Built by a millionaire who spared no expense, the racing yacht Kamalii has weathered some rough moments as it crisscrossed the Pacific, but no trip was as wild as when pirates commandeered it at the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor and abandoned its crew far at sea.
That was in 1971, after the 75-foot ketch had completed the Transpacific Yacht Race from San Pedro, Calif., to Honolulu. On Saturday, the storied vessel returned to Honolulu from Newport Beach, Calif., for a stopover on its way to a new home in New Zealand.
James Booth, a 40-year-old businessman from Auckland, just bought the classic ketch from Buz Bonsall of Ventura, Calif. A Philip Rhodes design, Kamalii was custom built in 1958 for E.L. "Larry" Doheny Jr. by Wilmington Boat Works in San Pedro.
"I’ve been looking for a boat and came across Kamalii and sort of fell in love with it," Booth said after docking at Kewalo Basin. "It was built by one of the top boatyards and by a guy who had more money than God, and it shows. A lesser boat would be gone by now. This boat has come through it quite well."
Booth added: "I’m overjoyed with how the boat sails. She flies along wonderfully."
The sales price was not divulged, but an online Yachts of America advertisement quoted an asking price of $195,000.
The yacht’s place in the chronicle of seafaring stems from the adventure that befell it on Aug. 6, 1971. Three men armed with knives and pistols stole onto the vessel that evening at the Ala Wai Harbor, tied up the captain and two crewmen, and set sail for Tahiti, according to press reports at the time.
About 160 miles from land, the hijackers used the flip of a coin to decide whether to shoot the captives or set them adrift. They wound up abandoning the trio in a rubber raft with no food or water.
Five hours later, an Italian freighter laden with bananas spotted the raft and fished the crewmen out of the ocean.
"They were in the middle of the transit lanes," Bonsall said. "They really lucked out."
A Coast Guard patrol plane later tracked down the Kamalii 265 miles southwest of Oahu and dispatched a Coast Guard cutter with owner Doheny aboard. The pirates, who were in their mid-20s and hailed from California and Idaho, surrendered without a fight.
One report said they had hoped to use the boat for a drug run. Two of them wound up with 10-year prison sentences, according to Booth.
The Kamalii’s new owner said he was attracted by the quality of the boat’s construction, but its past added another dimension to the vessel.
"Having that history certainly adds to the mystique of the boat," Booth said. "What made me buy it? They say the two happiest days in a man’s life are the day he buys a boat and the day he sells a boat."
After its bout with pirates, the Kamalii went on to race in several Transpacs, most recently in 1976, then did time as a yacht club "race committee" boat. It last served as a committee boat for the America’s Cup in San Diego in 1992.
After the race, Doheny donated it to the Coast Guard Foundation, which put it up for sale. It was snapped up by Shull Bonsall, Buz Bonsall’s father and a lifelong friend of Doheny’s, who had admired the boat over the years at its berth in Newport Beach.
"He always loved that boat, the pedigree of it, the quality of its construction, its history," Buz Bonsall said. "It’s a beautifully designed boat."
His father was 75 at the time he bought it, and enjoyed sailing it until he died in 2002.
Before the Kamalii set off on its current international voyage, it had an emotional farewell off the coast of California, as Buz Bonsall scattered his father’s ashes from its deck.
"It was his wishes to be deposited at sea on that boat," Bonsall said. "It’s 10 years later, and things were right. Here it is, going off to its new life."
