"Steady As She Goes", July 1959 Transpac 161ft Schooner Goodwill
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2022
- 16mm film digitized by John Rumsey who states:
"The film, STEADY AS SHE GOES, was produced by the Douglas Aircraft Co. in 1959. Don Douglas chartered the161' schooner Goodwill to try and break the elapsed time record, for the Transpac race, LA to Honolulu. The race has been held in July since 1906 and in odd numbered years since 1936. In 1955 the 95' ketch Morning Star set the elapsed time record of 9d 15h 05m for the 2300 mile course. Douglas spent a fortune re-rigging and adding new equipment and sails for the 1959 race. Douglas aircraft built 2 new spinnaker poles which were probably tacked on to some government contract. The film starts with the crew getting the boat ready for the race. The Record now stands at 5d 15h 26m set by Comanche, 100' Carbon fiber sloop , 2017.
The movie was made by professional photogs that went on the trip as well as a narrator who worked on nature/ travel movies. I got the film from one of the crew." - กีฬา
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I'm probably one of the last around that had the privilege of sailing aboard the Goodwill. My husband and I sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco with Ralph, his partner Patricia, and a makeshift crew. We were to have been aboard her that last trip but were unable to go. I still have the gold coin given to me by Ralph during the 16 days I spent aboard her. He kept a kings ransom aboard which some deny but it was, indeed, true. The passing of a magnificent ship and so much more. Thank you for posting this documentary.
so nice to hear of your personal connection.
Wonderful film...I’ve sailed across the Pacific this morning...at my kitchen table 💙⚓️
Wonderful!
As a teenager attending Newport Harbor High School In the 50’s I was impressed by the size and beauty of the Goodwill when she was moored in Newport Harbor. She sparked a desire and a dream in me to one day sail my own boat which came true 25 years ago when I purchased a Caulkins 50 and set sail and wound up in Costa Rica and I am still here in Paradise 🌴😎🌴
Wow! That Caulkins is an exceptional vessel. I didn't really appreciate how wonderful a design that was until I grew up and learned more about the so-called "double enders" If I'm not mistaken, that Caulkins 50 was early in its use of a blade type keel on that size of vessel.
I sailed from Long Beach, California to Honolulu on my 35' sloop in 1971. It was dead down wind all the way in 12 foot waves. 19 days, under the mainsail alone. It was a milk run. This schooner sure had an amazing cloud of sail!
Sounds like an epic run
Sinking
On 25 May 1969, Goodwill ran aground on Sacramento Reef. The wreck was located 4.5 miles (7.2 km) off the coast of Baja California,[1] and 180 miles (290 km) south of the United States border. Goodwill was reported overdue on 31 May, after she was supposed to arrive at Ensenada on 27 May. A joint search effort began with the United States Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy. On 1 July, her wreck was spotted half-careened on the reef, submerged under 25 feet (7.6 m) of water by a search helicopter. The search continued until 6 June, when a private salvage crew arrived. Two bodies of the nine aboard were recovered. By 10 June, powerful surges and tides had battered the yacht's hull, and gutted the interior; the ship was rapidly breaking up. Though investigation of the incident had continued, salvage, like the ship, was abandoned.
Sad ending
Notice that Donald Douglas, Jr. (Douglas Aircraft) was the designated Sailing Master for the 1959 race. The owner of the vessel, Goodwill, at the time, was Ralph Larrabee, who owned a precision machine tool business that was a subcontractor for Douglas Aircraft. Those giant spinnaker poles, including the disconnect blast mechanism, were designed and fabricated at a Douglas Aircraft factory....as was the idea of that new topper sail. Ironically, it was those two "innovations" that were behind the two most significant mishaps threatening the vessel's position in the race. Nevertheless, the crew persisted and brought her in first.
Thank you for those insights.
180123 Thank you for the oportunity to partake in these memorable moments. I love USA upbeat espirit d'corps. May you endure evermore.
I was born in June 1959.
Glad I caught this, as I missed it first time round.
Got me by a month! July 1959...
A truly beautiful ship
I had the pleasure of living aboard TeVega now called Deva for a year. Awesome experience aboard a 165 ft. gaff rigged schooner like Goodwill. We hit 27 knots sailing off the coast of Africa on a wide reach headed towards Cape Verde Islands from the Med. My job was a rigger up in the rigging as well as assisting the first mate in whatever he did.
Wow what an experience!
That would have been amazing. She was sold recently, and I viewed her listing many times - she is such a beautiful boat. There is a video here on TH-cam from the broker who sold her, Barney Sandeman.
I too lived on the tall ship ‘TeVega’ in 1978 when I was 11 years old at the Flint School which sparked my life for the many opportunities of land and sea. Long live us all through sailing. Cheers to whom it matters. JR
10kts above hull speed is fast indeed.
@@TheDancingJack When TeVega was purchased from the people that changed the name to Deva, it was in rough condition. The new owners gutted her and basically just kept the hull and that's about it. Everything was made new like what you saw in the listing. Believe me, it wasn't so beautiful at all. It's basically a new boat/ yacht and a beautiful one at that.
thanks for posting this
The upbeat soundtrack is so typical for that era (born in Germany 1964 we were also practically raised on US film format like this whether the Ocean, Serengeti, Clouds or the West :)) ... I have always loved J-Boats but this Schooners have so much 'adventure and brass' to them .. they really hum Bing Crosby, Bogey, Tahiti to me . Thanks and have a nice plate of Abalone 🌸
I'm selling my 53-foot steel schooner. Everybody wanted the schooner ride and wanted to play at pirate festivals and schooner races, but they didn't want to stick around for the day or two it would take to get her back to home port. I almost always ended up single-handing it and -- at age 67 -- that's a little too much for me these days. I'm not giving up sailing, though. Just moving down to a slower, easier, 25-foot Westerly Centaur.
@ Aurello - I hear what you're saying - also born in DE in 1963. This stuff brings back good memories from the era when I was young. Abalone is Perlemoen in SA
@@thorstenwanoth6774 Nice to hearing from you Thorsten. Yes, its quite a span since then. I like these bygone time coming back more frequently now like a comforting breeze. Capetown (together with Rio d.J.) also has this eternally magic Aire to me from the old films. All the best from Bavaria:)
Great observation as to the soundtrack.
Thanks for posting and sharing. Very nice to see the Goodwill undersail.
Thanks for watching!
Gorgeous!!!
It was great to see this video of the Goodwill. I was a kid (13) living aboard the 50 Ketch Four Winds at Henry's Marina on Terminal Island when the Goodwill was being refitted. We kids marveled at the size of the boat and the square footage of the sails. We were rooting for it to break the record and were sad when the top of the main mast broke, making it the ketch. Thanks again for the video, it brought back some fond memories.
Glad you enjoyed it!
So fine to see this older footage and the last of the Yachtsmen/Schooner men. I hesitate to add schooner men but it's appropriate I suppose. When I think of the old schooner men, I think of the Glouster fishermen and the likes of Sterling Hayden, actor, who in the late 30's sailed as navigator on the last of the Glouster schooners Gertrude Thebaud in the schooner races against Bluenose of Canada, and as Irving Johnson's Mate on the first Yankee, he rounded both capes aboard her. In the following years he bought ex. Gracie a San Francisco pilot schooner of 95 feet, named her Wanderer and fled the IRS and a failed marriage, under warrant, with Spike Africa and their children to sail to Tahiti. Read his book Wanderer about that voyage among other things. There is a film on this channel about Wanderer sailing from Honolulu to San Francisco.
What I can say of the Goodwill's misfortunes during that Trans Pac is that you never know what can happen or what the weather and sea may bring you. (I sailed as Mate aboard the schooner Californian, an honorary entrant in the 2001 Trans Pac, with my dear departed friend Rinn Wright as Captain.) I wonder if they did perhaps press on too much canvas at times. However, I will never second guess any sailor if I wasn't there! I too have followed the call of the sea and crossed the major oceans under square sail and fore and aft sail, on countless occasions and many vessels.
I'm most delighted to see this footage saved digitally for posterity. I only wish there was more of it out there. All humans on earth are connected in ONE singular way, by the SEA: From Polynesians reaching out across the vast expanses of the Pacific to spread as far as Hawaii for example and South America, to the Clippers bringing tea and heroine from China back to Europe. The Dhows of the Red Sea. The Portuguese explorers who were among the first to bring the world to Europe by sea. Too many to name, the East India Company, The Dutch East India Company founded only 2 years after the East India Company. Down to the Americans who innovated the "Clipper Ship" or the "Extreme Clipper" that the British so successfully copied, that set records for trade and passenger carrying between New York and San Francisco on the heels of the 1849 Gold Rush. Rainbow is considered to be the first of these, launched in 1845 however, the design had evolved over time from the late 1700's to the early and mid 1800's so no single entity or nation can claim it outright although, the Baltimore Clippers seem to be among the first to use the term and make the innovations which became commonplace.
Finally, as I mentioned, ALL of humanity is connected by the sea for without our ingenuity and curiosity to first begin to range over the seas, we'd all still be tribal, insulated and ignorant of the glorious nature of our shared home!
Funny you should mention Spike Africa - my friend John Rumsey, from whom I got this digitized film, owns a marlingspike bottle cover gifted to him from Spike Africa. And of course "The Last Schoonerman" would be none other than Captain Lou Kenedy.
What an exceptional film. I crewed on a schooner in San Diego's Schooner Cup at Kona Kai years ago when I was in the Navy. They just needed a few extra hands for the day and I tended one of the headsails but they also had a Gollywobbler and when all of the canvas was set, that thing moved like a freight train. Thanks for posting.
Thanks Peter for the link!
Absolutely loved it.
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching.
Really enjoyed that thanks, sad to hear of her ending and the loss of the crew.
Glad you enjoyed. Happy John Rumsey had it digitized so it could be readily shared.
Thanks very much for posting.
You're welcome
So nice👌👍👍👍👍👍
Cool Video, i m Born in Juli 1959
Thanks for posting this,...
My pleasure. When I tell my friend John Rumsey about the 53k views, he found some more films. Transpac on Cal40 Holiday Too. Ticonderoga. Working on these next.
A very interesting video. We sailors today have it so much easier than they did.
Electric winches, just having winches instead of a line of guys hauling on the halyards and sheets.
The size of the main and golly! Huge sails that weighed a ton.
What an experience it was for the crew.
And what that race cost Don Douglas!
Yes, I'm very happy John saved the film and had it transferred for others to see what it was like.
Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 260, 4 June 1969
Long Romance with Schooner Over for Wealthy Sportsman
PUNTO SAN ANTONIO, Mexico (UP!)-Wealthy Ralph Larrabee's 19-year romance with his dashing sailing schooner “Goodwill” is over. She lies smashed on a reef in the Pacific 200 miles south of San Diego. Larrabee and seven persons who sailed with him on the majestic yacht's last voyage are missing. The body of a ninth has been pulled from the sea by Mexican fishermen. The wreckage of the Goodwill was discovered Sunday on Sacramento Reef, four miles off this fishing village in the Mexican state of Baja California. She was identified Monday by Mario Marrs, an employe of Larrabee, a millionaire machine shop operator from Huntington Park. Calif. Marrs flew over the reef in a U.S. Coast Guard search plane. Lifeboats of the Goodwill were missing. Coast Guardsmen speculated Larrabee and his party might have tried to reach the waterless, inhospitable coast. The vessel was reported missing May 27 with Larrabee, 67, and has eight companions, after she failed to complete a voyage from Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Baja California to the resort of Ensenada. Sacramento Reef lies about 110 miles south of Ensenada. The body of a teen-age boy believed to have been a member of the party was found floating in the water off nearby San Geronimo Island. He was rot immediately identified. The Goodwill had been the focal point of Larrabee’s life since he bought her in 1950 from the A. G. Spalding sporting goods family for a bid of $35,000. Larrabee poured his time, money and engineering skills into making her one of the finest racing yachts in the Pacific. With Larrabee as skipper, the 229-ton schooner won the Los Angeles-Honolulu Transpacific vacht race twice, in 1953 and 1959. Larrabee, a stout hearted seaman, cut down one of the Goodwill’s masts during a Pacific gale while winning the second victory. In the 1953 race the Goodwill established a Los Angeles-Honolulu race record. Larrabee had his share of bad luck with the 161-foot ship, In 1955 she ran aground on Cedros Island 400 miles south of San Diego, with 13 passengers and crewmen aboard. With the aid of the U.S. Coast Guard and a high tide, the Goodwill was refloated undamaged. In July, 1961, the Goodwill struck a fishing boat 40 miles west of San Diego one night, killing a fisherman. A Coast Guard investigation later Indicated the fishing vessel had been running without lights. Larrabee left Southern California in February for his latest cruise. Larrahee’s companions were identified as Bernard Stark, Gerald Comstock, Edward Henderson, and Walter Zeiss, all of San Clemente: John Cole Jr., of Long Reach; 1' Smith: and two women, Came Graybehl, 16, of North Hollywood; and Patricia Nienhauser.
wonderful
Thank you! Cheers!
A googl search for Ralph Larrabee brought up a newspaper article from 1969 that reported the boat, captain and crew of 9 were all lost off the coast of Mexico. Sad.
She lost the race decisivly due to handicap. But that was a foregone conclusion.
Fascinating. How did you come by this wonderful footage. Loved those 1950s cameras. But so much gear failure after months of preparation. And who is designer? Or did you tell us and I missed it.
My friend John Rumsey had this reel of film and recently had it digitized. Please check out the description for some more info.
Some more info at Sailing Anarchy Just posted on TH-cam: A Great 16mm film following the 161-foot schooner as she races in the 1959 TransPac.
Lots of amazing footage of how the big guys did it back in the day: Wind tunnel testing; sailmaking; rigging, and the biggest spinnaker pole I've ever seen. forums.sailinganarchy.com/threads/schooner-goodwill-races-for-the-barn-door-1959-transpac-16mm-film.239343/
Thank you. The reason for my interest is that I own a 109 year old gaff cutter, and have done for half a century.
@@martinscannall8487 Man, I LOVE those gaffers. My schooner is a gaff-rig, too. But, she's a bit too big and heavy for me to single-hand these days, so I'll be selling her this Spring. I'm refitting my old Westerly Centaur that's been patiently waiting in my barnyard for about 10 years. I'd love to change that rig over to a gaff cutter type, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that and still have the time to get her back to the Chesapeake Bay for Spring. I'm retired now, so I think a lot of DelMarVa 'gunkholing' is in my future. I'm hoping to get some of it filmed for my TH-cam channel. I'd love to see a pic of your boat -- especially the rigging and sail plan.
super cool soundtrack! what is it?
Thanks, but no idea. Apparently Don Douglas (of Douglas Aircraft) hired a pro crew to do the movie.
Ronald CD Hanmer, he composed the music👍
@@federicozimerman8167 Thanks for that info Federico
I love this film I grew up with pictures of this awesome bout all around my house and still have 30 plus framed pictures of the schooner when I was younger I would ask my Dad about the pictures he would just say it part of the family everything in our family was always hush hush never knew why still don’t but Ralph Larabee is my great great uncle I actually have the trophy from the 59 race and I find more and more about the goodwill I wish I could have seen it in person
thanks for sharing your story
Do you realize how fast we are going backward as a race?
Yeah, every video I watch from decades past I realize it more and more. It seems the pinnacle was D-Day 1944 and since then we've been in a death spiral.
Ah the abelonie looked delicious.
These days, Yanks would believe that the Transpac yacht race is for large plastic motor boats. The loss of their ability to speak any English is amazing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Palomas_(IX-91)
Fascinating