inspection of everything showed no problems, and they pressed on.

Twelve hours later, in the black of night, they ran across more squalls. Dem Smith, at

but also was hard on the boat and gear. The Kevlar spinnaker sheets lasted only four hours; the cars for the turning blocks blew up; and they yvent through several spin¬ nakers and bloppers.

In fact, Cliff sptent a lot of time down below

Cliff Wilson.

the helm, mentioned that it felt worse, and then “Clunk ...” there was no rudder at all; the boat rounded up and lay on her side. The crew managed to get the headsails down, but they were still in a fine fix — a moonless night, no rudder, everyone ex¬ steering vane for the trip home. Hanging cautiously over the stern, Troublemaker’s crew spent several hours bolting the lower half of the unit on. It was precarious work; the boat was still moving at 4 knots, and if anyone fell overboard there was no way to get back to them. The blade was finally in¬ stalled and gave them some control, but the pressures were too great and it began to selfdestruct.

When daylight came they switched tactics. They removed the self-steering blade and took the emergency tiller and spinnaker pole off the boom, attached floorboards to the spinnaker pole and tried using that as a sweep over the stern — failure again.

Finally they lashed the spinnaker pole to the backstay with the floorboard submerged; steadying lines were attached to the forward end of the new ‘rudder’ and then run to the turning blocks and tied them off to limit the ‘rudder’s’ movement. Finally they drilled a hole in the spinnaker pole just above the stern pulpit, and There attached the emergency tiller.

Once again they set pff, winging the 110 jib out to windard and proceeding at a credi-

"Boom (foreground), two-part, slightly used."

V

they could go no faster and still remain in control. Then, too, they also worried about the spinnaker pole, which was flexing 5 or 6 inches — but it held.

Meanwhile back in Honolulu, Cliff’s wife Sherry had followed Troublemaker s early progress with enthusiasm as they worked up to 6th in class and 24th in fleet. When the boat all of a sudden stopped, rumors began flying as to wh&t had happened. Sherry even heard the boat was sinking and needed to be rescued — not very comforting news.

But Troublemaker s crew, despite limping along for 5 days at a 100-mile a day pace, decided they wanted to finish the race. “We felt like a 37-ft. racing raft, an lOR version of Kon Tiki!”. The air lightened up as they sail¬ ed the final miles down the normally boisterous Molokai Channel. The light wipd allowed them to triumphantly hoist a chute as they limped across the finish line just before dawn.

^^tudying his flag book, Cliff flew the ap¬ propriate signals upon arrival: “Keep clear”, “Having difficulty manuevering”, “I’ve damaged my steering”, and U1 need a tow”. This last request was rapidly granted.

As they approached the dock, other sailors rose from their sleep to cheer them in. TransPac Race Chairman Hugh Rogers was the first person aboard,bringing with him a bottle of champagne and a shot glass to toast their achievement. The tired but happy crew welcomed a drink — and some welldeserved rest.

Troublemaker was hauled in Honolulu where only the stub of the rudder was found. Additional damage to the propellor shaft and the aft end of the keel supports the theory that striking something in the water is what caused them to broach so unexpectedly that eighth day.

Cliff doesn’t care to dwell too long on what it is they might have hit, or how big it might have been. Better to let the demons of the deep lie undisturbed. In any case, Troublemaker is being fitted for a new rudder and Latitude 38 has gotten Troublemaker’s ’81 TransPac story straight. — latitude 38 sue