Conceived by a Wizard, Hatched in a Chicken Coop, Flying Fast and Fun, Merlin was born for the Transpac!
Merlin's Story Continues
Built to go fast. Built differently. Still racing.
Merlin was launched in Santa Cruz in 1977 from an idea Bill Lee had been pursuing for years: a racing boat did not have to be heavy to survive offshore, and going lighter could make going fast a lot more fun.
Then Merlin went racing.
Her first Transpac from California to Hawaii took 8 days, 11 hours, 1 minute and 45 seconds. It established an elapsed-time record that stood for twenty years.
Nearly fifty years later, Merlin is still doing what she was built to do.
She races. She changes. She breaks things. People fix them. New sailors learn her. Old sailors remember her.
And another group of people now has the privilege of looking after her.
This is Merlin’s continuing story.
WHY MERLIN MATTERED
In 1977, Merlin crossed the Transpac finish at Diamond Head in 8 days, 11 hours, 1 minute and 45 seconds.
The time matters because it was evidence. Merlin demonstrated, on one of ocean racing’s biggest stages, what a different approach to offshore yacht design could accomplish.
MERLIN THROUGH TIME
1977 — Merlin is launched in Santa Cruz and races the Transpac to Hawaii, setting an elapsed-time record of 8 days, 11 hours, 1 minute and 45 seconds.
1981 — Merlin returns to the Transpac and is again first to finish.
1997 — Merlin’s 1977 Transpac elapsed-time record is surpassed after standing for twenty years.
2016 — Chip Merlin acquires Merlin, beginning the current stewardship of the boat.
2017 — Merlin returns to the Transpac forty years after the 1977 race.
2019 — Merlin races the Transpac again; the current program continues building experience around the boat.
2026 — Merlin continues racing, including the Rolex Big Boat Series in San Francisco.
2027 — Fifty years after the record-setting 1977 Transpac, Merlin Yacht Racing is registered to return.
THE PEOPLE WHO KEEP HER GOING
Merlin does not take care of herself.
Keeping a racing yacht built in 1977 on the water requires sailors, managers, boatbuilders, riggers, sailmakers, navigators, mechanics and people who know the boat well enough to notice when something does not look, sound or feel right.
Some of those people race aboard Merlin. Some do much of their work before the starting gun.
The common thread is simple: they keep showing up.
STORIES FROM MERLIN
Races are part of Merlin’s story.
So are the days before them. The repairs. The travel. The mistakes. The people. The weather. The things that break and the people who figure out how to put them back together.
This is where we keep those stories.
MERLIN NOW: BACK TO SAN FRANCISCO
Next week, Merlin returns to San Francisco for the Rolex Big Boat Series.
This is not unfamiliar water. Merlin has raced Big Boat before, and San Francisco Bay has produced memorable sailing for the team.
Now we are heading back.
We will collect photographs, stories and moments from aboard throughout the week. Not because every race needs to become content.
Because this is what Merlin still does.
She races.